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Gestalt dreams

Dreamwork fitting Fritz Perls's "Gestalt" model. His basic technique, Gestalt dialogue, is to speak first-person in the character of each dream figure and switch between them, forcing the ego to identify with each position in a dream-drama. It makes underdogs assert their own needs, and exposes exaggerations (and outright lies) in topdog claims. It's faster and more intense than Freudian analysis at arms' length, or even Jung's "amplification"--waking fantasy continuing a dream.

Gestalt and Perls are best known for exploring topdog-underdog conflicts--nags and bullies versus evaders and saboteurs. Classic examples below, in which topdogs bluster and underdogs have to stand up for their desires: Easy Rider or Music Saboteur.

Yet Gestalt dialogue won't always reveal simple top- and underdogs; to my mind, the most impressive example on the list below is Maggots, a nightmare that turns encouraging once the monsters get to speak; they're neither topdogs nor underdogs but behavioral residues of trauma. And the most extended Gestalt dialog I've ever done, in A Valley Near Hope below, revealed quite a rock-paper-scissors standoff where each of three sides felt inferior/vulnerable to some other--in a ring! Middledogs?

Like most Europeans, Perls thought all dream figures are always parts of the self, and that his technique works on every kind of dream. I don't. But it works for a lot of dreams, particularly nightmares of frustration, sabotage and bullies.

A good in-depth look at Perls and Gestalt is Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (1969, reprinted 1992), in which he guides people through dialogues, usually in group settings.

RELATED TOPICS: frustration dreams - nags and critics - parenting - sabotage versus assertion - pecking order & social class - the cop mentality - healing from abuse - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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A PEEL FOR APPROVAL: by Wayan; 1990/9/24, a cautionary dream
Ariana's a brilliant young writer, but how she plans to escape her family is alarming...
CAUTION: TEEN PREGNANCY, SKIN MAGS, HORRIBLE CAREER PLANNING
ARTIE SHAW: by John Wren-Lewis, 1971/8/17?, a comic predictive dream
DREAM: I write a book involving spies and Lord Snow, but give him a cover name: Artie Shaw.
TWO WEEKS LATER: My wife & I go on the Tonight Show; unexpectedly, Artie Shaw shows up!
I tell him the dream. He turns pale, saying "No one knows this--I wrote a book under the name..."
CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
BAT AND UMBRELLA: by David Small; c. 1960/3/1, a nightmare exposing deadly child neglect
I'm an orphaned bat in an alley in a storm. I mistake a broken old umbrella's ribs & flaps
for... my Mom! I unfold Mom, and discover...
CAUTION: LIFE-THREATENING CHILD NEGLECT
A BIKE ODYSSEY, or, ARABELLA'S ARTIFACT: by Wayan; 1994/7/24, a day trip echoed in a dream.
DAY: I bike across San Francisco writing down what I actually see.
DREAM: I'm an abused English heiress with a dangerous alien artifact...
CAUTION: HAUNTED BY CHILD ABUSE
BLIND ANCESTORS: by Wayan; 2007/8/6, a nightmare poem about all of us
While we’re at work, Blind Ancestors come smash up our homes...
and we all see zombie vandal relatives as normal...
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST (BUT, MOM!): by Anna Kingsford; 1879/10/17, a religious dream turning personal
I argue that Christ's "blood" is a metaphor for "spiritual perfection." But my mom says I'm killing her; she begs me to repent...
BLOW 'EM UP!' and POKER FACES: by Wayan; 1992/7/2; two dreams on denial and sabotage.
Would the Revolutionaries in the Basement really blow up the Committee of Idealists upstairs?
CAUTION: MAD BOMBERS! WELL, GRUMPY ONES
BLUE LIPS, GOLD EYES, ORANGE JUICE: by Wayan; 1997/5/8, a warning dream.
In a world where respectable men wear masks, an old, old man rebels in the crudest way he can...
THE BOSS'S GUTS: by Wayan; 1993/6/3, a dream on health-sabotage..
Flu. Ow, cramps! But that night I dream of a miner's rebellion against our fat-cat boss. Which side am I on?
BREAK FREE: by Emily Joy; 2006/5/11, an encouraging dream on the price of safety.
I search for family skeletons, but then a talking plant on TV inspires me to seek the sun and fly free.
But certain velociraptors and barbarian swordswomen object...
CAUTION: DUELS, FISH ABUSE, THE F-WORD
CALVIN'S DREAM: by Calvin, c.1960?, a teen's sex dream on family & religious abuse
I'm naked in a forest where the trees talk. They want my cock. A girl materializes, and we make love, but now
the treefolk are our congregation, cheering us on. Only they call her my sister! She says "Yes. But I was never
born. Dad beat Mom to abort me." She fades away, a ghost! I pick up a knife to protect Mom against Dad...
CAUTION: PORNY SEX, SUDDEN GRIM END
THE CAMBODIAN GIRL: by Wayan; 1996/4/2 dream, sculpted 1998/11/9.
VERY mixed media--the boat is warped wood. And the story is warped more...
CAUTION: SEX, SHAME FROM EARLY TRAUMA
CARSELVES: by Miriel; 1985/6/21, a predictive dream of putdowns
I dreamed I was a classic hippie bus. My brother was a lovingly customized Mustang. We
were real collector's items. So our parents decided to sell us. Their asking price was...
