SkyTrace

Here's how it started at Newcastle airfield. Then came Exeter, Aer Arann, Waterford, Cork, Galway, Dublin, Isle of Man, SkyWest, Virgin Australia, Lily, Auckland, Jetgo, Zurich, Guinea pigs... Whatever next?

Dreams

I'm reading Solaris, a 1961 science fiction novel. It is set in the distant future and has a good attempt to predict computer technology except they have to wait for the valves to warm up - and yet they still use tape recorders!

So, maybe because I went to sleep after reading about these weird humanoid manifestations, I dreamt that the door to my bedroom was opening (I was sleeping alone, Ali having been visiting her mum - which may be why my blog-posting has been above par recently). I instantly woke up, quite alert, and thankfully was able to verify that in fact the door was firmly closed.

Which says something about dream vs. reality time-lines. Experience confirms that long dreams can sometimes occupy very little real time space. And yet this one was synchronised to the second.

I can also verify that dreams can definitely be in vivid colour and that I can both hear and be heard and be understood. A recurrent dream-theme I have mentioned before is my ability to "fly". Odd perhaps but not unique although you get some pretty weird stuff if you Google it. In these dreams I sort of push inside (a little bit like the pushing one does to defecate only located much higher up) and if I push hard enough sometimes, but only sometimes, is it enough to raise me off terra-firma. Once levitated then I can soar more freely, though usually I am limited in height and duration. Whilst flying I remain approximately upright - never zooming horizontally like Superman. In that other realm, reality, I have often tried this pushing but sadly with no effect (yet).

The experience sometimes includes the ability to jump unusual distances. Typically I can be at the top of a high stairwell and jump down ridiculous numbers of steps and yet land gracefully. And in my dreams I try to be surreptitious as I get embarrassed about what other people must think of my antics.

I mention my flying ability here (how I wish I could do it for real) because of the amazing scenery in these dreams - I am awed by the rapid changes of perspective and panorama as I navigate. On a recent occasion I was impressed by the richness and complexity of the tapestry of landscapes - it seemed as if I was aware that I was in a dream and yet everything looked so real and the thought occurred to me - how could my paltry imagination come up with such splendour?

Sci-fi writers, and more recently Physicists, have played with the idea that what we think of as reality may be little more than a dream. One wonders who is doing the sleeping? The cornflakes I ate just now seemed pretty real and I can still feel them rummaging around inside me but soon, come a few hours, they will be little more than a memory. All our reality is but an instant in time that evaporates rapidly into ephemeral memory. And neither is our future secure: at best it is only hope: hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Which is, I suppose, why man builds edifices, like the many standing stones here in the British Isles, many with ogham inscriptions. Whilst distance may lends enchantment and memories may dull with time, a stone pillar with obviously man-made markings is visible proof that folk really existed and lived their lives all those years ago. I wonder if, in my life, I have made any permanent marks...

Levitation

Descent from Moanbane

The title is eye catching even if it has sinister connotations. I am referring to dreams I have in which I am either able, by self effort, to gradually ascend off the ground and fly, or in which I am able by jumping to cover amazing distances or depths before I land in full control. To gain height I always have to "push" really hard mentally. Sometimes I can achieve amazing heights where the ground below becomes indistinct and I begin to fear for loosing my bearings or suffering hypothermia. More often I cannot get as high as I would like, and gradually the ability reduces until I am grounded for good. Most recently I was flying over a city and I wanted to get over the buildings but, try as I might, I could not quite make it. In spite of this disappointment the feeling I get is always so good, so liberating. I can sometimes see ordinary mortals on the ground and wonder what they must be thinking but generally they do not even seem to be aware of me.

According to Freud's 1953 classic, "The interpretation of dreams", dreams of flying through the air reveal subconscious thoughts of sexual desire, while dreams of failing to fly (i.e. falling) through the air reveals thoughts of...well ... eh... also sexual desire...  (quoted from here).

This evening I was discussing this with my son-in-law who confessed to having very similar dreams. He wonders if it points to an inherent ability we might have in real life which is, as yet, untapped. I, however, have tried several times to do it in real life without even a glimmer of success. Having said that I can relate the following experiences.

On a business trip I over-nighted in a motel in S Wales from which I visited Ogmore on Sea. I went for a run (before my barefoot days) along the coast to Dunraven Bay and back. The route is mostly on the cliff-top over well-cropped grass - on taking jumps down one steep grassy descent I experienced a feeling like flying - doubtless helped along by runner's high.

The descent I take from Moanbane is through a forestry area with an intense green velvet carpet of moss underfoot and shafts of bright sun slanting through branches overhead. There are places where you jump down from one mound to another, delicious feeling between the toes. Again a very similar feeling to my aerodynamic dream jumping, albeit on a smaller scale.