Dream Journal
July 11, 2004
I was living through a grander and brighter retelling of The Return of the King. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas were traveling on oliphaunts on this green grassy hilly land. There was a scene of each coming at the camera, in a style like comics but vivid, well-defined, and realistic. Then the camera spun around 180 degrees to a shot of a dark land with a stone monolith, lit by gray moonlight, the grasses making everything look hairy. A threatening landscape. Then back to our heroes, charging towards this dark land. They’re mounting a hill and crossing a membrane — a cave through a mountain pass. The word “membrane” just popped into my head — a nonphysical boundary which will take physical form appropriate to the situation. As they exit the cave tunnel, they enter the land of the stone monolith, but in daylight. The camera scrolls forward to show the monolith, and Sauron’s army gathered in all directions around it. They see the arrival of Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas and send their greatest beasts and monsters at them. The three turn, ride to the right, and flee through a different membrane into a new area — a sudden wall of mountains rises up with a cave tunnel leading into another area. The three led a train of riderless oliphaunts which were killed by the monsters pursuing them. “They will think we were killed as well,” one of them says.
They emerge into a large circular area, walled by mountains. There are openings between the membrane walls of different areas, here represented by short cave tunnels. Now this new area was very sunny and bright (I don’t remember seeing a sun, though) with long green grass and healthy trees. We heard sounds from the cave tunnel and realized that we were being followed. Legolas shot arrows into some orcs as they exited the cave. At the thought of shooting arrows into whoever came out, I wondered “what if a friend is coming through?” Then we heard a familiar voice. Legolas went in. In my mind the story was filled out — a merchant friend or forest elf had used the chaos to escape the army and was running for us. But then the tunnel erupted in flame. We realized it was a green dragon. Legolas made it out but we never heard from the “friend” again. Another note: I am saying “we” because I was at times a third person observer of the three heroes, and at times had jumped into Aragorn and become that character.
The dragon flew over the mountain ridge/membrane and was this swirling, looping shape in the sky. I stared at it, mesmerized. Then details fade, but the dragon dove down and attacked with flame and claw as we darted across this new area. We came to a bizarre twisted throne made of bone, painted in reds and blues. I must have imagined it belonged to a wizard because then there was one — an obvious thought form that just sat there, glassy-eyed, and only spoke when I expected it to, providing nothing new or unexpected.
Anyways, at this point a strange transformation began to come over the dream. The bright tree-filled grassy mountaintop area began a slow transformation to a room in an unfamiliar house which I later thought of as my own. This of course led to all sorts of inconsistencies in size. The first change was that there was a ceiling, a white ceiling which in the mountaintop was a layer of clouds. The dragon was above it, and would swoop down through it from time to time to attack. I was fully inhabiting Aragorn now. We stayed near the throne of bone. There was a couple of barrels full of swords and other things. Legolas had been shooting arrows at the dragon to no avail. We demanded that the wizard tell us how to defeat it, but no response came. The wizard had a long black plastic-looking staff with a white band and white end. We took it. Legolas used it, and sent a purple stream into the clouds. Just before the clouds, it hit a previously invisible grid (the ceiling) and lit up a purple area. We realized that if the dragon were above it, we could see it light up in orange and yellow instead of purple. Also, the closer we were to the clouds, the larger an area we’d light up. I took some swords, which were solid unadorned metal, like this pewter sword I have which is about 2 inches long. The hilt was continuous with the blade. Now Legolas would scan the clouds/ceiling with the staff and when we saw the orange/yellow of the dragon, I’d hurtle a sword, spinning, into the ceiling. It always pierced and stuck. Now some size issues: we were slowly becoming the size of the giant throne. When the mountaintop finished becoming a room, we were the size of people in a room. From that perspective, the dragon was now a weasel-sized thing above the ceiling.
So after a time I had hit the dragon with two two-inch pewter swords. And then it disappeared and we got really nervous. Our surroundings had transformed completely into a room now, but at this point was like a room in a dungeon. It had cinder-block walls and was lit by torch light. I discovered a doorway and went in to investigate. There was no door — just a passage to another area, which I thought of as none of my concern. The rules had it that the dragon could not be in another membrane area. My dream self just knew that. So I turned around and saw a silhouette of the dragon head descend slowly from above the door frame! A perfectly chilling scene. I darted out, left 1st person Aragorn in time to see a spear-like tongue from the dragon spear him in the foot, then the thigh. He cried out in pain. I thought of him grabbing the tongue and slicing through it but he didn’t. Then I was him again, but in my present position and I hurled a sword into the alcove where I could see the silhouette of the coils of the dragon. But I missed. So I thought that sucked so I tried to rewind the scene. I threw another sword. Missed again. It clattered against the alcove ceiling.
