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Dreams.

ZombiemamboZombiemambo Registered User regular
edited July 2010 in Debate and/or Discourse
I've had some very vivid, very surreal dreams, and I'm compelled to share them and hear about yours. This one was from last night:
I'm in the forest. I know I'm traveling with people, but they aren't really identified. Just people. Anyway, we're walking through the forest, and I see these solid black figures just slowly walk. They appear every once in awhile. They kind of look like a Cactuar, if it was solid black and proportioned more like a person. After I see one or two, I try to chase after them. Nobody seems to care much that I'm doing this. So when I get close to one, I start yelling at it. "Hey, wait!" Then, somehow, I can tell it turns its "head" and looks at me, even though there is absolutely no way of knowing which way it's facing as it doesn't have any distinguishing features. I try this a couple more times, and they all do the same thing.

We leave the forest. Now we're traveling in a caravan up a mountain pass, with pack animals and other things. I know we recently battled against what I can only describe as a gigantic manta ray with similar coloring of a crab (red on top, white on bottom). It was a tough fight and we're exhausted. We reach a point in the path that opens up into a valley on the left side. There is a cave about a mile away. At the mouth of the cave is another of those manta rays. We panic. Some girl screams, "Oh no, there's another one!" It slowly takes flight, lazily waking from its rest, and flies behind us and lands at the neck of the path. We can't go back. The animals are scared, we're scared, looks like a bad situation.

Suddenly, somebody says (and it might have even been me), "No, look! It's not coming after us, it's running away from the cave!" We all run to the cave, and at the mouth is this black liquid. It runs like water, but it's thick like syrup. I yell at everybody to stop, because "it's death." Everyone steps in it anyway, but nothing happens. I recall my feet sliding when I took a step, and then suddenly stopping every time. We walk/shuffle forward into the cave.

Now we're in an office building. It's dark and claustrophobic, and I can feel a sense of impending doom. My companions have become a group of highschool or college-age students. I very carefully look around a bit on my own, and then join the group inside of a meeting room with one of those long oval tables that takes up most of the space. Everyone is standing completely still. They look very scared.

They are all looking in the exact same spot.

It's one of the black figures. It's at one end of the table. But it has gigantic white eyes, and they're staring intensely back at each and every one of us, even if they aren't moving. Somebody tells us that we have to look at it, because it will kill us if we don't.

That's when I was woken up. But in the dream, I knew I had to keep looking at this thing, so it wouldn't kill us, and I resisted being woken up. I knew it was happening but there was this sense of extreme urgency that I had to stare at this thing, I just had to, or something horrible would happen.

And then I woke up.

I remember each detail like it actually happened, and I felt like I was there the whole time. It was extremely vivid, and I actually really liked it.

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Posts

  • GreenGreen Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    The only dreams I can ever remember long-term are the really bizarre ones, like this
    My right eye keeps twitching and trying to close like there's something in it. It was getting pretty annoying, so I tell my eye (?) "You'll close over my dead body!" Then my eye responds "That can be arranged, comrade" and pulls out a knife (??) with a hand it has somehow grown. And yes, it had a Russian accent.

    So I pull out a sword and have a duel with my traitorous Russian eye before stabbing it. I believe my exact reaction was "Yesss I wonJESUS FUCK MY EYE CHRIST"

    And then I woke up.

    Green on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Quoting some posts I made in the past couple days.
    I think I'm weird in that 90% of my dreams take place in the same "town". Like, I could draw a map of the layout of its general features, and these features are always geographically the same in location to each other. But the actual details of the landmarks (e.g. architectural style of the buildings) tends to change from dream to dream.
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Only nightmare I vividly remember:

    I'm exploring what seems to be a farmstead that's been abandoned for years, probably at least 20. Everything is rusted, decayed, and overgrown. I walk into the barn for some reason and there's a video camera laying on the ground in the middle. I pick it up, put it in playback mode, and put my eye to the eyepiece. The video is being taken from someone standing exactly where I am, holding the camera straight forward (so its video was the same as my field of view before I looked into the camera), and all the debris (papers, loose hay, etc.) in the barn is blowing around as if there's a strong wind blowing through the door behind me. This creeps me out, so I lower the camera from my eye, and all of the debris in the barn is blowing around exactly as it was on the video.

    Then I woke up.

    Edit: God, that gave me shivers just typing it out. I don't know exactly what it is that creeps me out so much about this, just the whole atmosphere of the thing and the fact that I remember every single detail.

    (that dream was one of the 10% that didn't take place in the usual location)

    Raiden333 on
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  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    the last dream I had that I remembered was mostly normal but my old dog I understood to be two different dogs. it was very odd I can't really give a narrative of it but my perception of this dog was as two separate creatures, although I know them both and they are both my pet.

