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Nightmare Quartet

Dreamed before May 1991 by Hans Rickheit

I have always wondered just how it is people interpret dreams.

Please tell me what you believe these dreams could mean.

EDITOR'S NOTES

These nightmares were submitted to Somnial Times: Newsletter of the Dreamers SIG [of Mensa] in June 1991. I doubt their accuracy for several reasons:

  1. Consider that needle scene. If Hans is blindfolded, how does he know he's several miles in the air, or that it's a hair-thin needle? If I dreamed this, I'd only know I'm hooded, naked, outdoors... and my toe hurts! Not nearly so dramatic as the quasi-crucifixion scene described! His account makes artistic sense, not dream sense.
  2. Both his intro, "I have always wondered just how it is people interpret dreams", and his conclusion, "Please tell me what you believe these dreams could mean", are ambiguous--are they asking for help in making sense of a nightmarish dreamlife, or are they a challenge, a dare? "You claim dreams have meaning? Here, interpret this!"
    But if Rickheit believes dream interpretation to be silly, finding meaning in noise... then by challenging a forum of dreamworkers to interpret his, he's essentially testing fakers claiming a nonexistent expertise. Does he owe them honesty? Why not submit fakes, or mix real and fake? Can these pseudo-experts tell?
  3. I've read Rickheit; his books are in my local library--The Squirrel Machine, Folly, Cochlea and Eustacia. He's always said they're heavily based on his dreams. But they're also nightmarish surrealism, out to shock the bourgeoisie--and these four 'dreams' are exactly like his conscious creations.
But then... is there a law forbidding you to dream the same way you think? I sure do--and I've had readers doubt my dreams are real. Mine are. So I suspect his too are real dreams--just Rickheit dreams, reported in a deeply Rickheit way.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: Somnial Times: Newsletter of the Dreamers SIG [of Mensa]; Vol III, No. 2: June 1991; Gloria Reiser, coordinator; Judy Landaiche, editor.



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