I'm on the Pacific coast of the San Francisco Peninsula, staring in surprise at a huge bridge heading straight out to sea. Endless--fades into haze. Well, into ships, radar installations, radio towers... almost none of the horizon is open sea. For a moment I think I'm in Hawai'i, looking at the channel between the Big Island and Maui, crowded because it's ALL coastal water. But this isn't; off Northern California is deep sea for thousands of kilometers.

Looking closely at the bridge, my sense of depth is unnaturally vivid and precise; the spans recede to infinity visibly, in stereo vision, not flat as far objects do in the waking world. As if my eyes were miles apart!

Drive along the shore. Stop to look at a long pier where at least ten thousand people kneel and bow, facing the sea, like Muslims with a bad compass. These disciples' cars are parked on a strip to the right of the pier, color-coded herringbonily. I am attracted to their cult's dedication and austerity, but they also seem subservient to their spiritual teacher, and he's in a tented pavilion out on the pier, hidden.

Think "I don't trust leaders I can't see and hear! This guy has hidden in tent--"

Then I hear my own pun, and wake.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Able to judge distance better than when awake: is the dream saying my vision in dreams reaches further?
• Hidden in tent: hidden intent, of course. But who?
• Why's he on a pier? A second pun! So he can "a pier" benevolent despite his "hidden in tent"?
• ACTION: uh... don't trust cult leaders. What, was I planning to?

A MONTH LATER

Don't trust cult leaders, all right. Over the last week, news has trickled in of the Jonestown Massacre--cult leader Jim Jones killed hundreds of his own followers. At first it was thought to be mass suicide via poisoned Kool-Aid; but survivors who fled into the woods say it was mass murder: reluctant followers were forced to drink at gunpoint.

Now I wonder if that enhanced parallax/stereoscopy, as I peered deep into the dream-sea, was a prompt trying to flag the dream as gazing outward across time, not just space. Such self-flagging is little mentioned in dream research, but it's quite as interesting as dream ESP. If real, it shows the dreaming mind not only knows what it's doing, it knows the waking mind often needs nudging--"hey, stupid, this one's not about your immediate concerns--it's looking out into the deeps." Out not in!

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