Blue_Opossum

Morning of September 9, 1966. Friday.



I am apparently on a spaceship, though there are no others around except for a couple of adult males who are talking near the end of a hall until they go around a corner (a common event in early childhood dreams). As I wander around, not being focused on much of anything, I see what I first think is a baby lying on the floor on its back, though partly covered with a ragged blanket. I soon consider that it is probably a plastic doll that someone dropped, but upon closer look, it is a heavy metallic statue of a man in a combat helmet, though unrealistically rendered somewhat as having a baby’s body proportions.

Later, a young girl with a lion shows me to the “front door” so I can go home. She is carrying the “statue”, which is now a ragged cloth doll with no apparent face, which is smaller than what this oddity had been minutes before. The “front door” turns out to be a semicircular ceiling (somewhat like the essence of a cave rather than a building or spaceship) that first seems to display outer space, though eventually I see the buildings of La Crosse and my apartment building. My dream fades from here.

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The night before (September 8, 1966), I had watched the first episode of “Star Trek” ever shown on television; “The Mantrap”; as well as the “Tarzan” episode “Eyes of the Lion”, which came directly before it on the same channel. This “Tarzan” episode (as well as movies like “The Lion” from 1962, which also featured a young girl with an adult male lion) had influenced a number of my dreams later on despite the fact I had confused it in my teenage years with “The Haunted Lighthouse”, an episode of “Lost in Space” that also featured a girl (Penny), a lion, a cave, and “going back home”, though that did not air until October 18, 1967. In the “Tarzan” episode, a young blind girl who lived in a cave used an adult lion as a seeing-eye animal. (I am still wary of lions in some dreams, depending on my level of unconsciousness in relationship to my dream state awareness level, as it is a natural factor of potential RAS modulation as the waking alert factor, and additionally as emergent consciousness coalescence, as a lion can swallow the dream self, though this coalescence factor has been re-symbolized as hugging in some dreams, by way of virtuous circle, as with “Changing the Lion of Coalescence into my Wife Zsuzsanna" from December 3, 2016).

I can easily see the autosymbolism of this dream. The soldier statue was implied as a RAS modulation precursor, as RAS is often aggressive if I subliminally decide that it is not time to wake yet. However, I eventually accepted consciousness reascension and there was no conflict. Learning the nature of the dream state at an early age was very beneficial, as nightmares or even “bad dreams” are extremely rare, other than when biologically premonitory.

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This online dream journal entry was reformatted from the source material, abridged, and clarified on Wednesday, 21 February 2018.

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Morning of December 31, 1999. Friday.



I am with a group of about eight people, all of whom are unfamiliar and unknown to me. The setting is a partial house with typical indoor outdoor ambiguity. The people seem somewhat friendly and there is no conflict at any point. It is an informal social atmosphere.

Eventually, there is at least one lion walking around near the perimeter of what is implied to be the house. It looks our way a few times but there is never an implied threat. Still, I feel puzzled at times as to whether there should be a wall present between us and the lion. The other people do not comment on its presence.

Indoor outdoor ambiguity is likely the result of subliminal awareness of the differences between being conscious in waking life and being unconscious in the dream state, as a wall is otherwise liminal space division autosymbolism, the waking space between the incomplete fictional dream self identity and the conscious self identity.

RAS modulation (dominating RAS mediation triggered by delayed consciousness reascension) remains inactive here, as there is no event regarding the lion, which otherwise remains a passive emergent consciousness factor. All this is saying is that RAS does not detect a possible threat in my immediate environment as I am sleeping. In childhood, concern over a wild animal getting into my Cubitis home was a recurring waking alert factor by way of RAS modulation, though such dreams were not nightmarish, as they only held sustained concern until my dream faded. It is a biological mechanism related to survival instinct, though additionally triggered by the lack of clarity of one’s environment in unconsciousness, especially upon an unfamiliar noise being subliminally perceived.

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Morning of February 5, 2018. Monday.



I enter an unusual state of faux lucidity, where I have the awareness of what the dream state is and how to create and manipulate dreams, but I do not have my conscious self identity or full realization I am dreaming at the time even as I am creating and manipulating my dream (a bizarre enigma that cannot be resolved in waking life thought, yet which I otherwise experience very often). This is different from states where I am aware of my conscious self at one level, yet do not recall what a dream is, though I am still able to greatly influence dream events and features. This validates that the nature of RAS mediation is not predictable due to the variations of circadian rhythms, as the biological need to wake varies depending on depth of sleep, physical needs, and certain thought processes - many of which are random (for example, threads of something seen on television or material from a book).

