lucid

Optimized 2 minute 15 second read.
Saturday morning, 5 April 1980.
“Kar Krazy” (haunted parking lot excursion)
Series: Surreal Vehicles as Illusory Physicality in Non-Reality
Dream # 4,856-03.



Although sitting in the back seat of a parked car in the dream state is a typical transition from an intuitive or metacognitive recognition of being asleep (an imagining since childhood) while a vehicle is analogous to managing my imaginary dream body, a residual influence occurs here regarding a recent waking-life event.

In a real-world scenario, I had sat in the back seat of a car in a parking lot in Southside La Crosse waiting for Carol and Marilyn (two older half-sisters on my mother’s side) while they collected promotional products from businesses with company logos on keyrings and other items for prizes in a raffle.

Sleep cycle dynamics integrated the location into a surreal dreaming experience. The parking lot where I had been only once in my waking life is similar in my dream. This type of influence, being in an unfamiliar location for a time in waking life, sometimes affects the dream state in unusual ways despite the processes being of the same familiar and traceable causality.

In my dream, I leave the car and wander around in the parking lot in the early evening. No one else is present at any time. With deliberation, I want to create and experience a movie about poltergeist activity in the parking lot.

I title the movie “Kar Krazy” (a deliberate misspelling, not a typical dreaming mistake in this instance). Part of the plot infers that being behind the steering wheel of a vehicle makes people temporarily crazy.

The decal on the hood of a Trans Am becomes animated, becoming like actual fire for a time.

A semi-trailer with lightning decals is “haunted” by “road rage.” The lightning has the properties of actual lightning for a time. Electricity reaches a few feet from the semi-trailer.

I consider that a keyring (inspiration from the real-world event previously mentioned) with an attached car key could generate “haunted” lightning and influence people’s thinking processes.

A car stretches to an unrealistic height (while remaining the same length) while another “falls flat like a cake in the oven.” A couple of cars drive off by themselves.

In the last scene, I sit atop a car as I sometimes do in this mode of dreaming. Vestibular-motor phasing was minimal for this narrative.

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Lightning and electricity occur in dreams with metacognitive recognition of increasing precursory consciousness (synaptic energy in real time while dreaming). Although irrelevant to this report, physical pain and the “pins and needles” sensations also emerge in dreams and even when awake as lightning or electricity for most people I know. For example, I once dropped a heavy book on my foot in a dark room and saw realistic “lightning.”


Important notes:

According to my first Google result, the term “road rage” was “coined in 1988” (Los Angeles TV news), inferring a precognitive element in this dream (which makes no sense because I deliberately summoned this descriptive phrase while dreaming).

However, as it turns out, the phrase occurred in print before that. “ROAD RAGE” tires appeared as far back as 1982 (see the image if available), with other usages of the term before that. In contrast, there are thousands of misspellings of “road race” as “road rage” in OCR renderings on the Internet.

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Morning of December 21, 1969. Sunday.



In my dream, I am in the playground of West Elementary School (which I attended in real life at the time). I find myself with a book, which may be “Our World Today: Europe and Europe Overseas”, which is what I had been thinking about prior to sleep. (This was a very old textbook, for a higher grade, of which had not been used by the school in years and of which my teacher gave me after I read the word “banana” when it was hyphenated to the next line. I was thankful, but saw her act as a bit peculiar.) Later in my dream, I sense that it is a book of fairy tales or perhaps the Holy Bible (though it is not thick enough to be the Holy Bible). (This association was prescient, as I received a Holy Bible as a birthday gift from a friend of my mother’s, which arrived a couple days after my birthday. Otherwise, there is an influence from an episode of “The Jackie Gleason Show” seen prior to sleep, where he, as the Poor Soul, was whisked away to fairlyand.)

After I hold the book for a time, while sitting on the concrete bench in the northwest corner of the playground, it pulls me into the air. I feel vaguely dizzy and experience an atypical flight, which is a sustained awareness of liminal space (although I am only semi-lucid). I go high into the sky and then swoop to the ground a few times while holding onto the book.

Eventually, at least three classmates are hanging on in a ladder-like form, that is, each additional student hanging onto the ankles of the one above them. Toby is one of them as well as Tina, and then Bobby. At one point, I notice it seems to be just before sunrise, although there is enough daylight to discern some detail. Eventually, I deliberately fly up, and out of the dream state in the manner of which I had exited many dreams. In this case, I had tried to hold onto the book in order to wake up with it, but I woke while gripping my pillow.

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When I was very young, I occasionally had an absurd notion of pulling items out of my dreams, primarily books and coins, though only while still in the dream state and only in partial lucidity.

As I grew older, I began to understand part of the reason for this. Both books and coins more distinctly represent emergent consciousness factors (though for entirely different reasons) and both change in appearance in dreams (often into surreal nonsense) after looking at them again due to the dream state being an illusion. Reading text in a dream is possible, as I have often read in dreams, but the text typically changes when looking at it again and typically becomes unreadable gibberish when my dream self’s imaginary visual clarity increases toward waking. In the case of coins, I learned it was an attempt to stabilize my emergent consciousness, both in the concept of coins gathering (coalescence factor, because when one starts dreaming, memories begin to distort and separate so that the conscious self identity is no longer extant until the waking transition) to become whole again (such as a one-dollar bill). Additionally, the heads on coins are static (unmoving), which represents the dream self’s absence of perceptual viability and intelligence.

