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On the Job


Dreams set at work, or about work, or solving work problems. Your waking world work, mind you. There's a larger list for weird dream jobs where anything goes!

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AGASSIZ'S FISH: by Louis Agassiz, ca. 1840: subliminal, psychic, or just a great guess?
Agassiz, faced with a fossil he had to crack open, was unsure where to strike.
But for three nights he dreamed...
THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art & courage
Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake.
Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
BIRD CRASH: by Emily Joy; 2007/3/12, a set of didactic nightmares
Such pressures there are on the sick to act well! I implore you, ignore them all...
CAUTION: EXPLODING TEACHER
BLUE EAGLE: by Xanthe; 1989/10/6, a dream that said it wasn't for me
I met a great blue eagle waiting to get into a library--but not to hunt books...
BOAR: by Ann Faraday, 1974, a punning book-review dream
DREAM: I'm in a restaurant offering just one dish: wild boar, for $12. Excessive. I say no.
NEXT DAY: I tackle a book review I must write. The book costs $12. Excessive. Oh! It's a...
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...
BRUSHWOOD BELLY: by An the Black; Easter 1003, a bizarre predictive dream.
An dreams a scary woman pulls his guts out and fills him up with brush! He wakes, gets gutted in a feud, and then...
CAUTION: BLOODY VIKINGS!
BUFFALO PERSON: by Plenty Coups, summer 1857; a child's time-traveling, tribe-saving dream
I was led into the future, where all the buffalo disappeared, to meet a frail old man by a ranch house...
CAMPION'S WARNING: by Wayan; 1994/6/12, a warning dream--but not warning of what I think.
On the beach, seated at The Piano, director Jane Campion warns
"Avoid Hollywood, they'll snip away at your vision..."
CANARY COAL, MOLE-OWNED SINCE 1873: by Wayan; 1981/11/7, nondream inksketch on chemopolitics.
No more token canaries--the all-canary workforce, that's us. Let's see if these products are toxic...
CAUTION: ANTI-CAPITALIST
A CARTOONIST'S DIARY (excerpt): by Dylan Horrocks; 2012/3/5, a dream proposing a literary project
I melted down all the vinyl records ever made in New Zealand to create one huge compendium.
I woke thinking "Could I do that for New Zealand comics?"
CENTAURPEDE: by Wayan; a bizarre 1983/3/15 dream predicts a bizarre art job in 2002!
Like a long molecule floating in darkness, this dream creature could loop and link to itself...
CAUTION: EQUINE NUDITY, LANGUAGE
CHANGE MY GRIP: by Jack Nicklaus, 1964/6/24, a problem-solving dream
My golf game has been way off; a 76 is starting to look good. But last Wednesday I dreamed
I changed my grip--just a little. When I woke I tried it. Yesterday I shot a 68; today, 65...
CHOCOLATE SPILL: by "Anonymous #8"; pre-1963, a nondream time-glitch of a few seconds
The jug of chocolate sauce smashed on the floor, forming a dark pattern. Then the scene melted and, like a film
loop, restarted. Horrified, I screamed "Don't touch it!" But the pitcher fell, the sauce made its predestined shape...
CLIFTON: by Wayan; 1997/9/6, a journal entry on a 20th Century man rather like me.
Mark Clifton wrote science fiction tales of mutant psychic geniuses--only he wrote from life...
COACH AND ARCH: by William Cavendish-Bentinck; 1901, a practical warning-dream.
I dreamt the royal coach got stuck in an arch on the coronation route. Awake, I checked the heights of coach & arch...
COSMIC MAYPOLE: by Georganna Malloff; 1976-80s, dream-based drawings and totem poles
I dreamed all the creatures of the world were dancing around a maypole.
My friends and I sculpted a totem pole from the dream...
CRANE CRASH: by Anonymous #33; pre-1961, a predictive dream with a crucial hole
The crane toppled and fell onto the riverbank. I saw the number, but not if the operator got free...
CREATORS' BREAKOUT: by Rick Veitch, c.1995, a career-advice dream
The House of Comics has a shabby annex jammed with self-publishers.
We make a human ladder and climb out a high window, but I don't fit;
as the tenement collapses, I must smash the windowframe to free...
A CREATURE: by Albert Grass, 1938? Or Zoe Beloff, c.2008? An early Freudian dream-comic--or a hoax!
Dream: wild animals race across Paris, but in my hotel lobby, a small creature on my shoulder murmurs "Je t'aime."