I step into the dream state, yet immediately lose conscious self monitoring. I find myself walking through an open area that seems to be a wide street in an unfamiliar city. I am thinking to myself about what time period that I want the dream’s setting to occur in. I think about it being the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s, and decide I will make it the 1930s.

I watch people walk around, dressed as if they were from the 1930s (although it had been the 1920s before I willed the change). I offer to help an unfamiliar woman (of about fifty) by carrying her package, but she is not interested in me helping her.

Next, I focus on dream state indicators (still without viable awareness that I am dreaming at the time, as this is by residual threads of habit in the lucid dream state since childhood). I find myself in the southwest bedroom of Cubitis (where I have not been since June of 1978). A young version of Zsuzsanna is in the bed, which is aligned along the south wall, head at the southwest corner. I create a radio for her to listen to, but then I am trying to remember if the songs that are playing are from the 1930s or from a much later period, as I do not want to alarm her with inexplicable sounds.

I get distracted and summon a group of dream characters to then look through the door of my room. However, the doorway opens into a landscape instead of my old Cubitis bedroom. I create the essence of a dinosaur in the distance (a typical act in faux lucidity since childhood) and tell the unknown people to watch. The dinosaur eventually appears, but is like a mix of stegosaurus and tyrannosaurus. It moves over the top of a mountain, from right to left in profile (subliminal reinduction attempt), and roars. It is far away at this time and poses no threat.

From here, I go back to the southwest bedroom, but then RAS mediation temporarily increases and I go into the bathroom (and although I do have to use the bathroom in reality, it is not yet that intense a wake-up call), as I am aware the dinosaur is in the house (which makes no sense as it would be too big) and I am now wary of it (even though I had deliberately created it minutes before). I close the door to subliminally avoid the waking activation. I feel soft weight pressing against the door, but I am able to keep it closed. Still, RAS mediation triggers an offset dream of a different level of awareness rather than doorway waking symbolism fully activating.

Entering a different dream state and level of awareness, I then find myself walking with a group of people that I had summoned. Zsuzsanna is present as she is now. We are all walking through an unknown city.

Ahead, and to our right, next to the curb, is an oversized vehicle that resembles a giant stagecoach (more like a stagecoach illogically mixed with a circus train car and doubled in size). It is basically a cage on wheels in the shape of a giant colorful stagecoach. The area behind where the driver would sit is an open area where a lion jumps up and looks down at us. There are other lions in the cage in the bottom area. I am thinking that the lion will jump down near us, but it remains in its location, as something vague in the back of my mind reminds me of subliminal dream manipulation but not directly and not with viable lucidity. This is a bizarre enigma, to subliminally reflect on subliminal (non-lucid) control of the dream state without being viably aware of being in the dream state and yet controlling the dream anyway.

From here, there is an area where people are watching a gorilla walk around. P.T. Barnum is present and showing off the gorilla. There is a cage, and straw covers the street upon where the cage had been placed, but the gorilla is able to leave the cage through the open area. There is no threat however, and the people do not seem that impressed. There is an unknown girl present and I tell her to become part of the scene so that there is an additional ape for the people to view. She does not look like a gorilla of course, but I eventually decide to make her with hair all over. She goes over to the gorilla and P.T. Barnum seems slightly puzzled but somewhat appreciative, even though the girl is not actually a gorilla or acts like one. It seems the public will believe anything, which pleases him. I vaguely remember the Barnum effect, which relates to people who believe in “dream interpretation”. My dream eventually fades with no dominant RAS event. (P.T. Barnum is the personified preconscious in this case, though my dream self already has a thread of emergent consciousness evidenced by my odd state of faux lucidity, so I wake without the need for a strong emotion as the waking alert factor.)

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Morning of January 14, 2018. Sunday.



On the threshold of doorway symbolism (a door being a liminal space divider between the dream self and the conscious self), by which I always either leave the dream state or trigger a higher level of lucidity, I focus on an antique bronze lion face door knocker (lucidity stabilizer which also gives respect to the nature of RAS mediation). Placing my hand upon it, I feel a curious vibration, with a vague awareness of humming. (This is a common perception in dreams of augmented awareness.) It vibrates a bit more when I touch more of it. I feel very aware, secure, and loved.

Thinking back to a vivid childhood dream, the lion head becomes a triceratops head. I consider the horns as being an odd feature for a door knocker, but it does not concern me. I move my hand over it and it recedes into the door itself (a possible influence from the pin art desk toy that our youngest son owns).

