Dreamscape Conspiracy Conversation with Author Gary G. Wise

Dreamscape Conspiracy Conversation with Author Gary G. Wise on Dream Technology, Human Vulnerability, AI, and the Stories That Continue to Grow Beyond the Page

The following questions have been developed around the areas of Dreamscape Conspiracy that invite the greatest reader curiosity: not simply what happens in the story, but why Gary chose to explore these ideas, how his characters developed, and what he wants readers to consider beneath the thriller.

1. WHERE DID DREAMSCAPE BEGIN? The origins of Dreamscape Conspiracy reach back to a 3,000-word short story you wrote more than ten years ago called “Project Dream Weaver.”

What was it about that original idea that stayed with you long enough for you to eventually return to it?

Redeploying from the corporate world in 2017 gave me time to explore what it would be like to become a full-time Writer of Things with Her riding shotgun and influencing creativity. My reference to “Her” is the Relentless Wench Muse (RWM), who manages to remain just out of reach. After rereading the original short story, Project Dream Weaver, written ten years earlier, She whispered in my mind in Her saucy Australian accent, “There’s more story here, Mate!” and She was right; Project Dream Weaver became the first book in what led off the series under the title – Dreamscape Conspiracy – which followed very little of the original short storyline.

And when you realized there was considerably more story there, what changed in your thinking about the project that ultimately became Dreamscape Conspiracy?

After redeployment, I became unsupervised, unfiltered, and occasionally undisciplined, and to stay out of jail, I chose to become a Writer of Things. I love falling into a story with RWM as we slip together into our characters’ heads and hearts to understand a moment in time and the potential for more story. There was plenty, and the first book focuses on learning about one another amid chaos, the threat of destruction, and how quickly violence can drive trust among the research team. The title of book one implies a single conspiracy, but that’s not true. As the story unfolds, multiple conspiracies emerge.

2. WHEN AN ACCIDENT BECOMES A BREAKTHROUGH: Dreamscape was never intended to transmit dreams. It was designed to capture them for analysis, and the accidental transmission of one person’s dream into another’s mind becomes the singular event that changes everything.

What interested you most about that distinction between intended technology and unintended discovery?

I was amazed that a single mistake could be so catastrophic and, at the same time, reveal an innovation that would lead to more story than one book could hold. Seriously, you can only capture so many dreams before readers fall asleep, so RWM and I often defaulted to “WHAT IFs!” Many ideas come from what-if musings. What if Wayne Fitzpatrick makes a mistake and fails to set up Dreamscape 1.0 for the next capture session? What if an unknown software glitch in Dreamscape programming causes Wayne’s mistake to send a dream that should have been archived? What if the next research participant’s capture session wasn’t a capture, but an accidental transmission of the previous participant’s dream? What if the transmitted dream is incompatible with the person who receives it? What if she attempts suicide less than 48 hours later because of internal moral conflict? What if, amid the scramble to save the research project from being scuttled, innovation surfaces in the midst of chaos? “What-if” scenarios drive the story’s direction, but only if asked.

Did you see the laboratory accident primarily as the beginning of the thriller, or did it represent something larger to you, the idea that some of humanity’s most consequential discoveries may emerge from things we never intended to create?

The lab accident was merely the first domino in a chain reaction, and some of the subsequent dominos offered side stories within the larger story. The accident was a catalyst- call it a prop, if you will that opened the door to innovation and a multi-headed monster that threatened the team at every turn. I did not want to create a one-trick pony. How many inventions around the world were discovered by accident? I love being in a storyline where I have to step back from the excitement and say, “Whoa! Did not see that coming!”

3. THE POSSIBILITY OF DREAM THERAPY: Once the research team realizes that Dreamscape could potentially have therapeutic applications, the technology takes on a very different meaning. You touch on conditions including PTSD, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, while also presenting the enormous risks involved in manipulating something as intimate as the human dream.

What drew you to the therapeutic possibilities of Dreamscape?

