Dreams

For a few months during high school, I was fascinated by the idea of lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming, as far as I understand it, is just like regular dreaming - except you have complete control over the dream, and can remember it better than the average dream (mainly because you're at least somewhat conscious while it's taking place).

I never had much success actually having a lucid dream, but there is one lasting legacy of this period - when I wake up, I instinctively keep my eyes shut. I'm told that as soon as you open your eyes, you lose the dream, so I somehow managed to train myself not to open my eyes upon waking up.

This quirk combined with something else (the food I ate? having a lot on my mind? atmospheric conditions?) last night, and if I didn't have a lucid dream, it was at least the closest I've ever come.

I'm going to try and describe the dream as best as I can remember it. If you're an armchair psychiatrist, good luck trying to figure it out. Otherwise, feel free to read it out of interest anyhow.

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It started off in a campground. I was with some other people (I knew them in the dream, but don't think they're anyone I know in real life), and we were looking for the people we were camping with (whom I do know in real life). The campsite we were looking for was number 24601 (I've never seen Les Miserables, but I know of the significance of this number to that play). We walked around for a few minutes trying to find it, and then I spied a sign saying that campsites between two numbers (23000 and I don't remember but greater than 24601) were up the staircase, along with number 9xxx (forget the last three digits).

Yes, there was a staircase in the campground. Going up the staircase led to, in defiance of all laws of physics, more campground. Not another level of campground, just more of it.

We went up the staircase, and at this point the group of people I had been with were somehow replaced by a group of people I do know in real life - some friends and some people I haven't seen in years. It wasn't a change in the plot or anything, it was just that some of the characters changed.

Then I can't recall what happened next - either I don't remember it, or the dream just cut straight to this next scene. I should also note that at this point, the group of people I was originally looking for seemingly ceased to be a concern - when I gained conscious control of the dream, it was still in the back of my mind that I hadn't found them yet, but it didn't seem that important anymore.

So the next thing I know, I'm in a sort of community centre-type building (still in the campground), along with the group that had been following me and a bunch of other people who don't exist in real life.

Everyone already in the building is sitting in a circle (with gaps), and I decide for some reason to ditch the group I was with in favour of taking a single spot next to a few people who look a little uncomfortable. It was also the closest seat available.

Then, and this has NEVER happened to me in a dream before, I start talking to these people. I have never had a dream where fictional characters were even given a face, much less a speaking role or a personality.

I don't know how many of these people I talked to, but I only remember two. There was a quiet black kid, fifteen years old, who was wearing headphones and telling me something about his flight in (he was worried about some electronic device?). Then, and sitting next to me, was a girl with an Australian accent. This is especially weird - I don't remember ever having any sort of accent in a dream before.

All of a sudden, there was a TV at one end of the circle, and everyone else seemed to be paying attention to it. I wasn't that interested, and my mind was focused on a red banner hanging from the ceiling above the TV. I assume the banner was an advertisement for Maclean's magazine, because it contained a picture of Scott Feschuk (easily the strangest single thing I've seen in a dream).

(Actually, reading that last paragraph over, it's giving me an eerie 1984 vibe. Aside from the picture of Scott Feschuk, of course.)

Then the Australian girl turns to me and says something about "I hate that, don't you?" Forgetting that there was a television on, I assumed she was talking about Scott Feschuk, and was about to defend the guy, until I guess my brain clued in, and I just said nothing as she continued on rambling about whatever was on the screen.

At this point, I lost the lucidity, and I'm not quite sure what happened next, but the last thing I remember was trying to push something that just wouldn't budge. I woke up and discovered that I was digging my shoulder into my mattress.

So, yeah, weird dream. Second-weirdest I've ever had.

--Ryan