Been having a slew of anxiety-inducing dreams lately for no apparent reason. Gone are the happy youthful days of dreaming I could fly like a bird. The basic themes my dreams seem to be the following: Someone is doing something on my property, without my permission, as if they owned the place, and I can't seem to stop them. (Probably a result of several incidents in the past where something similar happened) I'm living in my own home, but someone else owns it and my freedom is limited in some way - areas of the house I'm not allowed in, or I'm only allowed to live a section that's decaying and open to the elements. (probably stemming from the sale of the family house many years ago and missing the old haunt). I'm at work and I have a job to finish before I can go home, but it's way too much to be able to get it done, and my fight-or-flight instinct is in high gear. (This one at least is a direct carry-over from waking life! ) Something important is happening and nobody will tell me, no matter how close to me the person is or how important I feel the info is to my life, no matter how many times I ask what the fuck is going on. (Happens all the time IRL) The thing that's geting to me is that these dreams are coming in those half-waking moments when I'm still drowzy and I'm half-convinced it's reality. So I lay there either pissed off or anxious until I either wake up fully or go back to sleep.
My super power dreams are getting more detailed and thoughtful. Last time, I flew down the street to the convenience store because it was snowy and I didn't want to get my socks wet. Then I realized that flapping my arms was just a mental crutch, so I told myself "just think like you're flapping your arms," and BAM!, no more arm-flapping. Later in that dream, I almost crashed my jeep because I was driving around with a friend and decided to show off by flinging small boulders across the road in front of us.
Most of my dreams tend toward adventure-style narrative, but last night I dreamt I was on a date with a physics major I know with far too much order in his soul.
Friend of mine used to be very into filmmaking and was a fan of Hammer horror films. He told me he used to have extremely detailed dreams of original horror films with title sequences, scores and actual stars. He wrote a few down too - they weren't bad!
I have dreams with Andrew Bird-esque songs. I need to try to write them down as soon as I wake up, but they and their tunes disappear so quickly. Other dreams have buildings with very complicated architecture. I can remember those better.
Last night I dreamed I was cutting someones arm or leg (with a sword or knife) and was amazed at how easy I went through the bone. I was almost in "Billy Mays" form, marveling over the efficiency of this cutting tool. :flow2: Anywho, back on topic - I always dreram about living in half-completed houses, and a storm comes up and I'm desperatley trying to brace up the walls to keep it from blowing down. Often my parents are there, but as they looked 30 years ago. Also, I'm driving at night, and I lose my headlights, and I'm about to have a fatal crash and start wondering what it's going to be like to die. I'm in the mountains, or about to go into the mountains, with (as I travel)higher elevations to my left, and lower elevations to my right - never the other way around. I'm back in The Army, but am out of uniform, getting yelled at, or otherwise "not measuring up" - but often I realize (in my dream) that I'm retired, and feel great relief, and tell people "screw this...they can kiss my ass. I'm a civilian now." I'm on some big sprawling military camp, and there's a nearby explosion. A huge cloud of toxic gas starts billowing up and heading towards us (I'm never alone) and we are scrambling to take shelter.
Every once in a while I have one where I'm on the roof of a building, and it's very old and complexly designed like some elaborate Victorian mansion, and I'm crawling around the recesses and getting a kick out of it. Another theme of mine is that I have a secret room somewhere in my house, and access is thru some tiny hatch in a difficult-to-get-to corner that I have to squeeze thru. Freud would love that one.
I often dream of being in some sort of incomplete house . . . either walls are still just studs, or there's no roof, or a roof with big holes in it. Sometimes the floor is just joists with some sheets of plywood lying on them, not even nailed down. And then the next room will be completely finished. Usually I'm on an upper floor of this house, which seems to be immense. Also have a lot of dreams where I'm running around outside, over green grass and thru trees, as if I'm in some sort of park.