This dream is mainly a result of vestibular system ambiguity, which occurs in over twenty percent of the tens of thousands of dreams I have studied and resolved since early childhood. While unconscious and entering the waking transition, being horizontal in bed is in biological conflict with the misperception of the dream self, which results in an infinite variety of features and events associated with flight, falling, and rising. Over the years, through understanding the nature of the dream state, I have learned to maintain subliminal awareness in dreams that are otherwise not viably lucid, and I often effortlessly take to the air in dreams instead of walking (though the dream self has no physical body unless it wants to). Additionally, the human ladder is redundant autosymbolism (as to flight triggered by natural vestibular system ambiguity) as it also represents leaving the dream state (climbing back to the state of consciousness).

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Resupplemented on Thursday, 8 February 2018.

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Morning of December 21, 1969. Sunday.



I am in the high school auditorium (which was used for entertainment for students grades one to five, the elementary school being the next block over from the high school) and there is a large marionette stage of the kind where a square window opens at the front, near the top, to reveal a clown face during intermissions (while the stage was changed for the next act of the story), who talked about the events of the story. (These were excellent and detailed productions, my favorite being “Pinocchio”.)

Although other schoolmates are present, I end up focused on Tina, who puts her hands over her eyes and says, “I’m dreaming”. My dream self not fully considering what she had said, I still end up floating in the air and slowly flying toward the stage. I notice the head at the top is more like a Greek bust. Instead of a marionette stage, I then seem to be in a television studio, with some distorted (incorrect) scenes from “The Jackie Gleason Show” of the previous night. I am somewhat wary as I do not want to draw attention or interrupt the filming of the show even though I am semi-lucid.

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I eventually learned that a stage was autosymbolism for being in the dream state, typically in semi-lucidity or apex lucidity. Flying (as well as falling or other movement) is a biological result of vestibular system ambiguity in unconsciousness. Over one in five of my dreams involve flying or flight symbols. (On a side note, the belief that falling dreams evolved out of primates naturally developing this as an alert factor based on falling out of trees, thus being possible prey, is actually pointless, since the vestibular system would naturally trigger this anyway by already extant biological design, inherent ambiguity of the same factor as flying dreams.)

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Resupplemented on Thursday, 8 February 2018.

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Night of December 12, 1969. Friday.



This dream seemed to last all night into the next morning but with several false awakenings. Regardless of it being somewhat nightmarish, it is one of my favorites from childhood. This was yet another dream where Pepto-Bismol pink dominated some aspects of the dream elements. It also involves another early attempt at tulpa creation (as with the “Cobra in the Hayloft” dream). This is still the original dream journal title from age eight and the first version of this dream theme as far as I know.

In an early part of the dream, my pillow seems to have moving imagery on it somewhat like a television screen. There is a scene with the “MGM lion” logo roaring (as at the beginning of a movie) except that the lion has been replaced by a triceratops. (It is possible that the small portable heater had been on a few times, which sometimes made a rattling noise and provided a slight glow in the room.)

Over time, I develop a very intense, clear, and focused lucidity and am able to control the somewhat phosphorescent images on the pillow. Once I gain more faith and expectation, I also gain a sense of being able to communicate with the white family cat, Snowball, or at least get her to understand my ideas somehow. The cat had been in the room throughout the dream; in reality as well, I think.

Throughout the night, seemingly, there are different “games” played with the imagery on the pillow. One amusing scene involves the word “dots” appearing on my pillow several times, like a grid-like pattern (after I had watched actual polka dots for a time). As I put more intent into the manifestation, the words rotate and then say “stop” like some sort of “tingly warning”. Another image that flows across the pillow is a sequence of letter Zs, in a snake-like fashion. It is similar to watching projected images from a slide projector moving about on the surface of the pillow (and part of the sheet at times).

I also seem aware of a loud snoring (on and off) over the few hours that the dream seems to last. I used to think it was my father (and one story I wrote based on the dream did imply that), but my father’s room was in another part of the house at the other end beyond the hallway and would not have been that loud, I do not think. It was either my own or solely in-dream, but certainly seemed vivid and made the dinosaur’s sounds seem more threatening somehow, through the false awakenings - yet at the same time was a reassurance at one level of thought in a particular liminal state at random times.

“Look Snowball, I can make a monster appear,” I say with confidence (and again feel the in-dream “tingling”). Instead of the imagery appearing on the pillow, a “real” full-sized triceratops appears standing near my bedside, facing east (where my head is). (The bed is along the south wall, head at the southeast corner at the time, both in the dream and in reality. The bed had occupied several different locations in the room during the time I lived there. This particular setup was the farthest from all the large jalousie windows during the winter.) The triceratops makes a “snoring growling” sound, very vivid and convincing, but mostly just remains in the same standing position as if I might still have some level of control over it. There is an eerie glow of Pepto-Bismol pink from it (which does not fully light up the room). The cat seems a bit nervous but does not run off.

