The following dream was composed of elements which were very common in my dreams over quite a span of time: pursuit by unstoppable and unkillable human-like creatures, very large wooden structures sparsely furnished, the inability to lock doors of cover all entrances, and continuous flight, often with a companion who did not always appreciate the urgency of the situation. Pursuit dreams were very common in this period, but the majority were outdoors.
As I write this, images of various dreams including large, neglected, semi-vacant wooden structures appear to me. Most provide insufficient information to write into a dream sequence, being only a scene or partial scene, and even approximate dates would be impossible to establish, except that they are old.
In one such structure, a couple of trunks were in one room and I opened them, but I can not bring up the image of the contents. The structure in this dream I entered voluntarily from the outside, and I remember it was set among large old trees. This was not a pursuit dream, and there were a number of other people in the building.
Another from which images came up involved a structure that was truly vast and sprawling. It covered a whole hillside when I finally saw it from the outside. This was a very rich dream, and I exited the structure through a sort of museum which contained elements of explanation, some of which I tried to save from the fire that was about to consume the structure.
I am not sure whether it was I who set the fire or not, but I considered it regrettable but necessary. The museum, while attached to the structure, was of modern construction and not of wood. Realizing what a great dream this was, I reviewed it thoroughly to set it firmly in memory. Unfortunately this reviewing was done within another dream and most of the major points failed to come with me when I actually woke up from that dream.
It is possible that the bare wooden building concept was acquired from my early childhood, for it is my impression that the neglected country estate we live in when I was between age 2 and 4 had this feeling.
The concept of too many doors and insufficiently strong or functional locks also appears in other types of structures. Images of a dream in which the setting was a school chemistry laboratory building appear to me now. There were only two doors, but you can only hold one at a time.
Pursuit and Escape
This dream was set inside a vast wooden house, very old and somewhat dusty, with very little furniture in it. All construction was unpainted wood with bare wooden floors. There were many doors and narrow staircases going from room to room and floor to floor. A real three dimensional labyrinth in wood. The action could have been contained in a space of about 400 feet by 400 feet, and no more than 4 stories high.
I was with a woman companion who sometimes needed urging on as we fled through the building pursued by some unstoppable humanlike entities. I kept trying to lock them out of rooms we entered, but either the locks didn't work or there were too many doors to cover all at once. By necessity, we continued our flight through dusty corridors and over warped floors in semi-darkness.
Eventually we came to a window or door to the exterior and escaped with a feeling of immense relief. The building did not look as large from the outside as it had seemed from the inside, but was still a rather large structure, in sort of Victorian style.