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Christianity

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Dreams about Christianity and Christians. A thorny subject for your poor editor! Early on, my own dreams forced me to face intense spiritual issues, without the help of organized religion. Probably that's why I'm such a fan of disorganized religions--paganism, Goddess worship, Wicca, and expecially shamanism, where you have to find your own path. Admittedly, you're always comfortable with the familiar, and the chaotic Left Coast of American religion is what I know best. But in my experience, mainstream Christians really are less tolerant and empirical, and not just about religion.

That's a roundabout warning. I wanted to explain to orthodox Christians why my dreams have, overall, such a critical view of your faith. It's simple enough: America has such a huge and aggressive Christian population that you increasingly cause problems for us non-Christians.

Problematic doctrine--
The sexism
The bigotry against other religions
The obsession with the end of the world--millennarianism!
The denial of scientific fact, evolution being only the most obvious case
The dogma that other species lack souls, minds, and rights. Uh... isn't pride a sin for you guys?
The obsession with sin and evil--you foster what you obsess on, people!
The reliance on books and rules and authorities, not direct spiritual experience

Problematic politics--
Blocking sex education, and generally censoring discourse on sex
The hierarchies--the money, the arrogance, the out-of-touch policies
The astonishing tolerance for militarism! C'mon, people--Jesus never bombed.
The equally astonishing tolerance for capitalist profiteering and general greed
Backing Israel no matter how brutal the wars get, just because of some old prophecies
The assassination of birth control clinicians and abortionists. Call Muslims terrorist? Your own hands are dirty!
Blocking gay marriage! Call it a sin in your church if you like--but when you try to make the law sanction your sect's marriages but not others, that's theocracy. And that's a fightin' word.
Given that list, it's a miracle I have as many positive images of Christian spirituality as I do. But given my email, people only see the negative ones. That's fine. Just don't call me prejudiced. I'm not. I'm wary--for sound historical reasons.

RELATED TOPICS: religions - Jesus (personal appearances, etc) - fundamentalists and fanatics - politics - Islam - Judaism - Buddhism - Hinduism - Paganism and Goddess worship- See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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AIRPLANE WITH BORN: by Catshall; c. 2014/11/8, a dream-haiku on American politics?
I dream of an airplane with a born-again pilot. I challenge him:
"just because you're rich doesn't mean you can run things"...
ALP VARK: by Wayan; 1983/11/24-25, an epic comic psychic dream.
I'm kissed by the Holy Aardvark, but my bond with my dad is strained by ESP he can't accept...
ANNUNCIATION TO THE SPHINX: by Wayan; 1995, digital painting of nondream vision.
I think Yeats was wrong to use the Sphinx to symbolize the brutal post-Christian era he foresaw...
ASLAN SWOOPS: by Wayan; 1985/1/19, a dream of the wrath of a right-wing god
I'm in a cafe in Narnia when the lion-god Aslan attacks a giraffe for the mortal sin of
dating a zebra. And why not? Oral Roberts University just banned interracial dating...
CAUTION: CRINGEWORTHY CHRISTIANS
ASTEROID: by Forrest Bess, 1946; four abstractish REM-dream paintings
All the Asteroids were coming together at last to form something bigger. In church,
the dull-eyed preacher hadn't noticed. I led a blind man on toward the new...
ASTRALNAUT: by Wayan; 1994/7/30, a reverse ghost dream.
I have amnesia. Plus, I'm dead. But I have this great NASA job! Only there's a saboteur...
CAUTION: SNOTTY ABOUT CHRISTIANS AGAIN
AUTUMN OF THE ANCIENTS: by Carl Linkhart, 1995 or before; dream poem/painting
Central America. A pale sorceress has stolen the splendor of the Mayan pyramids. Is pagan
power strong enough to defy the church's promises of savation & its fears of a rumored devil?
THE BIBLE REDUCED TO FLOWERS: by Wayan; 1994/9/8, a dream of the future.
In the future, books morph as they crawl round the web, till just the popular bits are left...
CAUTION: YOU TOO COULD BE CENSORED
BLACK MAGIC: by Wayan; 1986/11/10, a dream of love and rage;
Chapter 8 of UNICORN TAG, though it can stand alone.
A packet of magic soupmix sends me upstairs to a secret wizards' lab.
They've summoned a demon they can't handle: the furious Black Unicorn...
BROMAN'S DOG: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/5, a dream of a man-serpent-dog
Swedenborg fights a worldly acquaintance, then his dog, who turns into a serpent...
