THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: PAIN

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PAIN

Dreams about pain, its diagnosis and cure. But you'll also find a sort of dream popularly believed to be impossible: pain in a dream. "Pinch yourself to see if you're dreaming," the saying goes, but it won't prove a thing--it's quite possible to feel pain in dreams, as some of the following will prove; and what dream-pain means can be surprisingly instructive.

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What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 2300 dreams plus 1000 more pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2013.

	AWAKENING HURTS: by Wayan; 1993/7/4, a dreamtale. An old friend's awakening from anorexic asexuality. Puberty at 30? And wait a minute... is she me?
	BACKACHE DIALOGUES: by Wayan; 1993/12/10, four bizarre diagnostic dreamlets. I asked my dreams why my back hurt. They told me: pregnancy, marsupial pouches, snapping turtles...
	BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death. Helping out some talking animals, helping to exhaustion, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
	BUT AS YESTERDAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of being sacrificed Our gods demand sacrifices. I let Mother mutilate me so I'd be unfit. But the priests turn out to be blind... CAUTION: YOU CAN FEEL PAIN IN DREAMS
	CHUNKS, or, BABEZILLA!: by Wayan; two dreams 1990/10/4 and 1991/9/4 told as digital comics. I meet a giant psychic baby feared by 12-step people. So I go to the beach and find I'm a shark-bit girl who can have her missing chunks sewn back in--if I still have room for them...
	CLAIRAGONY: by a Philadelphia woman, August 1951, a sympathetic heart attack with one crucial error in its ESP I had a heart attack--but in minutes, it vanished! Then the phone rang. I knew at once my dying mother was gone. But...
	A DIFFICULT PATH: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/11/3, an advisory dream. I lead my daughter up a thorny path, but she’s getting badly scratched. Shall I leave her in that fishing village? She wants to...
	A DREAMKU PRIMER: by Roswila; 2007; how-to guide to dream haiku Distilling a dream to one key image can clarify it. But don't be ruled totally by traditional haiku form...
	DREAMS IN WAR TIME: by Amy Lowell; c. 1917, a chain of seven small dream-poems Terse dreamlets quietly catch World War I's effect on civilians far behind the front. Who died in the trenches? Faith...
	ELLIS CRITIQUE: by Wayan; 2008/12/10, four dreams comically challenge Havelock Ellis's dream-theories! Pa warns me to protect my paws. Gilt wounds my sole. A lioness eats a drumstick. Then a bus crashes on our corner--for real!
	THE EYE by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of resisting torture A staring Eye tries to break me, though his birds rebel in sympathy. But the cats and robots flay me. Yet I refuse to die...
	FLYING MACHINE: by George B. Burgin, c.1860 on, a recurrent flying dream Whenever I'm stressed, I build a set of luna-moth wings and fly invisibly. Though once a blind man caught me by ear...
	FREEDOM THROUGH BOXES: by Wayan; an experiment in art & pain, Jan 2005 I've always loved curves, color, dreams, sex, texture... and planning, too. So one day I drew 100 black boxes in ink--no color, no curves, no erasure! And then I began to seek...
	A HAUNTED HOUSE INDEED!: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic ghost dream I was warned to beware the soul-devouring art in the haunted house, but I didn't expect to find an entire modern art salon... CAUTION: ABSORBING ARTWORK
	THE HEDGEHOG DISPENSARY: by Wayan; 440K, 27 watercolors, 2004/10/2, a dream of a furry ambitopia. A rabbit shaman orders his apprentice to drape dead hedgehogs round her neck til she bleeds. Ow! What’s his problem? Well... CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, ABUSIVE MENTOR
	ICARIAN PAIN: by Wayan; 125K, 3 ill., 1982/10/19, a dream of shyness, and flying, and pinching yourself. I meet some cute dancers, but rather than flirt, I just try ballet leaps too. I get more than I bargained for...
	MAFIA DENTIST: by Wayan, 2007/7/10; a predictive comic nightmare. My dentist (a Haitian Mafia leader) sends a message to my dad (also a Mafia don) by dental cruelty....
	MCKILLIP'S NEW BOOK: by Wayan; 2010/7/23, an epic literary dream I'm inside a magical novel by Patricia McKillip, full of tricksters, cosplayers, spooks, sex changes, levitation and (sigh) riot cops... CAUTION: COYOTE SEX
	MEREDYTH AND LILLY: by Meredyth Watts; May 2010, 2010/11/14 and 2010/12/7, a set of dreams (or a recurrent episodic dream) I dream over and over of the same place, time, and woman. We have a love affair. Strangely, I'm the one who gets pregnant...
	MICMAC TOWERS: by Wayan; 2011/6/12, a quietly predictive surreal dream I dream squatters build surreal towers in a city of junk. I wake, go to a movie, and see...
