From: michael@gibbs.oit.unc.edu (Michael George Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.dreams
Subject: Never, ever, EVER allow me to go to China
Date: 16 Dec 92 05:26:02 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of North Carolina


Early in my senior year of high school (fall, 1991), I had an incredibly
vivid and drawn-out dream.  I am posting it here so that any of you who
read about it and have any sort of interpretation of it can respond.  Any
input or reaction to this dream is welcomed.  It is not a dream that
particularly disturbs me, but it was highly of interest to many of my
friends at the time who were fascinated by such vividness and detail. 
Here it is:

I dreamt that I was on a trip to China.  I believe that it was as an
exchange student, and at the time the concept of being an exchange student
was one which I had from time to time thought of as an interesting option,
but not one which I was particularly interested in pursuing.  Anyway, I
was in China as a student.  I was visiting the Great Wall, when suddenly
several armed guards (Chinese) approached me and demanded to see my
identification.  I produced it, and they accused me of being a spy for the
U.S., and promptly hauled me off to prison with no trial, etc.  The prison
I was housed in was utterly filthy, and the walls were all black.  It was
apparantly a prison specifically set aside for spies, because many varying
nations and ethnicities were represented there.  No matter how much I
begged and pleaded to be released or swore my innocence, I was not allowed
to leave.  I was also not allowed any contact with America, so no one
(including my family) knew what had happened, to my knowledge.  I was told
that I was sentenced to serve a nine year prison sentence (shorter than
that which most spies received, because of still being a teenager) there for
the crime of spying for America.  I DREAMT EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THOSE NINE
YEARS.  I remember everything.  The slop we ate, exercising in the
prisoners' courtyard, what the people around me looked like, people coming
and going, EVERYTHING.  Over time, I have forgotten bits and pieces of it,
but it is still about 80% intact.  During my prison term, I lost track of
time (we were not allowed to have calendars or watches).  Eventually, one
day a guard brought me the message that within a few days my term would be
over and I would be released.  I was so overjoyed that I ran and jumped
and shouted in the courtyard.  I specifically recall a large, stone,
fountain-like object in the yard, sort of like it had at one time been a
functioning fountain for beautification purposes but that it was now no
longer maintained and no water flowed from it.  When the other prisoners
heard of my impending release, they became incredibly jealous and
alienated me.  Two days later, I was given a new set of clothes and thrown
out of the prison walls to fend for myself.  I walked to the nearest town,
and using my father's credit card number (which in reality I do NOT know,
but in this dream I apparantly did) I made my way across China
and eventually to Peking where I bought a plane ticket to San Francisco. 
I was totally unaware of how much time had passed--I didn't even know if I
had served nine years, a shorter time, or possibly even longer.  I flew to
San Francisco with the ticket bought with my father's credit card number,
and from the airport there I called my home.  I realized as the phone rang
that I didn't even know if my parents lived in the same place--were even
still alive, for that matter.  I couldn't get an answer, so I bought a
plane ticket home, and once to the airport near us I rented a car and
drove the rest of the way.  My only hope was to go back to the home that I
had lived in prior to the beginning of all this and hope that my parents
had never moved.  I pulled up in the driveway, parked the car, and went up
to the front door and rung the doorbell.  My father answered the door, and
I threw myself at him.  As I hugged my parents and cried and realized I
was home, my entire body was completely awash with joy.  I have never had
such an intense experience waking or asleep.  My parents told me that they
had never moved away out of hope that I would somehow come back and come
to that home.  They had never been informed of my captivity or arrest,
only that I had mysteriously disappeared and there was no trace of where I
had gone.  My sisters were immediately called and invited to the house for
a huge celebration dinner. 
	Now, to add an editorial intrusion, I will inform you that right
now, in reality, my youngest sister (who is eight years older than myself)
has two sons, one of which was at this time 3 1/2, and the other which was
at the time only a couple of months old.  My other sister is twelve years
older than myself, and has no children.  Both are married, and live
within five minutes of the home which our parents and I live in.
	Stepping back into the dream, both of my sisters were invited to
our home for a celebration dinner.  In the meantime, I was introduced to
all the advancements which I had missed out on.  We had holo-vision tv
sets, which projected a 3D image over a smooth, black projector-like
object which sat in the middle of the living room and which could be
viewed from any angle, enabling us to sit in a circle around it and watch.
There were also remote control microwaves, and they had been improved
beyond just doing leftovers and microwave dinners, and my mother was able
to cook the entire dinner at the push of a button from anywhere in the
house.  My sister with the kids arrived, and I discovered that she had had
two more in my absence.  While the oldest one remembered me (although only
vaguely), the second oldest didn't remember me and didn't even care to
show up, and the two youngest (both born while I was a prisoner) had
absolutely no idea who I was or why they were at our house to meet this
stranger they had to call "Uncle" for some odd reason.  Although I had
only been sentenced to nine years, the two oldest were teenagers already.
I was extremely upset by the fact that my nephew who was only a couple of
months old when I left didn't want to see me at all, but I tried to hide
it and enjoy being home and finally around my family again.  However, the
fact that he hadn't come kept pestering me and I grew increasingly upset
and eventually woke up.  
	Upon waking, I even FELT nine years older.  In fact, my first
thought was "Gosh, it's good to finally be home" because I didn't even
realize it had been a dream.  My dream had started with getting up one
morning (presumably the morning after the night I had the dream), getting
and accepting the oppurtunity to go to China, and finally it ended with my
going to bed one night (presumably the night before waking up).  It felt
as if it had all been real, not a dream.  My father came to wake me up,
and I noticed that something was wrong.  Suddenly, it dawned on me that I
was seventeen again, and that it had never happened.  I quickly asked my
father what year it was.  Although he looked at me kind of funny when he
said it, he replied that it was 1991.  "It's not 1998?" I said.  "No, son,
it's not!" he laughed (he's always been a good natured fellow, with a good
sense of humor, and he could tell I'd just had one HECK of a dream). 
Well, to say the least, I felt overblown by it.  I felt like I had lived
it all and then been sent back--given a chance to relive it and avoid it
altogether.  I made my parents promise to never allow me to be an exchange
student or travel to China, and the opportunity has never presented
itself.  However, it took me a while--a couple of weeks--to get over the
feeling of being in the past, a 26-year-old sent back from the future.  I
felt like I had been given a second chance.  It was a wonderful feeling,
but it also scared me silly.  Any reactions?

Michael
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"Shoot low, boys, they're riding Shetland Ponies." --- Lewis Grizzard
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