I seem to shift into another state and realize it was only a very vivid and lucid dream with the appearance of the dinosaur seeming like part of a false awakening (though I was lucid dreaming, I had a partial sense I might be partly awake and watching hypnagogic events projected onto the pillow as was sometimes the case in reality). I think about getting back into the same state, because it was quite intriguing. However, the dream eventually takes on a lesser vividness and my lucidity lowers as well. In the last section, the dream is non-lucid. I am out of my bedroom and in a sleeping bag on the living room floor (southwest area of the room), apparently having been placed here by my mother either due to a monster being in my room or being “safer” there for some other reason. From here, the triceratops appears again (but is a darker mossy green, not pink) and I sense it is getting closer to my face as I slowly wake.

Morning of December 8, 1969. Monday.

Dream #: 1,085-02. Reading time (optimized): 1 min.



This dream scene is the final and most vivid of an incomplete narrative about Brenda and I using an elevator inside a tree to visit an underground world. The elevator operator is probably a Munchkin (of about my height - note that I was eight years old when I experienced this dream) from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939). The setup is similar to the one the wizard uses. The tree has a doorway at ground level but is otherwise a version of the tree in the northwest corner of West Elementary School’s playground. There is a cheerful mood. I sense it is early morning.

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My dream interprets my status of becoming more aware during the waking process as having been underground (asleep).

My dream interprets my instinctual awareness of being in REM sleep and its temporary condition of sleep atonia as my dream self being inside an imaginary tree because a tree is immobile.

My dream interprets my liminal anticipation of becoming more aware, both consciously and physically, during the waking transition, with the use of an elevator. It is a transition from the immobility of the tree.

The Munchkin is the modulatory personification of the vestibular system correlation of the waking process.

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My dream was also influenced by “The Night of the Green Terror” episode of “The Wild Wild West.” Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn, the dwarf, dressed as Robin Hood), had an underground tree hideout accessed via a door. Even so, there was no negative undertone at any point in my dream.

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Morning of October 6, 1979. Saturday.

Dream #: 4,674-04. Optimized 1 minute 30 second read.





My dream implies I am in an ongoing monster movie called “In a Nutshell” in Cubitis. Although it is vivid, my emotions are not intense enough to initiate wakefulness as I summon the essence of horror to serve my dream’s imaginary narrative. (I often do this by habit to manifest ASMR, the “spine tingling” that brings about bliss, but which is rarely complete in this mode of dreaming.)

My father is near at one point, sitting on the bed, but only as a backstory commentator.

Most scenes occur in semi-darkness in the southwest bedroom of the Cubitis house (not where I am sleeping in reality but still the result of background awareness I am in bed).

The featured monster begins its life by growing inside an egg that mimics a walnut. I see one of them prematurely hatch as a tiny black horse that jerks about on its side on the floor - reminiscent of a mosquito larva (“wriggler”). This one may be dying because of hatching too quickly (though I hit the “walnut” with a hammer as a requirement of the “movie’s script”). (There is no outcome here, only a transition to another scene.)

The adult form of the monster is a mutant bear that has poisonous porcupine quills. It hunts people for food. There is a nighttime scene when I am “surprised” by the creature (though it is metacognitive summoning and pretending). It occurs as I walk around a corner of the Cubitis house (at its south end). The monster lifts its arms, but it does not attack me.

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Metacognitive Dreaming Responses:

Predominant bedroom setting.

REM atonia (something enclosed or its movement restricted; the tiny “horse” inside the “walnut”).

Sleep myoclonus (the wriggling “horse” on its side, modeling my sleeping position, as a horse typically appears when anticipating my physical mobility after waking).

Association with “hibernation” or sleeping (the mutant bear).

“Around the corner” metacognitive summoning (a deliberate dreaming element since early childhood). In a childhood dream, the result was a dog coming from around the same corner. It jumped up to press against my chest, resulting in a myoclonic awakening.

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Influences:

The movie “Prophecy” (1979).

The movie “The Valley of Gwangi” (1969).

The Crazy Magazine parody of “The Waltons” titled “The Walnuts” (1974).

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Morning of October 4, 1969. Saturday.



I am eight years old and am outside in the backyard of my home in Florida, and I become aware that I am dreaming. I want to enjoy myself in this lucid dream that is slowly growing in vividness, but I suddenly become aware that there are buzzards circling above (as sometimes occurs in real life) and I yell up at them - saying that I am not afraid, even raising my right fist at them. (This is mainly because Florida buzzards were a recurring fear factor in my dreams of this time period, both lucid and non-lucid.)

Almost immediately, I become aware that one of the buzzards is now swooping down to get at me. I run into the carport, and the buzzard flies onto my lower back, stabbing me with its beak (at the same time I start to sit down in an attempt to somehow crush the buzzard into the back of the chair which is impossible because a buzzard is too big for such an act). I then start to wake with a bizarre intense sensation as I am also leaning back against the chair with metal legs which I had chosen to sit in as quickly as possible (the chair facing south to the wall of the carport rather than out from the wall). The chair is not that far from the main door into the house, but I knew I could not get to it in time. I also notice a lawn mower near the chair. This also seems to be some sort of premonitory awareness of a spasm of some sort in my lower back, which is much the same as in certain other dreams.

