Most people would attribute being chased by a murderer or some other monstrously devilish construct a nightmare. Though it can be quite frightening to some, to me it is more of a challenge. Most of my dreams or nightmares have been lucid for the past ten years or so. If you aren’t familiar with lucid dreaming, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the concept.
A typical dream for me will include self-powered flight and travel over large distances. If ever a monster does appear, it will usually be something I inevitably find a way to vanquish. On the few occasions I cannot overcome said monster, the dream itself becomes recurring.
A recurring dream is a dream that is experienced over and over again until some sort of resolution is found. In the past, I have had a few recurring dreams, the most outstanding of which involved being part of a team of monster hunters sent to eliminate a vampire giant. This dream would fill my nights for three years. Of course, I had other dreams at that time, but Vampire Giant would inevitably return once or twice every other month. The dream itself was so vivid that it would be difficult to forget, unlike many other dreams that would be nice to recall from time to time.
Vampire Giant finally resolved itself before I graduated high school. Neither the original dream nor the resolution has reappeared in my night cycle, though both are often recalled for daytime viewing enjoyment.
Within the past year, a new nightmare has evolved. Though not recurring, it is serialized. It involves a war between the Land of Oz and Wonderland. The Red Queen is in a dispute with the Nome King, and the more disreputable forces on both side are in constant conflict with each other. Meanwhile, there is a third faction of peaceable peoples on both sides that unite in the middle, yet are so small they have to scatter themselves across the landscape, hidden from the aggressors. In this dream, siding yourself with either side is dangerous, as you are never sure who is with which side, while remaining neutral is an immediate death sentence from both sides.
My part in the dream involves trying to get my brother and me out of this joint, magical landscape, from here on out referred to as The Wonderland of Oz, or WoO for short, and back home in the real world. We take flying swan boats, mine carts on an underground railroad, and walk on foot through countless, bustling cities. All the while, we are trying to safely navigate the combustive political atmosphere that constantly surrounds us while looking for a doorway back home.
We had already escaped in a prior dream, but now, this past evening, I find myself face to face with the WoO again. Sides had shifted, allies had become enemies and enemies have become friends. The Red Queen and the Nome Queen finally realized how beneficial it would be for both of them to join forces. Thus, a new landscape of fascist classism had been developed, where the once peaceful masses were enslaved to fuel a terrible machine that kept the King and Queen in power. To use whatever memories I had of the previous WoO as a map for safe travel through the landscape would have been suicide, as the warring had only gotten worse. Before the WoO still held a portion of its beauty and luster, but now, due to the constant fighting, there was very little left but the hollowed out husks of an Emerald City, now surrounded by cold, merciless factories producing horrible, mindless machinations for use in this newly formed empire.
As mentioned before, I am not afraid of monsters chasing me. More frightening now, at this point in my life, is trying to stay afloat while swimming against the black tides of a tumultuous society. The WoO dream encapsulates that fear perfectly. Not for quite some time have I woke more chilled with fear than with this series of dreams set in the WoO.
With that said, I will end this with a Happy Halloween.
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