Bob Dreams
Bob shows himself in many forms to many people.
Here are some examples of the many people who have seen him. Obviously,
most of them don't realize the complete nature of what has happened to them.
The scientific study of the nature of Bob and the neurology of human/Bob interaction
is ongoing, but remains largely mysterious.
Blind dreamers; College men and women, 1999; David; Dorothea; Emma; Female
Norms; Joan; Male Norms; Seventh Grade Girls; Teenage girls (West Coast);
Teenagers (Midwest); The Natural Scientist; UCSC women
Bob (25 dreams)
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Blind dreamers:#109-18 (6/26/97)
I was still in California, traveling on the bus, and wanting to go to the mountains
for some odd reason. So I was heading there and then the bus driver stopped the bus
and said "I'm sorry, this is up to where we go, unless you give us more money." I got
pissed off and said "Well, how much do you want?" and he wanted a big amount of
course, and magically I had it and we continued and eventually we got there, got out of
the bus, looked at the mountains, I could see them plainly, got back into the bus and
drove back home. While driving back home, there was this guy named Bob, a drunk guy
that I used to meet on the bus all the time when I used to live at my other address, he
was some kind of PC designer or something. In the dream he said "I'll give you this!" It
was a small shoe. On the bottom, you would press a button and record, so it was a
recording shoe! Then I woke up. (182 words)
Blind dreamers:#111-35 (5/19/97)
I am at work, walking around the halls without my dog, I don't have a dog and it
doesn't seem to bother me, and I am walking around without a cane. I'm walking around
without getting hurt or bumping into anything. My boss is there and he's saying that we
have to treat a certain person well at work because he is going in for an operation and
they don't know what's going to happen to him. I'm thinking, "yeah, he ought to be telling
people to be nice to everybody all the time anyway and not just when they're having
medical problems." I was wondering if I was going to run into him before he went to the
hospital and people had said that he was at work and I said "he's too sick to be here. He
shouldn't be here." Its later and somehow I'm upstairs of my house and a whole bunch
of strange, bad people come in but they're barking like dogs, they're making these
noises like barking dogs make and that sound like Bob (what was his last name?) used to play with, the
barking dogs which were supposed to represent some kind of hunt. My mother was
there and she said that I had to get rid of this cough drop because the bad people put
something bad on it that would hurt me. Then I remember my mother how my mother
had cancer in real life and how she wouldn't and couldn't get better, even if she got rid
of the cough drop, it wouldn't matter. (259 words)
College men and women, 1999:#018-3
My third dream was kind of crazy. I went with my ex-boyfriend to the mall in
Canton, but it was my other ex-boyfriend. One's name is Devan, the other Bobby - both
are my ex-boyfriends. Bobby would always be talking in the dream, but his appearance
always looked like Devan. It was Bobby's voice, but Devan's face and body. Anyway
Devan/Bobby gave me money to go shopping in the mall. I bought soap, lotion and a
jacket. Plus, I had my own money. Devan's mother met us at the train station and took
us to the Canton mall. His mother thought that we were back together, but we told her
that we were just friends. Then I woke up. (119 words)
College men and women, 1999:#018-4
In my fourth dream I was in McDonald's getting some French fries. Then I went to
the bus stop to get on the bus. When I got on the bus the bus driver took my French
fries and started eating them while driving. I noticed he had a McDonald's cup near him
on the window side. While driving I saw the top of buildings and the top of trees. As I got
off the bus, the bus driver gave me a beautiful sapphire ring. I smiled. As soon as I got
in the house I called my ex-boyfreind. Bobby (who I just broke up with recently), but his
mother told me he wasn't home and hung up on me. Then I woke up. (123 words)
David:#87 (02/08/98)
So! I'm working at the Hillside Library, with Will. But today, even though it's
insanely busy, he's not helping out at all. He's on the phone, talking with his boyfriend
Bryan, who currently lives in Boulder or Denver. Right then Will walks out, and I pick up
the phone to see what they're talking about. I say "Hello? Hello?" but they completely
ignore me: in the background, quietly, they're talking about stocks. Finally one of them
addresses me directly, and says: "You know, there's some kind of SubGenius thing
going on in town tomorrow..."