I used to have a series where I'm running away from something deadly (giant rats in one dream!) and suddenly, just before I get to safety, it becomes hard to move. I strain like hell but I can only get my muscles to inch along like I'm in hardening amber. Scared the crap outta me.
I used to have a ton of sex dreams where I was just about to get some and some random event would cockblock me. Sadly, this included my alarm clock going off IRL a few times. Damned near threw that thing into the wall... /grumble
Jesus, I have those all the time. Right up to foreplay and the phone will ring or someone will be knocking at the door or something.
Yup. I think building to climax actually wakes one up. Then there you are with a raging hardon that would probably go off if the sheets wiggle, trying like hell not to move and wake up the wife and spooge simultaneously.
Well, what do you say when she asks who you were dreaming about that caused that? "Oh, YOU, honey, of COURSE! It sure as hell wasn't Sasha Grey!" "Yeah right. To the couch, batboy."
Small world! Once I had a similiar dream.....I was on some kind of historical tour, and up inside the attic ceiling George Washington was growing cucumbers! Did I pick that up subconsciously from history class in school?
Usually I'm aware when I'm dreaming. Yet I still haven't mastered flying. Though I can do some mean Hulk jumps. Oh and is anyone asking for a dream interpretation? I'm certainly no dreamologist but the symbolism in most posts is obvious.
A girl I used to work with told me once that she'd had a dream the night before that her husband was having an affair. She said she woke up mad at him and stayed that way for the rest of the day. I said, "So you were mad at him for something that happened in your dream? " Her: "I'm a woman. "
Same here. IIRC, I told the girl that if she was my wife and acted like that towards me, I might just go out and give her a real reason to be jealous.
Color me skeptical. Maybe I can't wrap my mind around symbolism, but I think dream interpretation is 90 percent mumbo-jumbo and speculation. Most psychology is guesswork at best IMO.
C'mon, it's less an argument than a description of a common occurrence. Many people can't help but experience emotions evoked by a dream in the same way they experience emotions in the waking world. And why shouldn't they? The line between the two is blurry at best. Especially in the transitional moments. Of course no one is guilty of committing sins in another's dream. But people are still bound by emotion.
It's dreamers seeking meaning in their dreams that drives the search for answers. You've shared many a dream here on Wordforge, did you do so because you considered them mumbo-jumbo and speculation? A dreamer's description of a dream illuminates the interpretation they are looking for, a validation of their own conclusions.
Just had a new one last night. Visiting a friend who, oddly enough, lived in some kind of Louisiana bayou with levees for streets,and my car got a parking ticket. I'm pretty steamed because I didn't see the sign. So the next time I'm visiting I make a point to park like, a half mile away where I know its OK to park. This time there are no parking signs hidden behind the foliage and the cops towed everyone. In the dream I decided to start vandalizing cop cars until I'd exacted at least the amount of the tickets and towing. [As a sidebar, I actually DID get a ticket recently downtown in the Peoples Republic of Portland. I have a mailbox at a downtown UPS store, so it is usually <5min to stop and get my mail. We've got these weird meters here where you give it your credit card and it prints you a little sticker. Walking to the middle of the block where the meter is, waiting for it to verify your card, waiting for the sticker to print, and then walking back to the car to stick it on the window often takes longer than actually getting the mail. On top of that the least you can put on the meter is 12 minutes, so I usually just risk it. Well two days before Christmas the UPS store is pretty busy and I got out just as the meter maid is finishing up leaving me my ticket. ]
I used to dream about tornados all the friggin' time! Someone said they symbolized "change beyond my control"...I dunno. I do recall that those dreams had not just one or two tornados, but often literally dozens that I had to get away from, and some of them were "smart tornados", which actually followed me around...
Virtually all my anxiety dreams involve water or ships in some way. I think it's because I grew up at the confluence of two rivers and so I guess my subconscious formed it as the biggest potential threat to my safety. Bizarre anxiety dreams are ones I have of German Nazis trying to hunt me down and I have to hide under a pontoon so they can't find me. Why I dream of German Nazis, I have no idea.
