THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: DISEASES

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Illness

Weird dream diseases. Oh, there are some real ones here, and some fever dreams, and plenty of practical dream-advice about illness. But there's a perverse creativity to dream diseases, a black comedy akin to the more imaginative horror films, in which the point seems less to convey a specific message than to avoid cliches--an attitude saying "Hmm, now there's an image! I've NEVER done anything like THAT..."

So try to be a bit more appreciative, the next time your dream-flesh dissolves into bugs or bus tickets. Somewhere, a shy part of your brain may be up on a dream-stage, stuttering and thanking its fellow convolutions as it accepts an Oscar of Dreams for special effects.

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.

	AMAZON A(U)NTS: by Wayan; 1997/10/28, a nightmare. I camp in the Amazon but in the morning find I slept on top of something disturbing...
	ASHES, ASHES: by Wayan; 640 x 480, 1995, nondream digital painting. Gaea dances the children's rhyme. I just hope we don't all fall down...
	BEAST BIRTHS: by Wayan; 1989/9/19, a dream of family secrets. My family has a hidden gene for incest--and griffins. When I bring the family skeleton from the closet... CAUTION: MENTIONS RAPE, INCEST
	BERYL BORROWED IT: by Wayan, 1986/3/8, an absurd dream. My friend Beryl borrows my ass and legs to become a centaur so she won't fall over. I want them back, so... CAUTION: CRUDE AND STUPID
	BERYL'S DOG DAYS: by Wayan; 1988/1/25, a psychic dream farce. My friend Beryl wants me to help rob a bank, so she can cut off her breasts and be a great opera singer...
	BROKE LIKE GLASS: by Katherine Mansfield; 1919/12/15, a warning-dream. A long terrible shiver, and my whole body broke like glass. I may live months, but in that dream I died...
	CLAIRAGONY: by a Philadelphia woman, August 1951, a sympathetic heart attack with one crucial error in its ESP I had a heart attack--but in minutes, it vanished! Then the phone rang. I knew at once my dying mother was gone. But...
	DEAD, ALIVE, DEAD: by a Minnesota teacher; well before 1960, a predictive... something. Mrs Brown was dead; I recalled helping at her bedside. But my mother insisted she was alive, and that I'd never met her! Then...
	THE DIEBACK: by Wayan; 1998/10/12, an ecological warning dream. A plague begins on terraformed Mars and spreads to Earth. Population biology made it inevitable... CAUTION: OFFSTAGE POPULATION CRASH
	DIPHTHERIA SPECK: by an Outback man; before 1961, a diagnostic dream with a tight deadline I dreamed our physician said our son had diphtheria. When I woke, we found a tiny white spot in his throat. But by the time the doctor arrived...
	DISEASE OF THE HEART: by Virginia Woolf; 1929/11/2, a false diagnostic dream--or is it? I dream I have just six months to live. I go through a dozen phases and moods, preparing for death...
	FEVER HILL: by Wayan; 1991/4/13, a comic Buddhist nightmare. My fever-dreams manifest physically and mess up my whole neighborhood. Seismic inspectors arrive...
	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
	FIGHTING A VIRUS: by Wayan, 1998/11/21, a diagnostic nightmare. Coming down with a virus, I dream of a guy who INSISTS we must fight, it's just so FUN...
	FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 2.6M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic. I had a spectacular dream one night, that lasted many days in dream-time--a true other life. It wasn't Earth, and we weren't human. I was a teenage lemur, sailing with two friends into unknown waters--a rite of passage. I woke on deck deep in the night, my friends curled around me, and realized I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a grown woman, marry and have pups. I loved my girl friends. In a world lacking the very word, I was groping toward queerdom. Sailing into unknown waters! "Here be dragons," the old maps say. And they were right... If 2600K is too big to load, try it in parts: 1: HOME, 650K, 2: VOYAGE, 1200K, 3: BACK 750K. CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
	FIVE HEARTS: by Wayan; 699K, dreamed 1989/1/11; a sexy psychic unicorn dream-comic (Plain text only) I'm a nurse pulled through a glowing well to a world ruled by a five-hearted unicorn, who wants me to... CAUTION: SEX FANTASIES, LONGING, MELANCHOLIA
	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...
	FOOT CREVASSE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/11; a dreampainting from the Box of Dreams I dream my foot has a huge bloody crevasse. But I study it calmly...
	FRIDA'S PRISON PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 2010/11/19, a Frida Kahlo-inspired dreamlet Frida's battered sister Cristina Kahlo dances nude and gets jailed by the Office of Homeland Security. Frida paints her in prison...
	GIRL WITH A PROBLEM: by Wayan; 1997/4/12, a surreal dream. I date a girl with a mysterious syndrome, but soon I become a monkeyfaced con-man. And SHE becomes...
