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Assertion

Dreams of self-assertion.

Hmm... So much of the voluminous literature on dreams and visions caters to the apocalyptic or the beatific. On the one hand, nightmares and monsters and the end of the world (dreams hiding a secret comfort--since they're so damn overwhelming, we can't do anything but relax and lie back.) And on the other hand, paradise handed to us, preferably chocolate-coated on a stick. No need for assertion there, either.

But most of your really important dreams are in between. They may look quite ordinary, even feel blah, boring, nothing happening... Well, make it happen. Stand up for what you really want--or do you literally dare not even dream it?

Of course, dream assertiveness has a secret discomfort hidden in it. Once you've stood up and announced your desire in a dream, you can't so easily hide from it in daylight. You feel ashamed, if it was disreputable or a sin; or cowardly, if it's dangerous or criminal; or frustrated if you think it's impractical or hopelessly beyond you.

So, assertion in dreams feels good and it's great practice--yet we don't do it much! Not because it's a waste of energy that just evaporates when you wake. But precisely because it doesn't.

RELATED TOPICS: dreams of self-defense - initiative - willpower - opportunity grasped - opportunity blown - frustration - ambition - perseverance - initiations and ordeals - bullies and threats - endless climbs - hunted! - topdogs: cops, authoritarians, and rule-enforcers - warnings and advice - fear - shyness - guilt - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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AICORN'S BANANA: by Wayan; 2016/6/13, a dream-parable on owning your tastes
An artificial intelligence acquires fans and has orgies with her groupies. Her creators
don't care as long as the advertisers get product placement. But she has this size fetish...
CAUTION: VIBRATORS
ANNE GOT LOST: by Anne's friend; 1936, a warning dream wisely acted on
She was headed for a rock wall. The brakes faded; she smelled burning.
Then she woke. Her friends laughed, but she asked a neighbor what to do if...
ARIEL and THE UNICORN COMMITMENT: by Wayan; 1983/12/26-27, an epic psychic dream & sequel
DREAM: to stop an idiotic bout of war-fever, I have to take on the power of the Goddess herself...
NEXT DAY: I stumble on a fantasy book, Ariel, full of details straight out of the dream...
THAT NIGHT: I sign the Unicorn Commitment, but personalize the magical contract...
CAUTION: DISSES REAGAN & SOUTHERN MASCULINITY
AUTISTIC THUNDER: by Wayan; 2018/2/12, a predictive shamanic dream
DREAM: a concert by autistics admits my bandmate Mike but locks me out! I summon thunder & quakes till they open up...
AWAKE: I called it metaphor--till it happened. I was sitting silent in our band's recording session and Mike asked me to leave...
CAUTION: AUTISM & APPARENT E.S.P.
BALLOON DIVE: by Wayan; 2007/6/17, a nightmare saying I made the least bad choice
A boy leaps from a runaway balloon, falls 100' into a pond, and floats face-down.
I'm sure he's dead, but when a woman fishes him out...
THE BANKERS' TABLE: by Lily and Wayan; 1991/7/28, parallel/shared/telepathic dreams
Lily & Wayan have simultaneous dreams of bizarre quarrels over seating bankers at picnic tables...
BE FIERCE OR DIE: by Gayle Delaney, between 1982 & '87, a business warning dream
I had to negotiate a salary for hosting a radio show. I'd never done such a thing. I asked my dreams.
I was shown a land of ruthless warriors with a bushido code. So I went in tough, stayed tough, and...
BELT-SNAKE MYOPIA: by Wayan; 1983/12/25, a dream of innocent sabotage.
A shy woman's belt slowly comes alive, but like most snakes, it has weak eyes. Would glasses help?...
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.
BIRDMAN TEACHES "NO!": by Miriel as told to Wayan; 1985/7/11, a poem on flight/assertion training
In the canyon behind our home, a steel-clawed birdman taught my brother and me to fly by shouting "NO!"...
A BODICE RIPPER: by Carla Young, 2010/2/22; epic (and episodic) dream with 5 paintings
Awkward newlyweds. Not a love match! Can they co-operate to save a woman from the Nazis?...
BRANCHING WOMAN: by Patricia Garfield 1973/3/9 & '71/5/1, recurrent dream motif; art by Brenda Ferrimani
I was at a dream conference and brought up a recurrent theme
that others hadn't mentioned: multiple antlerlike branchings...
