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Fear

Dreams of anxiety and fear. Why not merge this with nightmares? Because dreams can explore the mood of fear without being nightmares. Some dreams even fearlessly analyze fear by showing you other people who represent your fears--letting you observe how you panic, as a fear-free lesson!

Also, Gestalt and Jungians and Freudians are wrong about one thing: not every figure and scene and mood in a dream is about you. Dreams are observant; they can dispassionately show you how others fear something you don't. Including, sometimes, how they fear you.

In short, some dreams are all about fears--discussing them or recommending actions--without being scary at all. My dreams seem to find my more unreasonable fears quite comical--even my worst nightmares are often screamingly funny. It's only the dream-self, in fear's grip, who can't see the absurdity. Which is, of course, often the point.

RELATED TOPICS: nightmares of course - courage - anger - hatred - grief and tears - guilt - embarrassment and blushing- envy - humor - play - sex - love - joy - healing from abuse - diagnostic dreams - advice in dreams - dream-guides - mentors - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ADRENALINE HALL: by Wayan; 1992/2/3, a useful metabolic nightmare.
A hall designed to give your fear-glands a workout, since
muscles aren't the only thing we need to buff...
THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art & courage
Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake.
Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
ALL HALLOW'S EVE: by (Mrs.) D. M. Barrett; 1904, a psychic dream
I dreamt ghosts visited us, and for each scream, a relative would die.
Two of us cried out. That morning the first letter came...
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...
ANCIENT RUINS, AND A GIFT FROM DEEP OCEAN:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; two dreams (2016/11/19, 2017/1/18) on dreamwork, memory & amnesia
1: Ruins in India. Fascinating but age-blurred; wish I could see the carvings better...
2: Giving presents at a party, I hand a girl a vertebra from the abyss, encrusted with jewel-like barnacles...
ANTI-LUCID FLIGHT: by Wayan, 2016/8/30, a friendly nightmare begging me to go lucid.
I fear falling? The drop increases. Want a softer surface? The rocks turn to dirt, then water.
Want help? Here comes a flying dolphin. Oh, but I'm not dreaming...
ARE YOU READY?: by a Minnesota woman; pre-1961, two predictive dreamlets, one useful
The elevator man in funereal black said in a sepuchral voice "Are you ready?" I decided I'd wait...
ASCENT: by Wayan; spring 1997; a comix-panorama on recurrent mountaineering dreams.
All that spring I dreamed of climbing, cold, fatigue, risk, and fear.
But shamanic training involves toughening; ascent isn't always easy flight...
ATLANTIS; c. 1993 by Mark Doty; six elegiac poems, three dream-based
In our marshlands, tides, birds, dogs come and go; but must our friends and lovers, too?
CAUTION: AIDS DEATHS
BATTERED, WITH SYRUP: by Wayan; 1998/11/6 & 11/21, two healing dreams.
I'm a battered girl who sings in a mall. The Dictator (of all people) helps me start healing and learn to fly...
CAUTION: BATTERING AND ITS CONSEQUENT DAMAGE
A BEAM OF FLIGHT: by Wayan; 1992/4/19, a dream of love and shellshock.
I'm a dance teacher, I'm King Kong, I'm a shell-shocked elf, I'm a wild bird flying...
CAUTION: GAY-POSITIVE ROLE MODELS, OH NO!
BEAST BIRTHS: by Wayan; 1989/9/19, a predictive dream of family secrets.
My family has a hidden gene for incest--and griffins.
When I bring the family skeleton from the closet...
CAUTION: RAPE, INCEST
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
BIRTH, INITIATION, INDIVIDUATION: by Anonymous #6; summer 2007?, a dream of spiritual ascent
I swim the flooded tunnels and pass the crocodiles to enter the house of mystics... but now what?
BLACKBIRD: by Anna Halprin; 2002-2005?, a recurring dream of a spirit guide.
At first I was afraid of the blackbird, who asked me to come away with him--I wasn't ready to die--
but now I see him as a friend and guide. One day when I'm ready, we'll fly--and I won't be back.
BLESS MY PHOBIA: by Wayan; dreamed 1992/8/15; story + silk painting.
I was Eve's guardian angel the second time round, and I blew it again. But this time, it came out right....
CAUTION: BREASTS AND BEASTS
BLOODLINES: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2005/7/30, 9/1 and 9/3; a compound dream-painting
A man obsessed with blood and death disturbs me, but I have to admit I share his interests...
Next the blood comes home; a surgeon wants to flay my tongue...
Next, witch-children rebel against a bloody flossing ritual and fly away on broomsticks...
BLOWN OR STEER?: by Wayan; 2006/9/16, a flying, species-bent, advisory dream
I'm a shy wild cat locked in a zoo paddock with elephants and lions
till I remember how to fly! But just levitate, blown about by the wind?
Or can I steer my own course?...
BLUEBEARD DRAG: by Wayan; 2008/9/5, a creepy dream-poem, Dreamverse #22
On the waterfront, I meet a seductive girl. Well, guy. Well, serial killer. Um, I think I'll leave now...
CAUTION: HOMOPHOBIA OR SURVIVAL INSTINCT?
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
BUGS AND ROOSEVELT: by Wayan; 1982/5/2, a wild predictive dream illustrated as an epic poem
I'm Bugs Bunny. I torment Daffy Duck till I learn that in many time-branches the New
Deal happened late... or never. I decide to prod a reluctant Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
CAUTION: FIRESIDE PETTING, DUCK TORTURE, BAD POLITICS
CABIN IN THE SKY: by Wayan; 2005/7/25, a nervous, guilty dreamlet of escape
Bart Simpson leads me down from the Cabin in the Sky back to being... grounded?
CAIRO GIRL: by Wayan; 2008/2/18, a feverdream shifting from nightmare to joy
I'm lost in the angry streets of Cairo. But I meet a goth-girl with moth-antennae:
a jinni who's working for longterm change. She takes me home...
CAUTION: MOTH NUDITY
CENTAUR QUARTET: by Wayan; 1982/2/26, 83/12/24 & 84/10/16, recurring dreams of my spirit family.
