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Feast and Famine

Dreams and visions about eating disorders, anorexia, fasting, hunger and starvation, compulsive eating, bulemia, addiction to junkfood, allergenic foods or downright toxic foods... Most of my own dreams here involve anorexia, since I suffered from it for several years--an atypical form in which I didn't fast or try to lose weight (indeed I tried hard to keep my weight up) but simply felt no hunger and had to force myself to eat. (Turned out to be food-allergy based, but semistarvation's psychological effects were identical to that of classic anorexics. Made me wonder how many OTHER are treated as psychogenic when they're not!)

For eating disorders of any kind, I recommend Overeaters Anonymous. At least here in San Francisco, along with their regular groups for the overweight they host support groups for anorexics and bulemics. Physically meeting a whole room of people like me and comparing their energy to mine showed me the psychological and spiritual aspects in a way no doctor or shrink (or online support group) could ever give me.

Not all the dreams here pathologize eating or not eating. Some aren't even about food, but other types of self-denial. Fasting (whether food, money, news, social contacts, political rage...) can be a helpful health and spiritual practice. But many entries here are about overdoing it.

RELATED TOPICS: austerity & voluntary simplicity - food & drink - abiku (the longing for the spirit world) - You Are Lunch - allergies - addictions and 12-step programs - body image - see Links page for support groups - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ANOREXIA NIRVANA: by Wayan; 1993, a digital picture-poem of astral temptation.
I was anorexic for years; I only mastered it when I saw it was a hunger for the spirit world...
AT A BIG 'SWENSON' PARTY: by Jack Kerouac, mid-Sept? 1953, a nightmare on need
A lovely pecan pie, but the guests are cutting pieces, dropping them, hands trembling
in growing hunger desperate the dark voracious guests fighting now to freeload...
CAUTION: NOT ABOUT PIE
AWAKENING HURTS: by Wayan; 1993/7/4, a dreamtale.
An old friend's awakening from anorexic asexuality. Puberty at 30? And wait a minute... is she me?
BAGHEERA SUGGESTS LOVAGE: by Wayan; 1993/7/31, a Jungle Book dream
The panther in the Jungle Books was really female. I grew up with her cub...
A BIKE ODYSSEY, or, ARABELLA'S ARTIFACT: by Wayan; 1994/7/24, a day trip echoed in a dream.
DAY: I bike across San Francisco writing down what I actually see.
DREAM: I'm an abused English heiress with a dangerous alien artifact...
CAUTION: HAUNTED BY CHILD ABUSE
BILL COSBY'S WIFE: by Wayan; 1994/5/5, one of many creepy dreams about a comedian I loved.
I'm Bill Cosby's wife, finding it hard to cook for him without a stove or fridge...
CAUTION: SLANDER, I HOPED. I HOPED WRONG.
BLUE LIPS, GOLD EYES, ORANGE JUICE: by Wayan; 1997/5/8, a warning dream.
In a world where respectable men wear masks, an old, old man rebels in the crudest way he can...
BONK VERONICA: by Wayan; 1997/4/1, 9-page dream-comic on body image
The world's first all-bulemic band, Veronica and the Vomits, provokes a riot at our local punk club. So I go to
Anorexic Bootcamp where models learn self-defense under fire, as calories and fat jokes whiz by...
CAUTION: BARF, HORNY ANOREXIC, FOOD FIGHT
CAT REPELS DINOSAURS: by Wayan, 1984/8/12, a film-inspired surreal dream
DAY: I thorn-puncture my hands while gardening, and write stupid poetry about it...
EVE: I watch Little Darlings, a teen sex farce that turns weirdly serious...
DREAM: a Mysterious Pussy guards us librarians from stinky alien dinosaurs...
CAUTION: SEXUAL INNUENDO???
CENTAUR: PAULINA AT SUNSET: by Wayan; 1987/12/8, three dream-infused figure studies
Fear anorexia? Gain weight, yet stay slender--be a centaur, like model Paulina Porizkova...
CAUTION: NUDITY; BODY IMAGE/ANOREXIA ISSUES
A CONVERSATION WITH ANOREXIA: by Wayan; 1994/6/25; two wild shamanic dreams.