Awake, I know those racers from the themepark where I work. But the creature takes me way back--to Paris, 1918...
CAUTION: ONE-NIGHT STAND
CRUSHED BY NETLEY ABBEY: by a Mr Taylor; 1704? A warning dream.
A English carpenter named Taylor demolishes Netley Abbey despite
dreams warning he'll be crushed by stones falling from a window...
CYCLONE REPAIR: by Anonymous #36; pre-1961, a forgotten warning dream
Months ago, I dreamed of that exact wall--I fell and was hurt. So today I told my foreman
I'd rather work on the ground. But by 11, I forgot. I climbed up to nail in some blocks...
DAD THE WORKAHOLIC: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an emotional blowout dream
In the paper factory where my dad worked all his life, I find him on
his deathbed. Even as he fades, he's still trying to please his bosses...
DAPHNE THINKS: by Wayan, 2007/6/10, a dream warning of (two?) unacknowledged needs
My co-worker Daphne is snappish and stressed. She meditates, seeking the cause,
and becomes a half-newt-half-koi in a giant fishbowl. Up shambles a curious AI...
DENTATA: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/10/9, a dream of a toothy vagina--yet not a nightmare
Swedenborg's in bed with a woman, but finds she has teeth in her vagina. He interprets it not as revealing some
fear of women but as advice about pacing his scientific work. And the surrounding dreams hint he may be right...
CAUTION: ALMOST-SEX
DRAMA IS HELL!: by Thomas Hood; 1824?; a comic nightmare
When my first play failed, I tried to console myself by reading Paradise Lost.
But drama and devils don't mix...
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...
EDITORS: by Gavin Ewart; late 1970s, recurring nightmares of censorship.
My new editor starts rejecting my poems. My new new editor rewrites them for me. I feel lucky not to be arrested...
EGO FACTORY: by Rick Veitch, late 1974/1, both a Jungian & career-advisory dream
I go to work at the factory, clock in, strip naked, and build my... self! Myself as art.
A long slow job, but when my workmates ask, I'm admit I'm happy with me at last...
ENTER, NERO!: by Emperor Nero; c. 58 CE, a series of guilty surreal nightmares.
After murdering his mother, Nero dreams he's losing control: ships drift, statues chase him, and his own tomb says...
EVOLUTION'S DULL: by Wayan; 1997/7/22, a science rant.
Evolution is like baseball--a game of inches, efficiency, constraints. Surely we can do better....
CAUTION: CONTAINS THOUGHT
THE FACTORY: by Sunshine; 2015/9/25, a metaphorical dream
Elegant, ancient, the tower rose into the clouds. Inside? Smoke & darkness. Workers roast meat...
FAMILY STORE: by Mark Ian Barasch's father, c. 2000; a subtly psychic dream healing a family
I dream my son the writer's living above our old family store, the one that failed in the Depression...
FILM STARS by Nancy Price; 1948, a surreal predictive/diagnostic dream
I'm a film actress, but the producer isn't happy with my legs, so make-up takes them away to be redone...
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...
FLOWERHEADED CAT: by Wayan; 2005/8/17, two bizarre, sexy, advisory dreamlets
My co-worker flashes a lot. Her boyfriend helps--flaps her skirt up to bare her pussy. What's their agenda?
In a dream-sculptor's studio, I pet her lily-headed cat, who purrs. I think "At least her pussy likes me..."
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, PUNS, PETTING
FREUD'S FOUR POINTS: by Wayan; 2008/11/11; a dream critiquing four of Freud's dream-theories!
Freud and I argue dream-theory while we're stuck in an elevator that projects dream-examples on the walls...
GALLERY GAWKERS: by Wayan; 2003-5; sketches of San Francisco characters
For two years, I sat at the desk in our co-op gallery, and
secretly sketched our bewildered, art-assaulted customers...
GEODE: by Anonymous #30; pre-1961, a clairvoyant dream
I dreamed of a valuable geode on a gravel bar in a nearby river, a place I'd never been. The next day I went...
GIGANTIC SAND MOUNTAINS: by Jack Kerouac, early Sept. 1953, a dream on fun versus work
Perched on a huge sandpile by the train track, I wrote. Then met a narcissistic
hipster chasing happiness and sex. But this globe's austere and full of hurt...
GISLI THE OUTLAW: by Gisli the Outlaw of Iceland; 966-973, a series of at least ten life-saving dreams.
