Electric Dreams
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"Digital Dreams: The changing (inter)face of dreams in the twenty-first century

Richard Catlett Wilkerson


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  Wilkerson, Richard Catlett (2000 March). Digital Dreams: The changing (inter)face of dreams in the twenty-first century. Electric Dreams 7(3). Retrieved July 14, 2000 from Electric Dreams on the World Wide Web: http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams





Dream: "I couldn't get the screen saver to work and had to call my friend who knows about computers. I was afraid the letter I had written would be permanently burnt into the monitor if I couldn't get the screen saver working" Dell

Dream: "Because I used to work here I knew the password, but I couldn't find the files on the computer that I had left several months ago" DB

Dreams about computers are on the rise. Whether you believe that these dreams simply reflect the rising concern and involvement with computers during our waking life or feel that they are a symbolic trail to our innermost self and beyond now mediated by binary metaphors, the information age and its technologically mediated communications now increasingly inhabit our dreamscapes and are a part of our dreamworld. Just as when we shifted from horses and carriages to automobiles and interstates, the shift to computer screens and virtual reality has changed the inner landscape and created a whole new set of images through which we can see our lives. They may offer something even more, a chance to know something radically other than ourselves.

I have an underlying theme and investigation which I want to disclose just so you know one of my investigation biases. I am investigating the notion that hominization is virtualization. This phrase was coined by Pierre Levy, a French cultural theorist. Levy feels that becoming human has always been, partially, about becoming virtual. Books, tools, roads, planes, jets, rockets, radio, television; these are all ways we have of extending the space in which we interact. Now we are experiencing this virtualization process in an accelerated pace.

Some feel the acceleration has increased to such a degree that its no longer a question of quantity of change but a quality. Speed itself has become the place as well as the time to get there.

This is reflected in the virtualization of our living and working landscapes that must now have floors and walls that act and react as fast as our windows and doors used to. Just as we now touch people from around the global in an instance, so too our personal space need to have a global, 360 degree space that can move and provide interaction with that which is beyond ourselves.

The computer screen as we know it will disappear, surrounding us with virtual space. The walls will be alive. How like the dream.

Of course, if you seen the dream as only a reflection of yourself, this may not be like a dream to you at all. In dreamspace of this kind we only interact with ourselves. In Cyberspace with interact with others. But profound dreamwork has always recognized the other in dream as Other. Sometimes even the dreamer in the dream does things quite foreign, so much so we can barely recognize ourselves. What we do learn is how to come into relationship with this radical otherness. At times this is simply using the Otherness of the dream as a new way to see our own lives, and other times the Other is so overwhelming we can only gaze in wonder and horror at its own world and designs.

The point here is that dream workers have always been in tune with the notion of the whole world being alive. In dreamland, the door may be as ensouled as the dream postman or child next door. Stones can step up and interact with us as easily as the teacher or boss.

And so I am looking at what images and metaphors dreams are now producing and not only what they might be for the individual but for the culture as well. I am not going to spend a lot of space here analyzing these dreams, but here a couple of ways I am looking at the dreams. I have already mentioned the virtualization of identity. Also of interest:

The Soul in the Machine.

Sometimes this is the lost soul, the things that don't quite work the way we planned or wanted, the things we can't quite master or that torment us, the things that get forgotten and lost. Here we find the world of hard drives crashing, modems not connecting, e-mail disappearing, wrong websites appearing, lost files, being denied access, losing passwords and electric surges destroying our files. But the soul is also psyche and manifest as desire. That is, when we feel we can get what we most desire through the Network. Sometimes the network opens up for us like a lover unfolding their heart and sex, other times it leads us into ruin with promises that evaporate in the blink of a screen. In chat rooms we find him, only to find out it's a her. We think we are taking to him and found it's an it. Other time the soul lead us to places we never imagined could exist. And sometimes it leads to ourselves..

The Spirit in the Machine

There are many levels of spirit in computer dreams. Sometimes we simply find affirmations on the screen, and other times come into contact with the a new consciousness that is the Net itself in transcendent self-awareness. These computer dreams of spirit include creative affirmation and productions to encounter with the abstract and ideal, to our alignment with the Infinite. We will see screen savers, surge protectors, teaching others, demonstrating new projects, displaying a new website, sending e-mail to famous people, building virtual communities, finding long lost friends and gaining access to privileges areas. Angelic digital cyborgs will cross our paths and noospheric global transcendence will present itself in burning wires that heat up the cyberscape.

In a series of articles I would like to share some of these digital dreams and explore the metaphorical imagery as it inhabits our cultural sphere as well as our individual psyches.

As this series is an ongoing Electric Dreams Community exploration, I invite you to join in by sending dreams, comments and your take on this shift in dream content.


RIA'S COMPUTER DREAMS

The subject of "Dreams and Computers" is of great interest to me because I worked in the "computer biz" for about 30 years. So computers have been a part of my life and thus my dreams for a long time: Some examples:

- When I was deep in a programming project, I often dreamed "in" the programming language/environment that I was working in, this fused with the dream content somehow. So there was a sense that I was dreaming that I *was* the computer.

- When I first started doing dreamwork and was anxious about writing down my dreams, I dreamed that I didn't need to write it down because I'd already saved it to disk!

- At a time when I was very overworked, I dreamed that I was pressing Alt/Esc over and over to close windows on my computer - but there were always more.

The following is a recent dream that I had after reading Stephen LaBerge's book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming". There is an exercise in the this book for controlling your dream by imagining a giant TV set and changing the channel. I had already thought that for me using a computer screen instead of a TV set might be better. At this point I hadn't actually had a lucid dream, and the dream seemed to be showing me what it could be like.