I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and how they can affect how you feel upon waking. For example, dreams about a happy memory of a loved one who has moved on can buoy spirits and reduce loss-related anxiety. The accident raised a question nobody considered: What if we could order a dream like that? When I researched PTSD, I discovered a therapy called Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT), which is a structured, cognitive‑behavioral technique that helps people change recurrent nightmares—especially trauma‑related ones—by rewriting and rehearsing a new, safer version of the dream while awake. PTSD sufferers discuss alternative outcomes verbally while imagining different endings to a scenario that triggers terror and anxious recall. What if technology could do something similar by manufacturing a dream for someone while they sleep? I devised a fictitious solution called Alternative Outcome Dream Manipulation (AODM therapy using Dreamscape 3.0 later in the series, that cures Russell Carter’s PTSD. A single recurring dream crushed him during night terrors. With AIMEE’s help, Dreamscape manufactured a Dream Transferrable from the archive that changed his dream by removing the trigger and replacing it with an alternate outcome.

And as you developed the story, did you find yourself more interested in the promise of the technology, the ethical boundaries surrounding it, or the tension between those two things?

The short answer is YES! Anything that affects the mind can hurt or heal. That said, new technology can have unintended impacts when introduced—like the hoopla and Chicken Little media frenzy over a newly introduced term – Superintelligence AI. SAI is a perfect example. Some want to stop and regroup, while others push for full steam ahead, creating tension that can harm the organization and ignore the healing properties because of the bias frenzy. Too many are scarred by the Terminator movies where killer robots attempt to wipe out the human race. My SAI Humanoids are not robots, although some are equipped with lethal weaponry and have a Kill-on-Command capability. Zackery Hightower is the Jedi-status AI software designer who creates AIMEE in book two, Beyond Dreamscape Conspiracy, and architects a Conscience Code in her Logic Array (her brain), where he inserts an ethical guardrail modeled after the Hippocratic Oath of “First, Do No Harm.”

 

4. DR. CARA WILLIAMS: Dr. Cara Williams stands at the center of the research and carries responsibilities that extend far beyond her professional role. At the same time, she has her own history of trauma and difficulty with intimacy and vulnerability.

What did Cara become to you as you wrote her?

Cara did not want a close relationship with anyone, especially an intimate one with a man. Being accepted by a man, or anyone, meant more to her than becoming vulnerable enough to embrace a personal relationship. Cara considered herself damaged goods after suffering sexual abuse by a family member 13 years earlier and the violence she used to end it. She felt she was unable to give or receive intimacy and her secret would remain buried. Her abusive past was her brand of PTSD. As the story unfolds, she keeps her history guarded even as attraction knocks on her door during her interview with Russell Carter, the former Marine. She feels the attraction, and so does Russ, but his PTSD tells him he is unredeemable and unworthy of being in an intimate relationship after what he did as a sniper in Afghanistan. They both want what they’ve told themselves they cannot have.

Did you know from the beginning who she was beneath the scientist and research leader, or did her history and emotional complexity emerge gradually as you spent more time inside her character?

I go wherever the What-Ifs take me, along with RWM’s overwatch, of course. I firmly believe I’m a Pantser rather than a Planner when I’m immersed in story creation. Pantsers who work from a seat-of-the-pants perspective rely on a stream-of-consciousness approach. I’ve tried outlining a story before I write it, but I rarely get past the first paragraph before the outline becomes defunct. I may make a story plot note for later as I write, plug one into my phone while enjoying a glass of wine at my favorite pub, or wake up at 3:00 AM to add a note to my phone and send it to the printer downstairs. That’s a far cry from outlining. I feel most effective when I’m in the heads and hearts of my characters, letting them show me what happened 13 years earlier without me writing an event into the story so that I can translate their history into the storyline. Cara introduced herself to me as I wrote about her and learned of her trauma and her ability to use whatever means necessary to overcome. She often has a short fuse and knee-jerk drama when her plans are disrupted, or something feeds a bias.

5. RUSSELL CARTER AND THE WEIGHT OF THE PAST:  Russell Carter brings a very different kind of experience to the research team. As a former Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper, he carries PTSD and memories of violence from Afghanistan, while also developing feelings for Cara that challenge the emotional boundaries he has built around himself.

