When I was a kid, I used to have a recurrent dream over and over. Even though it always happened in the same place, as I kept on dreaming, the landscape expanded until it became a world of my own. I think I must have had that dream maybe fifty times, or eight, or a hundred… This was the dream:

I was riding on a swing that was right on the edge of a bottomless abyss. I swung for a while and looked below. In the first dreams, there was a fair in the pit. I could see a big ferry wheel turning underneath (a ferry waterwheel to be precise). At that point in my dreams, I always had to choose if I wanted to jump and go to that place, stay in the swing or go a bit further to see what was next.

For a few dreams, I stayed at the fair. But one night, there I was again in the swing when I decided to go further, so I rode past the fair and found myself literally swinging in the void. I looked down, and there it was: an old paint factory. I remember always being scared of that place and going back to the fair. Until one day, who knows why, I jumped from the swing and found myself in the factory which, by the way, was run by a witch that made me explode and used my tissues and blood to paint my portrait.

In the dreams afterwards, I kept my eyes shut until I passed the creepy factory, then (and only then) I opened them again to see what kind of new place had been added to the horizon.

I was exploring dreams, choosing some over others but never completely in control.

For me, an oneironaut is a dream traveller. An explorer of worlds. I had so many dreams by now that I thought I might just write about them. Not all of them happened when I was asleep or when I was awake. Some happened in between. And those are probably my favourites.

To control a dream too much is like walling off the mind. I rather not tame it, to see where it can take me. Lucid dreamers can consciously decide inside their dreams at all times. Let us just say that I decide to guide my dreams sometimes, especially when they get dark. And the rest of the time, I let them guide me.

If you wish to travel along we can always meet at oneironautstories@gmail.com