THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: SELF-DEFENSE

The World Dream Bank:
SELF-DEFENSE

Dreams of self-defense in the face of challenges or attacks. They may not be much fun, but they're a crucial step, especially for nightmare-sufferers.

You'll notice, in the list below, that the attacks range from violent to quite subtle--fast-talking persuasion, elliptical putdowns, malicious gossip. It's not all orcs with clubs. Though they're there too...

The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.

What this site is - How to read these entries - Ratings: profanity, sex, etc - Add your dreams! - Copyright - Downloading -

	AMPLIFIER: by Alder; 1999/11/13, a dream on self-underestimation I was always the weakest magic-worker I knew. But when demons threatened my grandchild...
	AUSPICIOUS TRACTOR HATE: by Wayan; 1984/4/17, a positive frustration dream. A party for me and my shadow, to celebrate that we haven't killed each other, just HATE each other...
	BADGE SLANDER: by Wayan; 1993/4/18, a psychic nightmare. I dream I'm being slandered by the leaders of a dream organization! Turns out it's quite true...
	BAND-AIDS: by Bagheera Pardus; c.1985, a lucid re-entered nightmare turned to joy. Giant snakes chased me, but I went lucid, turned and slew one. As I woke, the snakes were crying. So I re-entered the dream and... CAUTION: SNAKES, BEHEADING, REHEADING
	BERYL BORROWED IT: by Wayan, 1986/3/8, an absurd dream. My friend Beryl borrows my ass and legs to become a centaur so she won't fall over. I want them back, so... CAUTION: CRUDE AND STUPID
	THE BIG CRUNCH: by Wayan; 1979/5/9, a cosmic nightmare. I'm a girl being stalked. I take drastic measures--scrunch up the universe and shake it out! And is THAT enough? CAUTION: ANXIETY, GUILT, THE POSSIBLE DESTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSE
	THE BLAMMOR: by Wayan; 1984/4/20, four linked private-eye dreams. I'm a Fast-Food Detective tracking a kidnapper-sorceress. Castles, magic carpets... and unexpected love. CAUTION: SEX TALK
	BONOBO AND BEAR: by Wayan, 1999/10/14, a mystic war movie. The gods of our cave-past and star-future fight over us--using us, of course. After I see the toll it's taking on a bonobo buddy of mine, I decide to bring the war back home, and go gunning for God--BOTH of them... CAUTION: APES AND EXPLOSIVES DON'T MIX
	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
	BRIGHT NICHES IN THE CASTLE WALL: by Jenny Badger Sultan; summer 2003. A painting of a series of dreams. Dreams warning of mania and paralyzing shame alternate with calm dreams of life and growth...
	THE BROADS: by Wayan; 1978/11/19, a dream on lowlife potential. Everyone wears a big cowboy beltbuckle. Twist it and your bodymass re-distributes! But mine... CAUTION: CRASS AND CRUDE
	THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR: by Wayan; 1995/8/8, a dream on body image. It's the Vietnam era; my draft board tolerates only a secret quota of COs. I decide not to tolerate THEM...
	DISSECTING PESSIMISM: by Wayan; 1997/4/14, a stubbornly educational nightmare . A serial killer stalks our office, and our bosses deny it. When we defend ourselves, things turn weird... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	DIURNAL AND NOCTURNAL WORLDS: by Wayan; 1993/11/8, an epic dream of the multiverse. Round the ring of twelve worlds and their twelve gods, seeking one god who's giving me grief...
	DRAMATIC PARASITES: by Wayan; 1995/6/28, a dream on fear of success. I project I'll make a lot more money soon. Good, now I can support all my lazy friends! Wait...
	DREAMS BLOCK VAMPIRE ARROWS: by Wayan; 1995/3/30, an encouraging nightmare. Fighting vampire archers is risky enough WITH proper armor! And all I have is dream-journals... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	EMADRO: by Wayan; 1983/6/4, a wild dream on clinging--and letting go. An elephant sinks in the North Sea, and the Oracle Mink says a wizard did it. Can old Lady Gandalf help?
