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

Somnial Times

Here are sample dreams from Somnial Times: Newsletter of the Dreamers SIG by Gloria Reiser and Judy Landaiche, issued in the early 1990s.

In the late 80s and early 90s, before the Web, I was active in the Zine movement--small, noncommercial magazines, comics and neswletters, listed by the thousands in their catalog Factsheet Five. I'm going through my collection of these ephemera, finding and posting interesting dreams from zines like First Person, Dreamscene Magazine and Dreamworks Quarterly (though the last saw itself as a 'literary magazine', it was still a zine to me).

Anyway, Somnial Times was one of the best--a forum for serious dreamworkers before online forums existed. It started as a Mensa SIG; so its editor and core contributors read thoughtfully, dreamt interestingly and wrote coherently--in contrast with certain online forums. Like... most of them. It was one of the first places I published.

--Chris Wayan--

RELATED TOPICS: First Person, Dreamscene Magazine & Dreamworks Quarterly - 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.


ALIENS, MONSTERS, WITCH: by Judy Landaiche; 1991/11/8, a dream on judging by appearances
Our starship crashed on an alien world. Humanoid aliens attack us. A witch saves us. A second kind of alien
attacks; again she saves us. A third--ugly, monstrous--and the witch goes off with them! Turns out they're friendly...
THE BABY: by Gloria Reiser; 1991/3/20; a nightmare of a migratory pregnancy
I'm pregnant. I feel abortion's wrong, but can I safely bear a child at 45? But then...
It's my son's ex-girlfriend who's pregnant and my son's the father! But then...
It's my daughter who's pregnant. At least her boyfriend's supportive. But...
CAUTION: THIS FETUS GETS AROUND
BLONDE OR BRUNETTE?: by Mike Bickel; summer 1966, a recurring dream pointing out a choice
I DREAM I'm helping my mom make a bed, but the light keeps going out. Each time, her hair changes color!
NEXT DAY I tell my dream to a co-worker. He says it means a romantic dilemma I fear to look at. He's right...
BOGUS: by Ed Pell; 1990/11?; a financial forensic dream
DAY: I'm preparing a report on our industry; but the numbers seem a bit odd.
DREAM: Someone points out a big inventory generated no sales or income.
NEXT DAY: Awake, I hunt for evidence the inventory's real. And find...
CARSON: by Kitty Ostrander; 1991/6/23; an apparent clairvoyant dream
I DREAM: I'm at the scene of a fatal car crash. They thought it was Johnny Carson, but it's his brother Dick.
I WAKE: On the news: Johnny Carson's son Dick died in a car crash. The scene looks like my dream...
CAUTION: WILL TROUBLE E.S.P. SKEPTICS
CRITIC: by Robert Brust; June 1990; a dream reading either the future or another's mind
I DREAM I'm discussing art with a critic who's been hard on my paintings. But now he's friendly!
TWO HOURS LATER: he calls, interviews me about my new show, then publishes a nice review...
DATIN' DEMON: by Mark Varitz and Wayan; 1989/12/3; Mark's dream triggers one by Wayan.
I meet my personal demon, and discover it has a personal demon: me! Am I worse than my Shadow?
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NUDE MONSTERS
GREEN SHOES: by Debbie Ifasi and "C."; late 1988? shared or parallel dreams
DEBBIE: I dream of my friend G's new girlfriend C (who I've never met) and tell her "you'll never fill my shoes."
C: I dreamed I met Debbie. She wore green shoes, and said "See these shoes, you could never fit into them"...
CAUTION: WILL ANNOY E.S.P. DENIERS
HINDU GOD: by Judy Landaiche; Dec 1990, a sex dream with multiple twists
It started like a nightmare--someone behind me, a groping hand that's not human...
It was a Hindu god! He made love to me. Felt great until he said: "You're taking too long!"...
CAUTION: SEX WITH A SELFISH DEITY
A HOBBIT IN L.A.: by Wayan; 1990/1/8, a dream on wishes.
I'm a hobbit woman in Los Angeles, hiding a magic weapon
from Sauron. No, not THAT weapon. The wishing-bucket...
I FIGHT FOR BEAUTY: by Wayan; 1990/1/1, an incubated dream within a dream within a dream.
From Hawaii to Wyoming, I fight for beauty, always waking to find I'm someone new...
I WANT MY INHERITANCE: by Wayan; 1989/12/18, a dream on family brainwashing.
My family calls me a blonde bimbo and won't give me my inheritance, so I take drastic steps...
CAUTION: MORAL HAIRSPLITTING
ICE: by Doug Montgomery; c. 1958, a surreal childhood dream
Drops fall outside. But it's not rain! It's dripping from a
gray-purple block of ice floating fifty feet above me...
ICK! DOGS!: by Wayan; 1990/1/3, a Star Trek dream.