Can our interspecies family survive? Our very instincts clash around solitude/boundaries, sex and incest
CAUTION: SEX, INCEST, REPRESSION/DENIAL
CHINA AND AMERICA: by Alder and Wayan; 1997/9/23, telepathic dreams.
Two giants wrestle in the Chinese mountains. Who'll win, Red or Yellow? But when I wake...
CHOREOGRAPHY: by Wayan; 2006/9/7, a nightmare of murder in plain sight.
At a beach, a mob of kids stage an intricate practical joke full of coordinated “accidents.” How many of the jokers knew the end was death?
CAUTION: MALICE
CHRONOPHOBIA!: by Wayan; 1993/7/10, a physicist's nightmare on time's arrow
I find myself driving a speeding car down a freeway--in reverse. No, not reverse gear...
"CLIT!": by "D'Jeanna"; 2009/9/11, a breakthrough dream after coming out
The day after my mom outed me to my dad, I dream a great storm has passed and everything's just glowing...
CREEPINESS: by Scottopic; 2001/11/30. A hypnogogic nightmare.
I'm in bed sleepily petting my cat, when I see my cat across the room! What's on my legs? It's big.
My cat chases it off... through the wall? My room is sealed. Where did it come from, where did it go?...
CUBIST CHARLIE BROWN: by Wayan; 1977/4/1, a cubist nightmare.
We're Cubist cartoon characters, trapped in a strip gone mad. But my dad stays calm! Too calm...
CAUTION: SEAS OF BLOOD... OR IS IT RED INK?
DEJA REVE: by Percy Bysshe Shelley; before 1810, a flash of a premonitory dream
While walking in the country, a vista suddenly terrifies Shelley: he recognizes it from a dream years before...
DEMON-SUMMONING IS JUST A MISDEMEANOUR: by Jo; 2017/7/26, a gender-bent diagnostic nightmare
I protect my friends from a demon, but the dream-guardians I summon terrify me...
DEVANGELS: by Wayan, 2017/4/27, a numinous but ambivalent dream
After a hard day in the recording studio, I dream of powerful yet obedient devil-angels;
quiet for now, but I fear they'll decide shamans like me are abominations...
CAUTION: ANGELS? GOLEMS? DEVILS?
DOG HORROR: by Wayan, 2023/1/21; a nightmare--but not the dreamer's!
I'm cold, tired and wet, and I have to take this dog to college. But when I touch him,
he howls in horror. I'm not having a nightmare, I am a nightmare. His nightmare...
THE DOGGYSEY: by Wayan, 2009/11/26, a dream Odyssey predicts my own artistic path
I find I'm a fox singing the Disney musical version of a canine epic: the tale of Odysseus the
Mutt and his purebred Big Brother vying for the paw of Penelope--and the throne of Ithaka...
CAUTION: POLTERGEIST
DOLPHINS: by Larry Vigon; 2001/8/6; a dream personifying dreams?
The beach. Smoke? No, spray from hundreds of dolphins hunting. I thought
a giant wave was coming in, but it was just a trick of the light through fog...
DRAGONFLY BUS: by Wayan, 2023/3/28; four dreams on halting runaway feelings
A girl writes a whole movie to get a shy boy to hold her; I stupidly summon a monster dragonfly-bus;
a devil-suited jerk hogs a musical's stage TWICE; leeches crawl from the treasure-box I opened...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, SEXUAL FEAR/GUILT
THE EGYPTIAN EXHIBIT: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a psychedelic Pygmalion dream
I panic as statues come alive at the museum, but they're all about energizing a mystical pyramid...
ELF RANGERS? NO WAY!: by Wayan; 1995/3/25, a dream on repression.
A logging war in the northern forests is confused by subjective realities. Am I sure what I see is real?
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!
ENLIGHTENMENT: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1999/3/9, painting of a non-apocalyptic dream
A crowd watches from shore as a great glowing meteor descends into the sea. I fear a tsunami, but...
EXPLODING SWAN: by Aleksanteri Nevalainen; 2010/9; a surreal anxiety dream
In a world where ice contracts & sinks, birds freeze in winter, thaw in spring. But one swan knows better......
FALL AT THE RIGHT SIZE: by Wayan; 2018/7/14, a dream shape-poem on a lifesaving indecision.
I fall off a tower, but I can change size. Tiny things fall slower, but they also tempt the local falcons!
Be big & hit hard, or tiny & be eaten? There's a third choice, but I sorta fell into it...
FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity
I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind
myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin
rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me...
A FILM-ORIENTED DREAM: by William Desowitz, spring 1980; dream collaging four diverse movies
I fondle the noses of two masked girls in red leotards--parodying part of a Clockwork Orange...
I'm excited to see Last Year at Marienbad, but either the actors mumble or the sound is bad...
Night. I fly, as in Fellini's , but out of control. The wind takes me, I'm terrified...
My grandmother attacks me with her crab-claw, then retreats, chanting the film title Shoeshine!
FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 2.6M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic.
I had an epic dream lasting subjective weeks--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. One night,
my friends curled round me, I saw I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a 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...
2600K loads slowly? Try it in parts: 1: HOME, 650K, 2: VOYAGE, 1200K, 3: BACK 750K.
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
FIVE ELVISH DREAMS: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2005/6/10-2005/6/19, an incubated lucid-dream sequence
1: I visit Elrond and Bilbo in Elvenhome, but overthinking traps me in a timeloop;
2: Elrond says he renounces seriousness for joy, and plans a great, inclusive party;
3: I feel unworthy, but set out on a desert quest with Elrond's young apprentice;
4: I meet joyful, drunken, singing elves but hide in a tree, too shy to join in;
5: I meet a nervous elven singer and a dolphin trapped in a tiny pool in my bedroom...
FLAMING LEAVES: by Dr. Adele A. Gleason and John R. Joslyn; 1892/1/26, a shared dream.
Adele: alone & scared in a dark wood--but her friend John came & shook a tree; it burst into flame!
John, the same night: found Adele scared in a dark wood. Shook a bush & it burst into flame...
