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Dream Steps : a Bloneironicweblog for the exploration of dreams - oneironics |
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because poetry is the waking dream
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November 25 Clean Sweep Some have used lucid dreaming to ascend to the heights of spiritual ecstasy...
Whereas in a recent lucid dream, I merely watch myself sweep.
In the dream...
I'm sweeping the dark concrete floor of a small room. I have enough light, but it's not bright.
I carefully sweep the debris into a small pile in the middle of the floor. I realize I'm dreaming, though the scene looks completely realistic.
When I become lucid, I could have chosen to alter this mundane dream. But why should it? Obviously, the floor needed to be swept.
I find it significant that I sweep the debris into the center of the room. This cleaning work, occurring on an inner level, is a type of centering--a way of focusing. A meditation.
The debris is like an offering--I'm offering up that which I no longer need in my life. I'm acknowledging the spiritual purpose of all this old dust.
Though this dream didn't bring me to the heights of spiritual ecstasy, I can think of no more positive dream.
© 2009, Michael R. Patton November 22 Moon Crow Like the author of the haiku below...
I have often said, "Give me back my dream!"
Yet I know those unresolved dreams will eventually return, in one form or another.
"Give me back my dream!
a crow has wakened me
to misty moonlight"
-- Onitsura
This haiku was translated by Stephen Addiss, with Fumiko & Akira Yamamoto, and can be found in A Haiku Menagerie.
© 2009, Michael R. Patton November 18 Inside Outside Dolphin Falling asleep while I listened to a book on CD...
...may have created confusion in a recent dream...
...yet it also added to the mystery of that dream.
In the dream...
...I've gone underground to a cave with many levels. Visitors--both adults and children--move along the walkways on each level.
I enter an alcove where some aquarium exhibits are set into the rock walls.
In one cardboard box, I find some small marine creatures rolled up in a plastic bag. One is a delicate white spidery thing with little legs all around its circumference.
While I'm examining these creatures, I hear a story about the demise of the baiji--the Yangtze River dolphin--one of the few freshwater dolphins in the world. The story is quite sad. The dolphin recently became extinct; we've lost it forever.
One of the creatures in this bag is the river dolphin. But I'm confused--a river dolphin should be larger, much larger, than any of these small creatures. And yet, the story is about the river dolphin, so the dolphin is in this bag.
I put the bag of marine creatures back into the cardboard box. Then, when I look again, the bag has disappeared. I check very carefully, but no--the box is completely empty.
At first glance, such a dream can seem impenetrable...
But isn't the dream about loss, about what can be lost, so suddenly, and never retrieved? Such loss can seem inexplicable.
The loss shouldn't have happen, and yet, it can not be denied.
Even if I take nothing else from this dream, it has touched me in a way that is profound.
While in this dream, I was listening to the story of the baiji on the CD recording of Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman. But I don't think the incorporation of this material into the dream was merely accidental. Other times when I've fallen asleep while listening to a book on CD, my dreams haven't included the audio.
The disappearance of the small marine animals represents loss on an inner level; whereas, the loss of the river dolphin occurred in the outer world. But one loss speaks to another. I know I often respond strongly to an outer world event because it mirrors something happening on an inner level.
I had already heard this story of the baiji before the dream. So perhaps my dream tells of how I responded to the story. Perhaps the dream shows me how such stories can affect me on a deep inner level.
This dream, among many others, reminds me that the line between "inner" and "outer" is really an artificial distinction, used only for the sake of convenience.
© 2009, Michael R. Patton November 15 Right Question, Wrong Answer An opportunity was missed in a dream last week...
I asked the right question...
...but gave myself the wrong answer.
In the dream...
...Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, is called in by the U.S. government to be an advisor for the war in Afganistan.
But I realize that McNamara died recently. I reason that he must have advised the government a short time before his death.
That's the entire dream. No strong image. In fact, I believe it contained no image whatsoever. It's what I call a "thought dream".
We generally think of dreams as being illogical, irrational. But I find that's not always the case. In this dream, my thinking was quite clear, quite reasonable. McNamara's dead. How can he possibly be a military advisor?
My answer is reasonable as well. However, I could have used this question to realize that I was in a dream; I could have become lucid in my dream. In answer to the question, "How can McNamara be called in as an advisor?", I could have told myself, "He can't--he's dead. So, I must be dreaming."
Yes, I missed my chance, but at least, I'm aware that I missed it. So, maybe next time, I'll have the right answer.
In any case, the more important question is...
...why's McNamara in my dream?
McNamara, apparently, learned something from his involvement in that earlier conflict. A present conflict can be not averted--it is already in progress. However, by drawing on what I've learned in the past, I can avoid making the same mistakes.
© 2009, Michael R. Patton November 11 In Observance of Veteran's Day In observance of Veteran's Day, I am reposting this blog entry:
"I have dreams that repeat over and over. I have a dream of my fiancee...sitting in a chair with her back to me... "...and there’s an Iraqi that cuts her throat. When I try to save her, when I try to go at him, he disappears. "I have another dream where I’m mutilating my little baby...picking her up by the legs and smashing her against the wall..." These dreams were told on the radio program This American Life by an Iraq War veteran, referred to simply as "John". A self-proclaimed high school "band geek", John did not have a history of violence--until he returned from the war in Iraq. We don’t seem to be doing a very good job of helping soldiers like John, soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I know that listening to their dreams can help them. Unfortunately, dream work doesn’t seem to be a part of most therapies today--whether it’s group therapy or individual. If nothing else, their nightmares will let know them a problem exists, a problem that can not be ignored. A vet who tells everyone--including himself--that "everything’s okay" may get a different message from his dreams. These dreams, if shared, can also serve as a warning to family and friends. I realize it’s difficult to work with dreams. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. A dream in which I feel afraid is a dream about my fear. Simple as that. You don’t need to be an expert to know that John’s dreams speak of trouble within. Likewise, a change in his dreams can show he’s beginning to come to grips with his war experience. I’ve never suffered from PTSD. But I have had many strange and troubling dreams. I’ve learned that those dreams aren’t there merely to scare me. Those dreams have come to lead me out of the dark. © 2009, Michael R. Patton
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