Afternoon of January 9, 2018. Tuesday. In my previous entry, “Known Key Symbolism 2018: Common Liminal Space Settings (1)”, I explained how a porch, a parking lot, and a store checkout are known forms of dream state symbolism that typically mark the last segment of my dreams during the waking process (and of which have featured in thousands of my dreams as such since childhood). As also stated, there are many more, though typically that which symbolizes liminal space in the dream state is that which symbolizes liminal space in reality (just as that which represents a liminal space divider in a dream is that which symbolizes a liminal space division in reality, for example, a fence, a wall, a presumably closed window or door, or even a ceiling if one becomes focused on it, even the contrast of ground and sky in some dreams). This entry relates to another common factor of my dreams, what I now mainly refer to as dream state indicators (referred to as dream signs in most older entries, though others use that term in a slightly different way). In the hour or so leading up to going to bed and going to sleep, what do people do? Many people take their shoes off. They probably get undressed. They are eventually typically in bed, sleeping, often in a dark room. So why are people puzzled when they are not wearing shoes (or cannot find their shoes) when in the dream state? Why are they puzzled about being undressed, including being undressed in public? If the physical body is undressed, why would someone be surprised about not being fully dressed while in the dream state regardless of the dream’s setting? In this entry, I will mostly only write of first-level dream state indicators without getting into the more complicated factors. Some of the more obvious dream state indicators (for me) are: Not wearing shoes or being undressed in public (of which I am typically not only unconcerned about, but which I often initiate deliberately in lucid dreams, including in public places, since I recognize it is just the dream state - and to indulge in additional levels of sensual connections to Zsuzsanna in this “other state”, which of course is literal and literally willed in such a case) A bed, including a bed in an unusual location (especially in a known liminal space setting) Appearances of pillows, bed sheets, and bedroom features Features that exist in our bedroom in real life, including features that are not inherently associated with a bedroom for other people Seeing someone else (or even an animal) sleeping (though note that dreaming I am sleeping, regardless of the setting, while actually feeling tired, means just that - that my physical body is overtired in real life - this not being in cases where I happen to be in bed or otherwise “sleeping” in the dream state without that augmented sense of tiredness) This last indicator is so common, I came to typify it (around the age of eight) as “The Sleeper”. (Still, there are cases where The Sleeper is linked to a prescient thread, as when our oldest son got very ill on September 26, 2017, or with my detailed dream that came just prior to our roof being torn off by the storm a couple months back, even including the large tarpaulins being put over our house and the unusual appearance of this sudden and totally unexpected storm.) In some cases (such as “The Dead One” from February 13, 1971), The Sleeper is perceived as a corpse (though in that dream, Brenda came back to life but coalesced into the unconscious space, which is different than waking space coalescence that involves the dream self coalescing back into the conscious self identity). Dream state indicators can also be related to false awakenings, for example, writing down a previous dream in a dream journal (in a dream) or talking about it with someone else. In some dreams, I have actually, as my dream self, relayed the meaning of a dream without realizing I was in the dream state at the time. False awakenings of this nature are so common that I often do not even document them unless there are unusual or interesting variations. (They occur in a different level of unconsciousness anyway, so are typically not related to the dream that they followed other than writing it down or talking to another dream character about it in the offset dream.) It should be clear that the nature of liminal space settings of the waking process is completely different from the nature of dream state indicators (though sometimes dream state indicators are rendered in liminal space, which I will explain in another entry). Liminal space settings (and their inherent symbolism) are typically a result of the waking process, whereas dream state indicators are subliminal remnants of having fallen asleep. Thus, on one level, they are opposite factors though which typically occur during the same waking transition.
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