Gisli had two spirit-wives who told him in dreams how to evade the bounty-hunters after him... for 13 years!
THE GIVE-AWAY: by Wayan; 1982/6/7, a career nightmare.
My parents pray for my success, and arrange a great learning opportunity for me. Really.
GOBLET OF GOLD: by Sophocles, between 450-406 BCE; a detective dream.
A huge gold cup was stolen from the Temple of Hercules. Sophocles thrice dreamt Hercules named the thief...
THE GREAT PEACE: by George Antheil; early 1922; two predictive dreams that change a pianist's life
I dream it's after a great war; I hear the music I must write, and meet the girl I must marry...
THE GREEN GODDESS: by William Archer; 1919/9/1, a playwriting-idea dream that paid off
I was held hostage in India by courteous revolutionaries who avoided spelling out that we were soon to die...
HARRY AND THE HORCRUX: by J.K. Rowling; mid-December 2006, a dream of creative ferment
People have asked me if I ever dream that I am 'in' Harry's world. The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago...
HE HAS REPENTED: by Frederick Greenwood; before 1894, a pre-Freud discovery of the unconscious
A con artist fools me and a waiter. But if my dreamfolk are all me, who's fooling whom?
HEAD ON MY TABLE: by Lauren Watley; 2011/2/16, a creepy dream-image with depth
After a day of troubling conflicts over race & art, I dream I'm handed a hot, heavy, mossy head--is it art, or alive?
HER LOVELY AWKWARD SYNTH, by Wayan, 2009/3/9; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #43
A musical prodigy has a gorgeous, unplayable keyboard.
But serious creativity takes a dull, regular, ergonomic instrument...
HOMEBOUND: by Sunshine; 2015/3/21, a dream posing an ethical dilemma
Elves are making humans grow tree-doors back to Faerie. But are they invasion-scouts, or just going home?
CAUTION: GUNFIGHT, MIND CONTROL
HORSE THIEVES: by Plenty Coups, early 1870s?; a practical psychic or subliminal dream
Thieves stole 100 of our horses. The tracks suggested white men, but that night
my dream Helpers declared them Sioux. We tracked them across Montana...
HOW TO BE HAPPY: A FABLE BY TOLKIEN: by Wayan; 1994/6/16, a dream, not by Tolkien.
I'm a librarian in an English village hit by fads--new philosophies and lifestyles. I learn what works:
HUMANITY'S GREATEST FEAR: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/8, a sarcastic dream on education.
My teacher insists, "You'll be scared too, when you see it." But when he shows us humanity's greatest fear...
CAUTION: UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS
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
I GUESS IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY PARTY: by Jack Kerouac, early Oct.1952, a transcendent nightmare?
My party's a slow disaster. Talk, booze, pot, sex--nothing works out.
What will Mom think? At last, trapped in an office, I get the Message...
INANNA'S RIVER OF BLOOD: by King Sargon I; c. 2335 BCE, a call-to-greatness nightmare
Sargon, a delivery man, dreams the Goddess drowns the King in a river of blood. He wakes and tells the King...
INVADE GREECE, OR ELSE!: by Xerxes I and his uncle Artabanus; 480 BCE, three linked, deceitful dreams.
Xerxes twice dreams a god orders him to attack Greece. So he asks his uncle to dream of the god to confirm...
ISLAND LOVERS: by Sunshine; 2015/9/14, a horror-film dream gone soft?
They sneak off from a party to have a thresome, but monsters try to harvest their organs! Inept monsters...
CAUTION: SEX (OFFSTAGE)
JACK DANIELS: by Wayan; 1983/10/14, three dreams critiquing a (real!) ESP experiment gone awry
A car crashes & burns--but the driver bailed! No one to save...
A miner stabs a baby "because everyone not underground is evil"...
Radar O'Reilly from MASH, President Calvin Coolidge and I confuse who's who...
JILL THE PEST: by Wayan; 240K, 2001/2/22, a nondream visionary comic.
I had a headache and couldn't sleep. I started drawing, and asked for a cure. And a cartoon angel said...
CAUTION: TANTRUMS, MASTURBATION, JUNKFOOD, ANGELIC SCOLDING
KEKULE: by Friedrich Kekulé, 1858 & 1865, two problem-solving dreams.
Kekule dreamed solutions to the thorniest structural chemistry problems of his era not once but twice...
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...