I become aware of liminal space to a greater extent, the autosymbolism being a parking lot (a very common liminal space marker for me since childhood). I see a large metal model of a triceratops in the area. As I focus on it more deliberately, it becomes “alive” to some extent (emergent consciousness factor). It reminds me vaguely of a Transformer (Dinobot “Slug”), and speaks in a layered metallic voice (though I do not grasp the words, though I get the impression it relates to my physical body; my muscles or cells). However, without paying much notice to the waking transition, it resolves as being our youngest son, cheerfully talking about Transformers in his normal human voice. My dream brought me comfort and no dominant or aggressive RAS mediation was rendered (due to my willingness to let my dream fade on its own). (This relates to the “transformation” of the dream self back into the conscious self identity.)

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This dream’s autosymbolism that represents the waking process is the same theme as various past dreams since early childhood, where the RAS mediation factor, starting out as potentially threatening, transforms more smoothly into the human emergent consciousness factor. (The supposed potential “threat” is often only by implication of its form, not necessarily with my dream self seeing it as such. One example is the dream where I had a passive pet tiger that eventually became anthropomorphic and slowly transformed into Charles Bronson who I talked to in friendly conversation, also ending near a parking lot. Another example is the dream where I stared down a lion in the living room until it became an unknown male that I had a conversation with.)

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Morning of January 14, 2017. Saturday.



I am in La Crosse and in the house next door to the King Street boarding house. There is some sort of party going on, possibly a high school graduation party, and it is at night. Zsuzsanna is there but as a teenager though is the only person I recognize. See seems a bit tired and I ask her if she wants to sleep in my bed (which turns out to be at an unknown residence but implied to be where I live). It feels as if we have not been together as a married couple yet, though she is passive towards me.

We walk northwest from the house until we come to my fictional red 1922 Phaeton (a “dream car” that has not featured in my dreams for quite some time) in a commercial district. Its appearance is different as if perhaps an older model and its top is down. Curiously, there does not seem to be a steering wheel, though this does not serve to be a deterrent. I tell her to get in the car and I sit in the area behind where the steering wheel should be. As is often the case, I have difficulty in trying to fit in the vehicle. Still, after some adjustments (where the car even seems to expand slightly), it works out okay.

We end up in an unfamiliar bedroom. A playful lion cub is present and so is a puppy (though the puppy of which I do not see much and which does not go onto the bed as the lion cub does). The lion cub makes small messes over the entire bed (to a very unrealistic extent) and I tell Zsuzsanna that I have to take the top blanket off and I am somewhat annoyed. It does not seem unusual to have either a puppy or a lion cub in my (fictional) house.

• The appearance of the red 1922 Phaeton goes all the way back to early childhood, when I dreamt my father was a car.
• I have not been on King Street since January 1994. I did not know any people who lived in the house next to the boarding house though I did paint some of the inside for the owner.
• The lion is a recurring waking prompt and coalescence symbol (as it can swallow the dreamer back into whole consciousness) and is also a type of dream sign (as from the 1897 “Sleeping Gypsy” painting by Henri Rousseau). Here however, it is only a cub, but the obvious dream sign of the bed already serves as a waking transition factor. This specific rendering is a connection with having to wake up to use the bathroom.
• The missing steering wheel is an invitation to lucidity (and implies liminal dream state awareness), whereby the car is my dream “vehicle” as an extension of my physical body (which is also called a “vehicle”) in sleep but without an active conscious self awareness as in normal lucid dreams to “steer” my dream with a more viable conscious choice (though liminal dream control occurs with me very often - I am just not aware I am dreaming). I am still able to resolve the beginning intent to a point. A car with no steering wheel also correlates with vestibular system dynamics and the liminal awareness of the inability to control the physical body while sleeping.
• Even though bed dream signs are quite common in my dreams (and always have been since early childhood), I rarely pick up on them directly for active lucidity, though a bed implies the waking space of a dream (liminal awareness of being asleep).

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Morning of December 3, 2016. Saturday.



In the hour before dawn, I find myself in an unfamiliar setting. It is a parking lot of which may be that of a restaurant. A 1969 bronze green Land Rover Series IIA Station Wagon is the only vehicle present in the semi-darkness. Areas beyond the parking lot and building remain indiscernible.

Two unknown Caucasian males of about forty, wearing sage safari jackets, are attempting to coax two male lions into the back of their Land Rover. My dream self does not consider how foolhardy or unlikely this is, including the probable lack of space for the lions inside their vehicle. I do not feel threatened by the presence of the lions.

Over time, one of the men somehow manages to get one of the lions into the Land Rover and onto the back seat. A short time passes and I no longer see the man. The other lion is eventually behind the Land Rover. I begin to get the impression that a lion will swallow the remaining man, which may have been the fate of the other man. I begin to feel somewhat wary but not in immediate danger. The other man is standing near the back of the Land Rover and I am viewing the scene from the front of the Land Rover, to its right side.

