Dream Thread

[carsonshepherd]

Cantdog wanted to discuss dreams more. Since he needs to be given anything he wants in this world, here is an entire thread for him to tell us his beautiful dreams. Yui wanted someone start this thread, so...

Here's a some (kinda boring) of mine.

I'm in college and I have no idea what my class schedule is or where the classrooms are. This is a common theme: I also am in a play and don't know my lines, or I got a football scholarship, I'm supposed to be this great receiver, and I'm on the field for my first game and I don't even know the rules.

Tell us your dreams.

 

[LadyJeanne]

gypsies and times square

My landlord walked into the house at 5am, to show the place to some potential renters. I was furious that he would do such a thing - no advance notice, plus it was 5am! While I was busy yelling at him, the renters skipped into the house and multiplied...brightly colored gypsies who picked up my 'stuff' and then put it back down, only to pick it up again. Personal items mostly, like picture frames and books.

Out! Out! I shooed them out one by one, and as I did, I pulled my things out of their arms; but as they left, other gypsies tumbled in, around the house, and back out, each carrying more of my stuff. At one point, I grabbed a wierd oblong ceramic thing from a man in hoop earrings, paused, looked up at him and then handed it back to him - I didn't need it. After that I paid closer attention and let a few more things go, things I didn't need, things I didn't want.

I was really freaked out by that point so was glad to wake from the dream. Heart still pounding, I looked at the clock on the hotel nightstand and realized I needed to get up, but physically couldn't, as though the strain of pushing through the thick air was too much and might give me a heart attack or something. Finally managed to get up and stagger to the door, but the hallway was empty and the entire hotel felt deserted. That scared me more than the physical panic. I was completely alone and about to have a heart attack.

So, I decided that if I was going to die, I might as well do it in the big comfortable bed, and went back into the room. I couldn't help but look out the window and down onto a completely empty Times Square.

Thoroughly frightened at that point, I did awake, in the hotel and Times Square was its usually nutty self.

 

[cantdog]

The story so far

Darkness:You guys have messed up dreams. Not that I'm any better.

Any of y'all ever dream in 3rd person? Or is it always in 1st person?

rikaaim:Both, sometimes I'm even more than one person at once. I love the dreams where you can take control and do whatever you want. When I was young, I always tried to have sex in my dreams.

carsonshepherd:Both at the same time! I'm usually in the audience, watching the dream like a movie, but at the same time I'm one or more of the characters. What a ride! Technicolor too. Sex is ultra intense but food always tastes weird in my dreams.

yui :You have the sense of taste in your dreams?

Really? Is this common? I don't think I ever remember tasting something…except in nightmares and then what I mostly remember is the taste of dust and my own fear.

Do you actually sit down to eat in your dreams?

How neat.

Darkness, the:Usually anything I taste in dreams is something that I ate the day before and is more than likely still on my breath....though I wouldn't doubt if I'm missing a fabricated smell or two....

I feel pain in my dreams. All the time. I've seen/felt/watched myself die I can't even remember the total number of times it's happened.

carson again:Yes. I was a professional pastry chef for 9 years and cooking is a passion... I used to invent recipes in my dreams.

One dream... chocolate. It tasted bitter and greasy, not good. I can still taste it in the back of my throat. Then there are foods I haven't had yet, but I can taste them in dreams. I had that experience the first time I had sushi. I'd been wanting it all my life and just didn't know it.

Sushi.... mmmmm....

yui~~Oh, I love sushi. It was always a part of my life though, no waiting.

A pastry chef?? How nifty! Dreaming recipes? You impress more everyday.

I have a story about a pastry chef! Not finished, and a bit out of my light & fluffy league because it has some D/s edges. I think cooking is sexy. Just the act itself is erotic, particularly pastries for some reason.

I dreamed I found my sixth grade math teacher's head in a ditch and thought I had killed her, but I didn't remember the act itself. I've also dreamed I've been dead, but don't remember actually dying.

Black Shanglan:I once dreamed I'd been shot in the head point blank. It was the most terrifying dream I've ever had. In it, I felt the impact, then felt a sense of paralysis as everything began to grow cold and darkness crept in around the edges of my vision and I began to fade. It was truly horrifying; one of those ones that even when you wake, you're shaken for hours.

Shanglan

The Fool:I woke, sitting straight up in bed, sweating my ass of, breathing hard with my heart about to explode. Sleep was hours in returning...

Yes it happened to me too...

