World Dream Bank topic: Wishes and Prayers

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Wishes and Prayers

Wishes and prayers in dreams. People whose dreams are more like watching a movie may find these volitional dreams peculiar, but they do happen. I don't mean dreams that merely appear to be wish-fulfillments (sorry, Freud, that's too vague for me!) or even dreams responding to waking wishes and prayers (see dream incubation, the traditional term for that). I mean prayers and wishes expressed inside a dream or vision itself. It's interesting to compare such dreams with, say, spells and curses, which are result-oriented and have precise, ritualized structure and intent. Wishes and prayers are pure asking, pure longing--or pure will. Yet in my experience pure longing if expressed has just as much power--in waking life, as well as dreams.

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	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
	ANTI-LUCID FLIGHT: by Wayan, 2016/8/30, a friendly nightmare begging me to go lucid. I fear falling? The drop increases. Want a softer surface? The rocks turn to dirt, then water. Want help? Here comes a flying dolphin. Oh, but I'm not dreaming...
	ASK ME ANYTHING: by Wayan; 1975/1/31, a backstage dream. It was a dark and stormy night. I was lost, till I stumbled on God in her underground control room. God was helpful. Too helpful...
	AUTISTIC THUNDER: by Wayan; 2018/2/12, a predictive shamanic dream DREAM: a concert by autistics admits my bandmate Mike but locks me out! I summon thunder & quakes till they open up... AWAKE: I called it metaphor--till it happened. I was sitting silent in our band's recording session and Mike asked me to leave... CAUTION: AUTISM & APPARENT E.S.P.
	BAREFOOT: by Catshall; c. 2014/12/14, a dream-haiku on the drought I dreamt I walked barefoot on newly fallen snow...
	BEET: Five Dreams One Night: by Wayan; 2013/10/30, Halloween dreams as minipoems Parasites, Rambo, huge fetus-beets, an exhibitionist and a living statue advise me on my love life... CAUTION: NUDITY
	THE BLACK WAVE: by Wayan, 2016/10/18, a poem on a hypnogogic healing dream After days sick, I open myself to unseen spirits and let a black wavefront go through me--and the healing begins. But what did I let in? CAUTION: MYSTICISM & FETISHISM DON'T MIX
	BLUE SOUP, NO SPARK: by Wayan; 1985/6/1, an epic dream on outgrowing God A visit to a world where they fear blue soup ends in death and resurrection, so I'm pissed at my boss--God. CAUTION: DEATH, REBIRTH, SACRILEGE... JOB BURNOUT
	BOILING MY FRIENDS: by Wayan; 1983/6/7, a nondream poem of letting go. Giving up a circle of friends is like the collapse of a sun--do you dry up like a raisin... or explode?
	THE BORIS BADENOV SOLUTION: by Wayan; 1989/2/10, a dream of puns. My evil twin, Boris Badenov, wants $8000 or else. I ask my dreams for a solution, and get one...
	THE BRUNDIBAR SEA: by Wayan; 2005/12/18, a mystical manifestation dream Biking, I stray into the steamy Brundibar Sea. My bike dissolves! But hot-tubbers explain the Sea manifests what you visualize. Yay! Uh-oh... CAUTION: MYSTICISM AND HOLOCAUST HISTORY
	BUT I WANT TO LIVE!: by Wayan; 1995/8/5, a life-altering dream. My job's to clarify people's deepest wishes. But when I meet two women who truly want to die... CAUTION: SUICIDAL IMPULSES
	CAR: by Carrie Elizabeth, 1994?, a lucid nightmare--yes, that's possible! I don't even notice the car until it's hit me and I'm dead. Now I have to lie here forever, even though I know it's a dream. But if you die in a dream, you die...
	CARACARAS TELL ALL: by Sean McCann, c.2010, a wistful dream SITUATION: I'm in the rainforest, studying the red-throated caracara, a clever, elusive bird... DREAM: Caracaras show up in Vancouver, speaking fluent English. At LAST I can interview...