That day I read Hilde Bruch's "Conversations with Anorexics" and face the fact I am one.
That night, in the land where anorexic horses heal, I enter the Kiva of Shamanic Pamphlets, and...
CROSS THE BLACK RIVER ONE DEATH AT A TIME: by Wayan; 1990? Astral landscape
Buddhism is a 12-step program; it has its pitfalls for those of us who already detach all too easily...
CROWBOTTLE: by Wayan; 1998/1/2, a dream of a wise foolish act.
It was on a beach. Inside, a black thing squirmed and boiled.
Despite all the tales of vengeful djinn, I pull the cork...
CRYSTAL AND GUNSEL: by Wayan; 1997/7/2, a nightmare--psychic or not?
Gunsel kills my friend Crystal in a flaming aircar crash. But that's not enough--he comes back, and...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
DARE TO BE FAT!: by Wayan; spinoff picture from a 1997/8/20 dream.
I was an anorexic fox-girl, till this phrase galvanized me. Now I pump iron and eat what I like, and...
DEER AND SANDSTORM: by Wayan; 1993/3/17, a pre-fever dream.
I'm in a hotel by the Great Salt Lake. Deer roam the halls and lap at the drinking fountain...
DOCTOR WHO AND DEATH: by Wayan; 1984/6/30, a hopeful dream of betrayal.
Dr Who, that lovable BBC alien, grows a sappy flower-face and
allies with Death. An alarming turn-around! What's he up to?
CAUTION: GOOD DOCTOR GOES BAD?
DOG THIRST: by Cecy and Wayan; 1991/10/7, shared or telepathic dreamlets
CECY: In a desert, a thirsty dog jumps out of a tree--the first known dog suicide...
WAYAN: I'm a talking dog. Our owner denies us enough water, so we protest...
DOPPELBRUDER: by Wayan; 1985/5/9, a dream of a self at war over... labels?
Lured to a parallel, feudal world by a marriage-vow, I'm trapped in my double's arrogant, twisted mind...
EAT MORE FIBER: by Wayan, 1996/8/8, a nutritious little dream.
Concerned about my health, I up my fiber intake. But not from the usual sources...
CAUTION: BAD DIETARY ROLE MODEL
EEL TOWER: by Wayan; 1981/4/23, a dream of longing.
I dreamed living in a body of flesh is like being trapped on a sinking cruise ship...
CAUTION: NUDITY (but she's just crying, not giving that guy a blowjob, okay?)
ELEGANTE (ELLE EST GAUNTE): by Wayan; 1983/1/8, nondream body-image painting.
Every year, as Americans get fatter, the fashion gets thinner (and I look more normal)...
ELLIS CRITIQUE: by Wayan; 2008/12/10, four dreams comically explore Havelock Ellis's dream-theories!
Pa warns me to protect my paws. Then gilt wounds my sole. Then
a lioness eats a tasty drumstick. Then a bus crashes on our corner--for real!
THE ERTHEDNI: by Wayan, 1977/1/8, three transformation dreams, the last with advice
1: I'm starving in a lush valley; a cult claims all the food, the water, even the air.
2: I'm drowning in a cage but find a corner with water I can breathe--just barely.
3: I'm a merman with a wise friend who hints I need to leave those who starve & drown me...
CAUTION: DOMESTIC BATTERING (OFFSTAGE)
FAMILY JESTERS: by Wayan; 2017/3/15, a dream mixing Kurt Vonnegut and My Little Pony
Coastal unicorns are slender; inlanders bloat. Genes, diet, both? Inland bosses enslave their gracile minority.
Performing pets! Jesters caged, chained & handicapped to heighten the wonder they can do their art at all...
CAUTION: TROUBLING SOCIAL ANALOGIES
FAMINE: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years
Famine in the monastery. We add weather charts, leather laces
and walking sticks to the menu. Even the ghosts are hungry...
FIRST DATE: by Wayan; 1991/10/20, a true story.
I have weird, bad luck around dating. Finally I go on a picnic with Page, and the Great Fire begins...