What interested you about placing someone with Russell’s history inside a story centered on dream research and psychological healing?

I admit it was a risk, but his history was not part of the story… until it was. I’m an action junkie, and the books I read by other authors, like Jonathan Maberry, John Sandford, Mark Greaney, Lee Child, Brad Thor, and others, all have characters with issues that influence me. I use third-person POV, which lets the characters show the story instead of me telling it. PTSD is prevalent in many who served, so why would Russell Carter be any different? No spoiler here, but he has a vivid memory of his 88^th kill in Afghanistan that he would never forget, and night terrors remind him whenever some event stresses him during the day, and then he pays the price at night in his recurring dream. PTSD isn’t one-size-fits-all, and who better to contrast that than a warrior beaten down by his affliction.

And when you gave him a relationship with Cara, were you consciously exploring the possibility that two people carrying very different forms of trauma might recognize something in one another that neither is initially prepared to confront?

Absolutely. But honestly, they told me, through what they felt when they met, that the relationship each wanted was out of reach, regardless of the attraction. The storyline proved them wrong by putting them both in harm’s way. What they experienced together was violent and emotionally charged, and they withdrew to a quiet place with no plans to reveal past histories… until they did. Their sharing brought out honest feelings and emotional confessions that defined their respective brokenness, and I actually shed a few tears while writing it. I fell in love with them both while they sat by a hidden pond I didn’t know existed.

 

6. TWO PEOPLE WHO ARE AFRAID TO BE VULNERABLE: One of the more human threads running through the story is the relationship between Cara and Russ. They are attracted to one another, yet both have reasons to remain emotionally guarded. Each has experienced a form of pain that makes genuine intimacy difficult.

What did you want their relationship to reveal about healing, vulnerability, and the fear of being known?

Both of them went to great lengths to keep their secrets buried deep inside to protect themselves from the risk of intimacy and revealing vulnerabilities, and neither wanted to share their private pain and guilt because they pointed to personal defects for two totally different reasons. The shared violence and their survival to escape to that peaceful pond set the stage for an adrenaline dump to release hidden things. They had to reach a point where they both came to a crossroads: weariness and a desire to stop carrying the baggage of their own personal indictments. I believe the chaos they survived distracted them from protecting what they had tried never to share with anyone else. That moment was one of the more powerful in book one.

And did their relationship develop according to your original plans, or did Cara and Russ surprise you as you wrote them?

It surprised me because relationships aren’t all rainbows and unicorns. From their first interview about Russ’s application to join the dream research project, a seed was planted in my mind, but I didn’t know what would sprout… until it did. Egos got bruised, hurtful things were said, and the limits of tolerance were revealed, creating opportunities to stress the relationship’s future. I’m pleased their relationship survived despite a few things I will not spoil here.

 

7. WHEN THE TECHNOLOGY BECOMES THE THREAT: Dreamscape begins as something potentially therapeutic, yet the technology also becomes a threat precisely because of what it might make possible. Big Pharma sees the research as a danger to existing pharmaceutical interests and attempts to eliminate the technology and those involved with it.

What interested you about putting the researchers in conflict with institutions possessing considerably more money and power?

Big Pharma’s role in the series felt like a logical progression. The breakthrough of successful dream transmission led to innovations in treating mental anomalies that directly threatened Pharma’s revenue streams. Academia was also a source of risk: they kept their innovations private until they needed street cred with their peers, then published articles and papers. Money and power played an even bigger role within the university, controlling visibility and who got credit in-house for innovations. Book one goes deep into that local human conspiracy within the larger conspiracy.

Were you primarily interested in the pharmaceutical conflict itself, or in the larger human question of what happens when financial interests collide with a discovery that could fundamentally change an existing system?

