In the beginning, I was born. Then, I experienced around 10-12 years
of life as a new person.
Now, obviously, I did not dream 10-12 complete years of experience.
Rather, I dreamed a few passages in the life of this person. This
created the illusion of having passed through 10-12 years. Because
this was a dream, the illusion was perfect. My mind was encased by
it; wherever my mind wondered, it created whatever was necessary to
make me feel completely and wholly that I was this other person with
all of his experiences. I was unaware that I was dreaming.
Most of the time, I was completely unaware that I was previously a
person named "Dan". Occasionally, deep within my subconscious, I was
aware that I had once been this other person. At times when I was
aware of this, I felt as if I were deep in meditation, or in that
strange state inbetween awake and dreaming where the mind sometimes
does strange things.
During the dream, I reflected that being almost completely unaware of
my previous life as Dan was very similar to the way a person can
forget things when their environment radically changes. The way an
adult can forget what it's like to be a kid, the way a person barely
surviving in the wilderness can forget what it's like to be in
civilization, or even the way scientists stationed in Antarctica for a
year forget then find they must relearn upon return to the rest of the
world. The memories are there, somewhere, but they're so infrequently
accessed that they become dim and obscured. It was also similar to
the way the the world can radically change within a few moments when
tripping on acid, except the moments are very long.
Somewhere around age 10-12, I was born yet again, and started
life as a third person. I lived their life for many years as well.
I'm not sure how old, but I dimly recall it being older than the
second person. Again, my mind was completely engulfed in this
person.
Again, as this person I reflected on where the second person (who had
a name that I cannot remember) had gone. I did not think the second
person had died, but I was unsure. I certainly had no memory of him
dying, but it was certainly possible that his existence had ended
without my being aware of it.
As the third person, I was more aware of the second person than I was
of Dan; indeed, I'm not sure if I could even remember Dan at all at
this point.
Still, I felt that the he still existed, somewhere, somehow, and
that eventually I would return to living his life. I suspected that
at some point, my perceptions would shift and change, and I would no
longer be the third person, but would again be the second person.
That, as the second person, I would have only the vaguest subconscious
memories of the third person; I would again be completely absorbed in
the life of the second person.
I did not reflect on how or why any of this might be happening.
I also reflected on the extent to which Dan, the second person, and
the third person were one in the same. They were definitely different
people; they had their own lives, their own experiences, yet we
shared a common mind. We had many of the same tendencies, and
developed (somewhat) similarly, but not identically.
Not long after that, I awoke, and found myself again living the life
of Dan, and only being dimly aware of the existence of these other two
people on the fringes of my subconscious.
Click to go to other of Agthorr's Dreams.