Just as the lion that is still outside the Land Rover seems to consider perhaps killing or swallowing the man, non-lucid dream control begins…

The male lion transforms into my wife Zsuzsanna. She is wearing a long white flowing gown. The man seems to disappear as Zsuzsanna approaches me to give me a hug. Joyful coalescence is the waking factor.

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My dream is clearly explained here in a more detailed resupplementation (rewritten on Friday, 22 June 2018):

The outcome of this dream is that the reticular activating system modulation factor (the lion) transforms into the emergent consciousness factor (my wife Zsuzsanna) because of non-lucid dream control (because of my advanced understanding of the dream state since early childhood). A lion’s essence in the dream state is an autosymbolic composite of two factors. The main factor is coalescence. (This means that I see a lion as having the potential to swallow my illusory dream self back into whole consciousness). The lesser factor, as with a domestic cat, is being “witness” to the dream state and the nature of liminal space. You will see the same autosymbolic processing factors in hundreds of my online entries, but always unique.

The parking lot setting is a common form of autosymbolism for a specific level of consciousness during the waking transition as a result of subliminal association with the physical body being inactive while asleep. (In contrast, moving vehicles represent a liminal awareness of vestibular system correlation concerning the physical body while asleep.) The Land Rover is an autosymbolic association with my physical body, as most singular vehicles are in dreams. Ultimately, the parking lot’s autosymbolic nature lacks the more defined anticipatory factor of the waking process and suggests a subliminal desire for returning to deeper sleep (and as such, serves as ultradian rhythm autosymbolism).

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These are the layered causes of this dream:

The television series “Daktari”, which originally aired from 1966 to 1969.

Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion, from the aforementioned “Daktari” series. (I was sometimes called “Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion” in elementary school. This was solely because my middle name is Clarence.)

Early childhood dreams of my dream girl in a flowing white gown, originally influenced by “Isle of the Dead”, a 1945 Boris Karloff horror film, certain scenes of which fascinated me in a romantic sense, rather than frightening me, at age four.

Erin Moran, as in the aforementioned “Daktari” series, resembled my real-life schoolmate, friend, and neighbor, Brenda. My first known euphoric waking transition, also the result of a hug, featured Brenda in the final scene. This astounded me and, because I was only eight at the time, I did not know what it was biologically until a few years later. Brenda was also validated as the prescient stand-in for my wife Zsuzsanna when my dream girl was not more efficiently rendered (that is, looking and sounding exactly like Zsuzsanna before we knew of each other in waking life).

“The Sleeping Gypsy”, an 1897 oil painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau. Rousseau described his painting as follows: “A wandering Negress, a mandolin player, lies with her jar beside her (a vase with drinking water), overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep. A lion chances to pass by, picks up her scent yet does not devour her. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic.”

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In decoding my dream, the autosymbolic dreaming and waking processes reveal the following sequence: Brief contemplation of “Daktari”, my childhood dream of hugging Brenda, subliminal awareness of being asleep, emerging awareness of my conscious self identity and that I am sleeping with Zsuzsanna, liminal recall of “The Sleeping Gypsy” mixed with romantic non-lucid dream modulation related to “Isle of the Dead” (and its analogy to being in the dream state), liminal perception of my wife as a “sleeping gypsy” (as she is Hungarian Romani), and finally, transmutation of the lion of coalescence (being “swallowed” into waking consciousness) to euphoric coalescence (being hugged, which is a more positive analogy of being “swallowed”), which is otherwise of the same autosymbolic foundation.

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Morning of September 22, 2016. Thursday.



I am in Africa on a long expedition. My wife Zsuzsanna and our children and some unknown people are on the journey. Curiously, the “vehicle” we are using to travel in is only a tent that is somehow moving over the savanna without any apparent explanation (as it does not seem to have wheels; it somehow slides slowly over the ground). I have seven pet lions, at least three being male. They walk along with us on our journey without incident.

A male lion is inside the tent at one point but is not a threat. I am also in the tent for a time to “sleep” and also to look at a treasure map. As we travel over the savanna, I watch the scene from above for a time but I am eventually back in my physical form. We are seeking some sort of magical or at least special material, a roll or piece of cloth with special properties, the location of which is apparently indicated on the map.

We reach an isolated outdoor market where there are several African cashiers, at least three of them females around forty years of age. They seem to be selling the special cloth we had been seeking. There are two counters set up on each side of an outside area I enter. I examine a cloth which I first feel may be what we are seeking. A cashier tells me that it is a thousand dollars for a yard of it. I am not so sure this situation will work out. I go to the opposite counter to look around a bit.