KINDERTOTENLIEDER: by Oliver Sacks; 1974, a musical dream
I dream of German dirges I don't know. I hum them for a friend, who shocks me by asking
"Have you abandoned any children, or burned a manuscript?" Right on both counts...
THE LABORATORY UNDERGROUND: by Anna Kingsford; 1880/2/2; an animal-rights nightmare.
I find myself in a vault with tables where half-dissected animals writhe. Hidden in each was a human shape...
CAUTION: GRUESOME
LADY UNICORN: by Cindy Prince; 2007/10/16, a dream of a shapeshifter.
I was working in the library, talking to this woman who announced "I think I'll grow my horn now..."
THE LEARNABLE INSTRUMENT PROJECT: by Wayan; 1999-2000. Mad instrument design that might just work
A spiral dream-instrument I'm building, that's easier to play than a piano or guitar, and a lot snakier...
THE LEMON SEA: by Wayan; 1982/2/22, a dream warning.
I wake up as someone else. I go through her working day, till Captain Kirk comes to take me to...
LIGHTEN UP, ROADS!: by Wayan; 1994/6/28, a dreamed eco-proposal.
Recycling used paint to lighten pavements could lower continental temperatures a fraction of a degree...
LILIES, DREAMER, FOX: by Wayan; 1998/5/27, acrylic on 46" plywood disk, life study.
She didn't want to be there. She closed her eyes and went elsewhere. So I painted where she went...
CAUTION: NUDITY
THE LIMP: by Wayan; 1986/7/18, a dream on difference
I was working for a London architect. His son thought people shunned him for his limp, but...
LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION DREAM: by Abraham Lincoln, ca.March 31 1865, a predictive nightmare.
Lincoln dreamt his body was lying in state in the White House. A guard said he'd been assassinated. Two weeks later...
LION EYES: by Patagia; 2007/11/??, a serious dream-prank.
Lions trap me in an African cave with only coffee, paper and pens! Is this what it takes to get me to write?
LOEWI'S NOBEL DREAM: by Otto Loewi, 1920, a dream that led to a Nobel prize.
Loewi thought nerve impulses were transmitted chemically, not electrically. But he couldn't prove it, until one night...
LOUSE: by Wayan; ink, 1982/5/21: an embarrassing true story.
Getting rid of lice was easy. Harder was quelling the gossip and rumors from my co-workers and boss...
CAUTION: A LOUSE OF A BOSS
THE M9: by David Parkinson, 1940; a dream-designed invention.
Parkinson dreamed his new telephone device got added to an anti-aircraft gun. He told his dream;
guns with M9 units turned out to be so accurate it gave the British hope against the Luftwaffe...
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...
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.
MARVEL PATROLS: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a punning nightmare on being an independent cartoonist
The comics industry degenerates into civil war. We peddle all night to avoid the Marvel...
MESOPOTAMIAN RINGS: by Herman Hilprecht, Jan.-Mar. 1883; two problem-solving dreams
I dreamt of a better translation of Nebuchadnezzar's name, since universally accepted...
I dreamt a priest of old Nippur told me two agate pieces, long separated, formed a pair...
MIKE DIANA, JAILED FOR SACRILEGE: by Wayan; 1994/6/23; a real-life nightmare.
Unfortunately, this is not a dream at all...
MOM IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a therapy-guiding initial dream.
My mom's driving me to work. A nearby car has young people in it--I'd rather be with them.
My mom seems to be dawdling; I'll be late meeting my colleague! I'm furious...
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.
MY DESIGN FOR THE DOME: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/5/1; a painting from an advisory dream
At first no one seems interested in my mural-design for the inside of the City Hall dome, but...
MY NEW JOB: by Wayan; 1987/4/20, a haiku-ish dream joke?
At the library, my boss says we're restructuring, modernizing. My new job is to...
NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, c.155 CE (or 199?), a dream leaving physical traces.
Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back...
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S TREE: by King Nebuchadnezzar II; c. 583 BCE, a predictive dream
Nebuchadnezzar dreams a voice from heaven commands a great tree be cut;
Daniel interprets this as a prediction the king will go mad for 7 years...
NET PROFITS: by Wayan; 1998/7/14, a dream of family values and Web credit.
At a family picnic, my sisters and I fish for scholarships and grants. They put down my art, my website...
NICHE: by Wayan; 1990/5/9, a nondream poem on new art media, or crashing your computer. Same thing.
A poem linking the dawn of digital art to early, tinny phonographs, cranky film cameras...
