Playa Dreams & Nightmares

[ZaphodBurner]

I was driving through the mountains after midnight, headed for Cedarville late on the way home in 2010 and I dreamed I saw giant art barges floating along off my left.

That was pretty fucked up.

A moment later I saw a BBQ stand on the side of the mountain highway and I figured I was either dreaming or already dead. I pulled over, and woke up in the back of a friend's RV in Cedarville with my van and trailer safety parked nearby. What a strange sense of disorientation.

Most recently I dreamed we were stuck at the entrance and/or Exodus loop where if you missed the unmarked turnout, you were going to be stuck in traffic two days, and dumped right back out on the highway.

[tahiti_treat]

In my dreams of burning man, the desert doesn't exist. Black Rock City has paved roads, trees, brick buildings and hills. Sometimes people live in apartments and shacks. Sometimes we set up our tents inside a massive building. The art and theme camps I see are sometimes things that would be impossible - like one theme camp I visited made real, live fantastical animals that people would adopt as pets. In the last dream I had, someone had built a huge tunnel under the city and I was walking around in it (probably a result of playing too much Minecraft).

[FIGJAM]

[BoyScoutGirl]

Had my first Burning Man dream last night and it was a nightmare. I dreamt I had put in a good four or five hours of intense work here at home preparing a vest/shawl thing as a costume piece.

The nightmare part? The whole thing was covered in thousands of tiny beads. I was filled with a deep sense of dread at bringing such an item to the playa, but for some reason I was having trouble convincing myself that it was a Very Bad Idea. I remember thinking "Oh god - I'm one of them!" (I.e., one of those idiots who thinks their beads are special and MOOP-proof.)

I woke up so confused about my motives that I tore apart my Burning Man supplies box just to make sure a heavily-beaded shawl wasn't lurking there. Crisis averted.

[VultureChow]

Dreamed that I was leaving today for the burn, and woke up in a state of panicked excitement. Then I realized that I was up early cause I had an early morning estate planning meeting with my father and got depressed.

What a weird feeling all around.

Made it through the meeting alright, (first one I've been invited to) I have a feeling it will hit me hard tonight though.

[shroom]

I dreamed about the playa before I went and I dream about it often. Those are the best dreams.

[lucky420]

playa nightmare...dreamed my tickets were VOIDED! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Straightveg]

Had a dream a few nights ago that I was in a big toysrus-like place in Reno panicking because I couldn't find dust goggles/masks to protect my eyes from the dust.
Result: I bought a backup pair of goggles today.

[FeetOfClay]

In my dream last night, someone was telling me that the most recent sale of an extra 1,000 tickets this week was actually a hoax created by hackers and scalpers. I don't remember too much more than that, but something about how they hacked into BMorg servers, sent out fake JRS newsletters, and sold 1,000 non-existant tickets to unwitting burners. Scary.

[AntiM]

Katy Perry took me aside and had a pep talk with me about not letting people be mean to me, that I was indeed fine and lovely and cool. Burning Man Dream Katy Perry was really nice. This was so odd because I never dream about celebrities.

[Drawingablank]

Finished the last of my gifts. Picked up some sewing supplies. Bought a smaller cooler and air mattress.

Lost a day of prep to replace a destroyed door on my house.

Started work on the packing list and post flight shopping list.

16 days and a wakeup till departure.

[Drawingablank]

LOL, posted in the wrong thread somehow.

[Rice]

Finished the last of my gifts. Picked up some sewing supplies. Bought a smaller cooler and air mattress.

Lost a day of prep to replace a destroyed door on my house.

Started work on the packing list and post flight shopping list.

16 days and a wakeup till departure.

Sounds like a good dream to me

[steve.t.sullivan]

My dreams always seem to be about trying to get there. The most recent one had me on some rocky road surrounded by pine trees standing around with a decent size group all geared up and ready to travel to BRC on foot. This was somehow somewhere in Nevada, despite the fact that it was clearly the wrong biome. Anyway, I basically freaked the fuck out because I started remembering vitally important pieces of gear I'd forgotten back home.

[Sail Man]

I started to answer this at work the other day but got a call and that was that.

I've always had numerous dreams before each of the last 4 burns I have attended, but as I am not going this year, have had none. Though I did have some before and pertaining to our regional burn.

Then, after I got home that recent night and crashed, I had a playa dream. The surface was nicely firm.

My brain can be such a tease sometimes.

[FeetOfClay]

I had a strange dream last night: that I missed the burning of the man, and never got to see it:

Burning Man was set up indoors, almost like a college dormitory arrangement--there were cafeterias, escalators, etc.
I had a dorm room that I decorated. At one point, this young Asian guy who was in love with me snuck in my room and covered all my decorations with sheer, sparkly fabric that he had cut by hand--it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, and I cried with joy and awe (it almost looked like a glittering 3-dimensional version of Van Gogh's starry night inside my dorm room).
Then, the event week passed very quickly, and I kept leaving "the Playa" (the dorm) to go into a nearby city and even to visit my mother.
Finally, someone said something about it being "time go back to Reno", and asked what day it was, and they said Sunday.
I was all confused and upset, and I said that I wanted to see the Man burn, and they told me that the Man had already burned, and I had missed it.