	HAND ME THE MATCHES!: by Wayan; 1984/9/25, a predictive dream. My sisters and I try to kill kidnappers by setting fires. Dumb, huh? The next day I fight a virus--with fever!
	HEAD ON MY TABLE: by Lauren Watley; 2011/2/16, a creepy dream-image with depth After a day of troubling conflicts over race and art, I dream I'm handed a hot, heavy, mossy head--is it art, or is it alive?
	HEADEGG (Black-Eyed Bird of Pain): by Wayan; 1983/10/24; acrylic painting of a headache-trance. I was cartooning with a headache. It took over and started drawing for me...
	HEPBURNING: by Wayan; 1984/8/1, a nightmare on repression. Kat Hepburn burns inside as passionate aliens take over our souls. How can we expel them before...
	HILLARY AND TEAL: by "A 24-Year-Old Californian Woman"; around 2008/2/28, an absurd political dream Hillary Clinton hid her cancer, but the GOP found out. So a monster kidnaps Rainbow Brite, and...
	HOW TO SURVIVE NUCLEAR WAR: by Maxine Kumin; early 1980s, a dream poem. In Japan, sick in bed, reading a book on radiation sickness, I dream of a restorative ritual for trees... CAUTION: GRUESOME
	I BLUSH TO REPORT: by Wayan; 1986/12/11, two stupid dreams. Two embarrassing dreams the same night: I learn why I don't have cancer, and I can't buy giant panties... CAUTION: STUPID
	THE INCEST DREAM: by Maxine Kumin; 1979? a dream-poem While my brother was dying, I had a succession of vivid premonitory dreams about him...But I was in no way prepared for...
	JACUZZI JAIL: by Wayan; 1979/10/12, a dream of parental poison. My family has shackled my little sister in a hot tub full of carcinogenic bubble bath... CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES AND A SLIGHTLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY
	JELLY REBELLION: by Wayan; 2008/8/19, a poem of a diagnostic dream, Dreamverse #9 I interview my own metabolism. Trouble in Cellville! I've got strikers and usurpers. But at least no invaders...
	LEMON PEOPLE: by Wayan; 2008/8/11, a dream poem; Dreamverse #1. A dream-fable of lemons who are really orange-people infected by a spore turns out to be about me...
	LOUSE: by Wayan; ink, late May 1982: an embarrassing true story. Getting rid of lice was easy. Harder was quelling the gossip and rumors from my co-workers and boss... CAUTION: A LOUSE OF A BOSS
	THE MAN WHO MISTOOK...: by Wayan; 1995/9/19, an insane dream. I'm just an ordinary guy, who beats his son so he'll grow faster, and sees tits on drinking fountains...
	MOLLUSCUM FIBROSUM: by Havelock Ellis; c. 1920? A surreal dream of... sex? medicine? A woman models an elegant gown baring her breasts. All five of them. Wait, those aren’t breasts, they’re...
	MYRNA, LOOK AHEAD: by Myrna, drawn by her daughter Joey Epstein; before 1988, a dream of a revenant ghost’s advice After Myrna’s husband gave up diabetes treatments to die at home, one night she felt him behind her in bed, and he whispered...
	NEW LEVEL!: by "Julian"; 2006/5/22, 3 gamelike dreams in one night, two of them epic My mom and I road-duel an alien beetle, then investigate a deepspace Marie Celeste; then I spy for the Angevin Empire to protect the Crown Jewels...
	THE OLD YOUNG MAN: by Anna Kingsford; 1880/2/21, a dream of a step-in soul Malaria nearly kills a talented young artist; he must retrain from scratch. Why? Well, he's not exactly himself...
	PET ME DARE!: by Wayan; 200K, 6 illus., 1996/2/7, a healing dream. After whining all day that I lost my anima, all I dream is I'm petting a cat. But she grows. Too much... CAUTION: PUSSY TROUBLE
	THE PLAGUE-CURE: by Wayan; 1996/1/1, a diagnostic dream. A quick, fatal, mosquito-borne plague. Humanity looks doomed till my friends come up with a folk recipe:
	PLESIOSAUR: by Wayan; 1985/9/5, a medical dream. An itchy patient of mine insists he's turning into a four-headed man-eating plesiosaur. He left one thing out...
	POD WAR: by Wayan; 1979/10/14, an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" dream Emotionless Pod People surround the last free humans. I fight for humanity, but I'm not human or pod--I'm...
	POPEYE MUSCLES: by Wayan; 1986/7/14, a grotesque dreamtale. My body turns protean: big Popeye muscles pop out as needed, relaxing into stick-figureness...
	THE PRODIGY-ALLERGY LINK: by Wayan; 1994/7/21, a clipping and reactions Child prodigies may develop allergies due to immunosystem damage from too much testosterone in utero...
	RIVERBANK BLISS: by "Anonymous #11"; c. 1920, a mood-predicting dream Eleven years after I dreamt of that green dress and green riverbank and dreamy day, I was convalescing in...
	THE SEA WOLF'S BRAIN: by Wayan; 1999/11/21, a psychic dream. For years the Sea-Wolf enslaved me. He said I had to fight him and win to be free. I'm ready at last...
	SHAPESHIFTER FEVER: by Wayan; 1989/1/30, a dream poem. A summer love affair with a shapeshifting alien turns awkward when she gets a high fever, and... CAUTION: UGH!
