Your Strange Dreams

[EvB]

I have not heard it. True, I shouldn't take it at face value. But I think Ian has a pent up sexual urges of the weird kind. I've heard him make other stupid sex jokes in the past. He's just a perv, but not the fun kind. Anywho, I'll wait for your quality control update EvB Thanks.

Well - I'm not sure I can give one.  I did tune in to that show last night - and remembered pretty quickly why I'd not remembered much about it. DAMN but it was depressing!!  If even 1/3 of that Monarch crap is true - then pack it in guys cuz none of us have any hope of knowing what we're talking about anyway!

PAAAAAAAAAAAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

He's busy playing "the most dangerous game"  (now THAT is Perv and Creepy!)

And - I must have fallen asleep before the exchange in question took place. 

So - I got nuthin'

[MV/Liberace!]

I just had a strange dream, so I thought it might be a swell idea to create a thread where you too can share your strange dreams (if you can remember them).

I just had a dream that I was told about a family living in a shitty little Winnebago type trailer, and I went to them to provide some financial assistance.  When I got there, the head of the household told me her name was Jan Antonic.  I tried convincing her to change her name because perhaps prospective employers might not take her seriously.  I think I woke up before it could be determined if she took my advice or not, but she didn't seem receptive.

[Pirate King Atomsk]

Haha. Man, I'd tell a story about one of my dreams, but they're usually never as well structured as that. I created a place I've never been to before and go to it constantly, though. It's like a big parking tower-type building with giant holes everywhere in the ground, ceiling, and walls. I have no idea why I constantly dream of exploring this place. One time when I went there, there was a war going on. Another time, I was on some sort of "Running Man" style game show. Weird shit.

I gotta say my best dream ever though was being Mason Storm's pool boy. 

[bobcollum]

I once had a dream that my family lived in the house from the Brady Bunch television show, and we owned a basset hound that kept telling me to kill my family.

I never did. Also, I am not nearly as psychotic as that dream would indicate. 

[MV/Liberace!]

I never did.

haha

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

I had a dream last Friday, and in it my Mom and I were driving around some place that resembled Monaco or Monte Carlo; you know like in the Bond films, all the hairpins along the side of a hill/mountain.  Well somehow (can't remember why) the car got lodged on a small (10 foot) ridge above another ledge of road or ground.  It started to teeter and my Mom was freaking thinking it was gonna go end over and land on the roof.  I told her not to worry, I'll handle it. So I caught the car by the front bumper/hood (now it's standing vertical, nose down, in my hands), swiveled, and used my shoulder to nudge it so that it landed on it's wheel base.  Now all through the dream I was proud, but acting like it was no big deal.  I actually believed I did it, in the dream.  Man, when I woke up - what a let down.  It was like the feeling you get when you dream you found money in that "old coat" in the closet you haven't worn in a while, and you wake up and actually check it, just to find lint.

[haloedorchid]

I wanted to see if anyone has had any experiences communicating through dreams with people. Deceased or otherwise.

I have had a few experiences of repeatedly dreaming of someone I hadn't seen in years, and shortly afterward reconnecting. It's not very earth-shattering, but it does make me wonder if there is such a thing as telepathic communications.

I've also dreamt of a friend who died unexpectedly. For the next two anniversaries of his death, he appeared in dreams with no particular message. When I started to realize he was dead he would disappear.

I'm sure some of you have far more interesting stories and I'd love to hear them. Is it all in the mind or something more?

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

yes i have. it is something more. not always to be shared, but . . .

i did write a novella based on a series of ongoing dreams that i had over a three month span. the way i kept notes on the dreams was thru drawings. i tried keeping text notes, but they didn't reinfuse the emotions felt in the dreams. drawings produced crystal clear mental images that allowed me to craft the story in a way that allowed the reader to feel much the same way i did.

in brief, it was a detailed dream of a life of meeting, loving and grieving over the loss of the most amazing girl i ever knew. strange thing was, the dream and story came amost five years before i actually met this person in real life. it more or less came true from beginning to end.

however, there were few readers of this unpublished story. it wasn't something i shared until years after she was killed. a unique event. i don't care for it to be explained. it has never happened again.

