The philosopher Herbert Spencer believed the first gods appeared in our dreams. These visions gradually became ghosts that haunted our stories. After all, the word spirit applies to ghosts as well as gods. And in the beginning, God was only “a permanently existing ghost.”
Last night I dreamt about a regal bald woman, impossibly tall, who glided above the floor with her back arched like a vacuum. I nodded hello, and she said, “You’re welcome.” No matter what I said, she replied, “You’re welcome.” Then she turned and zoomed away, leaving me alone in a long empty room.