    Variable on
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  • DasBootDasBoot Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Lately I've started having dreams where about half way through I become aware of the fact that the dream is in fact not reality. I don't remember having any where I've come to realize it is a dream, but I've had many where I come to the conclusion that for one reason or another reality is broken.

    The last one, I was in New York filming a TV show where I was involved romantically with Tina Fey. As we travel the world filming our show where we have adventures around the world, the lines between our character relationship and personal relationship began to blur. It was as if I became bored with the idea of being in a fake relationship with her, and just wanted to bang Tina Fey whenever I wanted to, and so the dream situation altered itself. As this occurred, myself in the dream started wondering why Tina Fey would treat her family so terribly and why all these strange action scene-y things were happening in "real life" I suddenly became conscious of the fact that everything had become farcical and became uninvested in the situation at large. It is very strange and happens with frequency, but it causes me to think about my relationship with reality.

    DasBoot on
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  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    DasBoot wrote: »
    Lately I've started having dreams where about half way through I become aware of the fact that the dream is in fact not reality. I don't remember having any where I've come to realize it is a dream, but I've had many where I come to the conclusion that for one reason or another reality is broken.

    The last one, I was in New York filming a TV show where I was involved romantically with Tina Fey. As we travel the world filming our show where we have adventures around the world, the lines between our character relationship and personal relationship began to blur. It was as if I became bored with the idea of being in a fake relationship with her, and just wanted to bang Tina Fey whenever I wanted to, and so the dream situation altered itself. As this occurred, myself in the dream started wondering why Tina Fey would treat her family so terribly and why all these strange action scene-y things were happening in "real life" I suddenly became conscious of the fact that everything had become farcical and became uninvested in the situation at large. It is very strange and happens with frequency, but it causes me to think about my relationship with reality.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

    You have a gift, learn how to use it.

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  • WashWash Sweet Christmas Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    DasBoot wrote: »
    Lately I've started having dreams where about half way through I become aware of the fact that the dream is in fact not reality. I don't remember having any where I've come to realize it is a dream, but I've had many where I come to the conclusion that for one reason or another reality is broken.

    The last one, I was in New York filming a TV show where I was involved romantically with Tina Fey. As we travel the world filming our show where we have adventures around the world, the lines between our character relationship and personal relationship began to blur. It was as if I became bored with the idea of being in a fake relationship with her, and just wanted to bang Tina Fey whenever I wanted to, and so the dream situation altered itself. As this occurred, myself in the dream started wondering why Tina Fey would treat her family so terribly and why all these strange action scene-y things were happening in "real life" I suddenly became conscious of the fact that everything had become farcical and became uninvested in the situation at large. It is very strange and happens with frequency, but it causes me to think about my relationship with reality.

    This would make a decent movie.

    Wash on
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  • GreenGreen Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    Green on
  • ShivahnShivahn Unaware of her barrel shifter privilege Western coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited June 2010
    Last night I dreamt that there was an earthquake that woke me up.

    Then today? Bam, 5.7.

    Though in all fairness, it could actually be that I was woken up by an earthquake and in my half-asleep state I remembered it as a dream.

    Shivahn on
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    DasBoot wrote: »
    Lately I've started having dreams where about half way through I become aware of the fact that the dream is in fact not reality. I don't remember having any where I've come to realize it is a dream, but I've had many where I come to the conclusion that for one reason or another reality is broken.

    The last one, I was in New York filming a TV show where I was involved romantically with Tina Fey. As we travel the world filming our show where we have adventures around the world, the lines between our character relationship and personal relationship began to blur. It was as if I became bored with the idea of being in a fake relationship with her, and just wanted to bang Tina Fey whenever I wanted to, and so the dream situation altered itself. As this occurred, myself in the dream started wondering why Tina Fey would treat her family so terribly and why all these strange action scene-y things were happening in "real life" I suddenly became conscious of the fact that everything had become farcical and became uninvested in the situation at large. It is very strange and happens with frequency, but it causes me to think about my relationship with reality.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

    You have a gift, learn how to use it.

    Lucid dreaming is kind of a mixed bag, though. I can lucid dream, but I get into these weird situations where, for example:

    The other morning I was dreaming. Then within that dream I realized I was dreaming, and started playing around for a while in the dream. Eventually I decided that I needed to get up and so woke up and started working on this paper, and made a lot of progress. Only the part about waking up and working on the paper and making progress was itself a dream. I thought it was real, I was controlling my own actions, and the whole thing was beholden to the normal rules of reality...only I failed to realized that i was in a dream at the time and not actually writing my actual paper. Then after I finished the paper in the dream I actually woke up.