FLOWERING:: by Wayan; 1996, pencil digitally tinted; nondream portraits.
Sketches from a San Francisco street music festival where, after a long sleep, I woke up sexually at last...
CAUTION: NYMPHETS, QUEERS, AND OTHER REAL PEOPLE
FLYING UNICORNS' GIFTS: by Lily Michaud; 2007/9/5, an advice-dream inside a flying dream
Flying unicorns hang out with me and my friends, sending us
dreams full of useful advice--and more concrete gifts...
FRAN SAYS "THAT'S WHAT PSYCHIC IS": by Wayan, 1982/1/15; a self-flagging predictive dream
I turn into my friend Fran, who I haven't see for months. Then I'm me, in a hot tub,
talking to Fran, who's now a sort of lemur-girl. She insists I'm psychic.
I'm skeptical. I just get hunches, if I relax in hot water. She says...
FREAKY DREAM, or, HEART IN MY STOMACH: by Ratiries Steelclaw; c. 2004/3/30, a dream comic
I felt like my heart was in my stomach. My friend Lyx opened me up & said "It is." She scolded me for eating it...
CAUTION: URP
F--K GRIFFIN: by Wayan; 1993/9/17, an embarrassing advisory dream.
It's nice hearing everyone praise my sex crimes, but I need to pull the dog from the golden horn...
CAUTION: SEX, LANGUAGE (OBVIOUSLY), GENERAL WEIRDNESS
GANDHI RUNS: by Wayan; 1997/8/1, a fusion dream.
Gandhi and I must run barefoot across a burning racetrack miles wide... the Ascetic Desert?
GARDENIAS: by Laurel and Frank, 1979 or before, shared marital-advice dreams
Laurel and Frank each dream the gardenia in their bedroom went
neglected & unwatered, but with care is now blooming again...
GIFTED CHILDREN NEED...: by Wayan; 1980/8/6, a journal extract on geniuses.
Advice of a specialist on the care and feeding of child prodigies, embarrassingly relevant for adult geniuses...
GLASS EATER: by Wayan; 1982/12/10, a dream on managing ESP.
I live in an asylum for fragile psychics. When one man over-uses his talent, he compulsively eats glass...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
HARD DISK POND: by Wayan; 1989/8/27, a dream of art as a door.
We build a huge hard disk that's a virtual pond--a gate to other worlds! But not for reptile brains...
THE HERBIVORE'S EXCEPTION: by Wayan; 1999/12/6, a dream of snapping.
A beautiful herbivore suddenly eats one of its friends! Bloody. Who or what is this warning me about?...
CAUTION: YUCK, MEAT REALLY IS MURDER
HOT TO TROT or BRAIN TRAUMA or HUMPIN' THE HOG or SAD-EYED SWAN OF LOVE:
by Wayan; 1993/8/4, a bizarre, epic dream on finding your way
I'm a mare hot to trot (and get laid) in the Big City, but my gay Star Trek friend's brain trauma
makes her a clueless alien with a bo(a)ring sexlife--until a sad swan enfolds her in love...
CAUTION: ALIEN POSSESSION, CARTOON PIG SEX, SMOKING SWANS
I LOST 400 POUNDS!: by Wayan; 1993/6/24, a motivational dream.
A gorgeous healer bursts through the wall to tell me "I used to weigh 500 pounds. It kept sex away! But..."
THE ICE CREAM KISS: by Wayan; 1993/11/27, an uncomfortable dream.
I'm Joe Leaphorn, in (of all places for a Navaho detective) a coven in San Francisco watching a creamy...
IN THE STAR; 1988/9/12 by Wayan; an epic, out-of-body, intrastellar quest-dream
I tour the heart of a red supergiant, where dreaming souls explore
their fears and heart's desires, unconstrained by solid matter...
CAUTION: SWEDENBORGIAN VISION, UNICORN NUDITY
THE INVISIBLE SULKY: by Wayan; 1995/9/20, a dream on resistance.
I feel a drag, and take off my safety belt. I find I've been towing an invisible buggy with two men in it...
ISIS HELPS TERI GARR: by Wayan; 1988/3/27, a meandering predictive dream.