[haloedorchid]

Thanks for sharing that, Evil Twin of Zen. There has to be more to (some) dreams than just random mind-wanderings.

A few years ago a girl I went to high school with died unexpectedly in a car accident. She was driving down a winding country road, wandered into the other lane during a curve, and was killed instantly in a head-on collision. During this time frame I was very interested about what happens after death, so I decided to try and meditate to try and connect with her soul and basically go through exactly what happened in the minutes leading up to the crash, and to see if I could get any insight into what happens to the soul afterward. So I laid there, in a trance basically, imagining every detail. When I got to the exact moment of the crash, on the freeway adjacent to my then-apartment, an actual crash occurred simultaneously. The sound of squealing tires, broken glass, etc. I got up immediately to check outside, but I couldn't see anything because they recently put up a sound wall. I did hear a man screaming for help, though, and ambulance sirens shortly after. Later I found out the man who had the crash was drunk, and rolled his car several times. He was uninjured and no one else was involved either, fortunately.

After that experience I turned my back on the paranormal for a very long time. Whether it was a coincidence, or I somehow conjured something by attempting to communicate with the dead, I don't  know. I still obviously want to know what happens after death, but I won't seek out the information the same way again. No point tempting fate.

[aldousburbank]

This will take some writing/reading but I hope it's interesting.  I've has a few weird dream communications.  This first story requires some context, but I'll try and do my best.

When my first daughter was young, I once fell asleep next to her at her naptime.  This is not strange except for I was not unusually tired and it had probably been years since I had taken a midday nap.  What WAS strange was that my wife awoke me because I was apparently talking loudly, agitated, but still asleep and she thought I was going to wake/frighten the baby.  As I roused she asked me what was the matter, was I having a bad dream?  I told her not really bad but emotionally disturbing.  I had been vividly immersed in a real-life-like conversation in a lady's living room, a lady in town who I knew slightly, she being a friend of my family's.  She had in fact been my oldest sister's mentor some 20 years before.  The woman, Ms. A, had been a phys-ed coach at the local school in my small hometown, and had guided my sister through her own education process toward her own phys-ed teaching degree.  In fact, both my sister and Ms. A now taught at the local school district, as did Mrs. A's house/life-partner, Ms. H.  Apparently Ms. A and Ms. H were somewhat openly out of the closet back in the 70's and early 80's.  I was used to them being fixtures in the local community, and while I did notice, I never thought anything unusual about their less than feminine dress, cuffed shorts, men's style clothing, hairstyles, and the like.  I just never thought anything other then that they were obviously good people.

Well in this dream, I was experiencing the sensation of being fully inside her house, with her speaking to me from across the dining room table.  I could see the view of the mountains outside the window and the shelves with photos and all, with such a presence and clarity that it was shocking because I didn't remember going to her house.  She was crying, lamenting Ms. H's death the year before, telling me that nothing had been good for her since.  She went into minute details I remember, including something I didn't understand at the time, but concerned their insurance policies and the lack of partner benefits, and the loss of funds from Ms. H's portfolio that had been intended for Ms. A's benefit.  I did not feel knowledgeable as to the elements of her complaints but I was very clear with her message, and for some reason it was hitting me emotionally.  What she was saying is that she was giving up.  She actually voiced this and I started to plead with her, please Ms. A, "Don't give up, people love you!  Ms. H would want you to go on, you can't just give up, especially not over the money!"  The last I remember was of her clarifying to me that it wasn't the money, it was the heart. (That's when it first occurred to me that they were more than just "live in" partners, me being a little slow on the uptake.)  I was crying with tears when my wife shook me awake.

"You're so clearly shaken by this," she told me after hearing about the dream, "You should go talk to her, maybe it will make some difference."