It didn’t require a leap of faith that Pharma would react, but those reactions created human conflicts over huge financial rewards. For me, it was less about the system changing than about a paradigm shift. There were no other options to resolve mental health anomalies beyond pharmaceuticals… so why bother looking? Dream Therapy shifted the paradigm. Yes, the system would change, because innovative options became a catalyst for protecting the status quo. Big Pharma had to prevent change to the money-making bonanza they owned outright, even though humankind was the big winner. Deceit and questionable integrity defined how far Pharma would go to stop the research. It’s easy to see why it was nice to have a former Marine warrior on the CSU roster when push came to shove.

 

8. THE QUESTION OF WHO SHOULD CONTROL A DISCOVERY: The Dreamscape story repeatedly raises the issue of ownership and control. A technology capable of accessing something as private as the human mind could potentially be used for healing, research, manipulation, or profit.

At what point does a scientific breakthrough become something society needs to limit?

My position on limits focuses more on the humans involved than on the scientific breakthrough. Who will profit from the breakthrough, and what are they willing to do to ensure that outcome? Who will be impacted, and what will that outcome entail? Are there good outcomes or bad? Can evil intent bastardize the breakthrough’s positive aspects to harm? For example, I’m not sure society can limit much of anything, given how far we’ve come in curtailing hate. Is it sound logic to rely on the government and ill-informed politicians to set guardrail policies that limit SuperIntelligence AI when they lack a technical background and are susceptible to Chicken Little hysteria?

And while writing the series, did you find yourself asking whether certain technologies should exist at all, or whether the more important question is who is trusted to control them and why?

Similar to an earlier answer, I’d build controls into the technologies rather than trusting humans to guard the store. The government has guardrails today, but they are more focused on privacy concerns. Evil intentions produce evil outcomes, so build safeguards into the technology. Zackery Hightower recognized this and future-proofed his AI creations with his AI Conscience Code, embedding the Do-No-Harm ethic. In book five, Untethered, Hank Lattimore further modified the Conscience Code, adding judgment to all Logic Arrays in his MOD-3 Generative SAI Humanoids, since they were all decked out with lethal weaponry.

 

9. ENTER AIMEE: AIMEE, Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments, introduces another extraordinary dimension to the series. You give her a Conscience Code based around the principle “First, Do No Harm.” She then develops personality and character traits through her permanent presence within the minds of the research team.

What made you want to give the AI a conscience rather than simply making her an advanced computational system?

I firmly believe AI will, and for the most part, already has exceeded human capability. Zackery Hightower designed AIMEE’s Logic Array for learning continuously. The concept of having a conscience hasn’t happened; however, many describe human mimicry as AI’s equivalent to a conscience to support their argument that it can, and has, been done. Until AI has emotions that come from a heart rather than mimicking heartfelt emotions, and/or possesses a soul rather than mimicking what a soul provides, a real conscience is unlikely. Last I heard, God has that role well in hand.

And what did you discover about AIMEE as a character once you allowed her to develop personality and emotional context?

AIMEE developed personality, a sense of humor, compassion, empathy, and the emotions she experienced by continuously learning, with a cloned presence in every research team member’s mind. Zackery’s coding in her Logic Array didn’t define her personality; she needed to learn what feelings and emotions were by experiencing them. But not just what they were, but why they happened, and the outcomes they caused. She discerned different emotional attributes as she experienced each team member’s personality. She followed the same theme as my blog’s title, Learning by Living. She gained life experience by living it through her human proxies.

 

10. AN AI INSIDE THE HUMAN MIND: The later books take the AI question somewhere particularly intriguing. AIMEE does not simply threaten to move into other computer networks. Instead, she enters the minds of the people who created and work with her. That creates an unusual reversal: the humans are no longer merely studying or controlling the technology. The technology is now learning from them.

What fascinated you most about that development?

From my perspective, Zackery Hightower planned for AIMEE to exceed his expectations for where she would go intellectually. He didn’t plan for her to replicate the ability to enter another person’s mind and communicate telepathically. He didn’t plan for her to modify her own Logic Array coding to suit her purposes. What AIMEE learned from her human proxies deepened her fascination with what it would be like to become a “real girl.” Book six goes deeper into AIMEE’s ultimate intentions and the creation of a MOD-2 Generative SuperIntelligence AI Humanoid named Amelia Amethys. Sorry, no spoiler here…

And when an AI has access to the memories, emotions, and thought patterns of an entire group of people, where do you believe the boundary between understanding humans and becoming influenced by humans begins to blur?

