Water
It's my experience that such dreams are often precursors to flying dreams--and sometimes to lucidity. Maybe it's just that for a lot of dreamers, water and especially the sea is a symbol for dreaming itself--so breathing underwater can show you're comfortable exploring the dreamworld and that your unconscious welcomes you.
But Jungians can go too far. If you skin dive a lot...
RELATED TOPICS: walking or skating on water - swimming - beach dreams - flying dreams - lucid dreams - mer-folk - underground dreams - the opposite: deserts - falling water: rain, waterfalls, geysers - If you're feeling smutty, there's always wet dreams - 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.
ABYSSIA: by Wayan; started 2006/6/6, a webtour of an inverted world A nondream vision of an alternate Earth where continents are abysses, abysses continents... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ADORABLE CYBORGS: by Wayan; dreamed 2016/10/5, a dream-poem on inner teamwork A child dreamer and two different kinds of cyborg must cooperate to free the hostages imprisoned under San Francisco Bay... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AFTER THE FLOOD & THE PIG-EARED BABY ALLIGATOR: by Skiznot; c.1995, an oracular dream My hometown floods. I swim after some strange fish and find a scientific community where a scaled baby tells me who I am... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AIDA'S TOILET BOAT: by Wayan; 1993/4/7, a short- AND long-term predictive dream. A sexy comedian and her troubles down the drain. A dream that turned out to be true six days later, and again in a different way six YEARS later... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AL CAPP'S HORSES: by Wayan; 1988/4/12, a dream predicting an odd image, palette and painting style I dream cartoonist Al Capp switched late in life to painting horses in a weird expressive style; I wake, write the dream, rush to work to find a painting of horses in a weird expressive style CAUTION: CAUSTIC TO E.S.P. DENIERS |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ALIEN GIRL, SACRED PEAKS: by Wayan; dreamed 2005/11/25, two dreams on long-term goals I'm one of a trio of swimmers in a pool, making out--under the surface only. Must we hide? I'm near Shiprock with a flying-saucer girl who sees the nearby crags and far snowy peaks as all the same size and distance... how to teach perspective? CAUTION: SKINNYDIPPING, GROPING |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ANCIENT RUINS, AND A GIFT FROM DEEP OCEAN: by Jenny Badger Sultan; two dreams (2016/11/19, 2017/1/18) on dreamwork, memory & amnesia 1: Ruins in India. Fascinating but age-blurred; wish I could see the carvings better... 2: Giving presents at a party, I hand a girl a vertebra from the abyss, encrusted with jewel-like barnacles... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ANOCHE / LAST NIGHT: by Antonio Machado; c. 1900; a joyful dream poem Last night, as I slept, I dreamt--illusion blessed!--that I had a beehive, here inside my heart... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
APOCALYPSE OF THE MOON: by Carl Linkhart, 1997 or before; dream poem/painting The far future. The moon falls to Earth. But then... the moon unfalls! Golden light nurtures a rebirth of our dying ecology & civilization... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BALLOON DIVE: by Wayan; 2007/6/17, a nightmare saying I made the least bad choice A boy leaps from a runaway balloon, falls 100' into a pond, and floats face-down. I'm sure he's dead, but when a woman fishes him out... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BEET: Five Dreams One Night: by Wayan; 2013/10/30, Halloween dreams as minipoems Parasites, Rambo, huge fetus-beets, an exhibitionist and a living statue advise me on my love life... CAUTION: NUDITY |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BEYOND THE BUOYS: by Wayan; 1981/2/12, a short punning dream. I'm a fairy queen at the beach, chasing a girl who's a strong swimmer. Yep, she swims beyond the buoys... CAUTION: BAD LESBIAN PUNS |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BLUE MER-ANGEL: by Wayan; 2000, ceramic sculpture, 11.5" long. Seems strange to have no hands. How do dolphins get things done? By not needing to get things done? CAUTION: MILD NUDITY |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BOAT MEETING: by Wayan; 1985/4/28; a predictive dream that hints at its own nature I swim far out in a lake to a business meeting on a dinghy; but that's trivial. What matters is mapping the murky lakebottom, dive after dive... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BOAT PEOPLE IN THE TUB: by Carl Linkhart, 1998 or before; dream poem/painting I'm trying to bathe, but there are Boat People in the tub! And my inner Grandma's spying on me, behind her fan... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BYE-BYE, OLD FILM!: by Wayan; 1981/1/24, a psychic dream, with a 2015/5/22 follow-up. My friends destroy all my old films and give me a 'new' one--but it's from 1900! Then I wake to find... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CATFISH RESCUE: by Nick Munford, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream of shamanic kindness I run away. A car nearly hits me and I fall into the lake. But a kindly catfish drags me to an underwater phone booth... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE CONCHES: by Wayan; 1996/5/23, a dream on how dreams view the waking mind. A visit to the Conches, a strange race of molluscs who are people only seasonally... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CONRAD'S CRASH: by Jessie Conrad, 1905?, a clairvoyant or telepathic nightmare Night. Rain. A hansom cab. The horse slips on the wet pavement, toppling the cab with my husband inside. I woke sure it happened. Next morning a postman tried to tell me of the crash, but I told him... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CRIMECON 90: by Wayan; 1990/3/27, a dream about capitalism. I did what I love. The money didn't follow. So now I have to guard a crimeboss at a theft convention... CAUTION: INEVITABLE CHEKHOVIAN SHOOTOUT |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DANCE OF THE SUN: by Wayan, 1972/10/23, an epic mystical dream I cross a hostile continent to a magic commune, fall in love with a flying girl who slaps a soul-spark into my head, and follow an alien goddess leading the Dance of the Sun... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE DAYS WHEN WOMEN WERE BEING HURT: by Anonymous #40, 1996?, a surreal dream I was big as the world, so whole cars fit in my vagina. But men were selling women to supermarkets, to be cooked & resold. So I crossed the Atlantic sea-floor on foot... CAUTION: CAR SEX. NO, NOT SEX IN CARS... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DEATH CHANTY: by E.M. Martin's friend; 1914/9/21, a psychic dream An endless parade of drowned sailors sing a dirge. The dreamer woke in tears. Then the news arrived. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE DESTRUCTION OF HAWAI'I; 2004/9/2 by Anonymous #37; a short apocalyptic nightmare I was a small boy living on Oahu. Out my front door I saw a 20-mile-tall wall of flames stretching across the horizon... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DONNA'S FALLOUT: by Wayan, 1972/2/6, 2/26, 2/29 & 3/4: sonnets & watercolors of 4 sex dreams. When I was 17, an older girl pushed booze at me and came on to me... in front of my parents and teachers! For months, I had ambivalent sex dreams trying to process what Donna taught me--not all of it negative... CAUTION: WEIRD SEX; ADULTS BEHAVE BADLY |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DON'T GO TO THE MARKET: by a Stockwith woman, June/July 1757; a predictive dream unheeded A woman in Stockwith dreamt she'd drown going to market; but her friends talked her back into the trip. When she fell in the water, they all stood by as she drowned; not one helping her till it was too late... CAUTION: WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DRACULA'S SANDWICH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1997/8/22, a death/rebirth nightmare-painting Dinner with Dracula goes well, considering, except for the mayonnaise. But suddenly I'm drowning! No one sees or hears me. Am I a ghost, am I dead or alive? And how would anyone notice? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DREAM OF ABYSSES: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007, a dream-drawing. Girondé dreams she's floating through the oceanic abyss... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ELEPHANT WITH A LOTUS: by Queen Maya, 564 BCE? a prophetic Buddhist dream After 20 years without a child, Maya dreams devas carry her to a holy lake, wash her... and then an elephant carrying a lotus flower enters her right side. She knows it means... CAUTION: DREAM OMITS TINY DETAIL--IMMINENT DEATH |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EVERLASTING AND PERPETUAL NIGHTMARE: by Shawn King; c. 2009/2/10; two bits of a lifelong nightmare Lucifer throws firebolts from a Montreal tower; monsters stalk us; next comes the flood... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FANTASTIC RIDE: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream painting. The dreamer overflows from her egg, spills out to become a waterfall, a stampede of horses... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FIVE ELVISH DREAMS: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2005/6/10-2005/6/19, an incubated lucid-dream sequence 1: I visit Elrond and Bilbo in Elvenhome, but overthinking traps me in a timeloop; 2: Elrond says he renounces seriousness for joy, and plans a great, inclusive party; 3: I feel unworthy, but set out on a desert quest with Elrond's young apprentice; 4: I meet joyful, drunken, singing elves but hide in a tree, too shy to join in; 5: I meet a nervous elven singer and a dolphin trapped in a tiny pool in my bedroom... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FLU PRESCRIPTION: by Qu'lad and Togumalis, 1918 or 19, two shaman's dreams that saved lives Qu'lad, dying of flu in the pandemic, dreamt a wolf told him cold-water baths would save him. He staggered to the river. He lived. He told others. They lived. The shaman Togumalis dreamt his spirit helper, a squirrel, prescribed the same. A century later, hospital records show why it worked... CAUTION: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE SHOWN AS SUPERIOR |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FLUID REALITY: by Wayan; 1983/8/8; a magical dream-sea voyage that turned out to be predictive On my quest I find magic portals, snarky flower-fairies, undersea redcoats, reassembling bodyparts, living chess, and Nosferatu the Cheating Vampyre... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FORGET THE FLEURS DU MAL: by Wayan; 1983/1/1?, a poem on nightmares. In the richest regions of the sea, dead stuff wells up to meet the light. Do we have similar zones? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FREE THE HICK? A Dream Left Hanging: by Wayan; 1999/9/15, a shard still bearing a message With our ignorability spell, our team plans to free the angry Hick from the Submerged Court. But the Coyote Girls can see us! Will this really work? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH: by Roswila, August 2002; a dream-poem illustrating dream reentry My horse and I dove into a lagoon and sought buried treasure on the sea-floor. What are we really after? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GET THE PICTURE? by Barbara, as told by Gayle Delaney, 1979 or before; a prompting dream I was half-drowning, holding our son up in the pool, while my husband tried to take a photo. I kept gasping "Did you get the picture yet?" but he kept saying "Not yet"... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREEN ANGELS: by Wayan; 1985/9/2, a dream-idyll seething with politics. I stalk a platoon of levitating surf-bunnies who may be out to bomb a Greenpeace submarine... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREEN, GREEN, SPIRIT OF THE SPRING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1991/2/3, 1995/8/13 and 1995/11/10 I meet a girl with a plant growing out of her head... Someone prays to the spirit of a spring to heal me... I watch people practice exercises with the ritual feel of voudun or candomble... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HAENA TWILIT COVE: by Wayan; 1984/10/31, a predictive dream. Landing in Hawaii, I dream of a magical twilit cove I must swim across. The eve of leaving, there it is... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HELL HALL: by Anonymous #3; c.1920?, a dream of initiatory cannibalism A revival meeting goes bad--suicides, 'long pig', a hell-pit. If you sup with the devil, carry a long fork! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ICEBERG WRANGLERS: by Wayan; 2015/8/4, an otherworldly dream-poem Captain Ahab's part-whale students are better ice wranglers than I'll ever be-- wrestling icebergs of possibility round to their best outcomes, in this pea-soup sea... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IGUANA: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, two surreal dreamlets on water damage In a flooded room, an indignant iguana scolds me, while my wife Marnie checks her computer implant for water damage... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IN IO: by Wayan, 1981/8/7, a wild otherworldly dream with 3 illustrations. I live on Io. It's nicer than its photos. At least inside, where the oceans are--where I grow a second head... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE MERMAID'S DRESSING ROOM: by Wayan; 1993/12/18; a dream on how to evolve. At Sea-Dragon State Park, I climbed down to the sea serpent's dressing room after the show, and found... CAUTION: MERMAID BREASTS |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JESSICA THE MERMAID: by Jessica, mid-1977, dream-provoked dream At a dream workshop for kids, James's trickster dream-figures provoked Jessica to dream one chased her; fleeing, she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, became a mermaid, and married the trickster... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JUMP OVERBOARD: by Graham Greene; 1925/12/11, a possibly psychic nightmare. Wednesday night I dreamed I had to jump overboard... that night there was a wreck off the Yorkshire coast in a storm and the captain ordered his men to jump into the sea... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
KICK AUTHORITY: by Wayan; 1989/10/25. Early digital painting of a dream figure. Question authority? Nah. They always have such excuses! Kick authority entirely! Just say no. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE LADY BATHES IN GRIEF: by Wayan; 1983/5/31, a long-haul psychic dream. Why'd a spirit-woman come to our reservation to mourn a drowned guy? Her mirrors & candles tell us... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LIBERTÉ: by Marie-Claude Girondé, c. 2005?, a dream painting. "Freedom is a gift you give yourself." But it doesn't always involve seahorses or babycarriages covered in quills... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE: by Edward Bennet's daughter, 1757/7/11; a predictive dream Bennet's daughter dreamt her husband drowned after wading too deep (he couldn't swim). He promised he'd avoid deep water, but his best friend played a prank, treading water to make it seem shallow... CAUTION: WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Edwin Muir; 1920, an epic hypnogogic shamanic initiation Creatures in the primal sea touch my third eye, dragons cry their eyes out, I fight the Sphinx, and arrive at last in... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MANTA-SQUID: by Wayan; 1986/3/13, a nightmare on the Senoi hoax DAY: I read an exposé on "Senoi dreamwork"--the Malaysian Senoi people disavow it. Some white guy just made it up! DREAM: I'm a dream researcher in Malaysia. A manta-squid attacks! Now the "Senoi" focus on my needs makes sense... CAUTION: TENTACLE-RAPE ATTEMPT |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MARS REBORN: by Wayan; 15 pages, 27 photos, 2003/9/22, a tour of a sculpted/virtual world Mars as it will be 1000 years from now, terraformed. A guided tour with photos... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A MERMAID DISH: by Wayan; 1994/11/13, a parabolic dream A mermaid friend invites me to see an underwater experiment in the Golden Gate... CAUTION: MERMAID BREASTS |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MERMAID, MARE, AND SEA-STAR: by Wayan; 1983/3/23; daydream of sea-love I was a mermaid summoning a great storm to carry my love to me--and my love was a red sea-mare... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream. I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MERMAID VERSUS TRUMP: by Wayan, 2020/1/7, one of twin warning dreams Agents of Donald Trump with knives trap a mermaid. I jump one of them, and she escapes, towing me with her. She assumed humans just hate merfolk, but I know... CAUTION: HARSH WARNING ABOUT TRUMP |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE MERMAN'S LOVER: by Wayan; 1991-93; a sex daydream treated four ways. Four versions of an underwater meeting between lovers, one terrestrial, one marine... CAUTION: ORAL SEX |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MITHRAN'S LAKE: by Wayan; 1988/1/17, a predictive dream justifying personal reserve. DREAM: Gay boys, underage girls & my own sister all mock me, sure I want their forbidden sexual fruit at a beach where grotesque trees make their own precipitation and salt-dunes spill into saturated, toxic brine... NEXT DAY: I read Margaret Atwood's The Salt Garden--sex, guilt, and grotesque trees in saturated, toxic brine. CAUTION: SEXUAL GUILT, EXHIBITIONIST TWEENS, APPARENT E.S.P. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MUDHOLE: by Hosteen A., 1928, a death-warning dream I dream my cousin and I ride out looking for his lost moccasins. Suddenly he's swallowed by mud and drowns. It's so fast. I feel sorry for him but I'm helpless. Two months later, my cousin died... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MUPPET WITNESS: by Bill Tjaden, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; an absurd dream I work in a witness protection program. We hide the Muppet on the bottom of an empty swimming pool, hand him a long straw, and fill it with... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEED AN ADVENTURE? by Catshall, 2022/5/18-25, collage-poem on recurrent dreams For a week the same dream-figures and settings have been recurring: shapeshifters and sea monsters. What are they hiding? Or guarding... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NIGHTMARE NEXT TO MY LOVER: by Kathleen Spivack; before 1983, an outside look at dreaming A woman unreachable, in dream, drowning in the bed, fish-gasping, scissoring, while her man oblivious... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OFF DOVER: by Wayan; 2010/9/30, a dream-based mini-sestina (poetic experiment) I'm biking over the English Channel. So mild & easy after the Greenland-to-New-York run... |
OISIN: by Wayan; 2005-2013, 32 maps and images; a nondream virtual world |
A model of a moon, half-Europa, half-Mars, with (intelligent?) life in seas under a skin of ice... |
ORPHEA: by Wayan; 1995/12/27. Digital painting of a hole in our myths. |
Krishna, Orpheus, Kokopelli...why are the mythic musicians all guys? Where's Orphea's head? |
OTTER MEDICINE: by The-Fringe, a Crow healer, early 1850s; a shamanic dream with physical effects |
I slept on an island in a scalding hot spring, praying for a dream. I got one--and woke up on the shore... |
A PILGRIM DREAMING: by Denise Levertov; 1977? a dream poem |
A man I loved goes into the Jungian depths, but when his anima appears in the mirror-pool, his nerve fails... |
PEAK ANGEL: by Wayan; 1995, dreamlike but nondream digital collage. |
A naked angel came and perched on a rock, pointing at a vista that seemed both alpine and undersea... |
PIPES AND TIME: by Wayan; 2017/12/21, a dream of the far future that came true next day |
A timetraveler shows me a hotspring shrunk to a quarter of its old flow. Valves? Pipes? Or drought, from climate change? This IS the future. A day later, a local main breaks, and our water flow shrinks to a quarter of normal... |
POOL ASSASSINS: by Wayan; 2017/3/1, a nightmare after hearing of a real assassination |
Four women with guns attack me at a public pool. Trapped in the water, can I survive? Only by being ruthless... CAUTION: VIOLENCE |
POOL OF TRUTH: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1983/10/1; a dream of shamanic descent |
Night. A massive crash on the highway. Bodies strewn. Sickened, I descend a spiral stair to the Pool of Truth. It gives no answers. Women spout platitudes. I go on, in pain, down past the polar bears... CAUTION: THE DEAD |
PRESIDENTIAL TACO: by Robert Adams, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream farce |
I botched President Clinton's taco. And on the way home, I fell in the river. Luckily, Jesse Jackson happened by and pulled me out, restoring my faith in... |
PUFF TIDE: by Wayan; 1993/5/1, a nightmare on indulging rage and tears. |
I'm swept off sea-rocks, as my scaly guardian watches calmly--letting me drown in the tears I shed... CAUTION: DROWNING |
PULL THE PLUG ON THIS WAR: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a surreal dream |
I'm a Confederate officer. The only way to save my men is to end the war by pulling the plug at the bottom of the lake! I dive in, fighting a Yankee, who... |
