The Dream Thread

[jvcc]

I know we'd had them before, but I've always been very interested in dreams. This is not restricted to dreams about Spamusement.

I'll start. Last night I had a dream that I had to visit a prison for some reason (I think to ask a favor of one of the guards or officials) and they had a two way detector of some sort like they have at stores when you walk in. I accidentally went in the "going out" one and triggered an alarm. The staff came running to me, all freaked out. I was really freaked out, too, but mostly because a group of convicts (who all looked like teenage boys and girls) were sitting unguarded in a hall playing cards and glaring at me with menace in their eyes. The prison had a gift shop, and I think I was browsing through it when I woke up.

Please post wacky or interesting dreams. Mine wasn't to good, but it was fresh in my memory.

[Beef Boullionaire Joyboy]

I don't remember my dreams very often, but 2 or 3 times a year I'll go through a period where I remember dreams every night for about a week. They're always really weird.

During times when they're exceptionally vivid, I often have really long-seeming dreams that only make sense while I'm dreaming them. I mean, it will seem like all one big long continuous story until I wake up and think back with my awake brain, and realize that the setting and cast of characters had changed suddenly and completely 2 or 3 times without me noticing.

Also, have you ever been extremely horrified in a dream by something that wouldn't seem even the slightest bit scary to you in real life? The first dream, and first nightmare, that I ever remember having involved me visiting the house of some strange Asian man that I didn't recognize. I don't remember anything about what happened there, but when I was about to leave, I looked down at my shoes and THE LACES WERE MISSING!!!!!!! Somehow, that seemed like the most sinister thing imaginable at the time. I woke up instantly. I was only about 4 at the time, but after calming down a bit, I was able to see how completely retarded that dream was. I have had a few more like that over the years, where I was freaked over something completely random and harmless, and then laughed about it as soon as I woke up.

[James]

During times when they're exceptionally vivid, I often have really long-seeming dreams that only make sense while I'm dreaming them. I mean, it will seem like all one big long continuous story until I wake up and think back with my awake brain, and realize that the setting and cast of characters had changed suddenly and completely 2 or 3 times without me noticing.

Yeah, I think that's pretty normal. Apparently, no matter what people say, dreams last about two or three minutes. They can segue into one another, seeming like part of one big dream, but that's because you're in such a state that you don't question any of that stuff. At least, that's how I understand it.

Also, have you ever been extremely horrified in a dream by something that wouldn't seem even the slightest bit scary to you in real life?

Kiiiiiind of. Basically, I've had dreams about a similar theme a couple of times, and although the theme could be seen as scary, it's not something that bothers me at all in waking life. They were about missiles or bombs or other such explosive devices. The first one I remember had a great big missile in a pit in the ground, and it absolutely terrified me. It wasn't the explosion, however; it was the fact that it would somehow sap the life out of the whole world, making everything hopeless and bleak. Basically it was like some sort of fictional villain, only in missile form. That scared the poopcakes out of me. Another time apparently I went sleepwalking (which I used to do a fair amount) talking about some sort of bomb. Then, in my second year of university, I had a dream I don't remember too clearly, but it involved another explosive -- possibly an atomic bomb -- and it was one of those dreams that was terrifying enough to make me wake up, and shortly after waking up you're still a bit disorientated and still feel a very real dread, but with diminishing clarity over what it was about (or was there ever any clarity? Perhaps in dreams you just don't notice its absence), so what I invariably do is get up and go to the loo. I don't think I especially need to, but it's pretty much the only thing you can do in the middle of the night. By the time I go back to bed I've generally regained my senses enough to not be fearing for my very life and soul, and am able to get to sleep. That period when I'm still confused is so horrible, though. Everything seems hopeless and doomed. Lovely.

As I've mentioned before, one time at university I woke up to the sound of my own screaming. That was pretty weird and kind of fascinating, but I don't remember feeling particularly scared once I'd stopped. Strangely, I don't think my girlfriend of the time remembered it until I mentioned it to her.

