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 :)