Dream Screen
- We arrive at a small movie theatre, Ali, Amy, Nicole, Allen, Genery and others. It's a special midnight showing tonight and everyone is very hush hush about the nature of the show. The typical swirling maroon and gold carpeting hides all the soda and candy stains. The snack bar is positively luminescent making the crowd of movie-goer faces glow eerily. We shuffle along into the theatre itself, passing to the left of the snack bar. Taking seats near the rear by the door, we settle into the exceedingly cozy recliners. The lights go out and it's pitch black for a long time. Slowly, silently, subtle imagery begins to dance on the giant screen like hynogogic hallucination. The next thing I remember we're all back out in the lobby, hanging around like it's a lounge or something. But the whole crowd of people begin to surround me, saying my name and strange things like "You are the One. We are all here to see you, the movie was just a hoax. There is no movie." We move into the restroom which looks more like a futuristic church than a restroom. After more of this idolatry, I realize that I am dreaming. It becomes a lucid dream and I take control of the situation. Funny thing is, I think that in reality I'm actually still in the movie theatre, having fallen asleep during the movie. To prove this to myself I intentionally wake up. I open my eyes and see that I am still there, surrounded by people. But they're all asleep too! And the movie screen is black. I realize the strange imagery was intentionally meant to cause sleep and that the movie we came to see (and what everyone was so tight-lipped about) was actually our own dream. Sitting there in the dark, I wonder if everyone in the theatre is having the same dream about being "The One". Full of the confidence that I have figured out what is reality and what is dream, I close my eyes and return to the mind-play.
School of Dreaming
I learned today that even the ultra-aware state of consciousness possessed by a lucid dreamer can be fooled by the dream world. I was able to have a lucid dream (be aware that I was dreaming and that what I was seeing wasn't reality) and yet still unable to recall my "true" reality. This lesson shows that the dream's power over belief systems is total; and that being "lucid" is just another belief system--albeit an extremely powerful one. Moral of the story: Reality is whatever belief system The Dream is currently pushing. There is always another reality to "wake up" to.