THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: Career Advice

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Work and Career Advice

Work, job and career advice in dreams... not all of it sane, but what the hell. What's intriguing is how common such advice is. And how we generally ignore it.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 2300 dreams plus 1000 more pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2013.

	ALLEY SONG: by Wayan; 1994/4/21, a sharp little piece of dream advice. In a suburban alley, I learn how much of an artistic coward I've been...
	AMBITION: by Wayan; 1994/5/25, an odd little dreamlike real-life experience. My intuition led me to a panel discussion of women artists, just to hear one single sentence...
	ANTLIA: by Wayan; 1997/6/29, a dreamtale. I meet a judge from the newly discovered galaxy Antlia, and learn distance can lend objectivity...
	A PEEL FOR APPROVAL: by Wayan; 1990/9/24, a cautionary dream Ariana's a brilliant young writer, but how she plans to escape her family is alarming... CAUTION: TEEN PREGNANCY, SKIN MAGS, BAD CAREER PLANNING
	THE BANKERS' TABLE: by Lily and Wayan; 1991/7/28, a shared psychic dream A friend and I have simultaneous dreams of absurd quarrels over seating bankers at picnic tables...
	BEETLE: by Daniel Quinn; spring 1941; a life-defining shamanic dream A black beetle points out I'm not needed or at home in the human world, and insists my lifework is elsewhere...
	BIRD, CAT, TREASURE: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/8/3, two warning dreams in one night Should Anna quit hiding her psychic dreams? She dreams a cat eats her bird, and burglars loot an unprotected house. Maybe not...
	BLEEDING HEART, the SELF-HEALING CORPSE, and IN THE FUTURE DESERT: by Wayan; 250K, 10 illus., 2002/5/29 to July 2004, a diagnostic, predictive dream-series. A tree-girl moves to Hollywood to make film deals, but jealousy stabs her... CAUTION: BLOODY ASSAULT, GAY DRYADS, MUTANT NUDITY
	CHE FANNO GLI INGLESI?: by William Archer; 1917/7/30, a senseless dream. To help the King of Italy, I become a baker in Baluchistan--learning Norwegian, levitating, meeting quaggas, riding landslides...
	CUPOLA: by Wayan; 1994/7/28, a dream of an alternate life. I live in a cupola atop a Victorian house in the Haight-Ashbury, but that's not the City out my windows...
	DEADWOOD, or, MAO'S ONEIROLOGIST: by Wayan; 1976/4/2, a career-advisory dream-poem Trapped in the Cultural Revolution, I can't reach the Himalayas. So I fly around the base of the Stairway to Heaven...
	THE DOOMED TRAIN: by Anna Kingsford; Nov. 1876, a galvanizing political nightmare We were on a train headed for a crash. No one was in the engine. Rather than jump, my friend insisted we try...
	DRAMATIC PARASITES: by Wayan; 1995/6/28, a dream on fear of success. I project I'll make a lot more money soon. Good, now I can support all my lazy friends! Wait...
	THE DREAMSUIT: by Wayan; 1992/7/12, a dream on unconscious programming. An experimental helmet knocks me out. I'm groggy, miserable, till I learn what it did to others...
	FOINBREK THE MOOSE: by Wayan; 1993/12/4, a dreamtale on love and work. My lesbian twin, who lives in the unemployment line, falls in love with a pushy moose from Brooklyn... CAUTION: INEPT SEX
	FOOTPRINT: by Wayan; 1980/1/11, a dream of the floating world. I'm jogging in Yosemite. A man tells me I'm possessed. There IS something in my shoe...
	FOUR WHO COULD ONLY GET HALF-WAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a frustration-dream with deep advice I'm one of four mediocrities: all our efforts come to nought. My mother says "You're netted, but you can fray the ropes...
