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LIFEPATHS

Dreams that sum up or map or span the arc of a whole life, or dreams with literal life-paths, life-scripts, life-contracts, life-maps! The spacetime tracks we make through past, present, future, and through seas of alternate possibilities. The lives we signed up for. Or settled for. There are even a few precious dreams of stepping off the path, tearing up the script and improvising...

Also here: dreams that urge or even force a person onto a new life-path, like the Great Peace: by George Antheil, Quod Vitae by Rene Descartes, Rapa Iti by Marc Liblin, or Buffalo Person by Plenty Coups.

RELATED TOPICS: epic dreams - guides and animas - reincarnation - career advice - quantum dreams: uncertainty, time-branches and probability bundles - free will and slavery - initiative versus passivity - shamanic dreams and visions - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.


ACORN AND PELT: by Wayan; 1983/7/19, a simple sex dream growing to a mystical extravaganza
I fall in love, defying dwarf-tossers and Toulouse-Lautrec, till I become a time-traveling bunny...
CAUTION: SEX, SIZE DISCRIMINATION AND SLANDER
THE AIRPORT AUTOMATIC PHOTOGRAPHY BOOTH: by Julie Doucet; 1997/11/19, a dream-comic
At the airport, a new automatic photo booth shoots your memories!
Julie can't resist... and emerges, excited, to find that...
ALICE MILLER MONSTER MESSAGES: by Wayan; 1998/1/22-3/8, digital improv-portrait of inner selves.
Writer Alice Miller tried painting her childhood monsters. I tried it and got surprise messages...
CAUTION: FRANK LANGUAGE
ALIEN GIRL, SACRED PEAKS: by Wayan; dreamed 2005/11/25, two dreams on long-term goals
I'm one of a trio of swimmers in a pool, making out--under the surface only. Must we hide?
I'm near Shiprock with a flying-saucer girl who sees the nearby crags and far snowy peaks
as all the same size and distance... how to teach perspective?
CAUTION: SKINNYDIPPING, GROPING
ALPHA RALPHA BOULEVARD: by Wayan; 1997? 14"x17" watercolor of recurring dream
I keep dreaming of this path or road arching up into the sky...
AMATERASU'S MIRROR: by Lady Sarashina and an unnamed priest, c. 1035/3/22, two dreams of a life-choice
Sarashina dreams (again) she needs to leave court life and a spiritual path. Her skeptical mom sends a
priest to the temple to dream for her! But he too dreams the Goddess shows two life-choices--happy or sad...
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...
AMBIVALENT? NO! (YES!): by Wayan; 1990/1/3. Digital panorama of dreamselves over a lifetime.
A chronological orgy of my self-images from childhood on: horses, geeks, girls, satyrs, boys, monsters...
CAUTION: CARTOON SEX
AMERICAN TANKA: by Wayan; dreamed 1989/7/26, painting-poem-story on 30" disk, 1995.
I dreamed I circumnavigated the entire Buddhist wheel of existence in a single night...
ANARCHIST FAIR: by Wayan; 2005/4/5, a drastic dream-song, with chords
At an anarchist fair in San Francisco, a 13-year-old punkette genius sings some shocking advice to me...
ARENNA, FREED: by Wayan; 1991/11/6, a magical pastlife/flying/freedom dream.
I learn to fly from Arenna the moon-girl and Crest the dragon, in the House of Deep Memory...
THE ASILOMAR OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1986/3/5, a dream about dreams.
Jungian angels at a conference of dreams test my progress. But I'm all
backwards! Struggle with the easy stuff; zoom through the hard stuff...
BAR BET: by Wayan; 1982/4/30, a dream-quest on not settling for less.
On a bar bet, we seek God. We reach the Isles of the Blessed, but they're complacent. We want the wild
God, the real God, the Bad Taste God. Onward, pagan questers! Because we want to win our bet.
CAUTION: LAZY-ASS ANGELS
THE BATTLE FOR THE RAI DRAGON: by Rikutsu; 2015/12/6, a dream declaring change is ready at last
In a corrupt world, a talisman called the Rai Dragon offers hope of real change--
IF it can be found, AND used by someone decent-hearted...
BEETLE: by Daniel Quinn; spring 1941; a life-defining shamanic dream
A black beetle insists I'm not needed or at home in the human world; my lifework is elsewhere...
BIOFRACTAL: by Deirdre Barrett, c.2016; an ecological dreamlet
I was in a jungle, seeing birth, growth and death--the entire web of life at once...
BLACKSLIME TOWER: by Wayan; 1986/11/13; a transformation dream with political tinges
Humanity's trapped in a Quad, overseen by the Guardians of Blackslime Tower.
Feather by feather, I grow wings, and plot to escape with the Flying Cat...
