by Ann Ulrich Miller

         Dreams fascinate me. We all dream.
Not everyone remembers their dreams. They instantly dissolve after we've awakened and we leave that altered, elusive state of mind.
        Lately, dreams have become a lot more interesting. The ones I remember—if at all—occur just after dawn, in the last hour or two of slumber. They are usually bizarre, nonsensical, ridiculous, and quite often entertaining. Every so often one is frightening, which isn’t much fun.
        A lot of UFO contactees have dreams about ETs and spaceships. I’ve had my share. One image that remains vivid in my mind was of a blue UFO that appeared in a dream I had back in 1985, when I lived in Corvallis, Ore. The ship was disc-shaped and glowed with an unusual, but soothing, medium blue light. I’ve never forgotten that image.
        In my book, Stepping Forth, An American Girl Coming of Age in the '60s, I include several of my dreams that influenced me in those challenging adolescent years. I thought I would share a couple of the dreams from the book, and then examine some of the symbolic meanings, using The Dreamer's Dictionary by Barbara Condron. The Star Beacon did a Cosmic Book Review on the book some years ago.

The UFO Dream
        I had this dream on Friday, August 16, 1968:

        It started out with my presence at school last spring. I was still a sophomore and Lex was a senior. I was talking with a good-looking junior boy, who reminded me a lot of Rick (my third cousin). We were discussing some kind of a special affair that the juniors and seniors were having.
        Then this boy looked at me oddly and said, "But it's only for juniors and seniors. You can't go. You're a sophomore."
        "Maybe so," I replied as I saw Lex walking by. "But I could go if a senior asked me, couldn't I?"
        "Yeah," said the boy, "even if a junior asked you."
        At that, I walked away, afraid that he might ask me to the Hawaiian luau before Lex had a chance to.
        The next part of my dream was in a bus-like vehicle. Kathy W. was with me, and Lex was on the bus too. He came up to me and took my hand in his. "Ann," he said, "don’t be afraid. The aliens are just taking us for a ride. I'll be here, even if they separate us, but we'll be back in time for the luau."
        Then the aliens, who were in charge of the vehicle we were in, ordered everyone to sit down. Lex was suddenly gone, and I found myself calling for him. "Lex!" I cried, and then I found him, and he held me in his arms … a warm, comforting embrace.
        Then the aliens made him sit in the back of the bus-like vehicle while I sat ahead of him a few seats, with Kathy.
        The woman alien stood at the front of the vehicle, talking into a microphone, and the driver was a man alien. The woman alien told us we were now reaching a speed of 4,000 miles an hour, and she opened up a large screen, where we could all see the Earth's green fields and cities beneath us. It was very beautiful and I wondered where we were going.
        Then she said to us, "It will only take us three days to get there," and I wondered what she meant. After a while, the alien man driving told us, "There has never been an accident in the sky highway," and the woman interrupted him with, "except for once, when we got lost."
        Then, ahead of us in the sky, I saw another alien vehicle swirling and spinning with smoke shooting out of it. Our driver knew that a fellow pilot was in trouble, so we flew over and, just as we did, there was a loud explosion.
        Then, everyone in our bus-like vehicle was able to peer into an opening and see horribly deformed, charred alien bodies, twisted and huddled together. It was the most awful sight I could ever imagine.
        Our vehicle turned away, and the two aliens were very guilty and worried. They told us, "Now there has been an accident among two of our saucers. The authorities will find us to blame and now they believe it is because of all of you. We must return you to your planet now, before further developments prove dangerous." When the vehicle landed in our school's football field, my first thought was for Lex. We saw each other and were so relieved and happy. Kathy then handed me a large paper bag, which was full of a body of one of the dead aliens. She explained to me that the aliens had given these to us to keep for them, until they could be cleared of murder charges.
        But I paid no attention. I could only feel safe and warm now, in Lex's arms. Then the two of us were hurrying down the hall. It was after seventh hour, and he was holding my hand. We passed my locker and came to his.
        I asked him, "When do you work?"
        “At 1:00," he said.
        "Oh, you work on Saturdays?"
        Then he said, "And at 20 minutes after 4:00, if I make it on weekdays." After a moment, he told me, "Hey, no one's home when I get home this afternoon." He was looking at me as if he was going to invite me over, but I only hugged him, then kissed him goodbye. Then I went to help Kathy carry about nine pairs of shoes.
        She handed me my paper bag of the dead body again, and I almost threw up. "I don’t care," I said. "I'm going to throw this away. It's so ridiculous."
        Kathy was scared. "No, Ann!" she cried. "Don't!"
        But I did. I put it into the wastebasket in one of the English rooms. Then Kathy and I hurried out to the bus. Suddenly, Lex was there again and he held me. "Ann, I know something," he told me. I knew it, too.
        That was my most wonderful dream ever. (from Stepping Forth, 1968)

        It’s interesting to note, decades later, that the plot probably inspired my first novel, Intimate Abduction, published in 1988, about a woman abducted by ETs who kind of resembled tall Grays. I'm sure that subconscious idea was surfacing when I wrote the book.
        Now let's see what The Dreamer’s Dictionary says. The dream started out and ended at my high school, which symbolizes learning and the dreamer's awareness of growing through learning. Plans for having a Hawaiian luau represent the idea of a banquet, which symbolizes a time and a place for receiving a wide variety of knowledge.
        The bus-like vehicle, which was an alien spacecraft, signifies the means to experience the inner levels of consciousness, and the aliens symbolize an unknown aspect of Self. Being in the sky meant that I was open to a superconsious existence.
        The dead alien bodies had to do with change from one state of being to another. I couldn’t find a reference to paper bags, but perhaps a bag was the means for bringing change from one place to another.
        The 9 pairs of shoes Kathy carried represent a covering of your spiritual foundation, and the number 9 is the number for manifestation.

