These are our dreams collected…

The United States of America is in tumult. Every day brings another assault on core pillars of our democracy. Marginalized communities are under attack. Federal employees are under attack. Core government functions are under attack. We are witnessing the rise of authoritarianism in a nation that was a beacon for the world’s democracies.

In 1933, after Adolph Hitler came to power, the journalist Charlotte Beradt began having unsettling dreams. Soon she realized that other people were having disturbing nightmares, too. Banned as a Jew from working, she began collecting dreams from her friends and neighbors. These “diaries of the night” were written in code and concealed in the spines of books. She smuggled them out of the country, and eventually they became collected and known as “The Third Reich of Dreams.”

I hope, I pray — I believe — we are not in nearly as dire a situation, but I cannot help but have my own disturbing dreams of this moment.

For instance, I dreamt I was in a coffin six feet below the ground – alive. I pounded and pounded on the wooden box I found myself in, but it didn’t make a sound. There was no light - all was dark. But I could breathe somehow. Above, I could hear a group of people chanting ‘My heart goes out to you! My heart goes out to you!’ and I knew they were making the Nazi salute.

I cannot be the only one having disturbing dreams about rising fascism in the United States. So here, I want to gather the dreams we are having at this moment in American history. I will only post your dreams with your consent, and I will only post your name (or just first name) with your consent. You can always submit anonymously.

Together, we can create a repository of dreams, and perhaps have something meaningful that will mark this era.