    And I was pretty fucking pissed.

    I tend to get into those three or four level dreams quite often, and it's fucking shitty. So it takes a while, sometimes, for me to actually realize that I'm actually up in the actual world.

    Hence the Rationalism.

    _J_ on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Green wrote: »
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    You should rent Waking Life, if you've never seen it.

    Actually Waking Life should be watched by everyone who's interested in dreams and dreaming at all.

    Edit: That goes double for you, _J_.

    Raiden333 on
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  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Green wrote: »
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    You should rent Waking Life, if you've never seen it.

    Actually Waking Life should be watched by everyone who's interested in dreams and dreaming at all.

    Edit: That goes double for you, _J_.

    But it uses that shitty animation style from those shitty insurance ads.

    _J_ on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    _J_ wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Green wrote: »
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    You should rent Waking Life, if you've never seen it.

    Actually Waking Life should be watched by everyone who's interested in dreams and dreaming at all.

    Edit: That goes double for you, _J_.

    But it uses that shitty animation style from those shitty insurance ads.

    The animation style changes every segment of the movie!

    Seriously though. I think you'd dig it. You might roll your eyes at some of the pop-philosophy segments, but I think overall you'd appreciate it.

    Raiden333 on
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  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    _J_ wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Green wrote: »
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    You should rent Waking Life, if you've never seen it.

    Actually Waking Life should be watched by everyone who's interested in dreams and dreaming at all.

    Edit: That goes double for you, _J_.

    But it uses that shitty animation style from those shitty insurance ads.

    The animation style changes every segment of the movie!

    Seriously though. I think you'd dig it. You might roll your eyes at some of the pop-philosophy segments, but I think overall you'd appreciate it.

    Alright, so the whole thing is not those shitty "i'm paintin over people" thing from those insurance ads?

    That's tolerable.

    If I ever actually finish this actual paper I may actually watch that movie.

    _J_ on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    _J_ wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    _J_ wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Green wrote: »
    God I love lucid dreaming

    I really want to learn how to do it whenever I want, but then there's a very real chance I won't bother waking up anymore

    You should rent Waking Life, if you've never seen it.

    Actually Waking Life should be watched by everyone who's interested in dreams and dreaming at all.

    Edit: That goes double for you, _J_.

    But it uses that shitty animation style from those shitty insurance ads.

    The animation style changes every segment of the movie!

    Seriously though. I think you'd dig it. You might roll your eyes at some of the pop-philosophy segments, but I think overall you'd appreciate it.

    Alright, so the whole thing is not those shitty "i'm paintin over people" thing from those insurance ads?

    That's tolerable.

    If I ever actually finish this actual paper I may actually watch that movie.

    Well it's all rotoscopped, but the style of the rotoscopping, and the balance of reality/animation, varies from scene to scene. It's by the same guy who did A Scanner Darkly if you've seen that.

    And at first I thought you were talking about the E-surance commercials, but now I have no idea what commercials you're talking about.

    Raiden333 on
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  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    And at first I thought you were talking about the E-surance commercials, but now I have no idea what commercials you're talking about.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2oqI8w1gA

    I guess it wasn't insurance...which I guess speaks to the power of the ad.

    Which is to say that they were shitty, shitty, ineffective ads.

    _J_ on
  • QuickSnapQuickSnap Professional Beard Grower Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I know something about...Dreams

    QuickSnap on
    6rceun58332p.png
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    QuickSnap wrote: »
    I know something about...Dreams

    Man, I miss the Toonami commercials from back in "the day".

    But yeah, lucid dreaming is a mixed bag.

    One of the worst feelings in life is waking up twice.

    _J_ on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ok well this is apparently the whole movie of Waking Life.

    So if you're into dreams, and you've got a hundred minutes to kill, please watch this.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7583894250854515095#

    Raiden333 on
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  • QuickSnapQuickSnap Professional Beard Grower Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    _J_ wrote: »

    Man, I miss the Toonami commercials from back in "the day".

    But yeah, lucid dreaming is a mixed bag.

    One of the worst feelings in life is waking up twice.

    Okay, so I think I might have had one of these a few weeks ago (think being the key word). Or maybe it's the exact opposite. Like, you know the part in The Matrix where Morpheus asks Neo if he's ever had a dream that was so real he'd swear it was reality or something like that? Well basically I had one of those dreams. I could feel myself doing certain things in an unconscious state. The point of interest in this dream, and why I remember it particularly well, was to do with my most recent ex.