Actress Teri Garr and Isis the talking cat recur all night, but
so does a baseball glove I haven't pulled out in years. Why?
A few days later a friend asks for that glove, and I find...
LEARNING SCALES: by Wayan; 1985/6/26, an epic dream of Chinese dragons.
I find myself in astral China. The Empress is banished, the Jester rules. Wisdom is lost.
We need an Imperial Dragon...
LOVE OR HATE?: by Wayan; 1994/5/4, an untwisted dream.
My sister and I are groping toward sex when our mom bursts in. Her scolding's not what I expect...
CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES, PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
THE MAN AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE: by John Hubbard c.1915? a surprise-ending dream
War between a big conformist land and a small land devoted to quality. Big Land's rulers all die, but at last, sheer
numbers defeat the smaller land. Now their leader, beaten and starved, awaits the sword at the end of the hall...
CAUTION: POLITICAL? ACCORDING TO CARL JUNG!
MATRONIZED: by Wayan; 1996/5/25, a real-life vignette.
An older woman I know nags me about food. Suddenly my mind flips our genders and weights...
MISTRESS TOOTHSMOOTH: by Yves Delage, 1915/1/20, an early anima dream
I'm in the cellar, petting a tiger-cat. She speaks inside my head: "I'm tired of living on bread. I need meat."
I make excuses--it's pricy--then see big hanging quarters of meat. I hide them! She says "Call me Mistress
Touttmouss"--well, something like that--I know it's English, but can't make it out til I wake, when I see...
THE MOUNTAIN, THE MAGPIE AND THE ROAD: dreamed 2013/3/26 by Rustling Leaves; epic nightmare
I visit a beautiful artificial mountain with loved ones--but my demons overwhelm me one by one.
CAUTION: SUICIDAL FEELINGS, BODY HATE/FATPHOBIA, IMPLIED RAPE
A NIGHT ON MOUNT DIABLO: by Wayan, 1984/6/8, an allegorical four-phase dream.
I'm attacked by a narcissist firebird, a rabid rattler-manticore, a masochist bear, and a sexless succubus...
CAUTION: INEPT DEMONS
NORTH FLEET OF THE RAIN: by Wayan; 1974/7/10, an alien-invasion-solution dream
A vast galactic fleet hovers around Earth, demanding Rain. Whaaat?
I fight an alien leader, and find out what their long drought has been...
CAUTION: UFO SEX
ON BEING NEEDY/NEEDED: by Roswila; February 2002, a dream-poem
In her kitchen she offers me shortcake. She's short herself, for she gives away all
to everyone--only her bodiless head is left...
PEGASUS: by Wayan; 1991. Digital "woodblock print" of recurring dreamfigure.
This strong slender mare is how most of my flying dreamhorses look: a practical lot, they know...
PULLED UNDER: by Wayan; 1976/4/15, a nightmare.
One by one, we're pulled under the water, the earth... eaten. That's the fate of all flesh. And we're flesh.
CAUTION: HORROR
RELIEF CARAVAN: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years
Famine. Our Tibetan monastery's prayers are answered. A caravan of yaks comes over the pass, bearing...
THE ROYAL NONESUCH: by Wayan; 1988/4/15, a dream on the media.
My mom and sister take me to see a bondage film. But the movie steals my pants! I should have known...
CAUTION: WORSE THAN PEEWEE HERMAN
THE SEA-HAG RIOT: by Wayan; 1989/6/5, a wild dream hiding a warning.
Aliens, hypnotherapy, dancing molars, riots, witches, flying pianos, lettuce... yet there is a point.
SORTING HAT, DRUNKEN CAT: by Wayan; 2013/10/18, a steadily mutating warning-dream
I discover a Sorting Hat, as in Harry Potter--and it moves in with us. Our cat crawls in and plays peekaboo.
She becomes a teenager eager to get drunk at Thanksgiving--like every adult in her life. But she's not
puking drunk like them, so she must be OK! Just as I think I am--I only overwork to exhaustion.