CAT-SNAKE: by Wayan; 1993/3/6, a short dream fable.
I glue cat-legs on my snaky friend, despite the scare talk
from Christians sure that snakes never change...
CATS AND DOG: RECURRING DREAM: by Lee Kennedy; 1994, a parental valuation dream
I kept dreaming demon cats tortured me. At last a vicious dog joined them. He wanted to kill me, but
the chief cat wanted to keep playing with her prey. I realized they were my mum and dad, and said...
CHAPERONE AND REBEL: by Wayan; 1998/5/18, a flirtatious dreamtale.
A girl with a magic swimsuit flashes me, as her Iranian fundamentalist aunt glares from beyond the veil...
CAUTION: NUDITY? OR ILLUSION?
COMPLIANCE: by Wayan; 1984/12/20 & 2021/1/9, twin dreams 36 years apart showing cryptomnesia
2021: I dream I'm confessing to friends how I'm over-compliant. I wake, and start transcribing my
1984 journal. Turn the page and find a dream of a horny stallion who's disturbingly over-compliant...
CAUTION: KINKY STALLION
CONTRACT CLOAKS FOR COURIERS: by Wayan; 2019/5/30, a dream on enforcing contracts
After a day of medical mess-ups, I dream whites routinely cheat super-fast Native American pony couriers,
till the riders demand showy down payments called Contract Cloaks. Now cheats'll get publicly exposed...
COUNTERSUE GOD: by Wayan; 1995/8/5, a sacrilegious dream.
God flames me for putting pagan stuff on the Net, and we end up suing each other. Then the riots begin...
CAUTION: HITMEN AND HERESY
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...
CROCODILE KING: by Christina Rossetti; 1855/3/9, a weird dream-poem she may have faked.
On the Euphrates, a monstrous crocodile eats all his kin. But when a winged ship appears, he feigns remorse...
DAD SMASHES COPCAR: by Wayan, 1977/5/26, a warning dream physically enforced the next day
My dad drives recklessly, hits a copcar hard, smashing our front end. I wake
knowing it says "Kay's a batterer. Leave her or I'LL be smashed." That day...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, BATTERING ISSUES
THE DEVIL'S TRILL: by Giuseppe Tartini; c.1713, a musical inspiration dream.
I sold my soul to the Devil. On an impulse, I handed him my fiddle. To my
wonder, he played a sonata of exquisite beauty. When I woke I retained only echoes...
DOG ON THE RAMP: by Wayan; 1989/4/6, a dream of love in a time of bias.
My friend Lisadia sneers at a dog-girl's attempts to beautify her starship. I'm shocked--she's openly specist...
CAUTION: SPECISM
DOG THIRST: by Cecy and Wayan; 1991/10/7, shared or telepathic dreamlets
CECY: In a desert, a thirsty dog jumps out of a tree--the first known dog suicide...
WAYAN: I'm a talking dog. Our owner denies us enough water, so we protest...
DON'T WANT HIM TO SOAR: by Wayan; 1991/4/18, a dream of sabotage.
In a parallel world, a visionary's building the first plane only now. I'm his assistant. But I don't WANT...
EASY RIDER: by Ann, a psychology professor, c.1972, an incubated, revealing dream.
I ask my dreams if my dad's influencing my divorce. I dream my dad warns me "You can't ride a
motorcycle." I mount the bike and zoom down the road. I love it. When I park at last, my dad says...
THE ERTHEDNI: by Wayan, 1977/1/8, three transformation dreams, the last with advice
1: I'm starving in a lush valley; a cult claims all the food, the water, even the air.
2: I'm drowning in a cage but find a corner with water I can breathe--just barely.
3: I'm a merman with a wise friend who hints I need to leave those who starve & drown me...
CAUTION: DOMESTIC BATTERING (OFFSTAGE)
EXIT THROUGH THE DUNGEON: by Wayan, 1982/5/23, trance-drawing experiment with surprise advice
I turned off my conscious judgment and just drew. Two paths appeared--one led to
psychodrama, then parental prison; the other, into the underworld of dreamwork...
CAUTION: NUDE DREAM-SELVES
THE EYE by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of resisting torture
A staring Eye tries to break me; his cats & robots flay me. Yet his birds rebel in sympathy, & I refuse to die...
A FAMILY ALBUM: by Wayan; 1981/3/9, folio of nightmarish dysfunctional family.
A series of family shadows, as I saw them then. These scenes are NOT literal, do I make myself clear?
But the tensions they show were very real...
CAUTION: GRIM! SEXUAL VIOLENCE, INCEST, MUTILATION
A FAMILY VISIT: by Wayan; 1996/8/4, a dream of family values.
A yard sale in a small town turns out to be my family, selling porn. But they have more to push on me...
CAUTION: DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY, ELEPHANT ABUSE
FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 2.6M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic.
I had an epic dream lasting subjective weeks--a true other life. It wasn't Earth and we weren't human.
I was a teenage lemur, sailing with two friends into unknown waters--a rite of passage. One night,
my friends curled round me, I saw I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a woman, marry, and have pups.
I loved my girl friends. In a world lacking the very word, I was groping toward queerdom.
Sailing into unknown waters! "Here be dragons," the old maps say. And they were right...
2600K loads slowly? Try it in parts: 1: HOME, 650K, 2: VOYAGE, 1200K, 3: BACK 750K.