BREAK FREE: by Emily Joy; 2006/5/11, an encouraging dream on the price of safety.
I search for family skeletons, but then a talking plant on TV inspires me to seek the sun and fly free.
But certain velociraptors and barbarian swordswomen object...
CAUTION: DUELS, FISH ABUSE, THE F-WORD
BRIGHT NICHES IN THE CASTLE WALL: by Jenny Badger Sultan; summer 2003; a series of dreams.
Dreams warning of mania and paralyzing shame alternate with calm dreams of life and growth...
CAT COUPLE: by Wayan; 1996/4/30, a drawn digital prayer or wish.
I cover my computer's desktop with this image tiled endlessly. And will, till the lesson sinks in...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
CAT SLASH: by Wayan, 1991/12/29, a predictive, advisory dream
I dream of four cats, small to huge, who teach me to assert my boundaries.
Next day, three inches from my nose, a tiny cat swipes at a giant dog...
CAUTION: APPARENTLY PREDICTIVE
CATS AND DOG: RECURRING DREAM: by Lee Kennedy; 1994, a parental valuation dream
I kept dreaming demon cats tortured me. At last a vicious dog joined them. He wanted to kill me, but
the chief cat wanted to keep playing with her prey. I realized they were my mum and dad, and said...
CHART THE GROWTH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2004, painting of an incubated, oracular dream
I asked my dreams "What's my truest purpose?"
I dreamed my body was a tree, and a voice said "Chart the growth"...
THE CHINESE PROFESSOR'S WIFE: by Wayan; 1997/2/4, a dream on abuse.
My neighbor thinks I'm sleeping with his wife, who he abuses. Only I think she may be me...
CAUTION: IMPLIED BATTERING
CHRISTA'S FUR: by Wayan; 2018/6/9, a smutty spiritual dream-poem riffing on Leonardo's 'Last Supper'?
In an alternate Judea, I long for a female Christ and her lesbian apostles.
My lust is unrequited, till a small Sex Kitten gives me some wise advice...
CAUTION: CAT NUDITY, BLASPHEMY
CIRCUS GIRL: by Wayan; 1993/1/10, a dream of love and trouble.
I fall for a circus girl. Her brother is jealous, so all the dwarves show up with guns...
CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES
CLAY MAN: by Wayan; 1980/6/1, a golem dream .
I fight a clay golem of resistance, until inspiration hits, and I do what it may have had in mind all along...
COMICS & DREAMJOURNAL: by Rick Veitch, Jan 1974, a life-path dream
I'm trying to jam together my dream diary and my first comics. My grandmother's
skeptical. But at last, with an audible 'click', dreams and comics suddenly merge...
THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR: by Wayan; 1995/8/8, a dream on body image.
It's the Vietnam era; my draft board tolerates only a secret quota of COs. I decide not to tolerate THEM...
CREATING WINGS: by Robert Southey; 1805. Beauty to nightmare to flight.
Saints and devils in a sunken statuary garden turn too real for comfort; so, creating my own wings, I fly...
A CROOKED BAND: by Wayan; 1996/8/21, a dream of chutzpah.
A spinoff band sues the original group for playing their own songs and using their own name...
CURSE HER IN THE OAK: by Wayan; 2009/9/28, dream poem on an odd job; Dreamverse #56
I'm a girl in rural Victorian England working as the county's magical protector. I have my
hands full: a gang of thievish orphans has holed up in an invisibility tree! Showdown at the oak...
DAWN'S DIVORCE: by Dawn Z; 2002/3/1-21, an outrageous dream sequence
While going through a painful breakup, I kept having sexy, lucid, psychic dreams...
DEER VERSUS PIGS: by Wayan; 2015/5/20; twin dreams; joking or serious?
Deer-mares join our theatre class. Adorable! Then pig people. Not adorable. I wake & sketch them.
Hear voices--sexy singing deer on TV! Wow, my dream was predictive! And then I wake AGAIN...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
A DINNER WITH DEATH: by Wayan; 1979/2/12, an optimistic nightmare.
The dinner went badly. Power outages, alarming transformations, murderous
minions. Still, I'm here to tell you! So Death is weakening...
