Ship of Fools: Weird dreams

Thread: Weird dreams Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

As I've aged, I wake up more frequently at night, and thus seem to recall my dreams more clearly. I suspect others have odd dreams that might be worth a moment of idle attention too. I've never been much of one for dream interpretation after someone told me that all flying dreams really were about sex. But seeing as this is not a flying dream, I am game for any sort of reponse! I thought I might start this because of the weirdo dream I had last night....

My dream:
I was at a dinner where we were all served rather fat penguin looking birds to eat, but they were made of vegetables. The body was a yellow squash, jacketed with an eggplant (aubergine) that had been hollowed out to make the black of penguin's shoulders and back. The head was some sort of round thing, and the beak was a carrot. I was talking to someone in the buffet line about it when the penguin started to talk and the person I was talking to turned into a veggie penguin herself.

Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :

Just keep off the mind altering substances before bed time, and all will be well.

At least, that has been my experience.

Posted by Paddy O'Furniture (# 12953) on :

I dreamed I was locked in a warehouse-club (such as BJ's, Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) overnight and was scared. I didn't know how I was going to get out. I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided I had to get up to the ceiling somehow and see if there was a trapdoor leading to the roof. I turned myself into smoke and rose up off the floor and ascended the stacks of merchandise. When I got to the ceiling I was pleased to find the trapdoor. I changed back into my human form and got the trapdoor open. Once on the roof, the sheer height of the building daunted me for a few minutes. I stopped and pondered my problem, thoughtfully. Ah-ha! I turned into a kangaroo and leaped harmlessly to the ground. I wanted to get home quickly because I was tired so I stayed in my kangaroo shape and hopped home.

When I woke up from this dream I laughed and wondered WHAT the hell the dream had been about!

Posted by Enigma (# 16158) on :

I'll let you know....

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

My dreams aren't any weirder than they ever were but I too wake up more often so I tend to remember more of them. What I do find disturbing is that so many are similar. I am either in the same place, or making the same journey. I can't say the same about people as apart from family and close friends I don't recognise them.

If the radio is on, it often 'merges' with my dream, which can be odd.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I, too, wake up frequently. Lately the subject matter of my dreams has tended toward the unpleasant. Not nightmares, exactly, but situations I'd just as soon not be in.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

I go through phases of remembering dreams; I'll remember several on successive nights and then none for ages. They don't have the surreality of the ones being described here, but they usually have a high embarrassment factor, as they almost invariably involve people I know in very silly situations.

When I gave up smoking (about 6 years ago) I used nicotine-patches, and found myself waking up several times a night, each time remembering a different dream. This is a well-documented and logical side-effect; you have the patch on all the time, so your body's getting the nicotine even when you're asleep and wouldn't be having a cigarette.

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Paddy O'Furniture:
I dreamed I was locked in a warehouse-club (such as BJ's, Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) ... I turned myself into smoke and rose up off the floor ... I turned into a kangaroo and leaped harmlessly to the ground...

Oh what playful flexibility! If I dreamed I were stuck in a Sam's club I'd probably sigh, realize everything I need is right there, go find a movie to watch in the electronics section, make up a bed in the mattress or camping section, find food in the grocery section.

I like your dream approach to the situation better! It solves the problem creatively instead of putting up with the inconvenience.

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

I've had to go on a C-PAP machine because of sleep apnea...when I first started using the machine I began having the most vivid and complex dreams -- it's as if my brain were making up for all the missing REM time -- but now that has leveled off.

What I do find myself dreaming about very often, though, is finding new rooms in my house, or being in an enclosed shopping area like the one in Grand Central Station, or being on a city block, and discovering odd little stores or situations as I work my way along the aisle/walk. I'm sure Jungians would have a field day spelunking my dreams!

Posted by Paddy O'Furniture (# 12953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
I've had to go on a C-PAP machine because of sleep apnea...when I first started using the machine I began having the most vivid and complex dreams -- it's as if my brain were making up for all the missing REM time -- but now that has leveled off.

What I do find myself dreaming about very often, though, is finding new rooms in my house, or being in an enclosed shopping area like the one in Grand Central Station, or being on a city block, and discovering odd little stores or situations as I work my way along the aisle/walk. I'm sure Jungians would have a field day spelunking my dreams!