OR MAYBE I only wake up because I need the toilet, and the reason that the only time I go to the toilet in the night is when that happens is that I actually have horrific dreams every night and I only remember them when they're interrupted. Probably not, though.

There's nothing like the terror a dream can inspire in you, though. Well, maybe there is, but it's still pretty dang scary.

[Null]

I still remember a pretty vivid dream when I was a youth, wherein our elementary school teacher told us about a type of storm called an "Oxygen Devil" which was absolutely silent and had the effect of removing all the oxygen from the air. That scared me for days.

[katzenkoenig]

http://www.slowwave.com/index.php?date=02-10-05

déjà vu...

[James]

I know we'd had them before [. . .]

[bottlecap]

I had two weird dreams last night. In the first one, my parents and I were staying overnight at the home of my sister, her husband and their 3-year-old son. Now, in this dream, my sister was some Russian/Eastern European woman with a mustache, and the son was some kid I had never seen before. In real life, they have been divorced for about 18 years, and their son is almost 20. Anyway, I really hate my ex-brother-in-law, which is probably why I did what I did in the dream.

In the dream, I decided to wake up in the wee hours, steal his car (a beautiful classic convertible), drive to a remote property where he owned a cabin-type structure, and burn it to the ground. On the way back, I saw a single-prop plane flying overhead. When I got back, the brother-in-law was really pissed that I had stolen his car. My "sister" told me that the occupants of the plane were some Arab friends of his who had called and told him they saw me try to drive it into a ditch (they must not have seen the other crime).

Anyway, I woke up from that dream feeling pretty good that I had just gotten away with arson against someone I hate. The second dream involved my hanging out in the library with a friend of mine. Somehow, he had gotten hold of pictures of a girl I liked in high school, but they showed her having all of these unflattering facial characteristics, like acne, blotches, etc. I was checking them out and starting to become less impressed with this girl, chatting quietly to my friend about it. Suddenly, two Pentecostal girls came up behind us and starting talking loudly about how rude it was to talk in the library. I started screaming and cursing at them, then I woke up.

[Beef Boullionaire Joyboy]

I think an evil missile that aims to bleaken the world is a pretty reasonable thing to be afraid of. I guess it's the same general type of thing, because you wake up and realize that such a thing is silly and doesn't exist, but at least it's something worth worrying about while you still believe it's real.

I've never really been scared by a dream for more than a couple minutes after waking, though. In fact, I'd say that waking up from a truly horrible and terrifying dream is one of the most wonderful feelings I have ever experienced. That moment when I realize it was just a dream, and that big awful problem no longer needs to be dealt with... Reality, which seemed so dull the day before, suddenly feels like some magical cosmic wonderland compared to the life I truly believed I would have to suffer through only seconds earlier.

Of course, sometimes it works the other way, and I end up fairly crushed that all my greatest fantasies aren't coming true. That doesn't happen as often, though. Not that the dreams are mostly bad, though. They're mostly good, just not that good. Or bad.

[jvcc]

Some of my most terrifying dreams are dreams that seem real. For example, I had a dream not too long ago that I woke up and it was still dark out. In dreams you usually have a view of yourself from outside your body, and you may be in "your house" but everything is different. In this dream, I was looking out my own eyes from my bed at my normal blankets. Somehow I knew that a floating demon-head was watching me, and if I turned and looked out from under my blankets I would see it.

I woke up and would not for the life of me turn around. I was convinced the demon-head thing was there. Even after I got the courage to look, I still feared it would appear.

[James]

In fact, I'd say that waking up from a truly horrible and terrifying dream is one of the most wonderful feelings I have ever experienced. That moment when I realize it was just a dream, and that big awful problem no longer needs to be dealt with... Reality, which seemed so dull the day before, suddenly feels like some magical cosmic wonderland compared to the life I truly believed I would have to suffer through only seconds earlier.