DINO RODEO: by Wayan; 2022/2/17, a flying dream about... dream theory?
Two men down at a rodeo. The velociraptors and pterosaurs draw near.
To scare them off, I need to do something alarming, impossible...
DISSECTING PESSIMISM: by Wayan; 1997/4/14, a stubbornly educational nightmare.
A serial killer stalks our office, but our bosses deny it and do nothing.
I kill him. He revives--over and over! A robot I have to disassemble...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
DIURNAL AND NOCTURNAL WORLDS: by Wayan; 1993/11/8, an epic dream of the multiverse.
Round the ring of twelve worlds and their twelve gods, seeking one god who's giving me grief...
DO YOU LOVE ME, JOHN?: by Wayan; 1991/7/6, a dream on the courage of the shy.
I dream of a future where blondes are a too-cute endangered species. How can they survive? Like this...
CAUTION: NUDITY
DOG BITES CAT: by Wayan; 2015/2/17; a grating dream-poem
I get bullied into dogwalking. A biter--leaves a cat bloody. You'd think a talking dog'd listen. But Cheney...
ESCAPE BY INTUITION: by Wayan; 2010/1/11; four dreams of breaking through
I must see a community as a whole, and intuit my way out of a sealed room, and spot details, and join a trio in bed...
CAUTION: NUDITY IN LAST DREAM
EYEBALL MONSTERS: by Mary Ellen, 1979 or before; a helpful, self-explaining nightmare
A gang of young men breaks in. I lure them outside and lock my door. They break in again, and
this time they're scaly, tentacled monsters. But I ask why they're here, and to my surprise...
FAIRY WIFE: by Wayan; 1985/1/17, an epic dream of love and choice.
A fairy woman and a mortal man? Can't work! They're flighty, we're crude. Doomed, right?
Well, some people are so sure of it they decide to help things along a bit. Or a lot...
FALL OF A PRINCE: by Wayan; 2006/11/17, a dream on the ethics of prophecy
A time-traveling historian's caught in a moral dilemma: warn an ancient prince
that in her history books he died of a fall? Can you change fate? Should you??
FERRYGOAT: by Wayan; 2009/8/15, a dream warning what I was becoming; Dreamverse #48
That levitating bear's not tightrope-walking--she rides a goat strung like soap-on-a-rope. A goat that's me! I'm eating...
CAUTION: UGH!
FIGHTING MY FATHER: by Paul Tholey, c.1969-72, as told to Patricia Garfield, recurrent nightmares solved by negotiation
After my father died he attacked me in recurring nightmares. I fought and beat him, but he always came back.
When he showed up as a tiger, I negotiated, agreeing to make some changes. He's left me in peace ever since.
FLUID REALITY: by Wayan; 1983/8/8; a magical dream-sea voyage that turned out to be predictive
On my quest I find magic portals, snarky flower-fairies, undersea redcoats,
reassembling bodyparts, living chess, and Nosferatu the Cheating Vampyre...
FOUR ELEMENTALS: by Wayan, four recurrent 2009 dream-figures, 2010/1/1 to 1/14
For the New Year, I draw a group portrait of the old year's main dream-figures. Four needs came up constantly...
FREEBIRD TOWER: by Wayan; 1975/1/10, a rebellious flying dream
I was a bird-girl, the pet of some rich, royal humans. I summoned
a storm of rebel birds, flooding the moat and driving out our owners...
CAUTION: BIRDGIRL NUDITY
A GAME OF CARDS: by Anna Kingsford; 1883/12/7, a god kibitzes on a Tarot game
Anna trusts to luck, but her mentor urges her to plan--"Think it out!" And what are these cards?
GANDHI OR WAR!: by Wayan; 2021/4/26, a dream warning my anger-dialect gets misunderstood
DAY: I watch Chef starring Dustin Hoffman as a guy with rage issues--like every guy in the film!
DREAM: On a TV show, I must defend my perks from other men. Anger's a male dialect...
CAUTION: ANGRY
(ON THE OLD) GENDER TRAIL: by Wayan; late 1995, digital picture-poem with dream intrusions.
For me, the path to love is difficult, elusive, convoluted...
GIMME YOUR CAR: by Wayan; 1987/9/16, a predictive/warning dreamlet
Dream: a woman wants to drive my old hippie bus. But a tire's missing! She pushes. I don't think it's safe...
