Cyberspace as Dream World, Part 2: Dreams about Palace

By John Suler, Ph.D.

(Page 11 of 53)

Because we have been exploring the parallels between cyberspace and dreams, it makes sense to focus on dreams ABOUT cyberspace. Here I'd like to describe some dreams that users have had about the Palace. Generally speaking, you know something has activated your unconscious mind when you dream about it. For some people, the Palace may have an even higher potential to stir the unconscious because it mimics many of the qualities of dream life. As a dream-like state of consciousness, it may draw to the surface a variety of unconscious thoughts and feelings. The issues that surface may reflect the personal concerns of the user or archetypic themes that apply to us all. Dreams about Palace may even highlight phenomenological insights into the very meaning of "dream" versus "reality."

This portion of this article is best read in hypertext. The title of each dream is linked to my general comments on the dream. Links within the description of each dream lead to more specific comments about particular elements in the dreams. After reading these comments, use your browser's "back" button to return to your previous place in the article.

Because I did not talk in-depth with these people about their dreams, and in some cases do not know these dreamers very well at all, my comments on their dreams should be taken with a grain of salt. The ultimate expert on any dreamer is the dreamer him or herself.

Dream 1: Empowerment and Individuality

"My dreams on the Palace have puzzled me. I am not confined but free-floating. I have not floated since I was a child. I am always in the cloud room, though I never hang out there. I am the problem solver in my Palace-dreams, everyone coming to me like I'm a Guru or something. And I go back and forth from wearing my props to being me (my head only). To tell you the truth I think these dreams are connected to my awareness of my improved self-esteem. This is trippy stuff so let me go hog wild here. I think I am floating because that is what the Palace format dictates, but more importantly I am not afraid to enjoy my belief in myself. I need no shelters to protect me, no walls to confine me, I am not afraid I'll do something stupid. I believe I am always in the cloud room because when making a 'new' room you start with the cloud room until you change the background. I feel my dream cloud room represents the 'new' me feeling I have since I started associating with the Palace. And I am there because others enjoy me. They need my help and I know I can sooth their fears. It's funny the problems they bring to me and how open they are for my solutions. They always think I am smart and right, so I totally assume this must have to do with my new found esteem. One interesting point here, I only have my Palace dreams when in reality I am solving some political situation on the Palace."

Dream 2: Belonging and Being Understood

"I dreamed about the palace last night. I went to the PUG meeting and it lasted until midnight. I went to bed almost immediately after the end. I felt a little frustrated because they are things I wanted to say and couldn't, for many reasons, the main is because I speak Spanish and have a hard time to express myself the right way and fast... The only time I spoke, I felt people misunderstood what I meant. I must say also that I like the palace because it gives me a few seconds to put my words in order and I can read what I want to say. And I can read what others say, instead of hear it. It help me very much with my learning of English... So I went to bed frustrated last night..."

"I dreamed I was somehow in real life, facing a person I saw in the meeting of last night. But I didn't talk. Like in the palace, even if that person was in front of me, I was writing to her, telling her exactly what I wanted to say last night but much more fluidly, like in Spanish (but it was in English). And it appeared in balloons, like in the palace. You know, when I go to the palace, I have the feeling that I speak: it's a mix of speech and writing. And I feel that my English is much better than it is in real life (hehe).... That was the same feeling in my dream, but more confused though..."

"Just a quick note. I speak Spanish, like I already told you. When I go too much on the palace, I'm confused when I go back to speaking Spanish. But I never tell one word of English, orally. It takes me sometimes half an hour to get my first thought in Spanish again."

Dream 3: The Ideal Haven

"I'm a VERY active Palace dreamer, perhaps even more so since becoming a wizard (I even find myself wishing I could `gag/`pin/`mute some people in real life :-). My most frequent dream is of a "real" Palace, where avatars are actually the "solid/real" version of the ones I see online (Finchy looks cute as a little talking bird, PH actually even smells like a horse and I myself feel funny as a bunch of floating silver spheres). Everything I can do at the Palace I can do in this world, including the ability to wish myself into a different room, esp, paging, etc... yet I actually have to mentally "type" these commands for them to work. This Palace is located on some sort of artificial island (more like an oil rig, but huge) full of glass towers following Gaudi's architecture. These towers are connected by walkways of bright red "plastic?" and full of light (phosforescence might be more appropriate). I simply walk/float thru these settings talking with other wizards and friends from the Palace. Mostly thru "pages". I always seem to be worried about this "big circuit" I have to build for which the parts are not available, other times I'm showing my wife around this city (she has never been online and is quite "atechnical"). She always looks like in real life, but I speak with her via esp. Something interesting is that, while the sea under this city seems to be quite turbulent (think of a hurricane in the Caribbean, down to the color of the sea) the weather in this city is always fair, be it sun or midnight, I get the "subliminal" feeling that there's some sort of "dome" that protects this city so I have nothing to worry. I can only remember one time in which there was rain in my dream, and that's because It struck me as resembling some "Blade Runner" scenes. I dream of the Palace quite vividly as you can see, at least twice a month (for a whole week once, while I was actually creating one for a client). But it always is the same city, even though it sometimes seems to be both at sea and on a green forest at the same time."

Dreams 4 & 5: Fate and the Nature of Reality

"I can't remember when or where the dream started. I never seem to be conscious of the opening credits ... is that unusual? Anyhow, here goes..."

