Night. A full moon. I'm at the foot of a low cliff, in a sort of cove made of savanna instead of water, surrounded on three sides by rocks. They aren't easily climbable and the more I look in the moonlight the more I suspect they're artificial--the paddock walls of a zoo or game park.

A big cat roars nearby. Then a second, a third. Not all the same species, either. One's the deep note of lions!

Scared, I hide in the brush where I am.

A leopard appears. Then a cheetah. They hiss and roar and spit, slash at each other... and back off into the brush again.

A pause, then a third cat appears, a species I don't recognize--smaller, even more lightly and gracefully built than a cheetah: like a feline equivalent of a greyhound, or better, a gazelle--which is probably what she hunts.

She's beautiful, but more than that--I find her so sexy my body responds, as if I'm her mate! Instant erection and my skin longs to snuggle up against that fur...

But I dare not come out of hiding. Why, it's a jungle out there!

Just watch, silent and still. The beautiful cat vanishes in the brush.

At last I decide "I have to face this fear of attack." I stand up and come out of the brush.

A new cycle of roars and calls starts up. I flinch a moment, then breathe deep...

And climb on a rock... and R O A R !

After all... if I avoid and fear creatures roaring in the night, won't they? Anyone announcing "I'm here!" must be confident it can defend itself; why would a predator want to mess with such a creature?

Prey hides--only hunters roar. So...

Roaring is safer than silence!

And... am I really bluffing? Humans ARE scary.

And shamans... shamans are scarier.

NOTES ON WAKING

It's a zoo out there--half the world is businessmen and the rest are religious nuts. All those crazy cats scare me!

No. Not all. Now and then, there's someone like me, calling in the underbrush...

But I've hid my art and thought and feelings, scared of predators. No more! It's time for me to roar.

I never told myself "Oh, I'm dreaming, this isn't real, I can't be hurt"; I went lucid in a deeper sense! I didn't care which realm I was in; material or spiritual, who cares? I'm here; I can act with power.

I think I'll build the mother of all personal websites. I think I'll build... the World Dream Bank. And see what cats respond to my call.

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