CAUTION: IDEAS
NINA'S RING: by Nina's clown, 1955/4/20, a lifesaving intuition
While rehearsing our circus act I mentally saw Nina's ladder breaking loose.
Next day, a supporting ring snapped. Being forewarned, I pulled hard...
OIL DERRICK: by Fernando Rojas Zapata, Dec 1994-early 1995; recurring, life-saving nightmares
DREAMS: I'm arguing with a worker on our oil rig when a huge piece of steel falls, crushing me instantly.
MONTHS LATER: that very worker gets in an argument with me. I recall my dreams, step back, and...
OLD HAT: by Wayan; 1988/1/5, a "normal" (i.e. incoherent) dream.
The Goddess gave birth in my workplace. Her fever-dreams become real around us...
CAUTION: BIRTH SCENE, LIBRARIANS' ORGY
THE OLD YOUNG MAN: by Anna Kingsford; 1880/2/21, a dream of a step-in soul
Malaria nearly kills a talented young artist; he must retrain from scratch. Why? Well, he's not exactly himself...
OPENING: by Wayan, 1992; incubated automatic drawing
Why don't I push for more art shows? I asked how I feel at shows of my own work, and this came out...
OTTER MEDICINE: by The-Fringe, a Crow healer, early 1850s; a shamanic dream with physical effects
I slept on an island in a scalding hot spring, praying for a dream. I got one--and woke up on the shore...
THE OUTSIDERS: by Grady Towers; 1987, article on genius.
Towers, before he was killed, argued Terman was wrong: geniuses are often isolated and maladjusted...
CAUTION: UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS
PAPA: by Hélène Cixous; 1996/5/15; a revenant dream on workaholism
I'm in my papa's waiting room. I beg him to take a break from his patients now that he's dead, and walk with me...
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...
PLANET-SCULPTING APE: by "AE" (George Russell); mid-1870s, a childhood characterological dream.
On a cloud in space I met an ape molding a model of Earth, glancing at the original far below. We were much alike...
A PROPHETIC DREAM: by William Archer; 1921/4/24, a quiet predictive dream naming names.
A literary agent proposes a novelization offer from a writer I've barely heard of. Twelve weeks later...
RECURRING SCHOOL NIGHTMARE: by Julie Doucet; July 1995, a dream of... oh, read the title!
Trapped in elementary school, Julie is forced to study the alphabet
until she declares "I'm a professional cartoonist, goddammit!"...
ROBERT'S PLAN: by William Blake; late 1788; an advisory dream...
Blake was broke. Couldn't pay to typeset Songs of Innocence and Experience.
But in a dream, his brother advised him...
RUBY UNICORN: by Wayan; dreamed 2012/11/15; a sculptural dream.
THAT DAY: My bandmates want to record crowd-pleasing songs. I want to record our strangest ones...
THAT NIGHT: In a woman's art studio, I'm struck by a low, feline, muscular unicorn mare, carved
out of a giant ruby. I ask, and she says "Oh, that's not mine. I found it in the trash"...
SABOTAGED BOAT: by C. G. "Chinese" Gordon; c.1861-4, a recurrent warning dream
I recognized the saboteur. If I had neglected that dream warning we all would likely have drowned...
SAINT HELENA: by Edmund Halley; 1676, a predictive dream.
Astronomer Edmund Halley had dreamed of sailing to St Helena in the South Atlantic, but didn't realize until he arrived how accurate his dreams had been...
SAMURAI LIBRARIAN: by Wayan; 1982/10/20, a dream that dreamwork is samurai discipline
I wrote my dreams each morning no matter what--even if I it made me late for work.
They assumed I was sloppy, lazy, spacy. No; disciplined about priorities!
SATISFACTION: by Keith Richards, 1965/5/7, a famous dream song (and a well-prepared dreamer)
I always kept a guitar and tape recorder by my bed. I wake up and see the tape's run to the very end.
I ran it back to the start and there, in a sort of ghostly version, was...
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...
A SEAMY REALITY: by Wayan; 1999/10/21, a surreal predictive dream.
Sharp seams between realities cross Silicon Valley; I end up in the Dark Castle of the Oracle. When I wake...
SELL THE GODS, AND RAISE HELL!: by Wayan; 1994/1/26, a dream riddle.
Reactionaries smash a paper. To rebuild, the editor must sell
the sacred tiki carvings! But gods don't LIKE being sold...
