World Dream Bank home - add a dream - newest - art gallery - sampler - dreams by title, subject, author, date, places, names

PLAY

Dreams of play and playfulness...

RELATED TOPICS: humor - happiness - friends - flirting - games - sports - 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.


AICORN'S BANANA: by Wayan; 2016/6/13, a dream-parable on owning your tastes
An artificial intelligence acquires fans and has orgies with her groupies. Her creators
don't care as long as the advertisers get product placement. But she has this size fetish...
CAUTION: VIBRATORS
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...
AT THE BISEXUAL BALL: by Wayan; 1997/6/21, a dreamtale.
How I found out what I really wanted at the bisexual ball. Really, I'm not disappointed...
CAUTION: OH COME ON, READ THE TITLE
BASEBALL NAGA: by Wayan; 1971/7/12, a sexy snake dream.
Our toy train full of nude baseball players went under the park sprinklers, so naturally our
shortstop shelters her friend the outfielder snake. But in there? Isn't it just as wet in there?
CAUTION: SCALY SEX
BITTER JADE: by Wayan, 1983/4/8, a dream on change.
Why's Jade the bitter artist throw me at her happier, calmer daughter? Wait, is Jamie the new ME?
CAUTION: SEX
BOY SCOUTS: by a Maryland woman; pre-1961, a predictive warning dream
I dreamed my toddler son followed two Boy Scouts down to the creek, and drowned. That morning, on my curb, two...
BUT, THEN LIFE BITES: by Wayan; 1983/2/13, a surreal (but nondream) feltpen sketch
After seeing Picasso's massive cubist women running on a beach, I found myself drawing
a lighter version--except she (I) waved this bitter banner. But then I was ill at the time...
CARYATID SWEET, GUIDE SOUR: by Wayan, 1999/9/2, a dream about that crazy conscious.
My guide in India says the Third World's doomed, but a stone dancer in the ruins winks behind his back...
CAUTION: NAKED CARVINGS
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
CENTAUR SOCCER: by Wayan; ink sketch of daydream
I'm not a big soccer fan. I'd play more if only I had enough feet...
CHANGING IDENTITIES: by Mary Arnold-Forster; 1910-14? a dream of alternating selves.
I was the new girl among rich students, then an adult among snobs, then a girl again--always craving freedom...
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
THE CHUTE: by Wayan; 1993/11/10, a dream transforming fear.
I'm warily crossing an avalanche chute in winter, when my worst fear happens. Then the slide speaks up...
CLOSE THE GATE: by Emily Joy; 2004/11/19, a dream of decision.
My foxy lover teases and tempts, but I can't let him into the patio for fear he'll hurt the rabbits…
CAUTION: UNFUNNY BUNNY PUNS
COLD-SHOWER CONSCIOUS: by Wayan; 1996/5/25, a dream dissecting a fear.
Sexy frustrating dreamlets with a message, not about my unconscious, but about my CONSCIOUS...
CAUTION: SEX TALK
CRITTERS OF THE MONTANA FRONT: by Wayan, 2022/5/31, a watercolor warning dream
DAY: I admire Hannah Hinchman's watercolors of Montana and Vad Yakovlev's digital art of Equestria.
DREAM: I meet & sketch a coyote girl, a whack-a-mole mare, and a leering herder of shadowsheep...
CRUMB: by Wayan; 1995/6/7; film review/essay on art-integrity
Cartoonist Robert Crumb just turns off all taboos while drawing. A learnable technique...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, CARTOON SEX
DAMOCLES LODGE: by Wayan; 1998/12/22, a dream on what hangs over us.
I meet a nice werewolf in a hall of past-life junk, so sharp and rusty we dare not play...
THE DEER'S HOLY LAKE: by Wayan; 1995/5/15, a dream of holy turf.
A magic lake where deer glide on water... so I try it. And start to realize I could build such a lake...