	THE MOST FANTASTIC LUCID DREAM OF MY LIFE: by "Ben"; 2007/8/24, an epic lucid dream full of experiments I fly, send myself email, discuss dreaming with dream people, punch a wall to test dream-pain, reach into mirrors...
	MOUSE WORKOUT: by Eric, ca. 2005/9/28, a nightmare for my own good? I'm a mouse trapped and tortured in a maze/machine who gets killed four different ways at once... CAUTION: OW, OW, OW, OW
	NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, ca. 155 AD, a dream leaving physical traces. Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back...
	NEWS AT ELEVEN: by a widow-in-process; 1948/10/27, a somatized empathic waking nightmare My heart suddenly began beating like a sledge hammer. I couldn't imagine what was happening, and got very frightened...
	ON DRAGONS: by Roswila; July 1986, three poems of dragon dreams The first two dragons numb my pain. I demand it back, and soon regret my haste. But the third dragon I seduce, for I'm a dragon now...
	ORCA TOWS: by Wayan; 1984/5/25, a dream with impact. I show an Ohio friend the latest California sport. We haven't quite worked out how to land just yet...
	ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, an early dream epic. I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
	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
	PRAYER: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting. "Our resurrection is not entirely in the future; it's also in us, it begins, it's already begun..."
	THE PROBLEM OF PAIN: by Wayan; 1984/5/15, a devious dream. We sail to Heaven, but God exiles me to Fargo, North Dakota. But God's up to something subtle...
	RACK: by Wayan; 2006/4/4; a comic business-bondage dream My friend Chris gets tied up at the office--that’s his job, looking martyred! But when the boss is away... CAUTION: NUDITY
	RAGNHILD'S TREE and HALFDAN'S CURLS: by Queen Ragnhild and King Halfdan of Norway; c. 850 AD, twin dreams predicting their children and nation will prosper. Ragnhild sees a lovely tree rooted in her pain and blood; Halfdan sleeps with pigs and dreams he has a great head of hair... CAUTION: KIDNAPPING, ARSON, AND GENERAL BARBARISM (look at the date!)
	SCALDED: by Wayan; 1993/7/3, a near-nightmare. The feud between our magical families is getting ugly. Hawk-Head's dad throws boiling water on me, so I... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	SEA OF TIME: by Wayan; 100K, 1989/7/26. Digital sketch of astral dream. I dreamed I was drowning in the Sea of Time, where dragons asked me questions. PAINFUL questions...
	SENTENCED TO CHEESE: by a Birmingham physician; early 1850s? a classic subliminal nightmare One night I had to sleep above a cheese shop. I dreamt I was trapped in a huge cheese, as a horde of rats gnawed... CAUTION: YOU ARE LUNCH
	SEWING ADVICE FROM CANNIBALS: by Elias Howe, 1845, an inventor's helpful nightmare. Howe's sewing-machine design didn't work until, one night, warriors stuck him in a soup-pot, jabbing him with needle-sharp spears... CAUTION: OUCH!
	SIPHONIAN QUARTET: by Wayan; 2010/4/10, four baffling parallel-world dreams Purple squid saboteurs flood our cliffhouse; my oyster-ranching girlfriend has a snotty aunt; I wake in a stranger's bondage dream and hate it; shepherds watch for gliderwolves on the ocean floor... CAUTION: EMBARRASSING BONDAGE DREAM
	STABBED ALIVE: by Roswila; 2007/10/9, a nightmare-poem I defeat the knife-wielder, in spite the blade in my belly I can't pull out. I may have to let it be...
	THE TAPED WOUND: by Wayan; 1997/10/7, a dream on old tapes... My wound's taped up, but hurts bad. I peel off the bandage... nothing! Gone. So I check my other body...
	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
	TO KEEP HIM COMPANY: by Robert Southey; 1806/1/23; a Wertheresque suicide dream-comedy My German friend resolved to commit suicide, so I agreed to poison myself to keep him company...
	UNCONTROLLED TIME TRAVEL: by Jo; 2007/7/13, a time-slipping dream. I’m a drug-addicted amateur dramatist. A fat balding businessman and I bring humanity back from extinction, but... CAUTION: TORTURE (brief), ADVOCACY OF WAR, HUMAN EXTINCTION (offstage)
	VICARIOUS ATONEMENT: by Anna Kingsford; 1880/1/31, an anti-shamanic dream Kingsford meets a girl who burns herself as a protest. K flips out! She rants “This is wrong!” when help is what’s needed... CAUTION: RANT MIDWAY YOU'RE BETTER OFF SKIPPING
	THE WHEEL by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of future shock. Lost in an industrial maze, my memories hopelessly out of date, I resign myself to be bound to the Wheel...
	WOUND-BARGAIN: by a Marine from New York; 1918/9/12-14, a prediction and possible alteration of the future I was certain I'd be wounded, but wanted not to be maimed or crippled. So I tried on injuries and settled on a flesh wound in my left shoulder...
	YOU NEED TO FIND HER: by B. Bigham; 2010/4/27, a strong psychic dream of history I walked into a 19th century home--and family quarrel. Suddenly decades passed in seconds, and the house burned--with me inside. Two years later I learned by chance that the house and its history were real...