CAUTION: MORAL QUANDARY
SEWING ADVICE FROM CANNIBALS: by Elias Howe, 1845, an inventor's helpful nightmare.
His sewing-machine design failed--until dream-cannibals caught him & jabbed him with weird needles...
CAUTION: OUCH!
SHEEP IN THE SKY: by Myoe Shonin; c.1220/9/20, a dream of strange advice.
A strange transforming thing appeared in the sky--a light, a sheep, a man. It told me to stop burning my head...
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...
THE SHOP SPILLED OVER: by AE (George Russell); early 1890s, a telepathic flash
Closing my eyes I saw an old man and a red-haired girl in a shop. My workmate was writing home...
6-MONTH TOMBSTONE, 17-YEAR CABINET:
(by a California model, pre-1961, and by a Texas maid, 1945; two predictive dreams compared)
Predictive dreams rarely hint how far they've peered ahead; they just place you in their foreseen future...
SKUNK SEEKS THAILAND: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a dreamlet of shamanic kindness
One night I meet a giant talking skunk and its pup, who asks how to walk to Thailand...
SOLOMON'S CHOICE: by King Solomon, c. 970 BCE; a god's dream-bargain
As his reign begins, King Solomon worries he's inadequate. He dreams
God offers him one gift, of his choice--but what would help the most?
STEVENSON’S BROWNIES: by Robert Louis Stevenson; 1850s-1880s, a series of dreams
Stevenson’s dreams changed over decades: from childhood nightmares into
creative collaborators dreaming whole stories...
STRANGE AUDITION: by Nancy Price; 1948, a predictive theatre-dream
I dream the actors auditioning for George Bernard Shaw’s play are blends of human, avian, and lion.
Next morning I find a card from Shaw asking if I'd fancy playing a lion in his...
STREAMLINING: by Wayan; 2004/11/10, a dream within a dream
I dream I'm an otter, and wake into a dream about sculpture--and learn my style's due to my species...
SUN AND MOON: by Katherine Mansfield; 1918/2/9, a dream-story
I dreamed a short story--even its title. Not that I read it. No, I lived it, through the eyes of a 5-year-old...
THE TAO OF DENNIS THE MENACE: by Wayan; 1986/4/17, a dream of a wise mentor.
Chased by purple squid from Jupiter, I seek refuge with a guru the Goddess recommends for me...
TENNIS UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES by Nancy Price; 1948,
(A comic frustration dream hiding a warning)
Our tennis game's spoiled by rubber rackets, fierce grandmas,
Good and Evil (those identical twins) and a bully on stilts...
THAT GORGEOUS BLONDE DANCING BARE-BREASTED: by Jack Kerouac, mid-October 1952
A sex-fantasy dream that shifts backstage and gets real
In Charlotte they want to lynch her just for dancing. I protest. As she leaves town, she tells me...
THEY FEED THEY LION: by Philip Levine; summer 1968; a poem from two dreams
A workmate said "They feed they lion"; two dreams later, the poem emerged as you see it...
CAUTION: POLITICAL RAGE, SURREALISM
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...
TITANIC NIGHTMARES: by J. C. Middleton; 1912/4/3 and 4/4, two predictive dreams saving two lives
I saw the Titanic go down and people struggling frantically in the water. After my second nightmare I told my wife...
TOADFISH TOWERS: by Wayan; 1992/8/6, a psychic little dreamtale.
I'm in Houston, gawking at giant starfishy towers looming through the smog. Their shapes are familiar...
TORNADO INSURANCE: by a car salesman's wife; pre-1961, a useful predictive dreamlet
I dreamed a tornado loosened our showroom sign; it swung down to smash the window. I told my husband, and...
THE TRAIN ON TIME CAFE: by Wayan, 1981/12/20, an epic political dream.
Silicon Valley goes enthusiastically fascist. I hide in a berry patch. They build a shining world, and then...
TRANSFUSION by a New York woman; 1950s? 3 predictive dreams over a 5-year span
I dreamt of the Du Pont lab where I'd work, and my neighbor's future coffin,
and the hospital where my sister-in-law would get a transfusion...
TREFIL, ON SCIENCE: by Wayan; 1994/1/26, a rant on dreamwork as science.
In an oneirophobic society, it's easy to forget that when you do dreamwork, you're doing basic science.
No funding, no team, no lab coat? Can't be science! Unless they mistaught us what science is...
