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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 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!

RELATED TOPICS: generosity and giving - healing from abuse - flirting - addiction, codependence, and twelve-step programs - 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.


ADORABLE CYBORGS: by Wayan; dreamed 2016/10/5, a dream-poem on inner teamwork
A child dreamer and two different kinds of cyborg must cooperate
to free the hostages imprisoned under San Francisco Bay...
ALICE'S LETTERS: by "Alice"; late 1960s?, a dream of spiritual advice
I mail some letters that will solve everyone's problems, but a man argues 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.
But how can I rescue her? I'm Fate's part-time intern!
CAUTION: BREASTS, BEASTS, INCOMPETENT ANGEL OF DEATH
ATTAHUAH: by Jamie Sawyer; summer 2015, a postapocalyptic lucid dream of vengeance
Four guys plot to enslave my girl and kill me; I have lucid powers, and kill them instead.
My girlfriend Attahuah gets poisoned, but...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DECEIT
BALLOON DIVE: by Wayan; 2007/6/17, a nightmare saying I made the least bad choice
A boy leaps from a runaway balloon, falls 100' into a pond, and floats face-down.
I'm sure he's dead, but when a woman fishes him out...
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...
THE BIRD MARATHON: by Wayan; 1982/7/10, a comic nightmare with serious overtones.
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 co-operate to save a woman from the Nazis?...
BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death.
Helping out talking animals until I'm exhausted, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
BROTHER: by Noelle Stevenson; c.2000-2012?, recurring rescue dreams
I kept dreaming of a boy in striped pajamas. I had to save him every night.
Until one night I failed. I just couldn't. I knew who he was--my brother who...
CAUTION: DEATH
BURNING HOUSE: by Graciela Iturbide, 2006 or before; a Pygmalion dream
My home was burning; I despaired. All my negatives would be lost. But
some figures arose from their photos and walked out of the fire...
CALIBAN IN ENGLAND: by Theodore Weiss; 1966 or 67; a dream-play never written
As I wrote a poem on Caliban, I dreamt I was 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, pre-1961, a predictive nightmare
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
CATFISH RESCUE: by Nick Munford, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream of shamanic kindness
I run away. A car nearly hits me and I fall into the lake. But
a kindly catfish drags me to an underwater phone booth...
CECY'S SUBMISSION: by Wayan; 1996/6/4, a bondage-farce dream drawn as comics.
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, pre-1961, an absurd, lifesaving dream
I dreamt that at 4:35 AM the chandelier over our baby's bed fell, crushing 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, pre-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...
COFFINS: by Beryl and Wayan; 1983/11/5, dark parallel/shared/telepathic dreams
Twin dreams of ghoulish games backstage at a theater.
And they anticipated real long-term ghoulishness...
CAUTION: SLOW DEATH
COMING TO THE JUMPING OFF PLACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 92/5/1, painting of an escape dream
Trapped on an island, spied on and controlled, we decide to jump off
a cliff and die; but as we jump, a spirit sneaks us off be reborn...
THE CREEK: by Louisa E. Rhine; c. 1925? a lifesaving predictive dream
I was camping by a creek. I went to get 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
DELBOEUF'S FERN by Joseph Delboeuf; 1862; the first cryptomnesic dream quoted by Freud.
Delboeuf, ignorant of botany, dreams of feeding lizards a fern called Asplenium ruta muralis;
years later he finds both lizards and fern in books he read and forgot years before the dream...
A DELIVERY: by Hélène Cixous, 1997/9/21; a dream of stepping up to the job
A woman is giving birth and there is no doctor or midwife around.
Though reluctant, I have at least assisted at births, so...
DIPSOMANIA: by Dick in L.A.; pre-1961, a suicide-preventing ghost/voice
I couldn't find Mrs. B and feared she was suicidal. But I heard my late mother say "She's in that hotel..."