Shanglan:I'm oddly relieved not to be the only one, and to read your post. It was such an intense sensation that it's still with me years later. It was good to hear from someone else who'd felt it as well.

cantdog:I have a set of recurring venues, familiar dreamscapes as it were. There is a large complex building with corridors, some of which ramp, punctuated with doors on either side, stairways.

There's another much like it, only underground, characterized by painted and unpainted, new and old, cinder-block, brick-and-mortar, rubble-and mortar, and other cellar-style walls. An extensive labyrinth connecting multiple buildings and a place I am often hunted in. Evasion is the most frequent theme there. I must avoid people who would prevent me from fulfilling some obligation or other. It's odd when a dream which had seemed otherwise unrelated turns out to be taking place in a building which has a passage into this underground. Lighting is an issue, frequently. Holes in the floor, big drops and broken staircases, missing walls, crumbling and moldy areas. Following it I can reach a space in a large city, like a parking garage beneath a weighty structure: all ramps and very thick pillars. Out of this is based a fire company who always imagine I am one of them. Frequently I scrounge a uniform and equipment to use the fire call they're going out on to foil my pursuers, only to risk being recognized as an imposter firefighter.

Every few months I'll be in some portion of this complex of places, and the paths through them are consistent, as far as I can tell.

yui~~I was thinking about this same thing today! I thought we should have a thread about dreams. Lots of people here have lots of ideas and it's fun sometimes to try to analyze dreams.

I have 10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller and, though dated, it is full of dream theory and explanations of the visual symbols in your dreams. I would be happy to contribute Miller's personal theory on specific visual symbols to the thread if people are interested in such.

I love how the brain works. Your dreams sound very interesting. I am amazed by your perceived continuity of path through different cityscapes and environmental conditions. How interesting! Wonder what is your subconscious trying to tell you? Maybe that you know where you are going, regardless of obstacles are in your path?

Recurring dreams, prophetic dreams, crazy dreams, ghosts that come to you in dreams, etc… This could be a very interesting subject to pursue. I would start the thread but it would die in its infancy (I am Yui-the-thread-killer), but if someone else started it…hint, hint…

 

[yui]

Re: gypsies and times square

My landlord walked into the house at 5am, to show the place to some potential renters. I was furious that he would do such a thing - no advance notice, plus it was 5am! While I was busy yelling at him, the renters skipped into the house and multiplied...brightly colored gypsies who picked up my 'stuff' and then put it back down, only to pick it up again. Personal items mostly, like picture frames and books.

Out! Out! I shooed them out one by one, and as I did, I pulled my things out of their arms; but as they left, other gypsies tumbled in, around the house, and back out, each carrying more of my stuff. At one point, I grabbed a wierd oblong ceramic thing from a man in hoop earrings, paused, looked up at him and then handed it back to him - I didn't need it. After that I paid closer attention and let a few more things go, things I didn't need, things I didn't want.

I was really freaked out by that point so was glad to wake from the dream. Heart still pounding, I looked at the clock on the hotel nightstand and realized I needed to get up, but physically couldn't, as though the strain of pushing through the thick air was too much and might give me a heart attack or something. Finally managed to get up and stagger to the door, but the hallway was empty and the entire hotel felt deserted. That scared me more than the physical panic. I was completely alone and about to have a heart attack.

So, I decided that if I was going to die, I might as well do it in the big comfortable bed, and went back into the room. I couldn't help but look out the window and down onto a completely empty Times Square.

Thoroughly frightened at that point, I did awake, in the hotel and Times Square was its usually nutty self.

Hi Jeanne! Thank you for playing!

Wow, Gypsies? What a crazy dream! To me, the being alone part is the most scary feeling in a nightmare.

Give me a minute to type of Cantdog's stuff and I will see if I can find anything on yours if you're at all interested.

Luck,

Yui

 

[yui]

Re: The story so far

Hi cantdog,

I found some stuff for you, just give me a minute to type it!

 

[yui]

Cellar

Cellar

"To dream of being in a cold, damp, cellar, you will be oppressed by doubts. You will lose confidence in all things and suffer gloomy forebodings from which your will fail to escape unless you control your will. It also indicates loss of property.

"To see a cellar stored with wines and table stores, you will be offered a share in profits coming from a doubtful source. If a young woman dreams of this she will have an offer of marriage from a speculator or gambler."

From 10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller

I love this stuff.

 

[yui]

City

City

"To dream that you are in a strange city, denotes you will have sorrowful occasion to change your abode or mode of living."

From 10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller

 

[cantdog]

That seems a little tangential. Try labyrinths or mazes, although the secrets of the underground thing are not very complex. It's the footing and the lighting, the fact that some of it is locked at times or crumbling and dangerous, that makes it a labyrinthine proposition.