FLY SOLO: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a joyful flying-lesson dream
I tell the angel teaching me to fly that I'm not ready to go solo yet--
I'm wobbly, the terrain's unknown. He lets go, and I...
THE FLYING HORSES OF MIEN MO: by Jack Kerouac, Nov/Dec? 1957, a persistent numinous image
I'm in Mexico. The mountain of the gods looms over Coyacan. Around it, silhouetted
on the rising moon, wheel terrifying griffinlike winged horses wearing capes...
FOR THE FIRST TIME: by Jack Kerouac, Nov? 1954, a lucid dream of escaping a rut
I've climbed a cliff and cower on the brink; but for for the first time I need not
fall or retrace my dangerous path down. I know I'm dreaming, and wake...
FORKS AND SAUCERS: by Wayan; 1988/10/18, a dream on when to quit
Tibet, 1910. I find a cult whose ancestors manned a radar station that shot down
flying saucers. But were the aliens really hostile? I'm not so sure...
FOUR TABOOS: by Wayan, 2016/3/15, four dreams on inhibitions I hoped I was over.
Climbing out of Childhood Abyss, I literally get a leg up from a girl seeking the Ledge of Teens.
A shy girl has to hide she's a were-creature. Gay men make out in the witch-registry to rattle its
homophobic guardians. My sister stripteases while scolding me for a mess I didn't make...
CAUTION: DUH, SEX TABOOS! KIDS, FURS, GAYS, SIBLINGS
GESTAPO, OPERA by a 30-year-old woman, 1933; a dream of isolation & vulnerability
I'm at my favorite opera, The Magic Flute. When I hear the line 'That is the devil certainly,' I think
of Hitler. The Gestapo have a device that reads my thought, and come for me. Bystanders spit on me...
CAUTION: NATIONAL NIGHTMARE
GHOSTS PUSH TOWARD THE SUICIDE DOOR: by Wayan, 1997/8/7, a nightmare that wants a break.
I live in a haunted house where ghosts push you to suicide. But they're as tired of it as I am...
A GOLDEN KEY IN A CHEAP LIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/7/9, a subtle dream lesson
I was so lonely the potheads on Haight looked good. I dreamed I had the Golden Key, but under a cheap
sodium streetlamp, ALL my keys looked gold! Then I met true gold: a woman meditating until she shone...
CAUTION: NUDITY, HAIGHT STREET STONERS
GRANDMA LILY: by Wayan; 2023/6/18, a dream on... dream interpretation?
I wake in a suburb with Dire Wolves next door. I'm told an herb will appease them.
But the local herbal expert's a regal talking lily--and can I speak plant-language?
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...
THE GRIFFINS' LESSON: by Wayan, 2018/6/1, a pair of predictive dreamlets
I live through two teens' nightmares, then "wake" with them to find they were drugged by a third party! Why?
Then I'm with a cheery wagon-crew of flirting griffins & talking horses, pulling a cart made of grammar or logic.
Six days later... detailed images from both dreams appear on TV!
CAUTION: CREEPY, THEN SAPPY, THEN FREAKY
GROUNDHOG DAY: by Wayan; 1994/9/2, a dream-comic (or text with pix)
James Hillman is the first psychologist on the moon! He sees a shadow and
panics like a groundhog--mistakes it for Death. Not his own shadow, but MINE...
GUNNHILDR’S BIRTH DREAM: by Gunnhildr; c. 1150, a surreal predictive dream.
I dreamt I gave birth to a white-hot stone shedding sparks. Most folk would find my son strange...
GURU IN BLUE: by Wayan, 1990/5/10, a dream-poem of BEING a nightmare
I want to meet my friends' spiritual teacher, but he cowers, runs from me in horror.
I chase him yelling "BOO!" Why am I acting as his nightmare? I don't know...
HEAD ON MY TABLE: by Lauren Watley; 2011/2/16, a creepy dream-image with depth
After a day of troubling conflicts over race & art, I dream I'm handed a hot, heavy, mossy head--is it art, or alive?
HEARN'S BEAST: by Wayan; 1986/2/18, a dream fable.
Inside an evacuated region, the Lafcadio Hearn Zone, I meet the monster thousands fled...
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!
HER OWN WEAPON: by Wayan; 1983/8/31, a poltergeist-therapy dream.
A woman says she's being stalked, but it's her own poltergeist! Her therapist makes her reach for it...
HERMIT IN THE PIPE: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a dream of the end.
I'm a holy man sneaking into a sewerpipe at the beach, to pop anxiety pills in shame. Do they even work?
CAUTION: CHEMICAL CRUTCHES
HERON CATCHES ARROWS: by Wayan, 2023/3/31, a shamanic dream based on a pun
I'm a great blue heron with hands and human speech. A hunter fires arrows at me,
but I'm fast and can catch them. They're costly, so I demand a bargain with him...
CAUTION: ABOUT EMOTIONAL ABUSE
HIS MINE: by Wayan; 1985/12/2, an epic Wild West dream
I'm a hobbit seeking Henry Fonda's haunted gold mine. And find it. Or is that chocolate?
But then I'm caught in a shamanic showdown in a bar where they serve real spirits...
HOBBIT SNIPER: by Wayan; 1998/10/13, a dream on strategy.
I'm a sniper in a desert battle of men against hobbits. Guilty for not fighting openly, but that'd be suicidal...
CAUTION: MATH AND WAR
HUGE OVOID SHAPE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1999/8/13 Magrittesque surreal sci-fi dream
A huge white ovoid like a tethered cloud hangs over a city street. We enter it and search for the crew...
HUMANITY'S GREATEST FEAR: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/8, a sarcastic dream on education.
My teacher insists, "You'll be scared too, when you see it." But when he shows us humanity’s greatest fear...
CAUTION: UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS
HUNTERS' FIRE: by Wayan; 1987/9/8, a nightmare that may be a memory.
I'm an orphan shot at by hunters. They shoot my sister! But no one believes me...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
I GOT OUT: by Wayan; 1992/1/4, a psychic dream drawn as a 9-page digital comic
I flee our love triangle when Abe turns mean. He's telepathic, but
I have my escape all planned: the goldfish, the snakepit, the caves...
