This dream started in an established post-apocalyptic world that had lost many major technologies, such as airplanes, cell phones, and the Internet, but had retained some technology, such as stand-alone computers, televisions and cars. It wasn’t “Mad Max”, but much more lawful and “civilized”.
In fact, it was too “civilized”. The government controlled every detail of our lives. So much so that a group of us had banded together in an effort to overthrow, or “throw off” the oppressive government.
But, the government was too strong. It had the support of too many people who were terrified that the devastating wars and calamities that destroyed the world might happen again. Even though these people never even knew the world from before the “Great Tragedy” because it happened well before their time, the government made sure they “remembered” through strict control of the written history.
It was this “history” that we “rebels” sought to challenge and expose as a fabrication of twisted and distorted truths. But, like Mark Twain once said, it’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they have been fooled. So, we had only managed to make ourselves outlaws, and were being hunted by the “police” of this brave new world.
(Note: some of the above backstory for this dream is a fabrication itself, made from my best and most sincerely honest attempt to fill in the missing backdrop for what happens next. The rest, below, is a much more factual account of what actually happened in my dream, as I remember it.)
I, and a fellow escaping dissident, kept climbing higher and higher into a tangled mess of wreckled and abandoned buildings that were strictly off limits under the current regime. We climbed up until we reached a ceiling in the wreckage that prevented us from going any further. But, when we explored the extent of the ceiling barrier, we discovered an opening that would allow us to pass into new territory above (some place no one from our “world” had gone before). We both crawled through the opening one at a time.
We came out on the other side at the top of an extremely high... uh... “cliff”, or “perch” of some sort, that overlooked the world below --- our world --- from far above the clouds. And we weren’t alone. As soon as I came out on the other side, I saw a bunch of skinny dark-skinned people hanging from... uh,... vines?... that extended up into the sky.
They weren’t vines, though. They were “chains” of some kind of long-legged spidery type of things. These “spiders” were attached to the people they supported by the skin, and then formed long chains by connecting to each other by their “legs”. The people suspended in this way could move around without ever touching the ground by swinging from these spider-chains, which would disconnect and reconnect as needed so the person swinging could move any direction they wanted, including up or down.
We greeted these skinny spider-people, and they were very friendly. They showed us how to swing from the spider-chains, which was scary at first because it seemed like the chains were too flimsy to support our weight, but they weren’t. They were very strong and secure, and as it turned out, easy to manipulate (i.e. detach and reattach) so we could move around through the sky like they did.
No one spider-person stood out as an individual, but together they took us to their “city” and explained to us along the way that they were descendants of the same human race as us. But, after the “Great Tragedy” they evolved to survive in the sky, per se, via the spider-chains. They also evolved a unique culture without formal laws or any form of government or religion. They explained that “The Truth” was their primary guiding principle, and the source of all order and justice in their society.
I noticed at this point that these spider-sky people were all naked, and some were having sex even as they “spoke” to us (though still, none spoke directly to us --- they just “conveyed” understanding in that dreamlike way). They explained that the closest thing they had to a “leader” was an “oracle-child” that was selected via group consensus as needed, usually to accomodate circumstances that required some form of formal decision; such as the appearance of strangers from the world below (us).
We were hence being escorted to meet such an oracle-child. The children are selected according to their natural ability to connect with Universal Wisdom and hence represent the Will of the One. They were always volunteers, and never compelled to act or decide anything. But, the decisions they made, and any pronouncements they made were considered “law”, even from children as young as five or six, and never beyond puberty.
Before we actually met with the child who had been vetted in our cause by some completely natural means we were “shown” (images placed in our minds) other such oracle-children in the act of “ruling”. The scenes appeared very “religious” in nature, though we were assured that the ceremonies were natural manifestations, not “invented” by intent, and that no two were the same. All of the child-oracles were naked, of course, and many of them were clearly masturbating enthusiastically as they were surrounded by those participating in the, ...uh... “ceremony”, or whatever it was.
It was all very formal and seemed arranged though it wasn’t. There were sometimes elaborate head-dresses, and thrones, and other artifacts, each created just for the one “ceremony”. In all cases the child was never coached or told what to do, but just did what he or she wanted, and the other participants accomodated the oracle’s whims.
We were finally lead to a large open aired chambed where our “ceremony” would take place. There was a pile of facy pillows where the oracle-child would sit in our case, but the child herself had not yet arrived, nor even been selected. It was understood that the child would arrive in her own time, but soon.
That’s as far as the dream went before I was awaken by some noise outside of my cell. I should note that at no point in the dream with the spider-sky people did I feel apprehensive, or like I was being --- or, going to be --- judged. I don’t know what merits, if any, there might be for such an “oracle-child” system of “law and order”; it is not something I have ever thought about before. But, I will certainly be giving it some thought now. All-in-all it was an interesting and enjoyable dream.
[J.D. March 16, 2016]
