Somewhere in Time: Part One ~ Of Lucid Dreaming and Green Hippos
I awake to find myself walking down a long, dark stone hallway.
Is it carved into the side of a hill - a mountain, maybe?
The walls are damp and green ooze leaks between the cracks
Joan Osborne is singing, but I have no idea where it is coming from - perhaps the radio. I like to fall asleep with the radio on. It helps quite my mind on the nights when meditation alone doesn’t soothe the monkey dancing frantically and mischievously up and down my cerebral pathways.
But, then I am awake!
At least I think I am.
Sometimes I experience lucid dreams. It can be difficult to distinguish between what we agree to be “waking reality” and this lucid dreaming state, which - trust me - is every bit as real. Twenty five years experience and a whole slew of anti-psychotic meds that didn’t do anything but make me listless and paranoid have proven this. I am not a psychotic or a psychic. But, sometimes I learn things in this in between state that some of my more credulous acquaintances attribute to psychic powers. I just pay attention. That, my friends, is the only difference between you and me.
I pay attention, or, better said, I am really awake!
Oh, and I live with Br. Ezra Pound Miracle. Weird shit happens around him on a regular basis as just a matter of course.
So the first thing to do is to determine whether I am awake in our shared reality or in some lucid in between state. I close my eyes and try to imagine Maggie Gyllenhall standing next to me naked wrapped in nothing but a faux fox fur.
I hear soft sweet laughter and warm soft breathe on my neck. A subtle feminine fragrance stimulates my nose. I smile. I am definitely in the in-between. I love being here. If you are lucid enough you can exert a tremendous influence over reality.
Imagine traveling to any place in the world you want to go. Hell - forget this world. Don’t limit yourself. The universe is your backyard. If traveling isn’t your think imagine making love to your fantasy dream lover -the boy or girl in your college philosophy class you don’t have the nerve to ask out, a co-worker or even a favorite celebrity that you would never meet in real life.
Maggie Gyllenhall?
Yes, like Maggie Gyllenhaal or…
Lili Taylor…
You can also travel in time. I have met with Ben Franklin, the Marquis de Sade and John Wilkes Booth in recent months. You can learn shit they don’t put in your history books. Unfortunately, it is much easier to access the past. I am still working on the future. I will let you know how that goes.
I open my eyes ready to drink in the essence of dream Maggie.
Instead, I find myself standing next to a 4 foot green hippopotamus wearing nothing but a wide grin and a purple Easter bonnet. Not only is my sense of Maggie Gyllenhaal off so is my color coordination.
The hippo covers her mouth demurely with her meaty paws - do hippos have paws - and giggles like a shy, but flirtatious Southern Belle. She bats her eye lashes at me.
“What…”
Green Hippo bursts out in hearty laughter. Suddenly she takes on a decidedly masculine appearance complete with cigar sticking out the corner of her - err, his - mouth and a porkpie hat nestled safely between his two tiny ears.
“Where you expecting someone else?” asks Green Hippo.
“I was waiting for a girl,” I say.
“Hey, it’s your dream. I can go back to my previous form if you like.”
“I mean a human girl.”
“Oh, I see,” Green Hippo sounds offended, “I get it. You’re a hippophobe.”
“What?”
“I have met your type before,” Green Hippo says, “You’re all anti hippopotamus amphibious. We’re fine as long as we are floating in some crappy tank in the zoo, but out in the real world…well, as far as you’re concerned we don’t belong here.”
With that Green Hippo disappears from whence he came. I am standing alone in the damp, dank stone hallway again. At least my first question is answered. I know where I am - sort of - I mean which state of reality I am in. I just need to find out where and when I am.
To Be Continued…
(I ran out of time and have to go meet Sidran)