funnystrange.com

I dreamed I was in a small community that was the only community on our planet. It looked like Earth but I don't think it was. Because for one thing, only one small community of about a hundred people on the whole planet? Also, the moon was really big. It filled about a quarter of the sky and was visible during the day. Our world was heavily forested, so much that it was hard to see where you were going sometimes. There was green everywhere, a thick undergrowth like a wall of leaves. And narrow stone paths between the trees and bushes, leading from house to house.

There was another community on the moon that was attacking us. Or maybe about to attack us. I'm not sure. I also don't know how I knew this. I never met one of the people from the moon.

We defended ourselves (or perhaps we made a pre-emptive attack) by aiming some kind of giant rocket launcher up at the moon and firing. A flame jet that looked a mile wide shot out of it and all the way up to the moon, which burst into flame across its entire surface.

Fire poured down to our world and in the distance I could see it spreading, like water dumped from a bucket, and burning everything. It was hard to see much through all the trees, and it was happening hundreds of miles away, but through a distortion of perspective I was able to see it pretty clearly. I wondered how much of our world had been burned up and how long it would take to grow back.

The flames stopped pouring down from the moon and now it glowed and burned like a small sun. Well actually, like a big sun that filled a quarter of the sky. Just not as bright, I could look straight at it. I could see fire roiling around its surface.

It became hot, extremely hot like standing in an oven. I ran along the stone path. The heat in the stones felt good to my bare feet, though it was a bit hard to breathe the hot dry air. Even running in that heat, I didn't feel sweaty because the sweat dried instantly on my skin. I ran easily without tiring.

The leaves on the trees still looked okay, so I figured it wasn't so hot as to be dangerous for me either. In dream logic this made perfect sense. I stopped running when I reached another group of people. I wondered out loud how many people we had killed on the moon. One of the others said, "we had to do it, it was them or us." I knew she was right.

**

So I said The Testament of Dr. Mabuse might give me nightmares, and it turns out I was right. I'm pretty sure the fireball imagery came from the chemical plant explosion at the end of the movie. (If I just spoiled the movie for you, sorry. Watch it anyway; it's still good even if you know part of the ending.)

The weird thing about this dream, the really really weird thing, is that it wasn't a nightmare. The events and imagery were horrific, but the emotions I had during the dream were more like an adventure: excitement, discovery, enjoying sensations (the warm stones under my feet and the breeze caused by running) and observations. There was none of the anxiety and fear that I would normally feel during a nightmare. Also, trying to run but feeling like I'm moving through molasses & my legs just don't work is a common nightmare theme for me. In this dream I was light on my feet and never got tired.