A moment of Inception

I'm sitting on the couch in the living room and my sister Jess is with me. She starts to get up and go to the hallway. I say to her, "Hey, Jess. What if this is all a dream, like the movie Inception?"
She says to me, "Yeah, but it's not."
I agree with her. "I know. When I'm dreaming, everything is not normal at all. Either my vision is blurred, or weird animals chase me, or I'm flying. So I know when I'm in a dream."
Jess nods and I go back to studying for both tests I have tomorrow (Math and Spanish). Before I know it, I start to get sleepy and I doze off.

Quite soon, I start to fly around. And wouldn't you know it, someone needs rescuing. They always do. I'm only ever the one person who can fly, so when something is chasing me and whomever I'm with, I've got to pick them up and fly with them, which is not easy. It takes a lot more strength and concentration to fly when you are carrying somebody. And geez, we're always getting chased.

Pretty soon we get to the main street going down the college campus, and we've stopped flying. For some reason a ton of police cars and ambulances drive by, and we can't cross the road. Then we get half way across the road and I see why there was such a commotion. Someone has a gun. And it's pointed right at me. But this is a dream, where everything just gets worse. Suddenly I cannot even more. I try really hard to move me feet, but I can't.

Then my eyes pop open. I've been dreaming. I knew that. Then when I see how dark it is, I think "Oh crap! I fell asleep and didn't study for my tests!" I look to see what time it is. 5:15am. I realize that wait a minute, I actually went to bed on purpose. I'm supposed to be sleeping. Then I think a second longer. I do not have a math or Spanish test tomorrow. I am a teacher. I teach school.

Next I have a shocking realization. All of that before part where I was in the living room talking normally to my sister was all a dream. And the part where I was flying was a dream within a dream. As I am really awake, I think more about the first dream. I was at my old house that I grew up in, and no one lives there now. So obviously that wasn't real. I was studying for a high school math and Spanish test, and I'm no longer in high school. I totally thought that all of that was real, because it was so normal, but it wasn't. It was all pretend.

This freaks me out, because usually when I think about "Is this a dream?" I'm able to recognize that yes, it is a dream. Because weird sh*t happens. And I just know.

I fall back to sleep but continue to enter dreams. This time, I know it. For example, when the shadow of a relative is about to attack me when I'm flying, I pop my eyes open in real life just as they get to me. Saved myself from that one. But I am so sleepy that I instantly fall back into a dream state. My enemy is gone, but I'm still flying. I'm wearing a nightgown and I'm flying vertically into the sky like a rocket, which is weird, because I typically fly horizontally (no wing flapping necessary). I'm in the dark sky which is dotted with stars, and the moon is glowing bright. My nightgown flies up into my face and my bare skin begins to catch the breeze. I get cold and pop my eyes open in real life. That ended. But it wasn't so bad.

When I awoke for the last time this morning at 7:02, I started to think about all the snippets of dreams that I could remember from the past eight hours. I remember a rodeo, and a tunnel, a theater, saving a girl, listening to a concert, rain at a wedding, the forest of my old house, retrieving a secret file and throwing it up in the sky towards a vortex...

I realize that I am going to have to become one of those hippy weirdos who drink strange juices and tell people about their dreams on the radio. I've got to go to the library and read every dream book I can get my hands on. Because I need to be able to control this. I do not like the way that 98% of my dreams go, because I am always being chased by something evil. Yes, I enjoy the flying part, but it's not worth it. So I am setting out on a mission to figure out my subconscious. The mind is a miraculous thing. Surely this can be tapped.

If you have any sort of advice, please share. I mean, where's Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him? And Ellen Page, will you please build my dream?

I've already read a few things on-line, and apparently that spinning top thing that happened in Inception isn't totally bunk. I read about how you need to train you brain up, and ask yourself when you are awake "Is this a dream?" and then instead of saying "duh, no it's not," you are supposed to check a clock quickly, then check it again. Or you read some text real fast, and then look at it again. Apparently if you do this often enough (which makes you a weirdo, questioning reality and what not), then you will begin to do this in your dream. In the dream, when you check the clock the second time, allegedly a large chunk of time always passes, so you know it's a dream. Or if you read the text a second time, the words change. I'm going to try this. So next time you see me, you can say "hey Joelle, is this a dream?" and you can watch how I respond.

Obviously I need a psychotherapist. Aren'tcha glad you know me?