Friday, January 11, 2008

Recurring Places in My Dreams

I had a dream this morning that brought back several locations that have been recurring in my dreams. These are not real places. They are based on or near real places, but the places do not exist anywhere other than my head.

1. A religious shrine / grotto somewhere north of Omaha. In my dreams you reach it via a lovely country road that parallels a river, but it's not the Missouri River. The grotto is a wedge-shaped area. It has a parking lot south of its location. You walk to the grotto, then you walk through it. It is primarily limestone that has been carved into religious figures (various saints and characters from the Bible), and there is one area that goes somewhat underground. It's like a large room that has been carved out. There is an ornately carved platform with walls on either side. I think masses are held here.

2. A section of Omaha just north of Dodge Street. It starts about 1 block north of Dodge and goes about 10 blocks further north. It runs from about 5th Street (East) to 40th Street West). It's like a small town with lots of houses and many little businesses, but it's a dangerous place at night. At about 10th and Dodge (in my dream) is a high school. If you can get to the high school and navigate its labyrinthian passages to the other side, you're in "downtown" Omaha, which is a city unlike what actually exists in the location stated. In my dream, "downtown" Omaha has many tall, glass buildings but is interspersed with wider green spaces. There are no historic buildings.

3. Buckingham Palace in London. This one really gets me because it's not a building I've ever visited. In fact, I don't think I've even been anywhere near the grounds. But in my dreams I'm inside and it has the most intricate set of rooms and connecting halls and secret doors. In fact, it doesn't look like much of a palace at all. It's more like an historic home of some kind you might find in the southeastern US. There are no portraits of past kings or queens, no ornate carvings or marbles. It's just a lot of nice rooms with yellow/cream walls and matching draperies. And I always seem to know the staff members who serve the meals and do the dusting.

These are just three locations. Another is a house with an addition that stands on the site where there is in reality the house I did most of my growing up in. (The addition in my dreams is never finished and stands on a patch of grass between our house and the neighbor's.) Yet another is a small village in the Pacific Northwest which is periodically transported to Italy (although everyone still speaks English). I've never been to Italy.

Well, there's always my dreams, right?

4 comments:

Crossroads61 said...

I can relate. You've validated a personal occurence of mine. I need not restate what you have, save for details. I won't o over specifics, but the places seem to grow in scale and complexity dream to dream, though never going outside what I would expect to find, if I had lived there in that world. A true alternate reality. It excites me to have these on my mind before I try to sleep. After hehashing the told scenes and vistas tonight, I wonder what things new I'll see. I'll keep an eye skinned for anything that seems out of place, as far as those places go anyway.

Anonymous said...

i have those too...but i had more when i was little. you should try keeping a dream journal because then you can look back at your dreams, remember them, and eventually dream more.
i like visiting places in my dreams...they are places no one else can get to.

Anonymous said...

Your description is very close to my own dreaming. My dreams always seem to have place and setting as the focus. There is a set of about ten places I visit at night. Some of these I have mapped to real places, but for others I cannot find the connection.

Sarafina said...

I have several places I can go to on purpose that actually put me to sleep if I think about them. A cruise ship, small town, a school, and recently I acuired a new one in a hospital. I have total control to go into different areas and then I fall into a deep meditative state and the traveling takes over. It is similar to a roaming video game. I like it because I can feel myself going into my subconcious