I'm riding east in a car through woods and fields. We're 1500 meters up (5000'), with mountains up to 2800 (9000'). I say "kinda generic, this could be anywhere in the West." My fellow riders make fun of me for not recognizing that we're on the Montana-Idaho border, heading for Yellowstone National Park.

Meanwhile, none of them seem even to notice --to the left (north) rise cliffs and jagged peaks. Not too snowy, not high enough to be glacier-carved. So why are they so different from the surrounding peaks--why so steep? Takes a while, but as we pass, the angles change, and I can guess at their relative distances. The parallax effect! Time and motion reveal depth.

They form a pattern: a ring. That's a CALDERA, the size and shape of Mount Mazama, the huge volcano in Oregon that collapsed, leaving Crater Lake. This looks just like it. Has to be a national park or monument. IS it Crater Lake, is the driver mistaken where we are? I want to go see!

But my mockers, both driver and riders, won't detour for my sake. For them, nothing's there. Oh, they see some funny-looking crags--but they can't assemble them into a whole. Can't see the caldera.

NEXT DAY

Wake. Write my dreams. At noon, the mail comes--my housemate Ray's parents sent postcards... of Crater Lake! The caldera of my dream.

Notice that this isn't just a dream image manifesting the next day. The dream first asserts that I grasp, from a distance, a pattern others overlook; and by its choice of image to illustrate this, the dream then proceeds to prove its assertion of unusual perceptions!

This is a mild example of that odd sort of dream I label self-flagging. What do strong examples look like? Jung's Premonitions of World War I, The Verizon Experiment, or The Self-Made Cow.

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