This report is compiled by Sara Mononen
On Sunday May 10th, Sara Mononen (Canada) and Elio Vera (Italy) hosted a Social Dreaming Matrix.
10 people attended from England, Canada, USA, and the Netherlands.
11 dreams and 14 associations were shared.
THEMES:
– passports & papers; credentials
– Division/differences between child and adult world
– Transport and transformation
– Fear vs. Adventure in the technological realms
– lucid dreams – taking back control
– Recurring dreams of a fearful nature
– Being confined and wanting to be free
DREAMS & ASSOCIATIONS:
Dream: In the garden of a mansion. A graduation party is taking place. People of all ages are there. Dreamer walks to the edge of the garden where there is a tropical orchard and finds a huge banana leaf. It is stiff and dry. Dreamer tears away the leafy part leaving only the spine. The branch (spine) has a little crown on top. The crown falls off. The broken branch (spine) talks and tells the story of a life travelling through Europe and speaks of a conference in Strausberg where they invented the passport that ultimately became responsible for genocidal invasions. Dreamer shows the talking branch to some children who express no interest in it.
Dream: On a ship. It is a fun atmosphere but there is also a conference taking place. A big guy is changing the set up of a room on the ship and adds a king size bed. Dreamer thinks he is very wealthy perhaps, as he can do what he wants. Dreamer realizes that he/she doesn’t have the right paperwork and must take a little boat with a captain to retrieve it. Once on shore, dreamer gets a box and needs to take the little boat back to the ship, this time alone, as there is no captain. Dreamer is scared of dying but realizes that the waves are inevitable.
Dream: Dreamer is on a bus cleaning/organizing silverware. While placing coffee cups on top of the machine dreamer apologizes for making noise. A fat woman is knitting a huge sweater. Dreamer follows her off the bus and is carrying a white wooden chair. The woman buys two boxes of cake to give to two little black boys. Dreamer looks for a tutoring place and is told by more than one person that the church has good tutoring.
Dream: Dreamer is sitting in the back of a pickup truck with two men driving down the freeway. Dreamer looks to the lane next to them and see a very modern looking white car with black windows. When the car realizes it is being looked at, it begins to transform. The roof moves and the back end becomes the front end and the car immediately starts driving in the opposite direction, opposing traffic. The road is snowy. The car crosses the middle of the freeway and enters the lanes going in its direction. It is like a scene from a sci-fi film.
Dream: Dreamer is in a car with two friends. They pass by a theme park. There are weird rides. There is a long slide in which people ride on rugs very fast and jump a couple of kilometres to a a landing point which is a swimming pool. Dreamers asks his/herself ‘how is this safe’? How is this possible that the design is so precise that you will land in the water? Dreamer doesn’t go on the ride by goes through it in their head.
Dream: At a waterpark with a very winding and complex waterslide. The atmosphere is dark and moody.
Dream: (Recurring) Dreamer is at a theme park with his/her family. The lights go down and all the people vanish. Leaving the dreamer ultimately alone. The rides are still going. Dreamer is pondering the feeling of something about to happen.
Dream: (Recurring) Being in an oppressive place. The dreamer feels he/she needs to leave as there is no freedom in this place and cannot exercise his/her creativity. The feeling of being in jail. Wanting to get out. There is intense anxiety and fear. At the end of the dream there is the possibility to get free accompanied by the fear of going back to that place, that place where everything is very disciplined and organized and you must obey to a higher authority.
Association: A woman was held in jail in Kenya (taken away and thought to be dead). News of her release. She arrives in Italy with the government’s help. During her jail time she became Muslim, leaving behind her Catholic faith. She is in good shape.
Association: A memory. Meeting a friend by bike for the first time. Having lunch on a terrace. It feels marvellous and forbidden. A life and death situation. Enjoying ourselves like it’s the ‘last supper’. Realizing how beautiful it is to meet a friend, in person. and simply enjoying a glass of wine, some bread and tomato salad.
