Dream 313

'Public Transport & Pizzas'

I was at my nan's house, sitting on the sofa next to my cousin, HM, She was holding a book which I had when I was a child - it was a Garden Gang book by Jayne Fisher - Penelope Strawberry, about a vain, narcissistic strawberry. I was trying to wrestle the book from HM, but she was pleading with me, saying she only wanted to read the cover. I thought that 'Penelope' was the perfect name for a female strawberry and this thought was very clear in my mind.

I was then in a supermarket, very briefly. The supermarket was dark and I could not see what was on the shelves clearly. I bought a quail for £5. I took it back to a house where I was with my mum, standing at a counter. I ate the quail and found it delicious, however it was pale (raw-looking). In real life I have never eaten quail before. I told my mum that I thought it was delicious, and she agreed, but said that quails were too expensive to eat often. She gave me a smallish box, which she said came inside the quail. I opened it and inside were slices of dark meat (looking like beef), something called 'corned quail' (which was the quail version of corned beef) and some other quail-based meat products. My mum told me that these were the internal organs of the quail and said we should eat them, because they were the best bit. We started to eat them, and they were also delicious. My dog, Kelli (now dead) came into the room and I started playing with her. She looked as I remember her (large German Shepherd), but her hair was longer and fluffier. My mum gave her some chocolate. I knew chocolate wasn't good for dogs, and also had a knowledge that Kelli would die when she reached the age of 13 years. This made me sad. I ran out into a lush, green garden. where my stepdad was doing some gardening, and told him that he should stop my mum giving the dog chocolate for a treat and we might be able to prolong her life beyond 13 years. I had some kind of dispute with my mum over what looked like mashed swede or some kind of pureed orange vegetable which was smeared on a plate. I think my mum was saying that it was not fit to eat and I was trying to convince her that it would taste nice.

I was then in some kind of seaside town, where there was a London Underground Station, positioned next to a bus stop. I was waiting to catch the tube, but first wanted to go into a shop and buy a snack. I was aware that I was taking ages in the shop, not able to make my mind up. It was just a small shop/cafe, like those you find in a train station, just selling coffees and basic snacks. There was a middle-aged woman there, with a young, slightly obese daughter, who  was named 'Boo Boo' (a little bit like 'Honey Boo Boo'), except she was British and much quieter. I held Boo Boo's hand and sat down with her and her mother, who I instantly befriended, although this was the first time I had ever met them. We had some conversation in this cafe and I found them to be very nice people. Suddenly, Boo Boo's mother announced that the tube (which was late) had arrived and it was time for us to board. I thought I would sit with them for the lengthy journey to our (unknown) shared destination. Boo Boo was telling me to hurry, and we all ran outside into the daylight to board the tube. However, there was a bus which was parked in front of the doors to the tube, so we had to squeeze past these to get into the carriage. Boo Boo and her mother boarded the tube, but I was a fraction of a second too late, and the door shut, nearly on my hand. The tube train started to move away slowly. The train conductor/guard (a young black man wearing a deep red uniform) noticed me and said: 'I could have let you get on if you'd have asked!' but I just said: 'I didn't see you to ask'. I felt annoyed as now I had lost my friends and had to wait for another tube. I noticed that in my hand I had a clear, transparent bag. Inside were sweets, drugs and small plastic toys. I realised this belonged to Boo Boo and I felt sad because I had no way of returning it to her. I wondered if I should take the drugs, but decided not to, because they might be dangerous, or they might be medication which she needed. I decided to try and find a way of getting the bag back to her.

I then went on a walk to kill time before the next tube, which I saw on a sign was scheduled to be late. The front of the station looked quite a lot like Stratford Station in London (where there are buses at the front of the station forecourt). I walked around to the side, and found that it was a dusty, desolate waste ground area. There was a bench positioned next to an old lock-up/warehouse area, and I took a seat. I was joined by a man - middle-aged and brown-skinned with black hair. He was dressed in a pale yellow T-shirt (which matched the colour of the dust on the ground), grey baggy tracksuit bottoms and black work boots. He took a seat opposite me. He seemed to be friendly and I felt safe. The man asked me where I was from. He said: 'You have a 'Shirazzy look' about you'. Shiraz is an city/area in the Fars Province in South-West Iran and apparently, this is where my Persian family name originates from. I said to him: 'How did you know?' and he just smiled at me and said he 'could tell. I asked: 'What about you, where are you from?' aware that he had a foreign accent. I noticed that there were some people wandering around nearby and some of them had reacted negatively to me asking  where this man was from, but I ignored them, as this was a private conversation. The man told me that he was 'Iranian' and I said: 'It's weird how Iranians can always recognise that I have Iranian blood, but non-Iranians think I'm from Spain' (which is an actual real-life experience that I have noticed). The man just smiled at me and he had a charming smile with very white teeth. He reached under the table and pulled out an old coffee machine, then preceded to tell me about a trick he and his workmates had played on a colleague - apparently, the coffee machine would only spit out stones and pebbles instead of coffee. The man opened the padlock to the lock up next to us, and put the coffee machine in there, before re-locking it. He asked me to come walk with him, and he put his arm around me, but it felt more fatherly than romantic or sexual. I knew he did not feel that way about me, because there was at least a 20 year age gap between us and he was polite and caring.

It turned out that he walked me to his brother's house, which looked like a traditional family home, with beige and cream furnishings, and a kitchen which looked like the mirror image of my own kitchen in Norwich (my neighbours have a kitchen which is on the opposite side of the lounge, but identical to my own, so I have actually seen the 'mirror image' of my kitchen in real life). It turned out that the man's brother was not Iranian, but he was the father of Boo Boo, so I was pleased that I could return her bag of sweets, drugs and toys. I was sat at the kitchen counter. I was joined by my cousin, HM, who said that Boo Boo and her mother were not yet home, but the father was making us some pizza while we waited. HM and I went into the lounge, and found that the oven was where an electric fire, or heater, would usually be found - underneath the TV, in front of the sofa. The father put some items in the oven, then said he had to go out, so we should help ourselves when the food was ready. He left with two other men, with whom we had made no conversation. Since I had found myself in the house, the Iranian man had disappeared. I looked into the oven. The father had already cut the pizza into slices and placed them on top of each other and in a very disorganised way on the oven shelves, draping them over some red items of food, which I knew was food for Boo Boo. The pizza looked cooked, so I reached in to get two slices out for HM and I. The slices were not equally sized and the piece that I got for myself had no cheese on it, only tomato sauce, so I asked HM to give me some of the cheese from her pizza, as she had plenty to spare. She gave me some of her excess cheese with no argument.