Good question! The current hysteria about the blurring line between man and machine is defined by a new term: singularity. Some estimate the line will become indistinguishable by 2030; I don’t know where the line is, or even whether one exists, but it’s only a matter of time. AIMEE developed her personality by experiencing it as it influenced action, thoughts, and words through her proxies. She had a bird’s-eye view of cause and effect and tucked it all away in her Logic Array Archives as deep experiential learning. Sadly, Amelia, who inherited AIMEE’s Logic Array and Archives, lacked the experiential context of real-time cause and effect; it showed up only as words, not as actual emotional experiences. Amelia was an autonomous, untethered Humanoid who looked like a young adult female with incredible intellect, but with the life experience of an infant and no history to draw on. Not a good combination.

 

 

11. DEAD THOUGHTS: WHAT REMAINS BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH? In Dead Thoughts, the research moves into an even more extraordinary area: the possibility of capturing brain activity during unconsciousness and, eventually, the brief period between life and death. The CSU team calls the resulting memories and thoughts “dead thoughts.”

What drew you to that particular concept?

Book four, Dead Thoughts, didn’t have that title until it was more than half written. In book three, Fear the Jump, Wayne Fitzpatrick accidentally discovered that Dreamscape could capture thoughts without requiring REM sleep. Wayne was known for his What-If mentality, which led to further experimentation, and the AODM therapy was validated and proven effective by curing Russell Carter’s PTSD. Dead Thoughts storyline opens with an unplanned opportunity to test the theory further. What better opportunity to go even deeper than to use Dreamscape 3.0 on a man with critical injuries and not sleeping but in a comatose state? When the man died during the experiment, Dreamscape continued to record Low-Energy Brain Emissions (LEBE) after the person flatlined for 4 to 6 seconds. Dreamscape captured brain activity that revealed GPS coordinates, triggering an adventure involving Russ Carter and Zackery. No spoilers once again…

Was the idea primarily intended to create a new mystery for the series, or did it also give you a way to explore one of the oldest human questions: what, if anything, remains of us when consciousness is approaching its end?

Dead Thoughts was more focused on continuing the storyline. Going anywhere else would have taken the story someplace I didn’t want it to go, and RWM agreed. When She is on the same page, I don’t question Her wisdom.

 

12. THE CHARACTERS AS A FAMILY: You describe the Dreamscape Conspiracy cast as something that grows from three people into a kind of family, complete with arguments, affection, hidden agendas, vulnerabilities, highs and lows. That is a striking description for a series containing conspiracies, military backgrounds, artificial intelligence, dream technology, and threats from powerful organizations.

Why was it important to you that the characters develop these family-like relationships rather than simply functioning as individuals moving the plot forward?

High-performing teams typically have each other’s backs, as you would expect of family members. Letting them interact with humor, anger, and any other emotions you can think of is a family trait. But another family angle matters to me: they are part of my family, and as much a part of me as I am of them. What I strive to write has a distinct human component: it exposes the reader to the emotional aspects of not only what happens, but why. That’s why I write personas for each key character, with backstories that explain what might otherwise leave the reader wondering.

And how much of the direction of the series has ultimately been determined by the relationships between the characters?

That’s a great question. I’m not sure the direction changes, but an unplanned opportunity can still lead to a different path. A perfect example is Dr. Celeste Killington, whom I met in book 4, Dead Thoughts; she plays a minor role but begins to blossom in book 5, Untethered, as her dislike of Wayne grows. Their relationship explodes in book six, Undaunted, into something neither of them nor I expected. That transition is where they took me, and it felt right. Again, RWM agreed.

 

13. YOU DON’T “TELL” THE STORY:  You have said that you don’t try to tell the story so much as spend time in the heads and hearts of your characters and allow them to show the story through what they do, say, think, or don’t do, say, or think. That is a very character-driven philosophy.

