Dreams: By Tag: Church

Monday, June 09, 2008: Summoning

He was walking down the street of a city at night. He entered a temple. A ritual was being performed on a raised structure before many onlookers. A demon appeared and everybody fled, including him. He could feel its evil presence trying to infiltrate his mind.

This dream recurred over the last two nights.

Sunday, May 04, 2008: Masks, roads, and the chapel of everything

He stood with his wife on a pier before a vast sea. Above the sea hovered masks with different expressions. The masks wanted them to join with them. But together, they kept the masks at bay.

Later, they walked. They found themselves at crossroads going in all directions. It was night, but there was sufficient light from street lamps to see where they were going. His wife pointed and suggested a road. He turned to look at the road, and saw that it was steep, unpaved, and rough. He said that it was likely the road to take. And they began to climb the road.

They came upon a small chapel in the woods and entered. The interior was white and softly lit. They intuited that this chapel served no particular religion, denomination, path, way, world view or system of belief. A young scholarly woman served here. She stopped us from entering the next room, as a service was in progress. She let us know that if there was anything she could do for us, to let her know and she would help us.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008: The monk

I found myself inside a long hall constructed from brown stone. It reminded me of a monastery. I walked towards the other end of the hall; I was looking for somebody. I was expecting somebody. Finally, they appeared at the other end of the hall. We ran towards each other, as an enemy confronts another. When we stood face to face, I saw that he was dressed in a black clothes, he had dark brown hair, his face was shaved clean, and he wore glasses with thin metal rims. He smiled was almost a sneer. He said, “This is not for you.” I wanted this information, but I did not feel relieved.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007: Old Records, Catholic Boarding School

I was sitting on a bus with two friends, but I do not recall who they were. We each had a stack of old punk and metal records on our laps. As we flipped through the records, we reminisced aloud, mimicking the riffs and beats and lyrics we remembered.

In another dream, I was a young boy, attending a Catholic boarding school. A nun escorted me up a long winding stair to the dorms. My friend Matt also lived at the school. In his dorm, he showed me a secret drawer, hidden by two bibles, where he kept a hidden stash of girly magazines and other contraband from the nuns.

Friday, May 18, 2007: Bicycle Blues, Church Magic, Big Ape

I had a dream that I was riding a bicycle with blue tires, through a shopping mall, while wearing blue shoes.

The I had a dream that I was at a church gathering, where the preacher was performing stage magic, involving two rings and light.

Finally, I dreamed that I was sitting on the edge of my bed, playing a video game. The game involved killing apes. Suddenly, King Kong peered through my door. He smashed me with his massive fist. I felt like a boulder was dropped on top of me.

Monday, March 12, 2007: Leaping

A member of my former church, Michelle, was giving me a ride to work at night in her car. Traffic near downtown was bad, and the roads were twisted and confusing. I got out of the car and started leaping from car to car on hoods and roofs and trunks.

Friday, January 19, 2007: President Favor, Strange Ritual

An old friend of mine, Stewart, was walking with me on Hamilton Street. We were meeting with the president. Apparently, he owed Stewart a favor. A black limousine pulled up next to us at a bus stop. President Bush stepped out of the vehicle. He appeared to be very distracted, as he has urgent business elsewhere. Stewart explained that he needed his help to take revenge on somebody. The president asked why he wanted revenge. Stewart said that he couldn't remember.

In another dream, I was with a group that was infiltrating a castle at night. We subdued any guards we came upon. We found ourselves in strange chapel. Two women appeared, one dressed in brightly colored clothes, the other dressed in dark clothes. They told me to lie down on what appeared to be a hospital bed. I asked them why. A black dwarf told me to shut up and just lie down. When I looked back at the two women, they had merged into one person, half dressed in bright and dark clothing.

Sunday, December 03, 2006: Gathering, Sabotage, Flying, Restaurant

There was a gathering taking place. My friends were there; ex-church members were there, too. We were going to verbally dismantle the church. We rehearsed, but I cannot recall what we rehearsed.

Afterwards, I spoke with Will about our writing and gaming. We were pleased with our progress. We flipped through a book of pencil sketches of Lovecraftian subjects.

I drove a car into a parking lot late at night. I discovered that the other car tires had been flattened. No doubt it was church saboteurs. But my early discovery of this plot could be easily undone in time for our coup with the church.