I set down the phone in order to help a patron. This patron begins to talk about a
book that he just read, telling me all about it, in the long winded way a patron will
sometimes do when there's a thousand people in line. As I listen to him tell the story, I
enter into it myself: I see my father standing at the telephone in the kitchen at their
house, and he speaks in a voice-over:
"My father, your grandfather, is in his last days. He never called much before. But
the last two days he called me at SEVEN in the morning to talk about his grave and
burial with me..."
Now I see my grandfather, Bob, smoking a pipe and standing outside a huge grey
building. (Yes, my grandfather really IS named Bob, and he really DOES smoke a pipe.)
His voice starts in:
His voice sounds like William S. Burroughs. "One day I came to work at the silk
factory... Jones is dead!" We see him, shocked at learning the news. "Came in the next
day... Wilkinson is dead!" We see him learning the news from a secretary, fear growing.
"Next day another one had died; the following day, another!" He's in front of the silk
factory again: "I know that I'm next."
The next part is somewhat confused, but somehow, my grandfather has already
died and his ghost is now chasing me around the front of the silk factory. He wants to
freeze me to death with snow. As I run down a path around the factory, I think the
following 'profound' thought: "He's got nothing on me, because if I beat him, I live; if I
die, I'm dead." He corners me in a large chicken coop, but somehow, I knew we had
'agreed' to meet there in some secret way. But there's already somebody there: a tall,
thin, dark-haired woman in a skimpy, red, white and blue one-piece swimsuit. This
woman I recognize as one of the models in a stretching book Laura and I had been
using through January. She's going to help me against my grandfather's ghost.
Grandfather Bob very tersely says to her: "Get out of the coop. Now." And snow begins
to blizzard around him.
At this point the story dissolves and I'm back in the library again, talking to the
patron. I tell him: "Thanks anyway, but I hate fiction like that." Will, in the meantime, has
come back from his break. He tells me: "Hey! I won a million dollars on the stock
market!" He hands me the phone. Bryan is repeating in a monotone voice: ONE
MILLION DOLLARS FOR WILL... ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR WILL...
I tell Will, "God, Will, it's busy today. Can't you help out a little instead of talking to
Bryan?" As I wake up I think that if the ghost killed me that I at least knew there was an
afterlife because a ghost killed me. (589 words)
David:#96 (03/16/98)
I'm exploring an ancient tomb with a friend. We'll call him Bob. This tomb is
supposed to be quite ancient and archaelogically important: these are the bones and
the dirt of people talked about in the Bible. It's supposed to be an old tomb, but it really
resembles the dried-out dusty area under cellarless houses. In the very center we find a
set of steel lockers. These lockers contain ancient books. At this point I have a typical
thought: "While I'm down here, I might as well get a book." I open the lockers and riffle
through them. Bob looks inside the lockers too, but there's nothing he wants. Then, of
all people, a Hillside library patron whom I know walks in. He is an Indian man with
some very interesting experiences described in the note below. Alan strides in, and
says: "Too bad about the rats mon. With the dead people." I look on the ground and
there are all these disgusting little bright red rats. Instead of noses there are long red
needles. I think he meant it was too bad because of the important corpses to be found
there. Later, I'm in the doctor's office because a very unusual event is occurring.
Unusual -- for me, a male. I'm menstruating. To cheer me up, Laura quotes from a book
about how much parents suck. (227 words)
David:#97 (03/23/98)
I was in some kind of warehouse, some huge hardware store, preparing for a trip
with a lot of other people. I keep seeing all kinds of people from the Middle School, and I
get fond farewells from Jasmine and Amanda in particular. I go into my trailer, feeling
touched, and I find Jimmy there. He's toying with my computer -- he's added a
soundcard and speakers. I try to play a game but the sound effects just slow the
computer down so much it's useless. After talking with some of the people who'll be
taking the trip with me, I realize I'll need two double-A batteries for the device in my
hand. I try different batteries that are laying around; no luck. So I go back into the
hardware store. I find a large backroom with lots of batteries. But, I've got to take a leak,
so I stand in front of a urinal and decide to piss on the orange wall above the urinal next
to me. Halfway through my piss I hear a stall door open and I turn back to the urinal.