    I was in a bed, I'm pretty sure it was my bed, but I definitely wasn't in my room, I think I was in a hotel room cus there was another bed across from me. And there was this guy in the bed, I have no idea who this guy is, he's not important I don't think. Anyways, between myself and the 2nd bed is my ex-girlfriend; and I think we were waking up or something because I remember her holding my hand. And from a different perspective, I remember seeing her eyes opening and smiling at me. And I can feel myself open my eyes to say good morning to her but becuase this was one of those "real" dreams, I actually opened my eyes believing that I was still in the dream. So my eyes opened and I'm smiling and then I realize I've woken up, and at five-thirty in the morning no less.

    So here I am woken up from a dream (that was much larger than what I've described here obviously) and I'm suddenly filled with sadness because I missed her and now had to try to go back to sleep with her not right next to me, which I had just moments ago believed that she had been there the entire night.

    :(

    QuickSnap on
    6rceun58332p.png
  • ShivahnShivahn Unaware of her barrel shifter privilege Western coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited June 2010
    _J_ wrote: »

    Lucid dreaming is kind of a mixed bag, though. I can lucid dream, but I get into these weird situations where, for example:

    The other morning I was dreaming. Then within that dream I realized I was dreaming, and started playing around for a while in the dream. Eventually I decided that I needed to get up and so woke up and started working on this paper, and made a lot of progress. Only the part about waking up and working on the paper and making progress was itself a dream. I thought it was real, I was controlling my own actions, and the whole thing was beholden to the normal rules of reality...only I failed to realized that i was in a dream at the time and not actually writing my actual paper. Then after I finished the paper in the dream I actually woke up.

    And I was pretty fucking pissed.

    I tend to get into those three or four level dreams quite often, and it's fucking shitty. So it takes a while, sometimes, for me to actually realize that I'm actually up in the actual world.

    Hence the Rationalism.

    There are worse things that can happen during lucid dreams.

    For example, if something terrible happens in your dreams?

    Like super awful, but still believable, like weird psychological sexual things involving friends and their terrible significant others?

    Yeah, if that happens, and you go lucid, if it's real enough, it doesn't matter. If it's real enough that you're not sure it's a dream, then lucid powers don't work. And you're stuck there. So you have to sit and wait for the dream to finish, in a fully conscious state. You basically become a prisoner to your mind. Unable to leave. Unable to go elsewhere. Unable to do anything you couldn't realistically do in real life.

    It's, uh, quite a double edged sword sometimes. I'm sure with enough training you could break the mental prison, but it's something you should be aware of as a possibility.

    Shivahn on
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Shivahn wrote: »
    There are worse things that can happen during lucid dreams.

    For example, if something terrible happens in your dreams?

    Like super awful, but still believable, like weird psychological sexual things involving friends and their terrible significant others?

    Yeah, if that happens, and you go lucid, if it's real enough, it doesn't matter. If it's real enough that you're not sure it's a dream, then lucid powers don't work. And you're stuck there. So you have to sit and wait for the dream to finish, in a fully conscious state. You basically become a prisoner to your mind. Unable to leave. Unable to go elsewhere. Unable to do anything you couldn't realistically do in real life.

    It's, uh, quite a double edged sword sometimes. I'm sure with enough training you could break the mental prison, but it's something you should be aware of as a possibility.

    I'm not sure how to appropriately respond to this. Except to say that such a situation would be awful.

    But "awful" does not seem to be adequate enough a description.

    _J_ on
  • ShivahnShivahn Unaware of her barrel shifter privilege Western coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited June 2010
    Eh, don't worry about it. That was a couple of years ago. But I spent the next few days a little messed up.

    Honestly, though, the scariest part wasn't being stuck in there. The scariest part was when I couldn't do anything. I picked up a bedpost and thought "If this were a spear, I could end the dream by starting a fight," so I imagined it was a spear. Only that didn't do anything. I sort of panicked when I realized I wasn't in control.

    Ah, well. I've had some awesome lucid dreams too. I remember when I was a kid I lucid dreamed a lot, only I didn't know I could control the dream, so upon realizing I was having a nightmare I'd blink so hard that my eyes opened. That forced me awake. But my favorite was when I was in the Resident Evil house. I realized it was a dream, then wondered if I could control it.

    I ended up using force lightning on the zombies. That was pretty awesome.

    Shivahn on
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Shivahn wrote: »
    Eh, don't worry about it. That was a couple of years ago. But I spent the next few days a little messed up.

    Honestly, though, the scariest part wasn't being stuck in there. The scariest part was when I couldn't do anything. I picked up a bedpost and thought "If this were a spear, I could end the dream by starting a fight," so I imagined it was a spear. Only that didn't do anything. I sort of panicked when I realized I wasn't in control.