I was so scared and angry when I woke up, for a second I thought I had really missed it...

[FIGJAM]

"You can be in my dream if I can be in yours!"

[steve.t.sullivan]

I had another one last night. I'd arrived at my camp and there were familiar faces around (at least one of them who I know for a fact has never even been to Burning Man). The mood was kinda quiet and awkward because nobody had acclimated to the culture of BRC yet. I was going around hugging people saying, "Don't worry! We'll feel like we're home again soon!". Really weird dream.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Lately, I've been waking up disoriented every morning. In part this is because in the last 3 weeks, there have been just a few nights spent at home, as well as some spent at my in-laws', at the cabin, in hospital, and at my friends' house. I suspect that it's also partly because of the pain meds I'm still taking at night.

Anyways, I was dreaming about something happening on the playa -- some kind of camp drama about a shade structure -- and I awoke to the sound of a dog barking. I lay there for a couple of minutes, annoyed, thinking "What idiot brought their dog to Burning Man?! I hope they kick his ass out of here..."

[FeetOfClay]

Last night, I dreamt that I was at a supermarket a day or two before leaving for Burning Man, and I was buying lunch from the salad bar.
I put down my bag (a pink backpack) near the salad bar so that I would not have to lug it around while I made my salad. By the time I finished making my lunch, I looked around for my bag and it was GONE--someone stole it! The security guards and employees tried to help me, but no luck.
I was crying and screaming, "I can't go to Burning Man now--my ID was in there, and my bank card! I have no ID to claim my STEP ticket at Will Call, and no money to get there!" I was frantic

[FlyingMonkey]

Dreams? Who the hell has time for REM sleep lately?

[steve.t.sullivan]

I had another one. I dreamed that for some reason, Burning Man was moved out of the Playa to a wooded area in my home town in Newfoundland. I was SUPER PISSED. I think I had some vague notion that easier conditions meant less magical or something.

[Drawingablank]

I had remarkably few pre playa dreams this year, but have had two really vivid ones since leaving the burn.

Tuesday night at the Sands I came half awake and looking around in the half light from the window I was shocked that folks had set up tents right up against our shade structure making it look like a room. Took several minutes until I realized I was in a room.

Thursday night back in default home I sat bolt upright in bed and said out loud what camp am I in? I was very disoriented until my wife replied you are home in bed.

[tummler]

I dreamed that Burning Man was held on the moon, except that the moon looked like the playa. Everyone was supposed to ride the same shuttle to the moon, but some people went in their own private shuttle. We could tell it was a private shuttle because it was much smaller and only held a handful of people, rather than the steerage-class space shuttle the rest of us were on. Then, when we in the "official" shuttle disembarked, a few people went right after those in the private shuttle and took them down.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Most of my post-BM dreams have been about BM. Possibly all of them.
I wish I could remember the ones I had on the bus now. They were surreal. That hazy half-sleep you get in a moving vehicle... it's almost like a delerium, and the dreams are kind of all mixed up with the travel...
The one dream I really remember was after getting back home. I dreamed we were at BM and ran out of food. Strange... we had no problems with food at all, and why would I have such a dream after the event?

[Straightveg]

Glad to hear I' m not the only one with playa-brain at night. The only dreams I've had since I got back (yes, all 10 of them) have involved some form of dust, mutant vehicles, beautiful cacophonous music, goggles, art installations etc. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be a permanent change to my dreamscape. The boyfriend was less than amused when I woke up in a panic wondering who the naked man next to me in bed was and why I wasn't in my box truck anymore. Anybody else get it this bad and does it eventually calm down?

[Rice]

Glad to hear I' m not the only one with playa-brain at night. The only dreams I've had since I got back (yes, all 10 of them) have involved some form of dust, mutant vehicles, beautiful cacophonous music, goggles, art installations etc. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be a permanent change to my dreamscape. The boyfriend was less than amused when I woke up in a panic wondering who the naked man next to me in bed was and why I wasn't in my box truck anymore. Anybody else get it this bad and does it eventually calm down?

Yes, we do get it! I have been having almost nightly playa-dreams for years... As the time passes after a burn, it does get better -- then the prep for my next burn begins.

Enjoy the ride

[knowmad]

I was Somewhere Between the Burn Wall Street and the CORE's and it hit me. Those Dreams I had 12 years ago were not about Mars, They were about the Playa And It would be years later that I'd get to the Playa.

Totaly Mindblown! I just stopped, drank my water and mumbled ABSOLUTLFUCKINGAMAZING.

[graidawg]

I have dremt about the playa the last 2 sleeps, I had a few while dozing in the car on the way back to Maryland. Always the same, I wake up sad its over but pleased to have been there. happysad more so because it will be april next year before i know if i can return home. It sucks being so far from so many of the people i love and i hope I don't dream of the playa anymore it just makes defaultia worse for me.

[Rice]

I was Somewhere Between the Burn Wall Street and the CORE's and it hit me. Those Dreams I had 12 years ago were not about Mars, They were about the Playa And It would be years later that I'd get to the Playa.

Totaly Mindblown! I just stopped, drank my water and mumbled ABSOLUTLFUCKINGAMAZING.

knowmad, I have been having the same experience for the last couple burns. I am walking or biking and then -- wow, epic déjà-vu.