-----------------
Dream: Virtual Rio

I'm at the computer, looking at a financial web site. I click on the company logo, which is of Mount Rushmore, and the background of the screen changes to a view of this mountain, with a blue, blue sky in the background. It swings around to show a 360 degree panoramic view. My husband, who is standing behind me, asks me to turn it off because it makes him feel dizzy. But I'm fascinated, it then shows a view of details, as if you were walking in these mountains ¡ you can see individual stones and even insects crawling between them. Later I experience a virtual reality climb up the mountain with statue of Christ on it near Rio de Janeiro. It is very lifelike, almost like being there. I enthuse about this experience to people later. They are not convinced that it can in any way replace the actual experience. I say, "But I can't really afford to actually go to Brazil, and I've been able to see with my own eyes the view from this mountain, as if it were real." I'm blown away by the whole thing, that technology is capable of providing such realism.
----------------


Earth Day Connections: dreambat
Sept 24, 1999

I go to a two or three story garage. Its also a school and car repair and research and other things kind-of-place. I talk with people at a kind of meeting-yet-party and eventually they leave. I used to work here as well and need to access the computers. I try for sometime to bring up my account on one computer but have to go into another part of the building to turn on another computer before they can connect. I go and find the room, its like a typical lab room in a research facility, though also like a school and a warehouse or car repair office. That is, messy, full of papers, not very clean.

I turn this computer on and then go upstairs to another computer I need connected. I see someone working in the evening light, a guy at a table full of machines he is working on, like old radios, computer equipment, and other technologies.

I turn the computer on and connect with the systems operator who is on a computer in some other part of the building. I tell them I need to have access to my account and need these various computers networked. We fiddle for awhile and he asks me what room the other computer I needed connection to was in. I tell him. He asks me if I realize what day it is? "No," I say "What day is it?" He says its Earth Day. I look through a long window at a building across the way, and notice again the late evening sun. I also notice how quite it is and think that everyone must be off for Earth Day. I worry that they systems operator will now say that nothing can be done because everyone is off. But instead he says "Since its so quiet, I guess I can just come down look at the computer myself." I tell him I will meet him in the room and head off.

Dreambat


CAMILLA'S COMPUTER DREAMS

Dream 1: 30 October 99,

I am dreaming that my neighbors are visiting us, we are talking about the Internet. They don't know much about the Internet, so I am demonstrating them some things.

IRL, I was irritated by their dog barking at night and wakening us up. My husband talked to them about it and they agreed to take care of it. The night after that conversation I had that dream. I had positive feelings about the dream.

Dream 2: 31 October 99,

I am dreaming about a colleague, a woman with whom I worked a long time ago. She is sitting at her desk, working on a computer (IRL there were no computers at that time, 1981, 1982, I was a social worker then and in that kind of business at that time, computers were not yet accepted) I am in her room and I am looking at the screensaver, which is constantly on. She lives in a small room and the computer takes a central position in the room.

I don't remember feelings about the dream, the week foregoing to both dreams, I passed an exam after having followed a computer course and we had a visit from a software-engineer with whom we talked about computers and the Internet.

Dream 3: 22 November 99,

I am at an institution, where you can follow all kinds of courses. One of those courses gives me the possibility of an extra degree as a social worker. However, I do not like the kind of job you can get with the degree. In the dream, I realize that I am not suited for the job, it is a job at social services from the government and I hate to disappoint people. It will be the kind of job with lots of talks in which you have to bring bad news. But I am following the course anyway and at some point I get a menu with different options, then I choose for the unit that give me the possibility to administer fields in a database.

The feeling that I had about the dream was one of pleasure that I had found a possibility to work with computers instead of being a social worker. IRL I have been out of work for more that 10 years now, I have got Crohn's disease, an ostomy etc. I am paid from disablement insurance act and I do all kinds of computer things as voluntary work for friends, acquaintances etc. That week I had just completed a little database that I had made for a friend who works as a therapist, to do her administration on the computer.

11 January 2000:

I am in the garden, it's summer and I am neatly dressed, because I have to go to a computer course. My neighbor is also in the garden and I guess she will be wondering, why I am dressed so neatly (distinguished, is that the word?)

Then my cats are walking through the garden, they look different than usual. I am going by bike to the computer course, it is a kind of exam I have to take. It will take place in a building, not far from where live, in an area with all kinds of offices.

The building itself is a place where they produce ostomy bags. (I have a colostomy, I hope you understand the word).

I find the room in the building where I have to be and take a seat. They are computers everywhere. To my left, there is a (to me unknown) soapstar en to my right my aunt NETTIE is seated. I am thinking: this is going to be fun, my aunt Nettie behind a computer.

End of the dream.

IRL my aunt Nettie has never touched a computer. It's possible she has never seen one. The day foregoing to the dream, I had returned a computer to a friend. Her computer gave many problems, modem didn't work etc. I had taken the computer to my house and worked with it, to solve the software problems. Now I think about it, she looks a bit like my aunt Nettie.

"back to organizing"

The 15th of January: I am working again, as a social worker. I am the only one that morning working and I have to get everything ready for the next week. (meaning organizing domestic helps for sick and handicapped people). I am very busy organizing all this and I realize that it is difficult: I have been away for a couple of years, so I am not familiar anymore with the patients and the women working for them as a domestic aid. I am surprised by the way as it comes to administration, things are still organized in the old-fashioned way: with paper and pen everything is written down.

At the same time, there are 2 computer screens on the desk. I am organizing which patients I am going to visit that afternoon.
At the background there is at some point a colleague named Corrie. I feel the need to ignore her, thinking by myself I have been kind enough to you, now you have to make a move. End of the dream.


Comments: Digitally, I found it interesting the contrast of the two ways of organization. The screen thing for me is a big issue in real life. Why such a horrid interface to cyberworld? I keep telling people who hate computers but really hate screens that this will all disappear soon, and you can write on a thing that will appear just like a piece of paper.