"What I first remember was being in a warehouse district in a large city, no one else around (solo journey or "quest"). I felt as tho I were looking for something or someone. I was walking along and felt like I was close to what I was looking for when all of a sudden the background image, buildings etc, came undone in the center and peeled itself back in 4 directions. As it did this, I was aware of a person's face behind and above me. It looked like a human face but it was smiling as tho it were enjoying a practical joke (on me). All of a sudden a new background took the place of the old one. It was a construction site. It was a new building going up. (reconstructing the self?) I climbed onto one of the bulldozers and began knocking down remnants of the old building which was still partially standing. (the old "self"?) I was almost done leveling the site when the setting once again peeled itself away... same face in the background."

"It was at this point I sort of realized that I was stuck in some kind of computer "program" and that things were being manipulated and that I was not in control. I remember trying to get away from who or what was controlling things. I was fleeing through some city streets. Every time I thought I was "safe" the background would change again. I then found myself in a bar full of people. I talked to several people and had a drink. I must have picked up a woman at the bar because the next thing I remember was being in an apartment setting...in bed with this woman. We were just starting to get intimate when all of a sudden one wall of the apartment disappeared and the bar I had just left was now in my apartment. People came wandering over to talk to me. My "friend" disappeared. As I started to talk to the bar patrons, expressing my anger at having my privacy violated, they would "morf" into other people. I remember feeling frustrated that each individual would not remain long enough to listen to my complaint."

"It was at this point that the entire scene peeled itself away again, revealing the face which was looking much more sinister. I woke up then, feeling a little shaken but thought it would make a good movie script so I wrote it down."

"The 'point and click' dream was fairly short and simple. I dreamed that I was in one of the palace rooms (Harry's Bar I think). I was using my mind to click on objects to move them around. ( I think that this was simply a dream about being at the palace or it may have been a desire to be able to control the things in my life as easily as things are controlled in the Palace????)"

Cyberspace as an Alternative to Dreaming

Human beings have an inherent need to alter their consciousness - to experience reality from different perspectives. We pursue this need through a wide variety of activities - meditation, drugs, athletics, sex, art. Some are more productive than others. Dreams are a necessary, built-in mechanism for achieving this altered experience of self, other, and world on a daily (nightly) basis. It allows the expression of the usually unconscious, primary process styles of thinking that provide a different perspective on reality.

Cyberspace may be a new and important addition to this list. Critics often complain that computers and the internet have, for some people, become an addiction that serves as a substitute for life. While this indeed may be true for some people, we should also consider the possibility that cyberspace may be a highly adaptive SUPPLEMENT to "real" life. It may be a viable alternative for altering consciousness by providing new, imaginative ways to interact with others and experience the world. As evident in the dreams described above, such programs as the Palace in particular stimulate a rich variety of basic psychological issues - probably because they are intensely social environments fused into a dreamlike state of consciousness. Sometimes users get so stirred up that the cyberworld intrudes into the "real" world. One person told me:

"The problem is...I think the Palace is a "heightened" state of consciousness, and just like when one is under the influence of hallucinogens (the voice of distant experience) things take on a hyper-real intensity, these Palace experiences carry over into the non-cyberlife with undue seriousness and intensity."

People may be attracted to such virtual environments because - like dreams - they satisfy this need for an alternative view of reality by encouraging the unconscious, primary process styles of thinking. Like dreams, they also encourage the acting out of unconscious fantasies and impulses, which may explain some of the sexuality, aggression, and imaginative role playing we see on the internet. Stretching the analogies even further, we can think of addiction to cyberspace as an addiction to an altered state of consciousness, abstinence from computering to withdrawal or REM (dream) deprivation, and a fervid diving back into cyberspace as a cyberspace "rebound," not unlike REM rebound (which is the mind's attempt to make up for lost hours of REM dreaming).

What makes the Palace somewhat different than dreams is that the person has more control over the altered state of consciousness. You can hover in mid-air, walk through walls, or change appearance... at will. It's this control that satisfies that need for omnipotence. The experience is not unlike "lucid" dreaming, which is a dream in which the person KNOWS she is dreaming and is able to direct the outcome. Supposedly, more "primitive" people in ancient times were able to develop and refine this ability. Contemporary dream workers are attempting to revive those skills. Pointing and clicking in cyberspace dream worlds may be the computer geek's similar attempt to return to those more primitive times. It's an attempt to create and direct a recurring, lucid dream.

Although it has a big impact on the user, this control over the cyberdream is limited. As indicated in the dreams described earlier, the virtual world can stir up all sorts of personal anxieties. People may feel something is missing, that there's turbulence below the surface, that this scenario is not completely under their thumb. After all, we have control over the program, but not over the people who occupy it with us. Virtual worlds are not games where we control all the pieces. They are real worlds complete with all the interpersonal triumphs and struggles that stir us up in the physical world. But unlike life in the physical world, you can easily hit the "off" button if things get too uncomfortable in cyberspace. It's the virtual equivalent of the mind's switching off an anxiety dream or a nightmare by waking you up.

Once your mind leaves the dream, you realize it was JUST a dream.... Or was it? If it was a nightmare that woke you up, it must have "got" to you. If it was a satisfying dream, it was satisfying for a reason. Dreams speak to deeper needs within us. Cyberdreams may speak to those deeper needs as well. Life online isn't an artificial illusion disconnected from the "real" world. It's an alternative view of the individual's subjective reality. The man and the butterfly belong to each other.

About the Author

John Suler, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Rider University. This article comes from his online hypertext book The Psychology of Cyberspace which describes his ongoing research on how individuals and groups behave in cyberspace. His work has been reported by national and international media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and CNN. www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/