	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...
	CORVI AND FEY: by Wayan; 2016/6/14, a shamanic dream of reuniting estranged symbiotes I visit a world of ravenish people, the Corvi, who banished their longtime partners, the wish-granting Fey, calling them parasites. I decide to meddle...
	COSMOLOGIST: by Wayan; 1994/12/2, another physicist's nightmare. A mad gunman breaks in and shoots at me, but I start him talking, and learn what's eating him...
	COYOTE'S DINNER PRAYER: by Wayan; 1998/6/5. A waking prayer-poem for you hungry coyotes. Coyote's pagan parody of the Christian Lord's prayer. Well, actually, it's kind of sweet.. CAUTION: SACRILEGE, ESPECIALLY THE BIT ABOUT TEMPTATION
	COYOTE SENT ME CASH!: by Wayan, 1982/10/11; a psychic dream, sung 2007 (MP3 + lyrics). A true tale proving the Trickster God really will provide. We're lilies of the field!
	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
	DON'T DO THAT, MARION: by Marion; 1947, a two-way telepathic intervention? I planned suicide. Then my friend 1000 miles away said in my ear "Don't do that, Marion." Next day an airmail... SUICIDAL NARRATOR
	THE DYE-HOUSE RECORDS: by a Christian secretary, pre-1961, a prayer-induced intuition Our archivist had had a stroke. When an engine failed, my boss said "Find its records if it takes two weeks!" Five minutes later...
	THE EGG PROBLEM: by Wayan; 1990/3/2, digital painting of a magical dream. I'm an intellectual ballerina trying to stop zombies hatching from stone eggs, but I succeed only when I become a dragon using touch, scent and visualization to persuade the eggs...
	THE ETHICS OF LUCIDITY: by Wayan; 1994/2/19, a thoughtful dream on time and cause. I'm at a symposium on how our beliefs alter not just the future, but the PAST... CAUTION: CONTAINS IDEAS
	EXPLORATION: by Wayan; 1998/2/27, a dream on leaving your safe zone. Hide-and-seek on an alien world ends in a sexy encounter--and a startling insight on BELIEF... CAUTION: SEX
	FAMINE: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years Famine in the monastery. We add weather charts, leather laces and walking sticks to the menu. Even the ghosts are hungry...
	FIND SOMEONE SPIRITUAL, STUPID!: 1996/9/5, by Wayan; dream-figure, clay, 9" tall A sculpted reminder I hung over my desk like Clinton's sign "It's The Economy, Stupid!"... CAUTION: NUDITY, PRESIDENTIAL MOCKERY
	THE FOUNT OF CANADIAN WISDOM: by Wayan; 1982/11/17; a dream-poem on miracles. Stupid miracles. A Jungian figure dispenses Wisdom. Overwhelmed, annoyed, I try to shut him up by manifesting money out of nowhere. But nothing shuts up the Fount of...
	FREE WAY? DETENTION FOR YOU!: by Wayan; 1997/2/14, a dream of the wages of fun. Zooming on freeways--carless levitation! But the Principal tries to punish us. And we resist... don't we?
	GAMESHOW PRIZE: by Wayan; 1998/1/6, a let-down dream. I win a prize on a gameshow, but collecting is another story, since the show is run from Hell...
	THE GHOSTMASTER: by Wayan; 1992/6/16, a dreamtale of the Shadow. I win a starship from the hostile Ghostmaster; in space I gain the confidence to confront him, and find...
	GOD'S DANCE CLUB: by Wayan; 1995/5/2, an apocalyptic dream. God's dance club, the Universe, is shutting down. God broke his promise that we staff could get on stage...
	GOD'S THREE DIALS: by Wayan; 1992/11/20, a heavenly dream. God built 3 dials to check: body, soul, and time. But the Holy Spirit's lazy, only checks one! It's up to us...
	GREEN, GREEN, SPIRIT OF THE SPRING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1991/2/3, 1995/8/13 and 1995/11/10 I meet a girl with a plant growing out of her head... Someone prays to the spirit of a spring to heal me... I watch people practice exercises with the ritual feel of voudun or candomble...
	GUARDIAN ANGELS FEUD: by Wayan; 1995/10/9, an epic, heretical dream. You know angels feud over regional underfunding of Divine Grace. But you don't know how low they'll go...
	HEAL THE WORLD!: by Wayan; 2011/8/17, a messianic-inadequacy dream (now there's a new type!) I can heal people with a touch. But they don't want to be merely restored, but resculpted... CAUTION: TRANNIES AND FURRIES LEAVE THE CLOSET
	HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS: by Hélène Cixous; before 2003; a comic dream My little brother catches and rides a fairy goose down steep mountain slopes, demanding it grant his wishes...
	HIS MINE: by Wayan; 1985/12/2, an epic Wild West dream I'm a hobbit seeking Henry Fonda's haunted gold mine. And find it. Or is that chocolate? But then I'm caught in a shamanic showdown in a bar where they serve real spirits...
	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...
	A HUNDRED-FOOT BEAGLE: by Wayan; 2002/3/22, an identity- and gender-bent dreamlet I'm my friend Dawn, at a convention for my job. But I get insulted. I walk out. Lost in endless parking lots, by a dumpster, I make a bizarre wish... CAUTION: APPARENT TELEPATHY
	ID FLOWERS: by Wayan; 1989/10/8, a dream of wish and fear The villagers warned me not to walk in the alien graveyard; for at night, the Id flowers wake...
	THE INCIDENCE OF BUDDHAS: by Wayan; 1996/4/24, a dream testing me. I'm in a mall that enlightened customers alter with a thought. But too many Buddhas spoil the architecture...
	THE ISLAND FURIES: by Wayan; summer 1975, a dream of self-control. When warring Greek isles kill a peacemaker, her three best friends start a vendetta! But she wanted peace... CAUTION: HATE NURSED TOO LONG
	JETPACK AND TIGER: by Wayan; 1988/3/17, a nonlucid yet lucidlike shamanic dream. After watching both Star Trek & Doctor Who, I find I'm held prisoner by the Rani and her laser-toting tiger guards. So I meditate--and manifest a jetpack and a laser gun! I never deduced I'm dreaming; it's not lucidity. It's simpler. What have I got to lose?
	LAURIE ANDERSON SHENANIGANS: by Larissa King, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a surreal dream I'm watching MTV. Laurie Anderson gets inside my remote control. I try to change channels and she turns my head into an apple. I grope for a potato peeler, and carve a new mouth...
	LET ILLNESS GO: by Wayan; 1999/6/7. Acrylic/digital painting of a meditation not a dream. Illness is such a handy excuse when you need solitude, care, rest, or just time to think... but...
	LET ME REVISE THAT...: by Wayan; 1998/8/28, a dream of clarity. I pray to the Love Goddess for help, but then realize there's a problem with my phrasing... CAUTION: UNROMANTIC
	THE MAGIC OF WRITING: by Diana Wynne Jones; 1974, mid-'77, '82, late '83, early '84, & '87; prediction, or causation? What I write in my books and think I have made up has a creepy way of coming true. I noticed it first... CAUTION: DISTURBING INVOLUNTARY MANIFESTATIONS
	THE MATING GAME: by Wayan; 1992/3/18, a dream of spillover. A TV crew invades the house, setting up for a special. I didn't expect to see a president on the work crew...
	THE MIX-UP: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, an early comic dream of human-induced climate change Tibetan prayers for good weather are answered too well. Heat wave! Tourists fly in, but planes can't land-- melting glaciers flood the airstrips. So tourists eager to sunbathe in Tibet strap on parachutes, prepare to jump...
