Travel Missteps: Meow Wolf Dreams

One Christmas Eve in 2017 I found myself overwhelmed by the spectacular immersive art exhibit called Meow Wolf, House of Eternal Returns. It’s hard to describe. You start by being told the Charter, a sort of government organization investigating a family and their home due to portals to other worlds that have opened up in their home. As you wander the exhibits Charter minders and lab assistants monitor you. I explored this place for hours. There are no maps or instructions, you just wander around. Maybe you hit a wall and it makes music. Press a button and lights change. Duck under a tree, and you’ll be treated to a video of sensory sounds, like a man walking through a wheat field with a huge mic. It’s hard to describe and photos do not do it justice.

I had a great time. And great art sticks with you. Or….in my case great art gives you very loud sleepwalking dreams.

This trip I was sharing a room with my parents. After we got back from midnight mass we went to bed. But instead of Santa Claus, my parents were treated to my weird mind.

I bolted upright and started saying loudly, calmly and firmly the following over and over: “This is Lili Armstrong. I see the hostages on the lower level. I’m going in. Negative. There is no time. I’m going to enter the lower level. HOSTAGES, THIS IS LILI ARMSTRONG. I’M HERE TO SAVE YOU. FOLLOW ME.” I then started to get up from the bed.

In my mind, I was dreaming I was a Charter agent in Meow Wolf, trying to rescue people when a building’s staircase developed a portal and reality started turning weird. Monsters in the other realm had the other people and I although I was only a tech agent, I knew I was the only person who could help, so I sprang to action.

I only remember this dream because my parents woke me up and were like “It was obviously a stressful dream, but you were so commanding and professional it was eerie.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve slept walked or talked while sharing hotel rooms. It’s actually quite common. As a kid, my sister and I would have sleeptalking fights with each other while fully asleep. But this was the most bizarre and intense version.

And I cannot wait to go back to Meow Wolf!

Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.