Dreams 274 - 279

Dream 274

'Hannibal Lecter Day Trip'

Dream date: 2 September 2014

I was in a strange city - it was very dark and eery, with old-fashioned buildings which were dark brown and made of wood and falling into disrepair. I was with Hannibal Lecter (click on link for Wikipedia page giving information on this fictional serial killer) and a brother and sister (unknown to me in real-life, but I was familiar with them in the dream - the male was reminiscent of two males I know. He was of medium to tall height with black hair. His 'sister' looked like a female version of him). Lecter was depicted as the NBC TV show version of him, played by Mads Mikkelsen. During one scene we were all sitting in my nan's living-room, on the sofa. I knew Lecter was a serial killer, but was not afraid of him. He seemed to be a benign individual, not intent on harming either myself or the brother and sister dream characters. We were then walking around the dead city. Many of the tall wooden buildings were boarded up and covered in layers of peeling posters and flyers. It was night time and Lecter kept telling us to look up into the windows of certain buildings, where there were people inside, apparently doing strange things which were intriguing him. He wanted to educate us about these people and I realised that Lecter was our teacher. I did not want to look into the windows of the buildings as I felt that I might see something gruesome which I did not want to look at. Lecter pointed out that some of the posters on the dilapidated buildings were revealing (in words or images, I cannot recall actually looking at them closely) the fact that the brother had performed a sexual act on his own sister. I did not get the reaction of the brother and sister to the posters which were disclosing their secret to the public. Lecter was laughing. He kept trying to get us to all look up into the windows of the decrepit buildings. I could see that one of them was a second-hand music shop with several persons (male, unknown) seated in the window. Suddenly I decided I wanted to cross the road and walk away from Lecter. I approached a green hedge which was lining the pavement on the other side of the road, opposite the music shop. In the hedge, the brother and sister were engaged in sexual intercourse. I felt shocked, but realised that Lecter had been playing some kind of trick on them - making them look up into the windows had been a way of encouraging them to have incestuous sex with one another, and he had completed his goal. He was laughing at the fact he had managed to control the minds of the brother and sister - the posters had pre-empted their sexual relationship and somehow managed to subliminally implant the idea/desire in their minds. I felt relieved that Lecter had not tried to control me or mess with my head.

Dream 275

'Three Thefts'

Dream date: 22 September 2014

I was in a strange urban area at night. The houses were all very tall and residential. I was with an unknown male, who resembled PS and may have been him, but wasn't quite the same. In the dream we were friends. We were outside one house in particular, this being on the corner of a busy junction. I could see shops across the road, which was wide and busy with traffic. It seemed to me that we were in an unfamiliar, yet familiar-feeling area of London. The house that we were standing outside had been broken up into several apartments/flats. It was a big brick building, with steps up to the front door, but also a flat which had basement access and a window on pavement level, with a sash window which was partially open. In front of the pavement-level flat was a small concrete square, with a short wall (about half a metre tall) on one side, separating it from the pavement. The male and I were standing on this concrete square. I noticed that there was a music stereo on the windowsill of the basement flat. I took it and brought it outside and was fiddling with the cables at the back, trying to tidy them, so it was easier to carry the stereo. The male was telling me to hurry. Another male and female arrived. Both of these persons were unknown to me, but I knew they were the inhabitants of the flat from which I had taken the stereo. The male accused me of theft. I said that I had not stolen anything as I had not left the property with the item yet. I was still on their premises. The male told me that the police were on their way. Suddenly, a police car with loud sirens and flashing blue lights drove down the street. I was turning on the spot, looking at the city around me and realised that the police car wasn't there for me - it had stopped several houses down the street to deal with an incident there. I told the girl: 'The police aren't here for me!' and started to run off, round the corner of the house, down a different residential street. The boy told his girlfriend to catch and stop me so that he could get the police to arrest me. She was trying to run in front of me to block my escape. I had left the stereo on the concrete front of the house so could not understand why she was so keen to stop me getting away as I no longer had possession of her stereo. I managed to get away from the girl.

