While on summer vacation in Montreal, David and I found ourselves talking about dreams, precognition and mutual dreaming — while we tried to cool off during a brutal heat wave.

David is a scientist, I tend toward the mystical side of things.

David says he does not believe in mutual dreaming. And just to prove it, he says, we’ll try it that night and I’ll see that it’s impossible.

We agree we will each dream that we  meet one another on Mount Royal, where we plan to hike the next day in waking life. Before bed we write our intentions on pieces of the hotel notepaper, and hold the intentions in our minds as we drift into sleep.

In the morning we compare notes.

David had various dreams and fragments about not being able to get to a meeting, being late to a meeting, etc. The word meeting showed up at least three times in his various fragments, but no specific dream about meeting me in particular, or Mount Royal.

I, meanwhile, had a bountiful harvest of 18 recalled dreams and fragments, but no specific dream of meeting David on Mount Royal.

In the dream that comes closest to the incubation’s intent, I am telling a woman about the results of the Mount Royal dream incubation.  The dream is fairly detailed and long, and since I’ve already recorded and recounted to David all of the other 17 dreams and fragments from the night, I almost fail to mention one detail in particular. But on impulse I note it in my written dream report, and I tell David:

“The dream character tells me that there were squirrels in her dream of Mount Royal.”

David and I agree that the experiment was interesting but a near miss. Well, I think it was a near miss, David thinks we missed by a mile. After all, we did not meet one another in our dreams on Mount Royal, he says. He’s a scientist. Proof is proof. An inconclusive evidence is … well just that … inconclusive.

We put the dream joust behind us and set out for our hike.

It’s over 100 degrees on a July day. We laugh and talk as we hike up the mountain, and take many breaks to catch our breath.

We have no idea what we’ll find at the top of the mountain, but we desperately hope there will be water … for the first time during this vacation I forgot to bring my water bottle.

At last we reach the summit … the view is spectacular …

… and better still, to our great relief there is a summit house complete with vending machines and water!

When we go inside, David goes downstairs to get us something to drink. Meanwhile, I find a place to sit in the cavernous summit house. While I wait I look up to the rafters. I can’t believe what I see.

The rafters that run the length of the entire building are lined with statuettes of …. Squirrels! Row upon row of squirrels, looming above our heads.

“Just like the squirrel the woman in my dream reported seeing on top of Mount Royal,” I tell David when he returns with our water.

He stares up in wonder.

“Am I good, or am I good?” I ask.

He nods. It’s impressive, he admits. But he still doesn’t believe in the possibility of mutual dreaming.

Oh, well. We might not agree on everything …

… but that didn’t stop us from having a dreamy vacation in Montreal.

***

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