So then we went back to hunting in the ceiling. The light changes to natural light. The ceiling turns white. It appears like a room in a house again, rather than a room in a dungeon. And this time when the purple beam finds the dragon, my sword definitely connects and blood pools around it. I fire four more swords into the great beast, and think it dead for sure. Now, imagining the size that the green dragon would have relative to a room in a house, I run into a newly-appeared hallway to escape the collapse of the house. I run to the office and grab the digital camera so I can film the collapse, and possibly the dragon taking off from the rubble. Running back to the bedroom I see Joshua (a transformation of Legolas?) waiting there with a camera. The ceiling cracks and what looks like a swimming pool in white crashes to the floor. No more of the house collapses. The pool is full of water, and within it is the dragon. It is asparagus green and has two heads! It’s maybe 6-8 feet long, not counting necks or tail.
Now here’s what I realized afterwards — the dragon battle had some VERY similar elements to the last REAL battle I had, which was a water fight with Jared. I was under the porch, while he was above. I had a hose and from time to time could see where he was and I would spray up through the boards to get him. The most frightening part was when I couldn’t tell where he was anymore and he had snuck around the side and doused me!
This dream borrowed its shape from that experience!
References: Sauron, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are from Lord of the Rings. Oliphaunts are giant war elephants from the same.
Cinematography: The third person perspective took on dramatic cinematography here, soaring above the characters, taking dramatic turns to reveal the scenes. This is, of course, my own perspective as I soar about.
Imagination and Thought Forms: My wondering creates a subdream in which the imagined scene plays out.
The glassy-eyed wizard seems to appear simply due my association with the throne of bone.
Inhabitation: Here I jump in and out of Aragorn, the character I most empathize with. Note that once I’m out of him, he doesn’t follow my desired actions.
In the last scene, I become Aragorn standing where I am, rather than inhabiting jump into his existing injured body. I simply feel I am him, take his shape, and continue the action.
The Dragon: If you look at the picture, the dragon at first looks very little like a dragon. It’s almost like a kite, or wings, floating and spinning on the wind. How odd..
Overlaid on the Physical: We begin with the shape of rooms, except it’s outdoors. Instead of walls, each room is surrounded by tall mountains, and the doors are caves in the mountains leading to the next open area (room).
As we become settled in a specific area, we see three transformations — first from the mountaintop to a room in my house, then quickly to a dungeon room, then back to my house. The first is the biggest and most revealing, as it has an enormous size and context change. The clouds became the ceiling, the mountains became the walls, and we gradually grew in size. The dragon remained the same size, making it the size of a weasel relative to us, and the swords also remained the same relative size to the dragon, making them take on the size and shape of the closest thing in my mind — the 2 inch pewter sword I kept on my desk as a kid.
The change to the dungeon scene included a rare change in lighting, as it was lit by torches and not daylight. Once this scene was over, it returned to the room in my house as before. After killing the dragon, I need an escape route, so I run out of the doorway of the bedroom to the office down the hall from the bedroom, grab a camera, and then I follow the hallway back to my bedroom, where the final scene plays out.
This whole thing was set in my bedroom, with changing set decorations and size perspective. The “membranes” were the walls of the room.
The initial scene change from the mountains to the room is the kind of slow environmental transition that happens in “Double Context”.
The Glowing Grid Structure: I wonder if this is the grid-like structure of the depth field. It revealed that the ceiling was there, even though it wasn’t visible.
Inspired by Life: It appears that the idea of an attacking an enemy above from below was similar enough to the water fight I had just had to draw that experience into the dream and transform the scene and plot to something more like it, because that’s right when the transformation to a room in a house began. The staff and the lit-up area was very similar to a hose and water-splash area. So was the chilling scene where I lost Jared and was ambushed.
So what does this say? This was purely a fantasy dream to begin with, and when it got close to events that had emotional impact (engaging challenge and fun) in waking life, it partially changed course and form to follow that path.
Jumping Out: I leap out of Aragorn when he’s in danger to avoid the pain.
Changes of Light: Much of this dream is projected onto the rooms in my house, which at the time of the dream has bright, sunny light.
In the beginning, I’m projecting out a story based on The Lord of the Rings. I project a dark land ahead of me, but when I pass through the membrane into that room, I bring the daylight of the scene with my allies into that once-dark scene. Then when we flee, we cross another membrane into an mountain scene with full sun. The mountain scene slowly changes into the physical reality of our sunny bedroom, and then I begin to project a darker scene onto it — a dimly-lit dungeon room. After that scene plays out, the projection fades, returning me to the sunny bedroom.
We can project dark scenes in light places.