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This dream was so intense that I was almost certain that I had rolled over onto my pet cat and harmed it, but it was not around at the time. It takes some time for me to fully wake and realize this, but when I finally move, nothing is there. The in-dream sense of touch was increased to such an extent, I could feel the lumpiness in my back for a minute or so, which was not there in reality and I felt relieved that our cat was likely okay in another room as the sensation eventually dissipated.

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Morning of September 28, 1979. Friday.



This was a long meandering dream that recurred a few times during the same sleeping period. It also has the common dream theme (regarding my time travel or even “different dimension” dreams) of frustrating appearances of anachronisms (such as modern cars seen in an implied 1800s setting), though in this case, there is a specific “explanation” for it all.

A location that “resets” a few times is based on a supposed “time bomb” just under the surface of the ground at an older abandoned football field in a rural area (which in one version is implied to be part of an abandoned city), where shrubs and high weeds and such have grown along the perimeter (though not much in the abandoned football field itself). I and a few others wander around in several different locations. The main later parts of my dream center on Loomis Street, though most of the events take place on the street rather than the Loomis Street house.

This dream basically takes a play from the idea of “time bomb” in that it is a bomb that apparently fractures time. Later, different periods of history are mixed together in the present. I see cars from the 1920s in one area to the west and more modern vehicles elsewhere. Historical figures (from different times periods) are implied to be alive now as well. This is an intriguing idea I think, but probably not “new” (though I did not research the concept). There is also a seeming “hall of mirrors” effect in my perspective near the end of my dream, depending on where I am looking, which seems to mean that different “pieces” of time are not quite fully integrated into the present.

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Morning of September 11, 1969. Thursday.



My dream starts with an atypical unseen narrator who says, without emotion: “New York Harbor 1969. The city is a mess”.

I am flying over Manhattan in the first scene. I am semi-lucid and vividly aware of curious saxophone and xylophone music (never heard in real life); a series of repeated staccato notes. My sheet music image (only available on some websites with this entry) is close to what I heard in my dream. There is a later version where the third set of eighth notes in each motif is removed, giving a sense of anticipation.



On websites where the image is not available, the eighth notes (except for the last C, a quarter note) are: C C C C, C D C D, C D C D, E E E E, E F E F, E F E F, G G G G, G A G A, G A G A, A G G F, F E E D, C. The tempo is about 84 at first, though is accelerando. The music becomes a bit more intense yet with a less audible orchestral sound in the background, as if the volume is turned down though later up again. (This effect has happened in other dreams, usually when the level of dream state awareness changes, as sometimes the closer I am to waking, the less number of instruments are heard.)

Looking directly down as I fly, I watch a giant snake swim through the water, moving along on the water’s surface. (As such, my dream’s foundation is the most common form; water induction, as water symbolizes sleep dynamics in real time.) The snake is so large that it knocks aside boats (mostly tugboats) as it moves. However, there is also a brief awareness that the snake is of normal size and the debris is more like small pieces of bark, leaves, and twigs as I seemingly watch the “same” scene much closer to the water’s surface (as if of a small lake) before the implication changes again. At this point I also get the distinct impression that I am standing or hovering in my orb form (while incorporeal) to the left of the doorway in the southwest bedroom (not where I slept) at the same time I am dreaming this (with a vague association with having looked into our full bathtub and toilet while somehow sleepwalking, though I had not been). This bilocated impression (typical of a lot of my childhood dreams) does not continue. Helicopters fly over the Statue of Liberty and there is more news about the attack on Manhattan as apparently giant snakes came from a crashed flying saucer (as if perhaps manlike aliens, though unseen, and possibly from two different planets, lost control of their spacecraft for an unknown reason). There are two kinds of giant snakes that fight each other. One kind seems friendlier to humans. I watch a lot of the monster-movie-like battles though my dream eventually shifts to my home in Cubitis, and my previous lucid threads fade.

I am chasing a baby giant snake (which is my height in its upright “S” form) in a southerly direction, from the end of our driveway, near Highway Seventeen, and moving past the west side of our large culvert. The snake is the recurring Pepto Bismol pink that was fairly common in my dreams around this time period (after my mother had me drink it in real life). It is somehow quickly slithering upright like a standing (vertical) letter S and moving much like a swan. I am fearlessly chasing it, to make it leave the area so that bigger snakes do not eventually come by to investigate. Suddenly, when I get past the neighbor’s house a short distance, the snake looks “confused” (and I get the impression of an actual question mark floating in the air over its head very briefly, a curious feature of other childhood dreams, likely influenced by comic strips) and it turns around to start chasing me. I raise my arms up and out as I am now running away, but as if the scene is meant to be comedic or playful.

This continues for a short time when suddenly, the snake and I are very good friends. We are now at the end of the driveway, where I first found myself chasing it. I am holding the large snake in my arms like a baby, which is eventually even wearing an old-fashioned pale blue baby bonnet and held within a white baby blanket and is now going to sleep.