I'm Jean-Luc Picard, and my Enterprise has been taken over by a pack of brilliant, paranoid wolves...
THE IRRATIONALITY OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1989/12/31, a New Year's dream.
On TV, the first Jungian anima to leave the unconscious is granting an interview. But the questions are...
KRISS: by Toni Emrich; mid-January 1991, a nightmare personalizing the US-Iraq war
Sunset. Walking home from work. A smiling, creepy American offers a ride. I back away until I'm against a tree.
I don't give away the Arab hiding in its branches. I have a knife, and I know I will kill this American...
CAUTION: FIGHT TO THE DEATH BREWING
MONK: by Anonymous #2323; 1945-1991 (at least); a recurrent dream of a past life
All my life, from age three or four, I've dreamed of being a young monk named Stefan
somewhere in southern Europe. And aspects of his short life have shaped my own...
CAUTION: SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
MUTANT WEDDING: by Lisa Shea; 1991/8/3; an epic Jungian action dream!
I hide a chip of secrets from thugs, fight a running light-gun battle, and hide in my workplace's
crawlways, amid live cables and pipes. As the factory burns, I run a gauntlet of goons. A girl
leads me into the underworld. Fires glow and mutants dance. I marry the leader of the pack.
NIGHTMARE QUARTET: by Hans Rickheit; before May 1991, four Dada nightmares
Ow! My body parts grow & shrink... A mad orchestra leader pulverizes me for nonconformity...
The Brady Bunch crams siblings into a waterpipe one by one. I'm next! My bones crunch...
I'm blindfolded, perched on a miles-high needle piercing my big toe. Blood drips down...
CAUTION: GLEEFULLY GROSS
PONDICHERRY: by Toni Emrich, 1991/6/6, and Margaret Thomas, 1991/7/??, linked asynchronous dreams
EMRICH: I'm in a conference center in "Pondecherry", even though it feels nothing like India...
THOMAS: A woman picks fruit off a tree by a pond and calls them "pondicherries--with an 'i'"...
CAUTION: WILL ANNOY E.S.P. DENIERS
QUAKE: by Robert Brust; 1964/3/24; a possibly predictive daydream or hypnogogic dream.
Drowsing on the bus, I see great holes open in the pavement. Our bus falls in. We climb out to find devastation...
I wake and get off the bus. A few days later, I see my nightmare on the news: that massive quake in Alaska...
RECORD: by Robert Brust; July 1990; a punning, possibly psychic dream
I DREAM I buy a record I've wanted. But someone warns "You'll have trouble with it; you should have gone to another store."
I WAKE as my phone rings. "A clerical error in our records will delay the supplies you ordered." Wish I'd picked another store...
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
THE STAIR: by Mrs. Bickel; c.1991, a time-bent gender-bent dream of a ghost
I find myself in armor, sheltering from a hard rain in an English undercroft.
As I climb out, I meet a second knight on the stair. But he won't step aside...
TEACHER'S NAME: by Robert Brust; 1977; an apparent predictive dream
I DREAM I'm a kid again, in detention after school. The teacher eyeing me is familiar, but... what's her name?
I WAKE and go to art group. One member says "I visited my retired sister. She talked of you. She taught you!" It's...
TIMER: by Robert Brust; July 1990; a clockish dream. Subliminal, circadian or psychic?
In my dream I worry I'm going to wake up late, so I ask what time it is. Immediately, white digits
form in the air saying 10:00. I wake, but can't read my clock until I put on my glasses. It says...
TODDLER SHOT BY SPOUSE: by Gloria Reiser; 1948-49; recurring childhood nightmares
As a toddler I repeatedly dreamed I was a married adult with a daughter
of my own, but the dreams always ended with my husband shooting me...
CAUTION: RECURRENT MURDER
THE VERA DREAMS: by Vera and Wayan; 1991/7/25 & 8/3, a set of shared/psychic dreams.
I dream my friend Vera's ordered to just study & sleep--no play, no dates. Then I dream
Vera works with gangs as an armed peacekeeper. I tell her; Vera's shocked, since...
THE VORTEX: by Wayan; 1990/1/3, a nightmare countered.
I'm in suburbia for the End of the World. A Vortex eats the block, licks at me. So I click some icons:
CAUTION: CRUDE LANGUAGE. OH, AND THE APOCALYPSE, TOO. I FORGOT.
WHY ME?: by Karen Smith; 1991/7/22; nested flying/oracular/tragic dreams
I flew joyfully over Sun Valley. But when I landed, I wore a uniform. As I slept in our barracks,
I dreamed--within my dream--of finding two friends in the lake, tangled in a net, long dead. I
"woke" and told a friend my dream. She said in tears "I know someone has to die, but why me?


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