One male lion walks around near the counters, being as tame as a dog, and I pat its head. Other people do not seem to be at all concerned about my lions.

Eventually, I notice a piece of cloth that I expect is the one we need. It is uneven though and is not quite a yard. The cashier tells me this one is also a thousand dollars if I want it. I almost express my annoyance to her but I do not. I take out my wallet and pull out one fifty-dollar bill after another, materializing the money out of thin air just at the point my hand is in the wallet, deliberately doing this and realizing this, but without dream state lucidity. I assertively hand her the money which I just mentally willed out of my wallet, twenty fifty-dollar notes, which I know is exactly a thousand dollars. She happily gives me the material.

The cloth’s design shows a repeating pattern (in mostly bright orange, yellow, and sepia saturated hues) of a scene of two lions (male and female) lying in the savanna in front of a boulder and a tree and the sun on the horizon in the background at their left. I pick up the supposed special cloth from the counter and we are on our way. Of course, this represents Zsuzsanna and I sleeping together during the sunrise, the cloth being a literal association with bed sheets and pillow cases.

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Lion autosymbolism has already been explained in many of my past entries, but here is a brief rundown: Factor one is coalescence (potentially being “swallowed” back into whole consciousness) and factor two is the augmented domestic cat association as being a “witness” to the dream state and the nature of liminal space (that is, the autosymbolic waking process). This dream is based on a partial association with “The Sleeping Gypsy”, an 1897 oil painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau. The association transforms into the ending autosymbolism of this dream of which also represents art and the nature of sleeping and dreaming, as dreams are autosymbolic of the nature of the dream state and waking process itself. The cashiers and the checkout scenario are autosymbolic of the dream state’s implied exit point.

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Morning of July 1, 2016. Friday.



My wife Zsuzsanna and our family as we are now (relative to age and appearance for the most part) are seemingly living back on Stadcor Street in Brisbane. However, our house is eventually implied to be haunted. There are also a number of other people, including a young black male, who are either staying with us or just looking things over as visitors. It seems we may have just moved in within the last few days.

A few different times, termites crawl out from near the top of the walls. There seems to be some sort of demonic or ghostly presence in the “attic” (though there really was not an actual attic as such in real life). The black male spends time looking at the ceiling and I notice some unusual patterns. For example, parts of the ceiling have spiderweb-like cracks in about three different areas as well as real spiderweb a short distance from the ceiling light. At one point, there is a small cylindrical hole where sand or dust rains down from for a short time.

The room shared by our two oldest children when they were younger now seems to possibly serve as a different room, though there is an unfamiliar and unknown young dark-haired female in another room whose room it may be (or may soon be) and I am seemingly checking the room regarding its safety. Instead of a wooden ceiling of planks, it is white tiles and actually seems like my bedroom in Cubitis in some ways (though the ceiling is lower). However, it also seems like some sort of unusual but very subtle composite even though the Cubitis house layout is different from the Stadcor Street house layout, though two bedrooms and the living room (lounge room) are in similar locations with respect to each other's directional orientation.

I reach up through the pushed-aside ceiling tile and find an old paperback children’s book with a yellow cover and a sketchy drawing on a white panel with a black border. I am unsure of the title. I think it may be a story from “365 Bedtime Stories” (owned for years in my childhood) and may refer to “What a Jolly Street” (which I have not thought of in many years). I brush and sweep dust and spiderweb from it with a very realistic focus and sense of awareness and touch. It depicts a cheerful running boy (implied to be running away from the foreground, though at an angle from his right) with a blanket over his shoulders (obvious dream sign though it does not trigger anything - though the cover being yellow is a dawning consciousness and sunrise symbol). I give it to the unknown girl who may be implied to be my (fictional) daughter though as other families may also be living in the house, I remain unsure. I am also aware of my real youngest son at one point during this scenario. I am able to find a few more similar books and find it fascinating and enriching, though almost like a typical faux lucidity where I expect something (without knowing I am dreaming) and manifest it with no effort. (The thought alone creates it.)

Back in the kitchen, there is movement in the ceiling over time, which is not tiled but of some sort of white fiberboard. Whatever is up there is very heavy and seems to make the ceiling slightly lower wherever it goes. Everyone seems concerned as we clearly hear it within the ceiling, “following me” wherever I walk, which is quite interesting - as if it can sense me somehow - even though I try to walk very quietly. This goes on for several minutes. At one point, there is the idea that it may be a giant rat although its “real” form may be a demon or ghost. I am annoyed more than frightened in any way and talk about “how to get rid of the demonic presence”. After a time, it speaks in a deep patronizing voice. This causes me to have had enough since this being also brings out termites a few times (as if by supernatural control), though they do go back into the walls. I shout as loud as I can for the being to leave and I do not stop. I am not afraid; I am annoyed. Eventually, it seems quieter.

