It was Sunday. I was wearing my light blue sweater, a white shirt, and a pair of blue jeans. The jeans were a bit dirty because I had already worn them for one or two days. I encountered three young people who asked me if I were going to church. I said, "No. Look at me. Do I look as if I was going to church? Do I look like I'm dressed to go to church?"

As soon as I had spoken, I realized that all three young people were wearing blue jeans and that they were all on their way to church. I thought I might have offended them by suggesting that blue jeans weren't good enough for church since I hadn't at all intended to demean or offend them in any way.

After talking with them a bit more, I decided to go to church with them. After reaching the church, we entered a small room where a Sunday school class appeared to be taking place. I noticed a couple young girls and I was attracted to one, even though she was only 16-17 years old. The other one was quite small and didn't attract me. Finally, the time came to go to the main room of the church. To reach the main room, we all had to crawl on our hands and knees through a narrow space. The passageway was about a half meter high on the right, and the top slanted down at about a 45 degree angle to the left. Squeezing through was most difficult for me since I was the largest.

We emerged into the main room of the church where the preacher was standing in front of the congregation seated in the pews. We were separated from the congregation, but the preacher invited us in. The church reminded me of Trinity Methodist Church in Portsmouth, Ohio. We went to the balcony section and sat down in folding chairs. The rest of the congregation was down below us.

 The preacher indicated that he would like each of us to tell the congregation something about ourselves. I thought the discourse would begin with a young fellow and a girl who were on my left. I thought, "Well, it'll be ok if he just asks what we're doing here. I'll just say, 'I'm going to law school.'"

Beaing able to at least say that I was going to law school made me feel good. I thought, "I hope he doesn't ask me how old I am," for I would then have to say that I was 29 years old, even though I thought my being that old and my being with such young people would seem silly.

The preacher continued talking, but for a long time I didn't understand what he was talking about. He said something about jet bombers, and I noticed some pictures of jet bombers appear on a television screen to our left. I also noticed pictures painted on the sides of the bombers, and I thought the pictures represented the names of senators who had been in favor of the jet bombers. Some numbers on the sides of the jets described the types of the jets.

Finally, instead of asking us about ourselves, the preacher asked us to give our thoughts on what he had been talking about. He began with the two people on my left. They responded, but I didn't pay much attention to what they said.

I was no longer wearing my sweater, but was now wearing my blue coat which had a hood covering the back of my head. I was wearing a nice shirt, but I was still wearing the blue jeans. At first I thought I would keep the coat on, so the people behind me wouldn't see my jeans, but finally I decided to take off the coat. When I took it off, I moved from the small chair in which I was sitting to an even smaller chair which only had about a ten-centimeter square seat on which to sit and on which I experienced particular difficulty sitting. Finally, I moved into a more comfortable chair.

I knew I was soon going to be asked to answer the question. I still didn't know the answer to the question, although I thought the question had something to do with the bombers and war with Russia. I thought the question might be whether the United States should be preparing bombers. I knew that a young, thin, black-haired boy about nine years old sitting back behind me at a desk and writing with paper and pencil would be able to answer the question very well.

When the preacher finally asked me what I thought about the question, I said, "Well, could you repeat the question?"

He smiled and rather sarcastically said he understood that it was hard to pay attention since there was only one television there. He seemed to be sarcastically implying that one television was more than sufficient and that I should be paying attention to what was being shown on the television. 

When he repeated the question, I finally understood what he was asking. He wanted to know whether the United States should convert a strip of "Highway Thirty-One" into a landing area for bombers. I thought about it for a moment and I decided to respond in two ways. I was going to say that the answer was "No," both from a personal and from a practical viewpoint - I wanted to present both subjective and objective reasons why the United States should not be preparing a landing strip for bombers. Subjectively, since I personally was a pacifist, I didn't think the highway should be converted into a landing area for bombers, and as a pacifist, I subjectively thought no money should be spent for the military.

I then began trying to think of a practical, objective reason why no money should be spent for the military. I concluded that the airstrip wouldn't help the United States' balance of power with Russia. I tried to think of reasons why that was true.

At the same time, even though I was a pacifist, I was having difficulty concluding that no money should be spent for the military. I was beginning to realize that there might be times when the military was necessary. That was a new and awkward feeling for me.

Dream Journal Commentary of December 31, 2014

This dream seems to open different doors regarding the Dream Journal. I see more clearly how I'm coming to view the Dream Journal more and more in religious terms. The Dream Journal is an intensely spiritual venue which has religious overtones. I'm seeing a definite line being drawn between the spiritual and the religious, yet I also see many similarities. My quarrel with religions is that so much of what religions say is simply untrue. I do not know of any organized religion which does not require the belief in untruths in order to be a member of the religion. I don't have this problem with the Dream Journal since there is no enforced dogma concerning dreams on the Dream Journal where I have freedom to believe what I want concerning dreams.

This dream, however, is more about politics and religion on the Dream Journal. The question is whether pacifism is somehow a part of what I believe and whether pacifism is also a part of the Dream Journal. Pacifism and war on the Dream Journal seem like worthy topics of interest.

Besides the moral conflict regarding man's cruel carnivorous relationship with animals in reality and in dreams, a more spiritual question of significant conflict is whether the soul ever leaves the body and travels on an astral plane outside the body. Either the soul can leave the body and return, or it can't. It's as simple as that. So much of the confused thinking to be found on the Dream Journal is based on believing that the soul travels outside of the body, when there is no evidence of such out-of-body experiences beyond the raw unreliable testimony of the out-of-body traveller.

Spirituality and science - unlike war and peace - are compatable.

Testify for war and peace!