Suffer the Children

Dream: January 9, 2023

    I was walking with a group of children from classroom to classroom, not sure if I was one of the children, or the teacher leading them to another class. (This theme of being the teacher resurfaces on Jan 26 - yesterday) The school reminded me of the dark hallways of my old Catholic school in the Bronx. My presence felt feminine in the dream; characters have often come in with the physical and cultural aspects needed to tell the story that I have tapped into. My "Self" in the dream was an African American woman, maybe the same that had the two children in the 60's from a previous dream - very poised, intelligent.

   We were calmly moving away from some unseen danger - as it often happens in these memorable nightmares the children are calm, very practiced for times of emergency. The feeling of a dark attitude was behind us, angry and seeking some sort of vengeance - a person who was pushed past the point of suffering the stark injustices for that time-period. I'm fully involved with this dream. Officer "John" appears from the far classroom we were trying to reach - there was a door to the street in the back corner that was rarely used as egress, but he knew the way in for any emergency. John resembled the actor John Amos - someone I had seen in another dream as my coworker. He flashed me an unspoken look that translated to "Get the children out the door - HURRY!" I nervously nodded to my friend as we passed each other. Drawing his revolver from the side holster he was wearing the leather jacket appropriate for the cool winter months, and disappeared around the corner.

We only hear a few quickened footsteps; three shots rang out in succession, the children were close enough to the exit and began running out the door that officer John had left ajar for them. Concerned I turned back to offer my self as a final shield to the children in my charge - I hear the angry words ring out as I look down and see John laid out on the ground, mortally wounded. Loosing my fear I try to stop the man, admonishing him for shooting inside a school - in front of children. This is an all-black school, the man who is also African American is ranting about the plight of our kind, blaming the Whites and that the officer was working for them, that is why he shot him. I turn to see that several of the children had forgotten their training, rather they were huddled in the corner protecting one of their classmates who had panicked - an Albino child. The child knew that he was considered "White", an aberration and felt responsible for the man's anger. I pleaded with the man to leave so that I could get help for John who was already passed out from loss of blood. The man was too far gone, waving his pistol around and wild-eyed... he had lost touch... I didn't blame him at all. 

    Waking up I could only think about the scared child in the corner... was this the entity I named Tricky? Seeing the familiar ghostly form that I have grown accustomed to, was the cue that released me from the grip of this nightmare.  

     

Hog Wild

This morning was interesting.

    

    Gatherings happen quite often in dreams. It doesn't matter if you're a loner, you'll encounter sit-downs or "Cocktail Party" atmospheres. Recently, the intimate club environment came through as a setting for another puzzling scenario.

We were gathered in a dining room, just off a sliding door outside, much like my own home except the kitchen was not attached. The inside walls were painted green, which reminded me of my Brother-in-Law's last home. It was nighttime as we sat together, my general feeling is that my son and younger daughter were there with me - for some reason no one else materialized or formed out of the shadows. 

The reason I mention shadows is that whenever there are groups of people involved, they begin as shadows or gray silhouettes sometimes, not always fully realized until needed for the narrative.

I couldn't feel the presence of anyone else in the room, whatever the conversation we had at the table escaped me due to the events that were about to take place. My youngest gets up deciding to step outside for some fresh air, the night was mild and the lights around the house made the general area around the property feel "safe" - I had gone into the kitchen through a doorway just as they (preferred pronoun) stepped outside. My son startled me and wanted me to go look for them. This was a new house with a different set of circumstances, and its own set of rules. I suddenly remember why we don't leave the house at night and dash outside to look for Fern. The echoing squeal of a giant hog could be heard not more than 50 yards away, I call out several times for my child. 

A wooded area ran alongside the back of the property with a creek that was deep enough to dive into, the lights from the house only met the edge of the woods. I panicked running top speed along the back of the house along a trail where I found Fern frozen in fear, the hog was less than ten yards away and acting strangely. This beast was HUGE and appeared to be at the apex for what this animal could grow in the wild, It was white with beige spots (I have to stop for the comparison with my older daughter's dog, MAYA - nicknamed "PIG" with the exact same coloring) and seemed to be in distress looking for something in the bushes. Out of the bushes one of its offspring came bouncing out, startling the stressed out hog causing it to barrel past us on the trail, nearly getting clipped by the almost 6ft tall beast as it disappeared along the trail back toward the house.

The smaller pig had other ideas. a near clone of its mother, and only the size of a normal pig charged at my child chasing them to the edge of the creek, I was helpless to stop its attack, I was hollering it unheard. Whatever mania had gotten into the pig caused it to attack Fern who fell back into the dark water, the pig jumped in on top, biting them on the hand. I ran back to the house top speed yelling for my son to "Get my gun! Go bring me my 9mm - NOW!" as I reached the table my son was still sitting at. His face looked at me in disbelief, then I realized - I had no gun in the dream world because I don't own one in reality. No matter - I had to go back and save my child.

I raced back to the edge of the creek, angry that I could have jumped in the water and smashed the pig with a rock over it's head, it was if the choice to find a weapon was planned for the scenario in order to serve a deeper meaning. I see my child and the pig floating in the water, diving in I realized that by biting off Fern's hand, the swine had choked on it and died. My daughter was in shock - transformed back into a two year old. I carried her out of the water, hand wrapped in a cloth bleeding profusely - I ran her back into the house into the arms of my wife who had now materialized.  

We rewrapped the wound as best as possible, my daughter was now hysterical, crying as we ran up the driveway to the car for the trip to the emergency room... The dream must have been too much for me at this point and it faded out. The last thing I remember seeing wad my daughter as a two year old in a light pink dress, missing her hand.

***

    I entered the office where the elderly couple were busy at their desks that were butted up against one another to make a larger surface. Across the table was piles of checks, money, and paperwork. Wanting to help in some capacity, at first I didn't even think they heard me come in, whatever bookkeeping they were doing was enough to keep both entirely engrossed. Standing there like a doofus, my eyes scanned over the money and checks, the cash had a different color, this wasn't American money they were handling. Wordlessly they were working, the man pouring over the papers and the woman shuffling the count of cash from one hand to the other - she was keeping tally in her head. "Excuse me" I interrupted, they turned to look at me, puzzled as if I had suddenly materialized in their space. In the well-lit office I could see the look of consternation in both of their deeply-lined faces as if they were staring at a ghost.

Maybe I just popped into their reality?

"Do you need some help with your work?" was all I could say. An argument ensued between the two in their native Japanese (This isn't the first time that Japan and it's people figure into one of my dreams) but I could only get the gist that maybe the woman was blaming her husband for bringing them bad luck, causing the dead to appear for their souls. I became embarrassed by the rapid fire back and forth of accusations wanting to dematerialize right there on the spot. The husband pushed his pile of paper aside, the wife flung a stack of cash down, I thought they would begin fighting - as much comedy it would have been seeing the clearly Octogenarian's battle out in Tai Chi or Kung-Fu, this felt too serious. Trying to step between the two was my big mistake, they turned their fury towards me - rushing me out of the room, in almost the same way that I waved the phantom out of my "bedroom" the night before. Awkwardly I receded from the office as they chased me out the door. 

Next thing I knew, it was like a door was closed, slammed hard in my face.

The dream ended , I woke up slowly and it was already after 6AM 

The Haunted Bedroom - 2

This morning my covers gathered into a giant mitten from the left side foot of the bed, charging up towards my face startling me. Reflexively I threw my hands up to block the phantom attack…

***

If you’re reading my blog for the very first time - let me briefly introduce you into my DREAM world. Grab a chair - and lets begin. Shall we?