CAUTION: THE SLIME IS REAGANOMICS
BREAK THE SCRIPT: by Wayan; 1993/6/19-20, two advisory dreams
A sexy encounter with two robotic girls hopping a night train outside Portland...
CAUTION: THREESOME
BUFFALO PERSON: by Plenty Coups, summer 1857; a child's time-traveling, tribe-saving dream
I was led into the future, where all the buffalo disappeared, to meet a frail old man by a ranch house...
BUT I WANT TO LIVE!: by Wayan; 1995/8/5, a life-altering dream.
My job's to clarify people's deepest wishes. But when I meet two women who truly want to die...
CAUTION: SUICIDAL IMPULSES
BYRON’S DREAM: by Lord Byron; 1816, a dream of a love denied
An epic dream on the lifelong effects of unrequited love, compressed into seven stanzas...
CANCER: by William Dement, c.1969, a health-warning nightmare
A few years ago I smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, though I knew they were carcinogenic.
I dreamed I had terminal cancer; my denial of the evidence had killed me. I woke, and quit...
CARTWRIGHT'S HARLEQUIN: by Rosalind Cartwright, 1927? to 2020/12/5? Lifelong recurring dream
All her life, Cartwright dreamed of a figure disguised in a harlequin costume; she never saw his face.
He always drove her to self-sabotage. But near her death, she dreamt she gave a lecture, and he...
CHART THE GROWTH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2004, painting of an incubated, oracular dream
I asked my dreams "What's my truest purpose?"
I dreamed my body was a tree, and a voice said "Chart the growth"...
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...
CHURCHES BURN WHEN YOU LEARN TO FLY: by Wayan; 1989/9/1, a didactic flying dream.
I finally learn the difference between just getting off the ground
and the mastery of true flight--but there's a heavy price...
THE CIRCUS HUMANS' DESERTION: by Wayan; 1988/2/19; an epic holy dream.
I join a circus, but soon all the best carnies sail off to the Blessed Isles. The circus animals pitch in
and carry on--clumsy and lonely. Then a divine herald arrives from the Isles: Donald Duck! He says...
CLIMB FROM THE PIT: by Wayan, 1996/11/9, a dream parable.
I'm in the Mideast. No wonder it's a war zone--it's a vast pit BUILT for war!
But a spiral stair leads slowly out, to...
COMICS & DREAMJOURNAL: by Rick Veitch, Jan 1974, a life-path dream
I'm trying to jam together my dream diary and my first comics. My grandmother's
skeptical. But at last, with an audible 'click', dreams and comics suddenly merge...
CRAZY HORSE'S DREAM: by Crazy Horse; summer 1854 (age 11-12) a life-predicting dream
I saw a man riding across the face of a lake. Bullets and arrows flew at him, but all missed.
He reached the shore. Men who looked like him rose from the ground, and pulled him down...
CAUTION: GENOCIDE DIRECT, GENOCIDE BY PROXY
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 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...
DREAM PATH: by Joseph Kemeny, 2012, painting of a lucid dream
Often while lucid dreaming I find myself exploring a pathway with amazing detail.
Sometimes a doorway seems to be asking me to continue on to a higher level...
DRILL TO FLOW: by Wayan; 2011/4/8, an anti-frustration dream
A panel of argumentative gods grant me a spare lifetime of piano practice. It takes that long, but...
ECCENTRIC: by Wayan; 1990/5/17, a two-page dream-comic.
I'm a small planet in an eccentric orbit: a one-day summer, a two-day winter. Rest and hibernate, or...
CAUTION: SLACKER ETHIC
EGO FACTORY: by Rick Veitch, late 1974/1, both a Jungian & career-advisory dream
I go to work at the factory, clock in, strip naked, and build my... self! Myself as art.
A long slow job, but when my workmates ask, I'm admit I'm happy with me at last...
EMBARKATION, or, THIS PORTAL COIL: by Wayan; 2013/8/28, a magical dream on dreams
A spiral pillow-path leads to an astral portal. But creatures arriving and departing
jam the same path! Squeeze by, hop over, apologize... flirt
Wait, isn't this a dream-image of death & letting go? Then why's it look so fun?
EMISSARY: by Wayan; 2000/3/22, an astral dreamtale.
I signed a prenatal agreement for weird, uneven luck to turn my life toward art and spirit.
I want to broaden it, but I've lost the contract! So my spirit wife Silky sets out to find it...
EVOLUTION'S DULL: by Wayan; 1997/7/22, a science rant.
Evolution is like baseball--a game of inches, efficiency, constraints. Surely we can do better....
CAUTION: CONTAINS THOUGHT
FAIRY WIFE: by Wayan; 1985/1/17, an epic dream of love and choice.
A fairy woman and a mortal man? Can't work! They're flighty, we're crude. Doomed, right?
