No, I have no idea how all this “dream stuff” works, but for sure – as soon as I get the usual load of crap done around here this morning – I’ll be uploading this one to the www.nationaldreamcenter.com site. Definitely a case of the world of woo-woo (*WoWW.)
It’s another one of those dreams that has the same “syrupy reality” feel to it that other dreams (with some precognitive content to them) have had.
And, what makes this one so interesting is that the amount of detail in the dream is very high.
Let me run through it, and then you can decide what to make of it:
I was not “George” but rather a younger version of “me” although a different personality, completely. And, I was seeing the dream through the eyes of someone employed in a high tech firm which was doing something at the intersection of artificial intelligence, the web, and maybe (this is the weakest impression) something with remote (and possibly 3D) printing.
The day was going along fine, although time was not too clear. The company was in a building which had previously been occupied by another high tech firm and it was a big building. Lots of dark glass.
The building was also tall – got the impression that it was a high-rise of some sort, but couldn’t be sure.
About the company: It had been in the software/business/invention area for a long time and a while back (5-years?) had a pretty good hit with on e of its products. Everyone knew, however, that the money made in that success would run out at some point, so there was a major press on to finish the new project.
The company also had a “sister company” which was located in the Los Angeles area, and the direction from the company where the “dreamer” was located was “south”. Which means the company I was dreaming about what up the coast a good ways, either Bay area or Seattle.
The reason for “knowing this” was really odd, too. I was talking to someone in human resources (a female who was with a colleague of hers) and I was complaining about the lousy piped in music.
Specifically, there were four channels from which office workers could select and they were all universally bad. Oh, and loud, too.
“Do you have anything more relaxing? I mean like soft jazz, or something? I can’t get my work done under conditions like this….” I complained to the “boss lady from HR.”
The answer was quite surprising: “No, we used to get a feed from our company in Los Angeles because we had some leased data lines, but since they were acquired, that feed has gone offline. Besides, we needed the data lines for the project.”
Hmmm…feeling slightly frustrated, I wandered off to my workspace which (oddly) had a strange printer with it that was capable of being used online. Although it didn’t make sense in the dream, upon waking I figured out it was likely a 3D printer as it was that size and I was making adjustments to it. In fact, I was only pretending to work because the HR ladies were still around and I needed to look busy.
Presently, with the adjustments made, I wandered to a back area of the company’s space (ahead, left or directionally, southeast) and spoke to a programmer who was maybe 5’7”, very thin, hair combed straight back, with a goatee and wearing a paisley shirt.
As we were shooting the crap, here come the two HR ladies again. Only this time, they handed us both checks.
For a moment I was very much afraid for my job. After all, I knew the “easy money” was about gone and that my job might be on the line.
The checks, though, which no one else got, were paid to us because the company needed to buy a couple of web site domain names that we’d both picked up on a speculative basis a while back.
The checks were small, too: On the order of $172 or $174.
Relieved that I wasn’t fired (whew!) but disappointed that our speculative investment in domain names hadn’t paid more, I wandered back to my office from where I could see out the window to a cityscape scene.
I heard one of the HR types call after me “We needed those domain names because they are short, and for the project to work, we need super-short, easy to enter domain names…”
Fine. My mind began to wander.
All at once there was a quick, strong jolt.
Followed, not five seconds later with the building tilting as a gigantic earthquake began to topple the building.
“Oh my God, I wonder if the engineering of this building will hold through this?” was screaming in my mind.
Amazingly, right at this very instant, with the building in motion, now tilting maybe 25 degrees from the rolling ground wave, the dream stopped. And I don’t mean just a “fade to black” – I mean a frigging “freeze frame” and an urgent sense that I’m supposed to remember this.
Wowzers!. Some dream, huh?
It’s reminiscent of an effect that has become common in the dreams I’ve had which seem to have predictive content: I see a situation through the eyes of someone who is actually there.
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The difficulty with dreams, even when they have precognitive content (and not saying this one does, but give it a week or two and let’s see what happens, OK?) is that it’s hard to tell what “real is” and “where the reality line blurs.”
