A cleansing ritual in a future ecological society. A woman lies on her back on an altar, and the presiding shaman prompts her to tell her dreams. They go on and on...

At last I can't restrain my giggles and explain to the woman by me, who's from a different pagan culture, "It's like a parody of Freudian therapy--the couch, the talking, the dream, the endlessness... Feel like we're in Vienna."

She says indignantly "No way! It's like..." and compares it to something from her native culture.

I counter "Well you can always find aspects that are familiar--look, I'll pick a society at random. How about a local tribe... uh, let's say, the Miwok. Look at the echoes of their rites!" And I start listing them, starting of course with shamans and dreams but coming up with a surprising number very quickly, making a perfectly plausible bogus case that this rite comes from Miwok culture!

At least I guess it's bogus. The echoes are there.

Oh, no! What if my bullshit is true?

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Miwok: a Northern California coastal tribe, the original owners of the land I was born on.
• Therapy, Miwok rite = "Me walk right!" At my family's reunion, I walked around the block with my sisters to get some privacy, and Miriel told us her dreams. But then, at dinner, my father announced "Psychics are all fakes--they just say generic things anyone can relate to." Telling this to his three children, who all have clear, detailed psychic dreams! Deliberate, insulting provocation.

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