sometime in 1995 . . .
A Dangerous Trek
I was standing outside a doorway of a large complex of some kind. The building was high in some mountains, and I was overlooking a vast expanse of mountainous land.
There were other people with me, and we were all waiting to start off on a hike. I understood that there were 3 "phases" to the activity.
Phase 1 was simply a normal hike along paths through the mountains. Phase 2 was more challenging. I was about to try phase 3.
Our group was supposed to work together to get through it. Our group consisted of an old man who was an experienced outdoorsman, a professional runner with high endurance, and an attractive girl named "Paula Abdul" (named after the singer, I suppose).
We were on a concrete platform with several stone pillars on it. We were starting off, so I stepped off the platform.
Immediately, the solid-looking ground collapsed into a sea of loose sand and dirt. Huge chunks of earth pushed up and sank back down. I began to sink into the ground, as did the other group members, and we discovered that we could swim through the dirt.
It was very difficult, though, and someone began to sink. The runner surface dove underground and from underneath pushed the feet of the person in trouble up with his hands, saving them from "drowning."
Later, we were camping for the night in a grassy area beside a dirt road. we had a jeep and a camper with a trailer with us now.
We kept the jeep running with its lights on, and circling our camp on some kind of cruise control setting.
We were eating or something in front of the camper when a blue sports car drove up. Several guys with guns who looked to be around 19 or 20 stepped out.
They seemed to be trying to sneak up on us around the sides of the camper. The outdoorsman said he'd take care of them, grabbed a rifle, and walked around the camper toward them.
His rifle had a bayonet, which he used without hesitation to stab two of the intruders. He shot the third in the chest.
They had been surprised at his straightforward approach and hadn't had time to react. They died quickly.
the old man walked back around to us, and we saw that he had been injured somehow.
The next morning, we discovered that the old man's condition had worsened and he could no longer walk. We tied him to the back of the trailer with a splint on his leg.
As we were packing to leave, we saw a black woman in fitness clothing "power walking" along the dirt path. Her toddler son was walking backwards a few feet ahead of her, saying, "wouldn't you like a Whopper, or a Big Mac?"
Forms of the Joker
A guy who was a few years older than me was with me in a parking lot. Two kids were in a car nearby.
Several men approached who were sort of generic bad guys. We fought viciously with them and the older guy was killed.
Later, I was with a group of people in a pizza restaurant. A large pitcher of Coca-Cola stood in the center of the table.
Somehow, we realized that it was the Joker, from Batman comics. We knew that if we allowed it to stay in one place, he would be able to change into a form that could hurt us, so someone started pouring it out, all around the room.
We were too late, as the Joker appeared in his traditional form. He went berserk, attacking anyone near him as he moved around the room.
People struck him hard and repeatedly with chairs and other objects, but he seemed invulnerable.
we subdued him eventually, but it was unclear how.
Later, I was with my family in our kitchen. There was a large box of salad on the table.
We knew that it was going to become the Joker, so we rushed to it and began to throw pieces of it around the room.
Although we didn't see them move, the pieces continually gathered back in the box.
Someone grabbed the box and threw it out the back door. we immediately realized that was a mistake.
The salad took the form of our orange pet kitten. It walked into the kitchen and acted just as the cat would have.
I picked up a folding chair and held it over my head. I hesitated, not wanting to hurt the cat though I knew it was the imposter.
Just then, our real cat walked through the door. Reassured, I slammed the chair down on the false cat, hitting it again and again.
It flattened like a cartoon, slowly reforming itself after every strike.
Later, we were outside on the porch of a white wooden house. There were a lot of people sitting around on chairs.
Some kind of drink in a glass suddenly began to float through the air. Red glowing eyes appeared on it.
The Grateful Dead
I was standing in a small bathroom reading a book over the sink. The book was about a group of people called the "Grateful Dead."
They were men dressed in black, some with black facial hair. I finished a chapter and went to leave the room, but the door wouldn't open.
An image of one of the Grateful Dead appeared in my mind, and I realized that they were evil.
I didn't want to look into their eyes, even in my mind. I had to read another chapter before I could leave the room.
As I continued reading, a feeling of dread came over me. Some kind of terrible, irreversible evil event was taking place.
When I was able to leave, I walked down a street toward my house. Storm clouds appeared and rained on me.
The rain seemed to be following me as I walked, and I looked up to see the clouds slowly forming into a giant dark spiral.
