Dream Journal
September 17, 2010
I’m walking around this familiar small town neighborhood with Rebecca. We’ve been there many times before. Some of the houses remind me of Austin. We begin talking about the real characters The Office is based on. We were looking at pictures of them, as if on an iPad in front of us. I only remember that we’re walking down the sidewalk, then standing and looking at a web site with pictures and text about them. The real people The Office is based on are only faintly similar to the ones on TV. The real Toby is a doughy gay fellow that doesn’t seem to realize that he’s gay. The real Phyllis is only a very rough match to the character on TV.
Then there’s a transition to the girl who Pam is based on, though she was blonde and looked totally different. This becomes a story about her — she’s the main character. I inhabit her at most times but am sometimes outside watching. She was given a quest to seek out several people scattered all over. I forget the common element, but she was to go talk to them.
We arrive at the first house. By “we” I mean this real-life Pam and myself as inhabiter/observer. It’s a farm house in a big field of short green grass with some beautiful trees. A little ways off is a college, reminiscent of SSU in its rural setting. It’s nicely manicured and has huge, beautiful trees. Pam goes to the front door and knocks. A motherly woman answers and I jump out of Pam to watch 3rd person. Pam bursts out awkwardly something like “Hi, could I talk to your son hot manly chest.” She seemed to get excited and lose control at the “hot manly chest” part. There’s this moment of embarrassment, and then she goes inside and I inhabit her again. She goes upstairs and enters this huge unfinished room and the guy we’re looking for is there. She starts talking about the defects of the room, how wooden beams are rotten in areas, or worn. The guy says that it’s probably related to the restaurant upstairs and she’s so charmed that there is a restaurant up there. We/they start talking, and walk outside onto the lawn.
I feel I take over the character more at this point, and it’s me talking. I tell him how lucky he is to be living in such a beautiful place with so much sky, grass, trees, and open space. It’s been stormy evening light so far and now a fierce wind whips up and dark clouds approach. There’s a bright flash and he says to watch out for the lightning. The lightning happens in little bursts about a foot tall and a foot wide in different locations at the base of the house.
References: The Office is a TV series. SSU is a college I went to. The Austin I'm referring to is a small town in southern Minnesota.
Inhabitation: This is an exceptionally clear example of character inhabitation. The iPad was a rationalization of a rote of information about the real characters from The Office. I enter a story about the real-life Pam. I was very aware of jumping in and out of her perspective at different points. When I was watching her, it was her that was speaking — the delight with the restaurant was hers, not mine. As was the “hot manly chest” bit. When I was inhabiting her, I at times just observed, and at others controlled the action. On the lawn I took over completely and talked straight from my perspective about how lucky he was to live there.
The Friend: Sometimes the “we” that I refer to is myself and the character I’m inhabiting in a rote. I feel the main character that I relate to enough that I inhabit them to be the “friend” that I’m often with.
iPad Rationalization: The simple act of wondering something brings about the information I seek. It comes in a familiar form — web sites on an iPad. I don’t recall specifically seeing an iPad, but the information was before me, in my head, at about the size an iPad would be. Interestingly, this is a rationalization of simple knowing. I wanted to know more about something, and it just came to me, as simply as looking something up on the web.
Web Gateway: We were standing there on the street looking at Pam’s picture and information when I went into her story. The web site is the gateway to the rote. In this case, the text seemed to draw me in — the story.
Jolt from Jumping Out: It felt like the act of me jumping out of Pam caused her to lose control and say the “hot manly chest” bit. As if my departure jolted or confused her momentarily.
Why did I jump out in the first place? My anxiety at talking to his mom? Hers? Did I feel like she was about to blurt out something awkward?
Little Lightning: Lightning, being a light phenomena, runs up against the “rapid changes of light” limitation in the astral. So to compensate, I dream of tiny lightnings.