Ah! Welcome to the C-PAP club. If I still considered myself Catholic, I might be a C-PAPIST!! Haw Haw. But seriously, I also have some weird dreams at times, especially if I've gone without using my C-PAP for a week or so. Oh, hell, I'm only kidding myself. I have weird dreams almost EVERY night! It's because I'm weird when I'm awake. [Biased]

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :

Very frequently in my dreams, I 'levitate' by tensing my arm muscles - with my arms by my side - and 'pushing down' with my hands. I can then move horizontally, whilst still nearly vertical - not quickly, but enough to get me out of trouble or to go somewhere I want to go. Sometimes, the levitation is to 'show off' and I just 'hover' lol.

I am usually able to remember my dreams very vividly and sometimes I can wake up and then go back and carry on with them, having gone for a 'comfort break' or carried on a conversation with the missus (which she remembers, so I know that I didn't imagine it).

Yeah, OK, I'm strange!

Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :

Recently I've been aware that I've been having very strange dreams, without actually remembering what they are. It's as if, on waking, the following conversation occurs:

my subconscious: Whew. That was strange.
my conscious mind: What was?
my subconscious: Oh, nothing. [Saunters off whistling, hands in pockets]

I'd rather remember the dreams as then I could at least try and work out what the heck is going on. As it is I just have a lingering feeling of oddness.

Posted by Darkwing (# 16207) on :

I keep a dream journal that is chock full of the bizarre stuff that comes out of my head, but one of my personal favorites was the dream in which my leg was infected with a virus that was turning my flesh into cheese. I was taking a shower and the infected area was dissolving in the hot water, and big chunks of my cheesy calves were sloughing off and falling on the shower floor until I could see my bone.

Then I woke up and scratched my leg a lot the rest of the day...

quote:
Originally posted by Paddy O'Furniture:
If I still considered myself Catholic, I might be a C-PAPIST!!

Guh.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

I periodically have a dream that I am in my thirties and that I'm still in middle school. Everyone knows its because I'm afraid of adulthood, but they write it off as, "That's just Lyda". [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Macrina (# 8807) on :

I had a dream recently where there were evangelical Muslims. I had a view from the back of the mosque while the band up front slammed out some choons and everyone sang worship songs with 'Allah' in them instead of God. Very, very weird.

Posted by Mamacita (# 3659) on :

I usually sleep well, but the other night I had a series of stressful dreams about taxes -- rooted, no doubt, in my anxiety about getting the tax returns filed for my father's estate.

In the final dream of this series, I had apparently hired an accountant [silly because my husband is a CPA, but anyway...] and I had gone to meet with him. I drove and drove quite a distance, and when I first caught sight of the accountant, he was wearing a cowboy hat, a fleecy sheepskin vest, and had a long ponytail. I began to despair that I had placed my trust in such an odd individual, and then a weird-looking old man walked up to me and said, "You know, you shouldn't judge a person on appearances."

I woke up very poorly rested, but when I remembered this part of the dream I started laughing.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Meerkat:
Very frequently in my dreams, I 'levitate' by tensing my arm muscles - with my arms by my side - and 'pushing down' with my hands. I can then move horizontally, whilst still nearly vertical - not quickly, but enough to get me out of trouble or to go somewhere I want to go. Sometimes, the levitation is to 'show off' and I just 'hover' lol.

I am usually able to remember my dreams very vividly and sometimes I can wake up and then go back and carry on with them, having gone for a 'comfort break' or carried on a conversation with the missus (which she remembers, so I know that I didn't imagine it).

Yeah, OK, I'm strange!

No. I can return to finish a dream too. Don't levitate much though, I don't get dreams as cool as that.

I do dream ski though. Snow has fallen on some place I know up to the roof tops, (the place varies) and I ski around, doing little jumps off the roofs. Odd thing is I have never skied, or wanted to.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Last night I had an SoF dream. We went out - all of us - to somewhere that was between a theatre, a craft fair, a restaurant and a muddy field. Some very funny things were said (which of course I can't recall), there was some gossip and a flounce. And then we all took the buses home.

Just like it is in reality, then.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I periodically have a dream that I am in my thirties and that I'm still in middle school. Everyone knows its because I'm afraid of adulthood, but they write it off as, "That's just Lyda".