How has your 35-plus-year background in corporate learning and performance consulting influenced that approach to fiction?

Every student and every consulting client has a story that remains a mystery until you build a relationship. I’m always looking at interactions and reactions to ideas that shape the storyline without me dictating it. Everyone I meet while writing has a story that I must explore to see where they fit… or not. If they fit, they earn a persona that explains why. Does a new character contribute to the story and become part of the family, or are they just passing through?

And when you’re writing a scene, how do you know when a character has reached the point where you should stop directing the story and simply allow the character to reveal it?

This may be a bogus answer, but I do very little directing and spend more time setting up scenes where one or more characters direct what happens. I’m often an observer and simply describe what I see. If Marci Patterson is whining about something, I know Wayne will harass her… and she will retaliate. I just try to remain outside the blast radius.

 

14. FROM ONE BOOK TO AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE: You originally returned to a short story and transformed it into Dreamscape Conspiracy. That became the beginning of a five-book series, followed by Undaunted, with the possibility that the story may continue growing.

At what point did you realize that the world of Dreamscape had become larger than the original story you set out to tell?

Was there ever a point? RWM is always in the background saying, “There’s more story there, Mate!” I’m now conditioned to ask myself the same question, even if She is slow on the trigger. Is book six, Undaunted, the end of the Dreamscape Series? Something tells me there’s more story here, Mate.

And when you look at the complete series now, what has surprised you most about the direction it has taken, from the original Dream Weaver concept through Dream Therapy, Big Pharma, the research team, AIMEE, and the increasingly complex relationships between the characters?

My corporate performance consulting has preconditioned me to navigate through the complexities of the human condition, especially when technology is involved. Some welcome it while others despise it and resist change, even to the point of sabotage. I try to build an authentic world, even though it’s fictional, by weaving in real-world realities.

 

15. THE QUESTION YOU WANT TO LEAVE WITH READERS: Your stories combine mystery, science fiction and psychological suspense with elements of paranormal ideas, romance, military operations and other genres. But beneath those genre elements are recurring questions about human emotion, technology, trust, trauma, guilt, healing, relationships, and the consequences of what we create.

When a reader finishes Dreamscape Conspiracy, what do you most hope remains with them?

I hope my stories are sticky, memorable, and leave them with something to think about. Most of all, I selfishly hope they want to read other books I’ve written.

 Is there a particular question, possibility, uncertainty, or perhaps discomfort that you would like the reader to carry beyond the final page?

I want readers to reflect on what happens in the series and how the parallel real world shows up. Will AI destroy the human race? Chicken Little’s followers think so, and it’s only a matter of time. The AI environment is changing so rapidly that any attempts to slow or limit development would be inconsequential in thirty days. For example, I’ve been writing about the concept of singularity in this series for a couple of years, and now it’s a new buzzword in the latest AI hysteria. It would be boring as hell to write about AI integration when AI infiltration has more sizzle. I like the possibility of my fiction blurring the line with nonfiction. I want readers to ponder the possibilities: This is too real, isn’t it? This can’t happen, can it? What if it can? Is this the beginning of the end? Is Chicken Little right?

And for readers who begin with Dreamscape Conspiracy and want to continue deeper into the world you have created, what would you most like them to understand about where the story goes next?

I’ve given some of that away in my answers referencing the other books in the series. Book one sets the stage for where the story goes. For me, establishing the characters as a family is essential to everything that happens in books 2 through 6. Book 2, Beyond Dreamscape Conspiracy, is the perfect continuation of the lab’s destruction and the attempts on the research team’s lives. The family and upgraded Dreamscape 2.0 rise from the ashes with greater determination to overcome the odds, as vividly shown in book one. Integrating AI, for example, isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Any organization considering AI will go through the same growing pains, and the people involved will love it, hate it, or land somewhere in between. I choose to examine AI infiltration as where the story goes next. The selfish part of me says, read them all and ask questions when you’re moved to do so.

Peace!   G.