Above is an 18th century etching of the Institut where I work. Back then, it was still a Franciscan monastery. In the previous entry is a photo of one of the many statues here - he is in a niche before the stairs just outside of my lab.
I haven't slept well in about a month. I'm in such a bad mental state and feel so sick in general that I have been taking morphine to try to stay focused and keep my mood from getting worse than it already is. Sometimes I wish I had access to Kratom because it's a better pick-me-up than opiates. I'll explain that later.
My troubles began because I was having a hard time writing my article, I was in over my head, and people who had promised to help me weren't helping. With the submission deadline for my article is fast approaching, I had to intelligibly describe the research I've been doing here for the past four months. That was not the hard part. I had to read and then discuss more than 100 long and obtuse articles, discuss them all in the paper, and relate them to my findings. Some people do this easily, but for me, no. Since this is a new line of study for me, digesting so much material was awful. Overall, it was really more like writing a chapter for a medical textbook. Actually, the last part of it is a chapter in a book. The good thing is that it has already been accepted by a high impact medical journal, hence the deadline, and the findings are expected to have a high impact among the neuroscience community. It will help my career if I decide to stay with this thankless line of work.
I finally got the paper under control, but then something else happened. After the second Paris Fashion Week party I went to last week, I met a strange woman. That is what has been keeping me awake for the last week. She never told me her name, but in a dream it was Ariadne so I shall call her Ariadne.
Every night it is the same. I lie down exhausted. No matter how tired I am, I can't fall asleep. Sometimes it gets so late that morning birds start chirping outside my window. Eventually I fall into that un-restful, trance-like state known as sleep paralysis, but then, my mind springs wide awake. With a feeling of dread, I get up off my pallet on the floor and float out the window. It's usually still dark. First, I usually go to the Eiffel Tower or maybe I go sit on top of the nearby dome of the Pantheon. It's currently being repaired so there are lots of scaffolds and construction platforms upon which to perch.
In the dream, I need to find Ariadne. More than 10 million people live here so I never feel hopeful of finding her, even though it is only a dream and I should be able to do anything I want. I methodically scan the city. The view from the Eiffel Tower or the top of the dome of the Pantheon is fantastic. City lights spread out to the horizon. I read somewhere that the city is nick-named the "City of Light," and it fits.
Its layout is the result of centuries of building, tearing down, and rebuilding. Long streets radiate in patterns from central points and carve through long rows of high buildings that touch each other. Smaller streets and alleys and walkways and corridors divide them further. Here and there are domes and towers of palaces and mansions. Cathedrals are peppered around the city.
I pick a direction at random and jump off the tower, free-fall for a moment, catch mayself, and then fly over the government palace near the base of the tower. I move north-east tonight looking down at the millions of apartments and houses, always calling her name. Many buildings have an airy quality with their angular roofs, skinny chimneys, spires, and iron work roof-top gardens and platforms. Wrough iron balconies cling to the sides of many buildings with lush green plants dangling runners. They could have been magicked out of a rain forest. A lot of the courtyards have gardens, and they are begining to bloom. In some, fountains sparkle in artificial light. Old cobbled passages wind through narrow spaces and under archways.
Then I make my way back to the Hôtel de ville or the Louvre near the city center to keep my bearings. I get lost in dream cities just like I get lost in real cities in waking life if I don't pay attention. Last night was cloudy, and I couldn't see the stars for reference.
The clouds high above are the color of sodium vapor lamps, just like any modern American city at night. I stay away from them and keep my altitude near the rooftops. That way I can look for her, but I don't go so high that I am caught in the Winds of Time or just get lost in the yellowish clouds. I always wake up when that happens and have to spend another 2 hours trying to get to sleep again.
Aside from the fact that I am completely lucid, I can't control anything in the dream. The only exception is that sometimes I can make few random objects or fake people appear and disappear. Compared with the lifelike and realistic fabric of the dream and the lifelike people that I sometimes see in the dream, the objects and people that I consciously bring into the dream look like toddler refrigerator art and quickly lose their shape and fall apart. I can never make Ariadne appear or even go to her. I have been trying all night every nigh for more than a week.
Obviously, I can fly and move around and explore the dreamscape, but I can't even open a door. Instead, I have to go through walls. Sometimes I can do a teleport but it's always to a random location and never accurate.
I methodically enter buildings, houses, flats where i think she might live and call her. Her name echoes back. It's not like the echo in a cavern, but a weird inhuman sound that echos at unexpected intervals, each time slightly altered. It's a dream, a very elaborate one done in life-like detail. I enter strange French houses and see strange French families. Sometimes the children see me. The adults almost never do unless they are extremely old. I search buildings one by one, walking in , well floating in; unable to open doors or windows, I pass through solid walls. 1000s of sleeping people 1000s of sleeping families dreaming their own dreams completely unaware of me.
In my dream, I sometimes see into their dreams. I hear their thoughts. It is unpleasant to look at what others are thinking or dreaming. Some are anxious thoughts buzzing around in their brains like trapped bees. If telepathy were real, it would be torture to experience it.
Sometimes the people are awake doing ordinary things that don't interest me: watching tv, talking , working, doing unmentionable personal things. I look away.
Last night, I walked in on a stunningly beautiful naked woman. She was lithe and blond and her vag was neatly trimmed. Her breasts were spectacular, and at that instant I felt like if she would let me touch them, I would live forever. Thus distracted from my search, I stood in front of her in her ordinary living room, fascinated for a moment. She was walking around, sometimes facing me, but didnt seem to see me. There were book cases, sofas, chairs, art on the walls, even a mirror. I never look in the mirrors in this dream. She, like everything else in the dream, was beyond real, so real that I felt like I was looking in on a real person and violating her privacy. I vaguely wondered what dream sex in such a realistic dream would be like. But I have a one-track, mind as the expression goes, and I left the room calling Ariadne.
This has been my experience nearly every night, nearly all night, for the past week - I lie awake. There is no rest for my mind.