It's years since I had a school dream, but happened to have one last night. I was sitting with three friends, desperately trying to eat our school lunch very quickly, because otherwise we would be late for hockey. I couldn't remember the route to the hockey field, but one friend said she'd get a lift in a car with a satnav (they weren't invented then), another friend said it would take 3-9 days to travel there by car (I asked if she was planning to travel to the hockey pitch via north Wales?), at which point I woke up. I haven't played hockey since I was about 15, so goodness knows where that dream came from....

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :

My wake-laughing dream was while helping at a Scripture Union girls' camp at Drumnadrochit by Loch Ness. I dreamed that Guns N Roses joined us on the team to help out and that Slash was wildly inappropriate with the campers. Hope (who got me onto the Ship) can testify that it was a funny camp.

On Saturday morning before the last night of the opera I dreamed that we had to perform in a huge hall with a stage the size of a football pitch, and we had to run everywhere to get into position for our cues. I quite enjoyed it.

Cattyish, happy dreamer.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

Alas I haven't really remembered a dream for about 40 years [Frown]

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

I went on a weekend course at a building in Thanet, with a very creaky corridor and fire doors. I woke in the night, needing to go to the loo, down said corridor and through said fire door. Realising that I would wake other attenders, I floated down the corridor so as not to make the boards creak. Reaching the fire door, I further realised that, because of basic physics, I would be unable to open it while floating, so descended to the floor.
At which point I woke properly, and had to sneak down the edges of the corridor - still creaked a bit.

Penny

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
What I do find myself dreaming about very often, though, is finding new rooms in my house, or being in an enclosed shopping area like the one in Grand Central Station, or being on a city block, and discovering odd little stores or situations as I work my way along the aisle/walk. I'm sure Jungians would have a field day spelunking my dreams!

All my life I've had dreams like that. Often it's about revisiting a familiar building (such as the church I grew up in) and finding new passageways and rooms in it.

(Should I ask what the Jungians would say?)

Part of me thinks that for me, anyway, those dreams about revisiting old familiar places and finding new rooms/passageways might be about the ways in which my life and my thinking have changed and grown since I used to frequent those places. After all, a building houses your mundane activities, your living/dwelling, and your thinking too.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I periodically have a dream that I am in my thirties and that I'm still in middle school. Everyone knows its because I'm afraid of adulthood, but they write it off as, "That's just Lyda".

I used to have dreams about returning to school as an adult. Sometimes it was just me, sometimes my whole graduating class, but there was some technicality discovered and I hadn't actually finished high school so needed to return. Well, after my 20th anniversary HS reunion (IRL), I had another of these dreams - this time, with my whole graduating class returning. We were standing in our school lobby with the principal. I stamped my foot and started yelling at the principal: "I'm in a PhD program. He already has a PhD. She has 6 kids..." and so forth, until I woke up and didn't have those dreams anymore!

As for waking up and returning to dreams, it sometimes happens to me when I'm really sleepy and don't fully wake up; but once it happened when I was having a dream about a RL experience, when I was mugged at gunpoint. The dream was changing all the details, but it had a specific resolution point, so every time I woke up and tried to stay awake (I was having a nightmare, after all), I couldn't stay awake and my dream picked up where it left off. Finally, it resolved and I woke up refreshed - and with a little insight.

Posted by Sir Pellinore (ret'd) (# 12163) on :

Some years ago, I tried Jungian analysis, which is very into dream interpretation. I now believe Jungian analysis is a good tool to understand literature and that's about all. This is not intended as an in-depth critique of Jungian analysis. It may very well help some, it very well may not.

I think we all want to 'understand' ourselves. That is why we tend to look at dreams, which come when our conscious minds are turned off.

How do we really 'understand' ourselves? I really don't have much idea. May I just say I wish all of you on this thread, who I believe are sincerely on the trail, that you reach our destination safely?

Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:

My dream:
I was at a dinner where we were all served rather fat penguin looking birds to eat, but they were made of vegetables. The body was a yellow squash, jacketed with an eggplant (aubergine) that had been hollowed out to make the black of penguin's shoulders and back. The head was some sort of round thing, and the beak was a carrot. I was talking to someone in the buffet line about it when the penguin started to talk and the person I was talking to turned into a veggie penguin herself.

