Dream of a Distopic Future
I had a dream last night. It was somewhat lengthy and detailed. I woke up at 5:00 and felt the need to write some notes about it, like it is significant, but I don't yet know how. I also feel compelled to write about it here for some reason, so here we go.
I am in this dream; I participate in it. It seems to take place in the future, but I seem to be about 15-16 years old and I am with three other guys, potentially classmates. We seem to be friendly, though not necessarily friends. There is one face in the whole dream that belongs to a real actual person and that face is on one of these guys. The face is that of a high school classmate of mine whom I have not seen or thought of in about 25 years - I'll call him Jimmie.
In real life Jimmie and I were never friends, though as we moved along through high school and supposedly matured, we treated each other with a friendly disregard - we were friendly, not friends. This is how I reached the conclusion of my relationship with these three guys in the dream and may be the only reason for Jimmie's specific presence in the dream at all.
In the dream, the four of us are playing on some newly released gaming system in what seems to be a large but cramped space. The walls, floor and ceiling are dark like very old unfinished wood and there are few lights. The system is such that the games are very realistic, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of hardware or equipment. The games involve a lot of movement, like you are actually playing the sport or you are physically engaged in the action. I am not as interested in the gaming system as the others and I leave.
Sometime later, maybe weeks or more likely a few months, I returned to Jimmie's house, where we had been playing earlier. It seems that we had been playing in the basement as that is where I went. The basement has been significantly cleared out to make a lot more room. Lights have been added and the walls and have been painted white. A lot of work has been done to the space, but the work is not completed.
The three guys are there playing on the game system and they are playing hard. One of the guys turns to me on the stairs and he has a large red stain on his chest that was soaking through his shirt. From where I am standing it appears to be blood, but he has no visible wounds. He explains that he has been hit in the chest in the game, which I somehow seem to think is a sort of dodge-ball type of game. The other two guys are playing shirtless and they now turn to me and they both have the red stains all over their torsos. One of them wipes his hand across his chest and the stain seems to wipe off fairly well; it doesn't smear like blood would, but I recall thinking that the stains may be red blood cells coming through their skin from their exertion as they play the game.
I go upstairs at this time to find some water to drink. As I enter the kitchen I see dirty dishes over the whole kitchen and the entire kitchen is a mess. I search for a clean cup but I find very few cups at all and they are all filthy and dried out, like all the other dishes. I find a pack of water bottles and I take one - it is the only option.
At this time a young woman, maybe in her early twenties enters the house and hangs up her stuff. She belongs here somehow but this is not her home. I think she is a nurse or a baby-sitter. Her focus is not on her duties but on the game system and she starts playing. Then I see a child that is maybe 12-15 months old sitting in a stroller. This child gets out of the stroller and wanders over to play on the game system too. They are both completely addicted to the game system, just like the guys downstairs.
This was all very unsettling to see.
It occurs to me that owning and operating the game system is very expensive and there is a desire to constantly upgrade the system. People devote everything to playing on and upgrading their game system, to the detriment of everything around them. All of their time, energy and money goes into feeding the monster that is that gaming system.
Then I woke up.
As I considered this dream, it occurred to me that there are some similar aspects to a book made into a movie. This book is called "Ready Player One". It is a pretty good movie, but it depicts the type of world that seems to exist in my dream. I don't know if that fed my dream or is simply a coincidence.
I don't know what significance my dream may have, if it has any at all, but there does seem to be something to it. If anyone has any insights into this please feel free to mention them in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
A couple of things that do jump out at me are as follows:
1) Everyone, adults included, seems to be entirely engrossed in this game system. There was only the one adult in the dream, but she was addicted and the house was a disaster. Reality has taken a back seat. There seemed to be the feeling that people no longer worked to earn a living, which allowed them to spend all of their time on the game system.
2) The blood that does not seem to come from any wounds reminds me of the literal blood that Jesus was sweating in Gethsemane as He prayed that God would remove the burden of the cross from Him. This is an actual medical issue called
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