I used to get that in the school holidays. I'd invariably dream that I was back at school, and wake up to the wonderful realization that no, I was still on holiday. In my dreams school was really terrible. Even worse than in reality!

In dreams you usually have a view of yourself from outside your body [. . .]

Speak for yourself! I don't know where my body is in most dreams. It probably doesn't even figure into it, normally.

Similarly, I don't think people really speak in my dreams. Information may move around the place, but it's always a sort of pre-existent thought or knowledge or whatever. My dreams seem to be more about fairly static scenes than moving things with distinctive events. That said, that's not a definitive rule. For example, I remember one dream which involved me being on this weird big train-raft, and there being some criminals with guns, and I said something completely pointless for no real reason, which drew their attention to me, and I got a gun pointed at my head. I can't remember whether or not they shot me. Anyway, they were events and speech, I guess. But still, it kind of bypasses all the trivial details that real world action has to go through, like sound and whatnot. Again, this is only how I remember it. I couldn't say for sure what it's actually like as I'm in it, obviously, because I'm asleep at the time.

Also, I couldn't tell you whether or not I dream in colour. Some people say they do, some say they don't. I don't know one way or the other. As I remember them, my dreams lack sensory definition, to be honest. They seem to be more about knowing the situation than actually experiencing it with the senses (obviously I do experience internal sensations like terror, though).

[MysticalDescent]

My friend had a dream where he was stuck on an island with Saddam Hussein (this was before his execution) and a book on English. The book was his and Saddam asked to check it for him. As Saddam took the book he pulled out a knife and stabbed my friend. Apparently, the rest of the dream consisted of him looking down at the wound before looking up at Saddam pleadingly shouting things like "What the fork?" and "WHY?"

[Nyperold]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but all of my dreams have been first-person.

[jvcc]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but all of my dreams have been first-person.

How odd. I guess I dreams that most peoples' dreams are fundamentally the same. James's dreams sound especially odd to me.

I know I dream in color, and most dreams play out like a story with characters who act and speak. I am almost always there, too, but never looking through my eyes. It's like I have a camera shot of myself. Even if I'm not looking at myself, I'm not looking with my body. It's like a bizarre, floating thing of sight with no eyes to be looking through.

[James]

Maybe I just don't have a very visual imagination. Or not much imagination at all. I'm not very good at picturing things vividly.

[jvcc]

Maybe I just don't have a very visual imagination. Or not much imagination at all. I'm not very good at picturing things vividly.

Holy cow. Every night before I sleep I visualize stories in my head (not dreams). I generally have a few going on at once. Right now I have a scenario in which I wed Horatio Hornblower and get to go on one of his voyages with him. I picture myself in the general garb women wore during the Napoleonic Wars, the ship, the sea, the different characters...

[Skimba]

I once had this dream where a friend and I went Halloween decoration shopping in this very rural town, that was being set up for nuclear destruction, no idea why. Anyway, we ended up walking really far and our cars were far away. None of the townfolk would give us a ride either. So one man was nice and gave us his giant Snickers bar (unwrapped). So my friend and I rode the magic, flying, giant Snickers bar back to our cars. We then tied it to the roof of her car and took it home with us.

[PonderThis]

Funny you should bring it up. I had a spamusement dream last night. I was in a crowded bar and across the room KatyM was making flirty faces at me, but whenever I tried to walk towards her, she always remained the same distance away, or disappeared altogether. Sitting at the bar (and paradoxically, in that dream-like way, sitting right next to me), was Kupo, who was mocking me relentlessly until I felt really bad about myself, but just when I was feeling really depressed Skimba (or how I imagined Skimba to look since she don't post pictures) walked up to me and kissed me and I felt all better.

Meanwhile, as all this was happening, a few seats down the bar gif was watching the football game on TV and cursing.

Weird, huh?

[Skimba]

Awesome Ponder.
You get an imaginary, magical, giant snickers bar!

What did I look like?