Obviously God is trying to tell you you should become a vegetarian no_prophet. [Biased]

I dream so much I've come to the conclusion I live in an alternative reality when I sleep.

Seriously.

All this talk of ten dimensions, parallel universes and all that jazz in quantum physics? No reason why we couldn't be existing somewhere else at the same time.

The weirdest dream for me is a recurring nightmare.

Moved to Australia 1992. The dream started then.

Hasn't stopped.

Usually happens once a month or two. Wake up shouting. Scare the hell out of my husband.

Weird shit indeed.

Even weirder? My husband has gotten so used to it that he usually knows when I'm going to start shouting and prepares himself in his sleep.

So when I actually do it he doesn't have a cardiac arrest.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

Another dream I've had on a recurring basis, since I was probably about 6 years old:

I first had it when travelling over the mountains to the west coast. This used to be a much more adventurous travel that it is today. The dream involves eating chicken noodle soup, falling asleep, waking up in a B.C. rain forest (the trees are perhaps up to 20 feet in diameter) and there are ravens cawing, and I realize they are talking to each other about the power line that runs along the road. I didn't exactly understand raven talk, but I knew for certain what they were on about. I have this dream several times per year. It sometimes involves flying with the ravens or at least over to them. Sometimes it seems to focus more on the chicken noodle soup than the ravens.

I do have some dreams where I am delivering violence to others. They are people who were violent to me, and the intent is quite obvious. I harbour feelings about their actions and the harm they created. Some recent life events have made them emerge more strongly, unfortunately. The chicken noodle soup dream is entirely a gentle counterpoint. It might actually be my mind serving me up something in the face of the more troubled dreams (?) One wonders.

[ 21. April 2012, 15:48: Message edited by: no_prophet ]

Posted by Enigma (# 16158) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:
Another dream I've had on a recurring basis, since I was probably about 6 years old:

I first had it when travelling over the mountains to the west coast. This used to be a much more adventurous travel that it is today. The dream involves eating chicken noodle soup, falling asleep, waking up in a B.C. rain forest (the trees are perhaps up to 20 feet in diameter) and there are ravens cawing, and I realize they are talking to each other about the power line that runs along the road. I didn't exactly understand raven talk, but I knew for certain what they were on about. I have this dream several times per year. It sometimes involves flying with the ravens or at least over to them. Sometimes it seems to focus more on the chicken noodle soup than the ravens.

I do have some dreams where I am delivering violence to others. They are people who were violent to me, and the intent is quite obvious. I harbour feelings about their actions and the harm they created. Some recent life events have made them emerge more strongly, unfortunately. The chicken noodle soup dream is entirely a gentle counterpoint. It might actually be my mind serving me up something in the face of the more troubled dreams (?) One wonders.

Is this how authors are made???? Just a thought.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

A recurring dream (for many years) is of some public event or gathering -- not always the same -- at which I am completely nude.
When I finally mentioned this to a psychological counsellor, he questioned me closely about the dreams, disclosing that a common thread was that in the dreams I was unconcerned about my condition. His conclusion: that I was incredibly self-confident in most situations, (this proved helpful, naturally) and that I should not worry about the dreams (also helpful).
Now many years later, I still have the dream from time to time, but less regularly than before.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

May all your dreams come true, except the one where you end up naked in church.

Saw this painted on the side of a camper van the other day.

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

I envy people who remember their dreams a lot. I hardly ever do. In fact, I can't remember the last time I woke up remembering a dream - it must be several months at least.

I'd love to be able to remember my dreams (even the weird ones). Are there any techniques that might help?

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:

I'd love to be able to remember my dreams (even the weird ones). Are there any techniques that might help?

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is associated with dreaming, so the trick is to wake during one of these periods. They are more extended towards morning, so it might be an idea to vary your normal waking time.

Dreams are also quite fugitive, so immediately thinking about and rehearsing anything you recall as you wake is important. If you attention goes directly on waking to your conscious life then the unconscious stuff disappears very quickly.

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Dreams are also quite fugitive, so immediately thinking about and rehearsing anything you recall as you wake is important. If you attention goes directly on waking to your conscious life then the unconscious stuff disappears very quickly.

That could account for it. My mind tends to go from fast asleep to full speed in seconds. (Meanwhile my body is going, "Oh for pete's sake, it's still half an hour till the alarm goes off...".)

