Dream Galaxy

Anecdote collection · Flight & sky

Climbing a ladder to touch the sky

Luoyang, China · c. 95 (as told)

漢和熹鄧皇后，嘗夢登梯以捫天，體蕩蕩正清滑，有若鐘乳狀。乃仰嗡飲之。

Original text — In Search of the Supernatural, vol. 10, Gan Bao

Empress Deng of Han once dreamed she climbed a ladder and touched the sky. It was vast and smooth, clear and slippery, like stalactites, so she tilted her head back and drank from it.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

Open this dream in the galaxy →

Source
In Search of the Supernatural, vol. 10 — Gan Bao, c. 350
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Anecdote collection
Place
Luoyang, China · Chinese
Date
c. 95 (as told)
Uncertainty
High — Anecdote from Gan Bao’s In Search of the Supernatural (c. 350); reported, not first-hand.
Imagery
Ladder · Sky · Heights · Water
Feelings
Awe · Wonder

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Flying and floating dreams are among the most widely reported dream types. Ellis tied them to breathing and balance during sleep; others have associated them with freedom or lucid awareness.

Ellis (1911), ch. VI

Mythological

Ascent recurs across traditions: Icarus and his wax wings, Jacob’s ladder between earth and heaven, shamanic journeys to the upper world. Many of these stories hold both aspiration and a warning.

Greek myth; Genesis 28

Chinese traditions

Chinese literature is full of dream journeys skyward — Li Bai flying across Mirror Lake, Li He gazing down at China as “nine specks of smoke” — where flight becomes a way to see the world at a different scale.

Li Bai; Li He

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images