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Mastery

Dreams of the difference between bare ability and attaining true mastery of a field after long practice--when skills have gone so deep they've become part of you. Plus dreams about experts have all the credentials but just... aren't.

RELATED TOPICS: mentors & teachers - schools & classes - ordeals & initiations - willpower - tests - climbing dreams - shamanism - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.


ALERTNESS GYM: by Wayan; 1994/4/19, a strange dream date.
I go on a date who seems bored till she takes me to the Alertness Gym...
ANIMAL SPEECH, ANIMAL ESP: by Wayan; 1997/7/31, from Wayan's journal.
When you really observe animals in language programs it's obvious WE'RE the dimwits...
APPLY FOR PRIORITY: by Wayan; 2000/7/11, a dream about taking yourself seriously
While building the World Dream Bank, I dream a hacker says
"certain remarkable sites get free fast access; you should apply..."
ASTAIRES: by Wayan; 2015/11/17, a dream about... the Web?
A host of Fred Astaires dance mid-air in an endless spiderweb,
then pound on typewriters randomly forever...
BEAN BAR: by Wayan; 1985/12/28, a culinary fable.
I don't know beans about right action, so Kokoro, master chef
of the Bean Bar, teaches me the stages of true mastery...
BEATING UNCLE FESTER, or, ACHIEVING BILUMIA: by Wayan; 2013/3/31, a stupid telepathic dream
I screw the lightbulbs in my ears again, and this time, they stay. I sit down at the piano, and as I play...
BLACKSLIME TOWER: by Wayan; 1986/11/13; a transformation dream with political tinges
Humanity's trapped in a Quad, overseen by the Guardians of Blackslime Tower.
Feather by feather, I grow wings, and plot to escape with the Flying Cat...
CAUTION: THE SLIME IS REAGANOMICS
Tarot: THE BUILDER: by Wayan; 1974/5/19, a Tarot card illustrating a dream.
I met a god. Unmistakably a god. The Builder, hard at work--making Utopia, by hand.
CHURCHES BURN WHEN YOU LEARN TO FLY: by Wayan; 1989/9/1, a didactic flying dream.
I finally learn the difference between just getting off the ground
and the mastery of true flight--but there's a heavy price...
CRAWL: by Wayan; 1995/5/14. Digital collage inspired by dreams, provoking another dream!
I dreamed I couldn't walk on water like Jesus, but I COULD crawl on it! A baby miracle.
CAUTION: NUDITY
DARK LORD BATTLE: by Gayle Delaney, 1970 or '71?, a therapist-evaluation dream
I had to face the Dark Lord. But my inexperienced therapist was unprepared for the battle--he hadn't even put his
shoes on! I told him the dream; he got defensive. I switched to a veteran therapist and got much better feedback...
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...
DINOSAUR GRADE: by Wayan, 2006/1/25, a shamanic workout dream
I ride a recumbent bike up an exhausting slope past browsing bears.
Oh. Not bears. Dinosaurs. No wonder I'm so tired! Timetravel's hard...
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...
DRILL TO FLOW: by Wayan; 2011/4/8, an anti-frustration dream
A panel of argumentative gods grant me a spare lifetime of piano practice. It takes that long, but...
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...
EFFECTIVENESS: by Wayan; dreamed 2008/6/13, an advisory dreamlet
I'm forced to retake a course labeled Logic. It's not logic. The teacher says "I teach Effectiveness." And proves it:
I lack a prospectus, so he folds the sheet into a paper airplane and sails it perfectly across the room to me...
EXTRACT FROM A POEM IN PROGRESS: by D.M. Thomas, c.1972, a poem of an advisory dream
As it was revealed that the pianist in Truro Cathedral was T.S. Eliot's illegitimate daughter, her
wretched playing suddenly became beautiful. I knew the dream meant "cleave to the illegitimate"...
FILLY'S QUEST: by Wayan; 1981/1/31, a dream on dream-theory. Head versus... wings!
The tunnel has pictures of a winged unicorn filly on a quest. But the editor
of the deluxe book version is intellectual, patriarchal and heavy-handed...
CAUTION: UNDERAGE ALICORN FLIRTING
FOOD CAME BETWEEN US: by Wayan, 1993/4/25, an incubated epic diagnostic dream.
The terror of Navy breakfast, the joy of filterfeeding,
how to marry pudding, and a sniper lunch with kisses...
GALLEY SLAVE: by Wayan; 2008/11/27, a punning career-advice dream; Dreamverse #47
Shipwrecked and claimed as salvage on Crete, Ed the writer became
a dishwashing slave! In contrast, Marie the musician...
THE GHOSTMASTER: by Wayan; 1992/6/16, a dreamtale of the Shadow.
I win a starship from the hostile Ghostmaster; in space I gain the confidence to confront him, and find...
FROM GLIDING TO FLIGHT: by Wayan; 1993/11/15, a gradualistic dream.
Hypnotherapy is hopeless with these blind architects flopping all over the cafe, but my flying has improved...
GOD-SHIELDS: by Wayan; 1990/8/21, a confusing dream of growth.
I'm a fat guy hired as a temp by some unethical gods. Or are they trying to teach me something?