And what about being shot in the face point-blank! Jesus! That's fucked up, I'd hate that.

Jeanne-- the group of like-minded people who frustrate your need for order and violate your space in an obtuse and persistent manner... it recalls strongly the social blank wall I was running into in the dream which prompted my poem. (shameless plug, see sig line)

 

[yui]

Labyrinth

Labyrinth

"If you dream of a labyrinth, you will find yourself entangled in intricate and perplexing business conditions, and your wife will make the home environment intolerable; children and sweethearts will prove ill-tempered and unattractive.

"If you are in a labyrinth of night or darkness, it foretells passing, but agonizing sickness and trouble.

"A labyrinth of green vines and timbers, denotes unexpected happiness from what was seemingly a cause for loss and despair.

"In a network, or labyrinth of railroads, assures you of long and tedious journeys. Interesting people will be met, but no financial success will aid you on these journeys."

From 10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Oy! Cantdog, labyrinths might not be the best sign…

edited to add: Miller doesn't have a maze reference.

 

[shereads]

[
I'm in college and I have no idea what my class schedule is or where the classrooms are.

You pegged it. That one eventually gave way to the same concept in an office setting. I arrive at work in a large office where I'm the only employee who doesn't know what we actually do there, much less where I'm supposed to sit. People look up from their work and glare at me as I wander around, trying not to look bewildered.

Your football scholarship variation on the theme reminded me of my favorite modern novel, "The Unconsoled," by Kazuo Ishiguro who also wrote "The Remains of the Day."

The narrator arrives at a hotel in a nameless European city, where he's greeted as a celebrity and gradually learns that he's a famous concert pianist whose next performance is critically important to everyone he meets, some of whom turn out to know him intimately and one of whom is apparently his wife. She thinks he's in town to buy a house so they can finally settle down and raise their son. Every character in the book expects something different from Ryder, and he seems helpless to say no or even ask anybody what's going on. It's a disturbingly vivid recreation of the feeling you have when trapped in a nonsensical, upsetting dream about insecurity or fear of failure.

I haven't had the work dream or the college dream very often since I gave up on the corporate world and came to terms with the inevitability of working at McDonalds. It's a big relief, believe me.

 

[LadyJeanne]

That seems a little tangential. Try labyrinths or mazes, although the secrets of the underground thing are not very complex. It's the footing and the lighting, the fact that some of it is locked at times or crumbling and dangerous, that makes it a labyrinthine proposition.

And what about being shot in the face point-blank! Jesus! That's fucked up, I'd hate that.

Jeanne-- the group of like-minded people who frustrate your need for order and violate your space in an obtuse and persistent manner... it recalls strongly the social blank wall I was running into in the dream which prompted my poem. (shameless plug, see sig line)

No need to plug - I've already read your poem...don't you read your PCs?

As for my dream, it was so vivid, I couldn't help but give it some thought. It was actually pretty easy for me to figure it out. I had one of those jobs that had me flying over 75,000 miles a year, and many, many nights alone in a hotel room. Those gypsies represented every nagging exec at work that was stealing my time, my family, my friends, my life away. The fear of physical heart attack and the empty hotel and Times Square were my fears that my job was going to take my health away and leave me with nothing and no one.

Yup, I quit. It took me a year to do it, but I left. And don't have dreams like that anymore.

 

[cantdog]

God. And we voted Lisa Best Comic!

I see you, Shanglan!

This sounds like the no-pants dream, where everyone thinks you know but you are desperately trying to fake it.

The fireman part is like that once I join the department in the parking garage.

 

[The_Fool]

That dream where I got shot happened over twenty years ago, but the vividness of it stays with me. Not so much the shooting part, and I was shot in the chest through the heart, but the feeling in my dream of the numbness, the grayness and things just faded out until I knew that I was dead. The old wives tale is that if you die in your dream that you die in your sleep. I guess I know that isn’t true.

The other dream that I can remember waking me up was that dream of endless falling, that feeling of speed and sense of the world flying by and the fear of the impact when you finally reached bottom.

 

[yui]

That seems a little tangential. Try labyrinths or mazes, although the secrets of the underground thing are not very complex. It's the footing and the lighting, the fact that some of it is locked at times or crumbling and dangerous, that makes it a labyrinthine proposition.

Miller approached dreams from a divination angle. His theory was that the prophets and those who have stood nearest the fountain of "universal knowledge" used dreams with more frequency than any other mode of divination. This book is more dream prophecy and you probably want more psych/science and less prophecy in your analysis. I should have mentioned that when I offered the book up. Sorry!