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
FLYING IS TASTELESS: by Miriel; 1985/12/11, a warning dream
I dreamed I learned to fly. But my so-called friends
told me flight is tacky and I should stay grounded...
FOLLOWING THE ELEPHANTS: by John Goldhammer; 1990s, a ten-year series of 13 short dreams.
Dream-elephants slowly bring me to terms with the early loss of my dad, and lead me out of a cult I've grown beyond...
FOUR TABOOS: by Wayan, 2016/3/15, four dreams on inhibitions I hoped I was over.
Climbing out of Childhood Abyss, I literally get a leg up from a girl seeking the Ledge of Teens.
A shy girl has to hide she's a were-creature. Gay men make out in the witch-registry to rattle its
homophobic guardians. My sister stripteases while scolding me for a mess I didn't make...
CAUTION: DUH, SEX TABOOS! KIDS, FURS, GAYS, SIBLINGS
FOX-BOY: by Wayan; 1997/2/28, a dream fable.
A boy offends his uncle the King, who transforms him into a fox. Grounded! But Fox-Boy runs away...
FOX COUPLE: by Wayan, 1990/2/15; poem of a warning dream
I meet a tall bipedal talking fox. He has a human house. And a pet vixen--on a leash. But
she talks too! Tells me he mounts her--yet treats her like a pet. She's never come yet.
But she stays! Still, I'm as dysfunctional as either of them--if not worse...
CAUTION: SEX TALK
FRANCHISE!: by Wayan, 1995/10/12, a dream-comic (ill. text ed.) with a serious warning.
I was the first woman made High Commissioner of Baseball. One day a team of mutants begs a franchise...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, BAD TEAMWORK, HORNY BEES
THE GENERAL: by Wayan, mid-December 1975, a nightmare warning of real danger
I'm a child in a Latin American city who's murdered on the street. Then I'm my brother,
seeking my own murderers. I find the General behind it! Unfortunately...
CAUTION: DYING. DYING TWICE. AND THEN NEARLY AGAIN, AWAKE...
GOAT DARE: by Wayan; 1984/8/22, a sex nightmare.
A girl and I climb a half-built tower to get some privacy from my nosy, sneering parents.
But they find us during oral sex, and their scorn melts my girlfriend into a goat...
CAUTION: SEX, HUMILIATION, FAMILY VALUES
GOLD EATER: by Wayan; 1993/1/15 dream drawn as 9-page comic.
I'm an orphan shapeshifter enslaved by a gold-eating monster. But I meet a cat-girl with a hammer...
CAUTION: BAD FOSTER-DAD; CAPITALIST MONSTER; VIOLENCE (TO VENDING MACHINES)
GOLD NECKLACE: by Elaine, c.1970, told to Ann Faraday; a subliminal or psychic warning dream
DREAM: My husband was slipping a gold necklace onto a slim, dark girl I'd never met. I woke and sketched it...
AFTER: He was having an affair with the girl, and gave her the necklace the night of my dream--her birthday...
HATCHET JOB: by Ann Faraday, 1972 or 3; a lucid shamanic predictive dream
DREAM: I'm in the Arctic facing a hostile mob. I insist "I'm dreaming; you can't hurt me." They try!
I look down at my body, stuck full of hatchets, and say "See?" They slink off, looking sheepish...
TWO DAYS LATER: I'm in northern England. A reporter snaps "Dreams won't help the miners..."
THE HEDGEHOG DISPENSARY: by Wayan; 2004/10/2, furtopian watercolor 12-page dreamcomic (or text + pics)
A rabbit shaman makes his student drape dead hedgehogs round her neck til she bleeds. How to free her?
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, ABUSIVE MENTOR
HERE COMES A CHOPPER: by Wayan; 1983/6/20, an absurd nightmare on families and denial
The helicopter over our family home dipped too low. CRASH! Burning rotors in the living room.
I call 9-1-1, but the pilot scolds me! "Calling over a little explosion like this!"...
HOLY ZEN MONK: by Wayan; 1978/4/24, a dream of suicide as political protest
I'm a Zen monk riddled with holes from a weird disease the government denies
is real. So as a protest, I stand naked atop a wall and let the air-sharks take me...
CAUTION: SURREAL SUICIDE
HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT: by Wayan; 1994/4/3, a dark dream.
As my grandmother is dying, I have a dream about what really went on in her house...
CAUTION: CHILD SLAVERY
HUBRIS EGGS: by Wayan; 1981/6/11, a short defiant psychic dream.
I'm wrapping my heavy-metal eggs too slowly, so the Judges sink my car! I set out to get revenge...
I GOT OUT: by Wayan; 1992/1/4, a psychic dream drawn as a 9-page digital comic
I flee our love triangle when Abe turns mean. He's telepathic, but
I have my escape all planned: the goldfish, the snakepit, the caves...
CAUTION: THREESOME, SNAKES, MOTORCYCLE FATALITY
I WANT MY INHERITANCE: by Wayan; 1989/12/18, a dream on family brainwashing.
My family calls me a blonde bimbo and won't give me my inheritance, so I take drastic steps...
CAUTION: MORAL HAIRSPLITTING
"IT WAS MY BABY": by Janie Legge; 1927/1/15, a nightmare after the flu?