Well, some people are so sure of it they decide to help things along a bit. Or a lot...
FALSE BOTTOM: by Edith Wharton; October 1913, a summing-up nightmare.
Demons open a trunk full of the horrors I've faced this year, and lay them out, mocking me... but is that all?
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 HOUNDS, FIVE DEFENSES: by Wayan; 2015/9/18, an explicit advisory dream
Five agents hound me. Literal hounds--in trenchcoats. They stand for my five worst life-troubles. Luckily,
they can't cooperate--they're from rival agencies! And the dream spells out what works against each one...
(ON THE OLD) GENDER TRAIL: by Wayan; late 1995, digital picture-poem with dream intrusions.
For me, the path to love is difficult, elusive, convoluted...
GISLI THE OUTLAW: by Gisli the Outlaw of Iceland; 966-973, a series of at least ten life-saving dreams.
Gisli had two spirit-wives who told him in dreams how to evade the bounty-hunters after him... for 13 years!
THE GREAT PEACE: by George Antheil; early 1922; two predictive dreams that change 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 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
GUDRUN'S FOUR HUSBANDS: by Gudrun Osvifursdottir; summer 988, plus spring 1026
Four childhood dreams predicting Gudrun's life; plus a predictive dream by her husband Thorkell Eyjolfson
Gudrun dreams of four treasures: a hood, a bracelet, a ring, a jeweled helm. Her cousin sees them as four marriages...
HAND US THE FRENCHMAN!: by Wayan; 2004/10/24, a comic dreamlet on hippiedom's last gasp
The Feds order my friend Mike to hand them a Frenchman we haven't seen in years. Mike substitutes a junk VW...
HAWKING COUNTRY: by Wayan; 1994/2/3, a quantum-level dream.
I read Stephen Hawking, and dream I'm in the Quantum Desert, full of bridges, holes & loops--
like the microstructure of spacetime. But it's not counter-intuitive at all--it's HOME!
HEADING FOR A FALL: by Wayan; 1993/11/2, a dream of drastic shortcuts.
I crash my car on the way to therapy. I ask my dream why. And it tells me! Deliberate, but not suicidal...
HER CUTIE MARK: by Wayan, 2016/8/7, a dream fusing Shakespeare & My Little Pony
After seeing The Tempest with a tattooed Miranda, I dream she has a Cutie Mark on her flank--
a logo showing her life-purpose, her life-path. Except she's outgrowing it...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
HILLMAN ON DAIMONS: by Wayan; 1998/9/7, on Greco-Roman and Jungian ideas of a life-goal
James Hillman and my own experience suggest we enter life with an agenda. But what if our goals are sick?
I AM A BIRD by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of another life... well, two.
I live as a small falcon, glad I'm no longer human. But when that life ends...
I HAD A WHITE BANDAGE: by Jack Kerouac, July 1957, a dream of triumph despite adversity
Wounded, bandaged, chased by cops, I end up heading a huge children's parade,
marching to Mongolia. No secret what it's about--On The Road was just published...
I SWEAR by Nicholas, as told to Gayle Delaney, c.1988; a milestone dream
I was in front of the gods on Mt Olympus or in Valhalla. I was scared,
but swore an oath to follow my passions and no longer play it safe...
IT IS THE ONLY WAY!: by Rick Veitch; c.1960; a child's career-predicting dream
My bedroom window is choked with dirt. I dig up to the surface
and find a man reading comics. He says 'It is the only way!'...
JOIN THE HUMAN RACE: by Wayan; 1985/2/11, a Gordian dream.
My shortcut in a marathon bogs down in a maze full of psychoanalysts! So I climb the walls and...
JOSEPHUS, LET GO: by Josephus Flavius; c.65 CE, vague predictive dreams
Resistance fighter Josephus, cornered, took a hard look at his prophetic dreams and decided to make peace...
LANDSCAPE FROM A DREAM: by Paul Nash; recurrent dreams 1895-9, painted summer 1937
As a child, Paul Nash dreamt he flew over rural southern England.
As an adult surrealist painter...
A LIFE IN PERCENTAGES: by Wayan; 2013/5/19, a dream about dreams--and timesharing
A man I meet leads half a dozen consistent dreamlives--an experience
so splintered that it's hard to figure out which life is his waking one...
LIFECYCLE: by Wayan; 1980s. Pencil sketch of daydream
The life-loop. A woman bears a child who grows up to become herself, who bears a child who...
CAUTION: SKETCHY NUDITY
THE LIMIT OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE: by Wayan; 1974/3/13, a dream of madness.
Deep in the caves, a Voice announces I've gone as far as the human mind can stand. But ahead, I see...
LONGEVITY PLANS!: by Wayan; 1998/8/22, a nondream speculation.