    Ah, well. I've had some awesome lucid dreams too. I remember when I was a kid I lucid dreamed a lot, only I didn't know I could control the dream, so upon realizing I was having a nightmare I'd blink so hard that my eyes opened. That forced me awake. But my favorite was when I was in the Resident Evil house. I realized it was a dream, then wondered if I could control it.

    I ended up using force lightning on the zombies. That was pretty awesome.

    Yeah. I had a friend who was raped, and afterwards she would dream about it in the sort of manner you described such that there were times when she did not want to go to sleep for fear of dreaming about it again.

    There's really nothing to say or do about that sort of situation other than to sit down on the floor and cry. And, of course, sit up late watching movies so that she didn't have to sit awake by herself.

    Luckily, time plus counseling helps to minimize those episodes.

    _J_ on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Sometimes, totally randomly like one night a month, I'll get a fear of going to sleep and distract myself all night with video games and stuff.

    Sometimes I wonder if that's because I had a bad dream the previous night and either forgot it, or repressed it.

    Raiden333 on
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  • ShivahnShivahn Unaware of her barrel shifter privilege Western coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited June 2010
    Well, I'm quite glad your friend's doing all right now.

    In the interest of getting this back on track and sharing a non-messed up dream, last night I dreamt that the planet was being assaulted by aliens. They were basically grays, or sectoids, only they had ribs that were sticking out. They were also allergic to water, a la Signs. One got all mean and snarly, then tried to run away from me down a hallway. I chased after him spraying water.

    The hallway turned right, then turned right again. There were turrets set up everywhere. The alien had to make it to the end while the turrets and I attacked it.

    So basically, I had a dream where aliens were attacking Earth, like a tower defense game.

    Raiden, I will remember dreams all the time that I'd entirely forgotten based on things that happen during the day.

    Shivahn on
  • AthaedosAthaedos Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I'm pursuing a career as an oil painter, and dreams have a way of occasionally distilling my aesthetic sensibilities and presenting an entirely new stimulus or idea at once. Certainly I do not count on them for consistent inspiration (for that I look to my experience of the beauty constantly around me in waking life) but some I have had in the past are more memorable than real memories.

    Really, they are real memories. They're situations we're placed in, yes by our brains but also obviously synthesized from the outside world. Situations made of something untouchable, and I love that they can be so vivid and direct even as they are issued from the subconscious/parts of ourselves that we will likely never directly know.

    Focusing my life so much on vision and awareness of detail has given me the propensity in the past year or two for dreams that are significantly more powerful than most I remember from before.

    I like the idea of people posting their dreams here. It's one of the classic things to be bored by, but more and more I've come to give dreams more weight.

    They're like stories but I think they're more real than that because we didn't invent them as fabrications consciously. They're an in-between world that every now and then can take you to a place so deep within yourself that the conscious mind wouldn't be able to handle it normally. I've had a nightmare that brought a feeling of dread so potent and so unbelievably laced with something infinitely huger than myself and my ability to control, yet somehow related to my own failings that when I woke up my normal fears meant absolutely nothing to me. I was 11 or so, utterly drenched in sweat, and walked around my basement in the darkness (I had a remodeled room down there, but the rest of it was still inhospitable and creepy for a young person) for hours. All I remember is that it was somehow about numbers, sweeping numbers.

    The dreams that fascinate me now are much more... retinal. Here's a few:
    A Normandy-weathered rocky coast. Crashing waves spill over boulders, banking trees and wind-swept dirt. A blasting squall tears away all the water, drying the land. The sea has been swept inland. It returns with all the rivers and lakes as companions. I am cast into the torrent, immediately at peace as the waters slowly calm. I am floating near a tree, more than half of which descends through the waters beneath me. Pulling my way slowly through the branches, I stop for a moment and look up. The surface is too far away. Grey brown green blue light, branches wavering in the mixed waters. Ripples on the surface above. I take a deep breath and as the cold enters my lungs I wake up.
    Another dream, of castles and retail outlets covering a Puget sound hill, all in golden and sunburst. A man with the face of a corpse who is holding a dog in his arms stands on the street in front of my father's house which bears thousands of fluttering American flags. He tells me it's alright if I take his picture.
    Taking flight, running down the side of a mountain inspired by Haleakala but distinctly dream-like, a world from my subconscious of purity and freedom. But those ideals were not open and obtrusive, rather they were compressed into the atmosphere of everything one does and gave a subtle, more honest joy.
    That deeply purple-lit sky and those lightly snow covered mountains, with everything but the ancient white stone parapets falling into the dark moving shadow… And of course a sad and yet strong set of strings plays, as my view shows a parallax glimpse of one primal dreamscape. The strength and veracity of that perception by itself was stunning, and I recall thinking that if I could actually go there, even though I would be alone, it would be the fullest satisfaction of my destiny. I was there to watch the failure of someone, through the eyes of a comedic television show. And yet the place shined through all pretenses and agendas. It made my only agenda appreciation, and humility. That is my subconscious world; that is my dream.