I casually walk into our large lounge room. On the opposite side of the room and to the right (near the front windows) is a large lion sitting in a natural position on one of two large couches (which form a corner against two walls that join) and is “playfully” nudging one of six or seven toddlers who are somehow all sitting atop the back of the couch. The lion is opening his mouth around one in particular as if to indicate he is about to swallow her. There does not seem to be an immediate threat because the lion does not actually bite any of them. However, I have had enough of this strange “haunting” and even strongly feel that sacrificing myself to save the toddlers is the right thing to do. I get the lion’s attention to distract him from hurting any of the toddlers and he jumps down from the couch and approaches me. I assertively demand “Who are you?” after boldly gazing at his face for a time, because, even though I am not lucid in any way, I get the strong impression that I should do this.

The lion eventually starts talking in a rough human male voice as I look stoically into his eyes, but, almost without me noticing the change, the lion is now a dark-haired and heavily mustached European male (perhaps in his early forties) standing before me in a medieval swordsman outfit, though there are also the essences of court jester and pilgrim in his overall appearance and I seem to make out vague pale green and brownish horizontal stripes across his jerkin. His hair is about shoulder length though his small hood seems up. He talks about being the former resident of our house. He seems angry about its fate. Oddly, his main concern is about a party that is apparently to be held in the kitchen. I am not so keen on a party myself. I try to reassure him so as to stop all the ghostly commotion and eventually wake - with an understanding that a few of the other people will not have a party that may wreck the house and annoy the ghost.

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The setting of the kitchen may relate to slight hunger in sleep, though here, it may also imply the presence of the lion of coalescence as a lion represents swallowing the dreamer back into whole consciousness. The toddlers probably represent potential new (or offset) dream states, as this takes place on a couch (a dream sign as it is like a bed). When I was getting books from above the ceiling, I was attempting to reach and communicate with the critical thinking skills of my conscious mind, which are usually greatly lacking in dreams (as anything above the ceiling represents conscious activity as does a haunting - which is meant to stir the conscious self into waking or at least being more aware within the dream state). With the most subtle of conscious activity (though I am never lucid here) I even get a direct symbolic response that indicates I am sleeping and dreaming (the book cover of a boy running with a sheet over his shoulders). The challenge of “who are you” is quite extreme and rare for me in a non-lucid dream state (though is commonly practiced by other schools of thought in dream work), especially as I subliminally know the “who are you” is a form of my emerging consciousness. Overall, I found this dream fascinating and have placed it on my “favorites” list. It is one of my favorite non-lucid dreams in recent years.

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Again, it is curious how I challenge the Gatekeeper in liminal space, which, for whatever reason, some people identify as the “subconscious”, though this makes no sense as it is the dawning conscious self that is growing in activity in the dream state, not the “subconscious” (a term I no longer use or broadly accept anymore). A swordsman represents truth and clarity of conscious day to day awareness and in some cases implies a higher “destiny” regarding change (especially the angel with a blue flaming sword). A concern about the “party in the kitchen” possibly relates to eating healthier foods and losing a bit of extra weight yet may also metaphorically relate to a more profound coalescence in integrating more with the Source.

Morning of February 26, 2016. Friday.



It is morning. My family and I are living in our house as it is now, though there is seemingly much more floor space, especially in the southwest area of our house where our bed would otherwise be. Our youngest children are playing and walking around. I soon notice a miniature lion, which follows them around. This “lion” is only about the size of our youngest daughter. Even so, it soon opens its mouth very wide and somehow swallows our youngest daughter in one movement. I am at first only vaguely startled by this otherwise impossible visual, though because of subliminal awareness of being in the dream state, my dream resets.

In my reset dream, I start to consider that it is not a very intelligent idea to have a miniature lion running around when they could just swallow someone in one gulp. I start to question why such an animal would even be available to have as a pet. Our daughter is swallowed “again” and I sense it will next swallow our son even though our son is about twice its size. Again, my dream resets so that this event did not “actually” occur. I consider getting rid of the lion before it does “actually” happen, though only after several resets. I may chase it outside through the back door. Instead, my dream fades.

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A lion, even a miniature one as here, is an emergent consciousness factor (ECF) of RAS (reticular activating system) modulation. Its autosymbolic purpose is that it swallows the illusory dynamics of the dream state into rational whole consciousness (coalescence) in a similar way as white blood cells swallow and digest solid foreign matter. Dreams are reset like this when consciousness reascension is much slower, sustaining liminal space, indicated in this case by the absence of our bed with the emergent consciousness sentinel in its place.