DELIGHT EVOLVES FLIGHT: by Wayan; 2011/12/23, an advisory dream
In a parallel world, a gliding griflynx displays a brilliant
evolutionary strategy: joy! It's the strongest mate magnet...
DEYUPPIFIER: by Wayan; 1985/11/6 a gleeful dream fable.
I built a sex-maze to reprogram businesspeople, but I only grasp its meaning when I fuck City Hall...
CAUTION: SEX, LANGUAGE, RADICAL POLITICS
DINO FOR A NIGHT: by Wayan; 2017/7/9, a sci-fi-movie dream poem
I'm turned into a small dinosaur and treated as a guard dog. But I meet a dino girl. We have fun,
once we see it's a movie--they won't kill off the love interests. Hollywood rules make us invulnerable...
DOGMAN PLAYS ON TURF: by Wayan, 2023/3/17; a prescriptive dream
A dog man invites me to play in the park--and as long as
we play on soft turf, without teams or rules, I'm happy!
DOVE GIRL: by Carl Jung; c.1912/12/25, the classic anima dream.
In a castle, a white bird lands on the table and becomes a little girl who plays with Jung's kids, hugs him,
then turns back into a bird, explaining "I can become human only for a few hours of the night, when...
THE DREAM: by Theodore Roethke; before 1958; a dream-poem? Or not?
A mysterious night-encounter with a shapeshifting spiritwoman as elusive as Roethke’s poetry...
DREAMKU, JANUARY 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to January 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku
A month of dreams full of science fiction: galactic navigation, spacedragons, oppressed fairies, alien love...
EGGSHELL SKATEBOARDER: by John S. Dykes, Dec. 1981; a surreal dream-sketch
A monstrous empty eggshell, cracked open and roughly
propped up, makes an excellent skateboard park
ENVYING LYNN: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a positive-Shadow dream.
Lynn's changed. She everything I'm not--playful, colorful, free with her money.
She finds the coolest stuff. Why can't I find all that Lynn has?...
FAIRY PRINCESS PALACE: 1992-, by Kavitha Subramaniam; a recurrent dream of prosperity
Ever since I was a little girl I've been dreaming of this luxurious bright-colored mansion...
FIGURE DRAWING: RAIN!: by Wayan; 1982/7/26, figure studies in pastel & watercolor
Playful girl steps out in just her translucent yellow raincoat, clear boots
& red umbrella as a shower ends & the sun comes out. Dreamlike, but not a dream!
CAUTION: NUDITY
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...
FLIGHTS AND CATS: by Colette; before 1949, a sketch of her dream life
Colette flies, sees a birdheaded turtle, wrestles a great playful cat, debates a snake, holds hands with a shy dog...
FLUID DREAM CONNECTIONS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2003/11/8 and 2007/3/14; linked dreams of pods
A pod of whales in the sky and a circle of children dressed like seed-pods both beg me to interpret them...
FUNERAL FOODFIGHT: by Dan Schmidt, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a revenant dream
As they lower me into my grave, mourners don't throw dirt but--cottage cheese? I toss it
back, starting a huge foodfight. I climb out to join the fun. Only the poor pastor looks lost...
A GAMER'S DREAM: by Mark Nelson; 2002/3/5; A collage of real-world events brought into dreams
I face a barrage of deadly challenges out of every action film I've seen and every game I've ever played...
HALF SHAMAN, HALF STATESMAN: by Wayan; 1986/4/21, a parallel-world dream: Chapter 6 of UNICORN TAG
I get a scholarship to Shaman U. Some of my classmates are Terran, but I still don't fit in, because...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE
A HAND AT CARDS: by Loomis C. Johnson; around Dec. 1916, a predictive dream.
I dreamt of a surreal poker hand where one card changed to create a full house. Next weekend, I was losing when...
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
I TURNED OFF JESUS: by Chris Baker; 2011/2/18; an "oops!" dream
Playing Mario Kart, I stray into a darkness where Earth floats, burning.