A powerful force was trying to enter my mind, and I repelled it. When I got home, I realized that I had to be at work at Taco Bell soon.
A lot of people were in the house, and the house itself was huge. Parts of it resembled parts of a church but much darker.
In the kitchen, people were talking. I asked them whether they had ever had experiences like mine with the book and the clouds.
I described other strange things had been happening to me lately, as well.
From the kitchen I could see through a square hole in the wall into a large, sunken living room.
[...] was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. I walked in and saw a rabbit cage containing a hamster, a rabbit, and possibly a few cats.
They were all climbing the cage walls, fighting over some food on the top of the cage.
[...] suddenly started hissing like a cat and moving spasmodically. I ran to the kitchen and said "I think [...]'s got a problem."
No one acknowledged me, so I repeated it loudly. They shook their heads and walked toward the living room, muttering things like, "oh, not again."
Just then, [...] calmly walked in. A strong image of the Grateful Dead came to my mind as everyone else stopped and silently looked at [...].
She began saying something, but then reverted to her hissing and attempted to claw people with her black fingernails.
Later, I was finally getting ready for work. I was about an hour and a half late, and worried that I'd get written up.
I had been ready for a while, but my mom, who was driving me there, had been on the phone for a long time.
I told her that I could be written up, and she said not only that, I'd probably be fired.
It had been my manager on the phone, who told her that I had a very low grade at work. I hadn't known that we had grades.
I pictured Taco Bell, which looked normal but dark inside with everyone walking slowly with their heads lowered.
Injury on the Job
I was among a large number of people lined up along a chainlink fence. I knew some of them, and they were all about my age.
We faced a long, dull-colored building within the fence. Two armed guards paced before us, and one asked for volunteers to work in a store.
Some walked into the building, and I considered following them. I realized suddenly that those who stayed outside would be killed, and I quickly went in.
Once inside, our job was to fill large paper cups with root beer and bring them around a counter and through a doorway.
I followed a line of people doing this, and as we neared the doorway, I noticed a small hallway with several other doors besides the one we were supposed to enter.
Many people were going into them instead.
I decided to see what was behind one. A woman dressed in a nightgown approached from behind, looked behind several of the doors, and said, partly to me, partly to herself, "Why should they all be full in the middle of the day?"
I entered one of the rooms, which was full of bunk beds. Adults wearing pyjamas were sleeping in many of them, but most were occupied by people my age who were supposed to be working.
I climbed to an empty upper bed.
Just then, a woman who looked a lot like Diana from the television series "V" burst into the room.
She held a barbed metal whip, waving it wildly and yelling at those who weren't supposed to be in there.
She hit several people, but not me. The whip left ragged, bloody holes in people's clothing.
Several who were struck fell to the ground, either unconscious or dead.
When everyone had either fallen or fled the room but me and an adult sleeping nearby (who I suddenly noticed was my mother), the woman with the whip turned on a record player on a dresser and played some loud country music with obscene lyrics.
She approached us. I realized that my mom was a prisoner.
The woman raised the whip to strike my mother but noticed me and whipped me instead. The whip hit my shoulder and was intensely painful.
she rose the whip to hit me again, but I grabbed it, cutting my hand on the barbs. I yanked it out of her hands, jumped to the ground, and struck her with it several times as hard as I could.
She was bleeding all over but still came at me.
Another whip materialized in her hand. I didn't think I had a chance. Two or three hits had killed other people.
I straightened my whip into a spear and tossed it up to my mother, then bolted for the door.
The woman raised her whip to get me on my way out, and I realized there was no way I'd make it in time. I braced myself but felt nothing.
Opening my eyes and looking back from the doorway, I saw that my mother had thrust the straightened whip through the woman's back and it protruded from her chest. She slumped to the floor.
The Last Unicorn
I was standing with a small group of friends in a room. The room wasn't very large, and a section in the corner was curtained off.
A large guy in a t-shirt was with us who we didn't know very well.
He suggested we look behind the curtains, but the rest of us told him no.
I realized I was trying not to think about the area behind the curtain. In fact, we were all attempting to prevent the idea from entering our minds.
The floor was inclined, and the curious guy walked up toward the area. He could see over the top and discovered that it was a small bathroom in the corner.
Everyone but him was very nervous.
A powerful evil man was trying to kill us. He was called "The Last Unicorn."
We each had a partner in our group, and we protected each other.