	FEVER DREAMS: by Wayan; 1993/9/8, a set of wild feverdreams. While my body expels a kidney stone, weird scenes happen on the astral plane. At least I get to dip the pope. CAUTION: PAIN, PEE, POPE
	FIGHT GOD!: by Wayan; 1979/12/25, a Christmas fight dream. I'm in Heaven, but... it's full of Christians! I fight 30,000 angels, but I wanna go right to the top, and... CAUTION: PAGANISM AND PUGILISM
	FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 1.5M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic. I had a spectacular dream one night, that lasted many days in dream-time--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. I woke on deck deep in the night, my friends curled around me, and realized I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a grown 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... If 1500K is too big to load, try it in parts: 1: HOME, 450K, 2: VOYAGE, 680K, 3: BACK 400K. CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
	FLIRTING WITH NAPOLEON: by Wayan; 1995/1/21, a dreamtale. I'm a woman living in a space habitat. A new Napoleon invades us, and damages our life-support...
	FORKS AND SAUCERS: by Wayan; 1988/10/18, a dream on when to quit. Tibet, 1910. A cult whose ancestors manned a radar station that shot down UFOs. But were they really hostile?
	FRACTURE SPEEDS MARRIAGE: by Wayan; 2001/1/1, a dream of advice on health and romance. A baseball star breaks her leg (with a little help from the other team). It delays her career but but speeds her marriage. Did she NEED a....break?
	FRAMED!: by Wayan; 2006/10/18, a political nightmare. To fight the drug trade, cute little blonde cops plant packets on men in the park. And when I resist... CAUTION: BAD COPS
	FREDDY KRUGER'S POLITICS: by Wayan; 1992/8/20, a dream of... ambition?. Freddy has plans for me and Telly Savalas's daughter... but what can he lure us with? What do we want?
	FREE WAY? DETENTION FOR YOU!: by Wayan; 1997/2/14, a dream of the wages of fun. Zooming on freeways--carless levitation! But the Principal tries to punish us. And we resist... don't we?
	A GAMER'S DREAM: by Mark Nelson; 2002/3/5; A collage of real-world events brought into dreams I face a barrage of deadly challenges out of every action film I've seen and every game I've ever played...
	GRAMPA GOT AIMED: by Wayan; 1987/6/17, a psychic dream. The girl I love has a family that'll stop at absolutely nothing to destroy us. But I'll fight for love... CAUTION: SEX; EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE; MOLESTATION HISTORY
	I GOT OUT: by Wayan; 1992/1/4, a psychic dream; 9-page comic, 500K (or open page by page: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9) I flee our love triangle when Abe turns mean. He's telepathic, but I have a plan: the goldfish, the snakepit, the underworld... CAUTION: THREESOME, SCARY BOYFRIEND, SNAKE HEADACHES, MOTORCYCLE FATALITY
	I LET RATS: by Wayan; 1994/4/22, a nightmare on appeasement. A bold rat comes right up to me. I don't want to provoke it, so I stay quiet. And let the rats... CAUTION: UGH!
	I MIST MY SISTER: by Cory and Wayan; 212K, 1992/9/20; Cory's healing dream triggers one by Wayan. My housemate's sore back is healed by a dream. So I ask for the same, and get this dream of incest... CAUTION: KARMA, SEX/NUDITY, INCEST ISSUES
	ILLUSIONISTS DON'T RULE: by Wayan; 1996/8/26, a dream on the strength of logic. I read 'The Closing of the American Mind," and dream I'm a pilot who suspects an illusionist in my plane...
	I'M A VESTA, NOT A MAN!: by Wayan; 1980/1/6, a dream of when it's over. I'm the animal guardian of a deep crater, but when a human girl rejects me, I set out to leave... CAUTION: ORAL SEX, UNREQUITED LOVE, SPECISM
	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 LAKE DEMON: by Wayan; 1979/11/3, an anti-lucid dream. I walk through worlds, fight a deadly lake demon, and work magic--but I mustn't go lucid...
	LILY THE LION: by Wayan; 1991/4/7, a small psychic dream. My housemate Lily is a lion. She bursts into my room. Stare-down. And then she pounces. So I... CAUTION: VIOLENCE! MUTUAL GLARING! THE VULCAN NERVE PINCH!