I am aware that the War of the Serpents will continue, possibly to the point where a lot more regions will be damaged. My parents do not appear at any point, and in fact, I do not interact with anyone I know in real life. Later, I am calm in the presence of a few giant black snakes (though my dream fades when I start flying again). This likely relates to the fact that black snakes were considered good due to a reputation where I lived of them supposedly chasing off rattlesnakes, which seems the main origin of my dream’s otherwise science-fiction theme.

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This dream has two discernible attempts at subliminal reinduction (a non-lucid attempt to vivify or extend the dream state, though I am semi-lucid when my dream begins). Firstly, my dream begins with typical water induction (my most common form of dream state initiation). A snake is the primary (biological) reticular activating system symbol (RAS mechanism), due to having evolved out of the natural fear that primates have of snakes, and thus RAS renders it as the potential waking trigger (in generating enough emotion as an “alert” for the purpose of waking the dreamer to attend to real physical needs), though a snake will sometimes relate to different factors (sometimes literal) and symbolism depending on the dream type, which only the dreamer could understand the origin and validation of in any case.

My first attempt at reinduction (even though I am still in the water as sleep initiation stage, though already with the snake as a potential RAS factor) is evidenced by the music having a similar essence as snake-charming music, to delay RAS waking dynamics. The second attempt is far more obvious and easier to validate. I succeed in harmoniously putting the snake to sleep (which represents willfully though subliminally decreasing RAS dynamics that might otherwise wake me up) at the end of the driveway, which symbolizes the subliminal awareness of eventually needing to wake up and stand at the end of my driveway to wait for the school bus. Dreams are very easy to understand once ignorant superstition and “interpretation” is cast aside in the acknowledgement of what dreams actually are. It should be emphasized that this dream began with conscious choice of first deliberately “stepping into” (and then flying within) my dream’s water-based environment (as I have done thousands of times since childhood and for over fifty years), which is also why the bilocated essence regarding another bedroom (obvious dream state indicator) in our house came into focus. (It should also be obvious that the baby snake additionally symbolizes a mild stomach ache, and the RAS “taming” of it for a few reasons; one, actually being the color of stomach ache medicine, two, being shaped like a human intestine, and three, stomach pain associated with a snake that squeezes its prey.)

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Edited for clarity and resupplemented on Sunday, 29 October 2017.

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Morning of January 4, 1969. Saturday.



This childhood dream journal entry has been revised on Friday 20 October 2017 to complete and clarify revelatory dynamics to more coherently define the meaning. This dream occurred about 3:30 in the morning. Sunrise was not until about 7:20 a.m. I had attempted to watch the 1942 black-and-white movie “Cat People” (which started around one a.m. on this Saturday morning), though our television was black-and-white anyway, but I slept through most of it, though I did not go to my bed until about 3:15 in the morning.

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In my dream, as I am walking out from the front of our Cubitis carport (after deliberately “stepping into” the stabilized hypnagogic “portal” rendered as the unlit carport area), seemingly only about three-thirty to four o'clock in the morning, and walking in a northwesterly direction towards our neighbor’s orange grove, I maintain my lucidity.

Even though I am lucid, I feel somewhat vulnerable when I find myself walking into the opening of a fictional feature. It is a hallway in which the walls are seemingly made of fog, yet with a suggestion of at least partial solidity. This eerie hallway starts from between the middle area of the driveway and the neighbor’s orange grove, and runs from east to west towards Highway Seventeen (and is perpendicular to it). I do not perceive the potential length of this hallway or clearly discern a door or doorway on the opposite side, which makes me hesitant in continuing.

From here, I see various domestic cats (at least fifteen) in various positions throughout the hallway ahead. Some cats are sitting or standing on tables (one near a vase on a table) and some are sitting or standing on the implied hallway’s floor. One cat jumps down from a table (or simple platform) on the left side in this scene and walks toward me though never gets very close or attacks. An unknown male narrator’s voice (seeming to come from above and to my left and as if from a loudspeaker with slightly fuzzy audio) only says “cats” in a very informal way and without emotion. I feel that he may not be speaking to me as it may be a voice that was recorded years ago. There is also the vague idea that I may not be fully in the setting but looking at a realistic three-dimensional movie scene either superimposed or bilocated into the front yard area. Despite my lucidity, I feel somewhat wary, uncertain, and passive to what I am seeing even though there is no discernible threat. Soon, with deliberate intent (lucid choice), I fade from my dream with a soft awakening. (The liminal space transition is also softer than usual.)

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Following is an extensive and highly revelatory explanation of the most likely factors and personal history responsible for this dream along with their related meanings. I have recorded this dream as of the doorway waking symbolism type.

It was obvious to me at the time (despite being only eight years old), that my dream was trying to fill in missing details from “Cat People” even though that was not my original dream entry intent (which was to visit my younger neighbor and friend, Brenda, who lived north of me). However, my dream was completely unrelated to the movie’s plot as my distorted memory implied that the movie was about an older woman with a fear of domestic cats.

