From: dicksilk@gmail.com   
      
   Astral combat:   
      
   While I suppose my "older age" may be partially responsible for the "slow   
   motion" nature of the dream/encounter I'm about to detail, still, it follows   
   the very general outline of how these things ("astral / dream combat") *tend*   
   to operate:   
      
   The dreamer noticed a kind of "shell" (almost as a snake sheds its skin) that   
   was around the dreamer, feeling mostly on the "left" side of the dreamer.    
   There was a definite moment in which the dreamer "felt" as if the   
   shell-structure (I fell calling it    
   an "entity" would attribute it with undeserved credit) were grabbing or in   
   some way clinging to the dreamer's left heel (one of the few times in which   
   I've been aware of my actual foot (or feet) within a dream, although there was   
   little awareness of the    
   right foot *other* than the dreamer was heading toward the right.  Besides,   
   the shell-structure had a grip of the dreamer's *left* heel, so that's where   
   the dreamer's mind/attention was focused.)   
      
   The dreamer had the impression that by simply continuing toward the right, the   
   shell-structure would naturally "release" (or "fall off") so to speak, pretty   
   much as in the same way when one is taking off a coat, with a left-hand   
   release, while moving    
   toward the right, the coat will fall to the floor to one's left.  However,   
   there was a moment when the dreamer was aware of the potential choice, to stay   
   in place— (in which case the shell-structure would likely remain or even   
   return, much like a "coat    
   of darkness," as if one were to "slip back into shadow") —or to continue   
   toward the right (which is what the dreamer chose to do) so as to continue   
   sloughing off the shadow-structure.   
      
   Except that it *seemed* as if the shadowy shell-structure *wanted* to remain   
   *upon* (or perhaps "united *with*") the dreamer, which the dreamer by this   
   time was going to have no part of, except that the shell-structure seemed to   
   be nearly enclosing the    
   dreamer, much as one thug might try to body-grab a target.   
      
   At this point, the dreamer realized that leverage of some kind would be   
   helpful, and "aimed" towards the *thought* of a door jam (just thinking of a   
   door jam seemed to erect a vertical barrier, much like as if one were walking   
   through the skeleton of a    
   house that was in the process of being framed.)   
      
   This aiming for a door frame somehow resulted in the shell-structure being   
   bonked in the head as the dreamer passed *through* the door frame, which   
   slowed down the shell-structure / pushed it away slightly, at which point the   
   *thought* of smashing the    
   skull of the shell-structure resulted in a view of a directly impacted skull   
   of the shell-structure, at which point it seemed to completely "fall away" as   
   the dreamer became free and the dream ended.   
      
   And while this dream had a very "clear" *mental* component of 10, the visual   
   clarity was basically shadow and light, much like the color scheme one sees   
   when shutting one's eyelids and noting the color observed when there is light   
   on the other side of    
   the eyelids.  (Personal note:  as I've been typing this up this morning,   
   there's a distinctive "pressure" as if within my skull, located a bit above   
   and between my left eye and the bridge of my nose, the "mirror location" of   
   where the impact was seen in    
   the shell-structure.  And before anyone becomes concerned over my health, it   
   is *likely* the result of simple sinus pressure this morning.)   
      
   Cats and Dogs?—   
      
   There was some peculiar dream regarding my current ("real life") dog   
   ("Ginger") and a few other critters, possibly one dog and two cats, or one cat   
   and two dogs— the dreamer wasn't paying particularly close attention to the   
   critters, as the primary    
   scene appeared to involve Ginger as the defender of the dreamer, chasing away   
   the scruffy looking other critters, at which she seemed to be successful as   
   the dream ended, Clarity 8-.   
      
   Funny— in this one dream, the dreamer had taken something of a short trip   
   (as if from one's residence in one part of town to an area near the center of   
   town, such as on the north sidewalk of East Vine Street, east of the   
   intersection with South Church    
   Street) in order to scoop up a handful of dry dog food (like the kind I feed   
   Ginger) from the sidewalk, and actually began to "chow down" on what had been   
   scooped up and placed into the dreamer's mouth.  As the dreamer was pondering   
   something along the    
   lines of "What the ...?" the dream ended (thankfully!)  —Clarity 8+/9-!   
      
   Frustration:   
      
   The dreamer was in something like a "poor" environment, wherein everything the   
   dreamer's female "domestic partner" was doing seemed to be making things   
   worse.  There was observed something like a thin spray-leak from a water pipe   
   under a sink that was    
   sogging up everything, which resulted from the domestic partner's attempt to   
   "fix" something else.  Dream ended, but it was definitely reminiscent of   
   trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  Clarity 8-   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)