I admire a baby, and talk the tired mother into washing it. I go get some
clean baby clothes and return to find she's roasting her baby in the oven...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DENIAL
JACUZZI JAIL: by Wayan; 1979/10/12, a dream of parental poison.
My family has shackled my little sister in the dungeon
in the hot tub full of carcinogenic bubble bath...
CAUTION: INCEST FEELINGS, TOXIC PARENTING
JUANA'S ROCKET: by Wayan; 2010/9/4; a dream on how facing abuse can fan inflammation
DAY: I find old photos showing my dad ogled my sister, the Lee girls, and teens he met at the beach.
DREAM: Juana Lee wants to fire a rocket launcher--indoors. The house'll burn! But she won't relent...
CAUTION: INCESTUOUS & PEDOPHILIC DAD-VIBES
KICK HER: by Wayan; 1994/8/9, a gameshow nightmare.
I'm a blonde gameshow bimbo. Each week, I'm beaten up. Ha ha ha! But my bruises are real. At last, I...
CAUTION: GAMESHOW FROM HELL
A KNIFE AT HIS THROAT: by Wayan; 1991/1/1; a political dream-cartoon-fable
A courtroom hostage-drama where I'm forced to commit... tracheotomy! And then the Gulf War begins...
CAUTION: CARTOON VIOLENCE
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
LBJ'S CAGE: by Lyndon Baines Johnson; May-June 1924, recurring teenage nightmares
I found myself in a cage, with only a bench and piles of old books. A mirror showed
I was old and twisted with speckled skin. In horror I said "I must get away"...
LEARNING TO SING AND DANCE: by Marilyn Barrett; 1988 or before, a dream of heritage
I'm a kid again, waltzing with my dad, though he's long dead. He hands me the trumpet inside his chest. When
I wake, I feel it still. My mom just died; I've reclaimed a playful part of him she condemned all her long life...
LITTLE NEMO'S BED: by Winsor McCay; c. 1906, a famous if probably fictional dream icon
Little Nemo's bed gets restless and takes him for a wild ride through town and up onto roofs...
LONG JOHNS by Ann Faraday, 1972; punning dreamlets on two consecutive nights
DREAM 1: A man wearing long white underwear shoots me down with a machine gun.
DAY: Long John Nebel interviews me; his Freudian friend calls me a penis-envying woman.
DREAM 2: Long John and his buddy umpire a rough baseball game. Definitely not cricket...
CAUTION: SEXISM, FREUDIANS, PUNS
MAGGOTS: by Ann, a psychology professor, c.1973, the most reassuring nightmare ever!
I ask my dreams to evaluate my current relationship. I dream I'm vomiting up big maggots, and a mirror
shows smaller maggots eating one eye! In dream group, I ask the maggots who they are, and they say...
CAUTION: GROSS, BUT POSITIVE UNDER THE HORROR SKIN
MARRY MY SHADOW: by Ann Faraday, c.1972, recurrent nightmares ending in a wedding
In nightmares I was stalked by a big ugly bruiser. At last, I faced him, asking "What do you want?"
He asked for my hand. His animal energy attracted me, and despite my doubts I said yes...
MARVIN, CRASH: by Rick Veitch; Feb 1974; a predictive/warning dream
My "friends" pull me away from the girl of my dreams, push booze & pot at me,
and won't even try to climb the rope to success. But Marvin saves Evel Knievel
from a motorcycle crash. Sounds good--until, ten years later, I hear how Marvin died...
CAUTION: GRIM AFTERMATH
MATRONIZED: by Wayan; 1996/5/25, a real-life vignette.
An older woman I know nags me about food. Suddenly my mind flips our genders and weights...
MIKE DIANA, JAILED FOR SACRILEGE: by Wayan; 1994/6/23; a real-life nightmare.
Unfortunately, this is not a dream at all...
MISFITS ON MARS: by Wayan; 1986/11/20, an epic dream; the climax of the dreamseries UNICORN TAG.
From the punk clubs of Frisco to the Safeways of Si Valley to the vermilion sands of Mars,
Silky the were-nightmare fights for the Misfits against every cliche in science fiction...
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...
MOM POPS: by Wayan; dreamed 1983/8/5, a dream of bursting your inner critic
The flood sickens my fuchsia bush. My mom says my fuchsia is hopeless,
but I make up a treatment. When it works, well... read the title.
CAUTION: PUNS, EXPLODING MOM
MOOSE: by Wayan; 1984/3/12, a dream on the blessings of curses.
How the Supreme Court gave my brother antlers, and where his soul went: where I'll go, now that I know...
THE MOUSE BANNER: by Wayan; 1986/9/4, a dream fable.
I'm a mouse with a protest banner saying "FREEDOM!", having a slight argument with a cat...
MUSIC SABOTEUR: by Amy, c.1973; Gestalt unveils the saboteur behind a frustration dream
At college, my sheet music arrives from home, but vanishes when I try to play--or the piano does...
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 MUSLIM MOTHER-IN-LAW: by Wayan; 1995/3/25, a dream on repression.
How exactly did I acquire a mother-in-law snooping on my phone calls, when I don't have a wife?
MY THREE HUSBANDS: by Wayan; 1981/2/26 & 1991/5/26, dreams drawn as a 15-page comic
I'm three women at once! We marry a unicorn, a goat philosopher,
and a magic talking cat. But cops raid our furry commune...