CAUTION: FIGHTING, SCORNS MATERIALISM
CALVIN'S DREAM: by Calvin, c.1960?, a teen's sex dream on family & religious abuse
I'm naked in a forest where the trees talk. They want my cock. A girl materializes, and we make love, but now
the treefolk are our congregation, cheering us on. Only they call her my sister! She says "Yes. But I was never
born. Dad beat Mom to abort me." She fades away, a ghost! I pick up a knife to protect Mom against Dad...
CAUTION: PORNY SEX, SUDDEN GRIM END
CAPITOL REEF: by Wayan; 1996/1/27. Drawn daydream of a mid-air orgy (or is it mid-water?)
News of a new national park and a science show on cleaner-fish spur a daydream of dolphins, cats and...
CAUTION: FISH ORGY; MOCKS THE ANGEL MORONI, TOO
THE CARDINAL: by Wayan; 1994/9/4, a grouchy little dream.
A Holy Cardinal enters my bedroom and demands I kiss his ring. I suggest something he can kiss, and...
CAUTION: CHRISTIAN MEGALOMANIA, PAGAN RUDENESS
CARRIED UP: by Wayne Miller, 1972/3/3, epic nightmare turning transcendent
I'm in a huge colonnade. An army of blood-painted men sacrifice the dove of peace. Their masked leader drinks its blood.
But then I'm carried upstairs to meet... the prophet Daniel! I'm amid the angels, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...
CAUTION: BLOOD-DRINKING THUGS
CAT-SNAKE: by Wayan; 1993/3/6, a short dream fable.
I glue cat-legs on my snaky friend, despite the scare talk
from Christians sure that snakes never change...
CHEETAH: by Wayan; 1978-86, a poem on turning dreams into art.
I'm a cheetah working as a baker in Coconino County, Arizona, haunted by Krazy Kat...
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
CLOWN POINTS: by Wayan; 2013/3/17, a nightmare about... philosophy?
Clowns have a point system like chess masters, & abuse their apprentices to get ahead,
just like capitalism--but I think this dream's about the suppression of magic...
CAUTION: CHILD-CLOWN ABUSE
THE CONDEMNATION: by Georges Perec; Feb. 1972, a dream of cults, persecution, and timeslip. Dream #105
I'm on vacation, but cultists lick my feet--then turn on me, casting stones. But they miss.
So I wander the steppe for centuries, until I come to the City of Texas...
CRUCIFERS: by Greg Hildebrandt; recurring nightmares 1969-71, painted 1971
After breaking with the Catholic Church, Greg had recurrent nightmares about its history of atrocities
and cover-ups. Out of this came a series of paintings unlike his famous book covers. This was the first...
CAUTION: MURDEROUS MOB
A DEAL WITH GOD: by Wayan; 1987/10/21, a heretic dream.
Evangelists pester me until I get so mad I make an on-the-spot deal with...
CAUTION: MAD AT CHRISTIANS AGAIN
DEER JESUS: by Wayan; 1988/12/28, a revisionist Christmas dream
The Three Wise Men are a centaur, a lion-man, and a doe-girl. But there's no Christ in the manger, so...
CAUTION: DEER-MOM BREASTS
A DIFFICULT PATH: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/11/3, an advisory dream.
I lead my daughter up a thorny path; she’s getting scratched. She'd rather stay in that fishing village below...
THE DYE-HOUSE RECORDS: by a Christian secretary, pre-1961, a prayer-induced intuition
Our archivist had had a stroke. When an engine failed, my boss said
"Find its records if it takes two weeks!" Five minutes later...
THE ELEMENTALS: by Kathleen Raine, between 1953 & '65; a shamanic dream of earth-spirits
Giant presences; rock, hill and crag are aspects worn. Shape-shifters they are; each in as many forms as eyes behold...
ELEPHANT UPSIDE DOWN: by Xanthe, c2001, a surreal underworld-dream
In the underworld, soldiers chase fundamentalists in underwear, as leopards stare. The
upside-down elephant plugs the exit. We can only escape if we write right the situation...
FAMILIARS: by Wayan; 1986/4/2, a dreamtale on the dark side of reading.
In ancient Britain, as Christianity moves in, I'm a slave--sailing through centuries, but never free...
FEVER DREAMS: by Wayan; 1993/9/8, a set of wild feverdreams.
While my body expels a kidney stone, weird scenes happen on the astral plane. At least I get to dip the pope.
CAUTION: PAIN, PEE, POPE
FIGHT GOD!: by Wayan; 1979/12/25, a Christmas fight dream.
I'm in Heaven, but... it's full of Christians! I fight 30,000 angels, but I wanna go right to the top, and...