Lifespans are growing, but do we incorporate that into our life-planning? Oh, hell, do I plan at ALL?
LONGEVITY ROAD: by J.S., c.1898, a predictive life-arc dream
I walked along a hilly road with ropes and boxes. My wife vanished in a hollow. But
my path went on until the hills were blue in the distance. An old man interpreted...
LOON LADDER: by Wayan; 1993/5/13. A dream of rising above.
I had this near-nightmare about climbing a DNA stair up to the sky, and stepping off...
CAUTION: NUDITY, INCEST ISSUES
LOVE OF MY LIVES: by James Lyon; 2014/5/25, a life-spanning dream.
I live two complete lives with the same woman in my dreams, then wake up next to her...
MARTIAN ROBOTS DRESS LIKE FREUD: by Wayan, 1975/8/16, an absurd dream... predicting my life-path?
Martian robots pester me. I flee through the Asteroids, leaving chaos, cratering Earth.
Years later on my farm, a bot shows up disguised as Freud. I start mudslinging...
MARTIAN TIME-LOOP: by Wayan; 1994/5/2, a dream of the future shaping the past.
I'm a small boy in a ship docking in Mars Orbital Station. I meet a strange man: myself as an adult! Uh-oh...
METEOR OR STAR?: by Wayan; 2007/9/17, a dream of uncertainty
I'm an anima. But we rarely walk the day-world for long. When will I fade? Ignorance isn't bliss, it's paralysis...
MIDORI'S DREAM: by Midori Yamane, as told and drawn by her friend Igort, 2015.
I see a shop in Kyoto in the early 1900s. The old woman running it is calm,
with precise movements and sure hands. A voice says "That lady is Igort"...
THE MIMI: by Robert Moss, 1955, a dream of another life
As a boy in Australia I briefly died on the operating table. I found myself living among the Mimi,
spirits living in rocks. I grew up, grew old, died--and woke up nine years old again...
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...
MODELING A ME: by Wayan, 1994/8/29, a mirroring dream
I find a 3D program that shows your true self, the self that can love, IS love. And my wireframe is...
MOOSE: by Wayan; 1984/3/12, a dream on the blessings of curses.
How the Supreme Court gave my brother antlers, and where his soul went: where I'll go, now that I know...
MY CUBIST CONSCIENCE: by Wayan; 1982/8/5; a dream warning of overharsh ethics.
I dreamed I was trapped in the maze of my pacifist vegetarian feminist anarchist eco-conscience...
MY EDUCATION: by William S. Burroughs, 1959-94, a recurrent dream theme or mantra.
At the airport, I'm told I can't take my flight; I must finish my education first. Decades have passed,
and I still dream of borders and officials who won't let me go until they decide I've finished my...
MY LIFE ISSUE: ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS: by Wayan; 1994/1/2, a warning dream.
I dream the real issue in your life isn't the one you complain about most, but the one you hide...
MY LIPS ARE SEALED: by Wayan, 1989/6/3, a moody, psychic, epic, two-part dream.
I'm a Romantic poet who defeats the curse of the fountain, to marry; but when our daughter's grown,
a new curse strikes me mute, paralyzed. And I mistake this for old age!
Then, in real life, my dad wakes up from a nap paralyzed...
MY NEW PASSPORT: by Gayle Delaney, 1972/8/21, a life-changing dream
Why does my passport have color photos of me ice skating? I haven't in years. Your
passport must show your true face. Should I change it, or do they know me better than...
CAUTION: SHAMANIC SYNCHRONICITY
MY PEGASUS: by Regina van der Poel; 2000/6/1, a dream of my Life Painting
I free a friend unjustly imprisoned. On the run, we encounter our Life Paintings.
Mine is a beautiful pegasus flying. But on its back is a monkey in a red suit...
MY SINE-FRIEND: by Wayan; 1984/3/6, an emotional dream of time and rebirth.
An animal-girl I know lives like a sine-wave, first forward in time, then backwards, dying at every zero...
THE NESS MAN, or, HOW TO HEAL: by Wayan; 1994/4/13, a mytho-musical dream.
Mythic creatures round a woodland pool want to heal a businessman. Do too many cooks spoil the soup?
NEW BODIES: by Dreamy; around 2007/1/25, a transformation dream
My best friend and I qualify for new bodies. The new me is taller, but poor Ken may take years adjusting to his new...
A NIGHT ON MOUNT DIABLO: by Wayan, 1984/6/8, an allegorical four-phase dream.
I'm attacked by a narcissist firebird, a rabid rattler-manticore, a masochist bear, and a sexless succubus...
CAUTION: INEPT DEMONS
NO TRAVELER RETURNS by Nancy Price; 1948/2/2, a predictive dream
I don't love my husband, so I'm stranded in the hotel between life & death, from which...
