dream 12.13.08

A large gathering, a banquet, was assembling at which I was to be, for some reason, a guest of honor. Many of the people present, including the organizer of the event with whom I had previously spoken, were Oriental: Chinese perhaps. I had been told I was to take my seat at the center of one of the head tables. As I entered the hall, I was half carried by the crowd. S (my wife) was there, and she was also carrying me. In this fashion we swept past the most prominent tables and she set me down at the end of a table toward the back of the room. I told her that I had been told to sit at the center of a table nearer the front, and there ensued a brief altercation that went something like: “Well, how am I supposed to know that? you never told me!!” “I did, just now!.... How was I supposed to know that no one told you?” etc. In any case we made our way toward the front of the room again, and at the head table there were set up chairs and a microphone (apparently I was also to speak?) near which some workers were spray-painting a wall, last-minute touches to make the background white for videographers later in the program.

Before we could take our seats, something else happened. The perspective changed, and I could see and hear a series of vehicles arriving very quickly, up the road and through the woods. They were painted white and read, open on the sides like safari vehicles, and each carried a number of soldiers or police. These jumped out and quickly entered the hall from the sides (it was now more of a tent or pole building, open on at least three sides, and was arranged now more like a church with pews than like a banquet hall)), and people began to shrink away from them as they attacked. They attacked not with guns or other weapons but with something that looked like two-pronged wands, whose function seemed to be to inflict severe pain.

I was now outside the hall and a short distance away, watching from the shadows, when one of these official-looking attackers, an Oriental of indeterminate age or sex, overpowered me (I think I was knocked down by several at once, but this one took charge). I found that if I did not resist but went limp, it seemed as if this attacker did not feel the need to activate the pain-inducing device, but if I moved or looked like I would resist, this was threatened. The attacker appeared to be reporting my status, perhaps over a radio, as I lay helpless. I decided this weapon must be some kind of taser, and asked about that. “Am I going to get tased?”

At some point early in this exchange, my attacker and I had introduced ourselves to one another, I as “Robert” and my attacker also as “Robert.” Now, however, he/she responded to one of my questions calling me by the name of a dear friend who recently deceased. “M.” Here is the remainder of that exchange:

Me: M. is not here, she passed away
R: That’s right..... you were there, holding her hand
Me: (amazed that this person would know such a thing)
(more forgotten details in this exchange, revealing that the person I’m speaking to has access to recent events from a spiritual vantage point)
R: The baby is healthy, doing fine.
(more exchange verifying that I really knew M... including images of a newborn, and the sense of M’s re-entry into the world)
R: I know who you are now.
Me: That’s more than I know!

All this time, of course, I am still physically restrained by the threat of this weapon. R. now reports to superiors that I appear to have died. I am able to get up and head away from the commotion surrounding the cabin/hall, toward the woods and the road. As I am leaving, I hear a voice, turn my head and see my former attacker some distance away, saying: “Goodbye, Robert.” I respond with “Goodbye, Robert” and continue on my way.

I head through the woods to the nearby country road. It will be a long walk, but I know the way to where I have a hotel room, money, car, etc. . . but I am walking away in freedom, leaving my old life behind. I pass very close by a fawn that is resting by the side of the road.... this animal does not stir or startle, just observes me as a normal, non-threatening part of her landscape. I think this occurs with one or more other deer as well. Something has changed. I wake up feeling content.