CAUTION: INTERSPECIES MARRIAGE, TEEN SEX, BAD COPS
NAMELESS HAT: by Elizabeth Kew; 1930s?, a comic dream.
Giant worms put me on trial for wearing a nameless hat, but I like their punishment so I taunt the judge...
NAZIS BURN MY ART: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; the primal art-nightmare
Nazis call my simple architectural drawing a social protest, take it at gunpoint,
and toss it in the ovens. The commander mocks me with its ashes...
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...
"NOHOR!" YELLED THE NIGHTMARE: by Wayan; 1982/12/27, a passionate nightmare.
I dreamed a black mare was howling "Nohor!" At first I thought she meant "I'm not just a horse", but...
CAUTION: SEXUAL ISSUES
ON MOLLY'S FOREHEAD: by Wayan, 1988/11/19, a spiritual sex dream.
A child of radicals goes wild in Rio. When we bail her out, we find she's had a strange enlightenment...
CAUTION: UNSAFE SEX
OTTO SUGGESTION TO A HORSE IN DRAG: by Wayan; 1995/8/8, a dream on body image.
My uncle mocks the racehorse he rides! Smears lipstick on this stallion, calls him a wimp... Why?
CAUTION: DREAM PUN, NUDE MARES
OUR BEST SONG: by Wayan; 1983/10/25, a decade-long dream of song and flight.
The artcops search-and-destroy our flying band, and my wings are shorn. But ten years later,
songless, apathetic, I climb through my TV--and the women of Vietnam show me a new way to fly...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, ATTITUDE, ALTITUDE
PAIN-RATIONER'S STRIKE: by Wayan; 1987/1/1, a dream on self-torture.
Three men torture my friend (or is he ME?) and try to keep me from intervening...
CAUTION: FAST-TALKING BULLIES
THE PEGASUS CHILD: by Wayan; 1982/4/4, a dream of family diversity and spiritual advice
Dad's human, Mom's a weird owl-lynx, the kid's a baby Pegasus... and I,
W.C. Fields, that fat cynical drunken old actor, am the babysitter...
PENTALEMMA: by Wayan; 2002/3/10 to 2006/5/1?, a 13-page nondream improv-comic on deep goals
Hypnotized in therapy, I saw AT LEAST five competing goals tugging at me like gravity fields.
Naturally I drew them. Come tour the Inner Solar System of our desires...
CAUTION: NUDITY (BODY, HEART, BRAIN, SOUL)
PERISSA: by Wayan; 1997/9/13, a sexy dream-comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text)
When Perissa, an exhibitionistic centaur, bares her body in a crowded Coliseum,
she also bares a human-supremacist plot...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM
PERPETUA'S LAST DREAM: by St Perpetua; 203 CE, a flying, sex-changing, defiant dream.
Facing death the next day in a Roman arena, Perpetua dreams of the spiritual duel behind the physical one...
PIANO-PLAYING JANE: by Jane, 1972-3?, recurring frustration dreams
When I try to play the piano in public I get sabotaged. At last I see a child who says she can't play while she's in pain...
PIER'S END: by Wayan, 1989/2/21, a Raymond Chandler dream.
My detective lover warned me, "Stay away!" Now I'm trapped. Dare I follow the lion over the edge?
PLESIOSAUR: by Wayan; 1985/9/5, a comic medical nightmare.
An itchy patient of mine insists he's turning into a four-
headed, man-eating plesiosaur. He left one thing out...
THE QUEEN'S WAR: by Marianna as told by Gayle Delaney, before 1994; 2 daddy's-curse dreams
Marianna escaped her bossy dad, only to end up with a bossy countercultural boyfriend.
In these two dreams she makes the connection, and faces that she's picking Napoleons...
CAUTION: BLOODY BATTLE, BAD SEX
THE QUICKSTEP: by Gayle Delaney, 1976, a joyful lucid dream
I face the Quickstep, the final test for high-level ice dancing. I do well, yet the judges fail me--for trivia. Then I realize
I passed this test years ago! These judges are my nitpicking inner critics. I ignore them, and joyfully soar, spin and fly...
RABBIT WORLD: by Wayan; 6-page comic of a 1990/9/26 shamanic dream.
I'm a telepathic rabbit defending our world from space-laser attack. We do, but do we modernize too much?
CAUTION: IDEAS
RABID DOGS: by Lila, before 1994 as told by Gayle Delaney; an incubated warning dream
I asked my dreams why I had no more sexual desire for my rage-prone boyfriend. I dream
a nature show says "Rabid dogs can't be cured" and shows the horrible wounds they inflict...
CAUTION: THERAPIST TRIVIALIZES URGENT DREAM-WARNING
RAGS TO RICHES: A FIGHT FOR LOVE: by Hyal; October 2006, a dream of courage.
I was just a street rat, but I danced with the princess at a ball, and fell in love. Three rich suitors pulled their blades...
RATTLER BANQUET: by Wayan; 1993/1/29, a pointed nightmare; it leaves punctures!
My parents invite me out to dinner, but there's a rattlesnake under the table,
and my mom chases it up my leg. I wake to find two holes in my knee...
RAZOR GHOST: by Wayan; 1974/5/5, a nightmare posing a problem.
A man slowly walled in by neighbors till he died, is now a mad, murderous ghost.
And he's me! Can I exorcise MYSELF?
