It’s not common to dive into the night as shrouded in mystery and envisioned in realism as much as this one. The time of this dream spanned days on end, but in a way I have never seen before. The people in my dream knew I was dreaming, and were aware that little time has passed in the waking world, and I woke up grateful to be able to tell the story.
I hope the text below will find a place in your heart so that—maybe—it will touch you as much as it touched me. I will try my best, let’s get to it.
Somewhere early in the morning I woke up to go to the bathroom. I did not look at the time, as I wanted to sleep a bit more, and the fear of being awake 1 hour before my alarm would keep me up.
I did realize, though, that it was somewhere around 5, as early dawn was already shining through the curtains.
Without thinking much, I went to bed again, and that’s when it happened.
From here we dive into the dream world.
It all begins with me being inside the house. Nothing really happened, I was just in my bedroom. It was light outside, somewhere early noon.
I sat on the edge of my bed, and realized that I was dreaming, and quickly recalled that I wanted turn into my dragon again.
Before I could even get up, my sister was in the door opening. But something was strange about her, she wore a very beautiful white dress. In hindsight, maybe she wasn’t my sister, but she looked like her a lot.
“Do you know about the ‘School for people connected to anything non-human?’”, she asked without introducing herself. She was leaning against the edge of door opening, looking confidently at me.
“That’s not really a catchy name, is it?”, I said back with a grin.
“… But, no, thanks, I’m not interested in a shrink. I don’t need to be fixed, I know I’m dealing with hard fantasy and that I need to be careful not to get too hung up on it, or I lose touch with reality.”, I added, clearly not interested in what she has to say.
“You’re not listening to me. It’s a school for people connected to anything non-human, they’re not out to fix you, they’re out to improve your skill”, she replied with an undertone of annoyance.
“Are you someone who finds it difficult to be in a human body?”, she asked me. “No, I’m fine being in my human body, for me there’s no difference between being a dragon or a human, both feel good to me”, I replied.
A pause followed, and after an awkward silence, I broke it: “Does that mean this school is not for me?”
“The school is for everyone who has some connection to the non-human, and we enroll everyone who fits that profile, spiritual or otherwise,” she replied.
“Hmm, it’s worth the shot, can I bring my boyfriend? He might love this!” I replied, slightly uncertain, but since it aligned with my goals, I was ok with it.
As if the channel on the TV changed with the click of a button, I find myself in this… large forest. A huge clearing in the middle housed 2 large compounds: The first was a modern looking building, it was white, its architecture drawing a lot from the Science Museum in Valencia. The main difference was that a large portion appears to go underground.
The second compound was a fair, a large amount of attractions seemed to stretch as far as the eye can see, though it seemed closed, and I did not pay much attention to it. However, the closest attraction was bumper cars and a snack stand.
It was clear the modern building was the school that really needed a rebranding.
I walked inside, my bf was already at the reception with his suitcase.
The inside was nothing short of breathtaking! Giant windows going all the way up to the ceiling gifted the visitor magnificent forest views and natural lighting.
The modern interior was made such that it was not bothering at all, it was not contradicting, but augmenting the nature outside, drawing some of that good vibes inside the building. Whoever built this place must have had a mind of his own, there’s no way I could come up with this.
Sure, I could have put modern furniture inside a building and make a view to nature outside, but to make it look and feel good? That’s a different story. How this ended up in my dream? It’s almost magic!
I greeted my bf and the looked at the receptionist. She began to say joyfully:
Welcome! We have a few rules around here:
- Bed time is at 22:00, you don’t have to sleep already, but everyone is expected to be in their rooms by then.
- After 22:00, you have to be silent
- Breakfast is from 05:00 to 11:00
… I paused for a second. “Breakfast from 05:00 to 11:00?! The most luxurious hotels I stayed at didn’t offer such flexible breakfast times!”
The lady at the reception chuckled. “Our students have hugely varying sleep schedules, we try to accommodate.”
“Oh, you must like this,” I told my bf, who often sleeps late, jokingly.
“B-but bedtime?!” I asked… “You’re serious? We have to spend the night here”.
The receptionist looked at me again and nodded. “Don’t worry, we got that covered”, what this meant I did not know, but I’ll soon find out…
“Alright,” I said confidently. “Can I get a room with my bf?”.
“We’ll guide you to your accommodation.”
We arrived in a room with 4 single-person beds, showing that we were supposed to get roommates at a later point.
“Great, separate beds, that’s nice because you move around a lot,” I told my bf jokingly.
The rooms weren’t big, aside from the 4 beds, there was a plank above each bed to put personal belongings on and a single, shared desk and chair.
It didn’t look entirely depressing, though, with the forest view still outside.
We took some time to get our stuff out. There was a third person going in who wore a tail, he was quite silent, and looked much smaller than we were.
I don’t recall ever speaking to him despite becoming roommates.
What happened next was that at some point we began sleeping, I was trying to sleep early while my bf was at the desk playing on his phone, as quiet as he could.
