THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: RESCUES

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Rescue!

Dreams of rescues, saving others... and rescue fantasies.

Hmm. Did those characters really need saving? And even if they did... do they need you to GO ON being a savior? Or is it time to for a more equal relationship?

On the other hand, sometimes you really can help someone out! Are you gonna shrug and say "Who cares--it's only a dream?" Because what goes around comes around--next week in dreams someone else might just say that about you.

On the third hand... a surprising number of dreams on this list are real rescues guided or caused by dreams or visions. So at least consider the possibility your dream of rescue may be a literal warning or prompt. Not all dreams are symbolic!

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

	ALICE'S LETTERS: by "Alice"; late 1960s?, a dream of spiritual advice I mail a packet of letters that will solve everyone's problems, but then a man points out how much we need problems...
	ANIMAL HEAVEN: by Wayan; 2008/8/16, an astral dream-poem; Dreamverse #6. At a party in Animal Heaven, I fall for a rabbit-girl doomed to be human dinner. How can I rescue her? I'm Fate's part-time intern! CAUTION: BREASTS, BEASTS, INCOMPETENT ANGEL OF DEATH
	BEETLE: by Daniel Quinn; spring 1941; a life-defining shamanic dream A black beetle points out I'm not needed or at home in the human world, and insists my lifework is elsewhere...
	THE BIRD MARATHON: by Wayan; 120K, 1982/7/10, a half-nightmare, 3 illus. A bizarre marathon, and the Princess is the prize. But she doesn't WANT to be, so she sets out... CAUTION: BLOODY BIRD
	BLACK WINTER: by Jeff Knabel; 1997, a dream-song from a possibly predictive nightmare I dreamed a large meteor had struck the Earth. I found my Dad just as the shockwave hit... CAUTION: APOCALYPSE
	A BODICE RIPPER: by Carla Young, 2010/2/22; epic (and episodic) dream with 5 paintings Awkward newlyweds. Not a love match! Can they learn to work together to save a woman from the Nazis?...
	BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death. Helping out some talking animals, helping to exhaustion, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
	CALIBAN IN ENGLAND: by Theodore Weiss; 1966 or 67; a dream-play never written As I wrote a poem on Caliban, I dream I’m him: taken to Shakespeare’s England, shown as a freak, I must escape to save Miranda and Prospero from assassins...
	CART WITH HUSBAND: by Mrs. T, before 1961, a predictive nightmare I stood at my front door as a cart came by, drawn by a white horse, on its way to the hospital. In that cart was my husband.... CAUTION: ANGUISH, DEFEAT, PREDESTINATION
	CECY'S SUBMISSION: by Wayan; 157K total, 1996/6/4, a sex-farce dream. My writer-friend Cecy will do anything to get published. Anything? Oh, believe me, ANYTHING... CAUTION: BONDAGE, not to mention POSTAGE
	CHANDELIER: by a Washington mom, before 1961, an absurd, lifesaving dream I dreamt that at 4:35 AM the ornamental chandelier over our baby's bed fell and crushed the baby to death. I woke and...
	THE CHIANG-SHIH: by Julian Garberson; 2004/8/23, a surreal Han Dynasty nightmare A vampire wrestler on the Throne of Heaven pins me. Visualization and prayer don't free me--in fact, they get me killed...
	THE CHINESE PROFESSOR'S WIFE: by Wayan; 1997/2/4, a dream on abuse. My neighbor thinks I'm sleeping with his wife, who he abuses. Only I think she may be me... CAUTION: IMPLIED BATTERING
	CLARENCE, GO THIS WAY: by a Michigan mom and son, before 1961, a shared dream I dreamed I sat high in a pine tree when my son stumbled through the woods, clearly lost. So I called... Meanwhile my son, off at college, dreamed he was lost in a forest when he heard a voice above him call...
	THE CREEK: by Louisa E. Rhine; c. 1925? a lifesaving predictive dream I dreamed I was camping by a creek. I went to get the soap and returned to find my baby son face-down in the water...