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Morning of August 15, 2015. Saturday.



My dream’s location seems like the house on Loomis Street regarding the area I sense I am in, though everything is different otherwise and it is not even much like a house; more like a partly underground setting in a zoo, at least in one area, though I seem to be living here. The entire back and north side of the “house” is open, though high walls are at least two sides at the northwest corner. The front is enclosed and there is a row of jalousie windows. (There were no jalousie windows in the Loomis Street house or in any of the houses in La Crosse I had been in).

I become aware that a large tiger is in the front yard. At first, I decide to close the windows due to a slight concern about the tiger smelling me. I do not think it can get in but it might surprise me if I have my head close to the window at a later point. Over time, I realize that there is also a lion in the backyard, though the wall may be high enough so that he does not get into the enclosure I am in.

Later, I realize that these two large animals are supposed to be in the area and that they are like guard dogs in a way. Each has his own space to guard and survey and to stop intruders from getting into “my” house. Somehow, the tiger eventually gets in to where I am. I am not sure how that happened since there is no direct way in via the front. It certainly could not have gotten through the narrow jalousie window’s glass slats at any point. No door had been open, and I do not think it came over the walls in the back and north side. Still, I realize that there is nothing to be worried about. The tiger will not eat me or attack and is simply looking around. I watch it for a time and eventually pet it like a cat. It seems content.

Eventually, I am aware that the lion in the backyard can get in to where I am. This only concerns me in a way that I know it will probably fight with the tiger. I can see the tiger sniffing the air and I look back and see the lion on the top of the wall. I ask a couple unfamiliar people who are there to keep the lion from getting in. However, it eventually goes around to the north wall and I sense there may be a fight, though this does not happen. The lion stands on the wall while observing the tiger and they both continue to sniff the air, but I wake before anything happens. The lion could easily jump down into the structure that the tiger and I are in. I believe the lion will not attack me, but I do not want to see the animals attack each other. My dream fades with a soft awakening (that is, no discernible physical RAS effect such as a leg kick or abdominal twitch).

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The reticular activating system (RAS) is curiously sustained and duplicated here due to an atypically vivid subliminally lucid sequence. Tigers and lions are RAS factors just as snakes (in certain vivid non-lucid dreams) and dogs (in certain apex lucidity dreams mainly only in childhood) are and serve the same purpose with the same basic meaning (though I associate a lion more with waking coalescence as it can swallow the dream self into the “lion as emergent consciousness” as with 1897’s “The Sleeping Gypsy” painting). RAS also serves, biologically, as a “guardian” while mediating sleep-wake transitions, which was in the back of my mind in my dream and the understanding of which altered my dream’s mood and dynamics, for example, why my non-lucid dream self was not afraid of the big cats. Obviously, RAS is a normal part of the mind and nothing to fear (except perhaps in people who tend to faint a lot). Learning about RAS at a very early age is partly how my mind developed differently than many my age and why I rarely have nightmares (other than as health warnings, for example, at the threshold of getting the flu).

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Morning of July 12, 2014. Saturday.



At one point in this longer but fairly vague dream, I am flying over an area in an unknown region which may be some type of large zoo. There are several smaller rivers in a mostly parallel continuity, seemingly towards the south. Oddly, the whole landscape seems to be inside a very large building with a very high ceiling, and with similar features to that above a stage. I notice several lionesses and cubs near and in the shallow rivers and for a time, now and then, am concerned about flying too low but this does not happen and there does not seem to be much danger anyway.

I eventually end up at a bookstore where there is a sale outside with one small table with several wells (recesses) in which the base of the book stacks start from. There are also some underneath, I think in a cardboard box. My wife and at least our two youngest sons are there. My dream seems to “reset” to a similar scenario at least once, which involves something about buying three books really cheap, I think something like a dollar each, but that does not seem real to me for some reason and actually causes my dream to lose cohesion because of its “lack of realism” regarding the cheaper prices (regardless of the fill-a-bag sales we went to years ago).

As with most dreams, this one had a more insignificant layer that was precognitive (though doubly precognitive, based on two unrelated sections).

Morning of July 6, 1975. Sunday.



In my dream, I am with my best friend Toby on some sort of excursion of which I am not sure of the nature of. I believe the word play, “Safari, so good” (so far, so good) is suggested by Toby. We actually seem to be in Africa (or a reconstruction of certain features of one area) at one point, but I do not have a clear memory of how we got there, although the idea of a school bus having taken us there comes into mind very briefly, which suggests that we got left behind on some sort of field trip, perhaps to Busch Gardens at Tampa Bay. Somehow, as we walk around with no particular implied destination, we end up going into another world through an unseen or unrecognized portal.