So in this way, this dream is very unique and historical, since it situates itself between the time when we used computers via screens and the next generation which will have something very different.
Any idea why there were *2* screens? Did these duplicate the same task or was one for admin and the other for a secretary or ?

26 January:
My neighbors are on vacation and in some way I have access to their house. My husband and I come there regularly to do all kinds of things that are unclear to me. >From the windows, there is a view on all kinds of terraces of different heights. At one point I realize that it is better that they do no find out that we have been there and that we have to erase all the tracks that can indicate our presence there. E.g. we have been cooking dinner there, we have used a pan, that needs to be cleaned and I am worried if we will do that properly. At some point I also have turned on the computer and the stereo installation, and then I turn them off quickly, because I realize that the equipment, meaning the computer, could track down everything that happens with it. (Like keeping up a diary, is that the correct translation?) I also wonder if other people could have seen us entering the house. End of the dream.

27th of January:
I have a neighbors, a woman that I dislike a lot in real life. I dream that she is paying me a visit, I am upstairs vacuuming. When I go downstairs she is busy reading a file (paper file, not a computer file). That file belongs to me and it appears to be outlook express, my email program. She takes the subdirectory that's named Willem. She begins to read aloud his last email. I get furious and tell her that it is not her business. The next moment I am alone with my husband and I am angry with him, for the fact that he allowed her to do so. We have a big argument and he doesn't seem to understand my point. End of the dream.

I do not recall feelings from the day foregoing to the dream. Two weeks before the dream she paid us a visit and I was just on the Internet receiving mail including a letter of Willem. So I could not read it at that moment because she is the type of person who gives you no privacy, she comes to read you email together with you. In real life I dislike her and her visits. She is the kind of type that feels bored all the time, for that reason she comes to visit and hang around. I have many aggressive fantasies about her. What is strange in the dream is the fact that my husband doesn't seem to understand my point, Irl he would certainly understand it, and he also dislikes her. There is one difference between us however: I am more clever in hiding things, I know that she is curious, so when she enters I quickly put away things, books that I don't her want to see. My husband is not so suspicious.


HAUNTER'S COMPUTER DREAM

"Haunter"; a 48 year young graphic artist and researcher into anomolous perception.

xxxxxxxxxxx
I was having a rather mundane last REM of the night when I had a very strange "false awakening"; something I haven't experienced in years. I "awoke" to a very real representation of my bedroom; I noticed nothing extraordinary about it. I proceeded to put on the latest CD from a net-friend of mine who's now produced three wonderful and soothing electronic-oriented music CD's and sat down in front of my computer to check email. Interestingly, instead of the usual sounds that I get when connecting to the Web, it played a few static-filled bars of an old Hendrix classic, Voodoo Child! As with most unusual dream content, I explained away this oddity and simply reached up and turned down the volume because it was drowning out Mara's Torment music from the stereo behind me. Then, as I'm checking my email, I note that the letters are HUGE on the monitor; only 2 or three letters could be seen at once and I remember getting really frustrated with having to constantly move the cursor over to the right to read each word. At this point, my attention was diverted to the right of me where I have my computer "mini-tower" because the CD drawer activated automatically and the CD that was contained inside started spinning and rose out of the drawer like a flying saucer! "Coooool" I whispered, then, immediately realized what was going on and I tried to stabilize my consciousness to keep the lucidity intact. I'm a little chagrined to admit that I lost it totally when the CD came flying at my head at high speed and decided I'd better wake up for real....which I immediately did.

Well, nothing too spectacular, to be sure, but it was fun while it lasted and more so to replay the still-vivid memory of that CD rising up from it's drawer!


BAINE'S COMPUTER DREAMS


Data Input

This occurred before all the others, after I had suggested that I recall a past-life. I decided to try another method. As I lay down, I repeated over and over, "...I was? And I lived in ?" or "I am...? And I live in....?" repeating it over and over, so that as I entered into the hypnogogic state, it would trigger images.

Eventually, I dreamt that I was sitting in front of a computer and keyboard. I had been given a name (i.e. a Christian name and a surname). I tried to get into the right program; either the computer was too slow or the keyboard wouldn't connect, and somehow I knew that if I couldn't get the name onto the computer, I wouldn't remember it when I awoke. Maybe my eyes needed to register the name for my real-time memory to be able to retain the name. I remember trying to type in the letter "M" (so whatever the name was, it contained an "M"). I don't know how I got the name, it seemed to just emerge from the mantric repetition of "I was?, I live in?". Actually, I feel that I had dropped, somehow from the surface level of the 'mantra' to a more fluid level at which I was receptive to such information:-

The computer monitor was subtly transformed into a kind of oscilloscope screen, about the size of a large TV screen. Quite clearly, I could see North America. I think I was initially focussed on the Eastern side of the continent, central latitude of USA. However, as I tried to see the rest of the world (because initially I thought it was a map of the world), I realized that this was not possible. However, the screen did seem to depict the northern reaches of the continent (i.e, Canada (and the Arctic fringes. Certainly the North Pole seemed to be shown. I also was aware of the submarine-type signal while I was looking at the map.

It is possible that, in a symbolic way, my subconscious was not only giving me a name and a place
of habitation, but also a profession (i.e. submarinish?). Or maybe this was a symbolic representation of the fact that I was no longer floating on the surface of the unconscious, but that I was actually fully immersed in it and in control.

Note: cf. Dream (paralysis 27th 1993) in which I saw two men sitting over a table looking over 'ancient' maps. Does this mean that I have found a way of keying into information held in my subconscious, in these instances, relating to particular geographical locations, e.g. past life habitation. If so, I still have some way to go before I am fully in control, and can obtain information to order by manipulating within the dream/hallucination.

Note: waking up was almost imperceptible. It was as if I was just hovering below consciousness, e.g. cf. Berlin lucid dream.