	"CRY, BABY!": by Wayan, 1985/8/17, dream-farce with a warning. The only man in the Miss America Japanese Tea Ceremony Swimsuit Pageant, I learn a tearful lesson... CAUTION: DYSFUNCTIONAL FLIRTING
	CRYSTAL AND GUNSEL: by Wayan; 1997/7/2, a nightmare--psychic or not? Gunsel kills my friend Crystal in a flaming aircar crash. But that's not enough--he comes back, and... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	CYCLOPS, or, THE ANSWER TO MY PRAYER: by Wayan; 1993/8/24, a spiritual nightmare. In the far future, I relive Odysseus' tale. To save my life I must give up realistic hope, and focus on... CAUTION: CANNIBAL MONSTERS
	DIPSOMANIA: by Dick in L.A.; before 1961, a suicide-preventing ghost/voice I couldn't find Mrs. B and feared she was suicidal. Quite clearly and at once I heard my late mother say "She's in that hotel over there"...
	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...
	EASTER HEALING: by "Clairity"; 2008/03/23, a joyful lucid dream I will a clay cat to come to life, then start healing real cats and dogs and...
	EMADRO: by Wayan; 1983/6/4, a wild dream on clinging--and letting go. An elephant sinks in the North Sea, and the Oracle Mink says a wizard did it. Can old Lady Gandalf help?
	ESCAPE FROM PBS!: by Wayan; 1992/9/17, a trapped-in-TV nightmare. I'm trapped in a TV documentary on nuclear war! Better dive through a TV screen and find a safe sitcom...
	FAWN AND DEMON: by Wayan; 1990/7/15, twin dreams of desire. A doe I meet is as horny and shy as me. We're similar: torn between desire and fear... Then I meet a slacker succubus. She may just let herself get seduced toward freedom... CAUTION: SEX
	THE FEARFUL INSECT by Nancy Price; 1948, an episodic circular nightmare unified by a leitmotif A bug with a horse-skull face reappears in scene after scene of this dream of sabotage and betrayal. I only know I feared it...
	FETAL PAUSE: by Wayan; 2008/8/31, a nightmare-poem, Dreamverse #17 As I write a sad sex dream, a madman curls up fetally in the road outside my window. I'm slow to call 9-1-1, and...
	FLEEING KAMPUCHEA: by Laura Lawrence; early 1990s?; recurring nightmares to heal a future patient My Cambodian village was burned, my family murdered. At 12, I was the oldest survivor; I led a band of kids toward the border...
	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...
	THE GOLDENE BOOK OF VENUS: by Anna Kingsford; 1881/3/15-16, a poem read in two dreams Poem from a book on how our love can save lives and souls, memorized during two dreams of a Renaissance astrologer's library...
	A GOLDEN KEY IN A CHEAP LIGHT: by Wayan; 200K, 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 ST DECADENCE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
	A GOTHIC TALE: by Roswila; 2000/4/7, a dream-poem Nightwalkers lured our empath away. We come to their castle to rescue her. Pregnant with magic, will she come or stay?
	HARPY: by Wayan; 2000/6/2, a stylized nightmare My dad's paralyzed, my car's stolen. So I dream a stylized harpy made of steel, like a living Calder statue, holds three girls hostage...
	HEDGEHOG AND WHITE RABBIT: by Wayan; 1972/12/1, a dream love story. Hedgehog and White Rabbit stick together, through the snipers on Broadway, through the dogs of winter, through cannibal soup...