THE RIVER: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; two mystical dream poems on dropping the ego |
I tossed the crystal decanter of my self into the river, and watched it float away... |
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... |
THE ROWAN: by Graham Greene; 1921, a possibly psychic nightmare. |
The ship I was on going down in the Irish Sea. It was not till yesterday, looking at an old paper, I saw about the sinking of the Rowan in the Irish sea... |
SEA MASSAGE: by Wayan; 1995/10/3, a puzzling dreamtale. |
I can fly and breathe water. So I fly into art-rich mansions, though not to steal--I earn plenty from undersea massage... |
SEA OF TIME: by Wayan; 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... |
SHAMANIC CHEW-TOY: by Wayan; 2011/3/16; nested dreams of strange women |
Compulsively honest spirit-women with waterjugs invade my friend's house. I wake to find my girlfriend's obsessing on hair loss. To calm her, I babble about limb loss... and wake again to find she was a dream too. |
A SHELLFISH EPIPHANY: by Wayan; 1996/6/14, a spiritual dream. |
Our family of Japanese pearldivers is cast away on an atoll. One day, lonely, scared, I cast away fear... |
SIPHONIA: by Wayan; 30 p, 2006-14, a nondream virtual world, in progress; maps, tours |
First, suck up 90% of Earth's seas. Now wait 90,000 years for life to adapt. The continents are now Tibetan plateaus above steamy new Deeps, ruled by giant parrots, ravens and otters... |
SIX DREAMS: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a very busy night! |
1: A flooded bathroom becomes 2: a glass water-piano; 3: my friend strips in a restaurant, so 4: they serve me gutted dog. 5: Dolls teach prostitution, as 6: a rhino rubs up to an elephant-bear... |
THE SOLE FISHER OF THE EIGHTH NODE: by Wayan; 1986/9/25, a prescriptive dream. |
The pier jutting into the sea of dreams has an 8th chakra at the end, where a lonely woman fishes for, um, sole... |
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 |
THE STONE THE BUILDER REJECTED: by Wayan; 1998/10/3; plaster sculpture ca. 9" across. |
I love curves, not the chunky forms of this machine-ruled world... |
STORM OF HUGE RAINDROPS: by Albrecht Dürer; 1525/5/30, watercolor of a size-nightmare |
The first drop struck about four miles away, with terrific force and thunder, breaking and drowning the land... |
SULFUR GROTTO: by Wayan; dreamed 1988/8/30, a psychic genderbent rescue-dream |
I'm a teenage girl diving for treasure. In an eerie coral grotto reeking of sulfur, I spot a diver in trouble... and wake to find the grotto is real.. |
SURF THE SAN ANDREAS: by Wayan; 2008/8/21, 3 short dreampoems, Dreamverse #11 |
Through twin gates of dream--not ivory and horn any more, but fear and trust... Three castles on the sea: a Mock Kremlin, a Ship of Toiletpaper, and a Ship of Brick and Beer... A mad old surfer of the San Andreas Fault, impossibly riding earth-change... |
SUTRO RUINS: by Wayan; 1996/8/28, pencil sketch of waking landscape, not a dream. |
The ruins of the Sutro Baths in San Francisco were the setting for an otherworldly dream... |
SWIMMER: by Wayan; 1992/4/15, a digital sketch of a daydream. |
Swimming down among the tentacles didn't bother me. I wanted that ball. But I didn't see the BIG eye... |
SWIMMER IN BLUE: by Wayan; 1984/4/26 drawing of recurring dream image. |
I have recurring dreams of figures broken up by hair the color of the background... CAUTION: MILD NUDITY |
SWIMMING CATS: by Starvibes, 2012/1/20, a mysterious dream image |
Tracking two cats at night, I watch amazed as they dive in and swim gracefully across a swimming pool... |
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 |
THE THING ABOUT DREAMS: by Julia Wertz, a dream autobiography, 1980-2010 |
As a kid, my nightmares were of Sesame Street characters. In my teens I graduated to slasher nightmares and recurring lucid dreams. Alcohol trashed my dreams for years, but now they're not nightmares--just surreal. Hitler wrecks my sex life! What a spoilsport... CAUTION: (MOSTLY FRUSTRATED) SEX |
TITANIC IMAGE: by Graham Greene; 1912/4/14?, a child's nightmare as the Titanic sank |
One image has remained with me for more than sixty years: a man in oilskins bent double under the blow of a great wave... |
TO SAVE HUMANITY: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a spit-swappin' dream |
