The Stupid Email Response
Once upon a time I was screwing around on Usenet. I was jumping into all sorts newsgroups (mostly in the alt. area), and when I saw anything particularly stupid or inappropriate, I was posting equally stupid replies. It must have been the mood I was in that night.
Anyway, I stumbled into the alt.dreams newsgroup. People had posted dreams that they had recently experienced, and other people were posting their own theories as to what the dreams may have meant. Here was my chance.
I posted the following message. It described a dream that I had, except that I really didn't have it. It was totally made up -- pure fiction.
I've had this dream several times...
I'm driving a 1978 AMC Pacer down I-85 in Georgia, north of
Atlanta. I have an 8-track player in the car, and it is playing a
tape by Hootie and the Blowfish. (Yes, I know that this band
wasn't around when 8-track tapes were in vogue.) Anyway, I stop
at a rest area. When I get out of the car, that large boxing
kangaroo from the old Looney Tunes cartoons hops up to me, takes
off his boxing gloves, and asks me if I could take him to a
funeral. His voice sounds exactly like Homer Simpson's father's
voice. Then the kangaroo suddenly turns into David Letterman. He
smiles at me, and the gap in his front teeth slowly spreads apart
until it is about two inches wide. At this point, I turn around
to get back in my car, which now, for some reason, has turned
into a skateboard. So now I'm skateboarding down I-85. I get
going pretty fast, so I put out my arms, and now I'm flying about
200 feet in the air. When I land, I'm next to a swimming pool in
somebody's back yard, and the pool is full of naked old ladies.
All of them have taken their dentures out, and the dentures are
lying in a pile on the diving board. I fall in the pool, and the
old ladies start gumming my arms and legs. Then I wake up.
What in the world is my subconscious trying to tell me?
The very next day, this response was waiting in my email box. Some idiot had actually taken this seriously, and had made an attempt to interpret for me. Email addresses, servers, etc. have been changed to protect the dumb and innocent.
From - Fri Jul 12 17:58:31 1996 Received: from natashya.garden.com by bozonet.net with SMTP id AA03456 (5.67b/IDA-4.5 for <raardv@bozonet.net>); Sat, 29 Jun 1996 16:44:17 -0400 Received: from matrix.garden.com (net-67-167.austin.garden.com [206.81.111.167]) by natashya Message-Id: <1922232144.PDA01457@natashya.garden.com> From: dboulet@garden.com To: raardv@bozonet.net Subject: Re: Any ideas about this dream? Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 22:41:51 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Status: U X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 10269 Rufus, You've made great start since you realize that your "subconscious" was trying to tell you something. It was....is. That's what dreams are...the subconscious telling "its", or should I say "her" side of the story of your life. She's saying "look Rufus, here you are...This is your Life"...from her point of view.....from her vantage point of all your memories of all your experiences and how they "shake down" into associations and correlations. As always, the dreamer has to interpret what is true and what is applicable...as symbols to the reality in their own life or internal association. But dream scenarios are written in a real, decipherable "language". The language of emotion....images. Each image has an association or correlation with something in your conscious experience or something in your universal consciousness....I call the superconscious or spirit. The dream is only the subconscious speaking while we are in a subconscious state of awareness in sleep. When we are conscious we hear words. When the conscious mind is laid aside or subjegated, during REM sleep....we are "existing" in the subconscious state. So the dream is an "experience" of the subconscious which has received its programming from the other two levels. It knows "truth"...your Ideals from the superconscious level. It knows "experience" from the memories of your life/lives. It is constantly trying to "file" these awarenesses into some kind of "organized" collage and the filing system it uses is not linear. It is "correlation" or "association". So if you learn the "language" of your inner Self, you will better understand what is going on in your life....as compared to your own inner Truth. The subconscious speaks reality....and it's YOUR reality. Kind of important, I would say. More.. ........................... wjsandbag@interbozo.com wrote: >> raardv@bozonet.net (Rufus Leaking) writes: >> I've had this dream several times... >> >> I'm driving a 1978 AMC Pacer down I-85 in Georgia, north of Atlanta. >> I have an 8-track player in the car, and it is playing a tape by >> Hootie and the Blowfish. (Yes, I know that this band wasn't around >> when 8-track tapes were in vogue.) ................. I don't know the music but music usually represents the "background" rhythm to which we "dance" our lives away. It is the rhythm of our life....whether frenetic, depressed, happy and euphorial, or whatever type of music it is. (I'm sorry you're driving a Pacer. I had a 78 and it was a piece of crap. So was my Dad's and my Aunt's) But I digress. The 8 track tape has two connotations to me. See if one or both fit for you. First it is "outmoded"...as you yourself indicate. Second is the numerological significance of the universal symbol of 8. It's meaning is that of the "testing" period....the "trials" in your life. Now the fish, where "blowfish" was selected for a reason by the subconscious associative powers. The fish is the denizen of water...the depths of the great pool of "spirit". Spirit...objectified in anyone's life comes through as emotion from the emotional body....the subconscious (feminine aspect) mind. The fish is the "unevolved" spirit...the one which has not left the sea....and walked upon the land of conscious experience. It is still evolving in the depths of emotion. It will eventually become a land creature and finally an air creature. Both the first and the last are creatures of 3 dimensional movement. One swims in a 3D environment....the evolved bird, eagle, falcon, etc. symbol...flies in a more rarified 3D environment. The bird is the symbol of overcoming first the sea and then the 2D environment of limitation of the physical world (conscious mind) and rising to the heights of the spiritual awareness....or what is beyond both the physical and the mental. ................... >Anyway, I stop at a rest area. ................ A period of regrouping of the mind and life and a kind of an evaluation of them takes place here, usually. ....................... >> When I get out of the car, that large boxing kangaroo from the old >> Looney Tunes cartoons hops up to me, takes off his boxing gloves, and >> asks me if I could take him to a funeral. ............... A cartoon is how the subconscious sometimes shows us our life, because I think that is how it views our physical waking experience.....from its internal viewpoint. It sees our conscious world as a movie....just as we see its world of dreams as a movie. Both sides of the mind see each other's experience of life as "unreal"...from their standpoint of each existing in different "environments". The kangaroo hearkens to the 8 mentioned above. The "fighter" in you. The funeral represents the "rest" period and the "evaluation" and subsequent "decision" to "change" or "kill" something about your old way of doing things, or thinking about things or feeling about things. This represents the beginning stage of the process of "allowing" the creation of something new. To create we must first destroy. We must build our future from the ashes of our past. ........................ >His voice sounds exactly >> like Homer Simpson's father's voice. Then the kangaroo suddenly turns >> into David Letterman. He smiles at me, and the gap in his front teeth >> slowly spreads apart until it is about two inches wide. ................ Both these characters are male and teeth are indicated. Therefore I would say they indicate the male principe of mind awareness....the conscious awareness. This is waking awarensss of your physical life experience. Teeth usually represent something about speech but could also be a pun or something related to something you can "chew" on. A gap, in this scenario, would relate to something you "can't" chew on any longer. .................. >>At this >> point, I turn around to get back in my car, which now, for some >> reason, has turned into a skateboard. So now I'm skateboarding down >> I-85. ................. This is the symbol of coasting....letting the natural flow of events and force carry you along. 85 might be 8 1/2...meaning halfway through the period of testing/evaluation. ................ >I get going pretty fast, so I put out my arms, and now I'm >> flying about 200 feet in the air. .................. Flying is confidence. It is related to the bird concept above. It is a "rising above" the situation...which we all must learn to do. ............... >When I land, I'm next to a swimming >> pool in somebody's back yard, and the pool is full of naked old >> ladies. All of them have taken their dentures out, and the dentures >> are lying in a pile on the diving board. I fall in the pool, and the >> old ladies start gumming my arms and legs. Then I wake up. .................. The swimming pool is an artificial version of the ocean....pool of spirit which, objectified in your life, is emotion. The old ladies are all representations of the various past "programs" or "beliefs" in your subconscious which had bugs or flaws and through which you have evolved. (You might think of the old ladies as the collection of software versions of a program as it evolves from v1.0 through v8.5....constantly becoming more bug-free.) They have no clothes on because they no longer have "identity"....they are superseded by the new information which is based on the latest information which you have learned and where you stand currently. Your current knowledge base and belief system. Your "new" woman (subconscious) inside you. Their teeth are removed because they no longer have any power to "bite" you emotionally or "accuse" you or "control" you with their outmoded belief systems. They are like old software programs....obselete. However they do have one function. They were building blocks to get you where you are today. Just as today's "woman" will someday be old and outmoded and become just a memory of a building block to get you to where you will be tomorrow. ...................... >> What in the world is my subconscious trying to tell me? ................... In general, I think that is what this rather short but very information-filled dream is trying to say. ................... >Sounds sexual to me. ............... It is since the nature of our physical lives and interrelations is a physical "model" of our inner lives and correlations. The rampant symbols of sexual connotation in the old religious treatises are but metaphors to explain the Self...how it works....its divisions....its interrelations...and how the "new" life is brought into being. It is done by the reconciliation and joining of opposites in the physical life and nature in every way....and it is done the very same way IN the SELF. The male (conscious mind) "impregnates" the female (subconscious/receptive mind) with new "data/observation/experience/conclusions". This "new" data is processed by the subconscious (female) throughout a gestation period where it is correlated and associated for a time. Then when the internal processing is finished and the concepts are ready for expression or experimentation in the world....the new "you"....is given birth as a new "operating system" in your life....complete with a new "consciousness"...or belief system. The "rest" stop is over....and you go out on your highway (path) of life to gather yet more data...and experience for the next round of growth in awareness. And the growth in awareness is the awareness of yourself. It hopefully gets a little closer to the truth of what Rufus is and who Rufus is. Self Awareness...with all its attendant relations to all aspects of Being and what that means. Your dreams show the "structure" of the process. They can be used as "lights" on your path.....as you choose and pick your way through life with conscious awareness. With understanding. Don Note: For anyone interested, you can see a more detailed explanation of my dream theory on my www page (still under construction) at: http://www.txsongs.com/dreams.htm Click on dream FAQs
Whew! The scariest part of this is the fact that this person was SERIOUS!