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Morning of November 3, 1979. Saturday.



A living pelican skeleton walks about in my family’s living room in Cubitis (though I was living in Wisconsin by this time in real life). My dream is very intense and vivid, with an augmented sense of wonder, but not eerie despite the imagery. There is a vibrant positive energy present. The pelican skeleton eventually jumps up onto a dresser (along the west wall of the living room) and then spends time seemingly looking at itself in a mirror (perhaps in puzzlement of its “twin” in the mirror) and moving its wings of bone. I am also vaguely aware of other activity in the room, something like small balls rolling around and possibly small mammals of which I do not directly focus upon.

It seems very alive and vibrant, as if I am viewing the scene through some sort of x-ray vision. There is a lot of energy in my dream, and other events are happening, but this is the main one and the focus of my dream at its most vivid level. (It reminds me, in conscious afterthought, of an image from the Time-Life book “The Birds”, which I had since I was very young.

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This dream is a unique version of the otherwise typical type of autosymbolism in the last segment of my dreams that relates to associations with vestibular system ambiguity and not knowing where my physical body is in unconsciousness. Although there is a lesser semi-lucidity here, my dream self typically does not have viable access to either my unconscious or viable memory or thinking skills, or viable awareness of my conscious self in waking life. This, in fact, is why the mirror is rendered, as a mirror is a type of autosymbolism that represents this division of liminal space. The skeleton form represents how my dream self is not my complete conscious self in waking life, combined with the flight symbol that is precursory to the actual waking transition (and of which is rendered in over one in five of my dreams, at least once per sleep cycle).

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Morning of November 15, 1968. Friday.



The location seems to be a very dense cypress swamp in Florida. The cypress trees are seemingly gigantic; as big as skyscrapers (though there is no hint of any people or man-made features in the region). It is beautiful. It is also eerie but without any sense of a threat. Although it is of a full view and three-dimensional, I do not seem fully in my dream body (though I am not certain if I am implied to be incorporeal).

I watch what seems to be an enormous eagle, mostly in silhouette, flying from right to left. It is the most vivid when I view it through a wide clearing between two dense areas of impossibly tall cypress trees. It does not seem to be carrying any prey. Its wings are moving but almost as if in slow motion. I feel as if it is a roc (even though a roc is mythological). There is a sense of peace, love, and timelessness. The imagery is mostly in shades of gray (which is very rare in my dreams). The emotional state is also unusual, as other dreams I had during this time included the threat of buzzards, yet this bird seems much bigger, possibly as big as a jumbo jet.

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This dream was my last dream of the morning and is a unique and very enjoyable return flight waking transition.

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My dream seems to have three influences:

• The swampy Fort Ogden area in Florida where I lived when I was very young
• The Pogo Possum comic strip
• A deck of educational cards that, when flicked through, display an animation of wild animal silhouettes with a bird silhouette flying above them

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In my earliest dream journal entry on notebook paper (at age seven) I had referred to this bird as an “elephant bird” (though I also referred to it as a “roc”), but I later learned that the extinct elephant bird was flightless (and of Madagascar) and certainly not like the bird in this dream.

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This entry was last checked and clarified on Saturday, 31 December 2016. A new photographic image (based on an original sketch) has been added.

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Morning of September 8, 1968. Sunday.



I deliberately “step into” a chosen dream setting in my last dream of the morning, though I do not remain lucid. It is our Cubitis living room, but with different features. This setting is otherwise a rendering of the first area I see when leaving my bedroom in reality. The time seems to be early morning, around sunrise, the same time as when I “went in”. I sense that I am the only person present in our house (even though my parents are in the house in reality).

It comes to my attention that a great blue heron is trapped in our wood stove in the northeast corner of our living room. It is visible from the lowest part of the neck and up, thus somehow protruding from the top of this implied cage from an apparent opening. I am somewhat wary of it being in our house. Its beak grows longer as I watch, remaining in a horizontal orientation and pointing southward, never moving from side to side. I hold concern that it will become so long as to reach through the hallway (though it would have to curve if it did), out the back door at the end of the hallway (to the south) and possibly even around the world and back to where no one would be fully safe from it. This does not happen but I still decide to attempt to escape through the hallway (rather than going out the front door or back into my bedroom).

The bird does not make any sound. Its eyes seem very lifelike. I think that after going down the hallway that I could hide in the bathroom. The beak would have to turn at a ninety degree angle as well as go through the door but I am not focused on that line of reasoning other than very vaguely. As I walk through the bathroom’s doorway, I have a soft awakening (no noticeable physical hypnopompic event).