Faulty system
Glen was telling me that Prof. Archer was in a bad mood, because someone had told him to do something about a computer system they had in Glasgow. He had apparently told them angrily to hire computer experts or something like that. Somehow this had bearing on whether he could examine me, him being angry, that is (I was thinking of Glen last night with respect to figures for the pH-switch experiment).


Drawing the snake
Paul was monitoring my progress in being able to draw, on a type of computer screen (looked more like an etch-a-sketch, flat on the table, a snake. As each line of the snake was drawn. The snake shape shifted in animation fashion. The movements were snake-like and realistic. Both Paul and myself were suitably impressed.

The Network

With two other people, I feel my sister was one of them. I found myself walking in and out of the main office, e.g. in through order issue, and through stock audit, etc., and vice versa. Reynard was about, generally sitting in at one impromptu meeting or another, and usually close to one of the doors that I was walking through. I wondered whether my bustling through the office might annoy or disturb him.

I ended up with my two companions in the stock audit area. Neither Roy nor John were around, the girl (who works in the bunker) was. Three of us sat down at a PC each and started playing about with the software. There was a particular program that allowed you to take control of a character and swim or float onto the screens of one's companions using it (reminded me of the Network set up during the game of Quake that Andy W. and his mates were playing at the club).

I was hoping that we three were impressing the computer staff with our computer know-how. Of the three of us, however, I seemed less competent, and just blundered through the processes. Eventually, the girl said she wanted to use the "game station". Politely and without protest, I acquiesced (the way I behave with Roy M. these days). I was annoyed with myself in giving ground in this way, especially as all she was doing was playing a game, and not seriously working. My two friends remained at their consoles as no-one wanted theirs. I did note that I had been on the biggest (most powerful) computer, while my two friends were on the less spectacular models (like me living in the big living room in the Salford flat, while Jim B. and Aidy had the smaller, less impressive rooms)

(note as I type this up on 20th October 1997, this association with the Salford flat occurred to me immediately, without me looking down the page at the original reference a few lines back. It also occurs to me that my leaving the flat - and my big room - is related to my leaving the powerful computer in this dream).

Later, we were all in a car/bus/coach. That is me, my two friends and the girl). We were driving through a suburb, when suddenly I seemed to recognize my step-brother's street. I pointed in the appropriate direction, saying to one of my companions who was now Ray (had he just become my Ray in response to my associative thought processes?) that I had seen his street through the houses. (I seem to have identified that area with somewhere around Roundhay Road near Tesco's in Leeds). I was still aware of trying to impress upon the girl [this reminds me of my discussion of my move from Oxford to Leeds with Sven W. - (whom I have felt was a younger brother from a past life) yesterday](note added at time - 10:15am 20th October 1997 - of typing this up: Ray of course was a younger brother from the past in this life). The dream also reminds me of how I had to leave the foster set-up, leaving my brother and sister behind - now that connection is significant).

Later we passed St. Michael's College (my old school). The girl (who throughout the dream was a younger, perhaps more beautiful version of her real-life counterpart at McGregor's) read "St. Michael's College" although the notice outside the school didn't say "college" - perhaps it said "school" - not sure, but not "college". I suspected, therefore, that she knew the school.

We were commenting on the run-downess of the building. I pointed out that the school still had that awful blue/turquoise paint. Why had they not painted over it with a non-conspicuous white paint, which would make it look modern and sharp and clean, as opposed to a shambling dinosaur. I pointed out that the living quarters of the headmaster(?) (which was very similar to Peter W.s house (the landlord of my present abode) - note added at time of typing, maybe the similarity between the living abode of the headmaster and that of Peter W. the landlord suggests an equation between "headmaster"(is that the "brain" or "self"?! and does the school represent the "school of (my) life") and "landlord", the latter having been seen in other dreams quite a lot: land=brain, or maybe land=body while head=brain, and master=lord), had been painted with white paint in the relevant places, i.e the window sills and doors, so that it looked quite impressive.


CLINT'S COMPUTER DREAMS

Lonnie dances on the computer desk and jumps on the keyboard
3/5/1998, 6:45

I was working on Lonnie's computer. Every time I started the computer Acrobat reader would come on the screen displaying a manual for some program. Lonnie got on top of the computer desk and started jumping around and dancing. Then he would jump down on to the keyboard. He did that a couple of time. I yelled at him and told him that if he broke the computer I couldn't afford to buy him another one; I was almost in tears. I asked him why he couldn't take better care of his stuff. I told him that he landed on the keyboard and hit certain keys he could wipe out his hard drive.
Note: Lonnie is my son, who was 15 at the time of this dream.

Scanning pita and printing on pita halves
3/13/1998, 7:20

Naomi wanted to get a scanner for David. She called her father because he was going to pay for it. He told her to get David a DC2 model just like his. I said that I didn't think we would be able to find that black and white scanner because when we bought it was during a closeout sale. She said she was going to try Radio Shack anyway. There was a woman there and she wanted to scan and print pita halves on my computer which I had set up in the room. She placed several pita halves on a conveyor belt that passed over the scanner. The pita fell off at the end onto a small table in front of the printer. I noticed some water on the front input bin and started drying off the bin. Lonnie and some friends were standing several feet away by a large bowl of vegetables and the woman told them to start making the salad while we were finishing printing. When I finished drying it we put the pita halves in the bin to print on.
Note: Naomi is my wife and David is a friend of hers who is incarcerated.

Rebooted computer plays strange sound files
5/23/1998, 7:50

I'm in a room with a computer. I notice the shell of a monitor that I think should be tossed out because it has been sitting there for awhile. The computer hangs and I have to reboot it. As I reboot and Windows starts to come up some wave or sound files start to play. I don't know where they could have come from because they seem to be parts of telephone conversations I have had. In the lower right hand corner of the screen I notice a large Dick Tracey icon that belongs to some sound program that I thought I had uninstalled. I think that the strange wave files are somehow related to this program.

Software demo at a Jewish function
6/1/1998, 1:50

There's a large Jewish function going on in a banquet room. I am watching a software demonstration on a computer monitor. One part of the package is an FTP program and the demonstrator is pointing out that his FTP program is much faster at downloading programs than CuteFTP. I tell him I have been using FTP Pro as my program. A woman standing by says, "Oh, I've heard that program has a lot of pornographic material." The demonstrator says, "Oh no, that is a very good program and is not pornographic in itself. It is related to what site is visited and what files are downloaded." There is food being served and the server comes by with a cart. Several of us are standing around another cart. The man at the far end of the cart starts to push it but he can't see where he is going and bumps into the other cart and then continues pushing his cart right over it. All the food from the toppled cart is scattered on the floor. The server is quite pissed off and picks up a half pan of pizza and starts to throw it at the man who upset his cart, but then thinks better of it and just throws it back on the floor with the rest of the food. Then he says, "Well, there is another cart coming." One of the guys standing around picks up the pizza and starts to eat it.



Someone steals my monitor
7/4/1998, 4:50

I'm sitting at my computer in a garage that is filled with lots of stuff. Max S. comes in and is looking at what I'm doing on the computer. He asks if I am using a graphics tablet. I tell him that I am using a different kind of tablet (I see my large graphics tablet lying on the floor, not in use). The mouse cable is tangled up with some other cables (keyboard, etc.) and I am trying to untangle them. I get the mouse untangled but the cable is still twisted and I hold the mouse up and let it unwind and then plug it back into the computer. As I am fooling with the unplugged mouse I notice that the cursor is still on the screen and I am hoping that it will work again once I have the mouse hooked back in. I continue talking to Max about the computer. He asks if I need a program with the tablet I am using that will apply the correct multipliers to give me the correct numbers (inches) so the graphics will be proportional. I tell him that I don't need a program for that because the tablet does it automatically.
Max leaves and I fall asleep briefly. When I open my eyes I see that my monitor is gone! I wonder what could have happened to it. I look behind the desk to see if it fell on the floor but it is not there. I become frantic and believe that someone must have come in and stolen it while I was asleep; but I can't imagine how someone could do that without waking me up. Now I think that this must be a dream. I jump up to test it and I float and realize that I am dreaming. I feel myself waking up right away and the scene starts to fade. I wish myself to be in Tibet to try to stay lucid and I see a faded wooden plank wall in front of me. I try to spin but I continue to wake up.



An Animated Mouse Introduces a Web Page
1/30/1999, 8:52

I'm sitting at my computer and logging onto a web site to get some software. Suddenly the entire screen goes completely dark for a few seconds; then it lightens just a little bit and I see a little animated mouse crawling from left to right through a tunnel at the top of the screen. I realize that the screen got dark to give the impression of a dark tunnel. As it crawls along the screen suddenly goes to full brightness and there are some other animated cartoon animals (a giraffe for one) carrying little signs. The it switches to the web site for the software. It informs me that I have already installed the software and it is in the "WAY" directory on my C drive. I call up my file manager to go see if I have that directory. The directory tree is odd because it goes at an angle instead of vertically. At the end of the tree I see the WAY directory. The directory is shown as a large graphic sign with the word "WAY" in the middle. It appears that I am missing some directories after! that one that aren't being show n. I go back to the web site because I want to check out some other special internet software.

Uninstalling some screen saver software
2/27/1999, 0:25

I am working at my computer and trying to install some software. I'm looking at a screen that is related to the AGP video. There are some drivers related to the screen saver that I need to uninstall. A screen is supposed come up automatically which is supposed to remove this driver which is "on call" and replace it with something else.

Getting a fax from Monica W.
3/20/1999, 0:52

I have a computer in my bedroom and I have notified Monica W. that she can call and connect to my computer. I'm getting ready for bed and turn out the light and I hear the phone ring. I look to see if the computer is connecting and it is connecting. On the other side of the room is a typewriter that is also a fax machine and I see that a fax is coming in from Monica. There are several pages about something that I'm not all that interested in. The paper that I have in the fax machine is triplicate copies and is made for a dot matrix (it has the perforated edges with holes). I'm hoping that I don't run out of paper before the fax ends. I also want to remember to change the paper to single sheets so that I don't waste paper.

My parents live in a house on stilts
5/9/1999, 0:02

I come back home with my mother and dad to find all the doors and windows of the house open. We think that someone could have easily broken in and robbed the house. The house is a wood frame house that seems to be up on stilts and it is out in the country. To get into the house we have to rotate the house and the backdoor, which was wide open, swing shut when we rotate the house. We look around inside the house and don't immediately find evidence that anything is missing. It does look like someone has been here but they didn't take anything.

I am looking through drawers to see if anything was taken. I come across a set of car keys and I am glad that they didn't steal or find these keys because they could have then stolen the car. Dad comes in and says that he wants to tell me something. He takes me into the living room and my computer is setup on the floor. He says, "This piece right here (he shows me a small rectangular piece of plastic) - I took it off with out turning the computer off. I don't know if I did something wrong." He demonstrates it by doing the same thing on my computer. My screen comes up looking kind of funny and I say to him, "You just told me you did that to yours and now you've done it to mine!" I turn the computer off and turn it back on and it comes back on okay. He asks me to fix his computer and I ask him what the password is and he tells me it is either "bored" or "party."

My computer monitor is missing
2/8/2000, 3:55

I go down to the basement and over to my computer. I immediately see that the monitor is missing. That seems very odd so I think, "This has gotta be a dream!" I jump up to see if I can fly but I don't fly. I say, "Where in the hell is my monitor?" and I still think that it must be a dream. The furniture is rearranged - the chairs are over against the wall. I think, "Oh, this really must be a dream." This time I jump really hard and fly backwards. I am now flying through empty space. I rub my hands together and repeat several times: "The next scene will be a dream." I keep spinning through space but no new scene materializes and after a couple of minutes I wake up.