CAUTION: THREESOME, SNAKES, MOTORCYCLE FATALITY
I LET RATS: by Wayan; 1994/4/22, a nightmare on appeasement.
A bold rat comes right up to me. I don't want to provoke it, so I stay quiet. And let the rats...
CAUTION: UGH!
THE ILL-FORMED TALE: by Wayan; 160K, 1981/4/7, a wild dream anti-epic.
To reach the Peak of Happiness on the Isle of Dreams, I must pass four Perils--but they're all backwards...
CAUTION: RELIGIOUS NUTS, KNIVES, NUDE ALIENS, BACKWARD PLOT...
ILLUSIONISTS DON'T RULE: by Wayan; 1996/8/26, a dream on the strength of logic.
I read Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind; I dream
I'm a pilot who deduces an alien illusionist's in my plane...
IN EL RIO: by Wayan; 1994/5/14, a singles nightmare.
My family runs a bar. I walk through, after hours. Who are all these silent figures?
CAUTION: UNHEALTHY READING FOR SINGLES
IN THE BIG BOOKSHOP: by Wayan; 2020/6/28, a dream asserting another dream was prophetic!
I'm in a construction zone behind the world's largest bookshop, telling a friend that late 2020
& January 2021 will be a mess. I hide that I know it because a unicorn in a dream said so...
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
ISLE OF THE BLEST: by Wayan; 1990/11/9, painting inspired by series of fox-dreamlets
I'm a Japanese werefox, longing to reach the Isle of the Blest; but dare I swim for it?
JACK IN THE DITCH: by Jack's mom; 1944/6/6, 6/7 & 6/8, three apparently telepathic dreams
Jack was a parachutist on D-Day. His mom dreamt of the strafings, the ditch he hid in, the deaths of his comrades...
JETCATS: by Wayan; 1990/5/24, a surreal dream hiding a message about others
Our black cat Purr and our new blonde kitten fly around as if jet-propelled
dive-bombing the roof. Alarming, but their cat-reactions aren't like mine--
fast as a test pilot! For me it'd be suicide; for them, just playing...
JIM'S POWDER: by Helen; pre-1961, a telepathic warning dream
I dreamt I was begging Jim not to kill himself, but when I woke, I couldn't bring myself to call. I hardly knew him...
CAUTION: GUILT OVER (PREVENTABLE?) DEATH
JOIN THE WOLVES LATER!: by Wayan; 1980/9/4, a dream of false but useful fear.
Shepherding a group of cityfolks through an alien wilderness, I need a werewolf's help. So why do I lie?
JUMP OVERBOARD: by Graham Greene; 1925/12/11, a possibly psychic nightmare.
Wednesday night I dreamed I had to jump overboard... that night there was a wreck
off the Yorkshire coast in a storm and the captain ordered his men to jump into the sea...
THE KEY IS HERE, BUT BEWARE; 2012/3/8 by Eleanor; nested nightmares of enlightenment
The moment I find the Key, I'm possessed! I wake to find it's just a nightmare. Only who's broken into my house?...
CAUTION: DEMONIC POSSESSION & EVERYDAY PSYCHOPATHS
THE KEY TO OUR INHERITANCE: by Wayan; 2010/9/12; a nightmare whose victims organize
The dead treasure-hunter's will ordered us, his heirs, to convene in the wood.
Attacked there by a knight in armor, we near-strangers must unite to win our...
KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29
One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to.
Because some things need to be dealt with alone, where they can't harm......
KNIGHTLY: by Wayan, 2019/2/12, a dream-poem on a wide time-vista
Huge gold construction cranes loom over medieval castles. Not rebuilding, but
hoisting knights to the heights. I get a ride up, and see a wide timescape...
LACED WITH TERROR: by Wayan; 1999/5/3, an anti-nightmare.
Researchers show me weird little objects like shoelaces that drive people mad with fear...
LADDER OF FEAR by Mike & Wayan, 2021/2/9; parallel dreams
MIKE: A reckless friend races up a hazardous ladder. I follow slowly, reluctant, scared. Almost a nightmare...
WAYAN: Mike recklessly climbs an outdoor ladder as lightning strikes. Scary! Wait--this dream feels psychic...
CAUTION: APPARENT E.S.P.
LAMPREYS: by Wayan; 1974/6/27, a dream of assimilation
Pretty much everyone in my school is a bloodsucking alien, but, come to think of it, so what?
CAUTION: SEX, VAMPIRES, SEX WITH VAMPIRES, BUT NICE VAMPIRES
LAPUTANS LECTURE BROBDINGNAG: by Wayan; 2014/10/1; a dream defying the patronizing 'conscious'
We ride on a flying saucer made of stone. Atop the great cliffs, we meet a giant and
warn him not to slip. He doesn't appreciate advice from little alien tourist twerps...
THE LAUGHING GIRL: by Gordon Wagner, c.1977; a strong anima helps heal a trauma
I was one of just three to survive a roller coaster crash. I dreamed of a playful, laughing girl who drove off a cliff.
Dead, she lay on a bier in a surreal cemetery. But she woke and looked at photos of her old self with curiosity...
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!
LIME FROST by Anonymous #53, Jan. 1957, a short psychic dream
I felt dread as I peered out my parents' window into the garden. My dad lay on the frosty grass, dead...
LION-MEN: by Wayan; 1995/7/9, an eye-opening dreamlet.
I'm a traveling Zen warrior talking to a circus girl in a barn. Four guys enter--and my life changes forever.
MANSON'S CAGE: by Wayan; 1992/9/10, a nightmare.
At the end of my long, tiresome tour of Hell, it's feeding time in the cage of the Manson cult...
CAUTION: SO MEAT REALLY IS MURDER!
MANTA MOTHS: by Wayan; 1990/10/3, a transcendental nightmare echoing a dream 8 years before, (1982/1/22)
Manta Moths pick us off us explorers... or do they? An old scroll spoke of fear leading to transformation...