When together, we could do feats of magic, such as making a passage appear behind a rack of clothing in a store.
As we went to school and did other things, we constantly tried not to think of The Last Unicorn.
The more we allowed his influence in our minds, the greater his power over us became.
There was a television on a high shelf in another part of the room. We were all mentally trying to keep it from turning on, but it did.
The same curious guy began changing channels. We all wanted to tell him to stop, but if we were to think about it clearly enough to speak of it, he would come.
The guy changed the channel to some old cartoons. There was sudden tension in the air, and he turned it back one channel.
The evil man appeared, shouting at us. He was wearing all black and his eyes glowed red.
He threatened to kill us. We concentrated and tried to block him from our minds, but he was too powerful.
I thought intently of a familiar place in a store and was teleported there.
My partner, a girl, was there and we quickly moved toward a hidden place in the back of the store.
As we proceeded, curtains would appear which led to other places.
My partner was suddenly gone. He was going to kill her.
I realized that I couldn't fight him physically, so I let myself think clearly. I tried to concentrate and mentally control events.
He appeared, threatening me. My head strained, trying to will him away. He grinned and continued to speak.
I tried a different approach, and started responding to him. I talked to him casually, as if he were a friend.
He seemed surprised. Nervous that he'd catch on, I brought up various topics. He talked normally and then calmly left.
Later, I was in a store. He appeared and gave me a handful of quarters.
We started talking again. He was going to buy some gum at the store, but I recommended a different candy and he agreed.
Back at the first store, he appeared again. He seemed angry but was not threatening me as strongly as before.
He still didn't realize what I was doing. We started talking about flowers, and i discovered that he didn't even know what a flower is.
I went to a closet and found a long flower that was upside-down in a clear cylinder.
I handed it to him, telling him that it was an orchid. He seemed stunned.
I returned to the closet and picked up more flowers of vaious colors.
I named each one as I handed them to him, and he began to cry. He realized how evil he had been.
Magic Prejudice
I was on a church-related trip to another state with a large group of high school-aged youth.
I didn't know anyone in the group very well but recognized many from school.
We were all staying in a large, fancy hotel.
More than a day had passed since we had arrived, but it had been night for our entire stay.
Within the hotel was a Taco Bell restaurant, and I ended up working there. I was stationed at the drive-thru window.
Two girls about my age drove up to place an order and something about them made me nervous.
I couldn't tell what it was.
One of them wanted a bottled drink from a cabinet behind me, so I started naming off the beverages we had.
I noticed that one of the bottles was full of jalapeno peppers. She said she wanted that one.
I became more nervous at that, and stammered "Oh, now I guess you're going to kill me."
She nodded and began to climb out of the car and through the window after me.
The scene changed and the two girls were seated at a table in the restaurant with their younger brother.
I now knew that all three of them could use magic. The younger brother was immersing his hands in a bowl of sauce, and pulling out handfuls of marbles.
I started to ask him if he could make money materialize the same way when we were interrupted by a large group of kids entering the restaurant.
Many of their parents were with them. Everyone in the group was angry at the three who could use magic.
I turned back to the boy and he told me he would like a burrito.
I punched it into the register but did not have a chance to make it due to commotion in the restaurant.
Many of the group were saying things like "We're going home." "We can't be here if they are." "We're going to get them."
Everyone began moving toward a staircase leading down. They all kept their distance from the three at the table.
I decided to be a friend to them, partly because I had come to like them and partly so they would not kill me.
I said to the boy, "Well, I guess you never got your burrito." He reassured me that because I had punched it into the register, it was somehow as if he had eaten it.
A noise from outside made us get up and look.
We went out onto a large second-story balcony and saw a large group of people, possibly the same ones who had been in the restaurant, congregated outside a small store that was in one corner of the balcony.
They had a large log and were planning to use it to ram either the store or the shopkeeper.
Suddenly, all attention was focused on a woman in the distance down at ground level.
She was very overweight and was running toward the scene. She moved as fast as a car and it seemed that all I could see was her face zooming in.
Then I was walking through a department store with several members of my family, and we passed a friend of mine who I hadn't realized worked there.
Then I was back in the hotel, in a rented room. I was with the three magic siblings.
We were just sitting around and I was talking to another friend on the phone.
Missionaries
I was playing a computer game that was a combination of a game and reality.
I flew a jet plane over a desert and was shot down. After crashing in the sand, I had to walk for several days to get out of the desert.
