posted August 17, 2003 11:18 AM         

I had an interesting dream last night - wanted to see if anyone could identify, or maybe interpret it.
Basically, after training (USArmy), I got sent over to the Middle East. I was flying to my helicopter and somehow got shot down. Let's see...after doing some E&E (escape and evade) (the whole time thinking, "How will I get out of this and get back to Corri?"), I found myself in the convenience store of a gas station. There was a Middle Eastern or East Indian guy at the counter eyeing me. I grabbed a coke in a glass bottle and some sugar and set them on a counter.
The attendant guy had left, and I had sense of foreboding. Next thing I know, I've been captured and I am being paraded between two large groups of Iraqis in front of a very large building out in the middle of the desert. There were international TV crews there - like independent press type TV crews - and Iraqi TV crews as well. My captors were parading me up and down a little stretch of sand between the two groups, and one of them had a bullhorn and was shouting anti-American stuff out of it.
I managed to break away from my captors, leaving them on the ground, and taking the one's bullhorn; and none of the other gaurds or anyone else made a move towards me. They just sat there and watched. I then proceeded to start walking up and down the line between the two groups, shouting out inspiring stuff about Freedom and the Rights of Man and Breaking Away from Tyranny and Oppression - and getting the crowd generally pretty worked up (in an agreeing way).
And while I was...actually, it was kinda funny the way I was doing it...'cause I was sitting there - have you ever seen the Malcolm X and MLK speeches? It was like that, but I was walking. At one point I even yelled, "Can I get an Amen?" (And at two other points I yelled, "Can I get a, "Hell Yeah"!"). All the TV crews were like, "Get this, get this, get this!"
And while strutting around between these two groups, yelling out my speech in my dirty, sandy, dusty flightsuit, torn in a couple places (esp. my knees), I looked up and saw that the blue sky was coming very, very, very dark (Have you ever seen "Independence Day"? It was like that - there was this vast, approaching curve or darkness, taking up all of the sky behind it.)
And, um, as it came in, everyone started panicking, and I was like, "What's going on?", and then that's when I noticed - with sandstorm intensity - snow. When I turned around, the desert in front of me - where all the people were running from - was covered in several inches of snow. And I turned back and I saw giant, 6-inch across snowflakes (they looked like feathers, but you could tell that they were ice crystals - it was really cool).
I ran off in the direction of the other people running, and, like, the snow gave way to desert, and the desert gave way to short grass - and in the darkness I tripped and fell, and for whatever reason it seemed like there was really strong moonlight, or streetlights off in the distance. And then I tripped and fell (going back), and when I fell, I turned around to see if there were any pursuering captors, and there were none. And then I turned back around and saw about 2 feet tall and about 1.5 ft in diameter cylanders falling with parachutes attached, and several were landing on the ground and breaking open (much like the scene in "Empire of the Sun"...but at night), and so I started gathering emergency rations, and running with them. And then found this bombed-up building that used to be some sort of shop or something.
I started stashing the canisters in there, and inside another hole in the wall that was further in the building.
I then started going around trying to gather more food, and I was walking out of the building, I noticed that there was this room, or section of the room, filled with fruit-producing plants, but in pots on the shelves. And I remember - there were tomatoes - and I grabbed those (even though I hate tomatoes) and red peppers (they're OK). And there were pumpkins (not grabbed) and pears and oranges, but all coming from potted plants. And there were these black-skin pears (like metallic black, not rotted, kinda glossy, but regular pear on the inside - they looked kinda chitonous on the outside).
And then this old American Lady showed up (that looked like this lady from a school that I used to go to - nice lady, a little...huh?), and we talked for a little while. She told me where to get some other stuff. And then the darkness outside went away, and it began to become hot desert again as I peered out of a bombed-out hole in the outer wall. I could see that the gaurds were looking for me again.
I was crawling on the inside of the outer room, and I saw a gaurd try to come up and I dropped into the shadows trying to hide.
The gaurd peered inside, and then turned away and started walking again. As he did that, I got up, and then the gaurd came back, and ... I forget exactly how... but I dispatched him.
I started searching around again, and I found some old C-Ration cans. Another guard showed up, and as I was ducking away from him, this really skinny Indian guy just wearing a loincloth and a turban came up from under the shelves I was hiding behind, and he handed me the broken-off, jagged end of something (as if to defend myself), and he took the other end. He then charged at the attacker with his piece, and then just kinda disappeared.
The gaurd came back after me, and I threw my piece at him. It just hit him in the chest, and *doink*, fell off.
Then, I got rid of him somehow, and then some kung-fu dude in Iraqi Army Fatigues shows up, and he has these big fistfulls of bass guitar strings, and he started flailing them around. And then he started taking some swipes at me, narrowly missing me. I threw something full of paper from the shelves, and he swipes at it and cuts it in two like butter. Then I'm kinda backed against the wall, and the guy's flinging the guitar strings around (being a show-off), and then I look at him and then look at the shelf, and I shrug my shoulders and then slam this 8-foot-tall shelf on top of him.
Then that lady showed up again (the American) and said, "Oh, that's nice." I was like, "Oh, well, Geez." (Like, "That's it?").
Then I went back to my tiny hole in the wall to gather some supplies (like I was going to go on a journey), and then I woke up.

posted August 18, 2003 01:20 PM         

I should be able to get to this dream tonight. Before I do, a question?

Scatbug, is this military scenario part of your experience? I mean, are you in the army, and did you go to Iraq?

posted August 21, 2003 01:11 PM         

For the length of this detailed dream, the explanation is quite short and simple - at least the way I see it. Instead of focusing upon every little detail, the meaning can be revealed by looking at the general actions and feelings.

You are pumped up about your military career. You feel excited, ready to serve, ready to fight for all of those things you believe in. You are confident in the "cause" and you are confident in the abilites you will aquire through your military training.

But the dream reveals that behind your conditioned, military consciousness (which has been learned mostly through family at this point) there are concerns about survival, and deeper yet, there are negative emotions that have been pushed into your subconscious (snow storm in desert). There is nothing unusual about that, for this is necessarily part of your mental conditioning. You obviously cannot function as a good soldier if fear/concern/worry/doubt are part of your battle-ready mind. In fact, it would be unusual (and perhaps scary!) if these emotions/feelings did not exist somewhere within your mind!

So really, that is about it. You are preparing yourself mentally for the journey you are about to embark upon.

Good luck to you, scatbug. May you be protected.