I have always been very interested and amused by the range of "culturally" and "consensually" known characters the "journeyer" (for lack of a better term) can meet, or indeed reports to have met, while experiencing an "altered states of consciousness" (also for lack of a decidedly better term), be it regular dreaming or lucid dreaming, OBEs, NDEs, meditation, visitations, magickal invocation, rituals, hallucinogenic trips, drumming trances... In short: while navigating outside the common, secure, sometimes dull, always on the verge of dissolution, not always nice to be back, ol' planet Earth's, linear, despotic, and irreversible SpAceTimE.
So, I would like this to be sort of a simple, curious and frivolous survey, where we can all enter or mention the generally known characters we have encountered at the other side of "the crack between the worlds", be them public figures, actors, politics (yeeech!), scientists, and historic, fictional, mythic, fantasy, religious, legendary, archetypical, or literary characters. All of them others reading this can relate to, either if you've met them through a consistent and repetitive pattern of experiences, or just in a single encounter of a varying degree of "meaningfullness", but mainly when the "journeyer" had no subjective doubt that the character met was THE character met, without going into the by now forgettable discussion about whether it was "a projection from the journeyer" or not.
A hint or reference about the nature of the altered state may also be useful, along with a two word description if necessary for the sake of specificty. Whether a pattern will surface or not we'll have to wait and see. I'll start with my own list, which I expect will expand as memories start comming up, and we hopefully get to have some inter-introspective amusement. I have attempted a loose chronological order.
Marlin Perkins, host of the old TV program "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom", in a nightmare (NM)
Jean Genet, French novelist, in a dream ... what a diva! (DR)
Garuda, Indian demi-god, (DR)
John McCain, Arizona Senator, (DR)
The principle characters from the TV program "Hogan's Heroes" (NM)
"Pinhead" from the "Hellraiser" films... he was actually rather nice. (DR)