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?
NOCTURNE: dreamed 2011 & 2013/11/19 by S---; nested, incubated advisory dreams
After asking "Am I ready to say yes to someone new?" I dreamed I met my old love...
NOCTURNE: by Wayan; 2023/9/20, a book of improv paintings on dreams
Inspired by Shaun Tan, I fill a black-paged photo album with 36 improv paintings.
They become a tour of my dreamworld, led by my anima Silky, a literal nightmare...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, WEIRD DREAM IDEAS
NUCLEUS: by Wayan, 1979/3/18, a surreal dream of character-insight, set inside an atom
I dream my theatre friends are particles dancing inside an atomic nucleus--
particles that reveal their character, motivations and power. And I'm one too...
OCARINA, or, MILLION-YEAR SENTENCE: by Wayan; 1972/5/27, a lucid / predictive dream.
I go lucid and drive my bed to the Nevada desert where I see my next million years. And so far, it’s been true...
ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, a dream echoing Cocteau's film Orphee--before seeing it
I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
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...
PARANOID HABITS: by Wayan; 1994/10/4, a hypnotic diagnosis.
A hypnotist elicits a personality inside me who says he obliges my paranoia by giving me weird luck...
PASS THE VIAL ON: by Wayan; 2000/4/18, a dream of renunciation
A vagabond king showed me the way into Faerie, and it made my fortune. But now it’s time to pass the gift on...
PASSIN' THROUGH: by Wayan; 1991, nondream digital picture
Painted to that country song by Leonard Cohen, where Adam, Jesus, Washington, and FDR
all get interviewed in their darkest moments, and they all sing "We're only passin' thru..."
PASSIONVILLE: by Wayan; 1982/7/10; a surreal dream written as a poem
We're stuck in an empty town whose streetnames are all emotions. And they change.
Rage becomes Giggle. Tedium, Terror! Devious town...
PASTLIFE MIDDEN: by Wayan; 1998/12/28, a past-life dream.
I bike deep into Time Hall, barging through security gates of amnesia, to climb the midden of the past...
PASTLIFE TRAINING TRACKS: by Wayan; 1981/5/5, a bikin' buddha dream.
I'm biking around a railroad switch-yard. Slowly realize
they're life-paths. People start following me out...
PATH: by Wayan; figures from 1989/10/12 dreamlet invade a waking landscape.
My art teacher said "Draw a spiritual experience." I tried, but that night, I dreamed of sharp-toothed...
CAUTION: TOPLESS MEDITATORS
PERSONAL CHAOS THEORY: by Wayan; 1994/12/4, a spiritual math dream.
My life is a mess, so I take a class on the four flavors of chaos, and find my Strange Attractors are shifting...
PETER PAN SYNDROME: by Wayan; 1995/1/10, a dream on those books...
I meet Peter Pan grown up: a stark, fey prince in exile. Why do only I see him and the Lost Children? Oh.
PICARDIAN ANGELS: by Wayan; 1993/1/7, a dream of time and wishes.
I walk on Martinique with Captain Picard of the starship Enterprise. He's here to see a dreamy boy...
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 Earth, glancing at the original far below. We were much alike...
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN: by Wayan; 1984/5/15, a devious dream.
We sail to the Isle of the Blest, but God exiles me to Fargo, North Dakota. But God's up to something subtle...
PYRAMID POWER: by Wayan; 1981/2/2, a dream of love and time.
We drive into a zone of perpetual night to see Sweet Melinda, but veins of light burst
across the landscape, and our time-path splits! I'm living two lives at once...
QUOD VITAE: by Rene Descartes; 1619/11/11, three mystical dreams.
In one night Descartes had three dreams convincing him he had to change the course of his life...
RABBIT WORLD: by Wayan; 6-page comic of a 1990/9/26 shamanic dream.
I'm a telepathic rabbit defending our world from space-laser attack. We do, but do we modernize too much?
CAUTION: IDEAS
RAPA ITI: by Marc Liblin, 1954-1960s, recurring childhood dreams teaching him an unknown language
Only at age 33 did Marc Liblin at last meet someone who spoke his dream language.
He married her, and moved to Rapa Iti, the only place in the world it's spoken...
REINCARNATION, or, SUPPOSE: by Wayan; 2015/7/10, an undream poem
These days I'm doubtful about both an afterlife AND utter extinction.
Was Shakespeare wrong about what gets buried, what lives on?
THE RIFT ZONE: by Wayan; 1987/11/27, a long-term psychic dream.
I'm not ambivalent--I'm confused! I live here by the Rift Zone and I don't. I'm single and not. Two lives!...
THE ROAD OF MY LIFE: by Wayan; 1999/12/12, pencil; a life-map.