    Some more entertaining ones:
    I finally got to call 911 in a dream last night. I’m such a good citizen, and in front of my dad too! Some guy behind a vehicle shot the police man that pushed him down. Automatic fire opened up, some of it breaking the glass of a building across the street, some of it directed at me (no doubt for being a witness to the cop-killing). I narrowly escaped, but took seven bullets all across my left leg. They found me at the hospital, and I had to stab one of them with a mechanical pencil or doctor’s instrument—can’t remember which. He got away through a sewer pipe just outside of the window of my hospital room. Anyways, a woman with blonde hair led the operation and it was down to lying low to avoid detection by her. I went to Ben’s house, and had the thought to purchase a firearm for self defense, though of course he was apprehensive, citing Christian pacifist values. Eventually I ended up at a house much like my Dad’s house, where the woman had found me after all. She was lecturing me about violence, and I agreed with her. Suddenly, when we had been conversing about the beautiful, we realized that the moon itself was about to crash into the Earth very near by. We ran to the front of my Dad’s house and I gave her the ole’ ‘it’s been good’. But the moon did not crash, in fact it paused just above and suddenly I was aware that it had been an illusion, a saucer-shaped ship with an image of the moon on its bottom. We got on board, after a startling takeoff strapped to the bottom, probably just for fun, and it became apparent that this ship was a community of lost individuals. There was water all over the ceiling, where it must have collected when it was the floor during flight. People who all looked vaguely familiar (but none were identifiable) inhabited the mess hall and bathrooms, and wandered through the cement floored spaces. I had found a place to remain for a while.
    Had another interesting dream with… a Uruguayan terrorist that changed the color of his eyes via sound (clacks from clackers… but only once). Those ceruleans and crimsons were so obviously un-natural that some kind of illusionist magic had to be at his command. He handed over his shiny knife and rode away in his van-tricycle. My group of body-pierced dog-walking friends had been caught and cornered by him after climbing over a barbwire-topped fence. The dog leashes were attached to all their body piercings, including nipples and backs. Seriously, what the fuck?

    I have a lot more to say about dreams and a lot more weird situations with them but I'll try and space it out.

    Athaedos on
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Athaedos wrote: »
    but some I have had in the past are more memorable than real memories.

    Really, they are real memories.

    So dreams are more memorable than real memories, but are real memories?

    _J_ on
  • AthaedosAthaedos Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    What do you think? Not about what I wrote. Is something a memory because it happened or because you believe it happened?

    I guess memories are just like dreams. Not that I don't believe that the past is real. And I don't think I've ever confused a dream with reality except perhaps things in the very distant past.

    I'm sorry I don't always write in the 'persuasive essay' mindset. I think it's pretty obvious that what I meant was 'I've had dreams that are way more memorable than many things in my memory of waking life'

    Athaedos on
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2010
    Athaedos wrote: »
    What do you think? Not about what I wrote. Is something a memory because it happened or because you believe it happened?

    I guess memories are just like dreams. Not that I don't believe that the past is real. And I don't think I've ever confused a dream with reality except perhaps things in the very distant past.

    I'm sorry I don't always write in the 'persuasive essay' mindset. I think it's pretty obvious that what I meant was 'I've had dreams that are way more memorable than many things in my memory of waking life'

    I'm ok with saying that anything remembered is a memory. So, I can have a memory of a dream or a memory of a not-dream.

    I was just sort of confused by what you wrote.

    _J_ on
  • WazzaWazza Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I have had some strange vivid dreams. I should probably keep a dream journal or something, so as not to forget them as the day progresses. Two dreams stick out the most.

    The 1st was fairly straightforward, my neighborhood was under attack by a small group of zombies. My brother and I were holed up in the family home. I decided to go on the offensive with a gun that would shoot paint covered tennis balls (I dream in color). Whenever a zombie was hit it would let off a growl and disappear in a bright flash.

    The second one was stranger, and seemed like a premise of some young adult fantasy novel. In my dream I had died, though I only knew this because all of my mail was forwarded to me to the afterlife (including a newspaper clipping of my obituary [death by drowning, yay], as well as a netflix I hadn't yet received). I was in line to be sorted, where I didn't know, but I appeared to be in the American southwest. It seemed pretty orange... and desert-ish. I was directed to a point over a ridge, and as it turned out, it was a high school. Well, as it turned out, this high school was for kids my age who had also passed on.