It was pitch dark outside, as was inside, save for the dim light from his phone.
The next morning, I walked outside our bedroom and saw some crew of the school sitting at a table inside. Breakfast was inside due to the cold weather.
After breakfast, we were told to play in the forest to “get to know each other and our inner self”, I must admit, being close to nature helps to connect with mother earth, not just in dreams, but in reality too…
The way people, both adults and children, were playing, was quite unique. They were pretending to be animals. One guy was running on all fours like Wolverine.
They all did this with no shame or fear of judgement, it was kind of beautiful to see people in all shapes and sizes, and every background be able to be themselves.
But I was not playing along.
At some point, though, I did try to do the “running on all-fours trick” but it didn’t go as well as I thought, it even hurt to do it, and I gave up.
“Why are you not playing along?” a girl, who I don’t know was a teacher or a student.
“I don’t mind them doing this, but, it’s not really my thing. I rather connect with my dragon in different ways you know?”
A couple of nights pass, at the third night, the weather was good enough to eat breakfast at the tables set outside. The building extended with white tents made of a some fabric I have never seen before, held up by wooden poles.
I sat next to the kid with the tail whom I shared the room with. “Aren’t you worried about the whole sleeping arrangement here? I counted, and we have been here 3 days, and the only lesson we had so far is playing around in a forest! How are we sure we’re not missed in the real world?”, I asked him hopefully, as at this point, it started to feel very real. So real, I feared I was no longer where I should be.
The kid for the first time turned to me and answered: “Don’t worry, only a few minutes in real life have passed”.
“Y-you sure? How do you know?!”, I was kind of struck that someone in a dream is aware it was a dream and gives clear explanations.
The kid no longer spoke and continued eating.
I went to grab something for myself and went back to being a loner in the forest while others began playing. Most of my time was staring a large tree that was in the middle of the clearing.
At this point, I counted 7 days, and I was beginning to get bored. What is this school really? And why don’t we get any theory on dragon anatomy or something. You know? Anything important when letting magical creatures embody you! I’m not the only crazy dude out here, I’m sure, I saw a werewolf walking around. Sure, he must want to know more, too!
It was another evening, it was before 22:00 so we were allowed to make a sound. My bf was sitting at the desk as I walked outside the bedroom.
Near the reception there is a table and a small kitchen, a group of people, who I presume were the “teachers” were sitting there.
“Hey…” I spoke to the youngest lady, my guess is around her 20s, and looked kinda cute. “Whatcha all doing here?”
“We’re doing the transfer, the shift of some teachers ended, and we are discussing the progress of each our students, so the new crew can take over smoothly,” she replied.
“Progress.”, I shrugged with my arms crossed. “This is the longest and most realistic dream I had in my entire life, and believe me, I have never been able to count the nights I spent in a dream! I share a room with an autistic kid wearing a tail (no offense I’m autistic myself) who despite being silent is somehow the most helpful of all, my bf doesn’t seem to care just lives day by day, how exactly is this progress?!”
The teacher didn’t seem to flinch or be offended at all. “Peter… What you are doing here is far more meaningful than you think. We have something planned for you tomorrow”.
“Finally!” I thought. “Some action!”
I went back to my bedroom, where nothing had changed. The kid with the tail was sleeping early (he wakes up really early around 06:00) and my bf was still playing on his phone.
I felt somehow that tomorrow something big would happen, and the excitement made it difficult for me to fall asleep.
This time, the day did not start as usual… I remembered falling asleep as I was talking to my bf (who goes to bed very late), I even remember we had to whisper due to the 22:00 rule.
We woke up way too late, at 11:00. “FUCK RUBEN WAKE UP WE MISSED BREAKFAST!” I shook him awake, and he gathered his clothes and put them on as we ran outside.
All that was left was a half a piece of bread and some crumbs. The kid with the tail was still sitting there, looking at us with questioning eyes. I could’ve strangled him at this point because he could’ve woken us up. I … didn’t, maybe he thought we wanted to sleep longer, and forgo breakfast.
“There’s a small food stand at the fair,” Ruben told me. “Yeah there is, but I don’t want sugary junk food for breakfast, I need something healthy to kickstart my brain you know…”, I replied to him. And truth be told, the food was quite good at the school.
I walked to one of the ladies, who I don’t know was a teacher or a student, I asked her: “Hey do you know where we can still get breakfast?”.
“The nearest town with a bakery is miles away, you’ll never make it on time.” she said.
“Not as human…,” I said…
“You can…” “Yes,” I interrupted her. “Like a true mage, I can shape-shift, in a dragon.”
“That’s quite cool, can I see it?”
“Yes, let’s go somewhere more private with a good runway.”, I replied, wanting to find a spot less covered by treetops.
We walked for about 10 minutes into the forest, where we arrived at a river with a red bridge.
“This is perfect,” I told her.
I began to stand at the edge of the bridge, the sun was shining in my back, and it reflected my shadow on the water.