MARABOU MONSTER: by Rustling Leaves; dreamed 2014/3/15
I've got too many obligations, an elderly relative to care for, and now giant birds are invading my house.
CAUTION: STALKING, KILLER BIRDS
MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DUSK: by Wayan; 1994/10/10, an initiatory dream.
To enter the House of Dusk, I must say what haunts the Pass. Even if I guess right, do I really understand?
MAYAN FORCE: by Wayan; 1992/12/6, a political dream-fable.
First, sf writer Heinlein advocates a strong army; then I see one in action--turned against the people...
MELTDOWN BABY: by Wayan; 1996/10/13, a guilty nightmare.
In a Mormon future, my baby climbs a tree and spontaneously disintegrates! I try repotting, but...
CAUTION: BAD PARENTING
THE MELTING POT: by Wayan; 1982/7/30, a dream warning of a conformist circle
They were swimming in the glowing, molten pool of the Melting Pot, and beckoned me to join them...
CAUTION: SUICIDE SOUP?
MILK ADDICTS: by Wayan, 1974/6/2, an early psychic dream.
I'm in what seems to be a village of very conservative Muslims. But they're really alien castaways...
MINE BACK DOOR: by Wayan; 1979/9/7, a dream on mining the unconscious.
Deep in a secret diamond mine, I see stars. A door opening to the night sky!
But this shortcut's heavily guarded...
A MISCARRIED LIFE: by Wayan; 1981/2/12, a dreamlet just a century long.
I'm Mattie, a pregnant girl on a Lewis and Clark expedition. I miscarry, and they tell me...
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
MURDERER: by Dusan Makavejev, c.1960, twin nightmares with peculiar joyful moods
I'm given photos of what a murderer saw, but I recognize these scenes. I am the murderer! At least I've solved the case.
I'm in a bare white room. On the wall, a long fuse sparks. I feel euphoric from ozone--it means I've had a fatal radiation dose...
THE MURDERS: by four Wayans! 1971/7/14; a family has simultaneous psychic nightmares.
Nearly everyone in my family dreams of a mass murder as it happens nearby. But my dad's sure it's his own
evil id, and my mom clams up, and my sister forgets. And me? I doubt the whole thing for ten years, until...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE VIOLENCE
MY WILDCAT WOUND: by Wayan; 1994/7/8, a dream on gender trauma.
I'm a wildcat in a cat/fox team led by a woman who wants us to merge with a man/wolf team...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE
NAPPING IN PATERSON: by a Paterson mom; pre-1961, a lifesaving intuitive flash
I was downtown when I knew I had to hurry home. I found it full of gas.
As my husband napped, our two-year-old had turned on all the stove jets...
NANCY AND KIT: by Wayan; 1994/1/3, a dream about mislabeling.
In a psychodrama scene, I try to stop a furious guy from hitting an exhibitionist girl. But I'm bleeding...
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream.
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when
our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
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 NIGHTMARE EFFECT: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/14, an anti-nightmare.
My own fear creates a field of time/speed distortion; can I use it against my attackers?
NIGHTMARE 1944: by Ira Sadoff; before 1981, a temptation-nightmare?!
On my side of the fence, Austrian winter--gray skies, snow. On the other, warm sun, and a frighteningly beautiful
German woman. She invites me over the border, to join her--and the terrified people being dragged off in carts to...
CAUTION: HOLOCAUST HINTS
NIGHTMARE STUDIO: by Gary Panter, 2003, a 5-page comic of his lonely surreal dream world
(plus a 2018/8/31 dream by Wayan provoked by Panter's dream art)
Rather than a dream narrative, this is a tour through Gary's common dreamscapes--
forgotten places, empty streets. Or ones you wish were empty...
"NOHOR!" YELLED THE NIGHTMARE: by Wayan; 1982/12/27, a passionate nightmare.
I dreamed a black mare was howling "Nohor!" At first I thought she meant "I'm not just a horse", but...
CAUTION: SEXUAL ISSUES
NO ONE'S OUT TO GET ME: by Wayan; 1993/12/14, a subtle nightmare.
I always thought learning no one's out to get me would be a
good thing. But No One turns out to be a deadly opponent...
NO VACATIONS?: by Wayan; 1999/8/14, a spiritual nightmare.
Before I was born, I set up this life to learn loneliness, boredom and fear. Good move, soul! No vacations?
NOT THREE!: by Wayan; 1996/11/11, an encouraging nightmare
I was wrong. I didn't survive three assassins. It's been seven! Why'd I forget the others?
ONE FRUIT REMAINS UNEATEN: by Catshall; November 1983, a journal dotted with dreams
My day life as an artist and explorer of the San Francisco underground scene
gets regularly commented on by my dreamlife...
CAUTION: SEX, BONDAGE
OPEN MIC: by Wayan; 1992/8/18; my first public dream-reading
An open microphone in a San Francisco cafe. Others tell stories, sing songs, chant poems. But I
want to tell a shamanic dream! To an audience sure that dreams are dull, incoherent, meaningless...
OTTERS DON'T FAKE: by Wayan; 1989/10/15, a sex dream that's not about sex at all.
I'm scared to show my dream-paintings to my art class. That night I find an large otter in my bed...
CAUTION: SEX
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
PET ME DARE!: by Wayan; 1996/2/7, a sexy healing dream; 2p. dream-comic (or ill. text)
After whining all day that I lost my anima, I dream I'm petting a cat.
Who purrs, and grows, and grows, and purrs "Pet..."
CAUTION: PUSSY TROUBLE
PIANO AND CROCODILES: by Wayan; 1987/9/6, a predictive dream with teeth.
My parents host a dinner party, but squeeze us all onto a piano stool. I plink away nervously.
The guests flee. My sister blames me, but I suspect it's my dad's pet crocodiles! Next day...
PIER'S END: by Wayan, 1989/2/21, a Raymond Chandler dream.
My detective lover warned me, "Stay away!" Now I'm trapped. Dare I follow the lion over the edge?
PINBALL SHOWDOWN: by Wayan; 1995/3/18, a flirty game-playing dream.
