posted on January 28, 2004 09:58:55 PM new
Oridinarily, I sleep well and long, and my dreams hover me over places I've glimpsed in novels or fond real-life scenes with friends. But every once in a while, I have an ominous, vivid dream of disaster, and it always comes in the form of a plane crash. It doesn't have too many variations, this dream... I'm either a passenger on the fated plane or observing it as it goes down; one time, I missed catching a flight in Arizona and watched through the airport "observation windows" as my flight climbed and then crashed.
Last night, I was in a hotel in my dreams, talking with friends I'd not seen in years (and most of whom are dead). I heard a tremendous engine-gunning outside our room and went to the window to discern its origin. A 747 was barely climbing above the trees surrounding the hotel; its engines roared and the plane pulled up sharply --almost vertically -- and then it flipped over, topside-down, and I hollered at all of my (mostly dead) friends to run like mad and avoid the explosion.
I awoke seconds after my brain had computed that I couldn't outrun thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel...
So, do you have a recurring or haunting dream? Will you share it?
posted on January 28, 2004 10:45:37 PM new
One of my most disturbing dreams--and one that I remember vividly after all these years--is the first one I can remember having. I was 4 or 5 years old. One evening I was playing on the porch of the apartment we lived in, sitting in two cardboard boxes & pretending I was in a train engine. The front door was open, & my mother was ironing clothes in the living room.
I must have fallen asleep, but in my dream I was still playing on the porch. A yellow convertible sports car drew up at the curb and a small man got out and started walking toward me. As he walked, a third arm appeared from behind his back. I turned to yell for my mother, but the door was closed and all the lights were off. The man's third arm reached out & he grabbed me by the thigh. I got away from him & climbed through the window next to the door, into our apartment. The man followed. I ran across the room to where my parents were sleeping [they slept on a Murphy bed in the living room, my sister & I shared the bedroom]. I tried to wake them up, but I couldn't, and the man tried to grab me again. I tried to hide under their bed, but he still came after me. I got away again and ran into the bedroom & jumped into the bed. The man came into the room and reached for me again. I screamed & jumped out of the bed and ran into the living room.
And there was my mother still ironing clothes. When I'd fallen asleep, she picked me up and put me to bed.
This dream is still as vivid now as when I had it all those years ago. Looking back, I know why I had the dream, too. It was a guilty conscious. Earlier that evening, we'd gone down to the laundromat down the street, and my mother sent me back to the apartment to get the box of laundry soap we'd forgotten. On the way back I spoke to a man I didn't know--though I knew I wasn't supposed to--and for some reason let him pick me up and carry me down the street to the laundromat. He didn't do anything to me, but knowing it was not something I was supposed to do must have given me a guilt trip, and the dream was the result.
******
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on January 28, 2004 11:24:24 PM new
For years I had one where an "entity" that was pure evil would be near my bed. I'd try to holler but no sound would come out and it would be suffocating to breathe. Finally I'd realize it was a dream but I'd have to fight my way out of it as the evil thing would try to be stronger and take over. Thankfully I haven't had that dream for quite a few years now.
I do have a recurring one where bad guys are in my house or on my property and I run to get my gun but I can't load the clip into it and I panic. Then I get to the phone and dial for help but the call doesn't go through and I keep trying over and over. I feel powerless.
posted on January 28, 2004 11:35:52 PM new
Bunni, at the first mention of 'the third arm' I began forming ideas of my own about your dream. I'll let the psychologists sort it out.
Oddly enough, my Mom had a real life experience similar to the one you dreamed -- with variations, of course.
She was walking home from school in Seattle (1930's) and she espied a man following her. She hastened her pace and entered her home by the "service" entrance -- a jammed door that no one used. She cowered inside that doorway too afraid to move; soon, someone -- the man? -- began to rattle the doorknob. My Mom (she couldn't have been more than 15) nearly passed out from fright. Whoever was at that door cranked on the doorknob for at least a minute, and then went away.
My Mom is 82 now, yet she can still recall the terror of that experience as though it happened yesterday.
Sometimes, it seems that one person's truth is another's illusion (dream) ... odd as it may sound, I've more than once felt that there are a finite number of personality types, and that we intersect in the most outrageous ways... You might have some tie to my great, great grandmother, for instance, and I might be related to the tri-armed driver of the yellow convertible sports car.
Aside from all the politics and day-to-day living, there remains the question, What's all this for?
Sometimes it's enough of an answer to connect the dots of dreams...
posted on January 28, 2004 11:51:13 PM new
Kiara, your powerlessness over intruders or loading your gun efficiently sounds the same to me -- on the surface -- as my inability to avoid a plane crash, even when my mind stages it so that I'm not on the plane!