I started to shape-shift like I always do: Spreading my arms, and looking forward or at my shadow and think of my inner dragon.
“Wait!”, I heard from behind me. It was the girl. She said: “You want to become better at this right? To know more about your roots? To see into the past think you’ve never lived?”
I was stunned! “Y-yes! I actually forgot about that! I mean, I am lucid, but I only remember wanting to turn into my dragon, not that I wanted to know more about how this all somehow blended into my life! How did you know?”
“How I know is not important, all that is important is that we are here to help. Now, stand straight up, look forward, and close your eyes”.
I ignored her instructions: “Please, this is not how I normally do this, I typically focus on getting bigger, feeling the strength of my bigger dragon muscles, the weight of the wings and tail, and it always works, I’m afraid closing my eyes will destroy or destabilize this dream.”
“Trust me, it will be ok,” she said without a hint of offense from my doubt about her.
“O-ok,” I stuttered nervously. The girl stood behind me, and I let her voice be my guide.
“Close your eyes”
I slowly did close them, the vision of the river turned black in front of my closed eyes. Damn, this part was so real, when writing it down, it feels like I’m right there again!
“It’s so scary to do this in a dream”, I mumbled.
“Being scared is natural, don’t let fear be your weakness! Use it! How can you feel like a real dragon without feeling like a real human first?”
I gave myself fully over to her skills, it was so scary, more than you can possibly imagine. But her words, her support, her guiding voice, it was all that I needed to get through it.
“Now, I want you to go back to the moment you first met your dragon”, she added in a calm voice.
“That’s easy” I said. “That’s during a shamanic jour-” she interrupted me: “No, further…”
“I don’t know what that mean-” I got interrupted again as I suddenly saw a vision of me being with my dragon. The vision was dim, and lacked color. It was entirely in black and white, as if lived through someone else’s eyes who couldn’t see color.
I saw my dragon and me being in some kind of place that reflected a lot of white, it could have been a forest, because it looked like leafs shown through an infrared camera. Not much happened, it seemed we were laying down and eating fruits, and sharing them with each other.
It hit me so hard, I get goosebumps all over my body just writing this. Even if nobody reads this, I’m so glad that I have taken the time to write this, I don’t know what it means for me, but it made the best discovery in my life even better.
“Ok, open your eyes now!”, the voice of the girl said.
I did as instructed, kind of relieved I could turn this back to normal.
But it wasn’t.
The world was exactly the same, but the shadow that laid before me, was my dragon, and not just that. It was there without any effort!
“Woooow!” I screamed! I looked at my hand, which now were full-blown dragon claws, and they didn’t just look like them, they felt like claws too. When I clenched my fist, it felt… different, non-human.
“Wow, normally I have to shape-shift multiple times and even then it doesn’t work this well!” I had tears in my eyes of joy as I jumped around feeling my hind claws hit the wood of the bridge. During the entire ordeal my shadow stayed consistent too!
I never thought my experience being a dragon could be elevated to a higher standard of immersion.
But this? This changed the game. I wasn’t merely looking like the dragon anymore, I was being one — and had absolutely no trouble keeping it up either. I have no other words to describe it. It was like I left a piece of myself behind and gained another the second I opened my eyes.
“Thank you so much…” I told her.
“W-would you want some breakfast from the city?”, I asked her.
“Nah, I’m good. You go have fun!”
I didn’t let her say that twice, I immediately spread my wings and jumped off the bridge!
“WOO-HOO!” I screamed as I flew over the river, higher and higher. “This is awesoooome!!!”
I kept going faster and faster, I looked down for one second seeing the students playing below me when suddenly… BANG! Followed by a huge pain in my dragon skull.
The camera pans quickly to the ground and as if a connection got severed, I ended up on the ground, as a human, with my dragon body loosely hanging in the tallest pine tree in the fucking forest!
“Out of all places, I hit this one tree, great…” I said annoyed.
A kid came running at me. “Do you want a popsicle? I was asked by the teachers to offer everyone one popsicle!”
“Really?”, I asked with a smirk. “And you will deliver them no matter the cost?”
“Yes, I try to be the best help I can be!”
“Ok, well, there’s a dragon in the pine tree up there, he wants a popsicle!”
I hoped that this lucid dreaming trick will make the kid return the dragon to me, as its easier to get the dragon down than to climb up the tree, in an attempt to restore the connection.
I woke up, and through the curtains, it was exactly as light as it was when I went to sleep again.
“Oh, my god. This can’t be happening, barely any time passed. They were right…”
Now I’m sitting here, having had perhaps one of the most vivid transformation dreams in my entire life. Even writing it down brings up the feelings to a level comparable to… still being in that dream.
I know I’m on thin ice when it comes to bringing dreams into the real world, but what happened is almost impossible to ignore, or seek some form of greater explanation. Either way, it was enjoyable to the last minute, and I would do it all over again if I could. Thank you, whoever designed this dream.