 

[yui]

That dream where I got shot happened over twenty years ago, but the vividness of it stays with me. Not so much the shooting part, and I was shot in the chest through the heart, but the feeling in my dream of the numbness, the grayness and things just faded out until I knew that I was dead. The old wives tale is that if you die in your dream that you die in your sleep. I guess I know that isn’t true.

The other dream that I can remember waking me up was that dream of endless falling, that feeling of speed and sense of the world flying by and the fear of the impact when you finally reached bottom.

Hi,

Do you ever dream you are flying? If so, do you land? Are you afraid of falling while you are flying?

And, if you are interested, Miller on dreaming of being shot:

"If you are shot, you will be annoyed by evil persons, and perhaps suffer an acute illness." -- From 10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Luck,

Yui

 

[shereads]

I can remember a dream I had at age 3, after my mom took my sister's side in an argument.

I'm hiding in the shrubbery outside our apartment building because I know I'm being followed. My sister is the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz and she's talked our mom into letting her kill me.



I can also remember my first flying dream, which would also have been when I was three because it takes place about ten feet above the sidewalk in front of our apartment. I'm not flying prone like Superman, but in a seated position, minus the chair. I'm having a blast.

What are the earliest dreams or fragments of dreams you can remember?

 

[Huckleman2000]

OOOHHH! I have bizarre dreams!

Here's a hint: Vitamin B6 will help you to remember your dreams. It works.

anyways, I fell asleep the other night after watching The Bourne Identity on a cable network. My dream was that I was a foreign agent in a country with French characteristics, involved with a trial where there were strange things happening. (I was also reading Grisham's "The Runaway Jury" at the time) For some reason, the trial was supposed to unfold with the musical precision and choreography of a Broadway musical, and it was essential that I rehearsed and got my part in it "right". It included multiple sets, including a boat and a chairlift, like in Fantasyland at Disneyworld. After the trial performance was over, the room was given over to a rehab group that seemed bent on influencing the outcome, or at least intimidating those of us involved in the prosecution.

I left the courtroom, getting around the Euro-city on my Vespa-type motorscooter. Chaos and murder surrounded me, and I was contacted surreptiscously by mobile phone to go to a certain apartment complex. The exact place was revealed to me by means of someone holding up a sign as I passed on the scooter. I forget what the sign said, exactly, but the main attraction of the apartment complex seemed to be centered around regular orgies. I circled back and reached the lobby of the building as the bad guys were on their way out, frustrated that they had not found me. I went upstairs to the apartment, recent scene of an orgy, to find the clothes and furniture of my US contact, still tagged for sale. In her absence, her apartment was the scene of both orgies and moving sales, apparently.

I returned to the scene of the trial, and the building authorities had gotten control of the rehab group to keep them from influencing the trial.

There was actually some other stuff in there, but I can't quite recall where it fit in the narrative, so I just left it out. Also, I don't recall how this all resolved itself as I woke up, but I remember thinking that I should write it all down as a brilliant plot.

Sorry, is this the drinking thread?

 

[yui]

No need to plug - I've already read your poem...don't you read your PCs?

As for my dream, it was so vivid, I couldn't help but give it some thought. It was actually pretty easy for me to figure it out. I had one of those jobs that had me flying over 75,000 miles a year, and many, many nights alone in a hotel room. Those gypsies represented every nagging exec at work that was stealing my time, my family, my friends, my life away. The fear of physical heart attack and the empty hotel and Times Square were my fears that my job was going to take my health away and leave me with nothing and no one.

Yup, I quit. It took me a year to do it, but I left. And don't have dreams like that anymore.

It's interesting how metaphorical dreams become, isn't it? Kudos for having the courage to walk away from a job that made you miserable. Peace of mind is much underrated.

Luck to you,

Yui

 

[BlackShanglan]

And what about being shot in the face point-blank! Jesus! That's fucked up, I'd hate that.

It was through the forehead. I felt the impact through the front and back of my skull. It was indescribably horrible. Then, like The Fool - the grayness, the fading, the cold, and the certain knowledge that this was death. I always felt that I feared pain and not death, but at the moment I was afraid. Like The Fool's, my dream was long ago, but remains with me.

Perhaps it is of some significance that in my dream I was also shot to death in my own home in front of my family. I don't know what bearing it would have, other than being especially gruesome.