	THE LION KING: by Wayan; 1995/9/15, a time-travel dream on social skills. When I wake up, animals rule the earth. How do they cope with specism? Well, it's complex...
	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.
	LYIN' WAYAN: by Wayan; 1996/4/10, a warning nightmare. A mob of kids chases me chanting "Lyin' Wayan!" I get dizzy and fall off a bridge... THEN comes trouble! CAUTION: FATAL FALL
	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....
	MARBLES: by Wayan; 1994/12/2, a dream on persecuting the gifted. A gang of humans try to rob me of what makes me able to fly... my marbles? I musn't lose my marbles!
	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...
	MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN: by Wayan; 1992/9/5-6, a diagnostic dream. I'm in a tribe of post-Crash kids with psychic powers, trying to keep nukes from rising again... CAUTION: VIOLENCE TOWARD CHILDREN
	MOONCAT: by Wayan; 150K, 1995/11/26; a subtle dream of sonar Near a mysterious sculpture garden on the moon, lives the blind, bike-riding sage I seek: Moon-Cat...
	MY EX-WIFE: by Wayan; 1982/3/23, a dream on delusions. My ex-wife breaks in, but acts like I'm the one who crawled back to her... and I don't HAVE an ex-wife! CAUTION: ADULT THEMES. REALLY, REALLY STUPID ADULT THEMES.
	MY PAST CHANGES SO: by Wayan; 1985, a poem on healing-stages. It takes time to build yourself out of found objects and trash...
	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...
	THE NIGHTMARE EFFECT: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/14, an anti-nightmare. My own fear creates a field of time/speed distortion; can I use it against my attackers?
	NO FINGERS: by Wayan; 1993/10/6, an indirectly predictive dream. My therapist has no fingers. A fingerless man intrudes on my session, and they use up my hour talking...
	NOT A THING: by Wayan; 1981/3/1, a shocking dream. What if your mind doesn't think it's yours? What if it's not so sure you're even a person?
	NOT SELF DEFENSE!: by Wayan; 1999/4/29, a warning dream. I'm Tarzan, fighting off attackers. But I kill one helpless prisoner! Am I going too far? CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	NOT THREE!: by Wayan; 1996/11/11, an encouraging nightmare I was wrong. I didn't survive three assassins. It's been seven! Why'd I forget the others?
	ORBITING THE CRYSTAL PALACE: by Wayan; 1998/1/12, a dream of making home. A wild flying dream lands me among feral children fighting to live in a glass conservatory of lost flowers...
	PASSION: by Katie Hofgard; 100K, 2006, an undream portrait of a complex woman. Talk about mixed messages! Or... is it really? CAUTION: NUDITY, SLIGHT FIRE HAZARD
	PERISSA: by Wayan; 660K total (15 images); 1997/9/13, a sexy political dream. When Perissa, an exhibitionistic centaur, bares her body in a crowded Coliseum, she also bares a racist plot... CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM
	PIER'S END: by Wayan, 1989/2/21, a Raymond Chandler dreamtale. My detective lover warned me, "Stay away!" Now I'm trapped. Dare I follow the lion over the edge?
	THE PIRATE TWINS: by Wayan; 1996/7/25, a dreamtale on intrigue. I love the Twins. They love intrigue. So when a hired crocodile sabotages our Egyptian treasure-hunt... CAUTION: BAD GIRLS
	QUIT THAT LAB!: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a deductive nightmare. I'm working alone in the lab at night, when the lab gear wakes up and tries to kill me...
	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 BY THE CONTROLS: by Wayan; 1978/10/19, an anti-phallic-symbol dream. I dreamed I was on a train, a huge toy train, and a gigantic rattler was at the controls...
	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
	RIBBING: by Wayan; 1992/12/25, an assertive dreamtale. After seeing 150 years of family photos, I dream of being teased by time-traveling cheerleaders, and...
	ROAR!: by Wayan; 2000/4/3, not exactly a nightmare... Night. A jungle full of prowling lions and leopards. So naturally, I get up on a rock and roar back...