"Some difference?"  I was incredulous.  "What do you think, that some crazy ass dream now imparts unsolicited, occultly obtained knowledge, and the propriety of walking over to a virtual stranger's door and saying- Hey, I just "got it" in a dream what your dealy is here, no worries sweetie, I'm here to help?  That's fkn crazy!  Even IF some info was accurate, shit, that's even crazier.  I'd probably punch then kick then call cops on any fool who knocked at my lair with some apeshit rap about a dream, give it a break."

"Ok" sez she, dismissing my reason in a way that hinted of challenge.  It was almost like she was saying, look you're so good at doing things halfway.  If you're going to be weird, be all the way weird you freeking poser wannabe half assed fool.

The next day, I get home from work, and the wife greets me out front of the house.  "You'll never guess who just died.", was all she said.  It actually took me a bit to come up with the answer as I did not directly relate this to the dream of the day before.  But of course, it was Ms. A.  She fell down in the school office, WITH my oldest sister standing next to her.  Heart failure.  This affected my sensibilities a little, about how we are wired.  To this day, I have not mentioned the dream to my sister as it just feels too weird.

Another quickie, maybe more coincidence than communication in dream- Once while still living at my mom and dad's, I was having a very early morning dream about fire.  I smelled smoke.  I slept some more, then I awoke because it dawned on me that I actually smelled smoke.  I ran outside and there was just enough light to see smoke coming from our neighbor's roof.  There was an 80something lady living there so I ran over, woke her up, got her next-door, called the fire dept.

Several hours later they were still finishing investigating the source of the fire next door (attic wiring) and the granddaughter of the elderly lady was at our house hanging out with some friends.  She had grown up in the house next door.  My friends John and James were there and John was sort of chiding the girl, for whatever reason.  He was saying stuff like, "Hey your house burned huh?  That's a real bummer!", but he was saying it sarcastically, to make fun.(?)  Lo and behold, within the hour, a local mom pulls up to our house looking for John, the kid who had been teasing my friend about the fire.  "John!  You've got to go home!  Your mom called because your house burned down, it's a total loss and mom is very upset.  I'm so sorry!"  That was weird.

[EvB]

impressive.

the only precognitive dream I recall was about something so mundane it still amazes me.   I was maybe 9 - and my Mom had gotten me a new pin for my sweater.  that night, i dreamed i showed it to my neighbor (a girl my age I walked to school with) I didn't think anything of it until heading for school - pin in place - I did show this girl.  She was dissmisive, saying "You showed me that yesterday."  no amount of telling her it wasn't possible- I'd gotten it the night before - would convince her otherwise.

For some reason it really disturbed me, and gave me a strange feeling of unreality. That afternoon, I asked my Mom when she'd gotten me the pin.  She looked at me oddly and said "last night!"

OTOH - I had a strange childhood, and this could have been a dissociative experience of some kind - but somehow that strikes me as equally odd.

[aldousburbank]

It's strange how often these things are accompanied by pointless data. making "trying to figure it out" even less viable.  What's the meaning?  In a thread/conversation with Onan I mentioned how I thought that, how it affects you, makes you feel perhaps, might be the only point.  In the case with the dream of the woman, I never had a real conversation with her while she lived, or any particular fondness.  However, after the dream and even now, I feel a sense of warmth there, as if we actually did communicate before she died.  The connection I feel to her is now important to me somehow.

[haloedorchid]

Wow. Interactions with the dead, or soon-to-be, seem more likely to be real when it's with a stranger or an acquaintance since there's less of a subconscious agenda.

[West of the Rockies]

Okay, so we are told that "everyone dreams"... I've known some people who claim not to dream, but they simply don't remember them, I am fairly sure.

And most researchers suggest that our dreamscape does not include universal symbols.  For instance, dreaming of a black cat does not mean you will soon receive a message from a long-forgotten friend.

I have an annoying habit of becoming quite lucid during dreams.  And I began to notice that my dreams often featured all sorts of "errors".  For instance, the person in my dream who is supposed to be my late father looks nothing like him.  I also began to wonder just how much detail our dreaming mind brings to the scene...

For instance, in a recent dream I looked at a bunch of books on a shelf.  I became somewhat lucid at this point and looked more closely.  Instead of finding actual titles, I saw splotches of letter-like markings.  Now, I have from time to time read actual words in dreams, but when I do, it's like the entire dream-screen becomes just the page I am reading.  All other detail seems to fade to black and then remerge when I've stopped reading in the dream.

