Ancient Astronauts and Forgotten Dreams

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Space exploration has taught us new parables, too, most hauntingly Charlie Duke's dream, six months before he went to the moon:

In my dream, we were driving the [lunar] rover up to the [North Ray crater]. . . . It was untouched, the serenity of it, had a pristine purity about it. We crossed a hill. I felt, 'Gosh, I've been here before!' And, uh, there was a set of tracks out in front of us, so we asked Houston if we could follow the tracks and they said yes, so we turned and followed the tracks. Within an hour or so, we found this vehicle, it looked just like the rover, with two people in it, and they looked like me and John [Young]. They'd been there for thousands of years. It was not a nightmare-type situation, nothing like that. It was probably one of the most real experiences of my life.

Duke's dream felt so premonitory that he found himself scanning the North Ray crater for tire tracks as he descended onto the moon in the lunar module Orion. Perhaps it was a prophetic glimpse of the end of the Space Age-a moment symbolized by a pair of ancient astronauts, on the highlands of the moon, waiting for a future that will never come.

Mark Dery, a cultural critic, author, and blogger (www.markdery.com), teaches media studies and literary journalism at New York University. His latest book is The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink (Grove/Atlantic). Excerpted from Cabinet (#18), a quarterly journal of art and culture.Subscriptions: $28/yr. from 55 Washington St. #327, Brooklyn, NY 11201; www.cabinetmagazine.org.

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