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
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!"...
REDNECKS: by Tad Ramspott; c. 2000/10/20, a dream of shadows and underdogs
I face two gunmen fleeing an invasion of dragons I support--since inside I'm a dragon. But I won't hurt them. Why?
REVOLUTION IS MESSY: by Emily Joy; 2006/4/26, a political dream
When whites invade, two shapeshifting Native American cubs resist architecturally...
RICH KILLER: by Wayan; 1994/2/1, a dream on abuse and rage.
A rich serial killer in a sports car flaunts his virtual immunity, till I go after him in a light plane...
THE RICH WRECK THE WELL: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, a dream of Heaven
A movie version of heaven. Souls line up for rejuvenation from a great
fountain. But fat old rich guys crash the line, demanding to be first...
CAUTION: UGLY NUDITY, UGLY BEHAVIOR, POLITICALLY PREDICTIVE
RIVER CROSSING: by Harriet Tubman; mid to late 1850s; a lifesaving intuition
Leading a party out of slavery, I got off the road when God warned me to. He insisted I must ford a cold river.
Turned out the slaveowner had posted a reward at the station ahead; we were saved by divine guidance...
ROBO-NAG: by Wayan, 2022/8/20, a dream of fighting off two moralizing topdogs
I'm with friends in a cafe. A robot beggar scuttles in and says I must be a saint and give, give, give.
I eject the robo-nag. But it comes back in the form of an Old Testament prophet with the same spiel!
This time it takes fists. At last I give the nagging saint the old heave-ho, yelling "AND STAY OUT!"...
CAUTION: FUNDAMENTALIST BLASPHEMY
ROBOT AND UNICORN: by Wayan, 2022/11/23, a dream of building a rebellion
After too much TV, I dream I'm plotting against a regime of suave, treacherous magical beings. But
a unicorn sorceress suggests I enlist the robots. She's right--they find plutocratic thaumocracy ugly...
CAUTION: ANTI-CAPITALIST
RONALD REAGAN STOLE MY SOUL!: by Wayan; 1983/3/7; a dream-comic
I was a robot who had a soul--till the Reagans stole it! I track them down, and
demand it back. Simply confronting them works--the hole inside me is filled...
CAUTION: CAUSTIC POLITICS
RONALD'S FORBIDDEN FIELD: by Ronald, patient of Jan Ehrenwald, before 1954, a telepathic dream?
DREAM: a distinctive house with a tempting green field by it. But the field's forbidden...
DAY: Ronald's analyst had rented that house--but the adjacent field was forbidden...
CAUTION: E.S.P. THEORIES
THE RULES OF THE GAME: by Wayan; 1992/11/30, a Gestaltish dream.
The Inner Theater. I'm duelling someone who keeps changing the rules. But so can I... can we make a deal?
SARITA'S DREAM: by Sarita Johnson, 1980/8/17, epic dream with a surreal ending
Cops hunt my girlfriend & me all over town. Strangely, whenever I ask them to back off,
they do! Alma's resigned--lets them arrest her and put her on a raft. But she turns into a...
SAVONAROLA: by Mrs C., circa 1867; a dream mocking excess self-criticism
Mrs C. dreamed she was the ascetic preacher Savonarola, who wanted to burn all vanities.
In her audience she saw... Mrs C! So she, Savonarola, aimed her barbs at all of C's flaws...
SELFISH FOR LEAVING?: by Wayan; 1988/7/12, a psychic dream on (shudder) family values
DREAM: I'm at a party. Family scolds me for protecting my health. I leave--and they call me selfish for leaving!
MORNING: My sister calls. "I was at a party. Family scolded me for guarding my health and for trying to leave..."
SHRIEK ADOPTION: by Wayan; dreamed 2015/8/23, a dream-poem exposing self-sabotage
A man adopts two orphaned, talented musical griffins. But their previous guardians were
so traditionalist & stifling that the cubs want to BURN all their instruments...
SILKY SHIELDS A VANDAL: by Wayan; 1994/8/6, a cautionary dream.
I'm a kid in a classroom someone's trashed. Our teacher goes ballistic. But was the gypsy girl framed?
SONG FOR THE DANCE: by Roswila; 2000/11/25, a dream-poem
A joyful song about ignoring your critics. The last stanza came verbatim from the dream...
SOUL-SHARD: by Wayan; 2000/10/5, a rebellious dream
I'm a wolf in an ashram studying astral travel with my spirit-wife. Our souls blend a bit, enraging
our guru, a minor Hindu god, who sends demons to make us stop this spiritual "contamination"...
SPEWING WINE: by Wayan; 1992/8/17, a Freudian-slip dream baring family dysfunction
My family moves into a damp, leaking basement. My dad just sneers at us for fussing
about the cold, the damp, the mildew, the leaks. "I'll show you REAL leaking..."
SPOTTED FAWN DODGES ARROWS: by Amanda Strong; 1998, a dream on the power of names
Soon after I was given the name Spotted Fawn, I dreamed I was one,
fleeing faceless hunters under the full moon. There's history in this...
A SQUARE IN THE HAND: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic nightmare with a twist
I'm a French revolutionary facing a firing squad. But palmistry predicts I'll be strangely saved...
A STAGE FRIGHT: by Wayan; 1993/11/17, a revealing automatic writing-trance
I froze in dance class when I followed anyone else's script. Was it fear? A dragon inside said no...