MY TUTELARY UNCLE: by Wayan; 1993/5/28, a shamanic dream.
I'm half Anglo, half Kwakiutl. My uncle the shaman died,
but he still wants to teach me his medicine...
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...
TWO TANKS: by "Anonymous #19"; pre-1963, a small but precise psychic dream
Two photographic developing tanks disappear. I assumed theft
until I dreamt they were in a room I'd never seen, in locker FJA 39...
THE UNMAKING OF A DANCER: by Wayan; 1994/5/22, a journal extract on dance and health.
Ballerina Joan Brady quit, but ten years later, returned. Her body rejuvenated! So what can MINE do?
THE VACUUM CLEANER QUARTET: by Wayan; 1981, four bizarre poems.
All I know about humans, I learned in psychodrama. I gawked as caterpillars grew wings. Except me...
THE VIDEOGRAPHER'S APPRENTICE: by Wayan; 1994/7/29, a predictive/warning dream.
Blondie Wiggle builds a Video Igloo. But I'm allergic--TV kills me! A BAD omen for our video project...
CAUTION: TV KILLS (BUT YOU KNEW THAT)
VULTURE PEOPLE: by Jack Kerouac, 1962, a gross-out nightmare--and a warning?
The vulture people are fucking in the city dump. I end up their guest, given putrid food
in their cold stinking house of rancid grease. I'll become a vulture too...
CAUTION: UGH!
WAYAN SAYS: by Wayan; dreamed 1986/5/23 & 1991/7/25, silkpainting 1992/5/9, digital 1994/2/25
I'm a lean loose cheetah who works best in short bursts
and long lazy rests. If I start acting human, I overwork...
WERE-COMPOSER: by Wayan; 1995/2/15, a trashy dream.
I help a brilliant, starving composer turn his family curse into a profitable business...
WHOSE DREAM IS THIS, ANYWAY?: by Anonymous #25, c.2005, as told by Patti Allen; a cledonic dream
A dreamer I know dreamt she was fired by a Mr Bleeden. Baffled her, but made shocking sense to me! My dad...
WILLPOWER (HAPPINESS): by Wayan; 1991/1/17, a didactic dream.
At age 90, the first female high-rise steelworker tells me
why she did it--and why she regrets it now...
WING IT: by Wayan, 1995/12/29-1996/2/14, a 9-page improv comic.
An art experiment--the only rule is DRAW without preconceptions--
no models, no ideas, no plans, not even dreams. Drawing from the void!
THE WIZARD'S HORSE: by Wayan; 2018/9/3, a magical dream about... toxic waste?
I'm a wizard's horse, trying to warn him about a toxic spell on a roadside corpse...
Wake into a second dream, but try to return to being a dream-mare and warn my rider...
And then wake to realize my Nightmare was warning about a home-renovation project!
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...
THE WORK OF POWER: by Anna Kingsford; Dec. 1880, a wildly uncompromising dream-sermon
A dream telling how to acquire mystic power: raw food, no sex, meat, or booze; just meditate in rural solitude...
CAUTION: EXTREMISM
THE WORLD NEWS: by Nathaniel Hawthorne; 1843; a dream-job (and career advice?)
I dreamt the world itself hired me, at a generous salary, to report its great affairs exactly as they happen...
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...
A WRITER'S MUSE: by Wayan, 1996/12/7, a dreamfable on creativity.
A writer's found in his office mating with an ash-covered creature! But could she be his muse?
CAUTION: NUDITY OR NOT? SEX OR NOT? NO ONE QUITE KNOWS...
THE WRITING CLASS: by Wayan; 1984/3/27, a grumpy dream.
Most writers search for their unique style. Not me--I struggle to convey unique EXPERIENCES...
YESTERDAY: by Paul McCartney; c. March 1965, a dream-song.
"I liked the melody a lot, but because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it..."
YOU CHIPHEAD! : by Wayan, 1997/1/31, a sarcastic dream.
Chips are faster than brains these days, so everyone's upgrading--everyone but me...
YOU REALLY AREN'T LUNCH; 2012/6/11 by Maia Spencer; a cledonic dream of facing fears
Hiding in the woods I meet a Cyclops. But I'm not me, I'm the editor of the World Dream Bank...
YUM YUM!: by Wayan; 1985/1/31, a smelly dream.
DAY: a toxic potluck. Not the first! But this time I say no...
DREAM: I'm a scent-oriented alien, tossing stinkbombs back...


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