The otherwise ambiguous hallway setting is modeled after two common real-life locations and progressions, one, walking through the hallway in my Cubitis home, and two, walking down our Cubitis driveway (as the fictional hallway was rendered as just north of it and parallel to it) to wait for the school bus on week day mornings. The possibly implied exit of the fictional foggy hallway would be at the east wayside of Highway Seventeen and it should also be mentioned that while waiting for the bus on week days in this time period, there was sometimes dense fog. Fog was far more common as a dream feature during the time periods there was fog in the mornings in real life, although fog also seems to be a factor of the dream state itself, possibly influenced by dream scenes in movies that include fog (to represent that it is a dream), though is also a natural association with dreaming.

There is also an association with Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog”; the line “The fog comes on little cat feet” (which was silently integrated into my dream near the last moments). The poem was first published in 1916 and my mother was born in 1916. This seems to be the association with the “old woman” (my mother) with a supposed fear of domestic cats (again, not what 1942’s “Cat People” was about). However, neither my mother nor I had any trepidation relating to cats. In fact, my mother had a pet gray tabby named Dewey at this time. The mild trepidation in my dream was more about my lucidity being intruded upon by the absentminded association with the movie that I had not even seen much of, based on my earlier wondering about it (but not consciously intending for it to be carried into the dream state as it was).

There is one more relevant commonly recurring factor I should include here. The doorway waking symbolism and other types that sometimes include the liminal space cat symbolism (in addition to the term “putting the cat out for the night” as subliminally relating to shifts in unconsciousness and waking symbolism itself) curiously was validated to have come from having seen the ending credits of “The Flintstones” (an animated television series) so many times. A domesticated saber-toothed cat is seen throwing Fred out of his house (after Fred firstly put the cat out) during the end credits, resulting in Fred pounding on his front door and yelling “Wilma!”, waking the whole neighborhood. This also established not only the relevant waking symbolism but additionally established this symbolism as a more influential dream state end marker in many examples throughout my fifty years of dream journaling. There are additional reasons for liminal space cat symbolism, one being an influence from the 1962 animated movie “Gay Purr-ee”, another with my childhood association of a cat sitting on a fence as existing between dreaming and waking (that is, a fence as the liminal space divider between dreaming and waking). Additionally, I think of cats as being more active at night or while people are sleeping and dreaming, thus a natural symbol of the dream state itself.

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Night of October 24, 1968. Thursday.



Newly researched and enhanced entry updated on August 31, 2014. Sunday.

This was one of my favorite childhood dreams, and I became fully lucid by the end of my dream. I was firstly in the living room of my Cubitis home very late at night, probably around midnight. There was a very unusual storm occurring with a lot of thunder and lightning. Over time, I decided to go into my own room, but only opened the door enough to see a very small ghost gliding across the floor. As one of my original titles for this was “The Pillowcase Ghost”, you can imagine what it looked like. There were hardly any features other than the white “pillowcase” with vertically oval eyes and a mouth. He had no legs and only a suggestion of hands to drag his chain. He had a very young voice, like a young boy, as he was “booooooing” (more like moaning and dragging out the word “boo” for some time), and in fact, I could actually see the letters moving in the air above his head in a long, wavy sequence. I was not scared at all. I found it rather fascinating and bordering on pure entertainment. He was dragging a small chain, which looked a little like an animated charcoal drawing. The lightning I watch for a time through mostly the east windows of my bedroom also seems somewhat animated (in an implied letter “Z” sort of way), and is fairly thick and yellowish. I watch the little ghost for a fairly long time. However, he eventually notices me and seems to vanish, as if he had been only practicing his ghostliness and did not want anyone to see what he was doing.

I look around for him and he seems to be under the couch watching me. I imagine that we are playing some sort of game, but I wonder what I should do. For a short time, I am wondering if he actually took the pillowcase from one of my pillows and was now wearing it.

I go into the entrance to the kitchenette and crouch down near a chair (one from real life, with metal legs, in the same position as from last seen in reality). Eventually, the small ghost is in the living room, moving around and gliding very slowly across the floor, almost reminding me of a snail. He does not seem to be aware of me at that point. All in all, my dream is extremely vivid, yet with a cartoon-like atmosphere (but still with full life-like depth perception).

I find myself holding a “Spooky (the Tuff Little Ghost)” comic book (the one in the image, issue number eleven with a cover date of July 1957). I jump out from behind the chair (although technically I was not hidden, as the chair’s legs vertically blocked only a small part of me), and I let out a very loud, staccato “Boo!” At the same time, Spooky flies out of the comic book, growing bigger in flight, until he is my size, as I am holding it open, raising his arms and also shouting “Boo!”

The other poor little ghost’s eyes widen as he cringes dramatically (and diagonally in the opposite direction) in seeming terror and he slides swiftly across the floor backwards, to the other side of the room (he cannot seem to fly at all). He no longer appears in my dream, and Spooky is also gone from the scene (having returned to the comic book, I assume). Eventually, I wake up, and have a false awakening of retrieving my pillow case from under the couch.

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A short time after this, my mother (without knowing about my dream) gave me a glow-in-the-dark plastic ghost figure similar to the one in my dream but wearing a clock necklace (most dreams have at least one precognitive layer or association, but not always as obvious).