	THE MONKEY'S HEAD: by William S. Burroughs, c. 1990? A dream of wishes gone wild. I find a magical monkey's head. It grants wishes--too many, everyone's, they cancel, they clash, it's a wish-flood... CAUTION: ASSUMES WISHES WORK
	MOSQUITO: by Kelly McCracken, 1994?, a dream of... bloodsuckers? At first it's Michael J. Fox flirting with me, and I'm not excited, he's kind of a loser. Then it all changes, and he's a monster mosquito humping me, and I hear someone saying "Do me, do me." Him? Or me? CAUTION: SUBTITLED "THE UNSEXIEST SEX DREAM EVER"
	MS. TRUST: by Wayan; 1993/11/4, a dream of a guarded angel. I meet my own mistrust: an angel who can't trust ME! So she turns me into a football-playing ant...
	THE MUSTACHE PRAYER: by Wayan; 1983/9/11, a dream on wishes' limits. I help a mutant boy find others like him, and learn why some prayers are ungrantable...
	MY ART'S IN THE MUSEUM, ALL RIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/2/19, a dream on self-theft. At last, I get shown in the museum! Sort of. Homeless people sell my art from carts in the lobby. Stolen!...
	NEWT WEDDING: by Emily Joy; spring 1995, a six-year-old's epic dream Through wild jungles and over the Mattress Mountains, I lead a giant purple newt to love...
	THE OTHER PILLAR: by Roswila; 2007/12/9, a double dreamku A kinky seduction slips into something more uncomfortable: the Qabbalah? Or possibly leather... CAUTION: EROTICA OR ESOTERICA?
	PALE BLUE: by Wayan; 1997/5/12, a dream on denial. I pray for love and promptly meet Blue, whose mom treats her like a kid. We change that, but it's messy...
	PARANOID HABITS: by Wayan; 1994/10/4, a hypnotic diagnosis. A hypnotist elicits a personality inside me who says he obliges my paranoia by giving me weird luck...
	A PEGASUS-DRAGON SCRIPTS MY LIFE: by Wayan; 2017/12/4, a dream of my... creator? Turns out my life's a TV show. My scriptwriter is half pegasus, half dragon, and my own humanity has been her science-fictional imagination all along... CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
	PIANOS IN THE SKY: by an Illinois woman; before 1948, a happy recurrent dream come true My heart's desire was a new piano, as hopeless as owning a yacht. The dream: a huge space in the air, full of wonderful...
	PICARDIAN ANGELS: by Wayan; 1993/1/7, a dream of time and wishes. I walk on Martinique with Captain Picard of the starship Enterprise. He's here to see a dreamy boy...
	PICARD'S ANGELS: by Wayan; 1993/1/7, a poem; alternate treatment of the dream PICARDIAN ANGELS As a boy on Martinique, Jean-Luc Picard wished for so much so hard, his angels have to work overtime...
	PITS OF POWER: by Wayan; 2005/11/16, a dream of rival miracles One tribe builds earth-magic pits that can teleport you or grant wishes. But the other tribe's more powerful flow-state magic is harder to define... CAUTION: SEX FANTASY GRANTED
	PLUTO THAWS: by Wayan; 1973/1/19, a mythic dream set on Pluto. A quarrel between psychic adepts heats up to a war, thawing Pluto. What will the ice-tribes wish for?
	POIROT'S FLIGHT: by Wayan; 1994/11/15, an anti-lucid dream. I summon an aeroplane to escape a trap. Lucid? Not at all! Why should Poirot bother with such abstractions?
	THE POWER OF NON-VISUALIZATION: by Wayan; 2018/4/29, a mystical dream whose teaching worked I'm listening to a film-talk on Non-Visualization. "Don't wish--don't will--don't visualize. Just face what you really want, and then don't push..." CAUTION: MYSTICAL
	QUADRUPLE WEDDING: by Wayan; 1995/5/15, a unifying dream. Day: Why did I get sick from figure-sketching? Guilt? Dream: I'm at a group wedding; shall I wed a dwarf, a feral boy or a horse?