Morning came, the sun lighting green leafy trees along a street. I saw a young black girl playing. As I walked down the street, I leaped into the air, and floated down. I repeated this several times, until I was able to stay aloft by flapping my arms. The young girl was amazed.

My wife and I got into a blue Dodge Charger. I needed to go to the bathroom, but I said that I could go at the restaurant. We drove to the restaurant. There were two restaurants, actually, both with crowded al fresco dining areas. One restaurant was called The Ghost in the something something. I cannot remember what the something was, but we guessed it was an Irish pub. We walked over to the other restaurant. I was barefoot, despite the cold. I thought that I should go back to the car to put on shoes, but I did not go back. Katherine Helmond was our waitress. We exclaimed, “Mona!” She seated us in a far corner, near the restrooms.

Friday, November 03, 2006: Blood Money, Cardboard Houses

I was visiting Stewart, an old friend. He was wearing a red shirt and jeans. He lived in a house made out of flimsy gray cardboard. The dream began to cycle rapidly, with repetition of me walking around, over, and through the cardboard house, crushing and crumpling it underfoot. When the cycling stopped, Stewart came on to me. I told him I was not gay.

In another dream, I was walking down a wide gray hallway. I saw Dave, another old friend. Somebody threw a sharpened penny at Dave, and it struck his ankle. His ankle began to bleed profusely. I scolded the person who through the penny.

I met both Stewart and Dave at an extremely dogmatic church.

Thursday, October 26, 2006: Electronic Book, Old Co-Workers, Corrupt Church Leader

I designed a book with dynamic, hyperlinked text. It seemed to use electronic paper and ink. I flipped through the content, page by page, and clicked through other content with a stylus.

In another dream, I was in an off-white painted basement filled with pipes and machinery. Many of my former co-workers were there. We reminisced about when we worked together.

In the last dream, I witnessed a leader from the church I left hiding young boys in a closet. He didn’t know I saw this. Later, I found myself in a pharmacy, picking up a prescription. The leader was also there and sought to humiliate me. He announced to the entire store that my prostate medicine was ready. I said that it was to prevent cancer. I also said that I know a much worse secret of his, and that he should keep his mouth shut in the future.

Sunday, October 22, 2006: Church Intrusions, Fatherly Extortion, Demonic Seduction

I stood next to a long heavy wood dining room table. Seated around the table were members of the church I left years ago in real life. The phone in the middle of the table began to ring. Those seated at the table looked to me expectantly. So I answered the phone. It was Malcolm David Kelley. He spoke to me about church-related things. I stopped him after a minute or so, saying that I no longer attended this church, and that I don't even know why I am here, then I hung up.

My dad, my sister, and I were driving at night. My sister dropped me off at a mall. I was going to see a movie in the theater that was in the mall. But when I got to the theater, it was full of members from the church I left years ago. This annoyed me, so I waited outside for my father and sister to return.

After my father and sister returned, my father was telling me that he needed to borrow money. He had two sheets of paper. One was a list of items totaling the money he needed to borrow. The second sheet was a list of insignificant things that he believed he had done for me that entitled him to money from me.

In a different dream, I was being seduced by three demons, and I let them seduce me.

In a dream I cannot place chronologically among the other dreams, I was coding my website. I added a CSS effect to title text to make it look blurry.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006: Giant

I was in a large monastery or cathedral, with complex passageways and rooms, all made of brick or stone. A prayer was being sung, by a long line of identical monks.

I climbed many stairs to get away from them, and finally I found an exit. As I approached the door, I saw eyes peering at me from the high window. “A giant!” I exclaimed. I backed out of the foyer quickly. As the giant came in through the door, I closed the foyer door and locked it.

As he approached the door, I made myself wake up. At first, I found myself waking up in the bedroom of a Vermont inn, but I quickly snapped awake in my own bed.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005: My Dog, War

I was in a strange house. It had a long porch running around the entire house, and it was painted gray. My sister-in-law was there, telling me that she saw Pippin, and to come quickly. I asked if he was hurt. She said she didn't know; he just kept licking his butt. When I got to Pippin, he wasn't hurt; he was just doing what dogs do naturally. I asked him if he needed to go out, and he perked up. He was fine.

Then I was standing in an intersection atop a hill. Down the hill, I could see brown mushroom clouds. I wondered if it was nuclear war. I learned that they were conventional bombs, when I saw strange ships dropping more bombs, whose explosions mushroomed into dirty clouds of debris. The explosions got closer and closer.