GRANDMA: by Eileen and Bill, as told by Gayle Delaney, c.1976, parallel dreams
My grandma couldn't drive, but after she died, I dreamt she drove my brother Bill and me
around--speeding, in fact. When I told him the dream, he filled in details--he'd dreamt it too!
HEALING DANCE: by Wayan; 1997/5/14, a dream of shamanic shop talk.
A shaman designs a rite to focus the village's healing attention on her client; the rest is just showmanship...
HEALING THE RING: by Wayan; 1984/8/22, a nightmare on... anger?
I bear a Ring of Power meant to corrupt me. I cleansed it, at a cost, but can't wield it till I've read its spell...
THE HEDGE KING: by Wayan, 1992/6/14, a gender-bent dream epic.
I change sex to infiltrate a sinister castle, unaware its Lord can spot a shapeshifter--being one himself...
CAUTION: A DISTURBING BEDSIDE MANOR. I MEAN, MANNER.
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...
HISTORY CHANGES: by Wayan; 1994/11/22, a dream of an alternate life.
I'm the token Chinese guy in a jazz band in backwoods Brazil, in the old colonial days, when...
THE HOLY HARP: by Wayan; 1994/3/22, a dream of musical guilt.
The Goddess's harp, that calls in the seasons, just passed on. But the new harper has a shocking admission...
A HOT SKATER: by Wayan; 1997/5/8, a suggestive dream.
A skater so hot, she tears her clothes off and starts melting the ice! I'm shy with her: thin ice, you know...
CAUTION: NUDITY
HUMBLE THREE-EYED GIRL: by Wayan; 2008/12/30, a dream on giftedness and shame
I meet a circle of students with up to five eyes. The lone three-eyed girl
is embarrassed, indeed ashamed she's merely attained enlightenment...
I TOSSED MUSIC: by Wayan; 1997/9/19, an advisory dream.
I asked my dreams "should I return to school?" They replied with this bizarre tale of sabotage...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE TO DUMB INSTRUMENTS
IS LONGING A RIGHT?: by Wayan; 2021/6/26, a dream on willpower & guilt
I'm in a dance class where we built not just muscle strength but strength of will, too: the idea's to
magically summon your soulmate through sheer longing! And my classmates succeed--intermittently...
CAUTION: QUEER THINKING
THE KING'S LANGUAGE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/24, a dream on the language of dreams
Swedenborg struggles to grasp the King's broken French. He wakes to realize he's trying to learn
a greater King's difficult language. Still relevant today, for he saw the problem's twofold: the
difficult language of images, but also issues the waking mind missed--or wants to deny!
LEARNING SCALES: by Wayan; 1985/6/26, an epic dream of Chinese dragons.
I find myself in astral China. The Empress is banished, the Jester rules. Wisdom is lost.
We need an Imperial Dragon...
LION-MEN: by Wayan; 1995/7/9, an eye-opening dreamlet.
I'm a traveling Zen warrior talking to a circus girl in a barn. Four guys enter--and my life changes forever.
LOLA: by Wayan; 1995/4/22, a wild dream: psychic, shamanic and... economic?
How the hell do I summarize this? Lola, a werefox I'm hot for, becomes my feudal Japanese brother, and
her fox-shape reappears as the truck-driving maid for a Han Dynasty lady. We counter the interdimensional
energy vampires by importing ghost unicorns on sailing ships, who have an orgy. Two weeks later,
it all comes true. Literally? No, but closer than you'd think....
MA HAS GONE TO FRISCO: by Jack Kerouac, late June? 1953, a back-in-school dream ending in revelation.
I walk the corridors smiling, realizing for the first time that I don't have to go to high school---because I'm a great writer...
A MAREOTIC QUARREL: by Wayan, 2018/10/10; a dreamlet about truth & experts
My friend Lily misuses the word 'Mareotic'; I know, because I once saw it in a Yeats poem, thought
the footnote explaining it was fishy, checked it myself, and found the editors hadn't even bothered to...
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
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...
NOCTURNE: by Wayan; 2023/9/20, a book of improv paintings on dreams
Inspired by Shaun Tan, I fill a black-paged photo album with 36 improv paintings.
They become a tour of my dreamworld, led by my anima Silky, a literal nightmare...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, WEIRD DREAM IDEAS
PESCADERO MONET: by Wayan; 1983/11/4, a happy art-cult dream.
Monet is over 100 now, living in an art colony. I visit him, but my parents come along. Bad idea...
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?
PINBALL SHOWDOWN: by Wayan; 1995/3/18, a flirty game-playing dream.
I suspect the pinball champion of Jupiter is cheating. I try to scare her psychic confederate out of hiding...
PINKIE CLEANS THE WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION:
by Wayan; 2017/2/5, an advisory dream fusing Aldous Huxley & My Little Pony.
My new housemate Pinkie is a party animal, but she's really nice. She climbs a high ladder to help wash my
Windows of Perception. Then our unicorn friend Rarity walks in. She warns me to pace this renovation project...
CAUTION: PONIES
POIROT'S FLIGHT: by Wayan; 1994/11/15, an anti-lucid dream.