Because I really had to do the walking, I became tired and my dad continued my game.
He had walked a short distance when another jet shot a powerful laser at the ground close behind him.
The sand became a wave of molten glass and splashed over him. He wasn't burned, but had to push his way out before it hardened and trapped him.
Later, I was at church. I was in charge of a dinner that I had forgotten to organize, so a lot of people were angry at me.
The scene changed to an apartment where I was getting dressed to go somewhere, as were several other people.
I wanted something for breakfast, and a guy showed me a machine in the bathroom that piled frosting on a cracker with an olive on top.
It didn't look very good.
Back at home we were having steak for dinner. After everyone else had taken theirs, there was no more for me.
I complained, but no one was sympathetic. Eventually, my mother cooked me one.
After dinner, my sister and I went outside. We walked along a freeway next to a large muddy lake that had formed where construction workers had dug a hole.
We thought of swimming in the lake, but didn't. I walked along a train track, kicking dirt into a long ditch. I thought that doing this would make up for my failure to organize the dinner.
Back in the apartment, we were still getting ready to leave.
I discovered that we were missionaries. I got in a car with another missionary and we drove to a cave.
As we got out, I noticed that we were dressed strangely. I wore a tie, shiny metallic pants, and a Power Rangers helmet.
The other missionary was dressed entirely as a Power Ranger. We tried to enter the cave but a military officer guarding it told us that we had to walk through a metal detector.
We'd also have to change our clothes. He explained that the heightened security was because of an act of vandalism earlier that had caused a train to crash into a shipment of something.
I realized that my kicking the dirt into the ditch had caused the crash.
The other missionary changed into a bicycling uniform, complete with helmet, shorts, and sunglasses.
The guard handed me some huge Boy Scout pants, which I pulled on over my metallic ones.
He also gave me a brown life preserver and I removed my Power Rangers helmet.
The Water Park
At a water park, I was following a sequence of waterslides. The first was a normal straight slide, and the second, called "The Whale," seemed strange for some reason. After this, the path split into two branches. One branch led to a slide with a normal-sounding name, and the other to one named after a digestive process. I chose the second one because I was looking for something that was in places that were very difficult to find. I started down the slide, which was shaped like intestines, and many of the sharp turns threw me out of the slide completely and into another segment.
At one point I reached a whirlpool, where a lot of people were trapped swirling around. I swam to one edge of the whirlpool and saw a huge cliffside in the distance. On a small ledge was a cave, in front of which a small glowing white sphere hovered in the air. This sphere was what I was looking for. I climbed out of the water and stepped onto a large pipe that ran to the ledge. I ran along the pipe for a long distance until I reached the sphere.
Later, I was in a huge building with a team of agents. The building belonged to those who were trying to kill us and go on to take over the world. our team included Robert Redford and a small furry animal.
Searching the building, we came upon a small, very dark bathroom. After several of us had entered, someone noticed that the walls, ceiling, and floor were entirely covered with spiders. They resembled black widows but were transparent, and we were covered in them. We ran into the hall and tried to brush them off, but we were all bitten. I could see several on my leg sucking my blood, and another guy's back was covered in them. They were very poisionous, and the guy whose back was covered died. The rest of use were sick, but the sickness wore off.
We stumbled upon a meeting of the enemy leaders around a long wooden table. A metal sphere sat on the table before each of them. We were on a balcony above them, and jumped down onto the table. We picked up the spheres and anything else we could find to throw at the "board members." We injured several of them, and one of our agents was hurt badly. Bleeding all over, he stumbled toward a wall. Panels slid away before him to reveal a glowing white slide. Losing consciousness, he fell down the slide. This saved his life.
Certain objects gave our agents great power, such as the glowing sphere I had found earlier, and the enemies tried not to let us get these items. As we ran through the halls to escape, we found several of these objects is a room and ran toward them. I got one, and another agent got two. His eyes glowed white, and he turned on the enemies pursuing us and tore several of them apart. The enemies were men and women who dressed normally and and often tried to fool us into thinking they were ordinary people. We entered another conference room with more enemies, including their leader. There were metal trays on the table. The enemies surrounded us as we entered the room, and we picked up the trays to use as weapons. We struck them repeatedly with the sharp edges.
We sent the small animal in our group to get help. it turned in to a light cycle from Tron and sped away.
In a small upper room in the the building, eight or nine robots were seated at a table. The room had dark blue carpeting on the floor, walls, and ceiling.