DISNEY'S MAKE-OUT DATE: by Andrea Rogers, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a creepy dream
I'm in a car with Walt Disney. A blonde comes in out of the rain.
He promises to make her a star, and puts his hands...
CAUTION: NOT GRAPHIC, JUST UGH
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?: by Kjartan Arnorsson; fall 1993, a dream in shocking contrast to waking life.
On my way to a wedding, I dream I'm in a war. I liberate a camp of prisoners. But one man's so injured
he can't be moved. We have to leave him behind. My rescue of his fellows has effectively killed him...
CAUTION: GUILT AND LIFE-QUESTIONING
DREAM OR REALITY?: by Ben Torter, 1994?, a (subliminal? psychic?) lifesaving nightmare
I'm in a small pond. A monster goldfish stalks me. I seem trapped in place, and
wake in panic, sheets drenched--to find my pet goldfish gasping on the floor...
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: by Harriet Tubman; 1848?-49, recurring dreams of freedom
I dreamed of flying like a bird over beautiful meadows to a border or river I couldn't cross. But ladies in white
helped pull me over. After I did escape, I met some of those ladies and knew by their faces who I could trust...
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...
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...
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 all through this nightmare of 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 of a future client's life
My Cambodian village was burned, my family murdered. At 12,
I was the oldest survivor; I led a band of kids to the border...
FULL MOON KIDNAP: by Wayan; 2018/4/30, a dream warning that recurrent illness shapes the psyche
Every full moon, kidnappers jump me. Sometimes I escape, but when they succeed, they torture me till
the moon wanes. They're careful to leave no physical scars...
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 love can save lives & souls, read in two dreams of a Renaissance astrologer's library...
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
A GOTHIC TALE: by Roswila; 2000/4/7, a dream-poem
Nightwalkers lured our empath away. We come to their castle to rescue her.
But she's pregnant with magic. Will she come or stay?
HARPY: by Wayan; 2000/6/2, a stylized nightmare
Day: my dad's paralyzed, and my car's stolen.
Dream: a 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; 2004/10/2, furtopian watercolor 12-page dreamcomic (or text + pics)
A rabbit shaman makes his student drape dead hedgehogs round her neck til she bleeds. How to free her?
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, ABUSIVE MENTOR
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
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; 1995/7/9, a dream of love in a parallel world.
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
HONESTY THE WITCH: by Wayan; 1974/6/1, a flying dream.
A witch advocates honesty, but kids mock her; one boy tries to rape her. We fight mid-air, riding her broom...
CAUTION: RAPE ATTEMPT
HUMMINGBIRD MEME: by Althea; 2022/1/14, a dream of 15 minutes of fame
I rescue a hummingbird who drinks nectar from my ear. It becomes an Internet star.
But then a girl rides a waterslide with her tits showing, and my meme is over ...
CAUTION: CARTOON BREASTS
I DIDN’T DIVE IN: by Herbert Read; before 1938, a dream-poem experiment.
I watched her dive into the lake... and fail to 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 an iris paradise...
ISIS HELPS TERI GARR: by Wayan; 1988/3/27, a meandering predictive dream.
Actress Teri Garr and Isis the talking cat recur all night, but
so does a baseball glove I haven't pulled out in years. Why?
A few days later a friend asks for that glove, and I find...
JACKIE: by Lindsay Vanhove, early 2000s? Premonitions and a dream prompting a bird-rescue
I dreamed a big black bird shared our house, and whenever I walked a certain street, I had flashes of raising a corvid. On day,
on that street, I saved a jackdaw hit by a car. Her broken wing has healed; now she flies in and out of our house as she pleases...
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
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 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 lost in rubble below a wall. The second time she went out to find it...
KIOSK: by Wayan; 1994/5/1, a 4-page dreamcomic on the power of song (or illustrated text version)
I'm a sexy singing beast, the Krelkin, trying to lure the Reading Man out of his Moral Kiosk...