    It was my first day of class and I was not prepared, but other students were kind enough to assist me. The first course of the day included some standard death-y stuff (I can't recall, unfortunately), but I guess the objective of the school was to teach the students to be guardian angels, of sorts, in order to earn a (better) place in the afterlife. The specifics escape me, I believe I woke up before the dream progressed further.

    Wazza on
  • AsiriyaAsiriya Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    A couple of years ago I kept a dream diary for a few weeks and it culminated in a lucid dream.
    I was at the time trying to lose a bit of weight (for prom I think). I dreamt I was at the local swimming pool, and leaving when I stopped at the vending machines. I wanted to get something but told myself no, but then I realised I was dreaming, and it didn't matter what I did. So, I raided the vending machine, and then wondered what else I could get up to. I'm sure you can imagine my first thoughts as a 16 year old. I really liked a girl at the time though, so I stopped myself, and it was this that jarred me and woke me up.
    Thinking that it was the diary that let me dream that way I've been trying to keep one again, but I'm not very good at motivating myself to write it. I find that when I wake or just before I sleep I get a rush of memories from the night before, so it makes writing everything down seem a bit pointless. I haven't actually written anything in a few weeks, but every night I still have near-perfect recall of at least one of my dreams (they usually merge together).
    If I was to concentrate/ write them down, I could probably remember a week+ of dreams at this point.
    One that really struck me was one that at first seemed like a party, then morphed into a version of Lost purgatory, with me and a girl sitting on a bench and me just sort of crying because we were dead, but all I wanted was to sit on a beach with her, the wind blowing her hair up and having it scratch at my face.
    A friend of mine had a box of meccano or something but some of the gears were missing, and I thought it was poignant for some reason that doesn't make sense now.
    I also remember running round a house and garden at night, chasing more of my friends. Weird little fragments.

    I have noticed so many little things that were taken directly from what had been happening recently. For instance, there's a flowering bush net to my front door and there are always lots of bees around. I remember stopping and watching them move from one flower to another, trying to spot the pollen sacs. That night I had a dream about being attacked by bees.

    Asiriya on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited June 2010
    Why is it apparently so damn common to dream about losing teeth? I do it very frequently, as do several of my friends I've mentioned it to.

    Echo on
  • AsiinaAsiina ... WaterlooRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Quoting some posts I made in the past couple days.
    I think I'm weird in that 90% of my dreams take place in the same "town". Like, I could draw a map of the layout of its general features, and these features are always geographically the same in location to each other. But the actual details of the landmarks (e.g. architectural style of the buildings) tends to change from dream to dream.

    silenthill21.jpg

    Have fun sleeping.

    Asiina on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited June 2010
    I'm kind of like that too - I have completely random dreams, and then I have dreams taking place in the same 20-ish locations and settings. Some of them go years between appearances, but I instantly remember them.

    Echo on
  • ZombiemamboZombiemambo Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Echo wrote: »
    Why is it apparently so damn common to dream about losing teeth? I do it very frequently, as do several of my friends I've mentioned it to.

    Subconsciously, you want to give somebody a gumjob

    Zombiemambo on
    JKKaAGp.png
  • Mr. J.H. GumbyMr. J.H. Gumby Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I usually have lucid dreams when i'm about to wake up, as if my mind is almost awake but not there.
    The last one was rated PG13 for brief nudity; I was in bed, and these two gorgeous women I don't know where about to take turns kissing little Gumby. And just when I felt the first lick down there, my fucking alarm clock woke me up!.

    I have one recurring dream every time I'm stressed out at work. I dream a swarm of bugs crawling all over me and I can't swat them off or run away no matter how much I try.

    Echo, I've dream a variation of that. I don't dream my teeth fall like they do on real life. I dream I bite and they crumble and it always feels like biting a sweet tart. No pain or blood, they just crumble.

    The weirdest dream I've had was a few years back.
    My city was being attacked by giant flesh eating sticky hands (think The Blob) and a group of survivors and I were trying to defend a home, boarding doors and windows. One of the hands got through and grabbed somebody, I tried to save him and the hand grabbed me instead. I died and it all faded to black I don't know for how long.
    Then I saw a light and as I got away from it I saw that it was a street lamp and below it were two guys, sitting on the hood of a car, talking about my story as if it was an urban legend.
    And then i woke up.

    Mr. J.H. Gumby on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited June 2010
    Echo, I've dream a variation of that. I don't dream my teeth fall like they do on real life. I dream I bite and they crumble and it always feels like biting a sweet tart. No pain or blood, they just crumble.