So, how much detail do you experience in your dreams?  What do you think dreams are?  (And, he said mostly jokingly, why, oh, why, can I never dream of the young Jaclyn Smith naked in my dreams?)

[stevesh]

I think dreams are mostly the way our brains reconcile stuff while we sleep. I don't think there are universal dream symbols either, but I personally have several recurrent dream 'themes'. Not the same dream ever, but the scenario is the same as others.

[coaster]

Its just the brains way of sorting out the clusterfuck of thoughts we had the day before.

[Juan]

There have to be universal symbols.  Otherwise, how to all the dream books sold to people who want to figure out which number to bet on work?

[onan]

It is quite possible that someone dreams but has no recollection. Memory is a complicated issue.


There seems to be a connection between REM sleep and learning. Babies have significantly more REM sleep than adults.


Although symbolic dreams have fallen out of favor, certain patterns seem to show up with different affects, such as falling and anxiety.


Dreams are generally forgotten within a few minutes of wakefulness. Conjecture is since dreams are, at least in part created by our subconscious; when we awake the hidden emotions of our subconscious melt away to remain hidden.

[ksm32]

I just don't know!

But I am getting really sick of building the same fucking go-cart over and over again with my ex landlord from 1994 when ever I sleep.

[JimAlmquist]

I sent Art's producer Paul an email about several guest who specialize in dreams & there interpretations two weeks ago. He sent me back a very nice email & said he would look into it.

[JohnDesjarlais1973]

Its strange cause a lot of people have dreams about things they seen that day.

[jazmunda]

I was listening to an Art Bell show the other day in which he mentioned that he thought that there should be some type of dream journal on the net for people to record their dreams so that we can see if there are any patterns in what people are dreaming about. I think he was looking in to it from a pre-cognitive perspective. Anyway I'm sure in the intervening years there are probably many such dream registries out there. I thought it would be interesting to see what the unique individuals at BellGab dream about on a nightly basis and form our own dream registry.

I have to weird dreams but no matter how weird or how bizarre or how implausible or improbable the situations that I am in I do not recognize that I am dreaming. When and if i ever do realize that I am in a dream I am yanked out of the dreamscape.

Lately I have also been dreaming of smoking. I have not had a cigarette in well over a year and the cravings for the most part have disappeared but lately I have a lot of dreams where I am smoking or want a smoke and then I feel shame for giving in to temptation or even having the temptation. My only issue now is that these cravings are following me into the real world and in the past week I have been having some really bad cravings for tobacco.

What are your dreams?

[Jackstar]

You are surely on to a grand idea here. It reminds me of the Music Genome Project, which predated the creation of the service that many of you know as Pandora.

No explanations or links--do it yourselves. I am busy, dreaming of being in love.

[Jackstar]

I have to weird dreams but no matter how weird or how bizarre or how implausible or improbable the situations that I am in I do not recognize that I am dreaming. When and if i ever do realize that I am in a dream I am yanked out of the dreamscape.

Begin consciously counting people's fingers, when you meet them in your daily, conscious waking life. Look for their hands, observe their fingers, and count them. Like this: one... two... three... et cetera.  No cheating--focus in with your eyes on each finger, and count it out. Count out loud, if you can get away with it without being thrown out of the bar.

Over time, this habit will manifest itself in your semi-lucid dreaming life. You will find yourself counting people's fingers in your dreams.

When you find the Eleven-Fingered Man... tell him, that I am coming.

Also, consider learning to become literate in The Queen's English. It couldn't hurt, and it might help.

[jazmunda]

Begin consciously counting people's fingers, when you meet them in your daily, conscious waking life. Look for their hands, observe their fingers, and count them. Like this: one... two... three... et cetera.  No cheating--focus in with your eyes on each finger, and count it out. Count out loud, if you can get away with it without being thrown out of the bar.

I don't want to look anymore like a mental patient than I already am.