CAUTION: NUDITY, INTERSPECIES FLIRTATION
KITTENS OR MOM?: by Jesse Reklaw; 1976-77, recurring nightmares of a choice
I was in Hell. My mom was in a cage suspended over lava. The devil
gave me a cruel choice: "Fry up these kittens or let your mom drop!"
CAUTION: CRUELTY
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
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...
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...
THE LOST DUTCHMAN BURNS: by Wayan; 2011/11/17, a smelly dream censoring itself for safety reasons!
I smell smoke. I know I'm dreaming; did my sleeping body scent smoke in my home, and insert it in my dream to warn me?
But the dream sees my worry, and erases the scent to clarify it's symbolic smoke! Now I can finish my nightmare in peace...
THE MAN AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE: by John Hubbard c.1915? a surprise-ending dream
War between a big conformist land and a small land devoted to quality. Big Land's rulers all die, but at last, sheer
numbers defeat the smaller land. Now their leader, beaten and starved, awaits the sword at the end of the hall...
CAUTION: POLITICAL? ACCORDING TO CARL JUNG!
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 MAN WHO DESERVED TO DIE: by Jim Shaw; c.1994; a dream of moral rescue
I don't want to kill my friend, though his clothes say I must. But
a sculptor lets us sit on her metal trees and drink tea instead...
MARCOUX'S DREAMS: by Shirley Marcoux, 75/11/4, 76/4/2, 4/28 & 6/24; & one by Cheryl, 76/4/3
Four apparently psychic dreamlets of a gun in a desk, a guy needing to hide,
a canyon with woodpiles & a locked gate, and a blonde girl named Cathy...
CAUTION: SMALL DREAMS, LARGE IMPLICATIONS FOR E.S.P.
MARIANNE'S DREAM: by Marianne Hunt c.1817, as told by Percy Shelley; a dream-poem.
A black anchor floats in the sky to the east. Impossible cities rise on mountaintops, only to erupt in flame.
The sea rises to drown them. On a plank, I ride the flood. In the ruins, I find angelic statues--who wake...
MARVIN, CRASH: by Rick Veitch; Feb 1974; a predictive/warning dream
My "friends" pull me away from the girl of my dreams, push booze & pot at me,
and won't even try to climb the rope to success. But Marvin saves Evel Knievel
from a motorcycle crash. Sounds good--until, ten years later, I hear how Marvin died...
CAUTION: GRIM AFTERMATH
THE MEGARA INN: by an Arcadian Greek c.200 BCE; two dreams that don't prevent a murder but do solve it
A traveler dreams his friend's attacked, but he ignores it. Next he dreams his friend begs him to at least avenge him...
MEN CATCH FIRE: by Shannon Frazier; 2020/12/8, an identity-bent dream
I was a South Asian teenage girl. Strange men throw rocks at our house,
then explode into fire. I don't trust my dad to get my little brother out...
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...
MERMAID VERSUS TRUMP: by Wayan, 2020/1/7, one of twin warning dreams
Agents of Donald Trump with knives trap a mermaid. I jump one of them, and she
escapes, towing me with her. She assumed humans just hate merfolk, but I know...
CAUTION: HARSH WARNING ABOUT TRUMP
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...
THE MOUSE: by Paul Nash; Feb. 1913, surreal bedtime experience triggers surreal nightmare
We save a mouse from a man who claims he eats them. Later I dream I am the mouse...
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...
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, 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...
THE OUTER LIMITS: by Marianne A.; 1988/3/13, a dream that lucidly intervenes in itself!
I'm trapped in the scary show The Outer Limits. A man scolds me: "You think not, but you MATTER!"
I try suicide rather than face my worth! But my dream fences off the river, forcing me to confront...
CAUTION: SUICIDE ATTEMPT
PAT'S WARNING: by Pat, Allen and Gerry; 1947, a ghostlike warning from a living person's unconscious
In occupied Germany, Pat flags down two friends just before a truck crash. Except...
