Note: The name of the boy in the dream below has been changed to protect his and his family’s identity and privacy. The dream occurred on a Tuesday morning on the 25th of August 2026.

The Dream

I work outside sitting on and operating a round, red riding lawnmower in a huge grassy area with scattered trees. Boxwood bushes cluster nearby. The machine is a mix of old and futuristic tech. I sit back in an open, throne-like chair operating it like a bulldozer as there’s no tractor-like steering wheel. The machine is painted a bright, crimson red covered in dust, grass clippings, and other mowing debris. The chrome metal parts gleam in the sunlight. The mower looks like the old, red, saucer-shaped one my great-uncle Aumon used to operate back on the family farm in the 1970s and 80s. Except the throne-chair is highly futuristic and appears to be a replica of the Captain’s Chair aboard the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek mythos. Otherwise the rubber-handled levers for operating caterpillar tracks like on a bulldozer sat to my immediate right and left. Felt I could fly away if truly urgent. Indeed, a nanosecond of recognition as a UFO in disguise flashed thru my mind.

Lots of people mill about and around. All are standing, swaying, dancing, walking, running, and jumping. Am mowing grass. The mower roars in a low, put-put-puttery manner punctuated with loud pops and bangs. Trying to avoid people. I can’t tell where I am or why I’m mowing during the day of a big event instead of before it, but a big summertime festival seems to be in progress. Bits and pieces of Virginia from my past including the Riverview Farm of my Virginia childhood and the Blacksburg home of my long deceased grandparents seem to be mixed up with both current venues in Seattle and with New York City parks. I don’t see faces or the sky or buildings. Don’t see anything above a person’s hips, but it’s easy to tell it’s a blue sky with bright sunshine on a summer day.

Suddenly I recognized a child in distress. A little boy, looking confused and lost and a little upset about it. Indeed, he is the only human being sitting on the ground, and he struggles to stand up. I veer closer to him aboard my machine. To my surprise it’s a boy I know from New York I met thru my oldest daughter who is friends with his parents. Neither his parents or his brother or any of my daughters, all adults, or anyone I know is anywhere in the crowd outside.

“Jimmy!” I shout. “You OK? Come here.”

He walked over, eyes big and wide. He recognizes me but barely. Relief flows across his face.

“I’m Dylan’s Dad,” I say. “I’ve met you and your brother before and know your parents.”

“I remember you,” he mumbles.

He seems fine. No injuries. Just confused. 

“Come sit here. Sit down in this flat area between the wheels.”

And he did. Big red metal deck atop the round riding lawnmower between two big rubber wheels. I turn off the mower part, switched off those sharp, whirling blades, but left the driving engine with the steering running.

“Are your parents here somewhere? Dylan? Anyone you know?”

Jimmy shakes his head no as he looks around at the vibrating, dirty red disc he sits on near my feet.

“Hang on!” I shout over the roar. Jimmy hangs on tight as I back up and spin around. It felt dangerous there in the park at that particular festival, and I needed to get him out of there and back to his parents. For some reason there aren’t any smartfones. 

As I turn the machine around and take off, I knock someone down with the mower. No, didn’t run over them, just bumped into them and bowled him over.

“Sorry!” I shouted out and gunned the engine. The mower lurched ahead then surged forward thru the crowd. People parted as I turned this way and that to avoid bumping into people. There was a lot of yelling and shouting. We hurried out of there, got Jimmy to safety, and I woke up. 

Afterthoughts

I don’t know where I was or am in the dream. Usually I always know. Didn’t or couldn’t see anyone above the waist as it was all blurry. I kept focused down on my mower. Lots of people in blue jeans, shorts, skirts, whatever, as it was a summer day in a festival at a park or big field somewhere. The boy was the only person there I recognized, and he recognized me, at least enough to trust me to get up on the machine so we could get out of there. The situation, whatever was going on, felt dangerous, out of control, and about to get worse. I don’t know what from or what the situation was. I was reacting to circumstances and trying to stay calm. 

Sure hope this dream was not prophetic in the literal sense Jimmy might accidentally find himself lost amidst a chaotic festival in a big park. Why the hostility from the crowds in the park, tho? Doesn’t make any sense. Also didn’t make any sense for me to be mowing grass during a festival rather than before. Then again, this is a dream. Reality is different in dreams.

Wonder what nostalgic recollections of past yards and lawns with shrubbery from my childhood meant. Those aspects from different parts of Virginia with former homes in Washington mixed with more recent memories from New York City parks mean..what? Furthermore, what did the old riding lawnmower from decades ago blended with elements from Star Trek and UFOs symbolize? In real life I have encountered several UFOs/UAPs and have also experienced a range of other anomalous psychospiritual phenomena. Am currently reading the published works of Dr. Diana W. Pasulka, a scholar of religions who researches the intersection of technology, religion, spirituality, culture, UAPs, and Non-Human Intelligences. About half-way thru her most recent book, The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny (2026). These experiences most likely influenced me on various levels, and do they give added or deeper meaning to my dream?

During the dream I felt a number of emotions from calm confidence to anxiety to surprise to focused compartmentalization to affect a rescue to curiosity, fear, and confusion. What in the world was going on? Was this some kind of test from the Divine? Is God, the one ultimate deity beyond all gender and identity and unconfined by time and space that is omnipresent and yet personal, truly an Other, or part of me, or me part of It, just not fully integrated? Or is a dream nothing more than electric action adventure or a neurochemical-based mental cleansing and relief? Our dreams have to be more than just biological processes reduced to nothingness.

William Dudley Bass
Tuesday 25 August 2026
Wednesday 26 August 2026
Monday 31 August 2006
Shoreline/Seattle, Washington
USA
Earth

Copyright © 2026 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.