Next evening: my housemate wants to drive my old hippie bus. She pushes, but I don't think it's safe...
GIRLHEAP, OR CHOICE?: by Wayan; 1998/10/29, a dream on initiative.
I'm on a women's sports team, and I should be in paradise. But I want more; not love exactly, but...
GOAT DARE: by Wayan; 1984/8/22, a sex nightmare.
A girl and I climb a half-built tower to get some privacy from my nosy, sneering parents.
But they find us during oral sex, and their scorn melts my girlfriend into a goat...
CAUTION: SEX, HUMILIATION, FAMILY VALUES
THE GOLDEN PAW: by Wayan; 2009/4/12, a dream on speaking up
An Oxford teaching assistant sexually blackmails one of his law students, but to his shock she goes public...
THE HEAVIEST FLYER ON EARTH: by Wayan; 1979/1/25, a dream of (clumsy) flight
Both my friends can become birds and soar; but all I can manage
is angel wings--barely enough to hold up solid-boned me...
HICKOPHOBIA: by Wayan; 1996/5/13; 2-page dream-comix (or plain text version)
Whenever I run out of ballet class to Japanese without asking my classmate Wendy out, I change sex...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE
HIS DEER WIFE: by Wayan; 1995/7/9, a dream of love in a parallel world.
I'm a slave, a scribe in the house of a Captain of the New Aztec Empire, when he brings home a wife...
CAUTION: SLAVE SOCIETY, SEX, SPOUSAL ABUSE/NEGLECT
HOLD HEAD: by Wayan; 1993; nondream digital sketch.
This started as an exercise in dramatic figure-drawing and shifted round into an exorcise in guilt...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEXUAL CONFESSIONS
THE HONEST INMATE: by Wayan; 1997/5/8, a dreamfable on truthfulness.
I'm a psychopath in a prison for the insane. But I fall in love, and change. Blunt honesty fuels the change...
A HOTEL ODYSSEY: by Wayan; 1994/2/21, a Borges dream.
I live in the Infinite Hotel, but the other guests in my wing are no fun. It's time to set sail...
I WANT MY INHERITANCE: by Wayan; 1989/12/18, a dream on family brainwashing.
My family calls me a blonde bimbo and won't give me my inheritance, so I take drastic steps...
CAUTION: MORAL HAIRSPLITTING
I WAS A SEX SLAVE: by Wayan; 1994/11/20, a dream on isolation
I'm a slave dancer. I run for it, and make it over the border. But my owner comes looking for me...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SLAVE SOCIETY
IN THE SHADOW OF MAN: by Wayan; 1994/3/4, a dream on how to escape the cage
I'm a lab animal who discovers voice software and creates a personal zine, testifying for our rights...
THE INCIDENCE OF BUDDHAS: by Wayan; 1996/4/24, a dream testing me.
I'm in a mall that enlightened customers alter with a thought. But too many Buddhas spoil the architecture...
JADE JACKPOT, or, A HEAP O' CHANGE: by Wayan; 1990/1/7, a dream of shaking down God.
I'm slipping dimes into a boulder of jade: a vending machine that fills every order wrong. Why feed it? Well...
KELLY FIELD: by an air cadet, 1941; an almost-lifesaving dream.
I dreamed a plane took off northeast, and flipped by the main hangar, killing two men. I forgot the dream until...
KICK HER: by Wayan; 1994/8/9, a gameshow nightmare.
I'm a blonde gameshow bimbo. Each week, I'm beaten up. Ha ha ha! But my bruises are real. At last, I...
CAUTION: GAMESHOW FROM HELL
LET ILLNESS GO: by Wayan; 1999/6/7. Acrylic/digital painting of a meditation not a dream.
Illness is such a handy excuse when you need solitude, care, rest, or just time to think... but...
LET'S IMPOSE: by Wayan; 1990/7/3. Nondream digital painting.
Engineers! How they do love to impose clean lines on our messy world...
LET ME REVISE THAT...: by Wayan; 1998/8/28, a dream of clarity.
I pray to the Love Goddess for help, but then realize there's a problem with my phrasing...
CAUTION: UNROMANTIC
LIES!: by Wayan; 1992/7/10, a dream that thinks it's a two-page novel.
