The Spice Merchants of Riner

'If this is where your relationship with this guy is going...maybe you should find some body else,' Binzol put to her.

Selma turned a handle, 'You don't understand. That's why you feel the way that you feel.'

'Maybe that's true. But what kind of a person wants to dream most of their life away? I mean...what good is long life if most of it is spent in a dream state?'

'That depends. There has been research that seems to indicate that dreaming isn't something that is suppose to take place only in the sleeping state...some how we lost the ability to function in a conscious dream state. It would be like a total state of perfection. They physical world would not matter to people...because they could control their mental perception of reality through an equally strong and real dream state...where needs are met in fantastic ways.'

'But the government couldn't control people who lived in such a state. They wouldn't have need for the things that they need now. They would exist as higher beings...merging their mental dreams with the lesser base reality of the physical world. You can see where there would be trouble.'

'But. What I'm talking about is the sect that hibernates extended periods of time in order to prolong their lives.'

'Dreamers. They are a strange religious sect. What would it be like to wake up and find that you've out lived all of your friends and love ones...it's too weird.'