Lunar Dream 02: Low Gravity.

Second in a three-part series of dream recollections in which the moon made a significant appearance. [Read Part 01.]

As with many dreams, I have no idea how I came to stand on the surface of the moon, or what I was supposed to be doing there. All the same, there I was in a T-shirt, sneakers and jeans. But instead of the typical barren landscape, I seemed to be standing in the middle of an network of alleyways in a small city. Maybe we'd colonized the moon at some point before my dream began.

All the way through the narrow alleys I could see glimpses of the moon's surface itself at the edge of the city: craggy, grey and lifeless, dimly illuminated by a very weak sun and an assortment of stars overhead. The scene was colored like any quiet night on Earth; shadows thrown from buildings and walls obscured parts of the alley. My vision seemed only to work in monochrome.

I began walking through the alleys in an attempt to reach the city's edge, wanting to make shoeprints in the lunar dust like the astronauts did decades ago. However I must have been in some sort of maze because I got no closer to the city limit after minutes of walking. So I decided to see if I could get a bird's-eye view of the maze. I started jumping.

thinking vertical [via]

I'm glad my dreaming mind took into account the lower gravity on the moon because with each jump I took, the higher I rose. Soon I was eye-level to the rooftops. A couple of jumps later I could see above and past them, to the vast pockmarked landscape beyond. Encouraged, I began running down the alley, making broader and higher jumps each time I landed. In no time, I breached the edge of the city and burst out onto the moon's surface.

At this point, I must have been leaping 50 to 60 feet into the sky and I distinctly remember an crazy feeling of exhilaration. I felt no air rushing by my face but there was an incredible sense of speed. I've never been able to fly in any of my dreams (at least, in any of the ones I can remember) so this was a very rare treat for me. I remember landing, then sprinting along to build up speed, then leaping up again and sailing for what seemed like football-field lengths before touching down in a slow flurry of exploding dust. I can only describe it as elation.

I don't recall how long this sequence actually lasted (probably only a minute or two), but it was more than enough to imprint itself permanently into my memory. I haven't had any dreams that are even close to this experience, but here's hoping that writing about it triggers something in my subconscious and I get to do that again :)

Lunar Dream 01: Sentience.

Like every other person, I can only remember a fraction of the dreams I have. Lately it seems that I've been dreaming a bit more but that's probably due to the melatonin pill I pop before bedtime. Regardless, I forget almost all of my dreams soon after waking, although I do have some very vivid and memorable dreams from over the years that I hope to remember forever.

The moon has made an appearance in three of my most vivid and pleasant dreams. Following is a description of the first dream -- which I probably experienced sometime in my early teens -- to the best of my memory.

I was visiting my mom's childhood home in Quezon City, late on a warm, breezy summer night. Everyone on her side of the family was inside enjoying one other's company, quietly laughing and talking. I got up and slowly walked outside on the front porch to enjoy the nighttime weather, and that's when I looked up and saw magnificence. The entire sky was alive with millions of brilliant stars, clear against the cloudless black sky. But that spectacle was dwarfed by the sheer size of the moon.

Looking back into my dream, the moon itself must have taken up at least a third of the sky. Round and full, it glowed a great bright orange and illuminated the entire neighborhood with light like flames. It was obviously much closer to the Earth because I could discern individual craters, valleys and mountains on its surface. To me it looked only a few hundred feet away.

VASTLY bigger than this

It loomed so large that it almost seemed like it was on a collision course with the planet. But instead of a sense of alarm or fear, I was filled with a profound calm, almost as if the moon existed as a sentinel to protect me. It felt sentient somehow and that gave me a distinct sense of comfort. I must have stared awestruck for a while, rooted to the spot by the sheer spectacle of the sky. Even now the details of that moon -- the rough and jagged surface, the spectrum of its reds and oranges, and most of all its almost-incomprehensible mass -- are vivid in my mind.

I don't remember the rest of that dream (if it even continued past that point), but I don't think I really need to. Nowadays, even just thoughts of that dream will give me a sense of calmness and a little bit of wonder. Honestly, it's one of the best things my subconscious has ever done for me. Thanks, brain!