Bob, who used to work at the Music Center, comes up next to me. "Real cute," he
sneers. "People have to clean that up, you know." He turns and leaves the bathroom,
muttering 'Pissing on the walls...' I leave the bathroom when I'm done and find him and
a few other guys sitting around a table, eating. "Is this where I find the batteries?" One
guy points and says: "Over that way, see?" I see, and I go where he points, but on the
way I'm distracted by a large table with all kinds of stuff on it. The item which really
catches my attention is a huge magnifying glass. I magnify various things on the table
and consider buying it, for fun, but then I see it will cost $56.74. I think of a picture I
once saw of James Joyce holding a magnifying glass. I set down the glass and wake
up. (340 words)
David:#141 (11/04/98)
Andy sent me some email at some point in the past, and we're standing before a
blackboard, discussing the topic: improving social skills. Andy makes a very amusing
algebraic equation about the dynamics of meeting new people: "Okay. You're variable
a. Right now you're talking to b. a plus b is equal to i, which is a conversation.
Meanwhile there's this other person, whose existence you are not even aware of. He's
constant L, for Life, because he's a part of existence you don't know about, but who's
always there. Now L would like to interpolate himself on the sum-side of this equation..."
And he goes on and on in a very erudite manner, graphing it and everything. Now I
meet his grandparents and talk to him for a little while about this and that. He tells me
something astonishing and I joke: "Well, Bob's your Uncle!" "Grandpa," Andy corrects.
"Yours too." And he's right: both of us have grandparents named Bob. Now I'm in S City
with Andy, Laura, two guys from Junior High who I haven't thought about since, and the
main character of my book, Richard Sampson. We're just walking along, talking; Laura,
as usual, is about a mile ahead, trying to avoid conversation. The two guys from junior
high are talking about pizza behind us. I'm still talking to Andy about his email message.
We begin to climb the scaffolding of the new parking garage downtown, and I'm telling
Andy how amusing I thought his email message was, and I sort of respond to it, when
Andy intervenes: "Say, shouldn't we really save this for email, to give us something to
do when we log on?" I agree and we begin to climb down the scaffolding, having had
enough of the view. The two pizza guys behind us suggest going to a pizzeria:
apparently they know of a good one. Only, Laura is now two miles ahead and I *know*
she doesn't know where the pizzeria is. I wake up before we can all regroup. (339
words)
Dorothea:#265 (10/04/57)
At a student gathering. One, starting on a catch, asks me, "What is this?" 3 times I
say "Watch" and wonder when the catch is coming. Another student comes up and feels
in my mouth. He is tall, blonde and I think he is Bob. (Bob Everly, a former student of
mine but his first name wasn't Bob.) He says, "To think you still remember me." I say,
"So you are planning to study dentistry." "Yes." says Bob, and I realize he isn't
blond after all. (76 words)
Emma:#1970-004 (3/6/70)
Zena and I are flying under our own power: first we take two steps, then fly a bit;
then two steps, then fly... see Frank kneeling at a Lenten service and praying: see Bob
(Bob Innes, an old friend but his first name wasn't Bob): shakes hands and goes out to dinner.
- Talk to an OB nurse about babies: about a million dollar
research project to find out why some babies are peaceful and others are fretful at birth
and during infancy. (74 words)
Emma:#1986-007 (1/22/86)
With Pedro and Bob and Wendy on a TRAIN going thru beautiful scenery with
high mountains and snow;--Pedro asks if I will be ready to go swimming at 6 am? I say,
"Only if I leave now." So I go to find my car on a parking ramp but have trouble finding
the right exit ramp, but finally get home ok..... (61 words)
Emma:#1990-016 (5/5/90)
Pedro and Bob (?) are on a trip, riding on a low-bottomed trolley car or bus,
something like a hover craft. I put my hand out and can feel the sand pass by my
fingers. My fingers move along and I feel the shallow water as we approach. Was there
a floor or is it a shallow river? A thunderstorm threatens -- big raindrops start to fall. I
hear the raindrops on the roof of the trolley; we ford the stream just in time to be able to
take shelter from the storm... the storm passes.... (96 words)
Female Norms:#0069
In my dream I was in bed aware of the fact that I was about to give birth to a baby.