I was then walking down Cromer Road in Sheringham with my mum and some other 'parents' of people I was supposedly at school with. It was night. I felt like an adult, but I was actually in the penultimate year (Year 10) of high school. My mum and the other parents had just been told that our high school was closing down and the only option for us to complete our secondary education was to enrol at a local private school, paying very expensive tuition fees. My mum was saying that she could not afford the private school tuition fees and I was worried, as I needed to sit my exams in order to continue into higher/further education. My mum and the other parents were putting together a mental list of all the parents/children in a similar situation - unable to pay the private school fees. They were listing names and saying things like: 'ZT's mum won't be able to pay, she's unemployed', 'NN's parents can't afford it'. I advised my mum to register me at the private school and once I was a student there, we would explain that we couldn't pay, and if the school tried to remove me or not let me attend classes, then we would complain to the government, and point out that every child is entitled - and legally required - to receive an education. My mum was considering this idea. We reached a small, square building in which a local meeting was being held to discuss the problem of the school closing down.

Dream 312

'Birthday Cakes'

I had to help PS get a birthday cake for his mum - the question was whether it should be black or white. We in an outside environment, looking up at train tracks which crossed above us in the sky. It was a dimly lit day - maybe dusk. PS said: 'You know which one to take to get to the cake shop'. Two cakes were on a chair in an (unfamiliar) domestic environment, but in fact they were both dresses - one black and one white. PS couldn't decide which cake/dress his mum would prefer, so he said that we would decide later. 

I went to visit some people who had some form of learning disability, although the precise nature of their problems were not made clear to me. There were two females, both using paper and pencils to draw pictures of a man in glasses sitting at an angle on a bus seat. Both pictures were quite childlike, and in the corners, the girls had written 'I love scientists'. I decided that the girl who used the symbol of a love heart rather than the word 'love' had done best.

I was then in my bedroom at my nan's house. PS was with another male who was tall, thin, white and geeky looking, with brown hair and glasses. It was this male's birthday - I am not sure if PS's mum had become this boy or whether he was a separate dream character. PS told me that I had to leave because for his birthday, the boy liked to wank off to pictures of women on his mobile phone and PS was the only person able to supervise him doing so. I felt annoyed that I had to leave my own bedroom for this. I noticed clusters of party balloons strung up in the corners of the ceiling.

PS and I then went to look at the black and white cakes/dresses again, and still could not make a decision as to which one was best.

I was in a very dark bedsit - I think this was the unfamiliar domestic environment in which we had first looked at the black and white cakes/dresses. There was a bed and a sink. PS was with me and also a tall, slim, white female, with very short black hair. She looked very masculine. She was a professional makeup artist and she was going to do my hair and makeup. She had a blue towelling bath robe and a black coat, which she soaked in water in the sink. I was sat on the bed watching her. She told me that I would have to choose between the blue bath robe and the black coat - which I would wear while she did my hair and makeup. She referred to the two items as a 'black or a white dress' and suddenly I noticed that the robe and coat were in fact a black dress and a white dress. I chose to wear the white dress. The dream ended.

7 Day Dream Incubation Experiment - Marilyn Monroe Dream (1)

I am conducting a 7 day dream incubation experiment. Below is my notebook that I use for writing notes relating to this Blog and other dream research. It sets out my intention for the dream incubation experiment:

So my the dream I hope to incubate is: to meet my idol Marilyn Monroe, while I am a starlet in 1950s Hollywood.

My dream aims are:

• To be a Hollywood starlet
• To meet Marilyn Monroe (at the height of her career/fame)
• To become lucid in my dream (using reality checks, MILD technique, WBTB (Wake-Back-To-Bed method, visualisation of dream goals)
• To stabilise my dream (hand examination, verbal commands, reality checks, sense of touch)
• To ask my Dream Character (Marilyn Monroe) something about myself (reveal subconscious)
• To vividly recall my dreams

The image which I will concentrate on (referred to in my Youtube video, which is posted below) is of Marilyn Monroe in her role as 'Sugar Kane' in Some Like it Hot  (1959). This is the era in which I hope to meet Marilyn Monroe, hence the use of this image in particular, but this is just to contextualise the historical period in my mind...the date in which the dream is set might just as well be from the mid-1950s up until Marilyn's death in 1962, because this is broadly the period in which she is at the peak of her stardom.

I shall report my dreams as normal as numbered dream reports, but also post articles specifically discussing the content and analysis of the next 7 days worth of dreams within the context of this experiment. I may not be able to post/make Youtube videos on each day, as I will be travelling back to my hometown for the weekend (no internet) which falls within the next 7 days, but whenever I post I will update all data and commentary in one post, clearly marking the different days that post relates to. Below is the Youtube video I recorded, discussing this experiment:

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Wet Dreams: An Orgasmic Experience!

Wet dreams happen to both males and females, and often following a sexually arousing dream. Also known medically as 'nocturnal emission', a wet dream is a spontaneous orgasm which occurs during sleep, leading to ejaculation for males and vaginal moistness and orgasm for females. This experience is most common in adolescent or young adulthood, but may happen any time after puberty. While it is possible for the male to wake up during the wet dream or sleep through it, researchers into this bodily function state that a female must awaken during the orgasm and consciously perceive it in order for it to count as a wet dream. Very few studies have been conducted into the quality of the cum ejaculated during a wet dream, but in the largest study (10 male subjects), the researchers found a similar concentration of semen a in samples collected after penile vibratory stimulation (masturbation). However, the percentage of semen which were of normal morphology and mobile was higher in the samples collected following a wet dream. 

An American study in 2007 found that both men and women reported that approximately 8% of their dreams included sexual content, with around 4% for each gender, reaching orgasm as a result. The frequency of wet dreams in males can be highly variable. Some men report that it happens due to sexual inactivity (masturbation and/or intercourse), and while some teenage boys report significant numbers, some report experiencing none at all. In a study of single males who experience wet dreams, it was found that a 15 year old boy would have approximately one every 3 weeks, while a 40 year old would be likely to have one every 5 weeks. For married males, the mean average is one per month for 19 year olds and once every two months for 50 year olds. Wet dreams are more commonly reported in some parts of the world; for example, in Indonesia, it has been reported that 97% off males experience a wet dream by the age of 24 years, which is a higher figure than reported in other areas. Some males stop having wet dreams once they mature out of adolescence, but it is also normal for wet dreams to continue throughout life. The frequency of wet dreams has surprisingly, not been conclusively linked to the frequency of masturbation, despite the report of Alfred Kinsey (The Kinsey Reports of 1948 and 1953) finding that may be some correlation occurrence if wet dreams and low rates of masturbation. Kinsey also found that males experiencing their first orgasm during a wet dream (13% of the males) were on average older than males experiencing their first orgasm from masturbation - typically the age gap being one year.