And then Jesus speaks up! But I carelessly hit the OFF button...
JANE IN VAIN: by Wayan; 1997/3/6, a dream that's not about class.
A prisoner's allowed to see his middle-class lover only in a seedy bar by the jail. But she likes the place...
CAUTION: THE JOYS OF SLUMMING
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...
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...
LEOPARDESS: by Wayan, 1990/5/19; a predictive dreamlet
Dream: a house-share with this leopardess might be a bit crowded. But she's so much FUN!
Next day: I visit a house in the woods with the most catlike senior tenant ever...
LOLA: by Wayan; 1995/4/22, a wild dream: psychic, shamanic and... economic?
How the hell do I summarize this? Lola, a werefox I'm hot for, becomes my feudal Japanese brother, and
her fox-shape reappears as the truck-driving maid for a Han Dynasty lady. We counter the interdimensional
energy vampires by importing ghost unicorns on sailing ships, who have an orgy. Two weeks later,
it all comes true. Literally? No, but closer than you'd think....
LUCID FLIGHT: by Lisa Reich; March 2003, an ecstatic lucid dream of flight.
I flew as if part of the air--an otherworldly freedom so exquisite I wonder if it's attainable at all in earthly existence...
MARK ROLLS THE MELON: by Wayan, 1990/7/4, an Independence Day dream-comic
My friend Mark and I climb the Path of Righteousness to the summit where he finds a big red watermelon.
He rolls it down the Path of Righteousness, knocking businessmen aside like bowling pins! Why? Well...
THE MER BUILDING: by Wayan; 2001/2/23, a dream of a double life.
I’m a puma with a night job as a cellist. But my day job with The Architectives is the bizarre one...
MY GATE: by Wayan; 1996/5/29; a bizarre, joyful dream; 4-page comic (or ill. text version)
The full moon rises: I become Weregirl, do the Moondance, and gnaw open the lock on my heart...
CAUTION: MOONING
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
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...
A NIP IN THE EVENING: by Wayan; ink 1980 tinted 2000; daydream image.
Like a lot of playful beasts, I like a friendly nip in the evening...
NIP OFF HIS NOSE: by Wayan, 2020/2/20, four surreal dreamlets about Covid? or... overwork?
1: I sketch two deer-girls making videos. 2: I pull a man's nose off, and milk the scene for drama before...
3: My old boss is convicted of murder! 4: I wake and two friends interpret #3 as "Overwork is killing you..."
I wake again. My dream-notebook's blank. No friends here; their interpretation was a dream too....
CAUTION: NUDE DEER
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
NOSER: by "Anonymous #13"; pre-1963, a predictive dream
An orange tiger with wolf ears jumped on me. I was surprised but not scared, as if it were just a big dog.
The next day, shopping, my daughter thrust an orange wolf-eared hand-puppet in my face, jaws open...
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?
NOUVELLE BARBIE BODS: by Patagia, 2012/12/22, a playful poem on a dream-diorama
I visited my friend Chris Wayan's workshop and found him building
a dance troupe of joyfully obscene centaurs out of Barbie dolls...
NUBBINS: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a lucid dream
My kid and I have mere nubbins where our fingers should be,
but I realize it's a dream--I can grow fingers or absorb them
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES: by Erica DeMane, Michael, Joanne and Scott; c.1984, four creepy dreams
Erica dreams that during a protest she's caught in a radioactive flood...
Michael dreams a nuclear forcefield makes his fingertips explode and congeal into weird knobs...
Joanne dreams she meets nuclear mutants with curling black nails great for peeling potatoes...
Scott dreams the world goes silent and white, bleaching out. His hands dissolve...
OCTOPIA: by Wayan; 1996/3/21, a spiritual dream-comic on play; ill. text version
I'm a stratospheric bat who finds a flying swastika. Is it creeping fascism?
Or a Hindu blessing? Neither! It's an Octopian frisbee. I return it...
ORGY BELOW THE SURFACE: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an embarrassing dream
Under the surface of my comics panels, a tiny horde is having an orgy. I can't
publish this, it's too embarrassing! Wait a minute. That one is me...
CAUTION: MICRO-ORGY
OTTER NERD FROM TITAN: by Wayan; 2012/4/15 & sequel-dream (2013/2/9), a dream-poem on social skills
A suspicious exobiologist warns me that otter from Titan may not be the amiable, nerdy celebrity it seems. But...
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
OUR LADY OF THE YOYO: by Wayan; 400 x 670, 1983, digital over acrylic over crayon.
Our Lady of the Yoyo plays with our yin-yang world, trying to keep the spin going on each bounce...
OVERLAY: by Wayan; 1984/2/11, 1995/8/26, and 2004/9/11, 3 dreams shape a 9-page comic on living with ESP
Dreams of translucent fairies, centaurs, robots & gnomes prompt me to cartoon
on transparent overlays to show how dreamworlds overlay ours...
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
PAW AT THE BALL: by Wayan; 1981/12/6, two waking Goddess images.
A grassy hill in a previous drawing of mine suddenly looked like Big Hair, so I tried to grow a body that fit that 'do...
THE PEGASI TUB: by Wayan; 2013/11/9, a fun, flirty dream I felt I didn't deserve
After a rainy hike I'm cold and muddy. In the camp's hot tub, six girls splash and play.
They welcome me, but I feel shy. They slowly become winged ponies! Were-Pegasi...
CAUTION: HOT-TUB NUDITY
THE PIRATE TWINS: by Wayan; 1996/7/25, a dreamtale on intrigue.
I love the Twins. They love intrigue. So when a hired crocodile sabotages our Egyptian treasure-hunt...
CAUTION: BAD GIRLS
PLAYMATES: by J.S., c.1893, a childhood dream
When I was little, two boys with strange laughs invited me to play. Their house was crowded and underground.
After I came back out, I realized their home was a grave and they were ghosts. They gave me a power...
POKEY?: by Wayan; 1993/4/15, a dreamtale on my soul.
My lover's turned into a tiny living pull-toy, trapped ankle-deep in a wheeled platform. Can I free her?
RANI: by Wayan; 1994/1/28, a dream about choice, with 8 illus.
A Borges story of a were-tigress provokes a dream of a ranch
crawling with weird were-women. Weird, but I LIKE them...
CAUTION: NUDE CREATURES
RIBBING: by Wayan; 1992/12/25, an assertive dreamtale.
After seeing 150 years of family photos, I dream of being teased by time-traveling cheerleaders, and...
SAGAN: by Wayan; 1996/5/3, a psychic dream in response to Carl's challenge.
DAY: on the radio Carl Sagan calls those who've experienced ESP or UFOs "proto-fascists"...
DREAM: a flying pewter teapot orbits a round blue vase--like a starship round the Earth...
NEXT WEEK: My mom calls. She's selling that pewter pot after a century in the family...
CAUTION: DISSES SAGAN
SEXUAL DREAMS: by Felicia, Simone, Anons 60-61 & a UCSC student; 1994 or earlier, as told by Gayle Delaney
Five short playful dreams exploring sex. Because too many therapists
get in the habit of thinking all dreams must wrestle with unhappiness...
SHY FOX: by Wayan; 2 images, 1997. Digitally tinted pencil, spinoffs from a 1997/8/20 dream.
I love to play, but I'm a shy fox. And pushing myself to be socially brave has unforeseen drawbacks...
SILKY AT THE GATE: by Wayan; 2016/2/26, dream of a statue come alive
My girlfriend, a lifesize doll in the shape of a feline centaur, gradually
comes alive, walking around on her own and flirting with me...
CAUTION: NUDE CAT-TAUR
SILKY SINGS WITH WEREWOLF BOY: by Wayan; 1996/7/10; dream figures on bedspread, 5'x7'
My anima the singing horse was encouraging a shy werewolf boy to give it a try...
