Morning of October 27, 2014. Monday.

This is one of my typical sparsely recurring stove fire dreams (since about two years of age), fire being one of the most common in-dream features as well as regarding change of perspective (second only to water and not counting the Blue Pearl event, which is more of a conscious experience), sometimes triggering lucidity (which actually seems to be one of its "purposes" possibly in a metaphorical sense). It is not always a threatening or negative feature but in this case it is for the most part. The "everything will be on fire" dreams are nearly identical to the "everything will be touched by water" dreams in personal mood and focus (both with the potential of seeming either positive or negative depending on the in-dream context). These types of dream events, other than seeming to occur at a particular level of more precisely defined in-dream awareness (than is typical of many other dream types), seem more intrinsically linked to the dream state than most others, likely because both fire and water are potentially dangerous in a natural sense and there may even be a cellular relationship here regarding the dream type. It is also common that when I am exposed to louder noise (such as someone else's unnecessarily loud car stereo from a distance) I almost always have uncomfortable dreams of "exploding sparks" with a brief fire presence in extremely vivid (and sometimes lucid) in-dream environments (such as playing cards "exploding").

This dream interests me because of the setting. It is entirely unfamiliar (in an atypical sense) and oddly not composite-based to my knowledge, yet very defined and vivid. I am apparently checking to see if the stove-top is working correctly and I believe either I or my wife was preparing dinner. There are a couple frying pans and one smaller pot on the stove. The action starts when I notice three plastic toys sitting on a counter to the left of the stove (which is slightly lower than the stove height). They are near an open vertical pipe or round vent of unknown purpose. It is close to the wall. One of them is my oldest daughter's old Sonic toy, which our other children have also played with. I am not certain of the other two. Oddly, fire and smoke come up from this pipe, burning the toys a bit.

However, I then notice that Sonic already had his arms burned off (apparently in a previous fire) and there are charcoal-like ends nearly to his sides or shoulders. I am somewhat sad to see that this old toy has been ruined like this. The other two are damaged badly as well. I am also somewhat annoyed at the carelessness of how the toys got near this open "vent" (or pipe or whatever it is). Another one of the three, which appears to be a horse about three-fourths the size of Sonic, catches on fire again from some sort of hot wind coming from the round "vent". This time, the fire seems to go everywhere on the stove-top (as well as part of the counter with the "vent" - and there is concern the fire may go farther left into the living room), both inside and outside of the pans, and fairly high. I warn my two youngest sons to leave the kitchen. I feel that I can put the fire out even though it is fairly large, if I remain calm and with a focused directive.

I use a plastic bottle of water and start randomly pouring it around the top of the stove. Even though I only use one bottle, I see that about ten times the amount than would be realistically possible has already come out and I even see a large puddle flowing towards the living room. Not only that, the fire is already starting to lower and go out by itself. The dream loses cohesion as I continue to watch this growing puddle flowing into the next room, wondering if it will stop before getting anything (such as books) damaged.

Pipes and vents are a fairly common in-dream feature. I personally believe they have something to do with how thoughts are directed, including in meditation or affirmation states that I have practiced since early childhood. One's thoughts coalesce and move through different areas of memory and ongoing perspective, or conduits in a metaphorical sense. (The same could probably be said of electrical cords as a metaphor and whether or not they are plugged in.) Thus, when a pipe or vent or similar opening emits wind, fire, or water (or in some cases sand) it likely relates to the dreaming process itself and even suggests the controlling of the dream state. (For example, when the warm wind was coming from the vent, it did not necessarily have to start a fire if I had focused more to become lucid.) Being that the setting seemed completely unfamiliar, it is possibly a precognitive layout of a place we haven't lived yet, as this has happened since earliest memory, though there is an alternate explanation related to fractal continuity (based on all previous living settings if one wants to get into the theoretical mathematics involved).

Pipes and vents, other than representing the dreaming process itself (without being symbolic in any other sense), in some cases also likely relate to the present condition (or possible growing condition) of the circulatory system or the digestive system (or in some cases, the throat or vocal cords - "pipes" even being a relevant slang term in this case, especially as relative to singing). The concept of "plumbing" is even used in a colloquial sense with regard to the digestive system and the circulatory system (relative to clogged arteries as with the example phrase "treating stroke victims by reversing the plumbing of the body's circulatory system"). Also, when you "vent", you are expressing yourself. Perhaps I was "venting" about toys being left in problematic areas of the house. "Letting off steam" may also be relevant here.