The white road is my life history, told in women: friends, lovers, relatives, ancestors--and one past life...
THE ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Wayan; 1987/5/12, a recurring shamanic dream
The Rem Road I climb every night, from flesh to spirit, earth to sky. Though tonight, all these
wounded skateboarders worry me! And my own bruises say I overdid it in contact improv today...
RUBY UNICORN: by Wayan; dreamed 2012/11/15; a sculptural dream.
THAT DAY: My bandmates want to record crowd-pleasing songs. I want to record our strangest ones...
THAT NIGHT: In a woman's art studio, I'm struck by a low, feline, muscular unicorn mare, carved
out of a giant ruby. I ask, and she says "Oh, that's not mine. I found it in the trash"...
THE RULES OF THE GAME: by Wayan; 1992/11/30, a Gestaltish dream.
The Inner Theater. I'm duelling someone who keeps changing the rules. But so can I... can we make a deal?
SELF-MADE GIRLS: by Wayan; 2000/2/15, a public dream.
Two souls coalesce from bars of light into human beings by the power of words. Words like stupid, ugly...
SELF-POSSESSED: by Wayan; a 2000/7/10 dream of a ghost (representing the World Dream Bank itself?)
In a pizzeria, customers walk blindly through a ghost; briefly possessed, they
echo his moods. But for such an insubstantial figure, he seems strangely stable...
SELL THE GODS, AND RAISE HELL!: by Wayan; 1994/1/26, a dream riddle.
Reactionaries smash a paper. To rebuild, the editor must sell
the sacred tiki carvings! But gods don't LIKE being sold...
CAUTION: MORAL QUANDARY
EL SEÑOR DE LOS PÁJAROS: by Graciela Iturbide; 1980-83, recurring, possibly predictive dream
I dreamed a sentence over and over: "In my country I shall plant birds."
And I saw a man with many birds flying around him...
SHASTA STANDARDS: by Wayan; 1998/9/19, a dream of social change.
In a future where we gengineer ourselves instead of others, we no longer have to choose lesser evils...
SHEVEK'S TIME-SLIP: by Wayan; 1996/10/14, a chronohomeostatic dream.
Shevek invents time-travel and discreetly alters the past. But the future alters
Shevek's present, to undo his changes! Who's sabotaging him? Or... WHAT?
SHIELDS FROM THE GODDESS: by Wayan; 1996/8/3, a dream that's a slap in the face.
A Goddess-worshiping general gets a visit from her twin daughters who bring a puzzling message...
SILKY RELENTS: by Wayan; 1997/3/8 a dreamtale on undoing old injustice.
My anima Silky plans to kill a man who hurt her. Instead, we make them re-enact it, with variations...
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...
SOCK PUPPETS OF THE GODS: by Dee and Wayan; 1994/4/14. Parallel shamanic dreams!
I dream I'm suicidal; but I'm saved when I'm shown the flow of human development--the same pattern,
from souls to civilizations! Eddies and knots recur, but the challenges slowly get more spiritual.
NEXT DAY: I learn what my shaman-friend Dee just dreamed. And now I'm unsure whose dream this is...
CAUTION: IDEAS
SOUL-WORK GOES ON: by Wayan; 1994/11/3, a journal extract on dreamwork.
As I reread decades of dreams, I see Jung was right: even in crisis-times, soul-work goes calmly on...
THE SPHINX APPROVES: by Wayan; 1991/5/2, a dreamtale on growth.
A great war shrinks to wrestling, then hopping from page to page! Once they were worlds to me, but now...
SPIT DOOR: by Wayan; 1997/9/7, a flying dream.
My job is to set up portals to other realities, and
create secret routes through our world between them...
SPLIT THREE WAYS: by Wayan; 2010/8/24, a quantum dream of overwhelm
On the freeway, my car and I split into quantum possibilities. I steer both entangled cars
till I split again--now I have to steer three cars with just one pair of hands and eyes...
SPOCK'S SPIRITS: by Wayan; 2000/3/12, a financial-advice dream.
Lost in a dark maze of machine-shops, I follow Mr. Spock, who's drunk, and talks to tree-spirits...
CAUTION: ALCOHOL AS INSPIRATION?
SPONTANEOUS DUCK: by Wayan; 2010/9/14, two dreams on feeling magically inadequate
I spy on a girl learning magic in a quilted ditch. She lets me join her telekinesis lesson! Can my mind move a balloon?
Then I tour a witch-world where normality's shameful. One kid's not witch or normal--he keeps turning into Donald Duck!
CAUTION: DISNEY = DISABILITY?
SPORECOUNT: by Wayan; 1990/1/5, a dreamtale on patience through change.
I'm a hot archeology student till I open the wrong tomb. A plague
turns us into green moldy monsters--at first...