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The main influence was “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, which aired earlier that evening. The Spooky comic book cover (that was apparently printed eleven years earlier as well as being issue number eleven) set the climax and resolution into play with a clever scenario, especially of a ghost coming out of the cover of a comic - that comic book cover in reality also showing the ghost coming out of the cover of a book! (and it was from behind a kitchen chair rather than an arm chair which would have hidden me fully - this seems one of several important facets of my dream). The “ghost” was possibly a representation of a challenge in easily “defeating” the Charlie Brown mentality - almost in the manner of “tough real ghost” vs. “weak and fake ghost Charlie Brown”. This seems important because in my dream, it was almost as if I was in full control of the Spooky presence regardless of how short the event. The layers of this dream still seem quite intriguing even as an adult. The later versions of this dream did not have as much impact as the first semi-lucid version.

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This dream had one of the most intriguing and marvelous dream signs I have ever seen. A glowing white “pillowcase ghost” (both a moon symbol and a very obvious dream sign - what could be more obvious a dream sign than a pillow?) serves as the induction and soon becomes the main feature of my dream. Even though Spooky is also technically a moon symbol (“downgraded” consciousness within the nighttime dream state) as are most ghosts, he wears a derby and is thus a “covered moon” in this case, and emerges from the comic book to “send my dream’s moon away” as the waking precursor.

Morning of October 15, 1978. Sunday.



My dream starts out very nicely. I am standing on the deck of a new small yacht in the early evening with the cheerful “mystery girl” (lifelong precognitive wife archetype). It is semi-dark and we are not that far from shore. We seem to be drinking cocktails. I begin to realize it is a dream and it becomes more and more vivid. We seem to be the only people around. I start thinking about how this would be a fine and private place for romance

Over time, however, as we begin to make love, the boat somehow gets smaller and smaller (the girl eventually vanishes somehow), the scenario quite contrary to my wishes, until it is just a board floating on the water, more like a half-sunken canoe, I suppose. I start focusing and chanting “perfecto, perfecto” and the board moves faster through the water (as if it had a motor attached in back) as I remain on my stomach (hands and arms sometimes splashing in the water) hoping everything will work out in an attempt to reach the opposite shore and meanwhile “restore” the seeming intent of how my dream started, but not much else happens as I end up feeling tired and frustrated. For some reason, I feel embarrassment even though no one is around to see my failure at that point - and I also still fully know I am dreaming as I eventually wake. I keep trying, but it remains a board in the water and almost stops now and then, annoying me even more with a slight wariness it could sink. At one point, I get the impression that the Jolly Green Giant is standing on the shore opposite to where I am headed. He does not seem to be threatening in any way, though he is probably amused at my endeavors, I think and he may actually rescue me if need be (though this does not occur).

There was another (semi-lucid) part prior to all this, but no longer clear. It involved exploring a large college-like building and trying to go out from the right exit. One part is an area to go down steps and be below ground level, but then right back up again to the outside door on the other side of the mostly featureless “hall”. It may be a distortion of one of the schools I went to, possibly in La Crosse (though it was also precognitive to the entrance at Northern Engraving where I worked much later without having been there before). There seems to be several “resets” or repeats.

Morning of October 13, 1978. Friday.



The location in this dream is not fully determinable although it is likely Wisconsin because of the land features. All I know is that it is a somewhat isolated area with a higher hill or rise on one side (seemingly east) where a road or highway cuts into possibly the foot of a mountain (that is, the embankment that is exposing the strata where the spaceship protrudes slightly seems partially flat on top but may reach more into the implied foot of the mountain more to the east). I am seemingly not directly in my dream even though my view is moving about in a three-dimensional perspective. Instead, the focus is on several businessmen in suits and around the same age (probably late thirties).

My dream unfolds in mostly only showing the discovery of an apparent extraterrestrial spaceship that had crashed or landed on Earth many years ago, possibly even before there were humans. Oddly, the different geological layers and features seem to be linked to the spaceship somehow. This is not logical, of course, because it is set up almost to imply that the spaceship slowly phased into its landing area over many centuries so that it became “entombed” or even fossilized over time, so that the spaceship is embedded in geologically different strata, almost in a way that would imply that different parts of the spacecraft existed at different times (after crashing) even though it is the one object.

I fade in and out of my dream over seemingly at least half an hour, but this is mostly all there is to it. There are a couple false awakenings related to writing my dream down, but no aliens appear or are implied as possibly extant at any point. In fact, my dream’s last “reset” at one point is almost to imply it could be connected to a nearby restaurant for the tourism industry and is perhaps faked somehow or at least advertised in a misleading way.

There is also something about “all” television stations going off the air related to more of the spacecraft being uncovered relative to erosion - and some sort of unclear reference about people blaming the restaurant for their televisions not picking up channels correctly. I get an impressions of it being related to Chicago somehow. Doing extensive research and relevant updates on many of my older entries (even more inclusive with online dream details that I formerly saw as more insignificant), I had to smile at this one. Although there is no documentation of having been aware of it (I would have likely made the reference), there was actually a power failure the night before at a relay substation in Chicago, affecting all television stations in Wisconsin in periods from ten to forty-five minutes.