Worldwide drought. I have a mutation making me produce lots of saliva, so to keep people alive, I drool into their open mouths. Gross, but it's take my drool or die... CAUTION: UGH |
THE TOOTH: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal), 2003?, an epic, oracular, baffling dream |
Psychics give me an incomprehensible reading. A book from the tree-library gives only Victorian dating advice. At last a madman gives me a treasure-box holding a tooth that unfolds into slices carved in unreadable symbols... |
TRISKELION: by Kristopher Saknussemm, c.1986, a surreal false-waking dream |
Only up close do I see that the map of these mysterious continents is made of moths. I wake in Polynesia. By the bed, in a jar, floats one of my hands. For no reason, I begin to cry... |
TSUNAMI PERSEVERANCE: by Wayan, 2020/1/7, one of twin warning dreams |
We flee a tsunami. Inland. Up a hill. Onto a roof. One by one, the flood plucks us away. Long past hope, I climb a flagpole. As I cling to the very top and the mud rises to my lips... CAUTION: GRIM PREDICTION |
UNDER: by John Collings Squire, c.1917; a surreal dream-poem |
She tells me there's a stream under the floor, upstairs. Peel back the carpet, pry up the boards. An icy creek. Trout. She brings me a fishing rod. But the fish say they're too young to die. I feel such guilt and grief... |
VAMPIRE LOVE: by Sarah Binkley; 2013/9/6, a near-drowning sex dream |
I volunteered to meet him underground. He held me underwater and slammed into me. I nearly drowned, yet... CAUTION: ROUGH SEX |
WALL TO WALL WATER: by Larry Vigon; 2003/3/18; a surreal, beautiful dreamlet |
The home we were to stay in was on fire. The next had a living room that was shallow water, wall to wall, where turquoise fish swam... |
WAR IN THE RING: by Bruno Oliveira; May 2011, a happy nightmare |
War, monsters, plague and bombs are just thrills spicing up this city rising from a tropical sea on an alien world... |
WATER BOOKS: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years |
In a Tibetan monastery on an ancient lakebed, I swim through a vast sunken library. Books open like sea anemones, letters float to the surface like kelp... |
WAX WALL, PUMA COMA: by Wayan; 2022/8/8, 3 surreal genderbent time-bent dreams |
I'm a demon girl out to sabotage a pirate radio station by climbing a tall wall of glowing wax, carrying a comatose mountain lioness on my back! |
THE WEED: by Elizabeth Bishop; before 1946, a dream-poem on death/rebirth |
I was dead. A weed grew from my heart; then two streams poured out--not water or blood but experiences. I asked the weed what it was doing, and it said... |
THE WELL: by Denise Levertov; 1960?; a dream-poem |
I meet my own muse--the muse of all of us, perhaps--scooping water from a sacred well... |
WERTZ!: by Wayan; 2023/10/14, a night of cartoonist-inspired dreams |
After seeing Julia Wertz's cartoon history of her entire dreamlife (on one big page!) I dream Wertz style all night! I don't mind the nightmares--what gets me down is comics' black & white... CAUTION: NIGHTMARES, SEX |
THE WHITE SUBMARINE: by Wayan; 1974/7/6, a dream of love and flood. |
My girlfriend and I ride out the Great Flood in the White Submarine, but there are romantic complications. Some things never change... |
WHY ME?: by Karen Smith; 1991/7/22; nested flying/oracular/tragic dreams |
I flew joyfully over Sun Valley. But when I landed, I wore a uniform. As I slept in our barracks, I dreamed--within my dream--of finding two friends in the lake, tangled in a net, long dead. I "woke" and told a friend my dream. She said in tears "I know someone has to die, but why me? |
XANTHUS: by a client of Artemidorus, c.150 CE, a prodromal dreamlet |
A man dreamed he was the River Xanthus at Troy. I interpreted it to mean he'd bleed for years, but not die of it... |
"YOU'LL GROW OUT OF THAT": by Graham Donaldson, spring 1924, a rescue dream |
Wading a river at night, I fall in. I'm drowning! But my friend Edward pulls me out. "But Eddie, you're dead!" "No" he says. "You'll grow out of that!"... |
ZEBRA RUN AND FLOW: by Alan Underwood, 2012/6/12, a scenic dreamlet |
Zebra emerge from the lake. They glide as if swimming, and the air has an odd shimmer; did they bring the depths along? They seem to be having great fun ducking branches and vaulting brambles. Such agility and grace! |
World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites