In which The Author goes on more nocturnal journeys
I’ve been having some rather peculiar dreams again recently, mostly in that period between about 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. when I can’t be bothered to get out of bed and listen to the crap radio presenters they have at that time of the morning. And once again, I’ve found some recurring locations which I’ve visited quite often. As far as I know, none of these places exist, except in my subconscious mind, but they still keep turning up.
- A village at the top of a very steep hill. It’s hardly a village, in fact, just a couple of shops and a handful of cottages in a row. The hill leads up to a T-junction, and the road goes off into the distance at each side of where I’m standing. (I don’t think it’s a bus stop, but as I don’t drive I’m guessing I must have got there by bus.) I’ve got a feeling in the back of my mind (in the dream) that if I take the road to the right, I’ll end up in the next valley, but I’ve no idea where the other road leads, nor where I’ll get to if I go down the hill.
- A busy traffic island in the middle of a city which in my dream is Bristol, but it certainly isn’t any part of Bristol I’ve ever been to. For some reason, I’m usually stuck there and feeling rather lost, looking out for anyone or anything I recognise. The last time I was there, it turned out to be only a few minutes’ walk from the main bus station, but I still thought I’d be there for ages without any way of getting home.
- A town somewhere on the Welsh Marches. It’s only a small place, and Mother and I tend to be there together. There’s a high part of the town and if I look into the distance, I can just about make out the silhouette of Blackpool Tower.
An Autobiography in Random Chapters 
I wish they* would develop a machine that could record our dreams for us so that when we wake up, we can rewind and watch from the beginning, and analyse them like critics at a movie premier.
*By “they” I’m of course referring to the robot army that will soon take over our reality. Or I could be referring to scientists that reside in the deepest corners of our dreams. I don’t really know anything. I just woke up. … Or did I just fall asleep?
A machine that could do that would be amazing – especially in the case of my almost-recurring dreams which take a different course after about the halfway point. And my frequent lucid dreams would be great fun to relive.
That’s so similar to a recent dream of mine. I went up a hill towards a town that became a city. I could see a landmark in the distance, it was the Severn bridge. I too was looking for a familiar face yet could not find one.
I’m going to try and start a personal dream diary to look for patterns and try and match them to what I did whilst awake to see what is influencing them.
I’ve been promising to keep a dream diary for ages, but I’ve never got round to it. That sounds like a good idea, though. Have you ever seen the paintings of the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte? (Far better than Dali, in my opinion!) His dreamscapes were populated by constant features, which repeated from picture to picture. My dreams seem to do a similar thing with regard to locations. I’ve mentioned a few of them in the blog, but I’m sure there are many more I just haven’t dreamt about recently.
Another thing I’m going to do is to note all the weird coincidences/synchronicities in my life as they occur. I’ve got a bit of a theory developing, but I need a lot more empirical evidence before I take it further…