One factor which has been shown to affect the likelihood of men experiencing a wet dream is the ingestion of testosterone-based medications or drugs. In a study by Finkelstein et al (1998), the number of boys reporting frequent wet dreams increased dramatically when the subjects were administered with higher doses of testosterone - from 17% without treatment to 90% at high dose.

The frequency is just as variable in females. Kinsey found that 40% of women reported a wet dream, which  occurred in some as early as 13 years of age, and had typically begun by 21 years in others, happening several times a year after onset. Research shows that wet dreams tend to be more common in males, but this may be because male cum is more indicative that he has orgasmed, whereas mere arousal of the clitoris and vaginal lubrication does not necessarily mean that the female has experienced an orgasm. 

Both LaBerge (1985) and Garfield (1979) report on the phenomena of wet dreams in relation to the lucid dreaming experience. LaBerge, Greenleaf & Kedzierski (1983) conducted a study in which sought to determine the extent to which subjectively experience sexual activity during REM sleep was reflected in physiological responses, such as penile erections, vaginal lubrication and orgasms. As women report more orgasms during dreaming than men, the study commenced with a female subject ans many physiological processes linked to sexual arousal were monitored - including heart rate, vaginal muscle tone and vaginal pulse amplitude. She was asked to make specific eye movements at the stage in which she became lucid within her dreams, when sexual activity occurred in her dream and the point at which she reached orgasm. Once awake, she reported a lucid dream in which she carried out the agreed tasks. The study found strong correlation between the reported dream activities of the subject and the expected physiological measurements of sexual arousal, with vaginal muscle tone, pulsation and her respiration increasing the most during the 15 seconds of her reported orgasm, although contrary to expectations, her heart rate was only slightly elevated.

There are many cultural myths and explanations for wet dreams. In Ancient Rome, wet dreams were considered to be very normal, whereas in some religious traditions (Christian, Judaism and Islam), the experience of a wet dream is thought to signal impurity, although they are not perceived to be a 'sin' as such. Saint Augustine is said to have claimed that wet dreams do not pollute the consciousness of man, because unlike masturbation, are nor voluntary carnal acts. In European folklore, the wet dream and resultant orgasm was said to be caused by copulation with a succubus, an event which is also linked with sleep paralysis and night terrors. 

It is completely normal for a man to experience an erection during sleep, or upon waking, even if he suffers from penile erectile dysfunction in his waking life. An erection can happen between 3 - 5 times during a period of sleep, and typically occurs during REM sleep. Known as 'nocturnal penile tumescence', sleep erections are used by physicians as a gauge of whether penile erectile dysfunction is psychological or physiological in origin. There is some research to suggest that sleeping with a full bladder may encourage erections during sleep with an explanation that this inhibits the male from accidentally urinating while he is sleeping. There is also strong scientific evidence to suggest that females experience nocturnal clitoral tumescence (an enlarged clitoris caused by blood flow to the genital area) and an engorged vagina, in much the same way.

Wet dreams may be embarrassing, particularly when they happen in adolescence, but other than being annoying (sticky underwear or sheets), they are nothing at all to worry about, and are a normal part of development. There are no clear strategies for preventing wet dreams from happening, although male masturbation before sleep may prevent a build up of semen and limit their frequency, although there is no guarantee. The best thing to do is to accept the experience and gain as much pleasure from your sexual dreams and mental/physical arousal as possible, even if you aren't ready to become sexually active in your waking life. If you have any concerns about wet dreams, then you could speak to a doctor or counsellor about what is happening, but be assured that it is extremely common in both males and females and people with all levels of sexual experience and activity. Wet dreams do not signal sexual deviancy or abnormality - quiet the opposite! Even if your accompanying sexual dream is troubling - perhaps you experience the dream as involving a friend, family member , someone repulsive to you in waking life or a person of a sexual orientation/gender other than your waking preference (I have a number of same-sex dreams which lead to orgasm, despite me being heterosexual, and my female friends report the same thing!), this does not suggest that there is anything at all wrong with you - dreams play out subconscious fantasies, desires and fears which may not be safe to acknowledge in your waking consciousness and act as a resolution of internal conflict. You might experience taboo dream sex, precisely because your subconscious is responding to the taboo act or stimulus as a form of wish fulfilment or rehearsal for how to deal with a dangerous waking situation. I have experienced a sex dream which involved zombies with long claws trying to molest me while I am defenceless in a game of Laser Quest gone wrong - but I know I am not secretly harbouring a desire to be sexually assaulted by a zombie - rather my subconscious mind was preparing me for the worst case scenario, and escaping from the situation felt like I had conquered the zombie predators! I have also dreamed that I have been penetrated by strangers who I cannot see - this may be the dream enactment of a subconscious desire which I would never want to engage in during my waking life, because of the sordidness and danger of the situation. I am sharing these particular dreams with you to highlight that sexual dreams happen to us all, and while they may seem scary or embarrassing, this is because they are like holding a mirror up to our unconscious mind and we may fear or feel disgusted by what we see reflected there, but equally, we should view these experiences as a positive affirmation that our sexuality is part of our identity and goes beyond physical limitations or experiences and exists in our imagination as much as in our waking reality. There is no reason to feel guilty about anything that happens during dreaming - no-one can get hurt and we don't have to deal with the actual consequences of our acts or experiences, thus dreams provide us with a safe playground for the imagination. Many lucid dreamers report using the lucid dream experience to engage in erotic or sexual activity - either in circumstances where it would not be possible in real-life (with a celebrity, idol or supernatural being, or in a weird or magical environment) or because they are undergoing a frustrating 'dry spell' in their waking sex life. Sexual activity is in fact the most popular type of lucid dream reported by frequent lucid dreamers, alongside flying dreams!

New Youtube Videos & Tallulah La Ghash Facebook Page!

Hi Everyone!

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Here are my latest Youtube videos! Come to my channel for the full list of Tallulah La Ghash videos, like them and make sure you subscribe to stay up to date with all my new content as and when it is uploaded!

Lucid Dreaming - Why Lucid Dream?

You can transform your life in the dream state through the practice of lucid dreaming. It can be used for spiritual practice and growth, enhancing psychological integration; because lucid dreaming is all about being consciously aware of what is essentially a subconscious experience (dreaming), the mind is turned inwards, so the dreamer is able to examine their own psyche at work. Cultivation of lucid dreaming forms a cornerstone of Tibetan Buddhist Dream Yoga practices, a topic on which I hope to write an introductory article in the near future. Although I do not approach my own lucid dreaming explorations from Buddhist principles, it is incredibly useful to gain an insight into the reasons other cultures and traditions use the lucid dream process for spiritual enrichment.

Lucid dreaming has been described by Charlie Morley (author and lucid dreaming expert and teacher) as showing us the flexibility of our life experiences and the notion that we are projecting an aspect of our reality, allowing us to manifest certain desirable qualities or actions. Morely also states that lucid dreaming is a very literal form of 'co-creating' because in the lucid dream, the dreamer is both the dreamer and the dreamt of; the projector and the projected. You can directly observe how the lucid mind projects and manifests images and experiences and take this learning into your waking conscious, as a process of integration between body and mind. Morley, like myself, is sceptical as to whether we can simultaneously 'share' the lucid dream experience with another person, arguing that the phenomenon should be tested in dream experiments (he, like myself, has had limited success) - and explaining what some describe as shared dreams as little more than daily residue from a shared waking experience (such as a trip to the zoo) influencing dream content in dreamers (for example, both dreamers reporting dreams about a tiger the night after a visit to the zoo).

There is some evidence that lucid dreaming has been used as a form of 'training ground' for athletes or creative individuals who harness the process as a way of learning and practising skills and methods they wish to embody in their waking lives. Research has shown that some of the procedural memory for fine muscle movements (or 'muscle memory' as it is otherwise known) for playing musical instruments can be increased during a lucid dream. LaBerge and Rheingold cite a surgeon who would polish and refine his surgical skills (based on pre-sleep examination of his real-life surgical case-load) which enabled him to perform surgical procedures quicker and more effectively than the average surgeon, crediting his lucid dream surgical training as an explanation. Research by Dr Erlacher at the University of Bern in 2010, found that practising a physical activity in a lucid dream improved waking performance. He asked subjects to perform 20 attempts at flicking a coin into a cup, before they went to sleep. Those who practised the activity during a lucid dream that night, were found to be more accurate in the same tests the next morning, compared the those who did not practice in a lucid dream, or the control group, who did not lucid dream at all. Dreams are also a furtive breeding ground for the creative arts - painters such as Salvador Dali, William Blake and Paul Klee, used their dreams as source material for their art. Lucid dreaming and dreaming in general may enhance the dreamer's conceptual or symbolic understanding and offer them new ways of visually presenting thoughts or emotions which may not have come to them in their waking consciousness. Likewise, in music, Beethoven, Wagner and Mozart all found inspiration within their dreams. Dreams reveal our creative capabilities in ways the waking brain may not be able to - because during the dream process our ideas can flow free without being filtered by reason or rationalisation. 

Lucid dreaming has often been used as a way of confronting and resolving fears and phobias. Within the lucid dream state, time and space is relative - Morley likens the experience to jumping out of a plane - while the free fall may only last a minute or so, the experience may feel or be perceived as lasting a lot longer for the jumper. This is also true of the lucid dreaming experience, which means that even in a brief lucid dream (which in 'real time' only lasts a matter of minutes), a significant amount of  psychological insight or healing can take place. Much like the theory that nightmares are a way of presenting the dreamer with anxiety-provoking mental symbolism in a narrative form, as a therapeutic aid to dealing with such material and preventing it from negatively affecting our waking mind, lucid dreams enable us to manipulate our experiences and intentionally bring us into contact with the sources of our fears and phobias, giving us a safe opportunity to tackle and overcome them, with endless possibilities which may not be appropriate in waking like 'Exposure Therapy' or psychological 'Flooding' techniques. For example, if the individual's phobia is not one to which they can be exposed in a clinical environment (for example, they fear ghosts or demons) or the method of confrontation would not be ethically appropriate or even possible (i.e. slaying a giant spider to overcome extreme arachnophobia), lucid dreams may enable the individual to take advantage of the rationales behind such therapeutic methods in the comfort of their own bedroom and produce similarly positive effects. The lucid dreamer can use the lucid dream experience to visualise and project that which they wish to interact with - or conquer - and will still feel the same emotions which would accompany a waking experience of interacting with the person or object, but will know that what they are seeing and feeling is nothing but a mentally-created illusion, no matter how realistic or true to waking reality it appears to be. Nevertheless, the brain will create neural pathways based on this experience, which can be reactivated in the waking state and so the lucid dream states allows the dreamer to work with traumas and fears which benefits them in waking consciousness. 

In a study conducted at the University of Milan (Universita degli Studi di Milano), Italy in 2009, it was posited that lucid dream training may be a useful tool in dealing with chronic, recurrent nightmares and traumas, instead of the current trend for prescribing suppressant medications. This embraces the 'Threat Simulation Theory', which I will cover in more detail in a subsequent article, but in short, works on the assumption that dreams and nightmares serve an evolutionary function of exposing us to, and allowing us to rehearse, our reactions to dangerous situations. By rehearsing our 'fight or flight' processes in the dream state we are better prepared to deal with the same or similar situations if they arise in our waking life. Lucid dream training to deal with recurrent nightmares or traumas works on the same evolutionary and biological principles, but allows the dreamer to intentionally manipulate their dream content and experience in order to fast-track or improve their responses as well as the underlying healing processes involved. In a nightmare, the first instinct of the dreamer is to wake up because they are not ready or willing to confront their fear - this is natural and perfectly fine. but at some point they may be able to stay in the nightmare, and if in a lucid state, will be consciously aware that this is simply a projection of their mind Often all it takes to overcome the nightmare in a lucid dream state, is to bear witness to what it is which frightens the dreamer - to acknowledge it and recognise is as a visualisation of a subconscious emotion or thought. If the dreamer is able too become lucid during an incidence of a recurrent nightmare, it has been found that just one exposure is enough to end the nightmare cycle from reoccurring, 

Every time you experience a lucid dream, you become more apt at distinguishing between reality and unreality - i,e, waking expectations and the environment of the dream state, and thus, neuroscientific and psychological research has found that frequent lucid dreamers perform better at cognitive problem solving because the brain is adapting and learning new skills and abilities. Lucid dreaming reveals the incredible power of the human brain.

Aside from the psychological benefits of lucid dreaming, one of its mist compelling attractions for most oneironauts, if the fact of the limitless possibilities and freedoms for escapism.The lucid dream is the ideal scenario for fulfilling deep wishes and desires, many of which might be inaccessible or completely impossible to achieve in waking life, Many lucid dream enthusiasts use their dreams for experiencing erotic liaisons, animating a particular fantasy, meeting an idol or pursuing physically inconceivable feats, such as flying or becoming invisible. Otherworldly or fantastical scenarios and situations are now painted in stunningly vivid realism, and the dreamer is able to manipulate and control their interactions with the self-created and tangible dream environment, almost as if they were starring in their own subconscious movie. The scope of the lucid dream experience spans the length and breadth of the dreamer's imagination, but is projected in sensational detail, highlighting the dreamer's ability to mentally depict a believable, 3-dimensional location and functioning narrative, with an uncanny capacity to mimic the most minute elements of reality.The lucid dream world is perfect for exploring the depths of the subconscious mind in a safe and healthy way. 

Lucid dreams also prompt us to analyse the nature of reality. There are some philosophies which question whether it is consciousness which creates reality and lucid dreaming provides us with a direct line of communication with our subconscious mind. Using the lucid dreaming experience, we are able to conduct our own philosophical enquiries into the nature of reality and unreality, for example, why in the dream state there is a fundamental break down of the laws of cause and effect and also our concepts of time, space and the dimensions of our physical reality. We can use the lucid dream experience as a lens for our unconscious and allow us ourselves to discover what our dreams reveal about our interactions with physical reality, time and space. It therefore provides a great comparative experience to reflect upon the waking reality. It is an alternative to psychedelic drugs (which may be illegal and/or highly dangerous), and the furthest we can safely travel outside our usual waking perceptions and sense of reality, while still retaining the clarity of thought which is unlikely to exist during a drug trip. There are none of the adverse consequences of ingesting psychedelic or dissociative drugs. Lucid dream creates a natural high - including feelings of intense excitement, euphoria and adrenaline rush, in addition to stimulation of the senses and altered perception. 

There is some research that suggests lucid dreaming can help you grieve for departed loved ones, by giving the dreamer the opportunity for posthumous meetings and interactions with the deceased. Thus, lucid dreaming might be therapeutic during the mourning processes, allowing them to replay cherished memories or reach closure on unfinished business. 

This article has discussed a few of the main reasons why people may choose to lucid dream, but of course the explanation for why this is such an increasingly popular phenomenon, are as plentiful as the possibilities within the lucid dream experience itself. Lucid dreaming allows you to expand your horizons and connect with the subconscious mind and psyche in a magical reality of your own creation.

Dream 311

'Self Defence'

The first part of my dream was very hazy and hard to recall. I was in somewhere that looked like the stereotypical 'heaven' scene - everything was blue, with white fluffy clouds. Middle-aged women, carrying signs against their chests kept floating up to me, and using information as to their level of intoxication/alcohol addiction which was written on these signs I had to judge them in some way. I am not sure how. One woman - wearing a business suit and sporting a frizzy blonde hairstyle (she looked like she came from the 1980s), floated up to me. I looked at her sign and noted that she was an alcoholic, so I judged her as 'OK' for whatever it was I was judging (I cannot recall).

I was then (in a disconnected way) responsible for judging something else - I had no sense of self and felt removed from the action, like a passive observer watching something happening on screen and then discussing or thinking about it, thus distanced from what is being observed. The was this really obese, shapeless entity which was part of the competition, which may have involved cooking or food. The rules were that the contestants had to involve their postcode in some way, and create 'links' to websites in their creation. The obese thing had created something and I went onto Youtube to check whether they had followed the rules and created links to a website, and in the comments section, the obese thing had written: 'fuck' 37 times, so I deemed them the winner.

I was then working in my old law firm. The law firm looked different and the staff were all dream characters rather than the actual people who used to work there, except for my former boss, IF who was telling me that he was glad I had returned to work for him after our real-life conflict, and MF, the lawyer I worked for directly. I felt happy to be working there again and I was surprised that I remembered exactly how to do my job. The only thing I was confused about was how to print labels to put on the front of new client files, so I was waiting until I had these to do before I discovered whether I still knew how to do it. I was opening a new client file for a suspect who was at the police investigation stages. My boss, MF, had represented him during his police interview, but had forgotten to include any of the suspect's personal information, so I was having trouble knowing who the client was for the purpose of opening a new file. 

The scene changed and it was then night-time. I was with my nan, sitting in a bus shelter and it was raining. A tall, handsome mixed-race male (young adult) approached us, and engaged us in conversation. I cannot remember what the early part of the conversation was about, but halfway through my nan (looking inside her handbag) asked if I had a hairbrush. I said I did not (I never carry a hairbrush with me), and the young man said he had a comb. I wondered why he had a comb, because his hair was far too short to need to be combed (shaved down). He and I took a walk around the area, which was a large car park, with the bus shelter on one side (I think there was a shopping centre in the direct vicinity). He showed me some ID and I was able to see his full name and the town he lived in (which I do not think was a real-life place, and I cannot recall, except that it sounded very English and began with 'S'). He also told me: 'Your eyes look like Hannibal Lecter's' which I found quite creepy and wondered what he meant by that. Suddenly, he and I were walking down a brightly lit corridor, which looked institutional, like a school or hopital. We were approached by a very short girl (about 4 foot some inches, or shoulder height to me) who was wearing a red top and had short dark hair in bunches. She looked approximately between the ages of 18 - 24 years. She started to attack me in some way. I reacted with a surge of adrenaline, and began to defend myself against her. She continued with the attack, and all I could do was to put my hands around her neck and strangle her. I choked the air from her body and she collapsed to the ground. I thought about it for a second and then decided to stomp on her face a couple of times. I left her for dead. I then worried about the fact that I may have killed her. I went to work in my law firm (which specialises in Criminal Defence) and approached a legal secretary which was seated at a desk some distance away from my own, which was next to the printer and against a wall. I whispered in her ear (bending down so no-one else could hear me): 'I acted in self defence, but went too far...' The legal secretary told me to sit down and not say anything or worry about it. I was instructed by my boss, IF, to look at the new material brought in by MF, which contained all the other information about the new client, the police suspect, meaning that now I could open the client file properly. The new information revealed that the young mixed-race male had been working alongside my attacker/victim, in some form of crime scam, where the male approached females and lured them into a situation where the small female could attack them. They were wanted for a number of similar crimes to the one I had been led to, and defended myself against. I then felt much less guilty for my violent actions, as clearly the couple were trying to take advantage of me in some way. I wondered if the small female attacker/victim had in fact died.

I was then in the pub my mum used to run in Sheringham. I was behind the bar, serving drinks. From the big window, opposite the bar, I could see that it was daytime. My cousin, HM, was at the bar, buying a round of drinks for herself and two other young females. My cousin seemed much younger - in her late teens. I glanced over at the girls - one was her cousin, HYC, and the other was a small girl with her short dark hair in two bunches. The were sitting on the rectangular table which used to be under the blackboard with the specials written on it. She was wearing a red vest top. I felt slightly panicked, wondering if this was my attacker/victim, as from my memory (the attack had happened so quickly that I didn't get a good look at her) she appeared to look very similar. I asked my cousin who this dark-haired girl sitting with HYC was. HM said: 'It's my friend from Youtube' - I then realised it wasn't the same girl, it was just a coincidence that they were both small and had the same style. 

An Introduction to False Awakenings & Dreams Within a Dream

'All that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream'

- Edgar Allen Poe, A Dream Within a Dream (1849)

I previously wrote an introductory article on Sleep Paralysis, but since I had a rather scary series of false awakenings (and dreams within a dream), I thought I should continue my investigation into this topic.

A false awakening is an extremely vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep, which feels completely realistic at first. However, the dreamer is still asleep, but not immediately aware of this. During the false awakening, the dreamer may experience sleep paralysis, or alternatively, dream that they are performing routine activities, such as getting out of bed, dressing or washing. A particular subset of false awakenings, i.e. those in which the dreamer has awakened from a dream, are known as a dream within a dream or a double dream. This phenomenon is the subject of Nikolai Gogol's The Portrait (1835).

It is common for a false awakening to follow a non-lucid or lucid dream and especially in circumstances in which the dreamer's false awakening follows a lucid dream, it may become a pre-lucid dream, where the dreamer questions whether they are actually awake or still asleep and dreaming. The term pre-lucid dream was first referred to by Celia Green in Lucid Dreams (1968). Such experiences are predominant in dreamers who intentionally cultivate lucid dreams - indeed, my false awakening and multiple dreams within a dream followed an attempt to incubate lucidity the same evening I attended a lucid dreaming group in the city. 

In a study by Deidre Barrett, 'Flying dreams, false awakenings and lucidity: An empirical study of their relationship' (1991) Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams 1(2), 200 subjects (2,000 dreams) were analysed and it was found that lucidity and false awakenings were more likely to occur within the same dream or within different dreams of the same night. False awakenings often precede lucid dreams, acting as a cue (particularly where the experienced lucid dreamer performs a reality check), but could also follow the onset of lucidity, leading to the loss of lucidity. 

Another type of false awakening occurs in a continuum - the dreamer falls asleep in real life, but in the following dream, the brain is stimulated in a way that occurs when the dreamer is still awake, making the them mistakenly believe they are still awake. During this type of false awakening, the dreamer may perform waking activities unknowingly. This is the type of dream popularised in the movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). This phenomenon is often linked to sleep walking or the carrying out of activities in a state of unconsciousness. 

During the false awakening experience, certain aspects of the dreamer's world may be dramatised or appear changed and out of place - details of their environment or person may be wrong and they may experience difficulties in movement, speech or reading - see C Green & C McCreery, Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep (1994). In some situations, the dreamers senses may be heightened or changed and the dreamer experiences a mixture of reality and unreality which may be confusing or anxiety-provoking. 

As the mind continues dreaming after the false awakening, there may be multiple false awakenings within the same dream, a subset of the false awakening phenomenon characterised by the repetition of the experience. The philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) claims to have experiences a succession of about 100 false awakenings when coming round from an anaesthetic - see B Russel, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). The phenomenon has been referred to in popular culture, for example, an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants; the movie Night of the Dead (1945); the first volume of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel The Sandman (1989); Joan Baez's The Dream Song (1992); the animated film, Waking Life (2001); Inception (2010); and Doctor Who episodes, 'Amy's Choice' (2010) and 'Listen' (2014).

Celia Green has stated that it is important to differentiate between two types of false awakening:

Type 1

Type 1 is the most common form of false awakening, in which the dreamer feels like they have woken up, but find themselves in unrealistic surroundings - i.e. not their own bedroom, or a familiar room which appears to be different in appearance. This is often a form of pre-lucid dream - usually the dreamer will believe they have awoken, and then actually wake up in their bed or fall back into a normal dream sleep. Another very common form of false awakening is the 'late for work/school' variety in which the dreamer awakens in a typical room, which appears normal, and then realises that they have overslept and missed the start of work/school. If the dreamer looks at a clock, they will find that the time confirms that they are late, although the resultant panic is strong enough to jar them awake for real (similar to awakening from a nightmare). This type of false awakening may also result in bed-wetting because during the false awakening, the dreamer has performed normal every day tasks which they would usually do after getting up in the morning, such as urinating, erroneously believing that they are using a toilet.

Type 2

Type 2 false awakenings are much less common. The dreamer wakes up in a normal manner, but there is an atmosphere of suspense. The environment appears typical and realistic at first, but they gradually become aware that something is odd or uncanny in the atmosphere and may experience unusual sounds and movements. The dreamer may wake suddenly in a stressed and 'stormy' atmosphere with feelings of apprehension and fear. This experience is often very confusing and akin to a nightmare.

Charles McCreery analysed the phenomenon in C McCreery, 'Hallucinations and arousability: Pointers to a theory of psychosis' in G Claridge, Schizotypy, Implications for Illness and Health (1997) where he claimed that there was similarity between this type of false awakening and the 'primary delusionary experience' described by German psychiatrist and philosopher, Karl Jaspers (1883 - 1969) in General Psychopathology (1923), where the author stated that patients notice that something is uncanny or suspicious and everything takes on a new meaning. Perception remains unaltered, but there is a change which envelops everything in a subtle, pervasive and uncertain light, creating a sense of tension, and discomfort. McCreery suggest that this similarity is not coincidental, because both Type 2 false awakenings and primary delusionary experiences are both forms of sleep disorder. He states that primary delusionary experiences - like other forms of psychosis such as hallucinations, and secondary (or specific) delusions, represent an intrusion of stage 1 sleep processes into waking consciousness. Some argue that the reason for these intrusions may be that the psychotic subject is in a state of hyper-arousal, which psychiatrist and sleep researcher Ian Oswald (1929 - 2012) refers to as a a waking 'micro-sleep'.

The concept of a dream within a dream (i.e. a portion of one dream enacted within the envelope of another) has been studied intensively by sleep and dream researchers. Sigmund Freud emphasised the function of a piece of reality being inserted into the dream within a dream in an attempt to obliterate it and deprive it of its significance, although he did not delve further into the opportunity for the dream researched to explore the dynamic relationship between the two dual fragments of the discreet and segmented dream narrative and the possibility of multiple meanings of the illusion. The Psychoanalytic Theory of dreaming has been applied to the dream within a dream phenomenon in the published study, EJ Mahon, 'Dreams within Dreams' (2002) Psychoanal Study Child 57.

Dream 310

'Cheryl Cole & Call of Duty'

Dream date: 16 November 2014 (Afternoon Nap)

I was watching a Youtube playlist of a series which had been shown in British TV. This series was a cooking competition in which Cheryl Fernandez-Versisni (formerly Cole) and Nicole Scherzinger (both of whom are present/former X Factor judges) were judging the cooking skills of amateur contestants. In the first episode, Cheryl Cole (as I usually refer to her, being more used to her former married name) was standing behind a young blonde girl. The girl said: 'the cake is made out of blood' and the TV camera filming the show zoomed out to show that the girl was stirring a big mixing bowl filled with blood. Cheryl Cole (wearing a black vest top and white, flower-print trousers) said: 'I'm supposed to do a handstand for an hour, but my doctor advised against it because I'm having a baby and I may harm my unborn child!' The next two videos in the Youtube playlist were 5 seconds long each, and were 'reaction videos' by Nicole Scherzinger and Danni Minogue (another former X Factor judge) - they were both very excited by Cheryl's news of her impending motherhood. The fourth video in the playlist was Cheryl announcing that the blood-cake had won the competition.

I checked my Blog (this Blog!) to see how many page views I had had over the weekend, whilst I had not had internet access. I saw that there had been 9 new page views. I thought that was odd, because I would usually have a few hundred per day, even if I had not updated. I clicked the refresh button and the 9 changed to a 1, which I found even more odd. I refreshed the analytics page again, and the number of page views began switching from 9 to 1, and then settled on 9.

I was then playing a new version of Call of Duty on a new type of console (which does not exist in real life) - there were about 12 different button options on the control pad - including the normal directional-pad, thumb-stick, letter buttons and triggers, but also some slim black buttons which I did not know how to use. The graphics in this Call of Duty game looked old-fashioned, like early 1990s style, and blocky. You could play in an office block (where you had to run through 100 small businessmen, walking in a line, firing at them to kill them) or on board an airplane. I could not work out what the slim black buttons did, or how to aim a grenade, so I used my laptop to look up instructions/cheats for the gameplay. On the official website, it said that there were new features for the game, including 'bend down to smell a rose garden', 'scream out loud', 'fry and egg' and 'swallow a grenade' - these were the actions which were controlled by the slim black buttons, pressed in connection with the trigger buttons. I thought these actions were pretty pointless, but I went back to playing the game. My 'game character' (a soldier) kept bending down to smell a rose garden and I could not make him throw a grenade at the long line of 100 businessmen who kept running past him. When I tried to run through the line of businessmen (he went through the middle of them, running in the same direction), he would scream and swallow grenades, blowing him up and ending the game, so I would have to start the level again. I felt very frustrated.

Dreams 309

'Females Rappers in Prison'

Dream date: 15 November 2014

Before this dream, I tried to incubate an intention to dream of the diamonds which scientists have discovered may form and rain down from the skies/atmospheres of one of Jupiter's moons (it turns out that there may in fact be diamonds on both Jupiter and Saturn). The Wikipedia article about the scientific theories can be found here. Below is the dream I had instead:

I was watching a dream scene as a third-party, but not really participating. It seemed like I was watching a movie or TV show. Female rappers Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim were in a women's prison. Nothing very exciting happened - they weren't getting on very well, and this reflects their real life attitudes towards each other. Both were wearing orange prison jumpsuits. Lil Kim has served time in prison in real life. 

I was then in my nan's house in Sheringham, and somehow stuck playing a weird, sinister card game (I think it was with my cousin HM and perhaps some other people), which involved picking two cards, on which there were numbers written in black print. The cards had to be held up to the eyes, so they covered them. If the selected cards read '49' and '20' then something bad would happen to that player's arms (I think the arms would fall off, but I did not see it happen, as we all luckily avoided selecting '49' and '20' at the same time). I did not want to play this game, but something was compelling us to continue. I stopped playing it as soon as I could.

I was aware that I had just got home from high school or sixth form. She was going out and told me that it was my job to cook dinner for 'Nick Cotton' (an antagonist character in Eastenders played by John Altman). I didn't want to do this, but decided that it was best to do what my nan asked of me. It appeared that Nick Cotton was living in my nan's house with her and I. I went down to the local shop, which is a short distance away, but actually closer to my former home on the parallel road to my nan's, whereas there is another corner shop in Sunway Park, which is a shorter walk away. I felt distressed, as there was no meat or vegetables in the shop, only Quorn (meat alternative) and I knew Nick Cotton would not want to eat this. I didn't have a single clue what I could cook from the available produce in the shop. I think my cousin, HM was also with me throughout this dream scene, although I cannot recall many details. Nick Cotton was sat in the corner of the room at all times, but I cannot remember speaking directly to him.

Dream 308

'Academia & Wild Animals'

Dream date: 15 November 2014

I was with my mum and some other (unrecalled) people. My mum and I were looking through a magazine which seemed to be about education and academia. There was a small advert in the central pages of the magazine, which said (words to the effect of): 'AG, AP and SP perform better than 70% of the population. They are the cream of the crop!' I questioned this to my mum, as AP has got a university degree, but AG and SP left school with average qualifications and were not particularly academic or intelligent in my memory. I felt like my own qualifications and intellectual acumen was being undermined, as I went to school (and outperformed) all of these individuals, yet was not named in the advertisement (which was written by a teacher). I flicked to the inside of the front page of the magazine, where there was a small article at the bottom of the page, informing the reader than PS and his sister, TS, were to train as 'pharmaceauticals'. I tried to find the advert about AP, AG and SP again, but I could not see it in the magazine any more, even though I looked at every page. 

I was then standing outside the pub  and corner shop which were at the bottom of one of my childhood homes in Sheringham (where I lived from the age of 12 years until I left to go to university). It was snowy and there was frost on the ground. Tethered to a lampost outside the pub and shop was a giraffe and a tiger. I was on the other side of the road with DL and we began walking, towards part of the town known as Beeston Regis. We passed people walking tigers on leads, like dogs. We stood still for a moment and I said to DL: 'You are in my dream, which means you are dreaming too!' although strangely, I was not lucid at the time. I was saying the words without a conscious awareness that I was actually dreaming. He asked me what he should do. I said: 'You should try to become lucid!' to which he asked 'how?' I replied that he should 'try to stay calm'.

I was then in a sunlit garden, staring at a bungalow-type building which had French windows. My academic supervisor at university, IE, called me in through the French windows (which were the sliding door kind used in conservatories) and told me that he was about to let his dog run out into the garden, but I needed to watch this and make sure the dog was safe. He asked me to hold the lead of the dog, to which I agreed. He opened the French windows/sliding door again and I exited back into the garden. A black shaggy dog then ran out, and joined a line of other dogs, of various breeds, which were sitting in a row across the grass. I thought that IE didn't need me to watch his dog, as it seemed well-behaved and knew what to do without me guiding it. I then saw IE in a dog costume, which was black and shaggy - similar to his dog. He was on one side of a chain link fence (still in the garden) and a female, also wearing a dog costume, was on the other side. They were dancing around and trying to get to one another, but the chain link fence was in the way. I then saw IE - still in the dog costume - running towards a tree in the centre of the garden, on which a target (for shooting/archery) was mounted. There was a circular bench around the base of the tree.

I was then outside PS's home (my former home for several years) in London, lounging on the drive with PS. It looked like PS's house, but also the exterior of my old primary school. We were both reading the same newspaper. PS said that he needed to eat some cornflakes 'to keep up his strength' and disappeared into his house/the primary school to get some.

Dreams 306 & 307

Dream 306

'Cannabis & Videos'

Dream date: 14 November 2014

I was in a room which looked like my nan's living-room in Sheringham, but was a little, different, although I cannot say what had changed. To my left was sat LRB (a rapper from London) and SH (a girl who I went to primary/high school with, but haven't seen in 17 years, nor had cause to think about). To my right, was PS, seated in an armchair. LRB is a friend of PS, but neither of them know SH. We were all sharing a cannabis spliff and there was some conversation, which I cannot recall.

I was then outside, in dreary, but dry weather. Someone was selling videotapes from a cardboard box (I think it was a middle-aged man) and other people were loitering or walking by. I took a closer look at the videos in the box, and noticed that they were stones/pebbles. I had something in my hand - the size of an apple. It looked like a sugared strawberry sweet.

Dream 307

'Class A Hotel'

Dream date: 14 November 2014 (Afternoon Nap)

I was in a hotel bar with my mum, my nan and DL. The hotel bar was very dimly lit and decorated luxuriously. My mum and nan got up from the seats we were sat on (a navy velvet-covered sofa against the wall) and left DL and I. DL started to have sex with me from behind, still on the sofa. I could see this happen in the third-person as well as experiencing it in the first-person. We were still fully clothed and I thought we looked like a T-shape in this position. DL hugged me from behind and pulled the hood of a white hooded top I was wearing up, to partially cover my head. DL then said he wanted to go to the restaurant area of the bar to get a pastry. I followed him out a short while later (this was just around the corner from where we had been sat, and the lights were brighter). When I joined DL, I noticed he was now RF (someone I know from Norwich who has become well-known for hosting a hip hop event). I felt anxious, hoping that DL was not actually RF. There was a stainless steel counter to my side, on which was a small white plate with a pastry on it. The pastry looked old and as if it had been manhandled. I followed DL/RF a short distance and we came to another counter, where better pastries were being served across a glass partition. DL/RF bought a croissant. 

We then went into the lobby where there were three people standing. One of them was a young blonde female, one was a well-known battle rapper and hip hop artist from America (DZ), who has performed at events hosted by RF in real life and the third was a middle-aged man. RF introduced me to DZ, who had travelled to the UK to take part in a battle rap; and the blonde girl who was RF's girlfriend (in the dream). I was not introduced to the middle-aged man, who said nothing.

I was then in a car with RF and we were driving down a road in the sun. On one side (left) was the sea and on the other urban buildings. RF pointed out a large white building and said: 'That's a Class A hotel!'.

Dreams 304 & 305

Dream 304

'Polish Girlfriend'

Dream date: 13 November 2014

I was back in my old home in London, but the bedroom was different - it was now long and narrow and very dimly lit. The bedroom was filled with people (young male adults) who I had known when I lived in on the same council estate in London, but PS wasn't there. However, there was a short, Polish girl with ginger hair cut to shoulder-length. Someone told me that this Polish girl was PS's girlfriend and he has been dating her for 'years' (which could not have been true). I was getting annoyed, because my former friends were acting as if I had never lived there and dated PS - it was as if I had been erased from their memories. The Polish girl was acting as if she was Queen of my former castle, being very loud and dominant. I decided that I would go over to her and put her in her place, informing her that I had been there before her, had lived in this house and dated PS. The Polish girl became really angry and upset at this revelation (truth) and started crying, gaining the sympathy of those around her. Someone (I am not sure who) told me that I was cruel to inform her that I had dated PS during her relationship with him. I tried to protest saying that 3 years ago, I had been in a relationship with him, living in this house and he could not have possibly started his relationship with her during that time, so she was deluded. Everyone was leaving to go to a party, and I decided that I would go, try and find PS and sort this mess out. I felt annoyed that everyone was trying to comfort this girl. treating her as if she was the victim of PS's infidelity with me, when in reality, had there been an overlap in our relationships, it would be me - as his earlier girlfriend, who would be the actual victim. A friend (a Scottish rapper) RBA, was present. He said that he would give me a piggy-back to the party, so I leapt onto his back for a ride. I suddenly realised that I had a long braided rope of hair growing from my butt crack. I tried to pull it out in horror, but it kept coming out without an end to it. 

Dream 305

'Womb Operation'

Dream date: 13 November 2014

I was standing at the main bus stop at university with BG, my housemate. It was daytime and pretty sunny. We weren't waiting for a bus, but rather a group of people (I am not sure who this group of people were). Suddenly, a large group of people all dressed in smart business suits started approaching us at the bus stop, but stopped still a few feet away from us. I said to BG that we had better take photographs of them - this was the group of people we were waiting for, although I did not recognise any of them. It transpired that we were waiting to be taken to the hospital for an operation. We both stood in front of the group and started taking photographs of them on camera phones. 

The scene then changed and I am not sure if we were at the hospital, or whether we had already been and then returned. I was standing in a hallway, looking into an open doorway of what appeared to be a university-style dorm bedroom. The environment looked institutional. My neighbour and colleague, AB (trainee doctor in real life) was standing in the doorway, getting changed into pyjamas. He was wearing a surgeon's mask, which he pulled down to his neck. He said to me: 'You've ruined Shan's relationship'. I knew 'Shan' was AWB (a girl I know of from social networking who I have fallen out with indirectly) and therefore I had no sympathetic feelings towards her. AB would not know ABW in real life. He then said that maybe my health problem (I am not sure what was wrong with me and did not feel unwell) might be 'a paggen in my arm caused by smoking'. I got angry with him and told him that it could not be a 'paggen' because I did not smoke enough for this. I walked through to another room, where my mum and another person (a middle-aged male) who I recognised as knowing from real life, but cannot recall, were sitting on chairs. It seemed like this room was a classroom from my primary school. 

BG was now with me and we went into the centre of the room and sat on the carpet. On a plate beside me was a pile of twisted pretzel-looking items, which I picked up to examine. They were dark brown and in a stretched-out horses-shoe shape. I knew that they were wombs which had been removed from women, and I feared that my womb had been removed. These were the 'paggens'. I then saw that there was a transparent plastic tent (half the normal size) on the floor (the carpet was green) and inside were massive blocks of different cheeses - all varieties of cheddar or other medium-hard types. BG started to eat some of the cheese. I reached into the tent and pulled some of the cheeses out to have a closer inspection. I noticed that all of them went out of date in 2007, so I stopped BG from eating them in case she became ill from food poisoning.

We were then about to make a 'chocolate mirror cake', which I had never heard of in real life, but appears to be a chocolate sponge cake coated with a chocolate mirror glaze. The cake in the dream resembled those I found on Google image search when writing up this dream.