	THE SELL-FISH WITCHES: by Wayan; 1983/6/29, a dreamtale. My sister and I are runaways, developing psychic powers. A cult of fish-selling witches wants to use us... CAUTION: SIBLING INCEST, SPELL ABUSE
	SELL THE GODS, AND RAISE HELL!: by Wayan; 1994/1/26, a dream riddle. Reactionaries smash a paper. To rebuild, the editor must sell tiki carvings! But gods don't LIKE being sold... CAUTION: MORAL QUANDARY
	SKIMMING TOWARD FREEDOM: by Wayan; 2002/1/18, a dream with 3 sketches. My girlfriend and I can fly, but detectives follow us around. How to lose them? By sticking to the beach and... CAUTION: BIZARRE CREATURES, FRANK LANGUAGE
	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 Hindu god, who sends demons to make us stop this spiritual �contamination�...
	A SQUID STRATEGY: by Wayan; 1997/10/7, a dream warning. Giant squid start surfacing at popular beaches and eating people. Not the form of first contact we'd hoped... CAUTION: YOU ARE LUNCH
	STAY GROUNDED!: by Wayan; 1988/2/27, an unexpectedly grounded dream. I'm playing poker with a dragon. But we barely dare move: we're both crackling with thousands of volts...
	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... CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
	SWAN: by Wayan; 225K (5 images), 1995/4/8, a stubborn dreamtale. I wake amnesic in a cabin in Alaska, in a dress printed with self-putdowns. I track down who cursed me...
	TAHOE DRAGON: by Wayan; 1980/8/16. A dream of flight and fire. A dragon killed a friend, and threatened worse. I had to fight. We dueled mid-air, over Lake Tahoe...
	THE TAKEOVER: by Lee Olivier; 2004/6/28, a triple diagnostic nightmare An alien is taking over our world, and I feel so helpless that even when I wake I want to just forget the dream...
	TAROT: OUTSTANDING (The Seven of Wands): by Wayan; 22K. Tarot card, 3x5", 1978-1981. Those of you who see or sense auras know how rare it is to meet someone with all four cylinders firing...
	TARTAN ACID SPIDER TORPEDO: by "Thomas Mountain"; 2008/1/31, a cliffhanger dream. I get speared by Irish warriors, slipped an LSD dose, chased by giant spiders, torpedoed--but hey, I'm not bored!
	TEN TRIALS: by Wayan; 101K, 1976/10/2, a dream of love distracted. While living with violent Kay, I dream I meet a nice moth-girl. But we must undergo ten trials. Mustn't we? CAUTION: RELATIONSHIP TROUBLES, BOTH GAY AND STRAIGHT
	THE THREATENERS: by Wayan; 1997/4/23, a small psychic dream. Two gunmen break in, call me by a strange name, and demand I repay a loan I never borrowed...
	AN UNEXPECTED MOVE: by Wayan; 1998/12/17, a peripatetic dreamtale. In the Los Angeles ruins, a wizard-gang jumps us. Trapped, I try a desperate move never seen in LA: I use my feet...
	VAMPIGS AND SMILES: by Wayan; 1991/12/9, an advisory dream. Our landlady was a friend, but now breaks her word, ups our rent. Talk, compromise, or rent strike?
	WHO IS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW?: by Christa Gaskill; 2008/6/25, a recurrent false-waking dream. Someone's prowling outside my window. I'm paralyzed in bed, but I force myself into action...
	WHY I BECAME THE SEA: by Wayan; 1980/6/19, a dream of containment. I get so mad at a bunch of cops who harass gays, that I become the sea itself and chase them... CAUTION: UNCHARITABLE REPRESENTATION OF OUR SAINTS IN BLUE
	WITCH, FLY FREE!: by Wayan; 1997/5/3, a predictive dream. A castle of witches in Europe. Persecuted for centuries, they're wary. Can I find a good witch to love? CAUTION: PAGANS CRIPPLED BY SIEGE MENTALITY...
	WITH WILD AND TURQUOISE EYES: by Joan-lee Woehler; c.1950, a dream-poem on a stubborn shadow I slay the beautiful dragon attacking us, despite my regret. And then, as I sleep, glowing eyes advance on our keep AGAIN...