INTRO:

Hello Constant Listener. This week I’d like to share with you that sometimes I practice Lucid Dreaming. A method by which a dreamer is conscious of the fact that they are dreaming and mentally work to alter the narrative of the dream. Christopher Nolan popularized this in his thriller “Inception.” That you may create a way to know if you’re awake or dreaming. When I remember to test myself, it’s usually with obscure methods. Like, standing next to a great cliff and not feeling the fear of the height, or you know, trying to breath underwater. Those realizations snap me out of my autopilot in dreams and I take the next steps on my own to push myself into any environment. I’ve sailed through the stars, felt the joy of flight with just my body, I’ve built Utopias for the world. And then woke up feeling invigorated for my day because I live such a double life at night. 

However, just two weeks ago I had a Lucid Dream that did not go as I expected and harkened back to a memory I had as a child. I’d like to tell you about that memory.

When I was eleven, my parents took me to visit Universal Studios in Hollywood. The backlot tour; that was my favorite. There was the courtyard from Bye Bye Birdie and Back to the Future. I saw the real-life house and motel from Hitchcock’s Psycho, and a myriad of other sets from films I loved. Even as a young child I consumed many old classic Hollywood movies. So visiting these sets made my little heart so happy. 

After the tour, mom and dad pointed me in the direction of a walkthrough attraction for The Mummy. I thought it was going to be a museum, and the first part of it absolutely was just that. Glass cases filled with film memorabilia. Props and costumes from the Brennan Fraser hit. And yes, I said “fray-zer” and not “Fray-szhure”, turns out i’d been saying his name wrong for a long time. However, as we progressed through this museum walk, I didn’t understand it was going to turn into a haunted house. Walking into the first dark chamber surrounded by faux stone, lanterns, and a narrow walkway I felt myself clam up and immediately grab my mothers hand. 

To this day anyone who has gone through a haunted house with me can tell you when I am scared, I have a grip so strong that more than one person in my life have asked me to let go because they were losing the feeling in their hand. This unfortunately was also the case for my mother. She lovingly asked me to let go because I was too much. I insisted on walking in the middle of our group. My Mom and my little brother were ahead of me, and my Dad was behind me. 

But this haunted house was more complex than any I’d experienced before. There were multiple paths. A universal actor in robes and holding an ankh staff held up his hand.

“Halt!” he said “You and you go this way, and you go that.”

He pointed to my mother and little brother asking them to go to the right, and my father and I to go to the left. He was splitting us up. My father and I obeyed, we went left. Mom and my little brother went right.

Up through this point, we could normally see other strangers, park goers really, who were walking just ahead of us on this path. This sort of thing really helped to break up the atmosphere. Wasn’t as scary if I could see a perfect stranger in front of me. But this new pathe the actor sent us on… there was no one here. It was so empty.

I clutched onto my father’s arm, tightly. I began to heave deep breaths of anxiety and felt like I was going to start crying. My dad looked down at me and noticed I wasn’t doing so well.

“You okay there Tash?”

I shook my head ‘No’.

“Well,