Blue_Opossum

Night of November 23, 2017. Thursday.



I am near full lucidity and aware of my conscious self identity. I find myself in a parking lot at nighttime. A shopping cart is moving in front of me. Although I am implied to be pushing it, I seem incorporeal.

A white moth seems to fly from the front of the shopping cart. It rises in the air about three feet in front of the shopping cart before I awake with a lighter hypnopompic kick.

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This dream is a typical though interesting example of the type in which the symbolism and its inherent meaning is solely premonitory of the hypnopompic kick during the waking transition, and as such, is unrelated to waking life or so-called “interpretation”. Self-contained biologically premonitory dreams of this common type often utilize a flight symbol as here. This is because of the nature of inner ear dynamics and the ascending reticular activating system. (When one is unconscious, one does not usually viably perceive one’s real physical body, which often creates a sense of floating, falling, or associations with flight.)

The parking lot represents the transitional state between dreaming and waking and is usually unrelated to conscious self factors.

The white moth, inherently a natural biological symbol rather than an “interpretable” feature, relates to the circadian rhythms of the sleep cycle in three different ways. One, its whiteness is associated with the moon and sleeping at night (especially as it is airborne as an analogy to the moon being in the sky). Two, its nocturnal nature (most moths, but not all, are nocturnal) is also relevant to sleeping at night and being in the dream state during a specific time in the sleep cycle. Three, the flight symbol aspect has already been explained in the third paragraph above. This type of dream occurs at least once during every normal sleeping period (and has for over fifty years), though more often involves walking through a city at night and tripping over the curb and “falling”, also directly biologically premonitory of the hypnopompic kick or waking start, as well as spontaneous muscle tension and release, and unrelated to real life.

As fully explained in numerous past entries, the hypnopompic waking mechanism (waking start) and its biologically premonitory dream-related events leading up to it by way of the waking transition (and the ascending reticular activating system) are more vivid and intense when I have done a lot more walking prior to sleep, which proves that this dream’s symbolism is based on biology and anticipation of waking, not some sort of nebulous occult “symbolism” as found in so-called dream dictionaries or other nonsensical publications.

The shopping cart’s appearance is a literal remnant (though its perceived movement symbolizes the real-time waking shift during unconsciousness), not an “interpretable” feature, similar to a bed as a literal dream state indicator (as is being undressed in public as one does not typically wear clothes to bed), as I had been pushing a shopping cart around for about two hours prior to going to bed. In fact, walking a lot while pushing the shopping cart is why this dream’s symbolism is as it is concerning the specific nature of the hypnopompic waking start and the spontaneous release of muscle tension in unconsciousness.

This dream lacks the personified preconscious common to other dream types. As the hypnopompic waking start is the waking mechanism (and as a result has more energies linked to the physical body), a personified preconscious is not needed to initiate waking (for example, from such as imaginary conflict, perceived “intrusion”, or being chased by the preconscious waking function). Also, when lucid, the dream self obviously takes on more threads of the conscious self identity, thus is already closer to viable consciousness.

This dream renders and utilizes “exit flight waking symbolism” in incidental contrast to “return flight waking symbolism” (both very common types of waking symbolism) as in dreams such as “Kite or Bird? Self-Breaking Window?” from November 9, 2016 (though there are thousands more in my personal database). There seems to be no difference other than the factors of circadian rhythms dynamics, that is, the white moth flying away from me symbolizes associations with nighttime becoming more dominant in my semi-conscious state and the dream self to continue to sleep and experience additional dreams, while in the other dream, the white bird flying towards me is more about the cessation of the dream state (and its coalescence “back” into the unconscious) towards morning, especially regarding the window-breaking symbolism (the increase of neural energies eliminating the illusion of the dream state), the bird related to the “return” of my conscious self identity in that case (and despite the fact that some birds hunt at night, a bird of that appearance is more associated with daytime). Such symbolism has been inherent to my dreaming history since early childhood in the same context but usually with unique scenarios and elements. I am fully familiar with its meaning and virtually infinite variations and have zero interest in the popular fallacy of “interpretation”.

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Morning of July 1, 2016. Friday.



My wife Zsuzsanna and family as we are now are living back on Stadcor Street in Brisbane. Our youngest son first notices a caterpillar which moves quite fast. I tell people not to touch it as it has long hairs (though I honestly am not certain if it is poisonous in this way). It seems to crawl unnaturally fast at times but is not really a threat; only a curiosity. It is somewhat of a deep blue color.

Eventually, it seems to make a cocoon after we have it in a large rectangular plastic tub full of dirt. We are out on the back porch, seemingly early in the morning. As I watch, the cocoon moves rapidly over its body like a transparent skin. There is interest concerning when it will become a moth or butterfly. Almost as soon as the cocoon is formed the caterpillar changes as the “skin” now disappears and it becomes a large moth that flies upward. It is almost like a small bird.

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This is a curious and more direct waking transition utilizing the typical consciousness displacement flight symbol in leaving the dream state. A cocoon can be seen as a dream sign (analogous to the sheet or blanket that covers the sleeping dreamer) as, additionally in this case, a moth is attracted to moonlight. A caterpillar, especially in a cocoon, is a waking precursor that implies the liminal space on a more subdued level. The moth has a crescent moon design on its wings, which indicates the dream state itself (moon induction) as now waning in relationship to the circadian rhythms and biological nature of the dream state and dream stability and continuity. As I wake while we stand on the back porch, while watching the moth fly up and away, our youngest son is to my right and I am facing the outer wall of the bedroom where Zsuzsanna and I had slept while living at that house (dream sign and waking reference).

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Morning of February 13, 2015. Friday.



My family and I as we are now are living in an unfamiliar house in my dream (which seems to be a unique composite integrating features of our present home on W Street with Cubitis) in one of my lifelong recurring “strange bugs” dreams (but always unique with regard to appearance, this one being more unusual in nature).

Firstly, some sort of weird large black ant gets into our house from near the top of the wall, but it is not at all like a real ant. Instead of having three body sections (head, thorax, and abdomen), it has at least nine or more - being vaguely reminiscent of a centipede. Even though it has no visible wings, it is somehow able to fly and hover (vaguely reminiscent of the motions of a hummingbird). When I look back towards the wall from across the room, it is hovering near the wall with a long black proboscis that is at least twice as long as its body. It seems to be “feeding” from the wall (at human shoulder height) somehow. It seems very strange to me but I am not sure if it is dangerous.

Later, in a different room (that seems a little like our present kitchen on W Street yet also seems to have the feeling of the living room in Cubitis with respect to the layout concerning the room I come out of), I talk to my wife Zsuzsanna about unusual insects getting into our house.

I notice a large silver moth lying on the floor, apparently dead (though not crushed or noticeably injured). Its wings are very shiny - almost as much as aluminum foil. I notice a small line of black oil near it, extending out from its head, which is apparently the remains of its very long but seemingly “melted” proboscis. I am absentmindedly associating it with the weird ant as if I think it might be the same insect somehow (even though it looks nothing like it) or at least is somehow connected. At this point my dream slowly fades.

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Here, the waking transition is clearly “moon dissolution” (and is related to circadian rhythms in a similar manner as typical sunrise metaphors) which does not seem as common in dreams as I would expect. The moth is silver (a downsized moon as well as the association with “moth” and “month”) and it is melting and is also a “failed flight” element (which is very common in my dreams and simply represents the waking process.) The black oil could easily represent the “melting” (or fading) nighttime (again, relevant to circadian rhythms) although black is associated with the state just prior to waking (or just prior to dreaming).

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Night of November 2, 1971. Tuesday. (”Resets” into next day; November 3rd.)



This is the first, most vivid version of this dream as far as I know. This was one of my childhood dreams that I really liked and looked back on more than others. It is a typical “everything turns out to be different than what was originally thought” haunted house transformation. Although this type may relate to it getting closer to sunrise (in reality) towards a dream’s ending (thus transforming eerie features with the promise of approaching dawn) creating resolvableness where semidarkness dominated the setting previously, it may also relate to the very heavy influence “Castle of Blood” had on me in my early years. There is a certain feeling that cannot be described, yet not like other dreams where in-dream features typically transform.

In my dream, my best friend Toby T and I (in an implied but not directly experienced back story) are challenged to spend the night in a supposedly haunted house in a similar manner as directly inspired by the Barbara Steele movie “Castle of Blood” (1964; also known as “Danza Macabra” and “Castle of Terror” as first seen, but the movie has several other titles). (Not only that, this dream even occurred on the same date as the movie, November 2nd, “The Day of the Dead” or rather “Night of the Dead” as referenced by the movie.)

Over time, my dream mostly involves “sleeping” in this setting (though I am still aware throughout; just moving in and out of different levels of awareness). There is supposedly the presence of a (possibly vampire) coffin near the foot of my bed as well as a vampire bat hanging on the curtain. The silhouette of the bat can be seen at different times throughout the night from the moonlight filtering through the curtain. Toby ends up leaving before dawn (believing the immediate setting to be potentially threatening), thus losing the bet. I seem to be aware of the semi-dark in-dream environment for a very long time (for a dream, especially) and there is a sense of comfort and timelessness at one point as if I already know the outcome.

Eventually, I come to learn (as it gets closer to sunrise) that the concern about a coffin is unsubstantial, as it turns out to be a large (possibly empty) toy chest that someone left behind. The “bat” turns out to be a large harmless moth that remains on the curtain all night and is clearly seen as a moth at daybreak when the sun filters through the curtain. This seems to have been inspired by a real-life event but I cannot place the memory (perhaps a time when I was half-asleep when younger and actually thinking that a large moth was a bat - this would have likely been in the trailer in Fort Ogden).

Finally, it turns out to not be a house at all, but a smaller trailer that reminds me of the one Toby lived in (or again, the one my family stayed in in Fort Ogden) - though I did not learn of this until later when I visited him - so a layer of minor precognition exists even in this dream, as it did have some of the same layout, including his bed and furniture arrangement in his rather small room (though dreams have a tendency to create all sorts of unlikely composites otherwise).

There is a later version of this dream where the trailer itself turned out to be a “ghost” in one sense and did not exist after daybreak, which gives it a different feeling (and whereas the main version is not a “real” ghost story at all, the lesser version is).

This was a very enjoyable DDR dream that seemed to last the entire night. The “vampire bat” is resolved to a moth. The “vampire’s coffin” is resolved to a toy chest. It is typical of how, as the sunrise approaches, the dream’s features morph into something “safer” or more logical.