BEFORE THE DREAM

Two days earlier, my truck was broken into and some toll money was stolen from the ashtray.

The next day, the truck suddenly stopped running.

That night, a light switch that I had recently installed shorted out, leaving me in the dark.

THE DREAM

I'm visiting a pleasant Caucasian woman in her upscale home. She's in her mid-30s and wears a baby blue house-robe with a white gown underneath. We just chat about trivia, enjoying one another.

There's a knock at the door. Instantly I'm full of foreboding and say "Don't open the door!" She looks confused, and opens it. Russell Crow is standing there, in a plain black two-piece suit. He says not a word, just smiles knowingly at her like a man who has caught up to his prey in a hunt. I yell "Run!" but she's already turning. We take off through the house and he follows. At first we stay together and help each other but suddenly I veer away from her. Almost instantly I realize that's a mistake--I run into a part of the house under construction. It looks gutted, as if it were abandoned halfway through remodeling. A sheet of ragged 5-mil poly sheeting walls it off. The gutted expanse is about 60 by 80 feet, with a low ceiling and a bare earth floor, like an unfinished, uninhabitable basement. The single dim work light in the center casts black shadows--I can't see much detail. I think "This might be a good place to hide." Off in a corner, I see a figure like the Grim Reaper, but I know it must be a painting, poster or mannequin left down here. Such beings don't exist in reality, only in our imagination. And the danger from the man in the dark suit is very real. Yet something warns me not to step into the gutted area, and for a split second I swear I see the Reaper turn its head ever so slightly to look at me. Nah, couldn't be. I step past the plastic into the dark expanse.

As soon as I do, I know it was a fatal mistake, yet I walk deeper into the darkness and debris. I now feel sure I'm not alone--something far more dangerous than the man in black is keenly aware I've entered its domain. Something with human intelligence, but inhuman. It starts walking calmly towards me, as if confident I cannot run. And I don't--I freeze like a deer caught in headlights.

It looks like a lion with the head of a man, emaciated, even skeletal, yet massive--a tombstone gray from head to tail, and draped in a hooded robe. It moves gracefully, purposefully, confidently, radiating danger, but not the danger of a physical attack--it feels more as if it might simply blot you into oblivion, consume you completely. But under my fear lies curiosity. What is this thing?

It starts speaking to me without words. Its silent voice is calm but compelling, seductive. Its thoughts are intelligent, fast, and clear, a running telepathic cadence of cooing words that soothes and flatters in a hypnotic rhythm that keeps me just calm enough not to run--I feel like a dumb animal being coaxed into the clutches of a hunter by his soothing voice. It talks to me in such an intimate way, as if we were old friends. Though I don't know its name nor anything about it, I want to trust it, for its words and voice are so sweet and comforting—it feels like a buddy whose total focus is your life and your concerns. Who wants to question that kind of attention? Total flattery, deliciously indulgent.

Now the thing stands just a few feet away, to the right, and I see its face clearly--the face of a skeleton without flesh or teeth. And still I don't try to flee. It's frightful, but it hasn't acted overtly against me.

In one fluid motion it rears up and clutches something with its forepaws--a broadsword materializing in its grasp. It roars aloud, vehement but somehow sounding frustrated. Unlike its telepathic voice, I hear this both with my ears and my mind. Real but somehow unreal.

The monster slams the tip of the sword into the ground in front of me, and then walks away, eerily graceful and calm... as though it knows we'll meet again.

And I wake.

THAT MORNING

I lie still, trying to calm down and understand the dream. When I'm fully awake, I hear plastic rustling close to my head. It's the plastic shrink-wrap covering a ream of typing paper under my computer. Something is moving the plastic causing it to rustle! Now I'm sure this was no simple dream, but a metaphoric supernatural warning. Two more minutes pass and one of my dresser drawers partially opens. I don't even look, because I know what the warning is. I am under demonic and satanic attack--and I must do something about this threat.

You see, I had recently suspended my biblical studies and slipped back into viewing pornography. It seemed so harmless, just looking at something that is a part of our natural function, but doing anything that separates us from God opens us to danger. When we are apart from God, we are out there with that Lion, outwitted and outmatched.

I think the dream and the objects moving around by themselves are a warning God is allowing me to see. I consider myself very blessed that He let me see these things, even though they are unpleasant. They let me know that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit still love me enough to correct me by letting the enemy teach me a lesson without doing much harm.

Should you ever find yourself in similar circumstances, please don't ignore the warning! Pay attention and change your ways.

EDITOR'S NOTES

• Dreams with aftershocks or physical aftereffects sound absurd to modern Americans; but historically they aren't all that rare. The earliest example I know has odd parallels with Eldon's dream--around 150 AD a man named Natalius dreamed angry angels were whipping him and woke to find the bruises and cuts were real. See below--I'm building a page of examples. If you've had one, send it in!
• The woman at the start: Eldon sounded happy and relaxed with her. Who is she, what's she represent? Social life, community, love? He simply forgets her, though his instincts said to stick close to her and the real trouble begins when he doesn't.
• The big unfinished area, abandoned in the middle of a change = Eldon's interrupted religious schooling? Things had to be torn out before rebuilding, but the rebuilding never happened. My personal guess: maybe Eldon's unconscious found his particular school too narrow and wanted his spiritual house enlarged ("in my house there are many mansions")--but something stalled the project.
• The dim light echoes the real lighting problem in his house. But it might be more than just standard horror-movie lighting. Eldon's not quite in spiritual darkness, but the one worklight's not enough! It could mean a narrow theology (sorry, I've assumed that twice now, yet I know nothing about his school) or it could echo the dim light from a computer monitor, from cruising the Web?
• Lion with a sword--in both East and West, such lions are common heraldic figures--like the Lion of Venice, or the stone lions of the Forbidden City. They're usually stern, silent guardians--exactly the opposite of this creepy, telepathic flatterer.
• Seductiveness... isn't the lure of all this personal attention strangely like the notion of a guardian angel? Someone devoted to you alone. This particular Devil seems like the dark side of that idea of "someone to watch over me". It feeds on narcissism--or loneliness. If there's a difference.
• The lion: Readers who reject literal devils might consider the power of Eldon's guilt (whether or not it's justified in your own value system), or consider the notion (common to many religions) that a true guardian angel can take on a frightful form to warn you.
• Eldon sees objects in his room move: many readers may be tempted to jump to the conclusion he's mistaken, still half asleep. My decades of dream-groups and solo dreamwork has forced me (after hundreds of examples) to accept that predictive and telepathic dreams are real phenomena; so I can't rule out telekinesis as absolutely impossible. And classic cases of poltergeist activity involve people facing conflicts like Eldon's--rebellion/discipline, sexual desire/guilt. So Eldon's belief that a demon's stalking him and the skeptic's belief he's just mistaken don't exhaust the possibilities. Sometimes, the spirit stalking you may be your own.
  But that's me talking. Eldon has a different view--and he's the one who has to live with it.

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