a dream within a dream

Last night I had several dreams and the second one, for a moment, went totally meta.

In the first dream, I was in a subway system–it may have been the Canada Line, since it’s the only subway we have here (currently)–but the layout was its own dreamworld thing. All seemed normal when an announcement came over the PA warning passengers of a kind of breach of the system and for everyone to basically watch for trouble.

The breach took the form of what appeared to be a gang of young white guys, either in their late teens or early 20s (I saw several of them close enough to ID this aspect. I also noted that they were the typical stereotypes, laughing and cackling over the terror and mayhem they were causing.) who had somehow managed to get their vehicles into the system. The warning was that they were essentially terrorizing the system by recklessly driving their vehicles through the tunnels. They had pick-ups, muscle cars and a station wagon that I remember spinning out on a section of track that I assume was a switch area, since it was relatively open.

At one point I was in a station and saw a number of vehicles making their way over (don’t ask how I could see this) and started heading up the stairs/exit to safety. I never questioned why the transit people would keep the system running with this chaos going on, or how exactly one might drive a pick-up truck into a subway, but hey, dreams!

In my next dream, I was with a couple of people on bikes. We were in an area that seemed to be a combo of a conventional amusement park, but also a real park with trails for riding and such. We were exiting a store as the dream began, and returning to our bikes. We set off at a leisurely pace, heading past both natural scenery, like a river, and rides of a nature I can’t precisely recall, but may have been themed to fit the area–things like log flume rides or “mines” to explore. The trail began heading down, presumably into a valley, and I was in the lead. I began peddling harder, picking up speed, something that is rather uncharacteristic of me in non-dream life. There was a family riding behind us and they were getting too close for my liking, as if they were going to try passing us. I was having none of it. The downhill slope had occasional uphill parts, and I remember peddling harder in these sections to maintain speed. The feeling of doing this was very visceral. The dream ended without conclusion, alas, so I don’t know where our ultimate destination was–but we did leave that pesky family behind.

The one detail I’ve left out is the meta part. As we were exiting the store, I described a dream I’d had, a dream about guys terrorizing a subway in their vehicles, and how it must represent my fear of riding transit or something. Yes, I was in a dream describing the immediate preceding dream to my fellow dream people. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before, but it was weird and kind of delightful.

Last night I had a long, involved dream that played out like a movie. There were even “shots” where the camera seemed to be tracking. From what I can recall, the story was set in some unnamed present day country that was apparently in the midst of a revolution (possible source: the coup in Honduras this past summer). Much of the city that the dream took place in was abandoned or in ruins but there did seem to be some semblance of life. I remember one part where a blind alley or tunnel opened into a plaza and there were a few men with weapons waiting for people to come through to shoot them. The people being shot were civilians, as far as I could tell.

I have an image of a woman and some children running along a street and being brought down by automatic weapon fire. Since I wasn’t in the dream I had no reaction to this, the events just kept playing out. The final part of the dream featured several men who may have been part of a resistance group. They were moving through an abandoned building that looked like it was once a hospital. It was bare of all furnishings and was dark, save for a pale blue light that washed through every room. This seemed to key in to an earlier part of the dream and I understood they were sneaking their way through to avoid being seen or captured. They went down some stairs and finally came to windows that were brightly lit by the sun. They exited onto a small street that was somehow cut off from the oppressive forces and the people here were relaxed, even happy.

The meta part of this dream came in an unrelated dream afterward. I was with friends and one was apparently using some kind of “hair solution” to grow back the hair on his head and was a bit embarrassed by the discussion, though he did in fact have a pretty good head of hair. I suddenly remembered the previous dream while in this dream and started telling my friends about it, just as I have written it out here. They weren’t particularly interested, so I stopped. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. It was odd.