The Navigator: Web of Dreams By Linton Weeks Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 30, 1998

Image fron the Dream Weavers Web site.

A colleague of mine who covers the White House says he dreams that President Clinton is yelling at him. Are you sure you were dreaming? I asked.

And my gentle wife, Jan, dreamed recently that she and I had killed someone. In self-defense, of course. The dead person, as it turned out, was crucial to the Whitewater investigation. Just before she woke, Jan was pumping gas into our car. She looked up and saw a man walking toward her. It was Kenneth Starr. Aaaahhhh!

Nothing is more fascinating than our own dreams. (And, my friend Willie points out, nothing can be more boring than someone else's.)

Throughout the Web there are sites to help you sort out your nocturnal reveries. If you're serious-minded, the excruciatingly academic Association for the Study of Dreams may be a good place to turn. Its mission statement is rife with legalistic fine print – that will put you to sleep – about responsible interpretation. But you can find a sample article from "Dreaming," the association's journal; a message board where profs and docs answer questions about narcolepsy and "sleepdepth," and a preview of the group's international conference in June in Hawaii. Topics discussed will include "The Last Dreams of Socrates" and "Dream Sharing in Cyberspace."

To save airfare to Oahu, you can swing by the Dream Sharing Web site. Here you will find a historical account of how dreamers discovered each other on the Internet. You're able to hook up with scores of other dreamers who want to talk about theirs and hear about yours.

The DreamWeavers site is overseen by a pair of Jungian believers and videotape producers, Elizabeth Strahan and Carol Sellers Herbert. Here folks post their dreams and the women interpret them. This site would drive Willie crazy. One woman tells of diving into a swimming pool with a sea lion. "What a frightening dream!" the two Jungians reply. The pool represents the "unconscious," they explain. Sea lions are usually helpful guides, but in this case the escort abandons the dreamer. Strahan and Herbert recommend an alternative guide: their video tapes. Aaaahhhh!

The Internet Dream Archive is a conglomeration of dreams, posted by visitors. The site also provides a bookstore, a chat room and a valuable list of links.

Lucid Dreaming, a form of intentional dreaming, is explored on one site. Using this method, advocates say, you can act out fantasies, conquer fears, explore your self in the comfort of your own bed.

But with the Web, who needs lucid dreaming anymore? The Web is superior; it's a dream you can control. Online you can pretend to be a tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, cabbage or king. You can act out fantasies, conquer fears, explore your many weird selves.

And you can take it all a step farther. You can peek in on other people's dreams and predilections – scary though they may be. You can even find out if others have nightmares like yours and interact with them. Together, this collective dream is the Web.

What about you? Do you have Washington dreams? If so, e-mail them to me. If there are good ones, we'll print them. If they ramble on too long, however, we probably won't get around to them. We'll just toss the lot into an envelope. And send them to Willie.

Linton Weeks can be reached at
  weeksl@washpost.com

Pain in the Grass
Doesn't matter which side of the White House imbroglio you're on, this game will make you happy. Whack, whack, yowl, belch, whack.

From the NVision Design Web site.

Called "Good Willie Hunting" by its creators and quickly renamed "Whack a Bimbo" by my daughter, this product of a young Texas multimedia company opens with the White House in the background, a lawn full of holes and a worried-looking Willie. Quickly up through the holes pop Linda, Paula, Monica, Hillary, Socks, Sam, Ken – a bucket of chicken. Click on the heads and Willie whacks 'em. They see stars, they grunt, they sigh. They're covered with blood. Don't whack Socks, though. His eyes bulge, he yowls and you lose a point.

"We did it as a commercial tool," said Dan Ferguson, 31, cofounder of NVision Design in Irving, Tex. The first 100 copies were e-mailed April 1 to about 100 people "who send us jokes all the time. It took about a week before we noticed anything – our Web site would get maybe 50 or 60 hits a day. Then Monday we came to work and our Web site had 18,000 hits. On Tuesday it had 30,000, Wednesday and Thursday up to 40,000 and Friday 60,000." The sequel is planned: "Good Willie Grunting."

— Sandy Rovner

The Voice Sounds Familiar
Charles Fleischer is the voice of Roger Rabbit, so it's no surprise his Web site is delightfully insane. In addition to some fascinating computer artwork and poetry, Charles offers "Moleeds," a mathematical formula he discovered that "reveals the blueprint of infinity." The comic also features an "insult engine" that will produce customized barbs in modern, Shakespearean, street, PG and adult formats. Fleischer says his site is called Monkeydog.com because everything else he wanted was taken except for one unpronounceable 52-letter name for the devil.

— Dave Nuttycombe

Found something intriguing, improbable, insane or especially useful on the Net? Write it up and send it to Joel Garreau or Robert Thomason.