D R E A M S

Synthesizing the plot from the latest Ultimate Nightmare by Warren Ellis as well as the plot from one of the recent West Wings and keeping the recent theme of flight, my brain made a pretty cool dream last night. Unfortunately, I don't remember most of the details.

I remember the basic plot was that there was a comet approaching earth. Not on a collision course, but coming very close. Also, this comet starts broadcasting some sort of signal as it approaches. The signal is encrypted, so that it's being received by many parties, but the parties don't know what to make of it. My team, I guess, is going into space to "get a closer look." Someone very much resembling Jean Grey from the X-Men is on the space ship with me, as well as some others.

As we get close to the comet, Jean turns around dramatically and she is silhouetted in bright white light and sixteen little glowing lights appear in front of her forehead and she begins decrypting the signal. It says something about being careful in the next days to detect for a specific kind of radiation in our atmosphere, and it gives the detailed radio-whatever kind of information. I sort of deduce that the signal is a sort of "heads up" that the comet is giving off a certain radiation, and they're being courteous so that we can I guess try and de-radiate after the comet passes.

For anyone reading Ultimate Nightmare the correlations are pretty obvious.

As for West Wing, I think it ties in because the episode I watched last night on Tivo was about this guy who works for a chemical manufacturer who wants to blow the whistle on some intentional polluting the company is doing. It's almost as if there is someone in the comet who is trying to warn people how bad the radiation from the comet is or something.

Also, I don't remember exactly why, now, but I got the distinct impression all through the dream that something ELSE was going to happen at the end, but there was like this plot twist, which seemed very Ellis-like, to me, during the dream. While I was not conscious of dreaming, I was conscious of being in a sort of space that was written or something. I mean, it's pretty interesting to me that my dream self was able to recognize plot elements unfolding, but didn't make the connection to being in a dream. Weird.

Either way, I feel like this is a step in a good direction toward being conscious in the unconscious realm.

What do you think?

Brian posted at 11:59 AM.

Part 1 - Flying Through the Castle

I've been having dreams lately where I can fly. Particularly, I can fly by flapping my arms. I have the distinct sensation of force and power underneath my hands and the lengths of my arms that I would hope is what it would be like to really fly under one's own power. Exhilarating.
It starts with jumping. I'm a jumper in my waking life. I often jump the last couple of stairs or down long flights or at the fronts of museums or other public buildings, where the steps have deeper dimensions, I'll often jump 6 or 8 at a time, carefully positioning my feet on two consecutive steps, knowing full well that a misplaced one may mean a fracture, break or twist. It's that near-flight that's always enticed me.
In this dream, the flying starts with this kind of jumping. I am in a HUGE castle, perhaps a guest, perhaps a resident. There are other people staying here as well. When I do learn how to fly, I hide it from these others. There's some sense of plot happening, but I have no waking memory of it.
Soon I am flying in the open countryside above trees that are changing color with autumnal decay. It's breathtakingly beautiful. The landscape is unnaturally adorned with giant lotus flowers in places, but other than that, it seems relatively normal, though again, spectacularly beautiful. The day is overcast when I fly over the countryside, with a low-laying fog that almost makes the foliage seem to rise out of clouds in places, adding to the surrealism.
Soon, I am back in the castle. It is dark. I am roaming the staircases, doing my leaps, but giving a flap to increase my distance or soften my landings. I am also jumping onto the railings and sliding down like a skateboarder or in-line skater doing handrails. It's thrilling, but I'm giving myself away with my bravado and I sense people wondering.

Part 2 - Discussion in the Club Car

I'm pretty sure we're on a train. I'm with a few friends, younger than me, a mix of genders, who resemble no one in my waking life. Our conversation is serious and intellectual, but I think we're talking about shopping or something. The conductor of the train comes by and gives us left-over box lunches. Seemingly, they were for people who were all on diets, because we gorge ourselves on chocolate chip cookies, Kit Kat bars, and some other sort of cookie that I think my brain made up. We continue our conversation for a while, but for some reason, as on schedule, we realize we need to go to the roof of the car - there's been an altercation.

Part 3 - Altercation with Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit has just gotten in a fight with a human opponent. I have no idea what the fight was about, but Roger Rabbit lost, of course. The evidence, when we arrive to view it, is a rabbit-shaped indentation in the snow, which is about 4 inches deep on the roof of the car, and a neck-tie that looks like it's been laid out in such a way that Roger fell over it. Roger's gone, as though after losing the brouhaha his body just evaporated or something, like in a video game. Our female companion seems satisfied, because she either predicted this outcome, set it up, or both.

Part 4 - Altercation with the Train Staff

We retire to our sleeping cars. They are filthy and much of the previous tenants' belongings are there still, particularly their toiletries. I call the operator and begin explaining, for example, that there is a bottle of what looks like it was that liquid "Barbicide" which apparently once held several disposable razors, but all the razors had been used up. The operator, who is male, explains that those items were left there as a courtesy to me, in case I wanted to use them. It was really quite gross, plus I was feeling bloated by all the cookies and wanted to brush my teeth.

That's about all I remember.

Brian posted at 9:23 AM.