To investigate a criminal couple, I have to lie. And that's hard, since all my lies turn true...
CAUTION: NEW AGE AND FILM NOIR DON'T MIX
LILY THE LION: by Wayan; 1991/4/7, a small psychic dream.
My housemate Lily is a lion. She bursts into my room. Stare-down. And then she pounces. So I...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE! MUTUAL GLARING! THE VULCAN NERVE PINCH!
LITTLE NEMO'S BED: by Winsor McCay; c. 1906, a famous if probably fictional dream icon
Little Nemo's bed gets restless and takes him for a wild ride through town and up onto roofs...
THE LIZARD LESSON: by Wayan; 1996/12/12, a hard-hittin' shamanic dream.
I'm a shaman in Nunavut who has to teach a guy in a lizard
suit (and his foxy niece) that reparations have limits...
LYNN HALL'S "FLYAWAY": by Wayan; 1997/7/6, a journal extract on religious abuse
A book that kept me up late. Ariel and Robin get abused as subtly & deniably as me and my sisters...
CAUTION: RELIGIOUS/PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE
MOA: by Wayan; 1995/9/9, a dream on assertion.
I was an avian Mr Niceguy with sore knees, till I got some advice from my supposedly extinct big brother...
MOM POPS: by Wayan; dreamed 1983/8/5, a dream of bursting your inner critic
The flood sickens my fuchsia bush. My mom says my fuchsia is hopeless,
but I make up a treatment. When it works, well... read the title.
CAUTION: PUNS, EXPLODING MOM
MOON-STRIPED TIGER PROWLING: by Sylvia Rosen, 1975/6/29; dream poem
The foul old fossil woman had carved and burnt her own flesh in the name of art;
we washed her till she was reborn young. It was my turn next to enter the water...
MY THREE HUSBANDS: by Wayan; 1981/2/26 & 1991/5/26, dreams drawn as a 15-page comic
I'm three women at once! We marry a unicorn, a goat philosopher,
and a magic talking cat. But cops raid our furry commune...
CAUTION: INTERSPECIES MARRIAGE, TEEN SEX, BAD COPS
NEWT WEDDING: by Emily Joy; spring 1995, a six-year-old's epic dream
Through wild jungles and over the Mattress Mountains, I lead a giant purple newt to love...
NIBBLING FRUITS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/2/3; a painting from an advisory dream
I am given a gift of "Nibbling Fruits" which only I may eat--because I've been feeding everyone but me...
NORASINGH: by Wayan; 1987/1/15, a Tantric Frankenstein dream.
I fall in love with my sculpture of a mythical Southeast Asian creature. Then a mad yogi breaks in...
CAUTION: SEX, TANTRA, AND GENERAL WEIRDNESS
OLD AND IN THE WAY: by Wayan; 1999/5/3, a veiled predictive dream.
On the street called Old And In The Way, I meet a psychic I crushed on as a kid,
and then, in a hearth, fight the tentacled alien who's been stalking me...
PARENTAL TOUGH LOVE: by Wayan; 2023/4/5, a dream baring a deadly pattern
My parents, alive again, steal my car, my meds & my supplements,
trapping me in their isolated house and forcing me to stay awake--
no sleep, no food. They're out to cure my silly, selfish idea I have needs...
PASSION: by Katie Hofgard; 2006, an undream portrait of a complex woman.
Talk about mixed messages! Or... is it really?
CAUTION: NUDITY, SLIGHT FIRE HAZARD
THE PEAK WHERE I DIED: by Wayan; 1983/1/16. A dark dream-comic.
I froze to death trying to climb an icy peak. But I try again, and this time,
no holds barred. Wow, am I selfish! But alive...
PIED MAGE: by Wayan; 1995/2/6, an architectural dreamfable.
A wizard into spots and dots invites me into his beach house, hungry for advice on his peculiar fears...
THE PIRATE TWINS: by Wayan; 1996/7/25, a dreamtale on intrigue.
I love the Twins. They love intrigue. So when a hired crocodile sabotages our Egyptian treasure-hunt...
CAUTION: BAD GIRLS
POIROT'S FLIGHT: by Wayan; 1994/11/15, an anti-lucid dream.
I summon an aeroplane to escape a trap. Lucid? Not at all! Why should Poirot bother with such abstractions?