I summon an aeroplane to escape a trap. Lucid? Not at all! Why should Poirot bother with such abstractions?
RUNNER WITH A PORPOISE: by Wayan; 1999/10/30, a dream of spirits.
A Japanese high school athlete has no friends, till she starts meeting animal spirits on her long solo runs...
THE SATURATION DIAL: by Wayan; 2015/11/7, a surreal lucid dream with a control knob!
Night. Two moons. I go lucid! Find a knob adjusting the dream's color saturation.
Dial it up--and meet ghosts of pure color, invisible til I luridified...
THE SEX WORKSHOP: by Wayan; 1997/4/6, a dream on taking the next step.
The teacher of our sex workshop picks me for a demonstration in front of everyone. Gulp...
CAUTION: WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK?
THE SHAKEN PROFESSOR: by Wayan; 1996/2/11, a dream explaining amnesia and memory.
A great teacher abruptly blanks out. Memory loss is scary, but the empty moment bared a deeper fear:
SILKY'S BRIDGE: by Wayan, with brief parallel dream by Liz; 1987/5/7, apparent shared dreams
WAYAN: I'm a cat climbing on sea-cliffs. Fear I'll fall. Run into Silky, an archer firing
a line across to an islet. Now the Deer People can build their gossamer bridge...
LIZ: I was hiking along a trail atop sea-cliffs. But I feared I'd fall...
SPONTANEOUS DUCK: by Wayan; 2010/9/14, two dreams on feeling magically inadequate
I spy on a girl learning magic in a quilted ditch. She lets me join her telekinesis lesson! Can my mind move a balloon?
Then I tour a witch-world where normality's shameful. One kid's not witch or normal--he keeps turning into Donald Duck!
CAUTION: DISNEY = DISABILITY?
STICK IT BACK ON: by Wayan; 1980/7/15, a scattered dream still hiding a point.
The tollman on the new bridge to the Land of the Dead revives a beheaded woman by RANDOM action...
THE STONE MOVES: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a mysterious breakthrough dream
Repeated attempts to move a gigantic, sacred, saucerlike stone all failed; but now,
with the world's biggest cranes, we get it on a truck. It crawls past adoring crowds...
STOP OBAMA'S ASSASSINATION: by Wayan; 2012/2/10. A dream about politics? Or health?
Two child prodigies fail to stop the killers stalking President Obama, but a geek with a homemade laser...
THE STUTTER: by Wayan; 1995/9/7, a religious dreamtale.
Half our religion-founders were just one guy, repeating till he got it right. Practice makes perfect!
SUMMON A MENTOR: by Wayan; 1997/10/6, a parabolic dream on wishes.
I turn shy with women I like. So I wish for a dating coach, who appears! Then I feel dumb: how come I...
TAROT: THE ANOREXIC DANCER: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
The card of excessive self-denial, whether compulsive or artistic or spiritual...
TAROT: THE BUILDER: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", of a 1974/5/19 dream.
The card of building your dream no matter what. I dreamed I met the Primal Builder...
TAROT: THE CENTAUR (Ace of Pentacles): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Mind and body integrated. S/he can hold up even the world-serpent that the gods couldn't lift...
CAUTION: ANDROGYNOUS CENTAUR BREASTS
TAROT: DIRTY DISHES: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
It's time to tackle that unpleasant task. But so what? You know how. And you have gloves...
TAROT: THE EXPLAINER (The Page of Swords?): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Using the mind's blade humbly, minding ideas and people, clarity's disciple may not see her full power...
TAROT: THE MAGE: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979.
Jung said most people let one aspect of life dominate them. The Mage balances them...
TAROT: THE MAGENTA MESSIAH: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
True teachers and leaders do exist, with vision enough to make seeds (and people) sprout...
TAROT: THE PIANIST (Knight of Wands?): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
The knight of creative fire who takes over when you've mastered technique and can let go...
TAROT: OUTSTANDING (The Seven of Wands): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
How rare it is to meet the Outstanding whose thinking, sensing, feeling and intuition all work...
TAROT: DREAMTIGER! (Strength): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979.
Find your strength in dreams: facing (and befriending) what you've feared, or fought...
TEHURA TRIES COMICS: by Wayan; 1994/7/19. pencil, Xerox, erasable crayon.
I dreamed a sphinx artist visited humanity and drew the crazy natives. I copied her sketchbook...
CAUTION: NUDITY, PAGANISM, SLACKERISM, ACTUAL IDEAS
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...
WARM MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2001/3/24, 3/29, 3/30 & 4/1; dreams
I dream my mother takes over caring for my sick daughter; I feel pushed aside.
When I wake, I try to paint a more positive image of mothering.
For a week, dream after dream has opportunities for patience and letting go of jealousy...
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
WERE-COMPOSER: by Wayan; 1995/2/15, a trashy dream.
I help a brilliant, starving composer turn his family curse into a profitable business...
WHY PROGRESS IS SLOW: by Wayan; 1991/1/26 & 2/16, twin timetravel dreams
Time-hopping through centuries, I learn how slow
deep social change is. How we cling to the old horrors!


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