It bothers me that my first post on these forums is to ask for help, rather than something more productive or constructive, but I can't stop thinking about this dream, and I have this really strong urge to know what it means. I feel totally blocked when I try to interpret it myself, which is in itself bothersome, too.

The dream:

I was at work, and there was a (malicious) virus in the air that I
contracted that made the black stuff (pupil) in my left eye start bleeding
out. And I remember that it made my left eye get all black and my
right eye all white. And it was incurable (and, I think, fatal) for the most part unless
somehow you managed to fight it off.

So they said they'd do with me what they did when I got some kind of
award. (I think. And I forget the specific name. This part didn't make
a whole lot of sense to me.)

They shot me through a portal - kind of like a giant stargate
[reference to the movie "Stargate"]

and I was zooming along this vast moving torrent/ocean/river of light,
and there were many other objects in it, I can't tell if they were
other people or *crafts* carrying other people, but there were other
people there

(There seemed to be stops, or waypoints, or something in this river of
light. And the river was going somewhere and so was I, there was a
goal, but I don't remember what it was, or if it was ever discussed. I
think the point was the journey.)

So I somehow ended up at this one place. I don't remember the
mechanism of it, one moment I was zooming along this river of light,
going through space (outer space! it was breathtaking!) and then all
of a sudden I was in this yard, well, more like a schoolyard.

I was in some weird outfit, part of it involved stilts (or something
like that). And there were other people there in weird outfits. And we
all fought. It didn't seem like serious, "I'm gonna kill you"
fighting. But like schoolyard fighting.

I remember I was kicking at these people with my stilts, and jumping
on and off the stilts (and I use the term loosely, they were more like
detachable leg extensions) and fighting all the while. I could jump like crazy!

And then I decided that I had had enough, so I sort of kept jumping up
objects and then off a cliff, and it turns out this schoolyard was
kind of on a chunk of rock or an island in the middle of the river,
and I started to fall...and landed back in the river near an island.

However, now the river was going through an ocean, not outer space.

as I was falling back towards the river, I realized I was sort of off
target, and was going to fall in the deep, black water on one side of
the river, and this was a Bad Thing. so I used various contortions of
my body to guide myself

I landed ALMOST in the river, but not quite. luckily a series of waves
washed me ashore on the island instead of dragging me out to see and
into the blackness. I remember grabbing on to the rocks as soon as I
landed to keep from being swept back out.

there were a ton of people there, and it felt like I knew them all.

it turns out this was the/an island of the dead. they all had graves
they occasionally returned to, to rest.

for the most part they just went about their "lives", doing normal
everyday stuff on this island

the island greatly reminds me of some little island off the coast of
italy (that kind of climate, architecture, etc.)

and I was wandering around this island, interacting with the people,
*helping* the people.

I use the term people loosely, I remember helping this one old lady
get into her shower, she was more like a big bird than a human being.
her body was kind of held together with rope in places, but she was
happy and had her house set up to take into account her infirmities

and I helped this one dude, sort of. I kept telling him he needed a
sign, but he didn't want one, he just wanted to keep his door open. I
thought he needed to keep his door shut. [but I feel like I may have
this backwards - i.e. he wanted his door shut, I wanted it open]

one of the dead people was jealous of me, so he hit me in the head and
put me in a coffin with these two young dead boys. the coffin was
right on the coast, so it kept flooding with water.

the two young dead boys helped me time my breathing and then climbing
back up the shore/slope to dry land (so I guess the coffin was
actually underwater in a bay or cove or something, because it wasn't
in the black ocean or in the river of light)

and then when all the other dead people - my friends - found out, they
encircled this one dead man who was jealous, and started hitting him

and I stopped them, and I said "no, this isn't what you're about"

and they stopped. and remembered that there were rules they had agreed
to for living on this island (one of which was not squishing each
other up. I remember the term "squishing" specifically...)
[/b]
and then I woke up, and couldn't go back to sleep. I felt slightly uneasy after this dream. Unfortunantly I don't remember any emotions associated with this dream, except the slight unease. I think the majority of the dream was fairly flat, emotionally speaking. Not emotionLESS, just mild and common. I wrote down all of the above right after I woke up, so I wouldn't forget it.

Some basics about myself: 24, male, live in a big city. I am a kind of a multi-purpose computer technician in a rather intense and fast-paced company (finance/trading) (about 9 months now). No girlfriend or dating right now as I'm expending a TON of energy into this job, which I love and find very interesting and stimulating. I also seem to have turned into a bit of a loner. there is this one girl that I get along with really well, but we've never met in person. I don't see it turning into anything serious due to distance and practicality. I'd like to meet her in person someday, though. (who knows, maybe part of me wants it to turn into something serious)

You ever had something that was just driving you nuts, but you couldn't figure it out?

cheers!