CAUTION: PAGANISM AND PUGILISM
FIRST NIGHT IN FIJI: dreamed May 1980 by S---; an unheeded warning dream
Far from home, about to wed a man I barely knew, I dreamed I was a lion in an open cage I dared not leave...
GOD DRESSED YE, MARE: by Wayan; Christmas carol misheard 1968/12/25, dreamt I sang 1984/9/16, & drew 2008/6/28.
At 15 I misheard God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen and liked my version better. "Lit muffin, rude Esmé"...
GODEVILLE: by Wayan; 2013/9/1, a nightmare of that Old-Time Religion
I'm at a vaudeville for gods. Cthulhu the squid-god nearly tramples me--and then gets horny...
CAUTION: GROSS GOD, GROSS GOO
GOSPEL GIRL: by Wayan; 1986/11/17, a stubborn dream.
I'm a girl in a desert who God tells to preach a new gospel. But the locals, unlike ancient Rome, have guns...
CAUTION: VIOLENT MARTYRDOM
HAUNTED BUT HAPPY: by Wayan; 1990/10/13, a labyrinthine dream.
Some Christian oneirologists barge into the Haunted Firehouse. But I pose for nude unicorn photos, and...
CAUTION: DUMB CHRISTIANS, EXHIBITIONIST UNICORNS, ETC.
HELL HALL: by Anonymous #3; c.1920?, a dream of initiatory cannibalism
A revival meeting goes bad--suicides, 'long pig', a hell-pit. If you sup with the devil, carry a long fork!
I FIGHT FOR BEAUTY: by Wayan; 1990/1/1, an incubated dream within a dream within a dream.
From Hawaii to Wyoming, I fight for beauty, always waking to find I'm someone new...
I TURNED OFF JESUS: by Chris Baker; 2011/2/18; an "oops!" dream
Playing Mario Kart, I stray into a darkness where Earth floats, burning.
And then Jesus speaks up! But I carelessly hit the OFF button...
THE KING'S LANGUAGE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/24, a dream on the language of dreams
Swedenborg struggles to grasp the King's broken French. He wakes to realize he's trying to learn
a greater King's difficult language. Still relevant today, for he saw the problem's twofold: the
difficult language of images, but also issues the waking mind missed--or wants to deny!
THE LAST MASS: by E.M. Martin; 1914/11/23, a dream of war invading a peaceful dreamland
For years Martin's dreams were all set in a parallel world untouched by World War, until...
LIKE NOTRE DAME: by Jack Kerouac, early April? 1953, a bizarre dream
As the train pulled into the cathedral William Burroughs and I saw amid the pews
the Hound of the Baskervilles transform into a great black bird and fly...
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
THE MADONNA SPEAKS: by Carolee Schneemann, 1971; a Goddess-encounter dream
The Labyrinth of the Madonna's Tears provoked a dream of the Goddess telling me
"My forgotten sanctuaries are all around you now. You have only to see with your own eyes...
MIRYAM'S THEFT: by Wayan; 1996/9/24, a psychic dream on being used
I'm a ghost dwarf in love with a Lady trapped in a magic Arabian castle. But our love is being used...
CAUTION: SEX, BETRAYAL, SACRILEGE
MISTER HALL: by εmaxu.lag.Ilis, 1923/2/27?, a psychic dream
I was in a strange house. I met Mr Hall, a preacher from Alert Bay. He said he was different now, in the
world above. I woke and told the dream. Two months later a letter came saying he died February 27...
MONK: by Anonymous #2323; 1945-1991 (at least); a recurrent dream of a past life
All my life, from age three or four, I've dreamed of being a young monk named Stefan
somewhere in southern Europe. And aspects of his short life have shaped my own...
CAUTION: SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
NAIAD AND GOD-DOG: by Wayan; 1980/11/7, a manipulative dream-tragedy.
I love a Naiad who's lost her God. Tragedy strikes us. I'm devastated till I meet the aliens who explain...
NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, c.155 CE (or 199?), a dream leaving physical traces.
Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back...
OPHIDIOPHOBIA: by Wayan; 1986/2/12, a dream on race and religion.
I'm a therapist with a client diagnosed paranoid--but are his doctors racist? He's not just black, but scaly...
AN OUTGROWN BED: by Wayan; 1990/10/14, a dream of growth and time.
I'm a girl in a Catholic school. But a magazine and my too-small bed combine to change my life...