	GALLEY SLAVE: by Wayan; 2008/11/27, a subtly punning career-advice dream; Dreamverse #47 Shipwrecked and claimed as salvage on Crete, Ed the writer became a dishwashing slave! In contrast, Marie the musician...
	THE GIVE-AWAY: by Wayan; 1982/6/7, a career nightmare. My parents pray for my success, and arrange a great learning opportunity for me. Really.
	THE GREAT PEACE: by George Antheil; early 1922; two dreams of the future, one seemingly psychic, that transform a pianist's life I dream it's after a great war; I hear the music I must write, and meet the girl I must marry...
	THE GREEN GODDESS: by William Archer; 1919/9/1, a playwriting-idea dream that paid off I was held hostage in India by courteous revolutionaries who avoided spelling out that we were soon to die...
	HALF SHAMAN, HALF STATESMAN: by Wayan; 100K, 1986/4/21, a parallel-world dream: Chapter 6 of UNICORN TAG I get a scholarship to Shaman U. Some of my classmates are Terran, but I still don't fit in, because... CAUTION: LANGUAGE
	JOKE PILOT: by Wayan; 1995/7/15, a dream of defiance. Among aliens, humans are jokes. Fragile and blind, we can't fly starships. Unless we build our own...
	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 a Dragon...
	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
	LIFE FORCE: by Patagia; 2006/8/9 & 8/31, three career-advice dreamlets Out of a Campbell's soup can poured life force: someone's last breath...
	MARINE GEOLOGY'S NOT IT: by Wayan; 1984/6/2, a dream farce. After finding marine geologists in my chocolate pudding, I'd rather be a Frenchman and insult my wife... CAUTION: DECADENCE
	MENTOR: by Wayan; 2001/6/13, six advisory dreamlets. I meet a shapeshifting dream-mentor who warns of plague and war (note the date). Then a sentient book, "The Art of War," gets intimately involved... CAUTION: ELECTRODES, LIBROPHILIA
	MIGRATION THROUGH FIRE: by Wayan; 1999/9/3, a dream of what matters. I'm a shaggy primitive whose tribe's outgrown our caves. We migrate, and meet two new species of people...
	MUSIC HEALS SMOG: by Wayan; 1994/4/28, a career-advice dream The smog of Portland is so bad it hides the dream-towers! Only one thing will heal it: making music...
	MY DESIGN FOR THE DOME: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/5/1; an advisory dreampainting from the Box of Dreams At first no one seems interested in my mural-design for the inside of the City Hall dome, but...
	MY POETIC LICENSE: by Wayan; 2008/10/5, a self-referencing dream poem; Dreamverse #33 Renewing one's life has its costs. What if you can't pay the price? A dreamlet of warning and shame...
	NET PROFITS: by Wayan; 1998/7/14, a dream of family values and Web credit. At a family picnic, my sisters and I fish for scholarships and grants. They put down my art, my website...
	OTTER MEDICINE: by The-Fringe, a Crow healer, early 1850s; a shamanic dream with physical effects I slept on an island in a scalding hot spring, praying for a dream. I got one--and woke up on the shore...
	PIANOBED: by Wayan; 2012/1/22, a health-advisory dream. I forgot how to play my pianobed, so I just thrash around in it. And thus thrash music is born (sorry)...
	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...
	PLANET-SCULPTING APE: by "AE" (George Russell); mid-1870s, a childhood characterological dream. On a cloud in space I met an ape molding a model of the Earth, glancing at the original far below us. We were much alike...
	POKEY?: by Wayan; 1993/4/15, a dreamtale on my soul. My lover's turned into a tiny living pull-toy, trapped ankle-deep in a wheeled platform. Can I free her?
	POLTERGEIST: by Wayan; 1983/11/17, a confusing dreamtale. A living camera edits us all: the dappled hawk-man, the slutty candidate, the blue businessmen who give such bad advice when you pull the thorns from their feet. And my sweet sad hell-hound...