	RED LIGHT by Nancy Price; 1948, a predictive dream of the past! I'm in my home town, but at two times at once! Murderous boys explain why: I died here in 1861...
	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...
	THE RING'S ELBOW ROOM: by Wayan; 1997/8/17, a Tolkien dreamlet. Widely held notions manifest easier. I could forge Sauron's Ring, and it'd really work! But do I want to?...
	ROSE AND THE THORN: by Wayan; 1986/7/1, a dream on those too meek to ask. We're swallowed by Swamp Sofas and enslaved to The Man Who Prays on Us. Time to grow some thorns!
	SAINT BARBIE: by Wayan; 2016/6/19, a dream of a meme we need After a living Barbie doll dies while campaigning for niceness, I find myself invoking her to shock people into decent behavior: "In the Name of Saint Barbie!"... CAUTION: BARBIE, UNICORNS, IMPLICIT TRUMP CRITIQUE
	SATYR: by Wayan; 1999/4/1, a frustrating wish-fulfillment dream (yes, both). I'm a faun, the oracle for a Greek village. But my predecessor set up rituals I want to change... CAUTION: SEX, PAGANISM, SELF-SATYRE
	SAUCER ATTACK: by Wayan; 1991/10/30, a predictive Halloween nightmare Nightmare: flying saucers attack, and I only have a squirt gun to fight back with! Next day I see the Simpsons Halloween special. Lisa Simpson has a nightmare...
	SHOVED OFF A CLIFF: by Wayan; 2017/9/7, a nightmare-warning (I'd asked what to do next). Atop a sea-cliff, I meet a young couple in love. One look at me and they push me off! When I see I can't save myself, I try to take them with me... CAUTION: NIGHTMARE BARING UGLY TRUTHS
	SHOWERED WITH WISHES: by Zooop; 2007/3/12, a dream that enough is enough I took my cellphone into the shower. I couldn�t find the shampoo, and idly typed SHAMPOO in, and... CAUTION: NOW YOU KNOW WHO STOLE YOUR ODD SOCKS
	SNOWDRIFTS: by Catshall; c. 2014/11/5, a dream-haiku on the drought I dream of snowdrifts too deep to get back home, even though...
	A SPHINX IN CLAY: by Wayan; 2017/2/25, a dream urging me to face my heritage. Also sculpt! I'm a half-sphinx--human dad, sphinx mom--stuck in human form so far. Will I ever learn to shift? I practice--sculpt my elegant feline future self... CAUTION: SPHINX NUDITY
	SPIRIT CHORUS: by Wayan; dreamed 2016/2/8, a curative dream I drum on an ocarina-gong in the dark. My weird music summons a choir of fierce angels, who send a wave of tingling energy surging through me...
	SPLINTER: by Wayan; 1981/3/14, a dream of love and nagging. I love Splinter, but her mom insists I got BOTH of them pregnant. Then I notice I'm pregnant too... CAUTION: SEX, NAGGING
	STOP ME!: by Wayan; 1994/2/22, a nested nightmare on guilt for simply feeling I kill with an angry wish, just pointing my finger! No one sees, but I secretly pray others will stop me before I snipe again. Yet when I meet a telepath who can see my guilt, I start to wonder just what my crime was--beside guilt itself... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, GUILT
	A SUDDEN SEX CHANGE: by Wayan; 1994/4/18, a wish-fulfilling dream. I spontaneously change sex! At first I'm happy, but I find unexpected disadvantages...
	SUMMON A MENTOR: by Wayan; 1997/10/6, a parabolic dream on wishes. I turn shy with women I like. So I wish for a dating coach, who appears! Then I feel dumb: how come I...
	SUMMONING SHADOW: by Jo Equinity; 2006. Three meditative paintings apparently cause a miracle. I had to sell my horse Shadow, but I missed him so much I painted him. As I finished, a strange impulse led me...