CAUTION: MASTURBATION, QUEER-POSITIVE, CHRISTIAN-NEGATIVE
PANIC ATTACK IN MY SLEEP; 2012/1/11 by Rainier Mathee; a nightmare on every level
No work, no friends, no lover. People power-drill their own skulls. My uncle's going insane. And when I call 911...
CAUTION: BLEAK
PAUL AND THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/7/17, an indignant channeled dream
Jesus's disciples kvetch that Paul, who never knew Jesus, twisted his clean simplicity into a religion...
CAUTION: JARGON, HERESY (on one side or other)
THE PEN: by Elector Frederick of Saxony; 1517/10/30, a predictive political dream.
Frederick dreams a monk writes words on the door of Wittenburg’s church
with a pen so big it pokes the Pope. The next day...
THE PERFECT MUSICAL GENIUS: by "Agnes"; before 1922, a Romantic romantic dream.
I'm to be martyred. I ask if the man I love can strangle me. Yes! I say farewell to our hermaphroditic genius baby...
PERPETUA'S LAST DREAM: by St Perpetua; 203 CE, a flying, sex-changing, defiant dream.
Facing death the next day in a Roman arena, Perpetua dreams of the spiritual duel behind the physical one...
PORTALS OF THE PAST: by Wayan, 2021/2/6; a timish dream.
The time-caves under Golden Gate Park lead to supervillains, magical girls, miniphants,
bamboo thugs, adorable dinosaurs, and... pandemics. But is there a way back home?
PRAYER (WE SHALL BE REBORN): by Wayan; 1997-2000 digital picture-poem.
Be a web junkie. Instead of driving around in a gas-hog, you'll save the planet by staying in, passive...
CAUTION: NUDITY; MOCKS GOD, CARS, AND WEB-PORN--IS NOTHING SACRED?
PUBLIC EVENTS vs. SNAKES FROM INDIA: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1984/6-7, a dream contrasting faiths
I meet a Mormon art-educator I know. We're so different! Then I get a call
from India. My friend tells of an erotic Hindu bas-relief of women and snakes...
RAISE YOURSELF!: by Wayan; 1998/7/5, 17" nondream sculpture
Why wait for the Rapture when you can use a chinup machine and raise yourself off that cross?...
CAUTION: NUDE PSEUDO-CRUCIFIXION, SACRILEGIOUS SELF-HELP
RECONCILIATION: by Martha Sherwood; 2003/6/19, a dream-parable
Even after the Resurrection, a mother and daughter still have issues to clean up...
SATANAGRAM: by Wayan; 1998/8/1, a Christmas song lyric.
A hard-hitting rap on Satan's dumbest disguise. Yet he's gotten away with it! The shocking truth...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE! SACRILEGE! MUCILAGE! (FOR THE BIG WHITE BEARD)
SAVED TWICE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/5/19, maddeningly brief mention of two predictive dreams.
Swedenborg dreamt of danger on his London trip, twice. Both situations then came true, but he was prepared...
CAUTION: ANNOYING TO E.S.P. SKEPTICS
SECRET SCREEN: by Wayan; 2018/4/19 and 2018/5/16, three linked dreamlets of escape
A friend nags me to be lookout as he steals a cult's papers. I know it'll end in murder, but foresight paralyzes me!
In a videogame that keeps freezing unplayably, I find a button calling up a secret screen of second chances...
I'm lost in a grim basement, but two kids show me a cobwebbed glass door you can walk through like air...
SERAFINA AND RAM DASS: by Wayan; a 2000/11/6 dream anticipating an 11/9 experience with auras
A Finnish shaman/witch gives me a lesson in night flying; in the waking world
I meet Ram Dass and sense him speak astrally before his body can get the words out...
CAUTION: HIGH MYSTICAL QUOTIENT; IF ALLERGIC, AVOID
SHAKING: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/6, a dream of the physical side of spiritual struggle
Swedenborg shakes uncontrollably all night, releasing or discharging some strange energy.
He frames it in religious terms, but it's a phenomenon even secular writers have reported...
CAUTION: WEIRD
THE SHRINKING POPE: by Sorcha; 2005/4/1, a Jane Bond dream
I’m the only one who can stop the plot to kill the Pope--but if he keeps shrinking like that, will it matter?
CAUTION: RECOVERING CATHOLIC
THE SPELL BLURS WOMEN: by Wayan; 2013/5/5, a poem from a Lorelei dream
In a creepy castle on the Rhine, whenever I'm near three women, they blur
into one. A powerful spell! Now where have I seen this effect...?
CAUTION: DISSES PATRIARCHAL RELIGIONS
THE STUTTER: by Wayan; 1995/9/7, a religious dreamtale.