If anyone asks me to recall a dream, it's still one I had about 25 years ago. I was in amateur acting at the time. About a week before a play was due to open, I dreamed vividly that I was arriving home from work. I knew I just had time to have a snack, shower, and get to the theatre. But when I opened my front door, I discovered all the scenery and props for the play in my living room. I did the only sensible thing there is to do in a dream, which was to pick it up piece by piece and run with it to the theatre - where, naturally, everybody else was oblivious to the crisis. The panic with which I awoke quickly and mercifully turned into giggles at how ridiculous it all was.

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

I sometimes dream that I'm back at the university but at my present age; that it's the first day of classes, or perhaps final exam week, but I've lost my schedule and can't remember the names or halls or even registering for the classes. I don't think I need a psychology degree to figure out that message from my anxious psyche.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

I woke from an unusual nightmare in which I was being chased by an evil clown in a clown car. The car had one of those clown horns which made a "parp-parp" sound. In the nightmare I ended up fleeing to my house, but the evil clown was circling round the outside with his "parp-parp" horn. I woke up terrified and realised I was too scared to open the bedroom curtains in case he was out there, with his vivid clown face pressed against the glass, peering in.

I'd never knowingly had any dream like this before.

Turned out my son had changed the tone on his mobile phone so that it went "parp-parp" when he had an incoming text, and he'd accidentally left his mobile in my bedroom....

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LutheranChik:
I sometimes dream that I'm back at the university but at my present age; that it's the first day of classes, or perhaps final exam week, but I've lost my schedule and can't remember the names or halls or even registering for the classes.

I have a similar recurring dream in that I suddenly discover that I've been forgetting to go to a particular class -- have not been there in months. Or that I'm several points short of qualifying for my degree, and can't decide whether to take the necessary courses to earn the credits or just forget about the whole thing.

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
A recurring dream (for many years) is of some public event or gathering -- not always the same -- at which I am completely nude.

Me too.

Interesting how people tend to dream the same subject matter.

Other recurring dreams of mine:

I'm on a train or subway that I take frequently, but this time there's something different or strange about the route.

I'm performing in a play, but there's one scene we haven't rehearsed in a long time and I'm sure I don't know my lines.

I'm back at work again, and I've been told that my position will be terminated. However, they're keeping me on indefinitely, and I keep hoping that either they've forgotten about the termination or that it's been rescinded.

I'm a kid again back at home, and my father behaves very cruelly toward me (in real life he never did this).

I also dream that I'm in various situations that ordinarily give me pleasure, except this time I'm unable to derive any pleasure from the situation. (I keep hoping that when I have this dream, I can learn to control the situation so that I do derive pleasure from it. But so far I've been unable to.)

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
I envy people who remember their dreams a lot. I hardly ever do. In fact, I can't remember the last time I woke up remembering a dream - it must be several months at least.

I'd love to be able to remember my dreams (even the weird ones). Are there any techniques that might help?

"Intermittent insomnia", meaning waking during the night to a level of consciousness where you can think like you would when waking. It is a curse to some of us, such that I put calm symphonic music on an internet radio to a pillow earphone-speaker and try to meditate as I fall asleep on the same repetitive thoughts, which are cliché things: small waterfall, trees and flowers.

Thus, put a pen and paper beside the bed, or electronical-confuserish iPen-iPaper-iRecorder-iThing if you have it, and see if you can muster up some consciousness when you come close to the surface of sleep at night. Coherence of the iNotes can also be an issue, as can a recording of your voice telling yourself about your iDream.

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

I usually have horrendous nightmares so I tend to avoid going to sleep. But last night I was exhausted and fell asleep. Instead of my usual nightmares I had this very odd dream that I was a member of the French Foreign Legion on manouvres in Africa somewhere. Most strange.

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

Last night I dreamed that I went on some junket with my former coworkers; I was to take the plane with them, and my partner was going to drive to the destination and meet me there. No, I don't know what that was about. Anyway, I dreamed that my erstwhile good work pals kind of ignored me at the airport, didn't give me the flight info, let me get separated from them...and pretty soon I realized that our flight was boarding, and I had to run as fast as I could, baggage in hand, to the boarding area. The person there was about to check my baggage and let me on the plane when suddenly another airport worker came running up with a little girl in a wheelchair and said, "This is an emergency; this child needs to be on this flight," so I got bumped from the flight. Then I couldn't find my cell phone to call my partner; I finally did find it; the power was rapidly ebbing away, but I was able to reach her and was tearily gulping my tale of woe to her when I awoke.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

I had a strange one last night. There was a black couple hiding from...someone. They were living in a beautiful home underground.