I saw a friend of mine, Molly. She was worried about the explosions. I was, too. I noticed that if the bombs did not detonate on impact, they would bounce back into the air, skipping around until they did explode. At least once, we narrowly avoided an explosion because one bounced over us instead of blowing up on impact.

Behind the bombers were these squat cylidrical rotating ground machines that were hunting down survivors. It look like a large gray metal cog, lying flat, and spinning very rapidly.

I asked Molly if she thought we would be safer if we split up? She said she didn't want to be alone. So we began searching for shelter frantically. We came across a building that had the appearance of both a church and a dark pink three decker. Night was approaching. We moved around back, climbed the stairs. There were no open doors, but at least we were on an mostly enclosed porch.

Suddenly, one of the machines extended eyestalks up to the porch window. We hid behind some long window blinds that were nearby. I told Molly not to move. The eyes watched us for sometime, until we fell asleep.

We awoke to a police officer and two elderly tennants asking us what we were doing here? We said that we were hiding from the machines. They said that they should turn us over to the machines, so we quickly departed.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005: Church, Big Cats, Bus and Champagne

My wife, my children and I were at a church function. The church members were proselytizing very aggressively. I responded in kind by adamantly refusing and refuting their doctrine.

Later, we found ourselves in a house. We were being entertained by an eccentric man, perhaps a rock star. He had two pet lions. One lion was trying to eat the other, which agitated our host.

Finally, we were waiting on Hamilton Street for a bus traveling downtown. The bus stopped, and we boarded it. The driver was an Asian woman. She appeared to be upset. She explained that this was a special celebration bus with champagne on it, but nobody was drinking it. In fact, there was nobody else on the bus but us. As we walked towards the back of the bus, past rows of hospital beds, we sat down, opened the crates, and drank some champagne.

Monday, April 18, 2005: Church Service, Attacked by a Cat

I found myself at a church service with my wife and children, one that I did not wish to attend. The church service was put on by the same congregation that we had left several years ago. I saw a lot of familiar faces, some I had hoped that I would never see again.

In another dream, a black cat latched onto my arm with its claws and was biting and hissing at me. I peeled him off my arm, and he latched himself onto my leg instead.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004: Dogs, Church

Through light snow, I was walking up and down my street with two dogs: Pippin, my silky terrier, and Poppy, my terrier-poodle mix, who passed away. I saw a rottweiler, so I picked both of them up and ran back to my house.

In the second dream I had, my wife made me go to church. She was not going herself; I was there to meet her friend Dana, who was coming back to our house after church. I felt uncomfortable being there, sitting in a pew and standing up to sing.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004: Playhouse

I was in a red brick church-like playhouse. It reminded me of St. Stephen's Church on Grafton Street. In front of me, was Zoe Wanamaker. She had white hair, and was singing a song called “I Smell?” After the song was over, an old woman wearing a dark red leather cloak came down from the stage and told me to follow her. I followed her downstairs, to a dark, open space. The stairs spiraled down to a small brick house in the midst of the vast darkness. I descended.

The association of the playhouse with St. Stephen's Church goes beyond mere appearance. There is a sense of space, that in my mind, this place is the same place as the church, without actually being the church.

I had watched My Family on BBC America that evening; Zoe Wanamaker plays the mother in that series.

Friday, August 27, 2004: Stone Church, Green Hill

My wife and I were atop the high wall of a ruined stone church. There were no exits or stairs down. We searched for the lowest part of the wall, where we hoped to climb down without too much risk of falling. Shelby said that she was just going to drop from where she was hanging. When she let go, a breeze caught her and she drifted far from the wall, where the drop onto the green hillside would be too long for safety.

I seem to be having a lot of marriage-themed dreams lately.

Recently, my wife left the church. I had left the church years ago and she remained. But now I feel like I have... all of her again.

Thursday, August 26, 2004: Green Hills, Gold Rings, Marriage

I was climbing a green, grassy hill. As I ascended, I found a gold ring. As I continued, I found another gold ring.

In the other dream, I was in the rear seat of a car. My brother was driving, and my sister was in the front passenger seat. They were asking me questions about my relationship with my wife, with implications that I was only with her because of the church. I told them that I genuinely loved her, and besides, I was no longer with the church. This shocked them.