The scene changed and I was in Sheringham, in a very small shop with an unfamiliar male - middle-aged, fat and white, with a balding head - known to me vaguely in the dream. The shop was practically empty - I am not sure what it was selling or what service it was providing, but I got the impression it was something to do with computers or technology although there were no customers or stock present. The door of the shop was open and I could see Sheringham high street, which appeared to be sunny and bright. I asked the male shopkeeper if he had any new items for me. He said that he did and handed me a small metal lock-up safe box, which I opened, leaning on a metal filing cabinet. Inside were lots of weird metal keys, keyrings or items of a similar size, all different and seemingly second-hand or old. They looked scuffed up and pre-used in some way. I started to sort through these items, when the police entered the shop, telling me that I was under arrest for theft. It transpired that these items were stolen by the shopkeeper. I told the police (two or three male officers in full uniform) that I could not be arrested for theft because I had not stolen anything within the definition of the offence (ss. 1 - 6 Theft Act 1968). I told them that I had not dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving them of it, because I had not yet appropriated or deprived anyone of anything. I cited (correctly!) the case of R v Ghosh [1982] EWCA Crim 2, which is the English common law test for dishonesty and deception. I then told them that the closest charge they could pin on me was handling stolen goods. Somehow I managed to get away with this, and was able to leave the shop.

I then returned to my nan's house, where I discovered that my laptop and mobile phone had been stolen. I remembered that I had a friend who was a heroin addict (a dream character, male and slightly older than me, with shaggy grey-brown hair and a beard, tall and skinny) who I had allowed to stay in my house while I had gone out. I thought that it was odd that he had stolen from me, and decided to find him and speak to him about this. In the 'back room' (the second living-room in my nan's house, which looks out onto the back garden) there was a group of drug addicts sitting around, taking drugs. I noticed that my purse was on the table, but hadn't been stolen. I was then walking down a very strange path which was between some buildings. It looked like a bomb site, with rubble everywhere and furniture set out on the path, which was more like a dirt track. There were little fires blazing in rubbish bins and people sat around them on deck chairs. The sky was grey, but the buildings were so tall on either side, they may have been blocking out the light as I thought it was still daytime. The heroin addict 'friend' was there, in the centre of the path, standing beside a bin on fire. I asked him if he had stolen my laptop and phone and he apologised and told me that it was his girlfriend, another heroin addict, who had visited him at my nan's house. He assured me that he would find her and return my stolen items. I was annoyed, but accepted his promise. I went back to my nan's house. Various family members were all gathered there and we were looking out of the back room window into the garden, which was sunny. I started arguing with my mum over something and the situation grew very hostile, with both of us screaming. I am not sure what we were arguing over, but I told her that I was converting to Islam and had to find a hijab. I noticed that there were two gift-wrapped items under a table which was situated in front of the window - these 'gifts' were a laptop and a mobile phone. I went into the living-room and started watching the TV. A programme was showing, which featured home-movies sent in by viewers - the theme was mutilating drug users - the videos were of different techniques of torturing and murdering addicts which had been filmed on mobile phones. The tortured addicts looked like grey zombies. The voice-over of the presenter of the show informed us that there would be a new kind of torture shown on the  next episode. He had a joky, satirical tone and it seemed like this show was a form of light entertainment rather than horror, even though it was very gory and sinister. I then saw that my heroin addict friend was a victim of the show - someone had killed him and filmed it. I felt annoyed and wondered how he would not return my stolen items, but then realised that there was no need because someone had bought me new ones, gift-wrapped in the other room. I was holding my purse.

Dream 276

'Two Dream Sequences about N the Dog'

Dream date: 27 September 2014

I had two separate dream sequences about N the dog.

In the first one, N was in a garden (unfamiliar, but supposedly my home, where I lived with my mum and stepdad). We were trying to call N back into the house, from the doorway of the kitchen, but he was not coming and we could not see him. My stepdad went outside to find N. It appeared that N was a composite of himself and my (dead) family dog, Kelli. We were all panicked about why we could not find N or get him back into the house. My stepdad came back into the kitchen, crying. He said N was dead or missing. We were all distraught. A long passage of time passed and N returned - he had been missing for years.

I was standing in a similar location - a kitchen with a back door leading into the garden. N was in the garden and I saw that there was also a wild bear. I was frantically calling to N to get him back into the kitchen to safety so I could lock the bear out of the house. I managed to get N to come to the door, but he was attacked by the bear.

Dream 277

'Sex in Toilet Cubicle'

Dream date: 30 September 2014

I was supposed to be spending time with my friend, SC. I entered a public washroom, where there were many people gathered, all of whom were university students or friends of mine. The lights in the washroom were really bright and there were white tiled walls and floor. I could see that two people were in one of the toilet cubicles, as I could see two sets of feet under the door of the stall. These people were SC and SK - with their trousers pulled down and round their ankles. They were having sex in the toilet - standing up facing each other from the position of their feet. I felt embarrassed to be looking, so left the washroom. This is all I recall about the dream. 

Dream 278

'Granddad Rape'

Dream date: 10 October 2014

I was at my nan's house and my granddad was there, although I am not sure if it was my actual (dead) grandfather (who had been divorced from my nan many years before his death) or just a dream character whom I knew to be my granddad. Other members of my family, including my mum, were present and we were in the living-room of the house, during the day. I had a sense of threat and fear. My granddad picked me up and put me over his shoulder, in a fireman's lift position. He ran up the stairs, with the rest of my family members behind him, shouting at him to stop. I was screaming and kicking, trying to get him to put me down. He ran up the stairs very quickly, and took me into my bedroom. I saw his penis and then he raped me. I felt completely violated, a normal reaction to the horrific ordeal which I had just undergone. My granddad was laughing. I saw that he had a tattoo on his penis in black ink - a basic tribal symbol. The same tattoo was on my left wrist (underneath) and on the picture of a tiger, hanging on my bedroom wall. I felt scarred by the tattoo and the rape. I cannot recall what else happened, although there was a backpack/bag which held some significance. 

Dream 279

'Emoji Teeth'

Dream date: 11 October 2014

One of my teeth fell out - it was larger than a normal tooth and completely cuboid in shape - about three times bigger than a normal tooth. It was one of my molars. I examined the tooth in my hand, looking for signs of decay which might have led to it falling out. I could not see any rot or decay, but the tooth was covered with a  variety of colourful emojis - all very Japanese-looking. I was then shown a piece of paper, which was supposed to show me the calculations for a sum which added up to '64' - I could not see the numbers or the calculation, only the word 'Shashouska'. I wondered how the person (unknown, unseen) who had worked out the arithmetic had done so with this strange word, rather than numbers. I then realised that 'Shashouska' meant '64', but had been spelled wrongly - with lots of letter 'B's in it. I thought the author of the document was slightly stupid. I was given a clear plastic bag of vegetables, which I was expecting to be carrots and onions. I could see the carrots through the plastic wrapper, and feel the round shape of onions, but as I felt the bag, and moved the vegetables around in my hand, I noticed that the bag was actually filled with Brussels' sprouts.

* I have never consciously heard the word 'Shashouska' before. However I have now researched it. It appears that Shashouska, 'shaksouka' or 'Shashuska' (various spellings online) is a Middle Eastern or North African dish of poached eggs in a spiced tomato sauce. I have seen a similar dish, but did not know what this was called and would not have thought it might be called Shashouska, as the word was totally unfamiliar to me. The second entry on Google is from a website named the 'Jakarta Post' - two days before this dream, I had been playing a board game with international students and when questioning the answer to what the capital of the Philippines is (Manila) I has asked whether it was 'Jakarta' (the capital of Indonesia). This seems to be a very strange coincidence. The week before, I had watched Masterchef Australia (an old series, streamed online) in which one of the contestants made a baked egg in a spicy tomato sauce as a breakfast dish in a challenge - however, the dish was not referred to as 'Shashouska' or given any kind of name, it was simply described as 'baked eggs'. I dislike eggs very much and can only eat them when they are disguised in food or used as an ingredient without a distinct flavour or smell of their own.