POLES NOW, TROPICS LATER: by Wayan; 1997/3/27, a dream on the pace of change.
I'm a Martian revolutionary, making the glaciers grow. The equator's still dry, but change is coming...
THE POWER OF NON-VISUALIZATION: by Wayan; 2018/4/29, a mystical dream whose teaching worked
I'm listening to a film-talk on Non-Visualization. "Don't wish--don't will--don't visualize.
Just face what you really want, and then don't push..."
CAUTION: MYSTICAL
PREGNANT WITH KRYTHA: by Wayan; 1998/2/3, a monomaniacal dream
My best friend and I are shapeshifters; I seduce him, just so my daughter Krytha can be born...
CAUTION: MAMMALIAN NUDITY, PHEROMONAL SEDUCTION, RECKLESS PREGNANCY
PSYCHIC CAT: by Scott Bartell, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a comic dreamlet
Our neighbors keep dropping by with gifts and favors for our cat.
Why? He'd gained magical powers by amassing 10,000 dead mice...
THE REAL MAO: by Wayan; 2006/7/9 and 7/11: two dreams (one possibly psychic) about an appalling book
Jung Chang’s exposé of Mao's brutal deeds and legacy
provoke dreams of leaders who don't listen--till I scream...
RECURRING SCHOOL NIGHTMARE: by Julie Doucet; July 1995, a dream of... oh, read the title!
Trapped in elementary school, Julie is forced to study the alphabet
until she declares "I'm a professional cartoonist, goddammit!"...
REHEARSING THE LOVE SCENE: by Wayan; 1999/9/17, a dream of advice.
An insecure girl who looks like my anima is rehearsing a controversial love scene with an alien wolf...
RESHAPE MY FACE: by Wayan; dreamed 1988/9/21; a dream on the benefits of indulgence
Lounging in the sun, I do a magical make-over--molding my bones to give myself more room for
intuition, judgment, nerve--all the while feeling shallow & indulgent for self-improving!...
RIBBING: by Wayan; 1992/12/25, an assertive dreamtale.
After seeing 150 years of family photos, I dream of being teased by time-traveling cheerleaders, and...
ROAR!: by Wayan; 2000/4/3, a nightmare transformed by a bluff
Night. A jungle full of prowling lions and leopards. So naturally, I get up on a rock and roar back...
ROBO-NAG: by Wayan, 2022/8/20, a dream of fighting off two moralizing topdogs
I'm with friends in a cafe. A robot beggar scuttles in and says I must be a saint and give, give, give.
I eject the robo-nag. But it comes back in the form of an Old Testament prophet with the same spiel!
This time it takes fists. At last I give the nagging saint the old heave-ho, yelling "AND STAY OUT!"...
CAUTION: FUNDAMENTALIST BLASPHEMY
RONALD REAGAN STOLE MY SOUL!: by Wayan; 1983/3/7; a dream-comic
I was a robot who had a soul--till the Reagans stole it! I track them down, and
demand it back. Simply confronting them works--the hole inside me is filled...
CAUTION: CAUSTIC POLITICS
SAMURAI MARE: by Wayan; 1993/2/23, a time-travel dream.
A feral mare will only let me ride her if I quit being
a Japanese diplomat and become... a Samurai!
SELFISH FOR LEAVING?: by Wayan; 1988/7/12, a psychic dream on (shudder) family values
DREAM: I'm at a party. Family scolds me for protecting my health. I leave--and they call me selfish for leaving!
MORNING: My sister calls. "I was at a party. Family scolded me for guarding my health and for trying to leave..."
SEXUAL DREAMS: by Felicia, Simone, Anons 60-61 & a UCSC student; 1994 or earlier, as told by Gayle Delaney
Five short playful dreams exploring sex. Because too many therapists
get in the habit of thinking all dreams must wrestle with unhappiness...
SHE LIVES TO 140: by Wayan; 2017/7/13, a dreamlet urging crankiness
I meet a 140-year-old hermit in her black chadoor,
skateboarding down a hill near her sacred dream-spring...
SHE TOOK MY BALL: by Matt, 1994 or earlier, as told by Gayle Delaney; a sex-advice dream
After moving in with Gemina, Matt suddenly had erectile dysfunction. He asked
his dreams why. He dreamt he was a kid being bullied by his big sister Cindy...