Saturday, August 21, 2004: Dream Game

Here’s what I wrote on the notepad next to my bed:

“Dream of a dream of a dream game. Lethargy of sleep. My wife and I go to bed. I have a flashlight and a case of nerves. And low batteries. Multiplying corridors and doorways. Darker and darker. Lethargy sets in. I try to move, speak, wake up.”

“Church children leaving a sleepover with their parents.”

“Decide to run my dreams as role-playing game with my own gaming group.”

I can’t recall the dreams, only what I have written.

Saturday, August 14, 2004: iBook, Demons, Roof, Country Music, Church

My house was on the side of Grafton Street with a shopping plaza. I could look out of my house; the entire side of the house was open to the street. I could see that it was night. I had just received a brand new iBook. I grabbed it off of my desk, crossed the street, and sat on a bench to do some work.

In another dream, I sketched two demons on an IT request form. Somebody asked, “Did you draw that?” I said, “Yes, could you fill this request please?” We laughed.

I dreamed that the roofers removed the entire roof and all of the siding from my house. I realized that the house resembled my childhood home on Dartmouth Street. The wood under the siding was painted drab green.

In another dream, I was in a dark, cozy room. Garth Brooks was writing a song. In the song, he had strung together several prepositions at the end of a sentence, like “up on in”. I corrected his grammar, but added that since it was a song, colloquialisms were fine. He didn’t say anything.

In the last dream, I was in a church meeting. Something felt like it was missing, so that neither I nor the rest of the church could take it seriously.

Why am I dreaming of country music, much less correcting the grammar of a country song?

Saturday, August 07, 2004: Church Corruption, High School Reunion, Home

Several people I used to go to church were gathered in a large white room with a curving, sloping floor, much like the floors of modern movie theatres. While I was there, I saw two old friends of mine, Ray and Ginger. Ray was playing with a circular saw blade. He tossed it at Ginger, playfully, lightly even, but the blade stuck into her head like a shuriken. Both of them were very surprised and panicking at the dilemma.

In another dream, I was in a church leader’s house. It was luxurious inside, a mansion. Everything was white and pristine. There was a fireplace burning and the air conditioner was running, which I thought was a little extravagant and wasteful.

In another part of the dream, there was pornography and sexual acts being performed in plain sight. In one place, it was in the dimly lit theatre. In another place, it was in the leader’s mansion. There was a strange, demonic presence inciting the people to these acts.

In a different dream, I was at a high school class reunion. I was happy to see so many old friends. I was wearing new clothes. I had a roll of money in my left hand, at least fifty $20 bills. Somebody said, “Wow, that's a lot of money.” I tried to stuff the money into my pocket, but it bulged revealingly.

Ok, let's not get all Freudian here.

Finally, I had a dream that my home was complete. Arbor vitaes lined the perimeter. The fence had hedge privacy slats. The driveway was red brick. The red cottage-style roof was finished. Inside, the house was furnished with all of the pieces we imagined, including a red leather loveseat and the Alien metal coffee table.

Sunday, August 01, 2004: Poetry Recital

I was invited to recite poetry before an audience. I was having trouble finding the location of the recital in the large hotel I was wandering in. I was running late. I wrote four short poems, only filling both sides of a single sheet of paper. I also had not realized how large an audience I was reading poetry for. And somebody was hurrying me.

I opened the auditorium doors. The auditorium was filled with people. I was reminded of the church I had attended; some of the audience members could have been church members I’ve known in the past. As I entered the auditorium, a man on stage announced me. As I reluctantly approached the stage, I realized that I was very thirsty. I asked the announcer to give me a moment. My wife was seated nearby. She gave me a water bottle, and with a giggle said, “Attention to detail.” The water bottle was empty, so I looked around for a water cooler. I spotted one in the far right back corner of the auditorium. I walked over to the cooler. It was filled with Kool-ade. I filled the bottle and headed toward the stage. I made myself wake up because I felt afraid.

I don’t remember the poems, except one had the name Carl Jung’s name in the title.

I recently started writing again. I’ve also been reading about dreams and dream theory, especially Jung.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004: “Fall-aways”

I had a dream of an old friend, Ray. We used to go to the same church. He said that he was doing better. I remember there were other “fall-aways” around us.

“Fall-aways” is the term my former church used for ex-members, similar to backsliders or apostates, except that it included members who left that church to attend a different church. Yes, they were that dogmatic.