They got old there, and after they were finally able to move about above ground, they would go home in the evening.

I was helping the lady down the stairs (she was quite elderly by this time) and I was outraged that the stairs had risers that were about twelve inches tall. I was looking down, trying to keep my footing and helping her, and trying to figure out how to put in a new staircase when I woke up.

Very strange.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

Okay, so I'm, definitely going to be considered insane after this one.

A former boss from nearly 20 years ago is at a meeting with a number of people including myself. Not sure what it is about. I can somehow see that he has a forked penis. Just like a a snake's tongue but it is definitely a penis. I mention that he has a forked penis, and he says he doesn't and blushes. I seem to have control of the conversation and he seems to become less and less dominant. The meeting seems to disappear, and then I hit him with a 2 by 4 piece of lumber over the head, and the dream seems to melt into something purple and I woke up. I must have disliked him rather intensely. I wonder how many bosses may have forked penises with which to screw over employees.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

That sounds eminently sane and applicable to real life!

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by birdie:

I'd rather remember the dreams as then I could at least try and work out what the heck is going on. As it is I just have a lingering feeling of oddness.

When I was ~ 17, I awoke with the knowledge that I wouldn't live to see morning. I was entirely at peace with this, though I did debate waking my parents to inform them. I decided to let them rest, as there was nothing they could do to change my impending demise. So I went back to sleep.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

It's worth remembering that dreams function as a rebus: images represent ideas, and there is a lot of punning. no_prophet's dream is a good example - 'forked' is associated with deceit (forked tongue): it is also a near-homophone for 'fucked', so yes it is about bosses screwing you. And while it relates to a past figure/situation, it's always worth reviewing what they could 'stand for' in the present, and what needs to be struck down. And why purple?

Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on :

Large buildings tend to feature for me - impossibly grand stately homes, highly futuristic skyscrapers (where the lifts for some reason are always on outside). I've logged these as recurring once or twice a year for I don't know how long, and very often I know that they're somewhere I have actually visited, like a former home or school.

A 30 year old dream that still makes me smile is of trying to explain something to my grandmother, who was being very slow on the uptake. In real life she could have a very piercing, shrill voice, and when she finally what I was saying she started going "OH yes ... OH yes ..."

Then I woke to the sound of a couple of cats on the lawn making little baby cats, with very similar sound effects.

Posted by Nunc Dimittis (# 848) on :

I dreamt last night (or rather this morning, as I woke from the dream/nightmare at about 3.30) that I was with a friend (?), someone who I had always wanted to know, but who left college before I arrived, and under inauspicious circumstances. We were in her father's house (a priest), which had a circular atrium, off which the rooms came. There was a clothes dryer in one of the rooms (my friend's bedroom?) where we had left a candle alight while we went to the kitchen to get something to eat. It wasn't long before I noticed the flames and commented to her - she said don't worry about it, and we walked out of the house. But I couldn't let it go so casually, as I could see the flames had now reached the study where all her dad's books were. So I cried out for someone to ring the fire department... Walked a little way away from the house, and came back some time later to see people (who lived on other floors?) coughing and sputtering, and a pile of smouldering timber/remains in the middle of the courtyard. I felt so guilty and that these people's lives were in my hands and I had waited too long before calling for help - and how was I going to live with the responsibility for the rest of my life?

Posted by Silver Faux (# 8783) on :

Nunc, this seems like a con-evo dream; like Nero, you are fiddling while America burns with Democrats in the White House; also, you do not assist your friends to avoid hell's fire by urging them to the altar rail to be saved.
Or not.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
And why purple?

Purple in my mind is contrast between red and blue. Red being assertive and blue acquiescent.

The rest of the dream? I'm reflecting some past long ago occurrences that possibly were jogged in my brain by recent things. Not really very deep in that sense.

