h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lovely!

It put me in mind of JW Dunne's The Serial Universe & An Experiment With Time (Not 1900 but nearly halfway there when I came across 'em)

Didn't he reckon that on death you were freed? Free to roam the universe and cross time-lines at will, meeting new people, remeeting old friends, seeing new & reseeing old things (even since you left here)?

An intriguing thought, eh?...

Yes, that IS an intriguing idea. I'll have to find that book. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, that was his The Serial Universe. Quite well put together, as I recall, though lengthy.

I think his An Experiment With Time was the one where he recorded his dreams and waited for (some of) them to happen.
There was a thread on here, some time ago, dealing with that concept but it faded out. I suspect the main protagonists went elsewhere - I think perhaps I'd have liked to have lurkeded it a bit further...

Ain't it great to have imaginations that can deal with such things?

Indeed.

I hate it when my dreams happen. I hope Dunne had better luck.

I dream stupid stuff that happens, but cannot be prevented. Such as minor car accidents.

Oh, and as I wrote before, 9/11 - without a clue how to prevent anything.

Are you familiar with William Gerhardie's 'Resurrection'? Fascinating book, a bit Proustian, about out-of-body experiences back in the 1920s, I believe it was.

No, I don't think I've come across it - and won't now as my reading's pretty well limited to chewing gum.

On dreams, never had much success as my mind usually moves elsewhere from my head when I'm awake - like a butterfly in Brazil but flitting elsewhere before anything significant builds up.

but you say, [some of] your dreams do come about. I'd be interested there...
My view has for some years been that my dreams are simply fallout from that realm within the wondrous organ I carry around between my ears and that there are bound to be correlations with past and occasionally future.
Nevertheless, there are many mansions in that realm, with many rooms within.
Just 'cos I've eschewed certain concepts doesn't mean ... oh, I'm burbling again (that G&T was a good one & there's a malt waiting to be poured in half an hour - Sat eve, y'know)

G'night

Heh-heh, sounds like more fun than what I'm doing, but it's still morning here, and work looms.

As you say, the mind has many mansions. A personal experiment back in the 1970s might be interesting.

Elektra and I were reading books on different dream theories - Freudian, Jungian, Reichian, etc. Now, Elektra thinks Freud is full of it, and said so loudly. Freud had his revenge.

The following morning, she reported this dream:

'I passed a building on our street. The door had a round topiary bush on each side. Suddenly, a green-and-yellow snake came out from between the bushes. I woke up.'

I laughed at her all day.

The next morning, I reported this dream:

'It was a film noir setting, the office of the detective. Patrick McGoohan came in [Elektra had a crush on Patrick McGoohan] wearing a trenchcoat. He opened the trenchcoat and took out a green-and-yellow budgie, showing it to the secretary.'

My dreams often have 'voice-overs', and this dream was no exception. The voice-over was (and I apologise for this):

'A bird in the band is worth a snake in the topiary bush.'

From this we concluded that:

1. You can dream in any system you like

2. The subconscious has a wicked sense of humour.

Last night, I dreamt about a man who started fires by passing gas, and have yet to figure this out.

Green & Yellow.
Gaseous conflagrations.
hmm. Ever thought of some naturalist therapy?

Actually, the one dream I do remember (remember having that is, not the content) dates from about '60, probably about my JW Dunne time but before hhgg time.
Awaking when she left, after communing with nature, I was emerging from surfing the vastness of the universe - star streams & all that - with The Answer (really, it was so)

"Be nice to your fellow passengers"

and, in a melancholy, hollow, echoey voice "It Doesn't Matter".

That does on occasion come back, bringing shivers.

Wow. That would put you off dreaming, I imagine.

Those voiceovers are annoying, aren't they? You feel like saying to what Castaneda called 'the voice of seeing', 'Go away, and keep your opinions to yourself.'