    Yeah, there's never any pain or shock involved when I dream about it - it's just "oops, lost a tooth!"

    Echo on
  • emnmnmeemnmnme Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    One dream that really stuck with me was back when I first played Super Mario 64. I spent a good three hours with that game the day I got my N64 console and when I went to sleep that night, I dreamed I was was still playing the game. My 'vision' moved the same way as the camera in the game did - 90 degree pans to the left or the right - and I was controlling Mario ... in my dream. I've always figured this dream was due to a mixture of excitement and me being unused to 3D games.

    Later on, I saw a TV doc on sleepwalking and one teen girl explained why she jumped out of her second story window in her sleep. She was dreaming she was also playing a Mario game and she had to run in time with a spike wall trap in the level. If she didn't keep moving forward, she would die. Whoops!

    emnmnme on
  • SelnerSelner Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    _J_ wrote: »
    Athaedos wrote: »
    What do you think? Not about what I wrote. Is something a memory because it happened or because you believe it happened?

    I guess memories are just like dreams. Not that I don't believe that the past is real. And I don't think I've ever confused a dream with reality except perhaps things in the very distant past.

    I'm sorry I don't always write in the 'persuasive essay' mindset. I think it's pretty obvious that what I meant was 'I've had dreams that are way more memorable than many things in my memory of waking life'

    I'm ok with saying that anything remembered is a memory. So, I can have a memory of a dream or a memory of a not-dream.

    I was just sort of confused by what you wrote.

    Maybe this is why dreams can be really difficult to remember, because they didn't actually happen the brain doesn't form whatever connections it needs to do to retain the memory.

    Generally the only "memory" I have of a dream is the memory of the telling of the dream. So if I tell someone about it right after I wake up, I will be able to remember everything I told them but nothing else.

    Like I can tell you that I've had some rather lucid dreams, a couple of times realizing it was a dream. And at least once thinking to myself in dream land "this had better be a dream, because that was messed up and I wouldn't actually do that".

    Most of my dreams play out in a form of 3rd person "movie vision" where I am watching things happen, and I can identify one of the people in the dream as me (even if the person looks nothing like me, dream-self tells me I'm looking at myself). If I get the semi-lucid aspect, I will able to make things happen to the people I'm watching.

    I have confused a dream with reality a couple of times though. I've gone a couple hours of the morning, thinking I've done something when it only happened in the dream. It'll make me stop and go "wait, did I do that thing or not?"

    I also sleep walk on occasion, but I never get very far. The furthest I think I've gotten is pulling cereal out of the pantry and suddenly realizing I wasn't in bed any more.

    The worst is "waking up" a couple of steps from my bed with the knowledge that there is *something* I *have* to do, but not being able to remember what that is.
    I've gone some weeks where that happens every morning and it creeps me out a little bit.

    Selner on
  • kaleeditykaleedity Sometimes science is more art than science Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    My dreams, or what little I remember of them, typically consist of completely regular happenings, extremely difficult to distinguish from reality. There may be a slight deviation -- when I was in school I'd infrequently dream that I had a project or paper of some sort due immediately that I had forgotten about. Most of these dreams end with me instantly waking up, sometimes instantly realizing that I had nothing I had forgotten, and sometimes jumping out of my bed and wracking my brain to ensure that I didn't forget anything. These dreams bothered me only because I never actually forgot even minor assignments through all my schooling up through college.

    The dreams I do remember deviate a bit. I remember one dream I was walking home from my friend's house on the suburban street that I lived on. It's a pretty nice place and still is. Nothing was unusual. Spring time, clear warm weather. When I was about halfway down the street -- the one my house lies about in the middle of -- I don't know if I only just noticed it or if it just appeared, but there was a massive pelican walking down the perpendicular street down the road a block from my home. Easily 6 stories tall, impressively brilliant white plumage, almost as broad as its height, a massive orange, yellowish bill. It was walking from my right to left, facing straight in front of it. It did not pay any attention to me, if it noticed me at all. I felt a primordial fear and sprinted to my right to my backyard, quickly getting outside of its sight, opened up the fence, walked through my backyard thinking what the fuck I'm going to do about this situation. I looked around in my backyard and thought for a second that something subtle was off about how our yard was organized, something felt off about how the plants or the garbage can were placed. Ironically, this brief thought stirred me quietly awake.

    I had another dream where I do not recall anything but the end. I answered the door at my house under normal circumstances during the day and a dirty looking man in a trenchcoat had some form of automatic weapon and fired a burst directly at me. I felt a pressure on my chest and looked down, and I took that same action in my bed, sitting up. I didn't have any feeling of fear at any point in this one, and easily went back to sleep.

    kaleedity on
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