I Open The Doors To My Dreams

It's the last day at my old high school in Rotterdam, and I must prove that I am worthy of the school, and of passing on to the next phase in my life, by writing a paper. The paper needs to be about a subject that I know nothing about, and has to be submitted at the end of the day. I go home to work, but there are no results because I am unfamiliar with the subject, and the internet, computers and Wikipedia are still decades into the future. I decide to retreat to a distant, quiet place to be able to better concentrate on the job, and I find myself in a wooden cabin in the woods near the fictional town of Twin Peaks in the US. Every morning the cabin is also a hotel where I have breakfast, and this hotel looks like the police office from the Twin Peaks TV-series. While working in isolation it starts to dawn on me why I need to work on this subject: to lift myself to the next level. Once I understand this I have the the knowledge and the energy to finish. When done I enthusiasticall...

Mirjam and I are on a day trip in the Dutch province of Zeeland. We are in a picturesque town, where we are participating in a guided tour. During the tour, the guide takes us to a location on the intersection of a narrow old street and the city square. She points to three holes in the ground, right in the middle of the street, with a diameter of ca. 50 cm. The holes contain water, and they seem to be quite deep. "The holes are connected to the ocean, and each hole belongs to a species", she explains, "The hole to the right belongs to the seals. The hole in the middle to the dolphins. And the hole to the left to the whales." As if they were waiting for these words to be spoken, a seal, a dolphin and a whale appear in their respective holes. Though the animals are far bigger than 50 cm, especially the whale, they have no trouble passing through the holes. They seem to be at ease, and slightly amused by the behavior of the people in the tour group. Their faces are wis...

It's late afternoon. I'm at the bus station in Leiderdorp, waiting for bus 100 to take me home to Leiden. The Leiderdorp bus station is a large square in the center of town, a busy regional hub where countless buses come and go on their way to destinations all over the country. I've been here many times in previous dreams, even though this location doesn't exist in the real world. One of the people waiting at the bus stop is a young man with a dog. He explains that he needs to deliver his dog to "number 62", but he doesn't know where that is, and he has very little time. I tell him that it's not far from where we are, and that it wouldn't be any trouble for me to take the dog there. He is very grateful and hands over the dog leash. I leave the bus stop with the dog. It's a friendly, brown, long-haired animal with long ears, who is happy to be with me. Because the destination is nearby I go on foot, but at the same time we find ourselves inside ...

Mirjam and I need to go out of town, and we take the bus to get there. However, the bus is quite full, and it gets very hot inside. Many passengers take off their coats, and put them on a coat rack that has appeared next to the exit - eliminating the seats and passengers that were previously there. I hang up my coat as well. We reach our destination more quickly than I expect, and while Mirjam hops off the bus as soon as it stops, I still have to search for my coat. It got buried under several layers of other coats, and by the time I have recovered it the bus is moving again. And it keeps moving; there are no more stops after the one where Mirjam got off the bus. The quality of the road steadily deteriorates, while the landscape becomes more barren. The intensity of the light increases. All passengers except me dissolve into thin air. I know we've reached the end of the world when we pass a weathered road sign saying "End of the World". The area looks like a scene from...

There is an emergency situation at work and many employees are working late. The company restaurant has remained open, and the kitchen has improvised a dinner. I collect my dinner at the counter, and sit down at a table near the window. Looking out the window I realize that the company is no longer situated in Leiden, but in Den Haag. Something unpleasant happening in the street outside the window captures my attention; I jump up and run outside. At the bus stop in front of the company building I get into the first bus that arrives. Inside it's dark, and I can't see the other passengers properly, even though the bus is very full, with many people standing. The passengers are ghost-like, as if made of smoke, and none of them move or speak. The bus doesn't produce any sound either. I nervously wait for the bus to arrive at the final stop. However, before this happens I once again experience something urgent, and I jump off the bus at the next stop. This appears to be the stop...

I go to the greengrocer's to buy various fruits for various purposes: to increase my vitamin intake, to improve my food digestion, to stimulate my brain activity, etc. However, after returning home I don't recognize the fruits, and I have forgotten why I bought them. (In writing this down I realize that in my dream I simultaneously knew and forgot why I bought those fruits. And though I need only a few lines to describe this dream, it wasn't short at all.)

It is autumn. I am in a forest with my manager and some of my colleagues. During the past months it has been my task to report on a dead tree trunk that has been lying on the ground where we are standing. The forest is part of the office, but situated a few kilometers away at the same time. Would the trunk deteriorate? Would it be visited by animals? Would it be eaten by insects? Would people come to take bits of the trunk for firewood? I have not done a good job, because the tree trunk is gone and I don't have a clue what happened. My manager and my colleagues are unhappy with the results. Months have passed, why haven't I provided any information on the situation of the trunk? I suggest to put down a new trunk and start all over again, but the proposal meets with indifference. And rightly so, because where would I find another trunk, and if I did, how would I transport it to this location? Everybody starts walking back to their cars. Nobody talks. There is an atmosphere of di...

In this dream I'm an observer, not a participant. From my point of view in outer space I'm watching an endless procession of children climbing an invisible, circular staircase. Lines of four children (four children next to each other) are climbing the invisible steps ahead of them. Af few steps down, another four children. And so on until eternity. They move in lockstep, which is an amazing sight, and they are wearing white nightgowns, which makes them look like angels. Maybe that's why they look up at the sky, not at their feet. There seems to be a limitless supply of children. Higher and higher they go, without ever pausing.  It's a tower of children, floating in space, making not a single sound. There is music surrounding them, but it cannot be heard. There is light surrounding them, but it cannot be seen. I'm in awe of what I see and hear.