Arcadian Dreams

The Life of an Independent Filmmaker

Archive for category Dream Journal

San Francisco high rise

Jan 28

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I dreamt that I was in San Francisco visiting Steve, Chris, & Cori. They lived in a tall building that was made entirely of thin metal bars. Even though their apartment was fully furnished, I had to walk carefully to avoid falling through the floor.

Steve proudly showed me a large white wall and suggested that I show a movie on it. I told him I didn’t have any DVDs on me, so I left to find one. I dropped through a gap in the floor and began swinging like a monkey through the metal bars of the building. Soon I came to a part of the building which was tangled with wires and cables. I could sense the electronic signals coursing through the wires and realized that somebody was streaming Bloodwood to a large satellite dish. I didn’t want to interrupt the signal, but I hacked into it and added a message suggesting that anyone who enjoyed the movie should consider paying something for it.

Looks like I’ve got some subconscious fears about my movie being pirated.

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gemstones and gangsters

Dec 7

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I dreamt that I was walking along a sandy cliff. I saw something glistening in the sun and dug into the sand to pull it out. It was a large green gemstone that was already cut and polished. I reached into the cliff again, pulling out more precious gems. I wondered where I could sell them and suddenly I was in a dark room sitting at a large table.

Stereotypical gangsters were across the table from me. I considered offering to sell the gems but wasn’t sure if I could trust the shady looking men. The lead gangster offered me a drink.

The gangsters pulled a man onto the table and put his head in a vice. The man struggled and screamed as they crushed his head, squeezing out pulpy orange juice. The gangsters offered me a bowl, but I told them I didn’t want to drink orange juice that came from some guy’s head. The lead gangster thought that was pretty funny and told me I was allowed to leave.

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highways to nowhere

Nov 8

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Another recurring location in my dreams is a futuristic city where raised highways twist and turn around each other, hundreds of feet above the tops of buildings. Usually I’m driving on these highways looking for a way to exit, but they all lead nowhere.

In the latest dream, I was walking on the edge of the elevated highway. As usual, there was no exit. So I jumped off the highway down to a house on a mountain top. The house was sprawling and very modern. I joined a group of people waiting outside the house. Someone announced that it had belonged to someone named Tom Thompson but that he had disappeared.

I went into the house and walked from room to room. For a moment, I was lost in the realism and forgot that I was dreaming. Every object looked and felt real, and I thought that this was my new home. I regained lucidity when I heard a man and woman in the next room. I knew the man was Tom Thompson and thought he wouldn’t be happy to find a stranger in his house. I moved from room to room, just ahead of Tom and the woman, trying to catch a glimpse of them through doorways.

Suddenly the house began to shake. I looked out the window to find that the house was sliding down the mountain. I jumped to the roof and rode the house down the slope like a giant surfboard until I woke.

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my daughter Claire

Oct 26

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I dreamed that I was reading a book about something very technical. Every time I started to understand it, the words would switch around and I would have to reread the page. A young girl was nearby, saying “Hey Dad” over and over. As I grew more frustrated by the changing book and the girl’s attempts to get my attention, I started saying “Hey Claire” every time she said “Hey Dad”.

Claire stopped talking. When I put the book down and looked around, she was gone. I was ashamed for not paying attention to her, so I called her name as I walked across an arid plain. Claire’s small footprints led me to a cave. Inside there was only a tight vertical chute filled with dust. I squeezed / crawled up the dusty chimney and out a storm drain on a city street.

The steet was empty at first, but as I called for Claire crowds of people swarmed all around me talking loudly. The people grew tall and thin like human trees, packed tightly together. I couldn’t see past the people trees, so I climbed them and jumped from head to head looking for Claire.

I heard Claire’s laughter nearby but still couldn’t see her.  The people trees below me said “she’s not your daughter,” and the dream ended.

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You May Say I’m a Dreamer

Oct 22

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Since I was a child, I’ve been fixated by dreams. In the darker times sleep was a place to escape the mundane world for one with limitless potential. Dreams were more than just subconscious imagery. They were portals to another reality.

Today I’m much more comfortable with who I am and the world around me. Still, dreams remain a place to explore my thought process and do things beyond my mortal means. That’s because I’m a lucid dreamer. In nearly all of the dreams, I am aware that I’m dreaming and have a large degree of control. I almost always start as an observer of the action, then when things get really weird (as they usually do) I’ll use superhuman abilities to escape, change, or destroy everything around me. It’s definitely a mental power trip… kind of like playing a video game on “God mode”.

A lot of recent dreams have a continuity, haunted by recurring characters and locations. All of this has gotten me thinking about a new story idea. What if there were people who could not only change the reality of their own dreams but also have the power to change the “real world” through dreams? Quantum physics already suggests that our perceptions affect our reality. Before I do any development on this idea, I’ll have to rewatch “Dreamscape”, “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, and “The Matrix” to be sure I’m not subconsciously recycling what’s already been done.

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low flying aircraft

Oct 15

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I was in the old barn on our property in Kentucky, looking for somebody. There was a loud mechanical roar outside, and I went out to see a large 747 type airplane flying overhead.

Suddenly I was in the plane’s cabin. There was no pilot or crew, so I sat down in the pilot’s seat. The passengers behind me were yelling to be let off the plane, and I tried to explain that I didn’t know how to land it. I flew the plane at an extremely low altitude above a wide city street, almost scraping the cars below.

The passengers started jumping out of the plane as I flew it beneath power lines and overpasses. The street was now empty of cars and the plane became an extension of my body. As soon as all the passengers were gone, I transformed my metallic plane body into a soft, shining form. I couldn’t see myself, but it felt like I was a golden bat. I flew away from the city towards an ocean.

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monkey on a roller coaster

Oct 8

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I’ve had recurring dreams about an amusement park that is under construction. In the latest dream, I was with a group of people packed inside a large spherical cage. When I asked what they were doing, one said that they were hiding from the monkey outside.

I left the cage and began climbing a half-built roller coaster. Above me, a hairless gray-skinned monkey was jumping around and throwing pieces of metal. I chased the monkey across the beams but couldn’t reach it.

The large cage full of people was suddenly on the roller coaster track, rolling towards me. I jumped to safety on another part of the track but saw that the cage was speeding towards an unfinished part of the ride. I jumped onto the cage and pulled it sideways off the track. We fell onto a lower part of the track and rolled to a stop. The people inside the cage were screaming. I told them to be quiet, then realized their skin was turning gray.

The people changed into gray-skinned monkeys and began shaking the cage from the inside.  I climbed up the skeletal roller coaster as water flooded the cage and the monkey people drowned.

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