My name is Gabe, and several years ago (2019?) a weird bout of sleep paralysis hit me with surprising frequency, so many times that I suspected later on that I must be having micro-seizures at night. Instead of taking my concerns to the Doctor, I decided to write down anything I had experienced during these episodes. Being a life-long advocate of the paranormal and anything weird, I had suspicion to believe what was happening started with a particularly jarring nightmare that shook me for days. This event reminded me of decades earlier during a frightening nightmare shared with my older brother - the other side was able to attack me via dreams, and opened me up like a portal to the Over-world of nightmares. 

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve spent years quietly rationalizing this,and questioning my sanity whenever I’m reminded. By years, I mean a span of exactly 40 years.

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve spent years quietly rationalizing this, and questioning my sanity whenever I’m reminded. By years, I mean a span of exactly 40 years.

Why share my dreams? I felt it would be pleasantly weird to train myself how to write while getting so many memorable scenarios from the ether. Most people keep their dream journals private - other cultures share dreams with regularity, I may have fit in nicely with an ancient indigenous peoples. Who knows? Dreaming was in my DNA, I didn’t know until putting some pieces together - my Dad loved dreaming, and my Mother may have suffered from terrible nightmares.

I don’t claim to have all of the answers to what the heck is going on when we dream or have nightmares, subtle clues keep popping up. Like any mystery - we’re always three steps behind when we think we’ve figured out the truth.

Now About Last Night…

    I dropped consciously into the dream mid-stream, what little information came through put me in the middle of an abandoned building walking around with a few people - we could have been on a night investigation of a haunted location. This thought proved correct later on. Getting separated from the rest of the group, a room caught my interest. The rest of the building was empty, save for random objects scattered around. This one room had furnishings. Carefully entering, it was if I was transported to my old bedroom at home, my parents apartment in the Bronx (Ground Zero) for my worst childhood nightmares); the transition from one dream to the next was seamless.

    My old bedroom was inviting, and being tired from the investigation I decided to get some sleep. Closing the door may have been my biggest mistake. Curiously missing was my CPAP, this means I was deep in the dream being pulled along for the ride. Not long after laying down, the familiar sensation of falling into a deep sleep and then disconnect into darkness came over me. A feeling of electricity or vibration woke me up, I peered into the darkness, unable to move. I’ve learned not to panic anymore when the paralysis comes over me and there’s never anything around to intimidate me - I was wrong. Sensing movement to my right side, I struggled to turn my head for a look. Two seconds later I wish I hadn’t

    Standing next to me was the faint image of a man, or what I thought looked like a figure in white I equated with “Saruman” - the white wizard from The Lord of the Rings, fear took over and mentally I couldn’t tell if it were a woman or man. Breaking the paralysis I began to shout at the specter “Get out, GET OUT!!” A flash of power erupted from my right hand as I waved the spirit out of the room. The vision retreated and exited the room through the locked door. Remembering my team all of a sudden, I needed to warn them that the ghost was loose and might trap them the same way. Trapped. Although I was loose from the paralysis, the covers had me trapped, I looked over the right side of the bed for a knife or something to tear the bedding. On the floor were glowing green orbs, the size of peas - the dream identified as the MP orbs from Kingdom Hearts. Next, I thought this may be power the phantom lost when I blasted out the energy or residue from my own hand. I felt the covers tug at me before I could reach the energy orbs on the floor - looking up over to where the tension from my sheets pulled; my covers gathered into a giant mitten from the left side foot of the bed, charging up towards my face startling me. Reflexively I threw my hands up to block the phantom attack…

    This wasn’t my bed, the blanket was red, the same color on my bed now - not as it was years ago. There were no others with me - the dream evaporated before the giant hand closed in on me. 

I woke up.

    Dreams have a way of incorporating imagery from practically everything we experience while conscious, even if we haven’t thought about them for years. The mind is capable of storing reams of data subconsciously from our waking world and recreating at least an almost three dimensional approximation while we dream. Take note when you can remember a dream or a nightmare, you just might notice something…familiar.

    As much as I may want to believe that there might be a paranormal component to some dreams; nothing I could offer anecdotally would ever sway a scientific or rational mind into believing me or anyone else of that possibility. 

Pleasant Dreams…