I suspect the pinball champion of Jupiter is cheating. I try to scare her psychic confederate out of hiding...
THE PLAY: by Georges Perec; February 1972, a dream with the attention span of a gnat. Dream #108
I'm in a play. Fear, then joyful sex, then ranching, then silly hats, as a man drones on about
class struggle. Weird chairs, pingpong, coffee, impossible double utterances. At last
I tell friends my dream--backwards. Then I write the dream down on slices of cheese...
CAUTION: SEX ONSTAGE
PLESIOSAUR: by Wayan; 1985/9/5, a comic medical nightmare.
An itchy patient of mine insists he's turning into a four-
headed, man-eating plesiosaur. He left one thing out...
PLUSH BEAR: by Wayan; 1994/8/3, a grotesque dream poem.
Two mimes terrorize our art class in a stretchable bear-suit. Well, we HOPE it's just a suit...
PLUTO: THE NEWEST PLANET: by Lena, 2022/3; a dream warning of coming change
A disintegrating board game reminds me to take time to enjoy things beyond work and activism...
CAUTION: NUDITY, TRANSGENDER, ASTROLOGY
PREEMIE; 1951/10/30 by an Oklahoma woman; a predictive dream
We were looking at our three-pound premature baby girl. Though tiny she was bright-eyed, active, perfect...
PROPHETIC DREAM OF BUDDHA'S FATHER: by King Suddhodana, c.563 BCE? an uneasy dream
Suddhodana dreams of great upheavals; no courtier can interpret the dream.
An ascetic claims the upheaval will be for the good, then... turns into an owl?!
CAUTION: PERHAPS NOT ENTIRELY ACCURATE
PUPPY: by Naoki Higashida; March or April 2015, a role-reversal dream
I walk home with a puppy to meet my mum, who addresses the dog by my name
and invites him in, while I head for my doghouse in the garden...
RATTLER BANQUET: by Wayan; 1993/1/29, a pointed nightmare; it leaves punctures!
My parents invite me out to dinner, but there's a rattlesnake under the table,
and my mom chases it up my leg. I wake to find two holes in my knee...
THE RIPPLE EFFECT: by Wayan; 1992/6/19, a double dream of false judges.
A dream of innocent incest turns guilty, growing to a war of ghosts versus a cult of sexy but dishonest psychics...
CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES, NIGHTMARE
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...
ROSEMARY AND FRANCES: by Rosemary; 1936/6/5, a predictive mood & flash saves one of two sisters
Gloom clung to me & I skipped the dance. I begged Frances to ride in a safe car, but coming home...
SALIA AND CHUR: by Wayan; 1989/2/25, a psychic Star Trek dream.
Our starship signs up a strange new woman whose quirks turn out to be fallout from slavery...
CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
SAW HER IN HALF?: by Wayan; 2008/8/28, a warning dream-poem, Dreamverse #15
A sorceror's apprentice describes a medical procedure her teacher plans.
Yow! I sure wouldn't trust anyone to try that on ME...
CAUTION: TALK OF BLOOD AND SEX
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...
SEX THERAPY: by Wayan; 1998/5/18, a dream on the messiness of healing.
Both of us were abused as kids. Sex is hard. So we go to a therapist who has us act out sex on the floor...
CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
THE SEX WORKSHOP: by Wayan; 1997/4/6, a dream on taking the next step.
The teacher of our sex workshop picks me for a demonstration in front of everyone. Gulp...
CAUTION: WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK?
THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: by Wayan; 1989/7/8, a comic nightmare, possibly telepathic.
My sisters get bored with the game of power, so I watch TV--
until it melts, and a terrifying giant rises to chases me...
SHADOWS ADMIRABLE: by Wayan; 1993/9/28, a dream on dreams.
A dream-lecturer says Shadows aren't just what we hate or fear, but what we admire yet see as "not us"...
CAUTION: IDEAS
THE SHAKEN PROFESSOR: by Wayan; 1996/2/11, a dream explaining amnesia and memory.
A great teacher abruptly blanks out. Memory loss is scary, but the empty moment bared a deeper fear:
SHAMANIC CHEW-TOY: by Wayan; 2011/3/16; nested dreams of strange women
Compulsively honest spirit-women with waterjugs invade my friend's house.
I wake to find my girlfriend's obsessing on hair loss. To calm her, I babble about limb loss...
and wake again to find she was a dream too.
SHARK, SHARK, SHARK!: by Thomas Madden; 2017/12/3, a non-nightmare about fear
I'm in a crowd as a man lectures about sharks. He points at me and asks "Shall I throw him in with...?"
SHARKBIT AND WARY: by Wayan; 2017/11/17, a dream explaining my own social caution
At the beach, I see a swim team wading in. One girl teases a laggard wader,
not seeing her huge scar. She says "I won't swim till the shark-risk is mapped"...
SIBERIAN TIGER VERSUS MUPPETS: by Chris Wayan 2020/12/9; a what-if dream
I wake in a strange frozen bedroom. Oh. My bed is Siberia! That means
there are tigers. Clearly the way to defend myself is with giant stuffed toys...
SILKY'S BRIDGE: by Wayan, with brief parallel dream by Liz; 1987/5/7, apparent shared dreams
WAYAN: I'm a cat climbing on sea-cliffs. Fear I'll fall. Run into Silky, an archer firing
a line across to an islet. Now the Deer People can build their gossamer bridge...
LIZ: I was hiking along a trail atop sea-cliffs. But I feared I'd fall...
SING TO SUMMON COURAGE: by Wayan, 2019/4/21, a surreal dreampoem
Day: an exhibitionist teen uses sex to sell charity cupcakes, while her mom glares...
Dream: I date the exhibitionist, but her dad imposes weird trials, as I sing for courage...
SIT ON A CLOUD: by William S. Burroughs, 1990?, a big-city flying dream
A thousand feet above New York. I meet two naked angels who say it's their first flight, but I
got no fear of falling anymore; got no body to fall. Sit on a cloud. Just me and my shadow...