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Following is a detailed study in subliminal waking trepidation as sustained by the dream self in “The Heron’s Elongated Beak” (September 8, 1968) on Sunday, 16 July 2017:

• This dream is based on subliminal expectancy of the lower back spasm, a common physical jolt that only occurs in certain levels of consciousness between sleeping and waking (similar to the hypnopompic leg kick or abdominal jolt but experienced through different symbolism). In this case, my dream self successfully avoided it, though not with lucid intent (and possibly by coincidence as the event horizon occurs with various levels of presence and intensity, sometimes fading in an identical manner as an expected sneeze sometimes does). Being jabbed in the lower back by a bird’s beak or a variety of other features (such as a dog’s nose, knife, or arrow) was more common in childhood dreams and is also linked to certain forms of apex lucidity. This is a real-time biological event and its in-dream premonitory symbolism has nothing to do with the conscious self’s day to day reality.
• In other dreams such as “The Buzzard’s Beak (October 4, 1969), I did not "escape” the bird beak’s assault or lower back spasm as I did in this dream.
• Precognitive thread: The exact appearance of the wood stove and its location and orientation did not exist in reality until years later when I was a teenager. My parents did not own a wood stove in Florida up until a few years before we moved back to Wisconsin. I could not have known about the appearance, location, or orientation, as my father did not even build the chimney for it until years later, so there was no reason for it to be placed here in my dream based on any likely expectation. (Additionally, my dream’s date was a specific marker to when we first got the wood stove.)
• Going down the hallway into the bathroom relates the need to get up and use one in reality. Although the hallway can imply conduit symbolism (real-time consciousness shift) it may be incidental in this case. A doorway typically symbolizes (in real time) a dream’s exit point (though often serves as lucid induction).
• Preconscious waking induction of the emergent consciousness as features related to flight (birds, airplanes, flying saucers, my dream self in flight, and so on) have occurred in over 18,000 of my known dreams (excluding microdreams and other types), but usually with unique dynamics.

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Morning of April 10, 1976. Saturday.



There is some sort of very rare and special type of larger grouse (though more quail-like in some ways) in the backyard at Cubitis, though their size may be a typical in-dream magnification of perspective. It is supposedly “sacred” and has some sort of incredible ability to prey on humans at times as well as supposedly send human-like emotions apparently telepathically to disorient people. There are about six or seven in the yard at one point, and I am not sure if it is a good idea to even be outside.

I somehow fall down near the south side of the shed (fairly close to the carport) and feel an intense and bizarre sensation like a “deep tickle” in my side and lower back, which I have had on and off all my life, especially more recently. I am aware that I have fallen on one of these “sacred grouse” and thus may be doomed because of this. I see one of them closer to my face as it walks nearer and I feel a deep sense of awe.

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This was similar to a number of other in-dream premonitory events, including the dog with the knife-like nose, the buzzard’s beak, and several others. They all involve this intense spasm in my lower back that is like a mix of unbearable pleasure and a strange mild pain.

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Induction factor: water (man-made; birdbath made by my father for my mother). The setting is known and realistic and mostly private (backyard sometimes shared with friends). There are no other characters directly seen, though I sense my father is also in the backyard. I have a greatly enhanced awareness of my physical body, movement, and weight. Return flight factor features as a large quail or grouse with unrealistic intelligence and human-like sentience. The mood was of a growing awe and eventual mortal fear. Additional coalescence factor: ground (soil), coalescence (as my body inexplicably falling on the bird with the belief I may have crushed it) with the belief that I am dead or at least paralyzed for a long time. Possible explanation: Unknown, other than the back spasm event - but premonitory or causal? I seem to have “died” in this dream, but only my temporary dream self incarnation came to an end here. My father raised quail at the time, though much smaller than the birds in my dream.

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Saturday, 26 June 1971. 1,650-M2. 48 second read.



I soar through the blue sky alongside an American black vulture, but I am unwary.

He flies on my left until he dives. I expect him to attack the townspeople below. (There is a vague association with Shakespeare’s “King Lear.”)

The mood becomes cheerful. The “palace” far below appears to be the DeSoto County Courthouse. I hear people cheering and see a ticker-tape parade.

I see people carry the vulture down the building’s outer steps in a palanquin, as he immediately becomes their king. “Pomp and Circumstance” (“Graduation March Song”) plays.

I zoom in. From the left, I see the vulture sitting inside the palanquin. The bird has knees like a human instead of bird legs and wears a crown.

I rise into the blue sky as I wake up laughing aloud.

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Note: People called vultures “buzzards” when I lived in Florida, thus my original title.

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My dream begins with the physiological influence of vestibular-motor sensations (from REM atonia). It changes from spontaneous vestibular-motor responses to controlled and more defined.

The vulture’s flying and diving transitions to his non-flight (becoming more human-like) and descending a staircase.

A crown appears with increased dream state awareness. It reveals higher metacognitive management of the dream state.

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