We did it. The party happened. I'm still processing.
The Space
Fifty-three people came through on Saturday night. I don't know where they all came from - we only invited about twenty. Word spread somehow. Dreamers from Boston, New York, Philadelphia. People who'd found us through the forum, through my old dream parties, through some underground network I didn't know existed.
The ground floor transformed. We hung fabric from the high ceilings - white and silver and pale blue, catching the light from dozens of candles. The sculptures I've been making for years suddenly had context, surrounded by people who recognized what they depicted.
There was music - ambient, shifting, like something you'd hear underwater. One of the visitors brought instruments and created soundscapes all night. People drifted through the space, stopping to examine maps of Ethel on the walls, to look at dream journals we'd left open on tables, to talk with strangers about experiences they'd never been able to discuss.
The Conversations
Everyone had seen something. Everyone had been somewhere that didn't exist in waking life but persisted anyway.
Some recognized Ethel specifically - the plaza, the fountain, the robed figures. Others described different places, other persistent realms they'd stumbled into. We compared notes. We drew on each other's maps. We tried to understand.
One woman - I never got her name - looked at my sculpture of the Ammonite statue and started crying. "I thought I was alone," she said. "I thought I was broken."
"None of us are alone anymore," I told her. "That's the whole point."
What We're Building
This isn't just a research project. It's a community. A home for the people who dream differently.
We're going to do this again. Regularly. The Dreamfactory is open to dreamers.
More Updates Soon
We're starting intensive synchronization experiments this week. Living together is already making a difference - our dreams are getting clearer, more coordinated. Last night, four of us met at the same place and time in Ethel.
Things are accelerating.