After a decent bout in the gym earlier today I stretched out and dozed by a window that lets in the afternoon sun (cats will usually come and sit on you if you sleep there). Not quite asleep, I had a sudden hypnagogic vision of a midget Dick Cheney — well, sort of child-sized, except with a regular Dick Cheney head, little glasses and all — wearing a propeller beanie, otherwise attired in a T-shirt and short pants like any typical 1950’s child cartoon character, little bare legs and feet chugging through a similarly dated domestic interior while he looked back over his shoulder, waving his arms awkwardly overhead and cackling with merry, mocking laughter.
Anyone’s interpretation of this vision will be considered.
I’m not sure it needs an interpretation; it seems to express quite a literal truth.
There is that. But then why would something so obvious — and long established, in its way — come to me as a vision on the threshold of sleep? One would almost prefer Dr. James’ “Overall there is a smell of fried onions.”
Had you been eating cheese?
I have always been eating cheese.
I got nothing. My visions tend toward the Bosch spectrum. I’d wake myself up fully by giggling at yours.
Sometimes I just see a succession of faces — not of anyone I ever knew. Can’t figure that at all.
That would be better than the nightmare shit I see. Do you find that you can sort of encourage the face parade to continue, once it starts? I can. Like watching a movie.
Yeah. Sometimes I half make up a story for every face, or at least I have the intimation of the kind of person I’m seeing, for the half second I’m seeing it.
I didn’t know anyone else did this. I figured I was a freak.
Ever do lucid dreaming?
No, just never put the effort into trying. I like writing down dreams, though. I have the damndest ones.
Should try it. I sleep too deeply lately, but I taught myself how to do it as a kid (to get out of nightmares) and I still can, if I put some work into it. Usually I’m too tired to bother, or can’t sleep at all. You do have some wicked dreams, and while it has been said that nothing is as boring as someone else’s dream; not true in your case.