1. At ASD-14, I present a paper describing elaborate synchronicities--arabesques--and decide that next time, I should at least venture an opinion of how such things can happen.
2. I read a book review on October 5, 1997 that provokes thinking about arabesques and the multiverse.
3. On Wednesday, October 15, 1997, I listen to a Book-on-Tape about mountain climbers making a dangerous ascent in Tibet
4. Late that afternoon, I meet with dream group regulars at a café, announcing that at ASD-15, I'd like to report on arabesques that occur among group members. Can we conceptualize the multiverse as an answer to the question of how arabesques can occur?
5. Ed then reads a recent dream about mountain climbers making a dangerous ascent in Tibet. I feel "jazzed" by this coincidence and by the conversation. We remind ourselves of our "assignment" -- to try and lucid dream and study an object while lucid.
6. That night, I dream I'm at an ASD conference, in front of the Frick Fine Arts Building.
7. Later in the dream, I enter a bank, become lucid and encounter Ed.
8. Ed shows me drawings mounted on a wall and tries to tell me something about his dreams.
9. After waking on that day, October 16, I attend a lecture at Allegheny General Hospital. Peering into the lobby beforehand, my friend notes that, "It looks like a bank." I recall dreaming of a bank, and realize that Allegheny General is where Ed works.
10. Our lecturer is a very humorous British doctor. An overhead projector shows his notes behind him.
11. The doctor jokingly uses the word "earwig," a reference I don't understand.
12. Early that afternoon, Ed dreams of Dr. Frasier Crane at a café with a blackboard behind him.
13. Oscar Wilde (humorous, British) enters and writes a poem on the board.
14. The name of the poem is "Ear-wig."
15. After waking, Ed visits the Frick Art Museum to see the exhibit of Plains Indian Drawings, which were made in ledger books.
16. Ed has an epiphany in front of an 1886 drawing of the Pine Ridge Reservation and realizes he has dreamt of it.
17. He returns home and finds a dream account from 10 months earlier that features books with American Indian illustrations, as well as poems.
18. Later in the dream, he and his wife are walking around a "Lakota reservation" with "a church with a tall steeple" and an "administration building" matching the Pine Ridge drawing. Pine Ridge is a Lakota (Sioux) reservation
19. Learning of this in a phone conversation, I note that the date of this dream, January 6, is Epiphany. I then relate my dream, including the Frick Fine Arts building; the bank that is brought to mind by Allegheny General, which is where Ed works; and Ed's showing me drawings and trying to tell me something about his dreams.
20. I attend ASD-15 with a very detailed example of a dream group arabesque.

Copyright 2017 Cynthia Pearson

Return to Earwigs and Arabesques

Dream Journalist Home Page