Dream: (Recurring) A nightmare from childhood. Floating in a dark space, body moving up and down. There is a humming noise. There is no light and therefore no perspective.
Association: A thought about sailing — if everything goes wrong and I lose my boat and I am floating in the water alone. Imagines this happening at night. There are no boundaries. There is peace. When you take everything else out, it’s just you.
Association: Empty city buses. Does anyone travel by bus these days while everyone is ordered to stay at home?
Association: A city bus waiting at a stop. A police officer enters the bus. Later an ambulance arrives.
Association: Perhaps the buses are running mainly for the benefit of the drivers.
Association: A quote from Rosa Parks about her action empowered not only the black population but many from the white population.
Dream: On the island of Borneo. There are sick cats and dogs. The people of Borneo all went biodynamic and organic. It was plastic-free. How they managed to do this was laid out for the dreamer step-by-step. Dreamer woke up feeling very empowered.
Association: Acquaintance on a social media site writes a post announcing that Australia has passed new legislation and will be giving out free health kits with vitamins and supplements and information about keeping the immune system strong, makes changes to education, environmental policies etc. all reflecting a much healthier model. Subtexts the post by saying that if he/she is going to read fake news, let it be fake new he/she wants to read.
Dream: Dreamer sees a journalist friend in Italy however it’s the doppelgänger ‘spirit’ version of him. He starts to appear to various friends, one at a time. Then all the friends realize the secret to their unity. The secret revealed was transforming.
Association: Child asks for a Transformer (toy) for Christmas that can change into different rooms. Parent tells child that this doesn’t exist. Child says that Santa can make anything happen.
Dream: In an old town that Dreamer takes to be Italy. Dreamer is lost, wandering the streets trying to find a certain place. At some point Dreamer is lucid in the dream and reminds his/herself that it is his/her dream and she/he can control where he/she goes. Upon realizing this, the dreamer turns left down a street and arrives the place he/she was looking for.
Association: Teenage son is immersed in digital life. Is very organized with the capacity to do things and feels no loneliness. Son expresses that nobody knows what’s going to happen. Parent wonders how this goes together.
Association: Parent speaks of teenage son who is entrenched in digital world of gaming. Is fascinated and sees it as a positive thing. Son tells her of an online game where someone coded into the game corrupted blood (a real incident). If you try to cheat at the game you get infected. Some players try to inform others, warn others of the corrupt code. Some pets in the game get infected. Other players leave the game. The groups that won the game were those who had strengths and assets, coders who could find a solution. Having experienced this in the game, the son feels stable in this current pandemic.
Association: Being in military school.
Association: A recent news article about robodogs that are being trialled in Singapore parks that remind people to social distance. This is posted on a social media site with the word ‘woof’ in coded language.
REFLECTIONS:
Agency
Transport dreams:
Speaking to the fact that we want to get out of confinement.
Wanting to take long trips
The daily residue of travel (we do still travel though within a smaller area)
Computer world, gaming world:
We are very human even in the gaming world.
Some young people very comfortable there. Informs of how to manage these times, based on a similar occurrence in the gaming world.
Ignorance around how this virtual world works.
Senses are heightened as a result.
How to relate with young people who are so comfortable in this world when (we)others are not.
Future reality with robots:
Fear around this
Friendly machines that assist where, culturally, some are not accustomed to handling certain situations.
Going back to work – not going back to work
Connectedness:
Intergenerational, international
Receiving encouragement and education from others
Credentials that allow a sense of belonging and participation
At the end of the reflection period a question was posed:
Imagine there is a journal or newspaper called ‘The Daily Dreamer’.
What title or headline would you use to describe today’s matrix?
Covid 19: Fear vs. Faith
The Elephant is the Room
The Virus Within
Travelling Dreams
The Tunnel Vision of Coronavirus: How to Escape through Simulation and Transformation
New Ways to Travel
Dreams of Magic and Reality
Call to Adventure: A world I feel like a player in.
The world has been seized by a virus.