	QUIT THAT LAB!: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a deductive nightmare. I'm working alone in the lab at night, when the lab gear wakes up and tries to kill me...
	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!"...
	SAFETY GETS ME HOT: by Wayan; 1997/3/27, a dream on sensitivity. I'm trapped in a post-apocalypse pulp story! Fun for my readers, but not for me! How to escape?
	A SEAMY REALITY: by Wayan; 1999/10/21, a semi-psychic dream. Sharp seams between realities cross Silicon Valley; I end up in the Dark Castle of the Oracle. When I wake...
	SILKY AT THE MIKE: by Wayan; 1998? Sketch of recurring dream Ours is a mixed-race family, and my sister takes after the horse side. No hands, but can she sing!...
	SLEDDING NEAR C: by Albert Einstein; around 1890-95; a transcendent career-advice dream Sledding at night, I approached the speed of light, and the stars turned colors I'd never seen...
	THE SMILING SHAW MACHINE: by W.B. Yeats; 1894/4/19, a nightmare about popular success. After Shaw's Arms and the Man eclipsed my own play The Land of Heart's Desire, I dreamt that I was haunted by...
	SNOW STALLION: by Wayan; 1994/6/4, a tangled political/spiritual dream. I'm a peace terrorist trapped in Squaw Valley, herded like a mare by a huge stallion made of snow... And then the dream shifts and I blurt out the truth behind our idiotic waking world! And wake believing it...
	SUSHI CIRCUS: by Wayan; 1982/2/17, an illustrated psychic dream. When I flee the Psychodrama Circus to avoid being stabbed, it explodes! But it's the sushi that really upsets me... CAUTION: CANNIBAL MAKI
	TEACH DREAM E.S.P.: by Wayan; 2012/2/14. An advisory dream with an intriguing model of time. I'm co-teaching a class on the various flavors of ESP. My specialty's sending warnings to my own past self, creating new time-forks...
	TENNIS UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES by Nancy Price; 1948, a frustrating dream-farce with a warning Our tennis game's spoiled by rubber rackets, fierce grandmas, Good and Evil (those identical twins) and a bully on stilts...
	TITAN, or, SATURN'S WEDDING BAND: by Wayan; 1981/3/22, a billion-mile roadtrip dream. Our band's touring Titan. Road trip blues: diners, feuds, romances. Have I been chasing the wrong girl?
	TUTELARY UNCLE: by Wayan; 1993/5/28, a dreamtale. I'm half Anglo, half Kwakiutl. My uncle the shaman died, but he still wants to teach me his medicine...
	TV DEVIL FLU: by Wayan; 1994/10/24, a short dreamtale. A "friend" gives me her TV. Turns out there's a small-minded devil in it who cheats on all his deals...
	UNICORN FEEDBACK: by Wayan; 2009/1/3, a double dream of advice A unicorn advises me. I wake, and tell a friend, who proves I must have misheard. And then I wake again...
	THE UNICORN MASK OF IGNORABILITY: by Wayan; 2009/10/13, a dream poem with sketch; Dreamverse #59 My family home's invaded by ancient Egyptian architects. So I put on my unicorn mask and eavesdrop on their plans...
	WHAT MEN HIDE BEHIND: by Wayan; 1992/11/30, an alarming comic dream The real pursuit of happiness: Happiness pursues ME, and I run in shame and hide! But she's persistent...
	WILLPOWER (HAPPINESS): by Wayan; 1991/1/17, a didactic dream. At age 90, the first female high-rise steelworker tells me why she did it--and why she regrets it...
	THE WORLD NEWS: by Nathaniel Hawthorne; 1843; a dream-job (and career advice?) I dreamt the world itself hired me, at a generous salary, to report its great affairs exactly as they happen...
	YAKETY YAK: by Wayan; 1984/5/1, a dysfunctional dreamtale. I'm at a family dinner. Killer Grampa, kid-hating Ma, larcenous Dad. Then a bum offers some advice...