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 told me to skip the shortcut. Only after I'd turned the truck around did I realize Pete had died weeks ago...
PIXY CONCUSSION: by Wayan; 2006/3/11, a diagnostic sex-dream comic, 9 p. (or illus. text)
Janet's obsessed with a creepy guy till her pixy friend Kay decides to "knock some sense into her cunt"--literally...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NASTY LOVE SPELL, PIXIE NUDITY
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?
PRESIDENTIAL TACO: by Robert Adams, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream farce
I botched President Clinton's taco. And on the way home, I fell in the river.
Luckily, Jesse Jackson happened by and pulled me out, restoring my faith in...
RELIEF CARAVAN: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years
Famine. Our Tibetan monastery's prayers are answered. A caravan of yaks comes over the pass, bearing...
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 life-review, with 2016/10/22 followup
Jeffers, that harsh, visionary, ecological poet, seems drunk on Darwinism,
blind to kindness--or is he just reporting Big Sur's true, mean spirit(s)?
CAUTION: LITERARY AND MYSTICAL
RUTHIE'S CALL: by Ruthie; pre-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...
SALLY: by Sy Montgomery, Jan. 2008?, an apparent dog-telepathy dream
I dreamt I was trying to save dying puppies; then a new dog appeared at our door, one
I was sure we had to find and adopt. We found Sally, and it turns out, when I dreamt
of doomed puppies, she was trapped in a freezing basement, trying to save hers...
CAUTION: PET ABUSE; APPARENT CROSS-SPECIES TELEPATHY
SAVED TWICE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/5/19, maddeningly brief mention of two predictive dreams.
Swedenborg dreamt of danger on his London trip, twice. Both situations then came true, but he was prepared...
CAUTION: ANNOYING TO E.S.P. SKEPTICS
SCORCH: by a California woman; 1944, a lifesaving olfactory hallucination (clairsniffance?)
I smelled scorching paint; my heater was about to burn the house. But I'd moved--my old house was 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...
THE SEMI-INTELLIGENT ANIMAL PROBLEM: by Wayan; 1986/4/6, a dream of impulse.
The army breeds super-smart animals. Scientists fear they'll
upset ecosystems, if freed. No one speaks for the creatures...
CAUTION: DIRECT ACTION
SEPTIC: by Steve (age 6), pre-1961, a recurring predictive nightmare
For three weeks he wakened screaming in fright; he said he "fell in a hole." Then, one snowy day...
SET ON FIRE: by Wayan; 2017/10/15, a dream on reckless stupidity
Yuppies with a lighter set me on fire--not even out of malice, just idly.
I'm a shaman, I can survive it, but I'm not immune to pain...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, UGLY POLITICAL COMPARISONS
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 circus dream.
I'm a circus tiger, then a performing shark. One day, I block my human partner's high dive... Why?
SHE IS THE SNAKE: by Sharon Stricker, 1980, a warning dream from a censored goddess
Should I try to keep Janine out of jail? But outside, she'd gotten back on drugs. That night I dreamed
a huge beautiful snake bit my writing hand, and said "Don't go to court. Stay home and write"...
CAUTION: JUNKIE, RESCUER
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 predictive didactic nightmare.
I distract a mad gunman in a crowd. I suspect I'm dreaming, but it still seems a bit too noble...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS ON CRAZED KILLERS AT HOME
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 the
talking 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?
A SIRIUS MISSION: by Wayan; 1983/9/21, a nightmare predicting a painful fall
Exploring a planet in the Sirius system, we raft down a river. A local guy warns
there's a waterfall ahead, but my raftmates won't believe him! Over we go. Ow...
Next day, glad my druggy housemate's leaving, I learn of a big letdown...
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 nightmare with a twist
I'm a French revolutionary facing a firing squad. But palmistry predicts I'll 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 hang, dreamt he walked to the scaffold but the trapdoor stubbornly stuck.