SKUNK? SWALLOW!: by Wayan; 1981/5/7, a dream-joke with a point.
When I see two scary men on the trail, naturally, I swallow my skunk! I really don't recommend...
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...
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. I blurt out the truth behind our idiotic waking world! And wake believing it...
CAUTION: MERMAID AND HORSE NUDITY
SPACE: by εmaxu.lag.Ilis, before 1925, an early dream of spaceflight
In my dream, I flew upward. It was as though I was going to the place where stars are, for the stars
were showing in the daytime. I saw all around our world. Then I wished in vain to go down again...
SPLINTER: by Wayan; 1981/3/14, a dream of love and nagging.
I love Splinter, but her mom insists I got BOTH of them pregnant. Then I notice I'm pregnant too...
CAUTION: SEX, NAGGING
STAY GROUNDED!: by Wayan; 1988/2/27, an unexpectedly grounded dream.
I'm playing poker with a dragon. But we barely dare move: we're both crackling with thousands of volts...
SUPERHERO TRAINING KITS: by Wayan; 2006/12/17, a wise mishmash dream
I careen from a shamanic laboratory
to a shattered ring round an alien world
to (gasp) an honest politican!...
SURF THE SAN ANDREAS: by Wayan; 2008/8/21, 3 short dreampoems, Dreamverse #11
Through twin gates of dream--not ivory and horn any more, but fear and trust...
Three castles on the sea: a Mock Kremlin, a Ship of Toiletpaper, and a Ship of Brick and Beer...
A mad old surfer of the San Andreas Fault, impossibly riding earth-change...
SURFACE TENSION: by Roswila; 2007/12/8, an anxiety-dream poem
Skimming over the lake on surface tension as two sharks prowl beneath, I'm not sure who's fishing for whom...
SURRENDER TO THE WHITE BUFFALO: by Kathleen Sullivan, 1970s?; a nightmare turned shamanic
A gigantic herd of buffalo stampede toward me. I panic, then surrender in peace to what is surely my death...
SWORD AND BOAR: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/30, a dream warning of excess.
A boar attacks Swedenborg's late brother, alive again. He tries to help, but the pig
eats his brother's head. That's what you get for drinking, partying, and gluttony...
CAUTION: VIOLENT DEATH
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...
TAROT: PHOBIA!: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Groundless fears slow you to a crawl, testing every step of a clear, safe path...
TELEKINETIC KIDS: by Wayan; 2017/9/8, a warning and exploratory dream
A black separatist commune hides two little girls who are psychokinetic.
They fear I'll expose them. But I've spent my whole life passing too...
CAUTION: PARAPSYCHOLOGY, RACIAL SEPARATISTS
TEN THOUSAND MAD GHOSTS: by Wayan; 1996/9/3, a psychic nightmare.
A toxic site in Silicon Valley isn't a chemical spill, but angry ghosts, killed in a camp and forgotten...
CAUTION: THE CAMP TURNS OUT TO BE REAL
TERESA'S BILLBOARDS: by Wayan; 1988/5/1, a dream about trust.
Teresa mistrusts men. Her best friend Sabina comes on to me in front of Teresa, who blames me...
CAUTION: NUDITY, BETRAYAL, GENDER PARANOIA
TERRIBLE HORSE: by Louise Bogan; 1941, poem of a healing dream
A stallion reared to strike me. He was all the fear and rage I’d repressed... A woman said “offer him...
THE TERROR OF ACCOUNTING: by Wayan, 2011/11/27, a twin-realities half-lucid nightmare
I'm biking on a crowded, steep San Francisco hill, but at the same time
an inexplicably terrifying office meeting gets superimposed. And
the AI feeding me the virtual office gets all snarky about my fear...
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...
THREE DREAMS: by Al Davison and two friends, 1985, a shared nightmare
I dreamed I checked my neighbor's flat for prowlers; I got shot and fell out a window. The same night
my neighbor dreamt she asked me to check her flat, I got shot and fell out a window; the same night
her best friend dreamt she came by and saw from street level the gunmen and my fall out the window...
CAUTION: VIOLENT ATTACK FROM THREE VIEWPOINTS
THREE FLYING DREAMS: by Sharad Chandra, 1988 or before, mystical advisory dreams
1: I ask how to fly. "Breathe air from high levels; its light and purity will wash away earth's heaviness..."
2: To join a flying game, you must cut off your own head! Players acquire new heads and can work miracles...
3: I float up to reach a book in a shop. People call the police but I defiantly soar--over Paris, up to the stars...
TO GET DOWN FROM OUR APARTMENT: by Jack Kerouac, ca. Halloween 1957, a telepathic nightmare?
My mom had to climb a ladder down the side of the Empire State Building; I'm told she fell and died...
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...
TWILIGHT'S OVAL GAME: by Wayan; 2017/10/4, three dreams arguing "Friendship is Magic"--literal magic.
1: I failed to save a magic tree. It fell and killed someone. I'm racked with guilt...
2: A giant pinball game on a tilted oval relief-map. But you can only win as a team of six friends...
3: A Caribbean girl with a weird aura tries to align two magic crystals to heal herself...
CAUTION: BREASTS, MY LITTLE PONY AS ROLEMODEL
TWO-HEADED BEAST: by Wayan; 1997/7/31, a 5-page Gothic dream-comic (or as illus. text)
In Castle Frankenstein, will Mary Shelley wed Elmer Fudd? His two-headed monster has marital advice...
UNCORK A SUB GOD: by Wayan; 1998/8/11, a cryptic warning dream.
Exploring a sunken sub, my buddies salvage a something ticking. Toss it back, but it won't stay sunk...
AN UNEXPECTED MOVE: by Wayan; 1998/12/17, a peripatetic dreamtale.
In the Los Angeles ruins, a wizard-gang jumps us. Desperate, I try a crazy un-Angeleno move: I use my feet...
THE UNWILLING GUIDE: by E.M. Martin; 1914/12/29, a nightmare of occupied England
In a wood full of snipers, Martin has a hard moral choice: lead, leave or turn some possible spies...