	THE HEDGEHOG DISPENSARY: by Wayan; 440K, 27 watercolors, 2004/10/2, a dream of a furry ambitopia. A rabbit shaman orders his apprentice to drape dead hedgehogs round her neck til she bleeds. Ow! What’s his problem? Well... CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, ABUSIVE MENTOR
	HER ONLY FRIEND: by Wayan; 1996/7/1, a dream of worms turning. A sorceress trains a kid as a prostitute who'll spy on her powerful clients. But her training has side effects... CAUTION: EXPLOITED KIDS
	HIS DEER WIFE: by Wayan; 195K, 20 images, 1995/7/9, a parallel world love story. I'm a slave, a scribe in the house of a Captain of the New Aztec Empire, when he brings home a wife... CAUTION: SLAVE SOCIETY, SEX, SPOUSAL ABUSE/NEGLECT
	I DIDN’T DIVE IN: by Herbert Read; before 1938, a dream-poem experiment. I watched her dive into the lake and not come up. Her golden cloak floated on the water. I hesitated just a moment, and...
	IRISES: by Frederic Mistral; 1834, a four-year-old's ecstatic dream That day Frederic, craving irises, fell in the water three times. At night he swam through a warm-water iris paradise...
	ISIS HELPS TERRI GARR: by Wayan; 1988/3/27, a distractable dream . How Terri Garr the cat-woman finally escapes Anorexic Prison, and what happened to the baseball glove...
	JIM'S POWDER: by Helen; before 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
	KELLY FIELD: by an air cadet, 1941; an almost-lifesaving dream. I dreamed a plane took off northeast, and flipped by the main hangar, killing two men. I forgot the dream until the wind swung round...
	THE KEY TO HIS LIFE: by an English rebel's wife; 1745; a lifesaving oracular/psychic dream. Twice a condemned man's wife dreamt of a key hidden in rubble below a wall. The second time she went out and found it...
	KIOSK: by Wayan; 250K total, 1994/5/1, a major dreamtale, 7 illustrations. I'm a sexy singing beast, the Krelkin, trying to lure the Reading Man out of his Moral Kiosk... CAUTION: NUDE CREATURES
	A KNIFE AT HIS THROAT: by Wayan; 1991/1/1; a political dream-cartoon-fable A courtroom hostage-drama where I'm forced to commit... tracheotomy! And then the Gulf War begins... CAUTION: CARTOON VIOLENCE
	LINCH-PIN: by George Stevens; c.1895? a frustrating psychic dream George sees a cart-crash pinning a friend. He yells to bystanders to free the wheel, but they can't hear him...
	LITTLE BAD DREAM CHARM: by Kathy Fagan; 2001? A slip-filled dream-poem Half asleep, I scrawl a nightmare of trying to rescue gasping boyfish, but my dreamwriting goes wrong too...
	THE LONGING TO BE SAVED: by Maxine Kumin; 1980? a poem based on recurring nightmares I save our horses from a fire, but they run back in. Then it's my family I must save from themselves. At last, it's my turn...
	LOST ANT: by William Blake; late 1780s; a dream-poem, one of his Songs of Innocence A glowworm and nightwatch beetle help out a lost crying ant-woman. It's not always a bug-eat-bug world...
	MAN OVERBOARD: by Sir Stephen King-Hall; 1916, a lifesaving premonition acted on I was officer of the watch in the Southampton. I knew that as we passed an islet a mile ahead, a man would fall overboard...
	THE MEGARA INN: by an Arcadian Greek c.200 BC; two dreams that fail to prevent but do solve a murder A traveler dreams his friend's attacked, but he discounts it. Next he dreams his friend begs him to expose the killer at least...
	THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream. I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect...
	MOM ON THE WING: by a tail gunner; 1942-45, a lifesaving warning dream I saw my mother standing on the tip of one wing of our plane. She was dressed in white flowing robes and calling my name, warning me of danger...
	NAPPING IN PATERSON: by a Paterson mom; before 1961, a lifesaving intuitive flash I was downtown when I knew I had to hurry home. It was full of gas. Our two-year-old had turned on all the stove jets as my husband napped...
	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...
	NOW WE ARE 48: by Laurel Blossom, 1991; a dream-poem of a rescue. At the beach I dive into deep water to save my drowning friend Kathy, and find it’s not so clear who’s who...
	ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, an early dream epic. I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
	PAT'S WARNING: by Pat, Allen and Gerry; 1947, a ghostlike warning from a living person--or her unconscious? In Occupied Germany, Pat flags down two friends just before a truck crash. Only Pat was in England at the time. She sensed they were in danger, but...
