Three Dreams of Presences

(Sunday, January 4, 2014)

Dream 1 is a waking dream: The week after I throw a big hissy-fit (Bonnie’s word!) at T’ai-Chi I end up being the only student in class. I still feel ashamed and uncomfortable with Rob. I want to stand at the very back of the huge room but there is a distinctive presence in the middle of the space which will not allow me to back up any further. Whenever I get close to the presence/energy, I feel like I am bumping into a big, soft wall that reaches floor-to-ceiling and across the width of the room. My vision “whites out” and my hearing dims until I move forward, closer to Rob. The experience is so palpable and strange I consider asking him about it.

Dream 2: I go to bed after my friend Anne’s New Year’s Eve party. I am staying in her guest room at the back of her 1890s era Highland Park mansion. The room is in a dark corridor next to a steep old staircase that goes all the way to the basement. I have a brief dream of many spirits moving happily up the stairs to greet me. It has been years since there has been anyone in the house that could “see” them. To me, they don’t seem as though they are from the past. They seem more like Anne’s intelligent and warm friends from the party. One looks exactly like Anne’s kind dark-haired friend named Lynne. But they are, in fact, the former (and present!) residents of the house.

Dream 3: I have a chaotic dream the night before I leave Chicago (Saturday morning). All of the house spirits are in my room. There is much dream activity that I have forgotten. My main memory is of the spirit that looks like Lynne sitting close to me on the bed, on my left side. She holds my hands and our fingers are tightly entwined, as if in prayer. Strong jolts of electricity are shaking my body. It’s the same kind of electricity I sometimes experience as I fall asleep. Lynne feels very real, not at all like a spook.