I don’t write up every one of these dreams when I have them, since I’m a rational finance/consulting guy, not a “future dreamer.” But I’ve had an ongoing series of experiences with “dreams going real” which I’ve documented here, over the years.
One of the more recent one I didn’t write up (as least so goes memory) was the April case of the Korea ferry disaster.
In that one, I awoke with a vision of a sinking cruise ship. Vivid as hell. Woke Elaine up, too. Told her about it. And then, 10-minutes later and on my first cuppa coffee, along come the live reports out of Korea where the ferry had gone down and it was looking very much like the Costa Concordia disaster. That was the “ cruise ship” angle.
In another one, I had a dream the morning leading to March 3rd which I wrote up as a report from the “Odd Dreams Dept.” Part of what I’d written was:
But if a passenger jet (two engines) with about 146 people aboard makes a safe landing after a brake failure, remember where you read it first
We sat around for a week thinking this dream stuff was really not so useful, after all, until the story hit on March 13th: “Plane skids off runway at Philadelphia Airport, passengers safe.”
149, not 146.
How to score this Woo-Woo stuff? I will leave that to Chris McCleary who has taken up the National Dream Center project that I didn’t have time for. But one of these days, we might make a book out of some of the oddities around here and over at the Dream Center. There’s just so much that we either a) don’t know or b) have forgotten how to use, that it’s one of the real “high payoff” aspects of humanistic research that’s really worth focusing on.
After we get through another work week, of course.
Sheri in the WoWW
Last week, we were chatting about dead people – who weren’t really dead. And here comes this email:
Hi George,
I had to laugh out loud when I read your comment about Efrim Zimbalist Jr! Thats a name blast from the past! Dating yourself.. and me I’m afraid. BTW, I thought he died in the 80’s, would have bet money on it.
I am writing you to tell you about my incident this morning. I’m wondering how often people have strange things happen with their alarm clock. My husband gets up EARLY..2:20am. Very particular about the clock. Checks the volume, time setting etc., every night. Wont tolerate being a second late. He sets it to wake up to music, leaves it on the same station every night. This morning I’m in a deep sleep & wake up startled to Springstein yelling, “I walked into a 10th Avenue freeze out,” blaring loud. I realize its my husbands clock and its 4:43am.
I whack it until the music is off, turn on the light, & find the off button. I’m wondering, What the hell? Tired as I am I’m more curious & text my husband at work. Ask if his alarm went off as usual this morning? He says time was normal but the buzzer(alarm) went off instead of music.
Okay maybe accidentally hit buzzer instead of music when setting it. Shut it off as usual. So how do you explain it going off at 4:43am with music for no reason? Yes, I checked later this morning while wide awake, the time is set for his usual 2:20am. How is it possible??Very strange.
A power line bump is the only thing that comes to mind. I don’t suppose there was lightning in the area, was there?
We’re Here…Are You?
Good lesson from working on a support issue with reader Jim this weekend:
Hi, George,
You are right. I had to change to google Chrome because Firefox stopped working with Norton.
They claim faster load times and it must be because of cache. I double clicked on my UrbanSurvival bookmark and it updated to today. It had the same problem when I went to the cached page and clicked on the Home link at the top of the cached page it still went to the cached link.
Thanks for the help,
Jim
Yes, UrbanSurvival has been as regular as dawn for years and years, due to a masochistic relationship I have with alarm clocks. So if our reports aren’t showing up on time, it’s likely because your browser ain’t browsing or your ISP is serving yesterday’s web content.
It’s an odd thing in life: Have both too much cache and not enough cash, if you know what I mean.
Confidential Email?
Anyone have any experience with ProtonMail? Promises end-to-end encrypted email. Don’t sure if signing up is a trigger for anything, or not.
Not that I have anything secret to say. In fact, I’ve always held that living your life like EVERYTHING could and would be used against you is the best approach.
Does marvels for paranoia medication sales, too.
OK, off to some self-medicating with caffeine and then more (yuck) work. Same time tomorrow…Write when you break-even.
George george@ure.net