I do also sometimes have dreams whose symbolism is absurdly obvious. In times of stress I often get the "car with no brakes" dream - it's never moving very fast, but I can't stop it. Usually I'm drifting in a parking lot thumping into other cars. And when I was completing graduate school, I had recurrent dreams of being back in the (three-story) school where I went as a child, and discovering another flight of steps that went up to a new story, all shining and beautiful and ethereal. How ridiculously ham-fisted is that?

Shanglan

 

[BlackShanglan]

I see you, Shanglan!

It is a pleasure to be recognized by one such as yourself.

Shanglan

 

[yui]

I can also remember my first flying dream, which would also have been when I was three because it takes place about ten feet above the sidewalk in front of our apartment. I'm not flying prone like Superman, but in a seated position, minus the chair. I'm having a blast.

What are the earliest dreams or fragments of dreams you can remember?

I dreamed last month that I was flying over the mountains in one of the Dumbo-shaped cars from the Dumbo ride at Disney. I remember trying so hard to keep balanced and not tip over. The moon was very bright and the world just glowed. It was so neat and I finally realized that I didn't need Dumbo to fly so I just relax and let go. It was so neat. I was soaring. Then my mother called.

The earliest dream I remember was that my mother was dying. It was New Year and I could hear the bells from the temples and I was afraid that if I didn't get her help before the bells stopped then she would die. She was sitting in a chair in the road and she wouldn't/couldn't get up to help me help her. In my memory I dreamed this same dream night after night, but it may have only been once, I really don't know. I do remember waking up crying and my mother wanting to know what was wrong.

 

[BlackShanglan]

What are the earliest dreams or fragments of dreams you can remember?

Actually, my earliest memory of any sort is a dream. I dreamed that a diseased, fungus-like vine was growing up from behind my bureau and that it was twitching and writhing in an attempt to reach me. I knew that if it touched me, I would become diseased and rotting like it was. I can still see it, and that is one of the only visual memories I have of that house. I think I was about four.

And don't I have the cheery dreams? I promise that I do have good ones as well.

Shanglan

 

[BlackShanglan]

I dreamed last month that I was flying over the mountains in one of the Dumbo-shaped cars from the Dumbo ride at Disney. I remember trying so hard to keep balanced and not tip over. The moon was very bright and the world just glowed. It was so neat and I finally realized that I didn't need Dumbo to fly so I just relax and let go. It was so neat. I was soaring. Then my mother called.

That is a supremely charming and beautiful dream. If I needed an further incentive to find you charming, that would certainly fit the bill. It's so ... sweet. Pure. Lovely mix of childhood and adulthood.

I'm a little envious. But I shall try not to be.

Shanglan

 

[yui]

OOOHHH! I have bizarre dreams!

Here's a hint: Vitamin B6 will help you to remember your dreams. It works.

anyways, I fell asleep the other night after watching The Bourne Identity on a cable network. My dream was that I was a foreign agent in a country with French characteristics, involved with a trial where there were strange things happening. (I was also reading Grisham's "The Runaway Jury" at the time) For some reason, the trial was supposed to unfold with the musical precision and choreography of a Broadway musical, and it was essential that I rehearsed and got my part in it "right". It included multiple sets, including a boat and a chairlift, like in Fantasyland at Disneyworld. After the trial performance was over, the room was given over to a rehab group that seemed bent on influencing the outcome, or at least intimidating those of us involved in the prosecution.

I left the courtroom, getting around the Euro-city on my Vespa-type motorscooter. Chaos and murder surrounded me, and I was contacted surreptiscously by mobile phone to go to a certain apartment complex. The exact place was revealed to me by means of someone holding up a sign as I passed on the scooter. I forget what the sign said, exactly, but the main attraction of the apartment complex seemed to be centered around regular orgies. I circled back and reached the lobby of the building as the bad guys were on their way out, frustrated that they had not found me. I went upstairs to the apartment, recent scene of an orgy, to find the clothes and furniture of my US contact, still tagged for sale. In her absence, her apartment was the scene of both orgies and moving sales, apparently.

I returned to the scene of the trial, and the building authorities had gotten control of the rehab group to keep them from influencing the trial.

There was actually some other stuff in there, but I can't quite recall where it fit in the narrative, so I just left it out. Also, I don't recall how this all resolved itself as I woke up, but I remember thinking that I should write it all down as a brilliant plot.

Sorry, is this the drinking thread?

Wow.

Wow. Your dreams flow in a narrative and have more plot than my stories. I'm impressed. My dreams (and stories) are often aimless.

And you're right, you should write that down.

Luck,

Yui

 

[Belegon]

Here's a hint: Vitamin B6 will help you to remember your dreams. It works.

I might try that...I never seem to remember my dreams...