[Judas Maccabeus]

I remember most of my dreams, at least for a few hours after waking up; however, they are unremittingly boring and mundane, so I never bothered to remember any for a longer time than that.

[Null]

I've got a blog out there that's nothing but dreams. Sometimes I'll look at an older entry and be really startled by what I dreamed some months back.

[ntw3001]

I really hate to wake up thinking 'Wow, what an awesome dream, I'd better remember it so I can recount it later! I should have no trouble remembering it, since I'm most definitely very awake and I remember it perfectly now, so why should I forget later on?' Then I always forget. What is it that makes dreams like that? I mean not that you don't remember them, but that you can wake up, have a very conscious memory of them, be able to recount the entire dream to yourself, and five minutes later have completely forgotten? Surely it should be no less memorable than any other conscious memory, but it just is. IT IS A MYSTERY

My dreams, as I remember them, are often in some kind of video-game format. Like, it'll be top down and all viewed from a certain angle or something. It'll switch between that and a normal, non-game first-or-third person view. Also, I'm sure I dream in colour. Oh yes, of course. There was that dream involving the dolls and the evil Postman Pat when I was three and again when I was four, and I was admiring the dolls because they were in pleasant pastel colours. Also, I remember someone saying you couldn't read in dreams, but then a while later I read a sign and I was very certain I read it and it had real words. Yet another easy victory!

Also, I read the sign in a dream. I may have forgotten to mention that.

[Null]

I think the reason dreams fade so quickly sometimes is that they aren't really "recordings" of sensory experiences, the way we experience memories of our waking lives, but rather brain impulses that stimulate the sense centers but otherwise have nothing behind them.

THe same way you could poke someone in the "Watch a chicken cross the living room" center of the brain and he would think he was watching just that, even though the nearest chicken is hundreds of miles away. If there really was a chicken there, though, he'd tell that story to anyone who'd listen until he'd driven all his friends away. Since it was just a brain-poke, though, he'd likely just forget about it and go back to eating pretzels or whatever.

[kupo]

My dreams tend to overwhelm me and sometimes I don't know why.

I have reoccurring themes in my dreams. 90% of the time. I keep thinking it must have some sort of deeper meaning. But maybe it's just...random.

I often dream I'm going on a train/at a train station/late for a train. Something to do with trains (and by "trains" I mean subway trains and elevated trains). Sometimes I dream about airplanes, but they are never completely in the air. Sometimes they are just driving on the ground. Sometimes they're in the air, slightly above the ground. They've even been on a sinking port, bordering between ship and plane, on the way to Italy.

I'm always on these planes/trains.

Sometimes I dream about certain highways that I've never seen, but they register in my dreams as places I've been. Sometimes I even keep dreaming of the same places that exist only in my dreams. I've had a few dreams of carnivals off of highways that were in the middle of nowhere. Barren places, without trees, houses, or anything. Just random.

I've had dreams where I was in a place that registered as New Orleans though I have never been there.

And, of course.......quite a few times I have dreamed I was in World of Warcraft. If anything, I assume that is a sign that I have played the game too much. But it's always more than just the game. I'm IN it, not just playing it. There isn't a health or mana bar or anything. I even had a dream where I was somewhere in Tanaris digging up a map.

The other night I had a dream where I saw a spider in a web, and hanging in its web as its food was a piece of wrapped up pink hard candy.

Dear lord.

Where are you, Freud?

[giantsfan97]

I'm IN it, not just playing it.

As I have said before, I really think that if the machines had used WoW instead of a real life simulation in The Matrix, nobody would have wanted to be freed.

[Nik]

For a while I had a reoccurring theme of malls in my dreams. Often the dreams had nothing to do with the mall, so that was annoying. But it was almost always the same mall.

I had a dream once that I was wearing a fantastic red dress, so now I've been searching for it in real life.

I also have dreams where I'm in school and can't find my way to where I need to be. I just keep getting lost. Apparently that's a common one.