This dream was also seemingly influenced by residual memory of “Five Million Years to Earth” (original title: “Quatermass and the Pit”) from 1967.

Morning of October 13, 1968. Sunday.



I am in school with a special sort of book that has Matchbox Cars inside it. In one dream journal entry, my earliest record of this scene, I originally called this “The Small, Flat Car”. The actual case seems to be that I can take out and put back in real Matchbox Cars in this special book (based on the photos becoming “wells” within the book - recurring, and a long-term idea in childhood dreams). There is one version where I seem to be sitting in the back of the class for what seems like a very long time, and am somewhat concerned about a car being partially flat yet trying to fit it between the pages so that the teacher does not notice that I have my toys in school. It did not work most of the time, though I still was not noticed, seemingly from sitting so far back in the classroom.

Night of July 25, 1968 to Morning of July 26, 1968.

Important: The above date reference has been validated to be the first, most vivid, and longest version of this recurring childhood dream theme (as well as of the most precognitive layers).



My dream starts out with a precognitive scene, with Linda, a girl I knew from school, feeding “our chickens” in the backyard at Cubitis (this was when we still had a rabbit farm - and a worm farm - and my father had not even begun to think about raising chickens yet). The look is quite the same as it would be, with high, wobbly fences and several different enclosures, as well as the eventually partly dismantled rabbit shed being a part of it all. In fact, a little later on, he had made a concrete rabbit for an entrance ornament, in which, later, it also looked like a chick lying on its back (as if hatching from an egg), the rabbit’s ears transforming into the chicken’s beak in the visual “translation”. The girl is still outside when the moon is out, although the chickens are far less active. It then seems like I am looking at the images in a sort of farming magazine or real estate catalog (I did a little “photo projection” in real life at the time, so the change is not that unusual to me).

Eventually, I cross the highway (at night) and there is a “haunted house” where the house of Karen and Kenny S should be, and no other houses around it. I think it is two floors, or maybe three. (Karen’s was only a small one-storey house and very similar to mine.)

When I walk in, I notice a dark blue cartoon-like spider named “Hairy”/“Harry”, about half as high as I am. It has mischievous animated human eyes, but is more like just an oval with the eyes and lines for the mouth and coming out of the “body” for the legs. I think this is connected with a cartoon version of “The Addams Family”, as I eventually see a few other characters, which are not really frightening in any way.

A little later, there is a visually “perfect” scene (as if exactly replayed) from “Tickle Me”, an Elvis Presley movie that eventually features a haunted house with a “hidden treasure”. The scene seems to somehow relate to the hand in the box (Addams Family) to the hand coming out of the tiny door above the fireplace and punching people as in “Tickle Me” (with a brief impression of seeing myself in the scene). The imagery is exact and very vibrant. There is also the scene with the “ghost grandmother” in the rocking chair which somehow seems to be occurring in my father’s larger walk-in/sliding doors closet, yet I am still in the “haunted house”.

Later on is an additional part that was also precisely precognitive. I open a small window in a door and see a werewolf moving towards me a certain way, and there is some sort of funny game-like idea (similar to older “Captain Kangaroo” show openings that I had never seen before at that time) of shutting the window (in the door) with the door open - or leaving the window open, but with the door closed and so on, but the werewolf (starting out like a shadowy figure) - a sort of gray color and looking sort of “stiff” like a toy or model with hands raised that are not moving much, and a slight swaying side to side as he walks. At the same time, I understand that he is my brother-in-law, Verdell. Later on, for some reason, when he (my brother-in-law, Verdell) was visiting in real life (he only came down to Florida with my sister every two years or so for a few days), he bought a werewolf (wolf man) model with no explanation, even surprising my sister (there were various monster models in the store). The original model was grayish; the image (above) is of a painted figure but is from the same kit. In my dream, Verdell had looked just like the model, no shirt, pants held up with a belt, and no shoes. There was even a rat running around his foot.

Later on, after a few other misadventures, I find myself in a locker room (precognitive to one I spent time in later on in life; I had not at that point known what the one at the new middle school - featured in my dream - looked like - everything was correctly oriented). In fact, I was wondering how I got in such a place, inside of a seeming residential home. I later notice a very strange-looking cat (like the one from Disney’s “Cinderella”, whose name is “Lucifer”) sitting on a dark purplish-indigo velvet pillow with golden tassels - on top of what seems to be the hallway water fountain. However, it changes into (or is chased off by) a more normal-looking cat. It is then female and jumps up and “kisses” me (exactly like the opening credits for “Bewitched”, and with fluttering stars, real sparkles, and such - years later, I found my wife had a cat named Sparky when I first met her) and turns into Brenda (the girl who often seemed to represent my unknown future wife).

There is quite a bit more that I did not record fully when younger. During this particular time period, I wrote all my dreams out - often with pictures - on color notebook paper (not allowed for usage in school later on), mostly lighter hues of pink, purplish, greenish, yellowish, and bluish. I guess it was a pain for teachers to have to try to read pencil print on color paper (especially darker such as purple), hard enough to read on white paper.