He woke, told his jailors the dream, walked to the scaffold, and...
A STIRRING FAILURE: by Robert's wife, pre-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 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
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
THANOS: from Dream to Performance: by Lili Berko, 1988 or before, a dream of birth & death
The ship carrying my mom to America sails on, as I drown in the sea;
They strap me down to pull out the pieces of my stillborn baby Obdale;
A family/gang called Thanotos invites me to join them...
CAUTION: MISCARRIAGE, DEATH
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
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, but a 'tin fish'
sank it with just one casualty--him. I rushed down to the dock...
TREMENDOUS FAMILY SAGA: by Jack Kerouac, mid-September 1952, a tender violent dream.
I try to protect the kitten from being strangled and girl geniuses from the depth charges; ...
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 an even weirder sexual situation. But I'm still...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, (ANTI?)ROMANTICISM
TSUNAMI PERSEVERANCE: by Wayan, 2020/1/7, one of twin warning dreams
We flee a tsunami. Inland. Up a hill. Onto a roof. One by one, the flood plucks us away.
Long past hope, I climb a flagpole. As I cling to the very top and the mud rises to my lips...
CAUTION: GRIM PREDICTION
TURTLE HARANGUE: by Wayan; 1997/1/29, a warning dream.
A man mocks a turtle he caught, calling it "inept"--he knows adept turtles, then?
I distract this fisherman-ranter while the turtle quietly tiptoes...
TWO RESCUES: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, 1836 & '60-66?, early genderbent dreams
A TAILOR'S APPRENTICE: I become her to fight back against his abuse...
DAMSEL ON THE PYRE: I become a girl being burned alive, but get
so distracted by my beautiful body I forget to escape until it's too...
TYPEWRITER: by Kevin King, before 1983, an ink-noir nightmare
I dreamed my mouth was full of typewriter keys and a typewriter ribbon issued from the back of my head. Joan
was hanging out the window by the ribbon. I reached for her, but my hands kept hitting the space bar, and down...
UNGIRDLE THE TREE: by Wayan; dreamed 2018/10/6, a shamanic warning dream
I'm a girl living alone in a forest. I go patrolling after a storm and find a red cable
strangling a tree. Though scared, I climb up and tear it off. But there are more...
CAUTION: POLITICAL INTERPRETATION
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...
VACUUM DOG: by Laura A. Dale, 1942/12/19; a surreal nightmare labeling itself psychic
DAY: I'm an experimental subject given a drug in hopes it'll induce ESP. I just babble stupidly. Humiliation!
DREAM: my vacuum cleaner comes alive to attack my terrier & me. I flee, but there's an explosion...
TWO DAYS LATER: at the movies, a cartoon: a vacuum cleaner comes alive to attack a terrier. Then, BOOM...
CAUTION: WILL REALLY BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
VARTENA: by Wayan; 1986/9/9, a psychic nightmare.
I'm the referee, or 'Vartena', of a violent high-school
game of waterpolo. A friend nearly drowns! Next day...
THE VAT MESSIAH: by Wayan; 1985/2/27, an epic dream of magic, flight, and sex
In our cult, we lie in vats of goo till we grow wings. But we're feared more than we knew...
CAUTION: SPECIST LYNCH MOB, NUDE IN SCHOOL, LESBIAN FEELINGS, OBSCENE CARROT
A VIAL CRIME: by Wayan; 1984/5/21, a cartoon dream protesting that I wasn't me today
I'm a flying fox in England. I see a poisoning and call for help. Ugly knockoffs of
Peanuts characters attack me! The real Peanuts gang defeats them; Snoopy drives
the victim to the hospital, saving her. It really is vital to be... authentic.
CAUTION: PUNS
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.
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
VOLCANIC OATH: by Wayan; 1972/5/20; poem of a teenage Tolkien nightmare.