CAUTION: DISEASE, DEATH, GRIEF, SHAME
STARHAWK THE WITCH: by Wayan; 1983/8/19, 6. illus., an epic, milestone dream.
DAY: I read Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark, on building unity, undoing capitalism;
DREAM: I'm forced to become Time Pilgrim, warning of the dangers of community--indeed, of unity...
STEP THIRTEEN: by Wayan; 1997/7/8, a rebellious dreamtale.
Two big spoiled realities pester me to take care of them. At last I go on shamanic strike...
STREET OF THE FUTURE: by Rick Veitch; Mar 1974; a predictive dream
I'm a bike courier. I take a packet of fifty potent dreams
up Dream Street and deliver them to the year 1980...
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!
THE TAO OF DENNIS THE MENACE: by Wayan; 1986/4/17, a dream of a wise mentor.
Chased by purple squid from Jupiter, I seek refuge with a guru the Goddess recommends for me...
TAROT: RENUNCIATION (8 of cups): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Giving up a wall of material treasure for the moonlit path...
TAROT: THE SMORGASBORD OF LIFE: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
You get to fill one tray. Guns sex jewels pot hamburgers TV God power thrills love? Choose!
TEETH IN HIS THIGH: by Wayan; 2008/10/30, an embarrassing dream-poem: Dreamverse #37
The Conference on Love has two sexy speakers. One says
"my teacher's stalking me" but she clings to him. Love? Hate? Both?
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM--but what are these two exhibiting?
TELEPATH COUNTRY: by Wayan, 2010/5/25; a weird dream image heralding drastic change
I'm on the border of human territory. Beyond is the land of the unnerving
Telepaths, each one different but every one creepy...
TEN RULES OF LIFE: by Wayan, 1994/5/4, a nondream fount of wisdom.
After reading 170 capsule biographies of famous people I conclude life-plans are
a joke. But I do deduce ten negative rules--ten universal don'ts--that may be of use...
CAUTION: CYNICAL, BUT 170 OBITUARIES WILL DO THAT
TEN TRIALS: by Wayan; 1976/10/2, a dream of love distracted.
While living with violent Kay, I dream I meet a cute, gentle moth-girl.
But we must undergo ten trials. Mustn't we? Mustn't we?
CAUTION: RELATIONSHIP TROUBLES, BOTH GAY AND STRAIGHT
THEY DON'T BELIEVE ME: by Wayan; 1989/10/4, an unbelievable dream with 15 illus.
My dog and I are abducted by aliens who turn us into cats. We escape & go feral to survive.
How we got back, and what happened along the way, even my own shrink refuses to believe...
CAUTION: LEWD SQUID AND KLEPTOMANIAC BUGS
THE THING ABOUT DREAMS: by Julia Wertz, a dream autobiography, 1980-2010
As a kid, my nightmares were of Sesame Street characters. In my teens I graduated to
slasher nightmares and recurring lucid dreams. Alcohol trashed my dreams for years, but
now they're not nightmares--just surreal. Hitler wrecks my sex life! What a spoilsport...
CAUTION: (MOSTLY FRUSTRATED) SEX
TIME-CAT: by Wayan; 2013/11/23; a self-flagging predictive dream
I'm a cat person, grooming. But not MY fur--it's a woolly mass of timelines!
We cats travel time, smoothing out snarls... Then I wake, go to a party, and...
TITANIA: by Wayan; 1981/12/7, 83/1/7 & 2/13 and 84/10/2, a dream-epic in installments
Clarence the sappy angel from It's A Wonderful Life and Milton's Lucifer land on Earth, offering treaties.
Who to sign with? Clarence thinks we're fine as is, but the Devil's a tinkerer, learning from failures. Failures
like me and my girlfriend Titania, the first android with a full palette of feelings. Like the feeling she's fake...
THE TRAIN ON TIME CAFE: by Wayan, 1981/12/20, an epic political dream.
Silicon Valley goes enthusiastically fascist. I hide in a berry patch. They build a shining world, and then...
TRAVEL: by "SchlofM"; 2008/2/10, a dream about protection
I'm on a trip to who knows where, with my young-again mom, my dead dad, and--who's that guy?
MY TUTELARY UNCLE: by Wayan; 1993/5/28, a shamanic dream.
I'm half Anglo, half Kwakiutl. My uncle the shaman died,
but he still wants to teach me his medicine...
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
TWO PLANES: by Wayan, 1994/9/6, a multistaged psychic dream.
An assassination plot using two planes triggers an invasion of our kingdom. Flee? Fight?
I'm a peaceful hobbit who'd rather be playing Frisbee with the dryads...

UNICORN TAG: by Wayan; 1986, a linked series of illustrated dreams.
Animal teachers, mostly equine, drag me (as I scream NO!) beyond plain dreamwork into shamanism...