STOMPERS: by Wayan; 2013/8/24, a surreal dream of confidence
I dream I'm a runner named Silky; but straying outside the crowd can get you stomped by giant aliens...
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
STOP RESISTING; 2000/1/2 by Anonymous #37; nightmare of injustice
I'm sentenced for a crime I didn't commit; then the bailiff beats me for "resisting", though I'm not...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, SWEARING
SURRENDER DARCY!: by Wayan; 1982/6/14, a dreamtale on pride and prejudice.
I'm Doctor Who, being chased by an air-surfer who demands we give up a reserved, proud man named...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
SUSHI CIRCUS: by Wayan; 1982/2/17, an illustrated psychic dream.
To avoid being stabbed, I flee the Psychodrama Circus. Wisely--the place explodes!
But it's the filling of the sushi roll that really upsets me...
CAUTION: CANNIBAL MAKI
SWAN: by Wayan; 1995/4/8, a transformation dream; 3-page dreamcomic (or as ill. text)
I wake amnesic in a cabin in Alaska, in a dress printed with self-putdowns.
I track down the wizard who cursed me. He turns me into a swan! Worse?
No! His first curse was on a human being, and now I'm a bird. My mind is free!...
TEN TRIALS: by Wayan; 1976/10/2, a dream of love distracted.
While living with violent Kay, I dream I meet a cute, gentle moth-girl.
But we must undergo ten trials. Mustn't we? Mustn't we?
CAUTION: RELATIONSHIP TROUBLES, BOTH GAY AND STRAIGHT
THIEF OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1996/11/29, a sexy soul-swap dream; a 22-page comic (or text w/pics)
I was a mermaid trying to find Count Coyote's stolen dreams, so I could marry my human girlfriend...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, LESBIAN MARRIAGE, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
THREE-EYED WOLF: by Wayan; 1992/12/14. Digital comic of a dream, done movie-poster style
A 'toon liberation dream. I cartooned a new self and slowly she grew realer, until she ran Disney...
CAUTION: FRANK SINATRA SWEARS
THUMBSUCKER!: by a patient of William Hammond, c.1868, an epic comic taste dream
I paint my thumb with bitter aloes to break my habit of sucking it at night. I dream of
wormwood, ox gall, mineral salts. I consult Dr. Save Me and even the Pope, but...
TIAMAT'S REBELLION: by Wayan; 1988/1/1, a dream about neoteny.
That day: I read of a young healer in rural Indonesia harassed by the local mullah.
That night: I dream she leads a revolution on a starship against her elders...
TIGER DIALOGUES: 1973-4 by Ann Faraday, plus a dreamlet by John Wren-Lewis; recurring dreams
When I overwork, neglecting my body's wants, I dream of an angry tiger. Over
time, I've learned (mostly) to feed my tiger, and sometimes he's an ally now...
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...
TITANIA: by Wayan; 1981/12/7, 83/1/7 & 2/13 and 84/10/2, a dream-epic in installments
Clarence the sappy angel from It's A Wonderful Life and Milton's Lucifer land on Earth, offering treaties.
Who to sign with? Clarence thinks we're fine as is, but the Devil's a tinkerer, learning from failures. Failures
like me and my girlfriend Titania, the first android with a full palette of feelings. Like the feeling she's fake...
TO HELL: by Katie Hofgard; 2003/4/19?, a nightmare of loyalty
I loyally served a demon who punished me until at last he sent me to hell. And STILL I didn't rebel...
CAUTION: BLOODY ABUSE
TRESPASSERS IN MALANCHAI: by Hyal; Feb 1996, an epic dream with a psychic intrusion.
A maneless lion-boy wins his people's respect. While training, he sees weird trespassers
who seem to be from someone else's dream... and ten years later, he finds that dreamer.
TURTLE HARANGUE: by Wayan; 1997/1/29, a warning dream.
A man mocks a turtle he caught, calling it "inept"--he knows adept turtles, then?
I distract this fisherman-ranter while the turtle quietly tiptoes...
TWILIGHT ANIMA RISING: by Mardi Storm, 2005, a dream leading to artistic defiance
I dreamed of a unicorn rearing in the desert. I wanted to sculpt it and applied to Burning Man
but was rejected. So I sculpted the unicorn anyway, out of playa mud. It was a hit...
UNDERSECRETARY FOR THE ARTS: by Wayan; 2022/2/13, an advisory dream
I'm named the Undersecretary for the Arts. I sift through all the grant applications. But
I'm a webtroll; I hang furry pastel pinups in my office. The humans see postmodern irony...
CAUTION: FURRY PINUPS; UTTER LACK OF IRONY
AN UNPRODUCTIVE SQUIRREL: by Wayan; 2013/11/27, an advisory shamanic dreamlet
I meet a giant squirrel. But a Committee condemns the squirrel for such long periods
of unproductive hibernation. The squirrel points out a teensy flaw...
A VALLEY NEAR HOPE: by Wayan; 1984/10/17-19, an epic dream.
I wander a valley where unicorns love cyborgs but fear giant ants, who love unicorns but
fear cyborgs, who love ants but fear unicorns! And while the Three Tribes squabble, cave-monsters
sculpt them all. I set up peace talks between these four aspects of my tetrahedral soul...
