Spirits up close and personal

I have a lot of very vivid dreams.  According to reference.com, you could call them lucid dreams, because I am active participant.  I'm more comfortable calling them spiritual experiences, because that's what they are for me.  There are places I go, people I meet and talk with, all kinds of things, and the experience of it is pretty similar to normal waking experience. This morning, I went to a large building on a campus.  The buildings were sandstone brown and reminded me of the University of Buffalo where I went to college.  I was standing on a porch next to an elevator and was observing the architecture of it.  It was unusual because there were multiple floors and the porches were stacked up in the same part of the building (like patios on a large apartment building) but you could still see the sky above perfectly well.  It was like you could look above you and see right through the porch to the sky, even though the porch was there.  I was with some people, but don't have any specifics.  I'll bet I was learning something there.  It's not unusual for me to get some kind of school or education reference when they're teaching me something.  But you almost never consciously learn of what they're teaching you.  It's paradoxical to some extent, but that's how it works. I also meet spirit folks via dream experiences.  Spirits are normally very protective of their personal identities, not out of greed, but out of fear that we will react poorly and treat them in less than ideal ways.  My approach has always been that they are people just like anyone else, and I treat them that way.  Over time, it has fostered a lot of trust and good will. At the "school", my car was in the lot somewhere and I had the keys, but didn't know where it was parked.  I was stuck, and needed a ride back to Rochester.  A nice lady stood in front of me and said she would give me a ride.  I asked to be sure she was going that way, and she said she was. She was directly in front of me.  She was in her 50's or so.  I could clearly see her face, nice hairdo that was a little bit bouffant, a black silk dress with a pattern on it, a necklace that was beaded but not pearls.  She likes the name MaryAnne, although it's not hers. I've had lots of folks like MaryAnne appear in my dream experiences over the years.  I've learned that because they trust me with their identities, I'm often the first one they show themselves to on a personal level.  From there, they often go off and work with others. My view is that it's a privilege, and I am honored.  I always like meeting new people and learning about them.  It's nice to know that it works equally well on both sides of the fence.