I Enjoy Dreaming

OK, so somehow the topic of dreams came up. I'm really interested in dreams. What are they? How does dream perception relate to the real thing? Are dreams creative? I'm just a-burnin' with curiosity about this stuff, so do write me if you're interested in the topic. I'm publishing this page expressly to attract discussion. (See below.)

Although I find nearly all of my dreams to be fascinating, I rarely have enough willpower to write them down, and I often have difficulty expressing them in words, especially since so much of the power of my dreams is in visual images and music. Unlike Brian Moe, who seems to record just about all of his dreams effectively and wittily, I'm too embarassed to publish any but a few of my favorites. Not that the content is embarassing-- I rarely have dreams that I'd be reluctant to share with nearly anyone-- but the writing sucks, so when I look back at the records I'm not impressed. Anyway, here is a list to which I will occasionally add new or rediscovered/rewritten old dreams: The Best of My Subconscious.

To see an illustrated version of a story based loosely on one of my dreams [no longer available], visit Jesse Reklaw's Slow Wave More by Jesse, below.

Please write to me (ranjit@moonmilk.com) if you're interested in this stuff.


Other dream pages on the Web:

  • Dreams from the Birdhouse

  • worldDreaming at dan's site

  • Kristen's Dream Page at Kristen's Evil Web Empire

  • DreamX Audio Exchange by the one and only Ed Stastny

  • The Lucidity Institute sells gadgets that are supposed to help you achieve lucid dreams; they also have interesting articles about dreams and lucidity.

  • Harry Bosma writes of dreams and healing

  • Do you know of any others? Or just want to leave a comment about the dream page? Write to me! ranjit@moonmilk.com

    I have almost two years worth of comments that people have sent me... somehow I never had time to put them on the web. I apologize, and I plan to do so soon in hopes of stimulating discussion. (Oct. 9, 1995)
    It hasn't happened yet. Maybe someday. (Sept. 3, 1996)
    Who am I kidding? (Feb. 17, 1997)


    What about lucid dreams? I've never experienced a dream where I knew I was dreaming and could control the path of the dream, but many of the contributors to the Netnews group alt.dreams.lucid say they have, as have some of my acquaintances. Hmm, what a fascinating idea. I think the closest I ever came to a lucid dream was when I was doped up on nitrous oxide. Life is but a dream.
    I'm reading alt.dreams on netnews... lots of boring stupid people either saying "I dreamed about hens eating my hair... what does that mean?" or confidently explaining what someone else's dream meant or... over and over again... precognition and out-of-body experiences: "I dreamed that the queen was dead, and when I woke up, I heard on the radio that she had a cold! amazing!" But there's some interesting stuff too, like heavily researched info on anesthetics and dreams. I sent the author of that one email asking if she'd heard anything about dramamine & nightmares... I'm still curious about that.

    I'm trying to come up with questions to ask to elicit the kind of information that interests me about dreams... whether dream X is really X or you just dreamed that it was X, for X being things like creativity, complexity, profundity, beauty, etc. I've dreamed interesting buildings that if I were an architect I could probably build, and people could then walk into them and confirm for me whether I'm really a tremendously good designer when I'm asleep, or my designs are interesting only to me. On the other hand, I've dreamed original music and stories and such that were wonderful in the dream and for as long as I could maintain a half-awake state, but I simply couldn't remember enough of them in full consciousness to decide whether they're good even to ME when awake. I have this feeling of regret: that I can compose and orchestrate fascinating music only when asleep, and I can't bring the music out of the dream with me. Or maybe I'm just dreaming that the music is good.

    More specific info i want to gather from dreamy people (well people in general)-- things like: how vivid are the various sensory impressions in dreams, and compare to waking imagination [I have almost no visual imagination at all... i can't even imagine a familiar face... but my dreams usually have very vivid visual impressions]; recurring themes and settings; all sorts of stuff about how you feel about your dreams WHEN YOU ARE AWAKE.


    ranjit@moonmilk.com