When you close your eyes at night, where does your mind escape to? It is a question puzzled over by neurologists, psychologists, polysomnographists (those who study sleep) and oneirologists (those who study dreams). Unbelievably , I know the answer. Little old me! I have made the discovery of a generation and I stumbled upon it quite by chance. I found an old book in a bookshop near my home town called ‘Dynamo Tales’. I picked it up quite by chance as I was looking for a book about dynamite! It said it was part of a series but I have never seen any books from this series despite extensive searching, googling and library visits. The book was badly damaged. In fact the bookshop owner was embarrassed to take any money from me, but the few tangible words inside took my breath away. They started me on a long search and now, like Sir Walter Raleigh, or Christopher Columbus, I can reveal my discoveries to the world. These are the very words that set me off on my adventures. The man who wrote them is someone known only as Kasparo.
“To me, the greatest explorer of all is George Salvinger.
Nearly a thousand years ago Salvinger discovered one of the great wonders of
the unknown world, the Dream Arena. It holds many adventures for those willing
to step inside. Those who do, must be brave. They must take risks and dare to
do something new. Fortune and misfortune come in equal measures. It is my job
to sift through the many wonderful dream chronicles from the Arena and pick out
the very best for publication”.
So who is this Kasparo and can this place, this Dream
Arena really exist? These were the two questions that have occupied my every
breath for last eight years. Having read these spine chilling words who could
fail to make further investigations as to whether this place, this Dream Arena
was real or not. I began a long journey that led me to a completely new and
undiscovered world. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you a
land known as the State of Sleep. Surely I hear you say, somebody must have
discovered this land before? Well this is entirely what I thought, but it seems
not. It seems as if it has its own unique and wonderful fortifications. As you
pass through its walls to re-enter the here and now, you are persuaded to forget
everything that you discovered along the way. Now some of you are well
practiced at bypassing these fortifications and have found ways of remembering
snippets of your adventures in the State, but most simply forget. So what is
this place, this State of Sleep like I hear you ask? Is it peaceful? Is it big?
Please tell. Well yes it is big. It is vast in fact. We, the people who visit
are known by the indigenous people as ‘dociles’. We come, we dream, we leave,
but they, the prestos, the guardians of dreams remain there forever, along with
the dream creatures that we have created and nightmare beasts that we wished we
hadn’t. So it is also very far from peaceful. A war rages there, dream wars
that have spread throughout the land and beyond.
What about me? I hear you ask. Well you, one of many
millions of dociles that visit the state every night - you will not linger long
on the streets and in the countryside of the State of Sleep for long. Your
instincts draw you to the centre-piece of the state, a building of such epic
size and proportions, that it is hard to put into words. You and me and all the
many others who visit, will make our way to the Dream Arena, the building
spoken of by the mysterious Kasparo, the place that I so badly wanted to
discover. Now that I have, I realise that this was only the start of my
discoveries.
This building where people go to dream spans six hundred
and sixty five floors. There are doorways leading into six hundred and sixty
six different dream worlds. Imagine it! That takes a lot of exploring I can
tell you. But explore I have in the interests of science and discovery, but I
am a long way off a full report to the people of the planet. That, I am told by
the prestos takes a lifetime and I have only spent eight years wandering the
levels and writing of the people, the creatures, the flora and fauna that
reside inside.
So out of the six hundred and sixty five known floors
which do I start with? Well I will ponder that question a little while longer
and decide in my next blog. Oh and I have also made an even more wonderful
discovery recently. There is a secret floor. A six hundred and sixty sixth
floor exists, but even the most esteemed thinkers in the land, even those who
have spent many lifetimes living inside the Arena, do not know of its
whereabouts. They have heard the rumours, but they do not know if they are
true. So I have decided to make it my mission not only to bring the universe of
the Dream Arena to you all, but to see if I can find this secret floor. I hope
you will enjoy my discoveries and remember something important next time you
close your eyes at night. In dreams there are no fences.
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