On the night before a TV interview on [my book] Dream Power in Newcastle in the north of England, I dreamed I was pursued by hostile Eskimos flourishing knives and hatchets. I suddenly became aware that I was dreaming and turned to face them.

I falteringly asked them what they wanted of me, but they remained silent and threatening. As they were armed, I didn't relish a fight in spite of my lucidity, so I said in a trembling voice, trying to sound convincing, "You can't hurt me--I'm a dream body."

As they lunged at me with their knives, I turned my head until they'd finished and then looked down at my side. When I saw all the knives and hatchets sticking in me, I laughed and said, "There, I told you--I'm a dream body and you can't kill me," at which they all looked very sheepish and walked away.

I was later able through dialogue to identify the Eskimos as my "north-of-England topdog" who berated me for writing a book on a frivolous topic like dreams when the people up north were still struggling to survive. I laughed at what I considered my own stupidity, until two days later when a reporter from the Yorkshire Evening Post held out my book and asked brusquely how I thought dreams could ameliorate the fate of the Yorkshire miners!

Thanks to my dream, I was able to catch the feeling of hurt and recognize it for what it was--an assault of my inner topdog rather than an objective reaction to external criticism. And although it was triggered by a specific event in my life at the time, the dream has come to my rescue on many other occasions of criticism and attack, for when I remember those knives and hatchets in my side and the sheepish look on the faces of the Eskimos, I am often able to counter with humor instead of hurt confusion.

SOURCE: The Dream Game, Ann Faraday, Harper & Row, 1976 ed.; pp 264. Passage untitled; I added 'Hatchet Job' to aid searches. Also the stupid cartoon.

EDITOR'S NOTES

• Eskimo: old term for the Inuit.
• Exaggeration: turning a short road trip north into an Arctic nightmare may be prompting "Don't take this too seriously". Good advice for two days later.
• Hatchet job: Faraday's dreams are full of wordplay; she doesn't even bother pointing out that this one literalizes 'hatchet job' (an unfair media attack).
• Is the dream predictive? Not necessarily. Given the class war up there (then and now!) it hardly takes ESP to anticipate criticism! On the other hand, the hatchets in her dream are a lot like miners' picks, hinting at that future reporter's specific way of... digging at her.
• Lucidity: 50 years ago, this term was still specialist jargon, and Faraday doesn't even use it here. But her realization she's dreaming (and her refusal to fight, letting them hack at her, simply pointing out they can't hurt her) would be sophisticated even now, when lucid dream techniques are widespread. Way ahead of her time!

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sh - Si-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites