Sunday 5 April 2015

Dream 399

'Alan Sugar Proves Infinity' (Lucid Dream)
Dream date: 3 March 2015
I was at a location which appeared to be a slightly altered version of The Crown in Sheringham. There was a party going on, which seemed to be hosted by my mum and I. The whole venue was crowded, and I was walking around, occasionally stopping to talk to my mum. At one point I went to the doorway and looked outside - I could see rows of wooden tables and benches (similar to those in the actual pub in real-life). LD and two other male dream characters (who I knew in the dream) were seated at the tables. LD was wearing a white shirt. They were - like the other guests at the outside tables - all eating. This scene was quite long, but nothing exciting or strange happened; I was simply mingling with the party guests. It started to turn dusk.

I was then in a room which looked like the diagram below. The room was quite dark and it was a kind of classroom, the teacher being Alan Sugar. I was with LD, AP (a girl from my high school), and the two male dream characters who had been with LD at the party in the earlier scene. We were seated at school desks, facing Alan Sugar, who was standing at a small chalkboard (which was not mounted on a wall, but was some sort of stand-alone easel). Alan Sugar was teaching us about 'infinity'. He drew a diagram on the chalkboard (see below for replica),which consisted of three rectangles, with upwards pointing arrows inside them. Above the middle rectangle was the infinity sign. I was really frustrated and confused because my number dyslexia/dyscalculia meant I did not understand the maths he was using to explain the theory. Everyone else seemed to understand just fine, and this contributed to my feelings of inadequacy (considering I was the person with the most formal education and academic interest out of the 'students'). 

We moved to the back of the room, and sat in a row on some benches against a wall. To our right (which I had not noticed before) was a wall made up of textured diamond-shaped patterns which seemed to be made of some sort of felt material. They were attached to the wall, but could be removed. The diamond-shaped felt pieces were in jewel colours - ruby, emerald, violet and sapphire blue. Between the patterned wall and the doorway, was a box mounted on the wall which contained spare diamond shapes. A male dream character in a handyman's uniform (blue overalls) entered the room and emptied the box of spare diamond shapes into a clear plastic bag and took them out of the room. 

JA - a former friend and colleague who I fell out with in 2009 and haven't spoken to since - entered the room. She was wearing a backless gown (I think it was white with jewel decorations on the front, because it seemed sparkly in places). She came up to us and started speaking to us. I thought it was odd that she was acting as if nothing adverse had happened between us. She then paraded around the room, in a very smug manner. 

I then found myself in my kitchen in my home in Norwich. On the counter in front of me was a packet of minced beef (mine) and a packet of raw chicken breasts with some minced beef also in there (not mine, and I found it odd that the minced beef was mixed in which raw chicken breasts). I wondered who the chicken breasts belonged to, since my housemate is a vegetarian. I started to make burgers from the minced beef, but I only had enough for one burger. I decided to take the minced beef out of the packet of chicken breasts and use that, but as soon as I started, a male dream character (white, tall, fat, blonde hair and thick glasses, wearing a navy jumper and beige trousers) came downstairs and into my lounge/kitchen. He was my new housemate. I apologised for stealing his minced beef, but he did not seem to care. We walked over to where my window would normally be, but this was now a small glass conservatory (with the normal real-life view of the grassy field and lake outside). It was daytime and very sunny outside. The conservatory was crowded with (unrecalled) people, who were all friends/people I knew. We sat in there together, with me in the corner, near the door leading to the lounge, up against the glass wall. I asked the new housemate - who was sitting opposite me, with our knees so close they were almost touching - what his name was, and he said 'Stuart'. I said: 'Do you spell that S-T-U-A-R-T?' and he said: 'No' and got a small scrap of paper and a pencil and started to spell his name, which looked like this (not exactly, just an approximation of what I can remember): 'SFETW CMURMFGU'. I thought the spelling was so odd and did not make any sense at all. He said that his Polish grandmother had invented this spelling of his name, which was pronounced 'Stuart Cummings'. He handed me the piece of paper and I held it up to the glass of the conservatory so that the light shone through it. He had also drawn a 'monkey graveyard' which featured a picture of a monkey statue on a tombstone. The writing was so difficult to read as the letters all seemed to jumble into each other and change. Stuart then asked me if I could guess his favourite movie. I said: 'Betty Blue' (1986) instantly, without thinking, Stuart pulled out a DVD case from behind his back, revealing it to be Betty Blue and I was surprised that I had guessed it correctly in one answer, considering I have never even seen this movie myself.

I then found myself in an outside environment in  almost total darkness. There was a dirt path in the middle of two grassy areas, which stretched a long distance. At the sides of the grassy areas, were steep hilly banks. I was walking down the path alone and felt anxious because it was so dark and I did not know where I was. I sat down on the grassy area to my left and instantly questioned if I was dreaming. There seemed to be no trigger at all for this Dream Initiated Lucid Dream. I thought: 'I better reality check' but my thoughts were vocalised loudly (without me intending to speak aloud) as: 'Reality check, reality check, reality check!' I was then consciously aware that I was dreaming - fully lucid! I could feel that the grass I was sitting on was very damp. I looked up at the sky and saw it was now filled with stars which I had not seen before when not lucid. I stood up and started waking in the direction I had been heading originally. I thought to myself that I should try and control the lucid dream by bringing a dream character into my environment and decided that I would visualise someone called 'Simon' because that was the first name which came into my head. Suddenly a group of people came towards me (laughing with each other and seemingly in a good mood), but I could not see who they were. One of them (male) called out my name and I realised it was my friend SD. I said: 'Hello' to him, but decided to carry on walking and control a different aspect of my dream instead, perhaps change the dream scene. I turned around to see what SD and the group of people were doing and saw they were climbing up one of the steep banks, in the area where I had just been sitting. I then felt myself waking up. I tried to fight it, by shaking my hands and saying: 'Stay lucid!' but it was too late and I woke up fully. 

TIME: 23:00 - 09:30 hours (woke from dream at 09:30 hours, so the dream probably took place between 08:30 - 09:30 hours)
LUCIDITY: Yes - Full Lucidity (approximately 2 minutes of lucidity via DILD, not induced)
SPECIAL NOTES: No obvious lucid triggers, unusual reality check

Dreamsigns:
  • The Crown looked different from real-life and I noticed this (IA - Inner Awareness/F - Form).
  • Taught by Alan Sugar (C - Context)
  • Chicken breasts - I questioned their presence in my house, knowing that I live with a vegetarian and that they did not belong to me. It was also weird that they had minced beef mixed into them (IA - Inner Awareness).
  • I thought it was odd that I had a new housemate and this took my by surprise (IA - Inner Awareness/ C - Context).
  • The spelling of 'Stuart' was so odd I questioned it, and the text was unreadable when I concentrated on it (IA - Inner Awareness/F - Form).

Potential Day/Dream Residue:
  • There was to be a family gathering at The Crown on the Friday after this dream took place, but it was eventually cancelled. At the time of this dream, I still thought the family gathering might be going ahead.
  • The night before this dream I had seen JA on Facebook.
  • The night before this dream, I had watched a play which was originally screened at part of ITV's Armchair Theatre series. I had been particularly drawn to the Thames Television opening ident, because it had reminded me strongly of seeing/hearing that during my childhood and it had some nostalgic significance. I used to see/still sometimes see the Thames Television ident in my mind's eye whenever I got stoned and get lost in my thoughts. I have no idea why this happens or why this particular image/audio holds so much importance for me. I have included a Youtube video of the ident (from 1984) below. The play I was watching was called The Office Party (1971) and involved an office leaving party for the boss, which descends into chauvinistic, sexist and misogynistic behaviour, particularly aimed at one young female receptionist who is pregnant after having an affair with a colleague. She wears a sexy, backless dress to the office party. attracting both lecherous male behaviour and female jealousy. I had fallen out with my friend and colleague JA in real-life because when we worked in an office together as trainees in the same role, she had received favourable treatment (promotion; paid leave for study - which I had not been entitled to; making me unwell from the stress of juggling full-time work and study; extra training and responsibilities; and a significant pay increase, as well as having her tuitions fees paid for by the firm). This was as a direct result of having an affair with our much older boss, which had been turbulent, chaotic and affected the working environment for many of my colleagues. I felt that this was a form of sexual discrimination and nepotism and the situation contributed to me resigning from my much-loved job. Confronting my former boss over his unfair treatment was one of the reasons I fell out with JA. I think watching the  The Office Party play and thinking about JA contributed to her appearing in my dream, parading around proudly, wearing a fancy, sexy, gown. I would be lying if I said that these events from several years ago (which had a massive impact on my professional career) did not cause me some resentment and bitterness.
  • Two days before this dream I had been working in a legal office, which may have also contributed to JA appearing in my dream.
  • JA and I used to work with SD in the office.

Waking Thoughts & Emotions:
I awoke excited and disappointed by the fact I had experienced a lucid dream, but that it was over very quickly. I was however, also impressed by the vividness/clarity of the earlier, non-lucid parts of this dream and how much I could recall upon waking. This was a very enjoyable dream.

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