I take dreams myself as bits of nonsense, possibly and not always additionally symbolic. The symbolic nature of some of them? Dunno. After I posted, I pulled a book "The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman" (Louis de Bernières) from my shelf and he has the image of my dream there.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

I've been having really weird dreams lately. Not sure if they'd interest anyone else, though.

One the other night featured the farm I grew up on. I dreamed I was visiting it (it's since become a subdivision) and noticed that the bit of woods that used to come up behind my grandparents' house was framed by really tall, old columns as if from a Roman temple or something. They were blended in with the trees, and once you entered, there was no ceiling or anything. In the dream, I recognized the old ruins and marveled at how I had forgotten about them. Since, IRL, I'm studying ruins, in my dream I commented, "No wonder I'm interested in ruins!"

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I'd agree that most dreams, most of the time, are a jumble of impressions, memories and vague meanderings. But then so is most mental activity in waking life. But buried in there is an occasionally illuminating, sometimes poetic voice.

But it requires application to tease out the insights, and while last night's dream of the female German train driver who'd written a play in the form of partially-corroded metal grid doubtless means something to me, I doubt I'll make the effort to find out what.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

Firenze, your mind sounds quite creative to me!

I tend to think of dreaming as defragging your hard drive, and as the mind tries to figure out where to stash those bits of short-term memory it wants to keep (for whatever reason), it digs lots of other fairly random stuff out of the files. It's not completely random, though - perhaps what gets dredged up is adjacent to where the subconscious mind thinks the new bits of memory ought to be stored.

Interestingly, it turns out (so I hear) that memories are not stored in whole chunks, but in separate bits of sound, vision, smell, etc., and, as we all know by now, a memory is actually reconstructed as it's recalled (so remembering is always a creative act). Maybe dreams are also our brains practicing recall.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Evensong:

The weirdest dream for me is a recurring nightmare.

Moved to Australia 1992. The dream started then.

Hasn't stopped.

Usually happens once a month or two. Wake up shouting. Scare the hell out of my husband.

Weird shit indeed.

Even weirder? My husband has gotten so used to it that he usually knows when I'm going to start shouting and prepares himself in his sleep.

So when I actually do it he doesn't have a cardiac arrest.

Yikes!

I used to have a recurring...not so much nightmare as creepy dream. One time I had it, I woke up and wrote a poem about it (which I then reworked over and over) - and I never had the dream again.

Is there any way you can think of dealing with your recurring nightmare? Maybe it's not something to write a poem about, but is there any way you can, in your waking hours, explore it and defang it?

[ 28. April 2012, 20:02: Message edited by: churchgeek ]

Posted by Enigma (# 16158) on :

Last night I was trying to remember the dreams I had forgotten - then I went to sleep and dreamed loads of dreams that I have now forgotten -- again!!! There was one dream that I used to have which was very dark but gone away now.....I hope for the memory remains.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:

If anyone asks me to recall a dream, it's still one I had about 25 years ago. I was in amateur acting at the time. About a week before a play was due to open, I dreamed vividly that I was arriving home from work. I knew I just had time to have a snack, shower, and get to the theatre. But when I opened my front door, I discovered all the scenery and props for the play in my living room. I did the only sensible thing there is to do in a dream, which was to pick it up piece by piece and run with it to the theatre - where, naturally, everybody else was oblivious to the crisis. The panic with which I awoke quickly and mercifully turned into giggles at how ridiculous it all was.

That reminds me of one I had a while back - maybe a year ago? I somehow got roped into filling in for the lead in some play, and the stage was set right in the middle of California Street here in San Francisco (just past Chinatown, where the hill steepens considerably - I believe the stage was in one of the intersections!). As we were about to go on, I suddenly realized I didn't know a single line. My fellow actors suggested I just adlib, and they'd help. I went to write part of a speech on my forearm, and realized the entire script was in French! Now, I could possibly recite the French, but I certainly can't adlib in French.

I don't recall how the dream ended. I'm also not sure if I was me in the dream.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

Well, last night Kelly Alves was in my dream. We were running. I wish I could remember if we were running to or away.

My sister and my mother and I all have had frequent dreams of finding covered china casserole dishes. Usually they are in water that is very clear. Sometimes mine are mingled with gigantic sea shells. Sometimes I have to dig them out of the sand, but most of the time the dishes are just sitting there. And they are beautiful! Lovely patterns of flowers (usually) in many different colors.

Why do all three of us dream like that?

