I wish I was this creative when awake...

Dreaming...

I am on vacation at a ski resort town with my family. I have seen some images, perhaps on television, of the end of the earth, which portray incredible icy cliffs thousands of feet high that fall into an oblivion that is space. I inherently know that this is the most remote place on the earth; so much so that I have the sense that no one has ever been there and that the images have been captured by spacecrafts or satellites. The cliffs aren’t on the earth per se because in this place, the earth ends in an archipelago, as if a long and treacherous finger reaches into space composed entirely on rock and ice. Somehow, in this place, space, sky, and planet are combined into a strange and dramatic formation thousands of kilometers long, and thousands of feet high.

Aside: As I recalled this dream I remembered another in which I have an entirely new image of the planet earth on a map in front of me. Even though I was looking over this map as if it was spread in front of me, the view was more as if I was in a satellite observing the earth. In this vision, the earth is far more massive and sparsely populated – as if there are entire uncharted and unexplored continents on “the other side”. Distances are vast, and the terrain is uncharted save for what can be seen from above. I know innately that this land is far less forgiving then the earth we know.

I forgo skiing to get on a simulator that allows one to observe the end of the earth (as described above) using images that I know are taken from an unmanned drone. It’s one of these simulators where a group of people sit and the entire thing jostles on hydraulic pistons. The experience of this simulation is far more immersive and allows me to feel as if I am flying above the end of the earth. As I experience the simulation I see footprints in the snow atop the massive cliffs and I begin to wonder if the drones that send these images really are unmanned, and suddenly it become unclear weather or not I am still in a simulator or actually there. I feel the snow as I fly by which is wet, and the sky above is clear and bright.

My next memory is of being on a chair lift, which I am sitting on without restraint. I start to shift around wanting to drop the safety bar and am somehow now, hanging onto the chair with only one hand. I am not frightened but realize that this is not a good situation. As I continue to try and situate myself I realize that I am hanging on below the chairlift with one hand and that the safety bar is already down, making climbing up with skis on, insurmountably complicated. At that point the chairlift is only a couple of metres off the ground and so I decide to drop off it, rather than continue to struggle to get back on it. I do so nonchalantly trying to convey to those around me that it is what I had intended all along.

Later I dream that I am driving through what I know is Burbank, California (though it looks different than real life – almost an over-commercialized caricature of itself ) looking for a way to get to the LA airport. I know I should be looking at a map but instead am looking for street signs in heavy traffic. I am having trouble seeing signs around me and realize that it is because I am lying on the back seat of the car (in which I am alone). I see that there is a left hand turn onto the freeway coming up and I try to jump over the seats into the front. I don’t have time and can not brake, but I can reach the wheel and veer away from a car slowing in my lane. I am able to carry through the intersection but the car is not slowing and I can not get over the seats.

end