CAUTION: SWEARING, DRUNK LIONS, CYBORG SURGERY, AND GOGGLE-BARFING
VAMPIGS AND SMILES: by Wayan; 1991/12/9, an advisory dream.
Our landlady was a friend, but she broke our rental agreement. Talk, compromise, or rent strike?
THE VERA DREAMS: by Vera and Wayan; 1991/7/25 & 8/3, a set of shared/psychic dreams.
I dream my friend Vera's ordered to just study & sleep--no play, no dates. Then I dream
Vera works with gangs as an armed peacekeeper. I tell her; Vera's shocked, since...
VERITY, TOO?: by Wayan; 2000/11/5, a comic nightmare with good advice--if I avoid Freud!
My art mentors turn on me! My mom the painter says I'm genetically inferior,
and then my art teacher Verity sits on my head (ow!) and chants...
VERTICAL PLANES: by Wayan; 1990/3/7, an astral pirate dream.
We're air pirates running a music shop, till our biplanes are hijacked by cat angels! Furious, we set out...
VERY FUNNY, MR. MOSLEY: by Wayan; 2009/10/8, a comic nightmare poem; Dreamverse #58
Trapped in a blend of Joan of Arcadia and The Tempest Tales, I'm tired of being the pratfall sidekick...
VIEWPOINT: by Wayan; 1991/6/9, a dream on pastlife amnesia.
I ask to see my past lives, and dream of a viewpoint where I can--but this Mormon ranger...
VIVISECTION: by Bob Stickgold, c.1979, a nightmare dismissed as the brain at play
After a class where students are forced to vivisect anesthetized dogs
I dreamed I'd made a mistake; I was sawing open my daughter...
CAUTION: CREEPY DREAM, CREEPY DISMISSAL
WATERMELON MINE: by Wayan; 2023/6/18, a surreal dream with long-term advice
I'm the new manager of the watermelon mine. And to free the trapped minors--
oops, miners!--I have to plan. So I cover the floor with My Little Pony post-its...
CAUTION: CARTOON NUDITY
WATERSHIP DOWNTRODDEN: by Wayan; 1983/6/22, a dream of another life.
I'm an intelligent rabbit in an alphamale's harem, organizing a feminist movement...
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
WHAT TO DO IN A WIZARD'S LAIR: by Wayan; 2013/4/23, a comic dreamlet
A friend who's a sorceror's apprentice shows me his Dark Master's tower. And
his Dark Master's bed strewn with all his stuffed animals! I just can't resist...
WHAT YOU IMAGINE HAPPENS: by Wayan; 1982/2/21; a dreampoem on quarks. Or spooks.
I'm stuck on a runaway bus. So we decide to picture the axle falling off, and
it obeys! But the bus zooms on, carried by a horde of little animals...
CAUTION: ESP SKEPTICS WILL LOATHE THE AFTERWORD (true story, though)
WHY I BECAME THE SEA: by Wayan; 1980/6/19, a vengeful flying/transformation dream.
I get so mad at some gaybashing cops and gangsters
that I become the sea itself and chase them...
CAUTION: UNCHARITABLE REPRESENTATION OF OUR SAINTS IN BLUE
A WILD WOUNDED BITCH: by Wayan; 1979/11/28, a dream of displacement.
My dad steals my furry girlfriend! The maid and I spy on them;
we get hot and do it, but it's just not the same...
CAUTION: SEX WITH THE WRONG PERSON
WIND OF SELF-HATE: by Wayan, 1976/4/4, a dream warning of family brainwashing
Biking around blindfolded and half-naked, I fight winds
of self-criticism and self-hatred that only I can feel...
WINDFALLS IN EDEN: by Wayan, 2000/3/30, a religio-politic dream.
I'm a part-owner of Eden, harvesting windfalls.
But a renter says his Landlord promised him all the apples...
WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, apocalyptic dream
When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us!
Fleeing from Saruman's army, I discover the backstage truth about our world...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!
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
THE WITCH-PIMPS NEXT DOOR: by Wayan, 2015/12/19, a dream on healing from abuse
First I dream the neighbors are powerful witches offering dog-collared children
to the local men. Later, on a train, I meet two kids who managed to escape...
CAUTION: CHILD ABUSE, NUDITY
YELLOWSTONE: by Wayan, 2022/5/3, a predictive dream of politics
DREAM: I'm in Yellowstone, in a monstrous resort. Local tribes fight white exploitation of sacred land.
NEXT MORNING: I read a Native American critique of racist land-theft in a TV show: Yellowstone...
YOGA SAINT: by Wayan; 2010/12/4, an incubated, disturbing diagnostic dream
I dream I meet my headaches! An ascetic yogi who punishes jokers, flirts and cynics for worldliness...
"YOU'RE INSANE": by Wayan; 2000/5/26, a nightmare warning I've been misjudged
DAY: My dad's sick; my mom nags me to visit, though hospitals endanger me (weak immune system).
DREAM: My parents say "You're insane. We must take control of your life." So I divorce my family...
CAUTION: UGLY FAMILY VALUES
"YOU'RE NOT MY BOSS!": by Wayan; 2019/6/27, a disturbing political dream
In a busy, shorthanded market, the store owner's running a checkstand.
He mistakes me for an employee and starts ordering me around...
CAUTION: AGE & GENDER... BIAS? OR INFORMED JUDGMENT?


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