	PET AD, OR, RENTADOG: by Wayan; 1996/11/9, an illustrated Shakespearean singles-ad. I put a singles ad in our paper, but I just couldn't say what I really wanted to. Now, I can... CAUTION: SEX, DRUGS, AND DOGGEREL
	PETE: by Norman, a soldier on Guam; 1944, either a ghost or hallucination with a lifesaving warning. Pete warned me not to take the shortcut. Only after I'd turned the truck around did I realize Pete had died weeks ago...
	PIXY CONCUSSION: by Wayan; 200K, 2006/3/25, six images; a diagnostic sex dream? Janet's obsessed with a creepy guy, until her friend Kay--a pixy--decides to knock some sense into her cunt... CAUTION: LANGUAGE, EMBARRASSING SITUATION, NASTY LOVE SPELL
	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?
	RESCUE FEVER: by Wayan; 1994/2/3, a dreamtale on rescue fantasies. A refugee girl crawls into my bed. We become lovers. I protect her. But over time... am I holding her back? CAUTION: ABUSE? OR NOT?
	ROBINSON JEFFERS AS A SHAMAN: by Wayan; 1996/7/28, a little shamanic shoptalk Jeffers, that harsh, visionary, ecological poet, seems drunk on Darwinism, blind to how kindness matters... CAUTION: BRAIN REQUIRED
	RUTHIE'S CALL: by Ruthie; before 1961, a lifesaving intuitive compulsion It was way too late to call, but an irrational urge made me wake my friend up and pester her until...
	SCORCH: by a California woman; 1944, a lifesaving olfactory hallucination (clairsniffance?) I smelled scorching paint; my old heater was about to burn the house. But I'd moved--heater and house were six blocks away...
	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...
	SEPTIC: by Steve (age 6), before 1961, a recurring predictive nightmare For three weeks he wakened nearly every night, screaming in fright; he said he "fell in a hole." Then, one snowy day...
	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 SENSE: by Wayan; 1988/12/9, a diagnostic dreamtale. I'm a circus tiger, then a performing shark. One day, I block my human partner's high dive... Why?
	SHIP OF JADE: by Wayan; 2009/11/7, an illustrated dreampoem on dreampoetry! Dreamverse #64 My dreams are made of lovely carvable jade. Too bad my tools and skills suit our plastic age...
	SHOOT ME, I'M LUCID!: by Wayan; 1997/10/17, a dreamtale. I distract a mad gunner in a crowd--I suspect I'm dreaming, but still... This may be noble, but is it healthy? CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS ON THE NEXT CRAZED KILLER YOU MEET
	THE SHRINKING POPE: by Sorcha; 2005/4/1, a Jane Bond dream I’m the only one who can stop the plot to kill the Pope--but if he keeps shrinking like that, will it matter? CAUTION: RECOVERING CATHOLIC
	SILKY'S REVOLUTION: by Wayan; 1995/9/4, a historical dream. I'm in an alternate-history American Revolution with Silky, a black mare. We sail for Europe as diplomats...
	SILKY SHIELDS A VANDAL: by Wayan; 1994/8/6, a cautionary dream. I'm a kid in a classroom someone's trashed. Our teacher goes ballistic. But was the gypsy girl framed?
	SISTER TO LIFE: by Edwin Muir; c.1920, a dream of shamanic healing The glow seemed to come from within her, but I knew it flowed from my own breast. Her eyes fluttered...
	SPECKLED EGGS: by Starvibes; 2008/6/16, a dream of intrigue. I dreamed of speckled eggs, Caribbean drug traffickers and of almost drowning near a sinking boat...
	A SQUARE IN THE HAND: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic dream with an end-twist I'm a French revolutionary facing the firing squad. But palmistry predicted I'll face death yet be strangely saved...
	STARFISH: by Marc Ian Barasch, c. 1985; a multileveled, doubly predictive dream A sacred starfish piloting a Cessna plane survives a crash. But can it survive a boy's clumsy rescue efforts?