	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...
	SNAKE PACKAGE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/5/27 I am given a dehydrated package of dried snake to insert in my vagina. Inside it will unfold and come to life... CAUTION: KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
	SNAKES AND CENTIPEDES: by Russ Thornton; 2008/11/1, a shared/telepathic dream. Two snakes fight as centipedes emerge from under rocks. I tell my best friend. Next day her co-worker tells her the same dream...
	SNOT-BIRD FORGERY!: a gross dream by Samuel Pepys, 1667/6/29, and a nightmare by Thomas Macaulay, c.1857 Samuel Pepys dreamt of kidneystones, pee, come, & snot--or did he? Thomas Macauley dreams his niece confesses...
	SPIRAL LAUGHTER: by Alder; 1953, a child's feverdream The world is a whirlpool, a black and white spiral pulling me down toward a black hole, and it's laughing...
	SPORECOUNT: by Wayan; 105K, 1990/1/5, a dreamtale on change-phases. I'm a hot archeology student till I open the wrong tomb. A plague turns us into green moldy monsters... CAUTION: DISEASE, DEATH, GRIEF, SHAME
	STABBED ALIVE: by Roswila; 2007/10/9, a nightmare-poem I defeat the knife-wielder, in spite the blade in my belly I can't pull out. I may have to let it be...
	SUNLIGHT'S THE CURE: by Wayan; 1990/12/29, a dreamtale. I find the cure for an alien plague, then visit the world it came from, to find it has a curious variant... CAUTION: SEX CUSTOMS OF THE NEWT PEOPLE! MY COUSIN'S GAY WEDDING!
	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...
	TAKE STOCK OF YOUR PELVIS: by Wayan; 1981/1/11, a symbolic not-quite-sex dream. A friend, stockpiling for Armageddon, makes me see that I value something peculiar: the knowledge of... CAUTION: LANGUAGE
	THE TAPED WOUND: by Wayan; 1997/10/7, a dream on old tapes... My wound's taped up, but hurts bad. I peel off the bandage... nothing! Gone. So I check my other body...
	THREE-YEAR PREGNANCY: by Ithmonike of Pellene, ca. 320 BC? Two dreams of meeting an odd god. I was barren. I asked Asklepios, God of Healing, to make me pregnant. Soon I was. And so I stayed--for 3 years, until...
	TICHANE: by Wayan; 1993-4. Nondream digital "woodblock print". What the world looks like when you have environmental illness, like me...
	THE TIGER'S THROAT: by Wayan; 1994/4/12, a psychic dreamtale. I'm walking down a tiger's throat, but it's not what you think. Diagnosis! My friend suddenly couldn't roar...
	TOASTING FORK: by Charles Dickens, August 1843, a surreal tragicomic dream. A gentleman clad but in a sheet notified me that an old friend had died of a terrible disease. What disease? Well...
	TOUGH GLOVE: by Wayan; 1999/12/4, a dreamtale. I finally find a way to safely indulge in heavy petting (as well as puns) with the cat...
	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...
	THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale. I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones... CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
	UNHAPPY CAMPERS: by Wayan; 1997/9/1, a stupid dream. Since when is a dream of a disastrous camping trip a medical diagnosis? It depends on your pun-tolerance...
	UNICORN SURGERY: by Wayan; 1996/5/2, a warning dream. After trimming a poem to Silky, my night mare, I dream well-meaning surgeons try to dehorn a unicorn...
	VAMPIGS AND SMILES: by Wayan; 1991/12/9, an advisory dream. Our landlady was a friend, but now breaks her word, ups our rent. Talk, compromise, or rent strike?
	THE VIDEOGRAPHER'S APPRENTICE: by Wayan; 165K, 1994/7/29, a predictive/warning dream. Blondie Wiggle builds a Video Igloo. But I'm allergic--TV kills me! A BAD omen for our video project... CAUTION: TV KILLS (BUT YOU KNEW THAT)
	WAR IN THE RING: by Bruno Oliveira; May 2011, a happy nightmare War, monsters, plague and bombs are just thrills spicing up this city rising from a tropical sea on an alien world...
	WHITE-FACED: by John A. Symonds; 1861/7/3, a mutation nightmare My face was leprous white like parchment; my eyes shone with a cold blue eerie light. I shrieked "Papa, don't you know me?"...
	WILL I BE BITTEN?: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dreampainting from the Box of Dreams A friend who's struggled with lymphoma invites me to sleep in a cave, but I worry I'll be bitten by a rattlesnake...
	WIRES: by Wayan; 1957-1963, a recurrent childhood nightmare resolved by drawing, Dec 1999 I was bodiless but trapped. All I could see were these moving wires. Whenever a knot drifted by... CAUTION: MADNESS, TORMENT, TELEPATHY, SEXUAL REBELLION
	WORLDSTONES: fall 1895 & August 1898 by Mark Twain, and 2002/6/27 by Robert Moss; parallel dreams Mark Twain dreams we're cells inside God, and writes of Huck Finn among the microbes. A century later, unaware of Twain's dreams, Moss...
	ZOMBIE RUSH-HOUR: by Wayan; 1993/12/14, a predictive nightmare. I'm in an apartment co-op in Silicon Valley where people share their skills--till rush hour begins...