Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 11:33:19 -0500 From: Kafka Dreams To: void Subject: dream of heaven's machines I dreamt a bunch of guys (regular, average joe, sports-fan kinda guys, none of whom I knew) had died and gone to heaven. Heaven was a series of stages that improved as you moved through them. They were in a big, whitish, bright room when they looked up some stairs to a door because someone had called them. It was the female Beer Guy (concept taken from a commercial for one of the common beers; the actual person was unrecognizable as being that actress or not) and they were all excited that she was an angel! The male Beer Guy died shortly after them and they heard him coming, so they quickly followed the woman and were just leaving as he entered the room. They were dodging him because he was kind of annoying but also because they wanted the angel for themselves. He wanted to catch up, and so followed them but when he went up the stairs and came through the door it was just him and the woman in silence. This was a pivotal change. The tone of everything had shifted as he shed his first round of earthly desires and it was incredibly peaceful and quiet, as if all sound was absorbed. The rowdiness of the crowd of guys was gone almost as if it'd never been and they stood in what was both a small room/airlock and also an infinite white space. The angel asked him how he was doing and he said something to the effect of he was feeling better and would look better soon. The angel gave him a pained look, thinking he was in denial about being dead. The guy laughed and said "you never know when Liza Minelli's going to come along!" This indicated that his concern about his looks were an affectation and also that he was probably gay, although he wasn't sure. They turned to the next door he had to pass through and she asked him if he remembered the first woman he'd taught to do... something. Play football, maybe? He assented and she warned him that that woman was in this room, reading something that was tormenting her but that it was her own pain and there was nothing he could do about it. Nevertheless, he would have to pass by her and it would be very difficult. Before they passed through the door, they looked out the viewport (the entire wall to their right was clear from the floor to the ceiling) and there was the earth resting gently in a giant brass holder that was connected via a complex lattice work of huge primary-colored tubes with brass trim. They were quite far away, as the earth did not fill the viewport but it didn't seem that far or vast because there was nothing to use for scale. It was beautiful. It was the machinery of heaven. Then I woke up, really disoriented, at exactly the latest minute I could awake and still get to work when I wanted to. I had turned off all my alarms. Confused, Kelly J.