SIGNORINETTA: by Alfred Douglas; late May 1908, a predictive (and profitable) dream.
I dreamt a grey filly won the Derby. My friend, a fan, said no fillies were racing this year; but he forgot one named...
THE SKIN'S COMPLAINT: by Wayan; 1996/11/17, a dreamtale.
A huge rubbery mass of skin complains I made it sick. I get tired of its whining, and...
SLAVES ON RED MARS: by Wayan; 1999/8/15, a dreamfable on will.
As Mars demands independence from Earth, Jovians enslave us all! Now freedom-fighting is personal...
SMOKING REX: by Wayan; 1989/3/29, a dream of unlikely alliance.
A cigar-smoking tyrannosaur moves into our neighborhood,
upsetting us bluebirds and vampire bats. So we...
SOLE RETRIEVAL: by Wayan; 2005/10/6, a punning spiritual dreamlet
Guards in a museum confiscate my goofy purple-warted shoes, then lose them!
I fuss till they find them. For it's vital to retrieve my, uh, soles.
SPEAK UP, RISE UP: by Wayan; 1985/5/24, a witnessing-flying advisory dream
I bike round the ring of women on the stage. Oracles! Whoever speaks, levitates.
One advises me, but I can't act on it--too ill. "Gotta heal!" I blurt. My own oracle..
A SPHINX'S SKETCHBOOK: by Wayan; dreamed 1994/7/2 & 7/19; a 23-page dream-comic
I find the sketch-journal of a beautiful winged sphinx who left her mythic isle
to explore a great city of crazy bipeds, called San Francisco...
CAUTION: SPHINX SEX, SPHINX ATTITUDE
SPOON CHALLENGE: by Emily Joy; 2006/8/30, a mathemagical dreamlet.
I want to drink the elixir, but negative 20 spoons block me! Can I remove them? With warped teacup logic & reciprocals…
STANLEY, or, GOOD DOG!: by Wayan; 1994/6/1, a dream on... obedience.
My friend Stanley is a social icebreaker: blundering in where I'm too shy, and
too thick-skinned to worry much. He is what he is. So why am I mad at him?
STEP THIRTEEN: by Wayan; 1997/7/8, a rebellious dreamtale.
Two big spoiled realities pester me to take care of them. At last I go on shamanic strike...
A STIRRING FAILURE: by Robert's wife, pre-1961, a precise predictive nightmare
I dreamed a small plane crashed and burned, but also how the pilot
might be saved. I asked my husband to direct the firetruck...
STRANGE GIRL STALKING ME IN MY DREAMS: by Mike Hanes; 2010/12/11, a dream recovering a lost dream!
This strange girl reminds me "I rode your bike recently but you forgot." She's right! Rode it in an earlier dream...
SUMMON A SECOND HER: by Wayan; 2010/3/9, a time-loop dream
I meet a flutist I like, but she's busy playing. So I conjure a second her with free time to listen to herself with me...
TAG WITH A BOUNTY HUNTER: by "Caradon"; 2010/3/3, a playful lucid dream
A bounty hunter stalks me through a jungle, but lucidity turns a potential nightmare to joy...
THE TAKEOVER: by Lee Olivier; 2004/6/28, a triple diagnostic nightmare
An alien is taking over our world, and I feel so helpless that even when I wake I want to just forget the dream...
TAMALPAIS: by Anna Halprin, 1979, a dream inspiring annual healing ceremonies
A murderer was stalking Mt Tam. I dreamed I met the murderous spirit; only
by allying with small dancers from inside the mountain could we defeat it...
CAUTION: NEW AGE
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...
THE THREATENERS: by Wayan; 1997/4/23, a small psychic dream.
Two gunmen break in, call me by a strange name, and demand I repay a loan I never borrowed...
THROUGH WALLS TO SEX CLASS: by Wayan; 2017/6/22, a therapeutic/advisory dream
A trusted college advisor says "Slip through cracks in the classroom walls!"
There's no direct route. Yoga to taekwondo to ballet to... a sex workshop!
CAUTION: ABOUT SEX
THUS BE: by Patricia Garfield, 1970/7/10, a worm-turns dream
I'm overcharged at a grocery store--the checker confused my food with someone else's.