Clint


DEE'S COMPUTER DREAMS

8-8-97 - The true shape of the El Gamma Trammaton is on the comment page. The computer eliminated all of the spaces I put in between the letters.


July 9, 1997 - Something new has occurred in my life because of a dream I had last night. In the dream, I was inside the file of a computer which was about a Shaman Indian. I could see his crystal tools. I knew I couldn't steal the file because it would mess up the crystals. I had this same dream 7 times the same night.

The next day I went to the book shop and purchased a book about crystals. It was full of information about communicating with entities from other dimensions using the crystal. This was intriguing to me. The next night I put a crystal under my pillow when I went to sleep. I began to get instant visions as well as very vivid dreams.


7-9-97 3.a.m. I put a Tantra Twin crystal under my pillow. I had an instant vision of a large door opening and I walked inside the door. I then went into a dream where I entered a white house and was moving white furniture around within the room. It was like in a doll-house with no ceiling.

In the morning, I had more visions, the first of which told me that I would no longer need my friend Joe to give me messages on the Instant messages on my computer. I could get them for myself.

I then heard a male voice announce something which I missed, but then he also announced 1435 Chestnut. (This has to be analyzed)

I then dreamed all night that the crystal was being programmed with numbers and symbols. I knew that if Joe saw the numbers and symbols he would know how it was programmed.


7-13-97 - I went into a dream in which I was at a computer. The voice said,"You must study the Merkaba. You will contact these people." The computer showed me a screen with a name, address and phone number.

It went by very quickly and I couldn't catch what it was.

I woke up not remembering the numbers, so went back to sleep. I went right back to the computer and they showed me the screen again. This time I could read the area code which was 309. (309 is west of Chicago)


7-13-97 - During the night, I was again in a computer, this time in a large file about alien life. They were showing me how to access the files, how to post new information and how to change the listings for the information.

I was told that the toughest, hardest working astral level was named ARUMERA. I went there and the feeling was not comfortable. It felt somewhat stressful, so I left.


7-18-97 - Dream: I dreamed that I downloaded several pages from the computer of a metaphysical nature I good that I had preserved them. I woke up thinking I had really done this and then realized it was only a dream and felt very disappointed. I went back to sleep and went back to the computer and downloaded the same pages plus more. There were 10 in all. I was thinking in the dream that I had really done it this time. Then I woke up from the dream and realized it was still just a dream. This took all night to accomplish.

7-22-97 Dream: I spent the entire night on the computer writing a book to Joe - about the alien - cropcircle - American Indian connection.

7-25-97 - Vision: I saw a hallway with rooms on 4 sides as if the hallway was a square. Women came running to open the doors for me. I then had three dreams in which I was on the computer with Joe explaining to him about the crystal experiments and was drawing pictures. All dreams were identical.


8-5-97 - Dream: I was on the computer in a chat or IM. The computer had a feature whereby you could highlight a word and the computer would do a search to bring up all the files for that subject. I highlighted KALI and KALI-YUGA.

NOTE: Later that day, a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam. It was KAL 801. Emotionally that day, I was a wreck, pacing the floor, not knowing what was wrong with me. Synchronicity, that day I was also posting all my plane crash dreams and visions at PUFORI from 1991.

PUFORI is at http://www.pufori.org/dreams/dee_dreams/ (purfori is now defunct)

On 8-7-97, I turned on my computer and saw the lead files on America On LIne were all about KAL 801 crash, how it happened from the survivors standpoint and the list of passenger file from ABC news.


8-7-97 Dream: I was with some teenagers and they wanted to have some alien language interpreted. I was able to put it into my computer and tell them what it meant.


8-7-97 Dream: Joe and I both had computers which would translate alien language. Joe's computer could translate whatever alien language that mine couldn't. We could transfer it directly from my computer to his. Our computer screen were about AOL's IM screen large and were located in our crotches between our legs.

8-10-97 Dream: I was on the computer looking at examples of web pages about a place before I uploaded my own web page about the same place.

8-12-97 Dream: The dream consisted of flashes of light. Each flash was an alien abduction experience that had happened to me. I was transmitting these to Joe over the computer.
<hr>

8-14-97 - Dream. I was at the computer reviewing all of the day's events. After I was done I got up and went to the door of the house where a bunch of kids were lined up to get on a bus. They all started to have a snowball fight amongst themselves for fun. I watched all that, then went back inside where I demonstrated the playing of a piano for some people and talked with them.

My father came in then, telling us he had been in a long meeting and would have to go back again, but meantime his friend Joe was waiting out in the car to drive us to "Target" for a reward.

I couldn't imagine what that was all about, but as I walked through the house, mentally making excuses for not being ready, every excuse I could think of was instantly remedied and my coat miraculously appeared in my arms, boots appeared on my feet, and stockings appeared on my legs.

We went out to the car and I was still wondering what was at Target that could be a reward and when we got there it was a huge auditorium about half full of people but spread out all over the auditorium and they were waiting to hear me speak to them.


 

8-22-97 - I had this dream twice. I was typing the story of meeting God on an IM (Instant Message) on the computer. The name of God was "INUIT" and pictured as a heap of millions of jewels which were like blue-white diamonds.


8-27-97 - Dream: I was on the computer and pictures of crop circles began to appear. Every one of them had either a "4" or "5" for a reference number.


8-29-97 - Dream - The dream was all black and white computer pages. I was seeing crop circles and glyphs all relating to sexuality, and all the sign for Leo The Lion astrological sign.

9-6-97 - Dream - I was in a room with someone. We were looking at a book or computer screen with symbols on. The ones that had alien encounters had underlined faces on. I was going to click on one with a face and then decided not to.

9-11-97 - Dream: I was typing information on a computer all night. Lots of it was advice to myself, particularly about my diet. I told myself not to eat so much protein. (I've been eating chili beans and meat and hot dogs for two days). After I went back to bed today, I was again typing advice to myself in a dream. I typed the name BASIC BEE NEWS, then BASIC ACCESS NEWS on an envelope in the return address. I was sending out a newsletter of advice derived from dreams.


9-17-97 - Dream: - I was working in a very large company and sitting at my desk. A woman called me on the phone and asked me if I would make the last ice delivery of the day. (It seemed that the women took turns doing this). I looked at the clock. It was 5:40 p.m. or 20 minutes to 6 p.m. I got up to do the ice run. A woman appeared out of nowhere and stood by the filing cabinets on the left of my desk.

I needed to comb my hair before I made the ice run and found that the comb would not go all the way through my hair to the bottom. I had to comb the snags and snarls out before I could go and I did this.

A young woman came into the room in a wheelchair. She was very down and felt unable to do anything. I encouraged her to come with me on the ice run and coaxed her continuously all the way down the hall with me.

I met a dark curly haired man who was going to race a car up the mountain. He was so excited, I decided to go along. The car was in a tunnel-like place.

I saw another man sitting on the passenger side. I opened the door and the man seemed to be unconscious and leaning over against the dark haired driver. The man in the center also had dark curly hair but was a larger man. I looked at him and saw him smiling but trying not to smile and not being able to control it, so I knew he was only pretending to be unconscious.

This car was deep dark blue. When I closed the door, I saw there was no door panel on the passenger side, but there was a wide bar where I could hang onto in case the driver made some wild turns. There also was no seat belt. It was going to be a wild ride up the mountain.

The driver started the car and made an impossible right turn inside the tunnel-like place we were parked in.

I was suddenly back in the office and a woman brought me a brown box half-full of things to take on my trip. Above the items were two laser bright spot lights shining end to end inside the box. I immediately knew that this was the second box they had given me. I had received one the day before also. I told the woman to make sure that if anything else got packed in the box that the spotlights could be seen.

I was them presented with a calendar. I think it said 'CHAT' on top. The spaces were all blank so nothing was scheduled yet. There was also a small line in blue that said 'percent completed' and then 'acknowledged by.' I had a computer mouse in my hand and clicked on the 'percent completed' and the AOL triangle began to spin...then I realized nothing was scheduled yet and woke up.

12-16-97 - DREAM - I had a dream about a computer page. When the dream was complete, I consciously tried to send the finished page to Joe's computer. I was thinking, "If Joe ever wakes up and remembers MY dream, it'll be a miracle."


 

"Equations" by MZ

At 09:18 PM 2/11/00 -0600, you wrote:
I've had some. They are just basically a bunch of numbers and equations running in my head. And software downloading. I see numbers by the score. I really doesn't make much sense.


 

LINDA'S COMPUTER DREAM

Just a quick note: last night, believe it or not, I had a dream in which I was arguing the merits of Mac vs Windows. The details are hazy, but I distinctly remember waking this morning wondering why I dreamed that particular dream. FWIW, I am a Mac user.

This is great, a whole angle I haven't though of - platform symbolism. If you have the time, could you expand on what the two platforms mean to you, emotionally (PC vs MAC)

Notes by Linda: PC means overcomplexity, monopolizing, inefficiency, time wasted, work. Mac means ease of use, less stress, simplicity, fun. I have used both systems, and others, but the Mac has been my office's chosen platform for about 15 years, so you can see that I'm emotionally invested in this damn machine (grin). I guess, also, that the Mac appeals because it's quixotic, slightly rebellious, and going against the grain--all the things I rarely am. Perhaps it appeals to a side of me I don't often get to indulge.



MAGGIE'S COMPUTER DREAMS

Collected from http://www.pagepeople.com/dichristi/dreams/
With permission to reprint by anonymous donator.

Bike Trip
9/24/99
I walk into a conference hall with Samuel. It is some kind of political gathering, but the greens are mainstream. Ivan is a delegate. I am not a formal participant, as usual. They are in a huge hall, and the meeting is also somehow a computer trade show. The Young Man, who I only recognize as the Christ upon awakening again has sandy brown hair and brown eyes this time. He offers me encouragement about an upcoming bicycle trip and kneels down to tighten my shoelaces.

In the next scene I am biking with Karin and perhaps also this young man on a country road. Our destination is a high rise in a big city, and all the roads visible on the map that approach it are freeways that circle around it... the type of roads that bikes are not normally permitted on. I make the suggestion that we bike as close to it as we can on one of the freeways and then jump across, and then realize this is an impractical suggestion.

Thoughts
The conference with Samuel of course concerns the pending business arrangement which involves him and computers. I haven't thought about or met Ivan in a very long time. Don't know why he appears. The Christ figure resembles the man who would head up this business.

Second Floor Fire
10/17/99

I'm on the third floor of a white 3 story building. There are a lot of other groups of people stationed in this building... It's like there's one big messy room, and each family has its own section. There's laundry hanging from the ceiling, and it has the feel of an attic. I've lived for a period of time on both the second and first floors. There's something a little run down about this building. The tone is much the same as in the environment of the last dream. I think Samuel is with me on the top floor, and I sense there's a campground also on the top floor. It seems natural that a whole forest, a stream and a campground should be on the top floor of a building. Then I learn that a fire has started on the second floor. There's nothing I need on the second floor, but I'm the only one that reacts that it might not be so safe in the building with a fire on the second floor. So I run around and tell everybody that there's a fire. No one reacts. There are a few things on the first floor that I want my laptop computer and some nice clothing. On the top floor there are also things I want... more clothing, some healthy food, my books, my pianos. I clear all this out by racing down the burning steps each time to carry it out on the lawn. I then come back up to Samuel. It seems like there's something else that should be taken out of the burning building... my other two computers and especially the external back-up drive for one of them that stores my data. In preserving these, I manage to enlist Samuel's assistance.