I fell into a deep sleep or when I woke the baby had been born. I had no pain and there
was no evidence of afterbirth. At the time my parents were away and on returning both
were overjoyed, especially my father (this is odd because actually my father hides his
true feelings very well). I gave birth to a beautiful girl with long hair. She was very tiny,
but very active. The happiness and love for my child and the baby's beauty was
predominant in the dream. Then somehow my relations and I were together. I can't
recall how we were united why or when. My uncle was predominant. He gave the baby
some sort of a cradle or bassinet. This baby always attempted to get out of it. Everyone
seemed surprised at my having a baby and I kept telling everyone I was married to Bob
(Bob is the person with whom I have just broken up and whom I had planned to marry)
although I had no ring. Then I remember a car but that's all. I didn't recall its
significance. (205 words)
Female Norms:#0272
I dreamt that a close girl friend of mine who has been married for over a year was
engaged to another friend of mine who is unmarried, but probably has never said 10
words to this girl in his life. The girl's parents (from whose apron strings she has not as
yet untied herself) gave her a huge party when the engagement was announced.
Everyone was very happy and she was to start attaining her divorce the day after this
party. Her husband came to the party but left very early (as he always does). I told her
how happy Bob and I were for her (Bob is my husband), but I said that after all, passing
value judgements upon her life was not my affair. At this odd point I awakened. (132
words)
Female Norms:#0437
I dreamt I was in college and one night I was called to meet Bob, my boyfriend, at
his aunt's house. So after class I walked to his aunt's house on a very cold day. As I
reached her house, I looked in the window and he was amusing all the children in the
house. I knocked on the door and he let me in. I also began playing games with the
children, then the dream faded away. (78 words)
Joan:#7
Eliza and I were working with developmentally disabled kids. Eliza was sitting at a
table with 3 kids doing arts and crafts. I sat down at the table with them and started
talking with Bob (a kid I used to work with in real life). Bob was happy to have my
attention, but he seemed to be doing fine without me. I figured Eliza had it under control,
so I decided to go work with a kid who needed my attention more. I found an autistic girl
from a place I used to work sitting on the floor in a corner by herself. I was never good
at working with the autistic clients, but I was determined to reach this girl. I felt like I was
finally breaking through. She was talking with me and laughing. We were doing her
laundry and I couldn't figure out how to get the washing machine to work. The girl came
over and showed me how. I said, "Wow, you're so smart. You know how to do this and I
couldn't figure the thing out." She giggled with delight. She then pulled her pants down
and started masturbating. Then she tried to pull me close to her. I pushed her away, but
I felt bad because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I said teasingly, "Stop that. Come
on, you're going to get me in trouble. I'm a staff you know." (238 words)
Male Norms:#0244
I was riding out a road in Bob's car. The road ran beside a lake and I noticed that
many large turtles were immigrating from the lake to the fields on the other side of the
road. There seemed to be two different types of turtles, land and sea. I asked Bob to
stop the car so I could catch some of them to take home. They were very large, about a
foot and a half in diameter. I caught two and put them in the trunk of the car. Then I
went after some more, but when I came back to the car the two I had put in the car were
dead and I was very disappointed because they seemed to be so completely dead. (127
words)
Male Norms:#0317
I was dreaming that I was pitching for the Boston Red Sox. I had a no hit game
going into the last inning when Bob Feller of Cleveland (strangely, it wasn't the real Bob Feller though) came up and got a hit off me. It
was his first hit all season and he just stood on first base and laughed at me. He
laughed so much that I finally went over to him and shot him with a gun I had in my back
pocket. Then from out of the stands came all the people. They started after me and
finally caught me on the top of the Terminal Tower. They kept coming at me until they
had pushed me off the tower. I awake before I hit the street down below. (124 words)
Male Norms:#0474
I was driving our car, a 1946 Pontiac, over route 42 toward Ashland, Ohio. The
day was warm, and I had Bob (20, friend of mine who also worked with me on Sturdays)
in the car with me. We were members of a baseball team which was to play Ohio
University. As we turned towards Athens I remarked that the car was in fine shape. We
arrived at Athens and then Bob remarked that he had to get back to Kent State