I grab him, fly high up and drop him, splat. I chant "Thus be: Splat! Squashed flat..."
CAUTION: DEATH PENALTY SEEMS A BIT MUCH
TIGER CALLS MY BLUFF: by Wayan, 2022/10/8, a nighmare critiquing American positivism
DAY: I hear Angela Duckworth (writer of Grit) talk on positive thinking. She thinks we're our own worst enemies.
DREAM: I test my grit an African savanna--and outbluff lions! Unfortunately, that Siberian tiger won't be bluffed...
CAUTION: TROUBLING ASSESSMENT OF... PUTIN? BULLIES IN GENERAL?
THE TIGER WHEEL, by Wayan, 2009/4/25; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #44
A tiger-couple on an ice floe must choose: swim for land, or
ride the current full circle back home, risking starvation?
TITANIC NIGHTMARES: by J. C. Middleton; 1912/4/3 and 4/4, two predictive dreams saving two lives
I saw the Titanic go down and people struggling frantically in the water. After my second nightmare I told my wife...
TORNADO AND STARSHOWER: by Dream Junkee; 2008/8/15, a nightmare that goes lucid
A killer tornado traps us in the cellar. I bite my finger. It's boneless--I'm dreaming! I summon...
TRADING PLACES: by Wayan, 1983/6/20, an intuitive flash overriden by rational relatives
My sisters want to see Trading Places in the nearest theater. I ask to go to a more distant theater
but can't explain why. We arrive to find the showtime had a typo. Gotta wait an hour. At last we file in,
the lights go down...and out. Totally out. Power failure! They can't fix it. I never did see that movie...
TURNABOUT: by Henry James; 1870s or 80s; a nightmare reversed by sheer courage.
A night-fiend strove to open the door I held shut between us--
until I realized I too was terrible, and opened it to find a great...
CAUTION: THE DREADED PROSE OF HENRY JAMES
VOR: by Wayan; 1984/3/27, an indescribable dream
Am I King Kong? No, it's a city of midgets! I leave and find I'm gay. Gay bugs come out of the closet too,
storming the fundamentalist flies of Heaven. And then Vor, the purple alien, does something peculiar...
CAUTION: LOOKS DOWN ON HOMOPHOBIC MIDGETS
WHAT GOD BELIEVES IN: by Wayan; 1984/9/23, a dream of working for a difficult deity
God's my boss, but like a bratty little brother, he's Not Speaking To Me. It's slowing down our office...
CAUTION: CHRISTIANS WON'T WANT TO KNOW
WHIPPING NIGHTMARES: by Jamie Sawyer; 2014/9/3; non-lucid yet lucidlike dream
Attacked on the ground, in the air, even in space, I fight back effectively.
Not lucid, yet in my dreams I now have real power...
A WILD WOUNDED BITCH: by Wayan; 1979/11/28, a dream of displacement.
My dad steals my furry girlfriend! The maid and I spy on them;
we get hot and do it, but it's just not the same...
CAUTION: SEX WITH THE WRONG PERSON
WIND OF SELF-HATE: by Wayan, 1976/4/4, a dream warning of family brainwashing
Biking around blindfolded and half-naked, I fight winds
of self-criticism and self-hatred that only I can feel...
WINDFALLS IN EDEN: by Wayan, 2000/3/30, a religio-politic dream.
I'm a part-owner of Eden, harvesting windfalls.
But a renter says his Landlord promised him all the apples...
WOLFWALL: by Wayan; 1994/1/31. Daydream/trance digital drawing
Drew all night in a trance and only learned at dawn what this flirting otter and wolf were trying to tell me...
CAUTION: NUDITY AND SEXUAL THEME
"YOU'RE INSANE": by Wayan; 2000/5/26, a nightmare warning I've been misjudged
DAY: My dad's sick; my mom nags me to visit, though hospitals endanger me (weak immune system).
DREAM: My parents say "You're insane. We must take control of your life." So I divorce my family...
CAUTION: UGLY FAMILY VALUES
"YOU'RE NOT MY BOSS!": by Wayan; 2019/6/27, a disturbing political dream
In a busy, shorthanded market, the store owner's running a checkstand.
He mistakes me for an employee and starts ordering me around...
CAUTION: AGE & GENDER... BIAS? OR INFORMED JUDGMENT?


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