Dream: The Billy Graham Meeting ND

Dream 20021027, 8:00 AM:

It seems like there was more to the beginning of this dream than I remember. The part that I remember starts with Chris taking me to a religious revival type party at someone’s house; I think of it as being associated with Billy Graham. There are all kinds of people here, both older and younger. It’s a nice suburban house, with a fairly open floor plan. The furniture has been rearranged to allow the meeting to make use of all the space possible. I sit on the floor next to Chris, and find that I’m leaning up against the knees of a guy who’s sitting behind me. It feels comfortable, though, and everyone seems to be in a casual mood so I don’t move. There is a man giving a presentation, and it seems like the room is darkened; he has bars of light beneath his eyes, and I know that it is becasue he is wearing special glasses that allow him to see the projection screen on the lenses. I go into the other room to get something, perhaps a drink, and then walk back and sit back down. This time, I find an empty spot on the couch, because someone has vacated it. I sit down, and make myself comfortable with the pillows, etc., and then the person comes back, but it’s OK because she just sits beside me. The Nova Dreamer lights flash, and I think to myself that it’s kind of annoying, and I don’t know why I have it turned on now, because I’m not dreaming or asleep. They flash several more times throughout this dream, and each time they are quite clearly themselves, not incorporated into any sort of dream illumination. It seems like I am doing my best not to recognize the fact that I am dreaming.

We go outside, and there is someone here teaching us how to plant seeds. The whole back yard has furrowed rows, and on the top of each set of rows are these prostrate juniper bushes. They are pale blue-green, and seem scraggly to me. The guy is explaining that they just moved the fountain out of here, so that they could do this garden. He has a young boy teach us how to plant the seeds; the boy takes a knitting needle and draws a straight line in the earth, then puts the seeds in it with his fingers and pushes it closed. The man has Chris repeat the same thing, and Chris digs the furrow wrong somehow, too deep or too narrow, and the man says that Chris’s seeds won’t sprout that way.

Then, back inside, we’re listening as a guy explains that someone dreamed he had eaten his bagel, but look, the bagel is still here – I asked if the bagel has as much spirit as before, or if the spirit has been eaten out of it. The man seems a little disturbed, as if I’m asking a question that I shouldn’t, and it will undermine his message. I think he was trying to prove the insubstantial nature of dreams, and I brought that into question.

Then, we’re talking about a special kind of photography that can measure the changes made by dreaming. In the image in my mind, it looks almost like a heat-sensitive camera, showing areas where stuff has been altered by someone in the dream state.