skip to the dreams!

"I dreamed I had to take a test..." Laurie Anderson opens one of her song-monologues that way, and instantly we all identify--we know instinctively that she'll be unprepared, or the test will be all wrong, as sure as a fairytale follows the opening "Once upon a time..." Dreams of tests seem to be universal.

Yet my own list of them is short--and doesn't follow the formula. Maybe it's that anxiety dreams can be dull (unless they puff up into comedy or nightmare) and I wanted interesting dreams for the site! But it's not just my editorial bias--I really don't dream of tests often, any more than I dream of losing teeth, though everyone else seems to.

My fears were of other things, like bullying--being younger and smaller than my classmates, I was vulnerable. My nightmares still reflect that. I was a child prodigy, so tests didn't scare me much in waking life--even if I WAS unprepared, I could usually do fine by guessing. As a result (I guess!) my test dreams generally question the competence (or motives) of the testers, not the dreamer!

RELATED TOPICS: school - initiations and ordeals - threats and bullying - outcasts and outsiders - violence - you're on your own, kid - nightmares - fear and anxiety - just for comparison, teeth - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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 -

	BOND: by Wayan; 1981/10/31, a nightmare where I'm the nightmare. I'm James Bond, fighting a plot by the fiendish Eight. But I'm captured and questioned. Of course I lie to the enemy: the senators of the Committee on Intelligence Activities. Till I see myself through their eyes... CAUTION: SPY SEX, SPY MENTALITY
	BUMBREE SYNDROME: by Wayan; 2 images, 1984/3/14, a comic dream about dreams. Princess Chinchilla and I use an umbrella to escape the Wizard. Now to escape the Dream Researchers!...
	CHIMP FINAL: by Wayan; 1984/5/19, a dream about failure. I'm in school on a chimp scholarship and it's time for my final exam...
	DEAD, NOT STUPID: by Wayan; 2000/1/20, a (psychic?)dreamtale. My little sisters tell the detectives, "Daddy's ghost has a message for you" but they don't listen...
	FALSE ALARM: by Wayan; 1996/5/23, a nightmare I lived as a kid. In school, I'm seen as a freak--lied to, set up for little pranks. Not by my classmates--my teachers...
	THE FINAL TEST: by Wayan; 1994/11/11, a reassuring nightmare. A Star Trek future. Our experimental ship is hijacked, with us aboard...
	GERRYMANDERING DESIRE: by Wayan; 1994/1/20, a modest sexual orientation proposal The two commonest sexual orientations have no names, or even concepts! Yet they're obvious, once... CAUTION: THE TRUTH THAT DARE NOT BE TOLD
	HYDROGEN INITIATION: by Wayan; 1981/1/6, a shamanic nightmare. I'm an initiate in a Sung Dynasty monastery. But I have no idea how far the hazing can go... CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
	MAGIC SCHOOL: by Wayan, 1982/1/26: a waking event and replying dream. Phyllis Schlafly, who killed the Equal Rights Amendment, provokes a dream of being Captain Kirk trapped in a magic school with no way out but the graduate exam... Can I learn the lesson of the tree? CAUTION: POLITICAL JOURNALISM BEFORE THE DREAM. OH NO!
	MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DUSK: by Wayan; 1994/10/10, an initiatory dream. To enter the House of Dusk, I must say what haunts the Pass. Even if I guess right, do I really understand?
	THE STAIRWELL TEST: by Wayan; 1980/9/7, a pedophilic defenestration dream. An underage girl comes on to me, and then asks me to... throw her down a stairwell?! CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
	TEST: by Wayan; 1994. Dream-inspired digital poster/quiz. I dreamed I had to take a bewildering test on who is allowed in the military. I flunked. So will you... CAUTION: MOCKS HOMOPHOBES
	THE TOMBSTONE TEST: by Wayan; 1986/8/18, a deceptive dream. I walk in a vast graveyard full of history's most famous people. But it's all fake, built as a test...
	ZERO SUM: by Wayan; 1996/5/29, a game-theory dream. I'm lecturing to a crowd: "Love's a win-win game, and abuse, lose-lose. But blame is zero-sum..."

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