	TEN HEARTBEATS OF WILL: by Wayan; 2011/1/2, an experimental dreamflight A friend says lucid dreaming doesn't matter--you can even fly awake if you clearly will it. So I jump...
	THREE-YEAR PREGNANCY: by Ithmonike of Pellene, c.320 BCE, Two dreams of an odd god. I was barren. I asked Asklepios, God of Healing, to make me pregnant. Soon I was--for 3 years, until...
	TIME-CAT: by Wayan; 2013/11/23; a self-flagging predictive dream I'm a cat person, grooming. But not MY fur--it's a woolly mass of timelines! We cats travel time, smoothing out snarls... Then I wake, go to a party, and...
	TRANSLUCENCE: AN ASSAY: by Jane Hirshfield; c.2005?, a dream poem of a lost opportunity A dog implausibly large, with fur the color of rose-quartz, wanted me to follow her...
	TWO BISHOP APPLICANTS: by Wayan; 1984/11/21, a surreal but mercilessly logical dream. My mind and my soul both apply for a job in Stanford Cathedral. Their rivalry grows to a shamanic duel...
	UNICORN FEEDBACK: by Wayan; 2009/1/3, a double dream of advice A telepathic unicorn gives me some subtle advice. I wake, and tell a friend, who easily proves my account is distorted by my own biases. Telepathy's confusing! Wake again. Her correction was part of the dream...
	UTOPIA: by Wayan; 37 p, 3.9 MB, 2007/5/9, a painted improv exploring... wishes? An improvised painting-series exploring my obsession for Utopia--and your deafening silence... CAUTION: IDEAS, FURRY NUDITY, THAT GOSH-DARN MODERN ABSTRACT ART
	VOW, CHOP, DOOR: by Wayan; 1997/1/26, a psychic dreamtale. I make a weird vow--while I absent-mindedly slice up other people's cars! The next day... CAUTION: DREAM VANDALISM
	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
	WHAT GOD BELIEVES IN: by Wayan; 1984/9/23, a dream of working for a difficult deity God's my boss, but like a bratty little brother, he's Not Speaking To Me. It's slowing down our office... CAUTION: CHRISTIANS WON'T WANT TO KNOW
	WHILE THE MEN WERE HUNTING by Wayan, 1981/11/3; a crayon-ink-Xerox art-prayer. In cave times, while the men were all out hunting, it was the women who learned to paint the cave walls to summon...
	WISH AND WAKE: by Wayan; 1998/7/9, a dream within a dream. I wake up praying for love--and then realize my wish is contradictory, and revise it to...
	WISH-RATIONED EARTH: by Wayan; 2015/6/19; an advisory dream on...miracles? I'm stranded on an alternate Earth under strict rationing--of wishes! But you need to wish a few times a year to keep the system greased... CAUTION: INSULTS BOTH CAPITALISM AND ASCETICISM
	WISHING RICOCHETS: by Wayan, 2017/7/18, a shamanic dream on will and restraint. Trapped in segregation-era Florida, I force a racist waitress to go bother someone else. Disastrously, she does. Someone more vulnerable. Self-assertion's not always wise... CAUTION: KLAN THREAT
	WORKIN' FOR PEANUTS: by Wayan; 1990/12/11, a crude but perceptive dream. I'm an elephant working in a diner. In the bathroom, I inadvertently summon the Genie of the Urinal... CAUTION: PISSED PACHYDERM
	WORLD TOUR: by Sharon Boyle; 1937?, a nightmare told to her mom, poet Kay Boyle This man comes into the chapel, makes a fascist salute, catches fire, and burns right down to his shoes...
	WOUND-BARGAIN: by a Marine from New York; 1918/9/12-14, a prediction and possible alteration of the future I was sure I'd be wounded, but dreaded being crippled. So I tried on injuries! I settled on a flesh wound in my left shoulder...