Newsgroups: alt.dreams
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 15:34:47 -0400 
From: Steven Anselmo Aiello <sa2y+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Some Weird Dreams et alia.

First of all, please address any correspondence to this message (except
for regular reply posts) to saiello@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu, NOT
sa2y+@andrew. cmu.edu.  THANKS.

Okay, I would like to do TWO things.  1) List a couple of weird dreams,
and 2) Tell about an experiment that I've been conducting.

1) Dreams

Dream 1: I was sitting in my living room, watching a tape on my VCR- it
was something that I had written and filmed myself, sort of like one of
those goofy teen/young adult soap operas, like 90210 or umm...Melrose
Place.  Anyway, I watched for about 15 minutes, and then I stopped the
tape with the intent to rewind and watch something over again.  It was
then that I realized that whatever was playing on my VCR was being
broadcast over the network station my TV was on- it was CBS, as I
recall.  I watched the technical difficulties pattern on CBS for a
minute, listening to an announcer say that they had no idea what was
going on.  Then a friend of mine pulled up outside my front door, and
got out of his car, saying "It's you, isn't it?"  I told him yes....
(can't remember more)

Dream 2: A friend pulled up outside, like before.  He had driven from
New York City, where he lives, but I don't know why.  Then another
friend pulled up, who also knew the guy from NY, and then we all drove
back to NYC, and hung out there for awhile, walking around on building
ledges, and (get this) praries and country roads.  We went to a museum
in the middle of a forest (!!!) and it was pretty interesting.  I think
we had some homemade soup while we were there....

Dream 3: I was at a small party with some people whom I didn't really
know, and we were in a semi-large living room/den area with couches and
paintings and stuff.  Somebody said something about LSD, and then I
said, "Oh I did that once," and proceeded to tell a few things about a
trip I once had.  Then it got REALLY REALLY WEIRD.  I began to see what
was going on in the room from several perspectives, sometimes AT THE
SAME TIME.  Regularly, through my own eyes, and sometimes through a
camera in an upper corner of the room.  Then my entire vision flashed to
a weirdly colored still frame of Jimi Hendrix's head, which took up my
whole visual field. (!!!!!)  Then it flashed back to the room.  Then it
flashed to a similar picture, but the field was divided into four
sections, each one with a Jimi head.  It did this several times,
sometimes quickly, sometimes for a longer period of time, but no more
than a few seconds.  Once the field was divided into 9 Jimi heads.  At
this point, my visual field went totally black, and all I was aware of
was my body.  Suddenly, my body began to contort and twist in impossible
directions and lengths.  My right shoulder went up OVER MY HEAD, while
my left shoulder bent down towards my feet.  The feeling was so real,
yet utterly IMPOSSIBLE.  I began to twist in pretzel shapes, or a limb
would extend several extra feet.  It was really odd, but very
interesting.  At this point, I woke up and said to myself, "That was
really really strange.  I'll have to tell my friend Pete about that." 
Then I went back to sleep.  Three times during the rest of the night, I
dreamt about telling this story to someone.  Twice it was Pete, I don't
remember who the other one was....

So what do you think?  Let me know if you have any comments.

Okay, about my experiment.  It's basically a self-hypnosis exercise, but
I do it to force myself to sleep at will.  What I do is relax and take
some deep relaxing breaths for a minute or two, then I begin to count
down from 50, at medium speed.  I concentrate on each number, and let my
mind think of whatever it wants to.  By the number 30 or so, my brain
will often be coming up with about 10 or 15 distinct thoughts and images
per second, which I can recognize at the time, but cannot recall by the
next number.  Around 20, everything gets really hazy and dreamy, and
occasionally I'll remember to count down to the next number, but I
cannot think about it consciously.  It is then that I am able to
recognize for a split-second that it worked, then I am asleep.  This
process may take from 5-10 minutes, or I guess maybe even less, but my
concept of time is utterly useless.

Has anybody done stuff like this?  Tell me about similar things also,
for I am curious about it.

Thanks for reading...


-STEVE AIELLO, the Travvelor
 Surreal Estate Agent, Ibawho, Inc.
   
Newsgroups: alt.dreams