Meeting an Old Friend

I had woken up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up, read a little, and eventually decided to meditate. For some inexplicable reason, I fell into a trance-like altered state, which may have fostered one of those “special-feel” dreams after I went back to bed.

In this dream, I was wandering around an architecturally dramatic house by a rocky coastline. As I did, I entered a dome-like room in which a stairway led up to an ornate museum-like area gilded with gold. I thought that in my dream state it was a metaphysical group house in which I had lived in many years ago, although actually there was little physical resemblance.

At some point as I walked around, I became aware that I was dreaming. Strangers were living in this house, talking, cooking meals, etc. Then, however, I saw a craggy 60ish man with reddish brown hair and a short beard. Unlike the others, we had eye contact, recognizing each other with great joy and happiness. To me such eye contact distinguishes the dream entity as something more special than the routine dream figure. His name was Sam, although after awakening I had no idea who Sam was.

Later in the dream, I’m walking around, exploring the surroundings, and see Sam again, now looking more diminished, kissing a woman. A chorus of voices started to shout out, “Sam is dead,” but I am confused, replying that he can’t be because I am looking at him. After wakening, I concluded that perhaps Sam had moved on from the physical and now existed at another plane of existence, which I may have visited in my dream state.