A VALLEY NEAR HOPE: by Wayan; 1984/10/17-19, an epic dream.
I wander a valley where unicorns love cyborgs but fear giant ants, who love unicorns but
fear cyborgs, who love ants but fear unicorns! And while the Three Tribes squabble, cave-monsters
sculpt them all. I set up peace talks between these four aspects of my tetrahedral soul...
CAUTION: SWEARING, DRUNK LIONS, CYBORG SURGERY, AND GOGGLE-BARFING
VELOCIRAPTORS AND BANANAS: by Wayan; 1994/2/6, a predator-advisory dream.
After a visit from our landlady's angry, crazy son
I dream hungry velociraptors invade our house...
THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic.
Half-mad with fear, I massacre a cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle.
Then I'm a cultist, resisting the Voice of God pushing all us mortals to murder in His name.
I woke up haunted, and wondered for weeks what this was about... until the Waco Massacre.
CAUTION: CREEPY VIOLENCE, CREEPY GOD, CREEPY PREDICTION
VOLITION ON THE BRINK: by Dr William Hammond, c.1867.
I'm on a mesa, looking down in terror. I try to pull back but a compulsion
overrides my will--I crawl helplessly forward until I go over. As I fall...
CAUTION: PRE-FREUDIAN DISMISSAL OF WARNING
WAITING FOR PIGFALL: by Wayan; 1979/10/31, a puzzling Halloween dream.
The messiah of a suicide cult prepares to ritually sacrifice me. Then a miracle occurs! But... whose?
WAPATO BIRDS: by Wayan; 1986/2/2, a subtly psychic dream.
I'm a Wapato Bird: part crane, part elk, part tree-bud. Despite my
shyness, I must lead our people's migration to the Grand Teton lakes...
WERTZ!: by Wayan; 2023/10/14, a night of cartoonist-inspired dreams
After seeing Julia Wertz's cartoon history of her entire dreamlife (on one big page!) I dream
Wertz style all night! I don't mind the nightmares--what gets me down is comics' black & white...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARES, SEX
WHARTON TOWER: by Wayan; 1985/7/24, 3 surreal dreamlets on gender & class?
1940s reporters almost trap me in a mob shootout. I shelter in a gender-segregated hotel.
The owner of Wharton Tower shakes the hotel so it swings between its butch & femme halves.
I fall off the Hudson Palisades, but I land safely on the Glass Ceiling...
WHAT LIES BENEATH: by Susan Vasiljevic; undated, 2012? 13?, a feminist nightmare-painting
A male real estate agent knocked on the door. The house was full of sleeping crocodiles.
She fled through the house, trying not to rouse the attention of either sort of predator...
WHO'LL BE MY LOVE?: by Wayan; 1986/4/14, a dream noir farce; part 4 of UNICORN TAG.
I'm a hardboiled detective wincing as I grill a meek little psychic
(probably me) about squish-softboiled topics like unicorns and love...
CAUTION: SMUTTY UNICORN MAKES EVEN COPS BLUSH
WHY ARE WE AFRAID TO DIE?: by Hopper; summer 2008, an astral-interview dream.
I meet a ghost girl and ask her about death. I figure she knows first-hand. And she tells me...
WHY ME?: by Karen Smith; 1991/7/22; nested flying/oracular/tragic dreams
I flew joyfully over Sun Valley. But when I landed, I wore a uniform. As I slept in our barracks,
I dreamed--within my dream--of finding two friends in the lake, tangled in a net, long dead. I
"woke" and told a friend my dream. She said in tears "I know someone has to die, but why me?
THE WILD HUNT: by Wayan; 1998/7/24, a dream of myth--or abuse?.
We're exploring the English farm we inherited, when The Wild Hunt storms over the hill...
WILL I BE BITTEN?: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dream from the Box of Dreams
A friend who's fought lymphoma invites me to sleep in a cave, but I fear a rattlesnake will bite me...
WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, apocalyptic dream
When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us!
Fleeing from Saruman's army, I discover the backstage truth about our world...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!
WING IT: by Wayan, 1995/12/29-1996/2/14, a 9-page improv comic.
An art experiment--the only rule is DRAW without preconceptions--
no models, no ideas, no plans, not even dreams. Drawing from the void!
WITCH, FLY FREE!: by Wayan; 1997/5/3, a predictive dream.
A castle of witches in Europe. Persecuted for centuries, they're wary.
Still, such a treasure-trove of kindred spirits! Can I find a witch to love?
CAUTION: PAGANS CRIPPLED BY SIEGE MENTALITY...
WOLF BAFFLER: by Wayan; 2019/9/3, a comically surreal dream-poem
My job's to feed the wolves downtown with the heads of tuna-human hybrids; I mystify the pack
with a blend of skating, ballet and rope tricks. Wait, could this work on scary humans, too?
THE WRAITH OF KHAN: by Wayan; 1982/6/2, a dream on brains and consequences
I'm being stalked by Ricardo Montalban, playing Khan,
Captain Kirk's enemy on Star Trek. Why? Oh, I know why!
YES, EMMA, ONE POUND ONIONS: by a Canadian girl; pre-1961, a distracting dream prediction
I was in a small room with a single bare lightbulb and an old man at a desk writing. The phone rang.
He answered--said, 'Yes, Emma, one pound onions, a dozen oranges." Two days later...
YOU LOSE EVERYTHING: by Rachel Yoder, spring 2023, a dream of discovery and loss
The house I'm looking at has unexpected rooms, even a pool, but another buyer beats me out.
An old woman says "Don't worry dear, in time you lose everything." A comfort at first, but then...
YOU REALLY AREN'T LUNCH; 2012/6/11 by Maia Spencer; a cledonic dream of facing fears
Hiding in the woods I meet a Cyclops. But I'm not me, I'm the editor of the World Dream Bank...
"YOU'LL GROW OUT OF THAT": by Graham Donaldson, spring 1924, a rescue dream
Wading a river at night, I fall in. I'm drowning! But my friend Edward pulls
me out. "But Eddie, you're dead!" "No" he says. "You'll grow out of that!"...


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