Explorations in Cluespace

This is an evolving collection of dreams. I'm not yet sure how much weight to lend to dreams. Are they just the brain's attempt to make sense of random neural static? Are they jets of unconscious desire and fear, spouting from the fissure of sleep? Or is a dream a contact with a territory, lost and unfamiliar, but nonetheless real? Biological necessity, or emergent fluff?

My assessment is that dreams are a significant piece of life's mystery, and I think Science took a bold step forward when psychotherapy tackled dreams. But I'm wary of, say, locating every feature of a dream in the private neuroses of the dreamer. I think that the dream world is a region of profound commonality between humans, by virtue of which we can understand our connection to one another. If in sleep we enter into the same mystery, then how alien can you be from me?

There are different kinds of dreams. Some are brief, powerful, laden with significance. Others are absurdly mundane. Most swing between the two extremes. But they always have an essence, an Otherness, which (in retrospect) seems to set them apart from our waking experiences. In a society which fetishizes the Cartesian grid, which funnels the Ecstatic into DEA-approved experiences like football and Sunday mass, I would argue this: The dream is the last stronghold of the transcendant. As such, it points to something intrinsically human. The dream is dismissed by reductionist science; attempts to invoke the dreamstate without sleep are punished ferociously by the power elite -- and yet we all dream. This other world is part of our birthright, and I encourage everyone to explore it.

Dreams are organized by date, starting with the most recent. I've given them cute, pithy titles for effect. Please note that many links from within dream transcriptions lead out of the Abrupt site. Thanks for visiting.

* Indicates submission by a 'Guest Dreamer.' Do YOU have a dream you think belongs here? I'm willing to handle the HTML, including all hyperlinks, and will keep you anonymous if you so request. Contact me if you are interested or have questions.

Some Dream Links:
Plasma Dream at the excellent site of Mark Thornally.