	A STAY OF EXECUTION: by John Lee; 1885/2/22, a miracle-predicting dream John Lee, sentenced to die, dreamt he walked to the scaffold but the trapdoor stuck. He woke, told his jailors the dream, and...
	A STIRRING FAILURE: by Robert's wife, before 1961, a precise predictive nightmare I dreamed a small plane crashed and burned, but also how the pilot might be saved. I asked my husband to direct the firetruck...
	SWORD IN MY BACK: by Franz Kafka; 1915/1/19, a surreal but un-Kafkaesque dream. I slept late and felt a bit stiff, but until my friends pulled it out of my neck I had no idea...
	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
	THIS DREAM HAUNTS THE DAY: by Roswila; 1999, a dreampoem on transference My father's trapped in a crashed car. But I'm distracted by a young man whose palm cups a living flame...
	TIN FISH: by a ship engineer's wife; 1914-1918, a precise lifesaving dream I dreamed my husband's ship headed for India, where a 'tin fish' sank it with exactly one casualty--him. I rushed down to the dock...
	TRISKELION; 2011/6/21 by Wayan; a repeated false-waking dream of dating advice I wake up in a weird sexual situation. But I'm still dreaming--I wake again to find I'm in a weirder sexual situation. But I'm still... CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, (ANTI?)ROMANTICISM
	TURTLE HARANGUE: by Wayan; 1997/1/29, a warning dream. A man mocks the turtle he caught, calling it "inept"--what's an adept turtle, then? I distract the guy while it...
	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 in a group of strangers who may be spies...
	VARTENA: by Wayan; 1986/9/9, a psychic nightmare. I find myself coaching a violent version of water polo called Vartena. A friend near-drowns. The next day...
	THE VAT MESSIAH: by Wayan; 1985/2/27, a major dreamtale. In our cult, we lie in vats of goo till we grow wings. But we're feared more than we knew... CAUTION: A SPECIST LYNCH MOB, NAKED IN SCHOOL, LESBIAN FEELINGS, OBSCENE CARROT
	VIRGINIA'S TRAIN: by Emily Joy; 2005/9/24, a psychic dream and poem We lose control of our new time machine, which seems to have its own agenda... CAUTION: CONTEMPLATION OF SUICIDE, CHRONOLOGICALLY IMPAIRED DREAMER
	THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic. I go half-mad and massacre a whole cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle. Then I'm one of the cult members, struggling to ignore 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
	WATERCATS: by Wayan; 170K, 1987/9/10; a psychic dream of another life. I'm a biologist who finds an 'extinct' species in a slum. But the survivors speak: they tell me I'm one of them, just hypnotized to think I'm human... And when I wake, another kind of cultural hypnosis is exposed:
	WENDY NEGLECTED: by Wayan; 1996/7/22, a paradoxical dream. Ari neglects Wendy till she doubts she's sexy. I show her she is. But am I using her too? CAUTION: SEX TALK
	WHY COWGIRLS LOVE BROCCOLI: by Wayan; 1987/8/19, a surreal dream of love. I'm a cowgirl in Nevada circa 1900. Below Haunted Mansion, I meet a green lizard-lady in distress... CAUTION: QUEER-POSITIVE
	WOLVES IN THE BOOTH: by Thordhr "the Terror"; c.1000, a warning dream Thordhr dreams a pack of wolves attack him in a trade-booth! He wakes sure the trade-fair will be trouble...
	YOGA SAINT: by Wayan; 2010/12/4, a disturbing diagnostic dream I wanted a dream on my recurring headaches & bellyaches. I meet my illness--a yogic saint who punishes jokers, flirts and cynics for their worldliness...
	YOU NEED TO FIND HER: by B. Bigham; 2010/4/27, a strong psychic dream of history I walked into a 19th century home--and family quarrel. Suddenly decades passed in seconds, and the house burned--with me inside. Two years later I learned by chance that the house and its history were real...