What is the story behind PostSecret?

In December 2003, I took my first trip to Paris, France. That night checked into a hotel in the Latin Quarter. While I slept I had an extraordinary dream that would change my life and eventually lead me to the PostSecret project.

My first day in Paris I had purchased three Antoine de Saint-Expery's "Little Prince" postcards from a small shop near my hotel. When I got to my hotel room and prepared for bed I placed the cards in the nightstand drawer and went to sleep. During the night, I had a lucid dream in which I was aware that I was in my own dream. I found myself in my hotel room. In my dream I opened my nightstand drawer and examined the three "Little Prince" postcards.

Each one had been altered with messages written on their backs. The first message read, "unrecognized evidence, from forgotten journeys, unknowingly rediscovered," the second message was about a "reluctant oracle" postcard art project and the last message I could not understand at the time.

When I awoke, I removed the actual postcards from the drawer and tried to recreate them so they would appear like the ones I had seen during my dream. What I did not know was that those three remade Little Prince postcards would be the first work of a trilogy of postcards that would consume my life and set me on an unimaginable journey.

In January 2004, I started the "reluctant oracle" project. Every Sunday, I created an released a new work to be discovered. They were discovered by people serendipitously. The story found local, national and international media coverage.

The last message from "reluctant oracle" bore the message, "You will find your answers in the secrets of strangers." The next Sunday the PostSecret began.