After a time, we end up being chased by several mythological creatures, including a minotaur and a centaur. We are not caught or directly threatened at any point, but the landscape and the creatures become more unusual over time.

Eventually, without realizing it, after being chased by surreal mythological beasts on several different occasions, we seem to be back in our own world in the same area from where we started, just prior to entering the other world.

Nearby, a lion watches us from tall grasses and soon roars with the idea he may start to chase us. Even though we start running to escape from the potentially threatening situation, Toby starts laughing, saying rather loudly and somewhat happily under the circumstances, “A good ol’ Earth lion!” which means he is glad to be out of the other world, though he lags behind me. There is no fear at this point; but almost a strange sense of relief and appreciated familiarity of the potential to return home.

This is a fairly straightforward dream-as-a-dream event (as many are, even many of which people try to “interpret”, which in the first place, is something only the dreamer can do, as the dreamer is the only one with the relevant memory of the previous experiences and associations that build the dream in the first place). The lion in the last segment is my emergent consciousness rendered as the waking transition’s symbol of coalescence. This is because a lion in the dream state represents the ability to consume the dream self, since that is always the ultimate fate of the dream self (to coalesce into whole consciousness) even after being in the “alternate world of mythology” (the dream state itself). The implied swallowing is not seen in this dream (and in fact, is not even needed to be rendered since the transition has already developed). Waking transitions of this type are often achieved without any need for disturbing imagery (and again, it was even amusing in this case, which happily colored my mood for the day).

Morning of April 13, 1975. Sunday. [Dual narrative format utilized Saturday, 29 July 2017.]



[Eighth grade will finish in about two months. I contemplate the challenge of leaving my middle school, while incorporeal, within the realm of instinctual dreaming as my dream comes into focus. My conscious self is unaware that I am dreaming but many viable threads of my conscious self identity are shared within the ephemeral mind of my dream self.]

I am on a school bus with a lot of my schoolmates. I am vaguely wondering whether it is Sunday or not as it does not seem reasonable for me to be on a school bus if it is. The school bus comes to a stop in a field northwest of my school. I remember that we had been going north, so I assume I might be going home at the end of the day even though it does not seem to be afternoon yet. I think we are probably still in Arcadia. I notice high grass in some areas to my left and what looks like the outer perimeter of a possibly relinquished orange grove. I do not know exactly where we are.

[The preconscious as my bus driver is an unfamiliar male. Instead of continuing with the neural energies of generic dream exit symbolism and returning the essence of my dream self to my physical body in my bed, he decides to leave my dream. I am not sure why he has abandoned the vehicle.]

For several minutes, none of my schoolmates get up or speak about why we are here. I notice that Ray has his transistor radio on but at not that loud of a volume. He seems somewhat cheerful but some of my schoolmates seem impatient over the status of our situation. Susan is present and she regards me curiously. I am trying to recall if we are together or not. I am unsure about remaining here. I contemplate walking home, but consider that it may be too far.

[Coalescence waking symbolism is precursory, and soon, in more ways than one. The school bus contains these potential personas from the core of my unconscious, yet to coalesce on the bus as a more sustained waking transition is not to complete my journey. Where is the preconscious?]

It seems that the reason our school bus driver abandoned his duty was because of a lion in a cage right behind his seat. The lion’s paws can almost reach the back of the driver’s seat, but it is not certain what could happen. I do not question why a lion would be kept in a cage on a school bus, especially right behind the driver.

[Susan looks at me. She seems sad somehow. The preconscious will not return me to my world other than by swallowing me in his lion form, back into whole consciousness, so it seems up to my dream self to take some sort of control to perhaps avoid this event or even the thought of it].

I bravely walk up to the driver’s seat. My schoolmates smile, but I am not sure if they think I am being foolish or are glad we are going to be going home. I sit down, trying not to move for a few minutes, pretending that there is not a lion behind me. Is there really a cage? What if the cage is not strong enough? What will high school be like? Where will Susan be now that I deliberately try to avoid her?

[My dream self is vaguely puzzled. I consider why I should take over the role of the preconscious. Is this what I must do?]

I do not know how to drive a school bus, but that does not matter. Mere thinking on my part initiates the restarting of my journey…

[…slowly back to my physical body.]

The lion growls softly behind me. If I am calm…

[…I will not experience coalescence into whole consciousness as a hypnopompic jolt.]

I am calm.

[The bus drives itself to the exit point of my dream. I am bilocated in my bed and behind the steering wheel of the fading bus.]

The lion’s growls become softer; the transmutation of a passing semi-trailer truck on Highway Seventeen.

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