CAUTION: DRUNK TEEN CAT, SEVERELY ALCOHOLIC ADULTS
STARFISH: by Marc Ian Barasch, c. 1985; a multileveled, doubly predictive dream
A sacred starfish piloting a Cessna plane survives a crash. But can it survive a boy's clumsy rescue efforts?
STARVATION?: by Wayan; 1995/8/28, a journal extract on body image.
On a poster of a model who's around my weight, someone's scrawled STARVATION IMAGERY...
CAUTION: DEFENSE OF SKINNY PEOPLE
STICKY FINGERS: by Wayan; 1997/4/18, a dream on self-judgment
A woman masturbates constantly at work, then greets businessmen with her hot sticky handshake...
CAUTION: SEX
STORM WARNING: by Wayan, 1993/3/17, surreal comic of an atmospheric dream
Thirsty deer invade the hall. Children play in the dunes encroaching on the city.
Will those ominous red clouds drop rain? Or sand?
STRYCHNINE FORGIVENESS: by Wayan; 2008/3/31, a diagnostic nightmare
I meet a woman on an oxcart who's sure we all want to poison her--
but in a way her affliction's made her forgiving, even noble...
CAUTION: MADNESS
SUCKER!: by Wayan; 1990? Crayon, 12" square. Health reminder..
I was anorexic for years before I found I was allergic to many foods--I had good reason not to eat!...
SUNLIGHT'S THE CURE: by Wayan; 1990/12/29, a surreal, sexy dream
I find the cure for an alien plague, then visit its homeworld, to find it has a curious variant...
CAUTION: SEX CUSTOMS OF THE NEWT PEOPLE! MY COUSIN'S GAY WEDDING!
TANYA'S DREAMS: by Tanya, as told by Gayle Delaney, Jan 1971-June '72; a set of 6 breakup dreams
My friend Tanya tries hard to save her marriage, but in her dreams Isidora Duncan,
Carl Jung, even the gods themselves warn her to face their deep incompatibility...
TAROT: THE ANOREXIC DANCER: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
The card of excessive self-denial, whether compulsive or artistic or spiritual...
TAROT: THE SMORGASBORD OF LIFE: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
You get to fill one tray. Guns sex jewels pot hamburgers TV God power thrills love? Choose!
TO SAVE HUMANITY: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a spit-swappin' dream
Worldwide drought. I have a mutation making me produce lots of saliva, so to keep
people alive, I drool into their open mouths. Gross, but it's take my drool or die...
CAUTION: UGH
A VIAL CRIME: by Wayan; 1984/5/21, a cartoon dream protesting that I wasn't me today
I'm a flying fox in England. I see a poisoning and call for help. Ugly knockoffs of
Peanuts characters attack me! The real Peanuts gang defeats them; Snoopy drives
the victim to the hospital, saving her. It really is vital to be... authentic.
CAUTION: PUNS
WABOSE'S VISION: by Catherine Wabose (Ogeewyahnoquot Okwa), Feb. 1814? shamanic initiation dreams
After fasting for six days, I dreamed of three spirit helpers who aided my village,
guiding hunters toward game and healing others. But I lost so many loved ones...
CAUTION: SPOUSE MURDERED; CAREER BURNOUT
WARIA: by Wayan; 1987/3/23, digital painting of a pointed advisory dream.
My life was a sex disaster. I felt ugly and sick. Then I dreamed I found a counselor
who really helped. But my parents warned me against her. Why? They explained:
WARNING: NUDITY
WASTE: by Wayan; 1990/5/7, a desert singles poem, 11 images.
A road trip through New Mexico mutates into a tour of my relationship disasters...
WERE-COMPOSER: by Wayan; 1995/2/15, a trashy dream.
I help a brilliant, starving composer turn his family curse into a profitable business...
THE WORK OF POWER: by Anna Kingsford; Dec. 1880, a wildly uncompromising dream-sermon
A dream telling how to acquire mystic power: raw food, no sex, meat, or booze; just meditate in rural solitude...
CAUTION: EXTREMISM


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The World Dream Bank has 4000+ dreams plus 1000 more pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.

More? See the full LIST OF TOPICS currently indexed.


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