The Reeve Mansion
        I recorded the following one on May 4, 1972:

        I dreamed about this big, dank, mansion-like haunted house that reminded me a lot of a castle. It was deserted, but I bought it from the lady who sold me the piano. People named Reeve once owned it and were the last inhabitants there. Perhaps I was interested in the house because of that name. (Note: Reeve was my Grandma Clara's maiden name.)
        I tried living there for a period of three or four days, but I got the creeps so badly, I couldn't stand it. It had stone, mildewed stairways and bedrooms on both sides. One room in particular interested me. It was the library, and it contained some old, thick, dust-covered volumes that told of the family Reeve and its affairs.
        I began to study, but some force kept driving me away, especially when I started reading about the family deaths and learned that each member had died of something mysterious and unnatural -- all except the first member of the family, who had been blind. Only he had died from natural causes.
        The house was in a surrounding woods with thick bushes, away from any city, or even any neighbors. I tried to get my mother interested because I thought she knew some connections with family history and possibly knew about this house. But she denied everything, and even discouraged me from researching it

        Comments: This dream was Gothic in nature and intrigued me because I had this fascination for old haunted houses. Over my lifetime I have had recurring dreams about old houses with abandoned halls or passageways in which forces of the unknown lurk. No doubt, this dream sparked my imagination and inspired my first romantic suspense novel about Pelton Manor, which I started writing a year or so later. That novel went through many revisions and was finally published as Night of the November Moon in 1999.
(from Stepping Forth, 1972)

        When you dream about a house, it symbolizes the mind. A mansion, by virtue of its richness, further indicates the value and respect the dreamer holds for his/her mind. A library represents the wealth of information available, and books are information stored in the brain for future use.
        When your mother is in your dream, she represents your inner authority and divinity. “Mother” is the symbol of the superconscious mind.

The Vampire Dream
        This dream occurred on May 20, 1972:

        It was so horrible! I couldn’t get away from it.

        It started when I was working in the restaurant, serving some man who was seated at the counter. For some very strange reason, I felt compelled to give him a cake. Not just any cake, but a special cake. It was chocolate with a chocolate-frosted donut on top of it. It also had a dead bat and a little plastic wolf that looked like it was baying.
        I don't know why, but just as I gave this cake to the man, something shot him from behind the counter and he slumped forward.
        It was only a couple of minutes before midnight. Then, precisely at 12, another man came in and approached the man slumped over, the one I had given the cake to. He had large fangs and -- to my horror -- he reached over and began his meal.
        When he was through, the number “1” rang and lit up on the waitress station. A few seconds later, number “2” came on, but … it had a question mark behind it.
        From then on, it was a series of terrible horrors for me. This vampire was attracted to me and fell in love. Thus, I didn't get eaten, but the fear of his losing control scared me constantly. Then, other vampires showed up. It was a banquet. They had a reservation!
        I remember a bus load of them coming in, during a rainstorm. A young woman with black, short hair seemed to be the hungriest of them all. They referred to her as the "Worm Woman" because she would slink toward her victims like an inchworm before devouring their blood. She was terrible. All of the customers were marked victims. No one could leave.
        The worst part was the end. Jeff was with me, but he couldn't help at all. The vampires had eaten everyone but us, and we tried once to leave and went out the back door, but the Worm Woman was there and she plotted with all the earthworms in the rain to get us.
        There were millions of worms -- all wet and slimy and stretching and moving -- big, skinny, tiny, fat! It just made me beg for mercy, especially when they all joined together, end to end, and forced us back inside the restaurant, with the Worm Woman laughing … and the horrible First Vampire trying to kiss me before he yielded to his terrible desire to eat me.
        He finally let us go out the front door, but I had bare feet and the worms were everywhere, writhing and wet. There was no way I could avoid stepping on them, and Jeff was already in the car, calling to me, laughing as the vampires were, while I stood there, screaming, already able to feel the worms beneath my feet.
 

        Comments: Good heavens! This was classic. Given my ingrained fear of worms from childhood, add a few vampires … and I had a horror movie going on in my sleep. (from Stepping Forth, 1972)

        There is probably lots of symbolism here, but the dictionary doesn’t have vampire in it. It does list blood, which represents life and the energizing power that sustains life. And again we have the banquet, which symbolizes a time and a place for receiving a wide variety of knowledge.
        Because of my childhood worm phobia, the Worm Woman was a personal nightmare. A rainstorm was going on in the dream, rain standing for conscious life experiences, and storm being an inner conflict. Animals in our dreams represent habits. I have no idea where the bat and the wolf on the cake with the chocolate donut came from.         As for the numbers that lit up above the waitress station: “1” stands for individuality, and “2” for duality. It is interesting that a question mark was after the “2”.
        So, if you find that you want to learn more about yourself from your dreams, try doing what Tom Moore suggests in “7 Reasons to Record Your Dreams.” Write down the dream as soon as you wake up. It can give you insights and might even amuse you with some of the nonsensical plots that emerge. As to why our dreams are becoming so intense, I think it has something to do with The Shift as we grow ever closer to the rise in consciousness of our planet. Therefore, relax ... and enjoy them.