DAY: our ex-cat comes back, needing surgery. Dad doesn't want to pay. Big quarrel.
DREAM: Cats, birds, elf-girls; in their asteroid library, a tale of oath-breaking...
Now I'm the one who stole a tooth of jade from the volcano hall. Greed... erupts!
CAUTION: NUDE BIRD-ELF, DEATH BY LAVA
WABOSE'S VISION: by Catherine Wabose (Ogeewyahnoquot Okwa), Feb. 1814? shamanic initiation dreams
After fasting for six days, I dreamed of three spirit helpers who aided my village,
guiding hunters toward game and healing others. But I lost so many loved ones...
CAUTION: SPOUSE MURDERED; CAREER BURNOUT
WARM MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2001/3/24, 3/29, 3/30 & 4/1; dreams
I dream my mother takes over caring for my sick daughter; I feel pushed aside.
When I wake, I try to paint a more positive image of mothering.
For a week, dream after dream has opportunities for patience and letting go of jealousy...
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!
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
WEREMAIDS: by Wayan; 2020/5/14, a species- and gender-bent dream.
I'm a weremaid, able to pass as human but growing a tail in water. I meet a cute but sad girl,
and deduce she may be like me--just in the closet. Worse! Turns out she thinks she's a freak...
CAUTION: DAMAGE FROM CLOSETING
WEREWOLF TRANSFERENCE: by Larry Vigon; fall 1997?; a nightmare reversed by courage
Chased by the old movie Wolfman, I get tired of fear and turn on the monster. I take on his wolfness!
But in me, wolf-nature manifests differently--as a human body with a calm, happy wolf's head...
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 REALLY HAPPENED: by a Coon Rapids woman, early 1993; a psychic, near-lifesaving dream
I dreamed my husband told me he'd been in a car crash and was in a frozen ditch not visible
from the road near our house. I woke and called 911 who found him just twenty minutes later...
WHAT YOU IMAGINE HAPPENS: by Wayan; 1982/2/21; a dreampoem on quarks. Or spooks.
I'm stuck on a runaway bus. So we decide to picture the axle falling off, and
it obeys! But the bus zooms on, carried by a horde of little animals...
CAUTION: ESP SKEPTICS WILL LOATHE THE AFTERWORD (true story, though)
WHEN BLOOD FLOWS, THE DANGER IS PAST
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/3/23 & 2000/4/19, twin dreams of carved women
A woman is knifed by the sea. I cradle her, but she's probably dying...
For my intitiation-ordeal, I have to cut designs in my own back! I can't reach, so...
WHERE THE WILD THINGS PLAY: by Anonymous #45, 1996?
In a jungle river, I fish for giant kite-bass, then relax and have a drink. A lot of very drunk
porpoises dance on the bar. I worry their skin will dry out. Alcohol is so dehydrating!
WHITE HORSES, FIVE TALENTS: by Regina van der Poel; 1999/10/29, a dream equinifying talents
I meet a man in a box. A mob wants to attack him. But five white horses defend him! Well, one's
really a unicorn. I know each horse is a talent, but only recall one when I wake: clairvoyance...
WHY COWGIRLS LOVE BROCCOLI: by Wayan; 1987/8/19, a surreal dream of love.
I'm a cowgirl in Nevada circa 1900. In the canyon below Haunted Mansion,
I meet a broccoli-green lizard girl. Naturally I help a 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...
YATAGHAN: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, c.1840?, a dream of rescue--and summoning
Night street. Two masked assassins attack a woman. I intervene. But I need a weapon!
I picture the Turkish sword on my mantel. The yataghan appears in my hand and I...
"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!"...
YOGA SAINT: by Wayan; 2010/12/4, an incubated, disturbing diagnostic dream
I dream I meet my headaches! An ascetic yogi who punishes jokers, flirts and cynics for 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. Decades passed in seconds; then
the house burned--with me in it. Two years later I learned the house and its history were real...


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