Also, consider learning to become literate in The Queen's English. It couldn't hurt, and it might help.

There have been many trolls on BellGab over the years but you are cuntiest. Now shove that word in your Queen's English dictionary. Wanker.

[Jackstar]

you are cuntiest.

I am what I eat. Now come count my fingers, Convict.

[fineart]

I was listening to an Art Bell show the other day in which he mentioned that he thought that there should be some type of dream journal on the net for people to record their dreams so that we can see if there are any patterns in what people are dreaming about. I think he was looking in to it from a pre-cognitive perspective. Anyway I'm sure in the intervening years there are probably many such dream registries out there. I thought it would be interesting to see what the unique individuals at BellGab dream about on a nightly basis and form our own dream registry.

I have to weird dreams but no matter how weird or how bizarre or how implausible or improbable the situations that I am in I do not recognize that I am dreaming. When and if i ever do realize that I am in a dream I am yanked out of the dreamscape.

Lately I have also been dreaming of smoking. I have not had a cigarette in well over a year and the cravings for the most part have disappeared but lately I have a lot of dreams where I am smoking or want a smoke and then I feel shame for giving in to temptation or even having the temptation. My only issue now is that these cravings are following me into the real world and in the past week I have been having some really bad cravings for tobacco.

What are your dreams?

I dream of a day that the aliens take away Snoory because Snoory is crap and bring Art back to host Coast. I also dream that the Aliens change Art's DNA so Art can not quit or retire and he will live forever too.

[George Drooly]

I've read that dreams of losing teeth relate to sexual anxiety. I don't know if dreams of sexual anxiety relate to losing teeth, though.

[UnscreenedCaller]

Great idea for a thread, jaz! Sometimes I dream of smoking again, too. Don't know why, I quit a long time ago, but I suppose it has to do with coping with something bothering you. I did smoke for two weeks when my mother died a few years ago, and then stopped again, but it helped bring on  pneumonia. My advice is don't light that first one up.


I have the usual anxiety dreams: being back in the science building on campus and taking a physics test without ever having gone to class. I can see the moveable right sided desks the college used, the pen, the paper and then there's the panic when the tests are being given out and I don't know anything. Then I wake up.

But for the past year or so, the dreams I remember clearly center on a large hotel of some sort with lots of rooms, elevators that go up, down and sideways, running to get to the elevator and then looking into various rooms, some of them like spas, some like wide open porches. Sometimes the rooms lead out onto city streets.  From what I've read, it's all very introspective, the house being the symbol for the dreamer.

My favorites are the running dreams, running with a good rhythm for block after block in my childhood neighborhood past streets and houses I recognize, just for the fun of it. It's not running away from something, just enjoying the physical experience of running. I can't run anymore because of an injury, so these are always welcome, and when I wake up, I'm in a good frame of mind. 

[Tarbaby]

Jezmunda a couple methods I used in the past with some success to get into Lucid dreaming were:
1. Tell yourself when going to sleep you will remember your dreams.
2. Give yourself some kind of task sor  going into the dreams like trying to see your own hands or saying   your own name, etc. at that point when you remember to launch the task it may become a lucid dream to some extent.
3. You must remain persistent and patient, it can take two or three months to a couple years.  When you give the suggestion for the task be firm and completely confident, no self-doubt.
4. What this exercise does is bring your daily consciousness, which is usually not present during dream state, into your   subconscious state.
5. I will just add that in most of the groups I've been in that were intent on achieving Lucid dreaming their goal was to achieve conscious control. I found it wasn't beneficial to achieve control, the benefit was in becoming aware that one was in the dreaming state. Because once you gain control it completely changes the whole dynamic. A dream is the symbolic representation of the subconscious and since the conscious mind isn't aware of the subconscious processes it doesn't know how to best utilize the lucid state.


and don't worry about the smoking issue. There are other issues that parallel the smoking issue and they manifest as the smoking/guilt issue the only thing that might cause it to be a problem is if you worry about it or dwell on it too much. This itself can provide a form of stressed that the cigarette smoking was partially successful at mitigating.