Dream Journal
October 20, 1998
Wild! Rebecca and I were with some friends in this forest. Rebecca went on a run. I was sitting or lying down somewhere and closed my eyes. After a few moments of darkness, I could see again. The visual field was smaller than usual and kind of jittery around the edges — like the drawing — but as clear as usual.
Still using this new vision, I got up and started following Rebecca through the park. When she turned a corner, however, I found it very hard to follow her. Even though I turned my legs and body in the new direction, I continued moving in the original direction, a strange floating inertia taking me forward. Finally with a force of will I produced the desired change in direction but my journey continued with such inertial problems. She finished her route and I stopped by a tree with a strange marking that looked kind of like a face. I pulled the shirt down from my eyes and ran to Rebecca, who was more like Rox now. I explained the whole thing to her and as I did so produced a book explaining my experiences. The book was big and in full color, with pictures and explanations of what I’d experienced:
Different colored dots can form any sound, sight, or experience. The sound of a snail reveals its full form. By hearing you see what caused the sound.
Then I went to the tree and it had the face I saw on it. I pulled my shirt up over my face again and tried to repeat the experiment but it was just black for a while.
Higher Body Clairvoyance: When I was able to see again, the effect wasn’t just of returning my previous vision, but more like the tunnel vision of the near realm clairvoyance I have experienced in hypnagogia. Was it another way of seeing?
The drawing I made is similar to when I can see my visual field in psychedelic states. It was monocular in this case (a single field with tighter circles in the center), rather than binocular as it appears within the body (see drawings).
Inertial Problems: Why would this barrier to direct vision produce inertial problems? It may have moved my primary focus to seeing, leaving my attempt to follow Rebecca repeatedly returning to autopilot instead of steadily tracking her movement.
This is my only memory having problems with inertia.
A Rationalized Rote!: My explanation of everything to them produced a book — probably a rationalization of a rote containing my experiences. In fact, the book contained more than I’d remembered from the dream.
Synesthesia: Oddly, what I read in the book was not part of what I was trying to communicate to Rebecca/Roxann. Perhaps the book contained the full knowledge of my dream self.