Dream 387

'Let's Make it 1986'

Dream date: 18 March 2015

I was teaching a class in a school (not one I have attended in real-life). I was not sure if I was an English Literature or Sociology teacher, but I then decided I could teach both subjects because I had studied both at university (in real-life I have an undergraduate degree in English Literature & Art History, and another in Law, but I have only taken modules which cover basic aspects of Sociology). I had a memory of studying Sociology in the dream. I am not sure what level/age group I was teaching. I then became aware that the classroom was in fact inside one of the Butcher's Shops (Icarus Hines) in Sheringham. The desk was where the glass counter should be. I thought that this was odd. I didn't see any of my students.

I was then on a residential street which appeared to be in a city. It was night. I was standing outside a Victorian townhouse, looking up at the windows from which lights were shining. My stepdad was with me, in a parked car, next to which I was standing. I thought: 'It's the 1990s, but it could be 1986'. I then decided that it would be 'better; if it was 1986 and I was aware that I was preparing the plotline for a novel within the dream, although it was all very vague. I wasn't lucid, but I was aware that I wasn't experiencing the actions of the dream as a real-life experience. This would have been a perfect opportunity to reality check, but I didn't.

I was then walking in another residential area - this time more suburban. I was with someone (I cannot recall who) and from a distance, I could see a green hedgerow and a grassy bank - the front garden of a house. On the grassy bank were a selection of large colour photographs. An unknown male dream character was standing on the pavement, beside the grassy bank. He seemed to be the owner of the photographs. I ran over to him so I could see the photographs. I was accompanied by my unseen companion. When I got close, I noticed that the photographs were of my cousin CAJ, but only various parts of her face, while makeup was being applied. The makeup brushes and products could be seen in some of the photographs, but you could not see the person/makeup artist holding them. CAJ did not look like herself - she had a face like a doll - or the stereotype of the little girls who are fake-tanned and made-up for American beauty pageants. She had golden blonde curly hair which was shoulder-length, orange fake-tanned skin, pearl jewellery and bright pink make-up, but since the photographs were such close-ups. I could only see this from looking at the various different parts of her face pictured - there was no one photograph which showed her whole face. I thought CAJ looked very different. I then became aware that CAJ and her mother - my aunt, CJ - were getting ready to attend some kind of celebratory party or prom. 

I decided to run 'home' to where I lived with my mum and stepdad. I ran with my unseen companion through the residential area, very fast. We entered a cul-de-sac, where my family home was. My mum and stepdad were outside a house at the bottom of the cul-de-sac. There was a removal van and some cardboard boxes outside. Standing on the lawn of the neighbouring house were two dream characters -  a white male and black male, both young adults, dressed casually - in conversation with my parents. I entered the house, and went upstairs. I found that I was now on the landing of my former family home in Pine Grove, Sheringham. My feet really hurt and I thought this might be because I had been running. I took off my shoes, and placed them in a row of other shoes, lined up along the railing which separates the landing from the staircase. I saw that my shoes were salmon pink fake crocodile skin stilettos, and the heels had broken (snapped, become partially detached from the soles) from me running in them. It was the heels on the shoes which hurt - not my actual feet. Once the shoes were off, my actual feet felt fine and pain-free. I felt disappointed that the shoes were ruined.

Potential Day/Dream Residue:

• I had a conversation online (on a Lucid Dreaming page) a couple of days before this dream. Someone (another member of the page) was criticising me for studying/practising Law, assuming that this meant I had no appreciation for Art (this is ludicrous, since not only do I love art in a very passionate way, including the study of artists I do not like, but I spend a lot of my spare time visiting art exhibitions, reading art monographs or textbooks, studying art/artists online and watching documentaries about art. I therefore have a very committed interest in and appreciation of art generally, not just art/artists I actually like). I told this person I had studied Art History as a degree subject and they had disparaged being educated in Art, saying that learning it in an institutionalised setting meant that I had no natural interest in it and Art could not be learnt (obviously, they have no understanding of the difference between Art History and Fine Art, or knowledge about actual, established artists throughout history, many of which studied in an institution as a way of honing natural talent and networking!) I think this debate may have influenced the scene in my dream where I was a teacher, confused about what subject I was teaching and what subjects I had studied at university.
• I am currently working on a novel, which is set in the 1990s. However, I did consider the novel being partly set in the 1980s. I had also considered whether my main character should be an academic (like myself), teaching undergraduate students in a university. This is yet undecided. However, lucid dreaming is a prominent theme in my novel.

Waking Thoughts & Emotions:

I did not have any strong or specific thoughts/emotions when I awoke from this dream. I see this dream as more of a 'positive' dream in that it felt enjoyable to be dreaming it, but I am disappointed I did not manage to become lucid, because there were strong indications throughout that I was manipulating the dream content slightly - i.e. in 'deciding' that the scene outside the townhouse at night was set in 1986 rather than the 1990s and knowing that I was plotting my real-life novel throughout the dream, and using the dream as inspiration. I was also able to question my cousin's appearance in the photographs of her - which was an obvious dreamsign which should have triggered a reality check.

* I know there was the early scene (at the beginning of the dream); and a scene which took place between the townhouse scene in 1986 and me viewing the photographs of my cousin, which I cannot recall. If I remember these forgotten scenes from this dream, I will record them below.