I'm in an airporty lounge in what looks like an orbital hotel or space station. A man debarks from the Earth shuttle, with his three kids: a son age 12, daughter age 10, son age 7. I know the guy, he's a Russian surfer. Divorced or widowed--just him and his kids. They've been helping him on his surfing quest, by creating something that sent him to... I forget. But it was truly useful, and in exchange, he brought them along, as he hasn't in the past, on his other quests. They gleefully put on swimsuits and head for the beaches of... where? We're in space, aren't we?

A ring-pool, spinning--not out at the rim where centrifugal force would tear the station apart (water is heavy under Earth gravity), but in toward the docking hub where it gets just a fifth or a sixth of a gee (like Luna). A turquoise band with high, slow waves, but not floating midair. Only the kids do that, when they cannonball.

Strange. This station makes me incredibly horny. I start condemning myself for getting excited over a ten-year-old girl in a swimsuit. Then I realize it's purely physiological: I'm dreaming, and in REM state, all dreamers get penile or clitoral erections. Test this by wandering round the station...

Wait? Who am I? Suddenly I suspect I'm the Russian dad... If so, maybe my erection does mean something: is the dream warning that this guy wants to molest his daughter? Is she being abused? But why tell me this way? In fact, why me at all? Even if it's true I can't do a thing to protect her. Besides, if he's molesting her, why's she relaxed and happy around him? In fact, I talked to her a bit when they arrived, and she said "Yeah, I worked hard to persuade Dad to bring us kids along into space!" The dream's whole tone is happy. I'm totally confused...

Suddenly our surroundings shift. I'm still with the Russian surfer and his kids, but we're on Earth, near my parents' house near San Francisco. Houses peek out through trees on receding layers of wooded hillslopes, one a hundred yards off, then half a mile, two miles, five, and across the Bay. No, not the bay. It's a long freshwater lake, with heavily wooded slopes up to rocky fells all round. Farms on the shore. Looks like the Lake Country in Britain--Coniston Water or Lake Windermere. We walk along the shore...

A troop of high school girls walks by in pleated wool skirts and socks. Not Russian. Extremely British!

I think "So I really have two bodies--waking and dream. Sexual states are no guide to whether I'm dreaming, or even whether I'm attracted to anyone. Someone else controls that. Someone whimsical. Someone... weird."

And I wake.

WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?

When in REM (Rapid Eye Movement, the most active dream-state), all dreamers, young old male female, show strong arousal of brain, genitals, heart, nearly everything but the long muscles, which stay paralyzed (usually! If they don't, you sleepwalk). This apparent sexual arousal of the REM state doesn't necessarily spill over to the dream (or EVERY dream would be a sex dream, and despite Freud, plenty are not.) Dream sex usually does cause orgasm in the physical body too, but even that isn't always true--see A Dry Dream. Your dream can tinker with these body-mind links--if it wants to bother.

But what motivates a dream to do that--turn desire on and off like a switch? What point were my dreams making here, knowing I might well put publish it online? Maybe just... to show readers that dreams can do this? I'm still not certain, but it's the best explanation I have. So don't assume weird sexual feelings in dreams are literal--sex may just be a way for your dreams to get your attention--make some other point.

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