I wish I'd studied psychology; I'm sure you and Bunni and I (and everyone else) have incorporated archetypes into our psyches that we can only confront while sleeping. It'd be a gift, I think, to understand the symbolism beneath our dreams...
posted on January 29, 2004 09:00:21 AM new
That wasn't a "dream", Kiara. And you would be surprised how many other people have experienced the exact same thing. That's all I will say about that.
When I was in college (and for awhile after), I had recurring nightmares where I was in Nazi Germany and was pulled off the street and pushed into a group of people. We were lined up against the side of a building as German soldiers prepared to shoot us. I always woke up before they did, of course. But it was always the exact same dream, the same street, the same building. Sometimes I would dread going to sleep at night fearing to have this dream.
The other recurring dream I vividly remember having as a child, was where I would be forced to walk a narrow plank over a lake filled with crocodiles. I always had this dream when I was sick with a fever, and it usually preceded sitting up and throwing up in the bed. Maybe I watched Peter Pan one too many times.
posted on January 29, 2004 02:01:50 PM new
I don't know if it can actually be called a "dream" exactly, but do you ever wake up in the dark and you just KNOW there is someone standing next to the bed, behind your back. Standing there in the dark ready to kill you if you move?
You can "feel" them there, behind you, and you really just cannot turn over to look because then they'd know you were awake... And they would stop looking and do something even nastier.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on January 29, 2004 05:29:53 PM new
I had this dream where I was in two different places at the same time. (And yes, it was before Firesign Theatre) Schroedinger's dream....
You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on January 29, 2004 08:04:41 PM new
Us insomniacs don't have nightmares. The maybe two hours a night I actually sleep I'm dead to the world..once in a while I'll wake up knowing that I had a dream, but I'll be darned if I can remember what it was..although once I did remember dreaming the refrigerator was full of nothing but cheese in spray cans and miracle whip...I shiver just thinking about it....
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 29, 2004 09:39:11 PM new
Here's a wierd one for you;
I used to have this happen quite often but it's been about 10 years since the last occurence.
It seemed as though I was half asleep and half awake because my eyes were open and I could see whatever was in my direct line of sight in my room. I would hear a strange buzzing sound in my head that got louder and louder. I couldn't move even a finger no matter how hard I tried but I tried to fight it as hard as I could but to no avail. The only sounds I could make were muffled yells. I would be trying to yell because I was so scared of what was happening to me. This would normally last what seemed to be about 5 or 6 minutes and then it would subside and I would become fully awake and then I could move but I would just lay there and shake with fear.
About 15 years ago some of my brothers, sisters and myself were sitting around talking and someone mentioned that they had been experiencing this. Then one by one we all confirmed that we too had experienced this. We later talked to the other brothers and sisters that weren't present at that discussion and they confirmed this also.
None of us had a clear explanation of what the phenomena was, other than that it was exactly the same with all of us.
posted on January 29, 2004 09:58:28 PM newThat wasn't a "dream", Kiara. And you would be surprised how many other people have experienced the exact same thing. That's all I will say about that.
I don't have a clue what KatyD’s theory is on this but I'd be interested in hearing it.
After reading about it, I found it is known as "sleep paralysis" and can be a condition that happens to many. Or it can involve "shadow people" or aliens or demons.
Yellowstone, the stories of people who hear the buzzing sound is associated with alien abduction or an “out of body” experience.
I prefer to think that it was because I had many fears back then and I've conquered lots of them now so don't get the dream anymore.
posted on January 30, 2004 12:43:15 PM new
We all have sleep "paralysis"--it is the body's way of protecting us. Sleepwalkers are folks who for some reason don't have it. Occasionally, we begin to wake up before the paralysis has let go of us and become aware that weare unable to move much.
******
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on January 30, 2004 05:43:25 PM new
Haha, Katy! As if the 405 isn't already terrifying enough with jets careening 100 feet overhead perpendicular to traffic!
Any bad dreams I have in the next few days shall be squarely laid at your feet, my dear, with a whisper to Higher Authorities that you're an aggerawator!
posted on January 31, 2004 01:28:06 PM new
Replaymedia - Yes, I've had that "killer" standing next to the bed dream many times. I usually have to lie there a few minutes to convince myself it was just a dream.
By the way, I had a nightmare the other night and I blame this thread for it.
posted on February 1, 2004 09:53:12 PM new
I have thought about it as being associated with alien abduction and/or an outta body experience before but if I had to choose I'd have to go with the outta body experience one because I don't even believe in aliens.
Isn't an out of body experience called astral projection, where your soul leaves your body whilst asleep and you travel around. I figure that possibly what was happening was that my soul was trying to get back in my body while at the same time I was waking up and there was a conflict.
kiara
The statement you made;
I prefer to think that it was because I had many fears back then and I've conquered lots of them now so don't get the dream anymore.
This may be what was happening with me and maybe it's why I too don't experience this anymore. I have conquered alot of my fears also, I can even sleep with the light off now.
Maybe I watched Peter Pan one too many times. 