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enigma:
Last night I was trying to remember the dreams I had forgotten - then I went to sleep and dreamed loads of dreams that I have now forgotten -- again!!! There was one dream that I used to have which was very dark but gone away now.....I hope for the memory remains.

Keep pen and paper by your bed and write them down. (If you sleep with someone, a torch avoids waking them up)

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enigma:
Last night I was trying to remember the dreams I had forgotten - then I went to sleep and dreamed loads of dreams that I have now forgotten -- again!!! There was one dream that I used to have which was very dark but gone away now.....I hope for the memory remains.

Keep pen and paper by your bed and write them down. (If you sleep with someone, a torch avoids waking them up)

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

When I was fourteen, I dreamt I drove a car off a cliff. When I awoke, I found I had fallen out of the upper bunk and landed on the floor uninjured!

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

I've recently started having weird dreams about my former roommate's cat and mine. We lived together in Detroit; I'm in California now, so there's a huge distance which somehow the cats magically transverse.

Last night, I dreamed I was on the phone with this friend, and she told me my cat had been missing for 9 days, and was last seen near a really mean cat. We both agreed she was probably dead, and I started mourning her - and noted that the thought of my eczema and allergies improving didn't help me feel better. Then I noticed a tabby on my floor, but it was one of my friend's; I mentioned to her that this cat of hers was at my place (and then noticed another of her cats too), and asked her if she'd like me to bring them back to her on my next visit home. She said, "Sure. Then I'll shop them around at different shelters." I was horrified (IRL she would never get rid of one of her cats) and considered just keeping them, or finding homes for them out here, when I noticed my cat curled up sleeping under a table. I was so relieved! And the dream ended (morphed into a different one, actually).

My dreams about these cats always involve one or more of them going missing, and the cats being out of place (mine at her place or hers at mine). In one dream about a month or two ago, they kept appearing and disappearing and trying to force their way into my apartment. One of them even doubled herself, so I knew (in the dream) they weren't real. Plus I'd shoo them out the door, turn around, and see them coming down a hallway toward me. It was only a little creepy, though.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
My sister and my mother and I all have had frequent dreams of finding covered china casserole dishes. Usually they are in water that is very clear. Sometimes mine are mingled with gigantic sea shells. Sometimes I have to dig them out of the sand, but most of the time the dishes are just sitting there. And they are beautiful! Lovely patterns of flowers (usually) in many different colors.

Why do all three of us dream like that?

That is really fascinating! Do you all tend to think alike in waking hours? (Or did you when you were growing up & all living together?) Were casseroles or casserole dishes significant to you all (i.e., feature in some significant event(s))?

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:

quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
My sister and my mother and I all have had frequent dreams of finding covered china casserole dishes...
That is really fascinating! Do you all tend to think alike in waking hours? (Or did you when you were growing up & all living together?) Were casseroles or casserole dishes significant to you all (i.e., feature in some significant event(s))?

We really don't think alike at all! We all three have totally different lifestyles and priorities. We have, however had similar dreams on the same night. (My daughter and I have had spookily exact same dreams on the same night having nothing to do with any conversations we have had or waking experiences.)

The only china casserole dish I can think of is the antique Haviland one my mom has had for most of my life. So, that's not something we collect or actively look for normally.

We do report to each other when we have one of those dreams!

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

That's really one of those things that makes you think there's SO much about reality we are only beginning to understand!

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

Emotions certainly play a role in dreams. I paid for and then arrived home without the registration renewal for an automobile yesterday. My dream was how I was to write an exam about something I didn't know, had not attended classes about, and was otherwise completely ignorant. Not sure the class.

Then I realized I was not wearing pants. At that point spouse's alarm clock went off at 5:20 a.m., mis-set by one hour, which spared from both another hour of sleep and the classes response to my pantlessness. I don't think I had any forked naughty bitses thank god!

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

I've got a form related to my comprehensive exams that I'm taking around for signatures - from an administrator who certifies my language requirements; from my committee chair and each member of my committee; from our area convener (similar to a department chair); and finally from the dean of the whole consortium (my school is a consortium of seminaries).

So last night I dreamed I had the form out and noticed on the very bottom was a place for the signature of "The President of the United States." [Killing me]

I remember protesting, "Why on earth would he care?"

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