Half our religion-founders were just one guy, repeating till he got it right. Practice makes perfect!
SWEDENBORG'S VISIONS: as reported by Immanuel Kant, 1759-61; three solid ESP hits.
Philosopher Immanuel Kant's detailed and deeply ambivalent report on Swedenborg's
three very public displays of extrasensory perception, and their implications...
CAUTION: WILL UPSET E.S.P. SKEPTICS
SWORD IN MY BACK: by Franz Kafka; 1915/1/19, a surreal but un-Kafkaesque dream.
I slept late and felt a bit stiff, but until my friends pulled it out of my neck I had no idea...
TALL UNICORN: by Wayan; 1990/2/20. Digital nondream picture-poem.
I've been meeting, talking with, and turning into unicorns in my dreams these last few years...
CAUTION: ANTI-FUNDAMENTALIST
TAROT: CARING or THE PIETA: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979.
The card of caring, caregiving, and compassion...
TAROT: GUILT TRIP: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979.
When the card CARING comes up reversed, you get this crucified guy floating over your bed...
"TELL HIM I SAW HIS HEAD IN A BOX": by James Quinn; Jan/Feb 2003; peculiar ghost dream
Inside a Renaissance reliquary, I see a dried-up head--but is it St. Sixtus really? Weeks later...
I dream I'm in a cafe joking with my mom's ghost. I say "If you meet a guy called St. Sixtus, tell him..."
CAUTION: READ THE TITLE
TWO BISHOP APPLICANTS: by Wayan; 1984/11/21, a surreal but mercilessly logical dream.
My mind and my soul both apply for a job in Stanford Cathedral. Their rivalry grows to a shamanic duel...
UNKNOWING: by Wayan, 640 x 480, 1995. Digital picture of a nondream delusion.
"I believe, O lord/ Help thou mine unbelief"--as a kid I thought this meant "God, keep me skeptical"...
UNSWEPT HOUSE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/1, a flying-searching-unreadiness spiritual dream
Swedenborg flies on horseback through a house seeking someone. One room's clean, lit, full of people, but
most are empty and dirty. Longing to meet God is not enough! He's only cleaned up one aspect of his life...
A USED POPE: by Wayan; 1983/12/25, a Christmas dream.
A friend buys a frozen used Pope, to navigate her starship with Papal infallibility. Call me a Luddite, but..
CAUTION: SACRILEGIOUS PUN
THE VENDOR: by Georges Perec; July 1971, a nightmare of societal amorality. Dream #77
I murder my wife. I try to sell her body as meat to a firm that'll turn her into wine.
But the transubstantiation has already happened, and the paperwork's undone...
CAUTION: GRISLY
VIEWPOINT: by Wayan; 1991/6/9, a dream on pastlife amnesia.
I ask to see my past lives, and dream of a viewpoint where I can--but this Mormon ranger...
VOLCANIC OATH: by Wayan; 1972/5/20; poem of a teenage Tolkien nightmare.
DAY: our ex-cat comes back, needing surgery. Dad doesn't want to pay. Big quarrel.
DREAM: Cats, birds, elf-girls; in their asteroid library, a tale of oath-breaking...
Now I'm the one who stole a tooth of jade from the volcano hall. Greed... erupts!
CAUTION: NUDE BIRD-ELF, DEATH BY LAVA
VRILLASSA'S ONLY PRIEST: by Jo; 2007/2/10, a dream of meeting God
A job as the only priest on an island colony sounded perfect, only I'm the wrong religion...
CAUTION: DOGMATISTS AND DEAD BIRDS TALKING
WHY PROGRESS IS SLOW: by Wayan; 1991/1/26 & 2/16, twin timetravel dreams
Time-hopping through centuries, I learn how slow
deep social change is. How we cling to the old horrors!
THE WIND FROM HELL: by Wayan; 1981/4/21, a dream-poem.
Hot air rises, right? So there's a monsoon from Hell,
lifting souls. Lucky for us that gravity balances it...
WINGED BEAST: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/7/29, a dream of fighting one's own flaws
Swedenborg fights a monster but lacks strength. Yet later, on a higher plane, he learns the beast did die...
CAUTION: VIOLENT
WITNESS IN THE FIELD: by Wayan; 1985/7/8, an apparent predictive nightmare
DREAM: I witness a murder on a farm. So I hide in the fields as assault-gun bullets fly...
NEXT DAY: I go see a love story set on a farm. But suddenly killers show up
to eliminate a witness to a murder. Assault rifles in the cornfields...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE & APPARENT E.S.P.


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