University right away. While we were on the way the car broke down and I woke up. (99
words)
Seventh Grade Girls:#004-A-14F (02/27/96 [recent])
I was with some of my friends. We were outside the mall. One of my friends, Bob,
said that we should go inside the mall and shop. We walked inside the mall. There were
a lot of people around. There were bright lights inside the stores. We shopped for about
an hour. Then we ran into this kid that goes to our school. He started following us. He is
the same age as me. He would not stop. I told my friends that I would meet them by
Carl's Jr. in a half-an-hour. I had to go to the bathroom and go into stores they didn't
want to go into. The kid was still following me. He would not stop. I started running, to
try and find my friends. I couldn't find them. That was when Bob came up to me and
hugged me. I told him the kid was following me. He got into a fight with the kid. Bob was
okay, and saved me. The police came and took the kid away. During the time that Bob
was fighting, I was scared. I was also scared when the kid was following me. I was
happy when we were shopping and when Bob saved me. (206 words)
Seventh Grade Girls:#055-C-12F (04/03/96 [recent])
I was on a submarine in the middle of the ocean. The top was covered with shiny
white and blue tile. Then there was me and this girl 12 years old and someone I really
don't like was there, and we were getting ready to go under and the girl said to go into a
bathroom that was up on top of the submarine. There was a plastic sheet over an empty
area and another girl was on the other side. She was part of the "bad" people side and
she saw us. So she called the captain, who was very old. He called another guy (13
years old) (let's call him Bob). The captain was going to get us and he had really small
teeth. They started cutting the plastic, and the first girl and I ran out of the bathroom,
shut and locked the doors and ran through a hall into a bathroom. I ran into a master
bedroom and shut and locked the door. Then I woke up. (171 words)
Teenage girls (West Coast):#48 (16/female)
I was driving in a car with a girl whom I dislike and she feels the same way
towards me. She was talking to some people in the front of the car. We were in the
back, and explained how she hated me and how I hated her. Then she turned to me
and said "I know that you know I don't like you and I know you don't like me either."
Then she said "we're going to Bob's dorm". Bob is my ex-boyfriend whom I like a lot.
She and I hate each other so much because before Bob 'saw' me, he was 'seeing' her
and he dumped her for me. He broke up with because I treated on him with some other
guy and he found out. We had a long talk about it and he said we'd see each other over
the summer. So, in school, at home and everywhere I thought and still do think about
him because I like him so much. So, in the dream we went to his dorm and he was
there. She turned to him and said "What color are the bridesmaids dresses going to be."
Then she turned to me and said, "Bob's getting married to Mary." I turned to Bob and
started yelling at him and crying. When I woke up that morning I was extremely upset,
like I was going to cry. Then I realized it was a dream and he wasn't getting married and
I felt a lot better. (252 words)
Teenagers (Midwest):#063F (female/16)
I was in the middle of a forest on the edge of a river that was rushing very quickly.
I was walking along the river skipping and stumbling over rocks, when through the
trees, I saw a very small, one-room house. This setting was not familiar to me. The
weather wasn't sunny but it wasn't gloomy either. It was just in between. I came to the
door of the house and when I opened the door the house was full of sand. I climbed up
on top of the sand and I felt strange, like I was trapped or sinking through the sand. In
the house I met three girls that I recognized. They were my close friends from the
summer ballet camp that I went to the summer before. Soon after that the sand filtered
through the house, my friends disappeared, and in the house appeared my giant
trampoline and my Uncle Bob, whom I'm very close to. He teases me all the time and is
my favorite uncle, but I haven't written to him in a long time. I began to jump on my
trampoline and soon everything disappeared and I was left alone in the forest near the
river. (202 words)
The Natural Scientist:#208 (10/01/39)
Bob (Bob Whitt, a friend, although his real name isn't Bob) is about to drive off in a golf match with me. (13 words)
UCSC women:#4 (18/female)
I was at home and we had family over partying. I was holding my cousin Bob (10
months old) and when I was playing with him, his nose started to bleed so I took him to
the restroom to wipe his nose with a warm cloth, and after I wet the cloth I turned to him
and his mouth was full of blood and I started to get scared. Then I tilted down his head
to drain out the blood and cleaned him up and took him back to his aunt. (91 words)
Number of words:
At least but no more than
How many dreams to find: