Dreaming and Nightmares

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Lots of people fail to appreciate the symbolic nature of dreams. For example, "I had to push a box into a square hole in the ground and walk across it." Sounds to me like "paving the way" or "laying the ground work." "I could hold this kite above my head and it allowed me to jump 100 feet into the air." Sounds like flight with the assistance of a (magical?) object. The sub-conscious mind can't communicate with the conscious mind rationally, directly, so it uses symbols. What do these things symbolize to you?

I find it fascinating how the unconscious mind is often more poetic than the waking mind.

My dreams are too often riddled with symbols indicating themes of loss, oppression, and futility. But there's also a fair amount of adventure and symbolic triumph as well. Thankfully, or I'd probably have to check myself in for a "vacation" somewhere.

My dreams usually consist of either me in a deadly situation where I have to use my own strengths to overcome my own doom... and other dreams consist of arguing with my family...

I don't know why perhaps subconciously, the first one is telling me that I'm aware that there are dangers that I have to overcome or else those dangers will beat me down... I have no idea perhaps it's all just coincidence, or perhaps it's simply my love for Mortal Kombat.

I like to go to sleep with the Tv on sometimes because the background sound gets incorporated into the dream.Last night,the daily show was on and I dreamed that I was at a "club" with Jon Stewert who was interviewing Obama(which he really was on TV).In the dream,I had a key and phone "thingy" that Jon needed while he was on air but it was clipped to a chain around my neck and I couldnt get it off to give to him...he was really getting mad/frustrated with me and I was so embarassed to be so clummsy.

There was much more to the dream,I wont bore you with.What I think is interesting is how the external world can become incorporated into the dream world.It gives some plausability to "learning while sleeping tapes" and seems like something that could be marketed as a "dream director"......Audio-tapes to help you fly,have sex,etc.

I'm not sure that the box was about paving the way for anything. Maybe it had to do with making something "fit" in my life, or having order and control. It was solving a puzzle. I think the box came from a video game where you can push boxes around (either Zelda or Half Life).

The wierd thing was that in the dream it seemed completely reasonable and natural that holding a kite over my head would allow me to jump 100 feet into the air. The kite was nothing special. I thought that was what you did with kites. You held them over your head and jumped into the air. It wasn't untill I woke up that I realized it defied the laws of physics. Bummer.

Last edited by marshall on 23 Aug 2007, 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have had a disturbing number of dreams involving my father... shall not say more on that one.
And also I tend to have dreams of having very realistic conversations with those I cannot communicate with in real life but with whom I feel a certain affinity.
I have also dreams of things that came to happen at a later date.
Some nights, I do not recall dreams at all.
I have also had dreams of murders and suicides.

I hardly ever have dreams about real people in my life. If there are other people in my dreams they are usually people I haven't seen in years or sometimes celebrities or people from movies. The names and faces are often mixed up too. I will dream about someone but they won't look like they do in real life, they will look like someone else. It will seem completely normal in the dream and I won't realize the face is wrong until I wake up. Things are always wrong in my dreams.

I've had some very disturbing dreams. Probably the most 'G' rated disturbing dream that I get recurrently is my teeth falling out. The other ones I've had are much too disturbing to tell here. They usually involve me doing terrible unspeakable things for no reason and then feeling mortified.

I dream most nights, but I don't get nightmares.

I can remember my dreams in every single detail, where I was, to what I said, to who was in it etc.

I very very very seldom have nightmares, but I have had them. I have also had disturbing dreams....I kept dreaming that I was being raped by an ex-boyfriend's extremely obnoxious druggie friend (who i did NOT get along with)...and then he would laugh and say "Just kidding" and then I'd wake up
A deceased cat used to visit me in my bed recurringly....also my elderly landlord would enter my room wearing only a towel and then proceed to take the towel off and then I'd wake up with a start (whew! )...the dreams that take place with me in my bed are the weirdest...and they are pretty rare..sometimes it has seemed like I have had "empathetic" dreams...and on occasion a premonition or two...

I love it when i dream. i don't remember my dreams every night, but when I do i write them down.
I find it hard to grasp the symbolic nature of most of my dreams because they are so surreal...for example...here is my last post from my dream blog....

I fail to see the symbolism there.

I understand that there is symbolism when it happens....but alot of time it seems to be nothing more than abstract cerebral feedback...i.e...dreams MAY be symbolic, but not all of them are.

What is a jar of mice supposed to mean? Or a herd of elephants being hit by cars in front of the place where I work?....or......ummmmm......

I mostly have 'serial dreams'...which means that they are set in same locations.
And these 'dreamscapes' repeats over and over again.
Some appear similar to my city and my neighbourhood, and some are simply strange...

I sometimes have lucid dreams,and in them I mostly research places and people in them,where I mostly have conversations with these people.
Its also interesting to see is that people in those lucid dreams are quite friendly towards me...


As for nightmares...my main nightmare theme is actually gigantic hospital,full of lepers and other malformed patients that are mostly in various stages of decay.My only goal in these nightmares is to escape from this hospital.
And as you folks can see,this is also a repetitive dream.

I used to dream about an old fashioned stucco shopping strip that had a roller rink and a movie theatre..for a couple of years I would dream about this place.

There were also these two tall narrow victorian houses right next to each other where there were a whole buncha hippies..and the upper levels of one of the houses was crammed with old junk, and everything was supposed to be free. The bottom level of one of the houses mighta been a record shop..and there was old clothes for sale out front.

More nuclear war last night.

Except this time everybody else was acting like nothing was wrong, just going about their business. I was like, "Hey, everybody.... it's dangerous out there!" And they were like, "Whatever. We're going out. Hey, look at that pretty cloud."

I've been dreaming my balls off lately. I got this herb in Canada that is supposed to make you dream harder. I made it all into a tea. It tasted like s**t, and I didn't dream very hard right away, but a couple weeks ago I had an extremely vivid and lucid dream. I even forgot I was dreaming. Ever since I've dreamt HARD every night. I also realized that when you dream, people's faces don't stay constant. You'll be talking to your mom and she'll turn into George Washington or some crazy s**t like that. It's been great, I've been getting laid by numerous womens, getting trapped in mazes, seeing crazy monsters like a moving possessed demon's torso, skeleton warriors riding dinosaur fossils through museums, lots of crazy colored fires, and etc. But I don't remember everything unfortunatly

i had a dream last nite that i came out of my body again, it was very uncool!

Is the herb you are taking calea?