Chapter 1: The Deer Party: by Wayan; 6 illus.
Chapter 2: Ariane's Honeymoon: by Wayan; 8K
Chapter 3: The Everest Marathon: by Wayan; 1 illus.
Chapter 4: Who'll Be My Love?: by Wayan; 100K, 4 illus.
Chapter 5: Dreamrider: by Wayan; 7K, a nondream interlude
Chapter 6: Half Shaman, Half Statesman: by Wayan; 170K, 4 illus.
Chapter 7: Eight To A Horn: by Wayan; 2 illus.
Chapter 8: Black Magic: by Wayan, 7 illus.
Chapter 9: Misfits On Mars: by Wayan; 300K, 7 illus.
THE UNMAKING OF A DANCER: by Wayan; 1994/5/22, a journal extract on dance and health.
Ballerina Joan Brady quit, but ten years later, returned. Her body rejuvenated! So what can MINE do?
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
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...
WALDROP'S SUMMONED: by Wayan; 1994/2/2, a dream on spiritual callings.
I'm in Middle Earth, interviewing dwarves and hobbits
who've experienced a phenomenon called Summoning...
WASTE: by Wayan; 1990/5/7, a desert singles poem, 11 images.
A road trip through New Mexico mutates into a tour of my relationship disasters...
WATERCATS: by Wayan; 1987/9/10; an epic, clear predictive dream
I dream I find a few 'extinct' watercats--in a slum! They talk. They say I'm one of them,
brainwashed to think I'm human. I wake, go to a dinner, and hear a tale of... watercats!
WHERE'S IT COME FROM?: by Wayan; 1995/3/19, a dream squared.
Why am I an outsider? Can I change? Even my dreams don't know. I wake to find my
meditation was a dream, and as much of an answer as dreamwork can give...
WHICH ROAD? 1999/1/13. Digital sketch of a dream voting for slow.
I was on a path winding over grassy hills, while humans zoomed by on a freeway below...
THE WHITE DEER'S EXPERIMENT, or, FAWN OF A LESSER GOD
by Wayan; 2013/4/13, an epic shamanic epiphany dream with tinges of ESP
I meet my Creator--a were-deer. No wonder I'm a shy, horny herbivore
so unlike these naked apes! She tells me my divine purpose...
CAUTION: MONOTHEISTIC BLASPHEMY; E.S.P. FLASH; NUDE DEER
THE WHO IN HELL AM I: by Wayan; 1984/1/28, a stubborn dream.
I'm Pete Townshend of the Who, climbing stubbornly out of Hell by noticing what I don't want...
WHO SHATTERS?: by Wayan; 1995/6/18, a cryptic culinary dream.
Dry noodles shatter when bent. Wait, not noodles--they have auras! Feel like me--parts of me? Oh!
These aren't noodles or strands of my being. I'm not this brittle. They're relatives!
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 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!
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 now...
WIND OF SELF-HATE: by Wayan, 1976/4/4, a dream warning of family brainwashing
Biking around blindfolded and half-naked, I fight winds
of self-criticism and self-hatred that only I can feel...
WIRES: by Wayan; 1957-1963, a recurrent childhood nightmare resolved by drawing, 1999/12/8
I was bodiless but trapped. All I could see were these moving wires. Whenever a knot drifted by...
CAUTION: MADNESS, TORMENT, TELEPATHY, SEXUAL REBELLION
WISH AND WAKE: by Wayan; 1998/7/9, a dream within a dream.
I wake up praying for love--and then realize my wish is contradictory, and revise it to...
WITWEET WAYAN: by Wayan, 1979/1/10, a dream of butch and femme.
Six generations in the future, I find a poodle who can defuse the bomb my snotty friends can't...
CAUTION: MAD SCIENTIST, EXHIBITIONIST GIRLFRIEND, POODLE MOCKERY
YEATS: by Wayan; 1990/1/1, a poem wrestling with Yeats's visions.
Our dilemma is, now that we have the power to get what we want... what exactly was it we wanted?
YOU'RE THE EAGLE: by Wayan; 2000/2/8, a dream fable.
A hermit spends his life wrestling with shadows. His only disciple becomes famous. Who was happier?
YUPPIE BREAKUP: by Wayan; 1991/5/22, a dream on values--or the lack thereof.
A yuppie idealist discovers her boyfriend's a cheerful opportunist, and they disentangle their lives...
CAUTION: SEX IN REVERSE
ZENNA CAT: by Wayan; 1972/10/13, a childhood dream.
My cat dissolves in the shower. I follow her to a telepathic world. I want to stay, but can I?...
ZYGOTE: by Wayan; 1999, a comic astral vision.
It's true: after death, angels advise you where to go next.
But what if you get an over-eager travel agent?



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