Thoughts

I'm once again significantly moving from second to third floor dreams. Last time there was a fire in a house in a dream, it was followed by a schism/argument between the people who lived in the house... which was later healed, but with the awareness of the limitations of the relationship. The things I rescue from the fire are really the things I most care about, but I see them now also in a symbolic sense. i.e. what is literal in this realm is also symbolic. I'm still not entirely sure of the significance of moving from the second to the third floor. A couple years ago, I had tons of second floor dreams, but none on the third floor.

Flight
10/18/99

I'm at some kind of party or gathering initially at my mother's house, but later it's someplace else. My computer is there plugged into the wall and in use, and the ubiquitous young man is present, whom I once again don't recognize. This time he's white with light brown hair, a little unusual in character, perhaps artsy/scientific, but he doesn't really fit in any class. His face is rather wide and he has fairly large eyes. I'm once again convinced I'm awake, and that this time I'm going to fly in waking reality, and indeed, I take off from the ground to fly between my home and this party to get some things I need. I fly over a beautiful, wide body of water, perhaps even an ocean to get home. When the party is ended, I carry my computer back, but I am unsure whether the surge suppressor was my own, or whether it belonged to the owners of my house. I consult the young man about this, and he's not very clear about it, but he seems to think it belongs more to the hosts of the party. I'm concerned about this, because I feel if I get back home and don't have a surge suppressor, I will really need it.



 

SIDEBAR'S COMPUTER DREAM

I dreamt that my physical body (well, not really physical, more a kind of virtual physical body) was surfing through cyberspace. The sites were kind of virtual places to be visited and I was flying through space from one place to the other. In some rooms I placed bookmarks, huge pieces of virtual wood, the kind of things (only much smaller) one uses in a garden to distinguish one plant from the other, sorry, my English fails me at this point :-). The experience was exhilarating and in my dream I was really sure I would remember and recognize my bookmarks the next day, in real life, so to say. The next day, after I woke up, I checked, but to my disappointment I neither remembered nor recognized the places I had been in my dream.
------


 

PAUL'S COMPUTER DREAM

I'm 21 years old, 4th year computer science student. Also, working as a programmer for an American software company for 1.5 years already.

I dream a lot about programming. Also, I'm a kind of person who dreams really a lot and the dreams are particularly bright. There are dreams which aren't directly connected to programming, but one can easily infer my job/university assignments from them. I think i dream a lot about programming, because I'm into this field from morning till evening. Programming at the university, programming at my job. At my free time I'm reading philosophical books, poetry, contemporary novels, going to the theatre, cinema. Also, i was considered a bright chess player when i was younger.

Unfortunately, the dreams are forgotten as soon as you try to remember them :-(

Here is one of them (I've experienced it at the time i was particularly interested in the Perl programming language):


I'm sitting in a classroom where programmers gathered. I know that there is the Perl programming language and the people who are programming in it. There is nothing more. I'm sitting in my classroom and trying to reflect this programming language intimately. Then someone shouts: "How to convert the script to an *.exe file?". I get very obsessed about this thought, it seems to me that there's a solution, but no one can find an answer to it. Suddenly all my Perl experience passes through my eyes. The way i was programming, reading books, talking to people about it. Here I get up with a really strange mood for the morning.


dream:
I am a computer programmer and as I was learning to program I was a step behind completely understanding pointers. For non-programmers, a pointer is simply a number that "points" to a location in the computer's memory so that it can get information out. In code, you can either pass a real object or a pointer to an object into a function (and it can make a big difference in your program which you choose to do). My dream was fairly normal until I realized that I wasn't touching a stone, but a pointer to a stone. I wasn't walking on grass, but pointers to blades of grass. My entire world started turning into nothing more than pointers to the objects they represented. Right as I woke up I remember the stupefying realization that I wasn't having a dream, but a pointer to a dream. Once awake, my head was spinning... but in all honesty, since that dream the concept of pointer use is completely clear to me.


EILEEN' COMPUTER DREAMS

I dream about doing web pages (HTML) and dBase III+ at night. I usually can do them and don't forget the code, unlike in a typical classroom dream. I have also dreamt I was a character inside of the game, Rogue (1983 version which is a great game.) I dreamt I made it all the way to level 26 and found my way out of the dungeons of doom and was finally free. I walked out into a sunny forest.

My ex-boyfriend and I used to play Rogue together alternating rounds. I'm a slightly better player than he is because I type faster and with both hands, something that makes me extremely fast, though Rougue requires brains rather than hand-eye coordination. He I think is a better player than me because he tired of the game less easily.



LEE'S COMPUTER DREAMS

Actually, as I was about to reply "no such dreams for me," I suddenly remembered that back in the 60s when I was a Research Assistant at the Center for Psychological Research at Syracuse Univ., one night I dreamed the entire night about carrying boxes of computer cards comprising Fortran programs back and forth across the Quad; and I would drop the box, and have to sort through the cards to try to put them back in order again.

When I told people about it the next day, they said that virtually everyone who worked there had had some sort of dream like that at one time or another...

But I've spent much of my time using computers for the last fifteen years, and I guess at this point for me it's just another tool; it would be, perhaps, like dreaming about a pencil. I'd probably be more likely to dream about what I was trying to write or design on the machine, or how to teach somebody how to get online -- the content, rather than the device...



COMPUTER DREAM BY POWERLINE

For years I would dream that I could Code-Z (undo) something negative away... it was funny because I was using Apple computers around that time, and I remember often waking up thinking *wouldn't it be great if we could Code-Z our mistakes?


COMPUTER DREAMS