CAUTION: UNCLAD HORSE CHANTEUSE
SKEPTIC AND DRAGONFLY: by Wayan; 1988/1/28 and 2/8, twin flying dreams.
Big Blonde and her officemates don't believe in flight; but the dragonfly-girl I meet hatched in mid-air...
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...
SLIDES: by Wayan; 2018/1/28, a surreal playful flirtation dream
I cross San Francisco on public transit--a network of children's slides. One leads into...
A wormhole full of aliens, where a goofy-haired reporter interviews a hacker...
SORTING HAT, DRUNKEN CAT: by Wayan; 2013/10/18, a steadily mutating warning-dream
I discover a Sorting Hat, as in Harry Potter--and it moves in with us. Our cat crawls in and plays peekaboo.
She becomes a teenager eager to get drunk at Thanksgiving--like every adult in her life. But she's not
puking drunk like them, so she must be OK! Just as I think I am--I only overwork to exhaustion.
CAUTION: DRUNK TEEN CAT, SEVERELY ALCOHOLIC ADULTS
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?
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: THE SULKY: by Wayan; Tarot card of a dream, 1979/4/17.
This grumpy little greenish Scotsman rode a 'sulky', a one-man buggy, pulled by
a playful black mare. I worried her clowning was a safety valve leaving her unfree...
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
TIGER HONEYMOON: by Wayan, 1987/3/16, a dream of a trickster
I buy a charming ruin in the woods. Newlywed tigers prowl! The tiger bride
tells me "He expects predictability. But I'll show him what a tiger really is..."
TIPCAT: by Anonymous #57; c.1920; a funny little dream-poem
Four lines of comic nonsense composed in a dream...
TOUGH GLOVE: by Wayan; 1999/12/4, an advisory dreamlet
I finally find a way to safely indulge in heavy petting
as well as puns) with a playful but scratchy cat...
TOWERS: by Wayan; 1998/11/15, digital. Based on flying dreams (but no specific dream)
Cities are fun when you're a bird--all those updrafts and perches and nests with great views...
THE TOWN THIEF FEELS CHEATED: by Wayan; 1993/7/27, a dreamtale.
Long ago he cut a deal with the cops. But town's grown, and one victim fights back. Our thief is outraged...
TWENTY OF ME: by Robert MacNish; before 1830. A dream of multiplicity.
I possessed ubiquity: twenty of me, and each possessed by my same soul, so I could not say who I inhabited...
TWENTY-SIX LETTERS, or, A Complete Summary of Poesy; by Cory & Wayan, early Aug. 1992; a haiku slam
You get 26 dice with letters on every face. Roll them all. Your haiku must use every letter. Go!
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...
AN UNPRODUCTIVE SQUIRREL: by Wayan; 2013/11/27, an advisory shamanic dreamlet
I meet a giant squirrel. But a Committee condemns the squirrel for such long periods
of unproductive hibernation. The squirrel points out a teensy flaw...
VISIONS UPSTAIRS: by Wayan, 2007/1/15, an ero-spiritual dream-comic
Junk in the attic? Treasures! The cat musicians shift from cartoons to life as I ascend,
til in the ultimate attic--the astral beach--I meet a cattaur made of pure (de)light...
CAUTION: SEX-CRAZED CATS, NEW AGE FINALE
WHAT TO DO IN A WIZARD'S LAIR: by Wayan; 2013/4/23, a comic dreamlet
A friend who's a sorceror's apprentice shows me his Dark Master's tower. And
his Dark Master's bed strewn with all his stuffed animals! I just can't resist...
A WORD DREAM: by Maude Meagher; before 1936, a wild word-association dream.
I often dream of words forming on a page as their images dance around me. Here's an example...


This topical list is one of many. See the full LIST OF TOPICS currently indexed.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites