Dreams and interpretation

[Broken74]

I've always felt that my dreams have a connection to my natural life, whether symbolic or not, typically I will notice it is in means of symbolism or life parallels.

Creating this thread since lately I've had numerous dreams/nightmares and would like to hear what ppl think. You can use this thread to post about your dreams/meanings....any provoking comments or thoughts on the subject matter.

In the past 2 weeks I have had 3 dreams where I was either murdered or in the process of being murdered and death was certain, but I awoke. For whatever reason, if I don't journal my dreams immediately, I tend to forget bits n pieces....sometimes the entire dream even. This last one was such a doozy, you could say it was 4 dimensional.

Dream: 11/20/16
I am in a swampy type area, there's a body of water and some stadium style seating made of wood leads down to the body of swampy water (seating remind me of a pirate ship). At some point a young, small unknown boy appears at my side and is walking me down the steps to the swamp area, we enter the waters (he is leading me, holding my hand) & he proceeds to start choking me, violently, and holding me under water. I am PHYSICALLY jolting, jerking and twitching in my sleep... I enter a somewhat lucid phase of the dream. I am completely choked out, under water and my bf suddenly appears in the corner of my dream and lifts my lifeless body into the stadium seating ever so gently... I'm awakened.

Now for the real life details: I was jolting so badly, it woke my bf who was asking if I was ok, so I'm not sure if him entering the dream at end was part of him weakening me or if he was intended to be in the dream. Either way...I wake up gasping for air violently, my mouth completely dry and my head is killing me, EXCRUCIATING headache.

Mind you...this is now the 3rd killing or almost killing I've been involved in my dream life in past 2 weeks or so, roughly. Anyone hear a dream studier or practice dream interpretation through schooling, classes or investigation?

Why am I dying????

 

[Broken74]

. By the way, almost every single one of my dreams is a horrible nightmare full of demonic entities and brutal torture and killings.

I wonder if that's correlation to your real life battles with addiction?

I have read about ways to improve lucid dreaming, #1 is exactly as you said. Also you can practice subtle movements like a finger tap as your are falling asleep, and then during a dream, try the same movement. Although that takes weeks to build up. But I would agree with it being spiritual. I'm not interested in Astral plane traveling. I mean, honestly it peaks my curiosity, but I feel like I could be crossing a line not intended to cross if I "intentionally" tried doing that. I feel I may have unintentionally astral traveled once. It was crazy, as i was driving and like my body was one place and my spirit another. I was in deep prayer at the time, had been having some serious revelations and delved very deep into the Word of God for a few weeks when this took place. It was insane! I drove about 20 minutes and did not recall a single thing about the drive, (thru traffic lights, turns, stop signs etc) but knew exactly where my spirit was. It was quite a journey.

 

[Broken74]

When I've dreamt of sharks in the past, it related to a part of my life that was involved in that was dangerous, but in the natural ...I wasnt seeing that, and thought the situation to be of good purpose. My dream awoke me to it, I did not cut the situation off based off of a dream... but I did become more self aware. Later, that situation unfolded and was absolutely detrimental to my life. The dream was spot on. I've had this occur approx 3x and each time it resembled a situation in my life that I needed to end. It was a warning sign. I am feeling like you are 100% with comparing the sharks to the drugs.

 

[tokezu]

I have nothing else to add for the moment as I am simply too depressed, but I am reading a book entitled Dreams by Carl Jung at the moment too.

I have recently thought about looking into Jungs work a bit, do you think that book is a good starting point or is it rather advanced?

It's interesting to see this thread here, as I have just a few days ago begun to keep a dream journal. My dreams (or just the memory thereof?) are just so much more vivid recently because I have cut back on my weed use. Also not too long ago I have read somewhere that all the characters and even the environment in our dreams are representing parts of ourselve, so the dream 'me' interacting with the dream 'other' is really showing a process that takes place within the actual 'me'. I don't know, maybe this is common knowledge for people who are more familiar with this topic, but I hadn't ever really thought about it in that way. I definitely had some interesting discoveries when applying this to the analysis of my dreams, but I'm still unsure if I really believe there is some actual information to recover from a dream or if it is more like a rorschach test in that looking for patterns can lead to selfreflection, regardless of whether the pattern is actually there or not. But who cares which it is, if you are actually learning more about yourself in the process. :D

 

[belligerent drunk]

Also not too long ago I have read somewhere that all the characters and even the environment in our dreams are representing parts of ourselve, so the dream 'me' interacting with the dream 'other' is really showing a process that takes place within the actual 'me'

Could you expand on that? Dreams, AFAIK, are scenarios the brain comes up with during sleep for whatever reason. They may be influenced by outside factors such as recent events, but in the end all the job is done by the brain. So yes, it's showing the processes that take place within you, but is that what you meant or something else?

looking for patterns can lead to selfreflection, regardless of whether the pattern is actually there or not

Not only that, but I think analyzing dreams from the previously mentioned standpoint can actually lead to some new information about how your thought process works, and may shed light onto what your "subconscious" is more like. Because the "normality" of dreams is often so different from reality - in the dream bizarre shit can be happening and the dream "you" may be totally accepting of it, until you wake up and realize what kind of fucked up stuff you just went through in your dreams. Maybe there's a reason for all that? Such as the way your brain processes information.

 

[belligerent drunk]

^ I'm just wondering why you (plural) are assuming the dream is something that is brought into your mind from outside sources, such as a divine revelation or some sort of divine help? Isn't it more simple and logical to think that you acknowledge the issue of drug (ab)use, especially subconsciously, and the mental struggle you have is the basis for your dreams? You make all the right connections, it seems to me, but ascribe it to outside influence, when really it seems more like a result of your own brain activity.

 

[JessFR]

My opinion on dreams?

Dreams don't always mean something, much dream content can be completely meaningless garbage resulting from the impaired state of the conscious mind at the time. But a lot of dream content does mean something, but what it means isn't symbolic, for the part it's fairly literal. It's a reflection of what's on your mind at the time. It is a rehearsal, a simulation the contents of which are a lot to do with your fears or your focus in your real life, with a dash of randomness thrown in as a result of the subconscious bleeding fairly random streams of thought into it.

Don't over think it. Your dreams do mean something but it's not symbolic like some people think. It's usually a reflection of real life fears or thoughts. If you don't have anything preoccupying your waking thoughts it's more likely to be random. Drugs can cause it too. But if you do have something preoccupying your waking thoughts, your dreams will likely follow the same themes. And if you've experienced a trauma in your life your dreams will likely be rehearsals of that trauma over and over. I believe dreams partially exist as an evolved way to rehearse for things you think may happen in waking life so you can better prepare for it.

 

[belligerent drunk]

That's a very good perspective, Jess - I'm thinking about the same.

 

[JessFR]

For whatever reason, if I don't journal my dreams immediately, I tend to forget bits n pieces....sometimes the entire dream even. This last one was such a doozy, you could say it was 4 dimensional.

That's normal. You actually dream a lot more than you may realize. It's just your brain automatically scrubs your memories of them. The memories are still there, but you have nothing to remind you of them so you any access them. Subsequent dreams can sometimes allow you to remember previous dreams that you otherwise forgot, but it can be tricky being sure because I'm fairly sure your dreams also have the ability to create memories that seem older than they really are.

One things for sure, most people need to immediately write down their dreams upon waking if they remember them. Your brain usually scrubs the dreams memory while you're still asleep causing you to wake up thinking you didn't dream at all, but even if you wake up and remember,you brain still tries to scrub the memories of the dream as you wake up. So if you don't write them down, you will likely remember little to none of it in as little as 5-10 minutes after waking.

I don't know why it does this, but I know it does.

Dreams are a big interest of mine, ive had extremely surreal dreams, dreams that have seemed to last for a couple hours. Lucid dreams. I've had dreams ive realized were dreams and gotten bored with how long the dream has been going for.

Fortunately, with bad dreams it's often the case that you can intentionally not write them down, and instead get up as quickly as you can and start doing something else, and your brain will often take care of removing any reference you can use to remember the dream.

I say reference because the memories not really gone. You just don't seem to have any anchor with which to access the memory. But something can still remind you of the dream you'd otherwise forgotten later on. Especially other dreams but it can happen while you're awake too.

 

[Broken74]

So I spoke to my mother the other day, was mentioning the dream and how is the 3rd dream I had where I was being murdered. (I've never had murder dreams b4) and SHE told me that, in the past month she has had 5 dreams of herself being murdered also. Weird!!

Shroomy I want to check that book out. It sounds interesting. Also, I hadn't even considered the near death accident, how ignorant of me!!!! I will keep it in my mind but I still feel they are disconnected after reviewing the dream...I mean why was I being choked... (something in life is choking my inner spirit, like my bf'sudden addiction or me worrying too much about it??)

I'm so glad to see others engaging in this thread, dream life really interests me. It's so much of the unknown, we can bounce things off one another and share experiences or knowledge.

JessFR you are spot on, these dreams have led me to digging out my old dream journal, as in reading through them I have COMPLETELY forgotten some of those dreams, others I had only vague memories of,and even others I remembered only as I read them. Or minds are so powerful.
Belligerent drunk our spirit man resides within each of us, not even talking in a religious aspect so much...but just like when we die or bodies are left behind, or spirit has left our earthly body. I feel dreams ar a combination of things taking place in our natural life and possibly our dreams are speaking to us in the spirit, as to learn something from them...whether preparing us of something to come (i.e. dejavu etc) or something we are currently experiencing, even past events. My choking dream could also be a long suppressed memory of my ex husband, he used to choke me. But that's almost 20 yrs ago now and I truly felt like I've overcome that portion of my life.

I just hate that there were so many murder dreams in such a close proximity to each other.

One of the other ones was me being chased down an unknown street through a crummy neighborhood by 2 ppl with guns and as they caught up to me I only had a sewing needle in my pocket for a weapon (given to be in my dream by an unknown female) ...I used the needle to stab the man closest to me in the eye with it and used my palm of my hand to jab it in really good. In this dream, I knew my mother was in a building with someone else, waiting for me in like an industrial type building...but the end of the dream I was so close to reaching her l, just around a corner, and I knew I was not going to make it and was going to die before getting there. Then I awoke.

 

[Broken74]

It's interesting to see this thread here, as I have just a few days ago begun to keep a dream journal.

Feel free to share any of them here, if compelled.

I think that the 'not knowing and not really ever having a way of knowing' why we dream, is what makes dreaming is so intriguing. The unknown, the mystery, curiosity, creativeness.... ???

 

[Broken74]

I think that there definitely is a correlation with my addiction and other life problems – and not just with nightmares, but regular dreams too. When I am lucid dreaming, it feels like I am tripping on acid. The physical feeling of it and perception of reality are almost identical. I love to try and control my dreams by doing things such as flying over majestic landscapes. Also, you can think to yourself over and over while you go to sleep, "I will have a lucid dream tonight, I will have lucid dream tonight"... and it helps trigger them. I've never experienced astral projection.

When I have sleep paralysis, it feels like I am consciously aware that my body is paralyzed during dreaming (this physical phenomenon occurs, because it keeps us from lashing out in our sleep). I try my best to cry out for help, but my vocal cords are paralyzed. I try to move my limbs, but I can't. All the while I am still dreaming, and it typically turns into a nightmare where I am laying in bed trying to wake up, often with other entities around me, just talking and oblivious to my cries for help. It feels like I am stuck in limbo between dreaming and waking life until my body jolts awake in terror. I can never tell how long that state of paralytic suffering goes on. I often wake up screaming someone's name, and sometimes people have heard me moaning during an episode. I will give you an example dream below I had recently.

By the way, I checked out your dream, but I don't think I know enough about your present relationship to interpret it. I personally think the recurring killing part has a lot to do with how you almost died in a car crash recently.

So here is my dream (wouldn't call it a nightmare, my nightmares are very scary):

I travelled to Italy with my ex-girlfriend. We had some problems with the hotel when we got there (she works at a hotel in real life, and that was a huge side-benefit to the relationship as we got to travel in luxury for very cheap). It was a very tropical and exotic area with a nice beach. We were thinking about leaving and debating where to go but decided to stay (clinging?).

I was controlling a character in 3^rd person perspective at one point, on the tropical island (I'm dissociated from reality?). Others entered a cave but I travelled up a plantation of daisies, passing a worker along one of the rows. I complained and he said not to worry because the poppies would be harvested soon. (I'm running away to seek drugs?)

I entered a cave, and there was a deep pool of water with sharks in it, and other strange sea creatures swimming around. I went scuba diving and they were bumping into me. (I am self destructive?)

I watched as 3 scuba divers got taken out one by one by the sharks as the water turned red with blood (watching other friends die, and not changing my behaviour?). Oblivious to his scuba friends, one diver was cheerfully reporting about the wonders of the cave into a microphone as he floated on the surface of the water before he was bitten and dragged under the water by a shark (being in denial?). I wake up as one of them swims towards me with jaws full of gnarly teeth wide open and ready to bite.

About your dream, quite intense. From some of the private discussions we have had, I find this dream interesting.

Your traveling with ur gf, but go off on your own. - the separation with your relationship ??? Or maybe, you going off on your own has nothing to do with her, but the fact that you are on a lonely path struggling with the addiction and getting clean...but knowing youre on your own with it, since she's not very helpful or supportive??

The sharks in the cave - traveling through the daisies were you traveling with your spirit guide??(that's exciting to me) you get to the caves and the ppl are being devoured and then you're next... this part I'm thinking is the addiction battle, that possibly have you seen ppl die to the addiction and you are getting fair warning yourself?? Or ... your item private thoughts as of late could be playing into this ....

I can't believe you ran through the daisies waiting for the poppy seeds, lmfao. You are funny. But you already know this!

 

[Foreigner]

I don't feel that proscribed dream meanings really work because it's creating a story to explain a pure experience.

It's kind of like how, in the waking world, some people may give meanings to stuff that happened to them, or they might not... but either way, it's a story on top of a pure experience.

Rather than "what did it mean" I would suggest "what is my relationship to it?"

Some useful dream questions:
"What was my dream ego doing in the dream?"
"How did my dream ego react to the different situations or images in the dream?"
"If I could experience that again, what would I choose to do differently?"

Etc etc...

It's just another experience, doesn't change just because it's a dream. It may have different qualities because it's a dream but you still get to decide how you interact with it. Doing it this way can help you to understand yourself better and change your entire life. We spent on average 8 hours a night sleeping, so imagine if we had the same autonomy of choice in dreams that we do when we're awake? It would mean a lot more self-realization.

Anyway, just thought I'd offer a different POV.

 

[Broken74]

^^^I like that insight, what is my relation to the dream. Good key questioning.

 

[Shrooms00087]

Typically the interpretation of dreams comes from the worries/fears/excitement/ etc of the patient. Naturally some would ask about the pills you're taking to sleep. Then in terms of interpretation "why does dying scare you?" You'll respond in typical ways; however, by talking about it more and address the issue more it'll "fix" the anxiety of having another nightmare thus negating it.

Best of luck!

 

[Broken74]

Not draming at all right now, that requires sleep....and since my bf is in acute w/d and I'm by his side...ugh... it's tough. I'm going to be sleeping like a baby soon though!!!! I lay there last night wishing for a pallet on the floor, the bed is sweaty and he's kicking, tossing and turning all night. If not you just hear him moaning. Wish I could take the pain from him.

 

[Xorkoth]

I had an intense dream last night. My ex and I were together in it (no idea why I keep having these dreams where we're still together, it happens with regularity, and we had a very negative relationship, she was quite emotionally abusive, I guess it's just because we were together from age 18 to 30, takes more than 3 years to clear that out, but whenever I have dreams with her I feel happy to be with her), and we were naked in bed, and this guy I really like in real life who is a member of my friend's band and also a friend of mine was in the room with us, and he was being really creepy, he kept not leaving even though we were trying to have privacy and then he came over and started rubbing my ex's back. So I got pissed and jumped out of bed and told him to get the fuck out. He started getting offended and saying I'd regret it if I didn't let him do whatever he wanted. I chased him through the house trying to get him to leave, and he told me that he's been watching us having sex and wants to get in on it, so I got really pissed and told him I was gonna call the cops. So I tried calling 911 but it was like there were popup ads for 911, I had to sit and listen through several audio advertisements for this and that bullshit, meanwhile I'm trying to keep him away from her. Finally I got someone on the line and they were like, yeah I guess we'll send someone, this is pretty low priority though. Then my friend (who had become my mortal enemy in the dream) got all sinister and angry and was like, you better call them off, because you know what? I have video cameras installed all around your house and I've got it all on video, and I'm gonna put it online if the cops come. I got so blindingly angry, I just started chasing him around trying to beat his ass.

I still remember how intensely angry I was, it was a really vivid dream and I was fucking PISSED at him, realistically so because it was also a betrayal from a friend. I woke up at some point in the midst of rage, and like every time when I have a dream where I'm with my ex, my first thought was, "damn it, what the fuck, I love my girlfriend, why did I get back together with her?? What am I going to do??" Then I realized it was a dream and I felt an immense sense of relief.

Dreams are weird. I think this one could have been influenced by my experiences of the past week, I met a bunch of people who are in open relationships, and my friend in the dream at first was just trying to be like, hey, I want to get in on this. In real life I am intellectually attracted to the idea of polyamory or at least not being entirely monogamous, I don't think anyone owns anyone else, and I don't have the right to keep someone's sexuality to myself. But in the real world, the thought of my girlfriend being with someone else makes me feel bad and jealous, I can't help it, and she feels the same way. And we are in a monogamous relationship that we both agreed to. And I'm happy with that but I feel some conflict in that too, especially lately because I've gotten to know some people who are happily in open relationships. And this weekend I got propositioned by a couple. And my friend who was the villain in this dream has a girlfriend who is super flirty and I'm really attracted to her. As to why all this manifested in such a weird scenario, who knows? I think sometimes brains are just weird. But dreams do certainly reflect things going on inside.

 

[Broken74]

Xorkoth-

Thx for sharing! I would tend to agree with the diagnosis you have, given the real life situations you have been encountering. I guess because you are somewhat torn on the idea is why your dream life is handling it. It seems at this point, you are curious but not 100% to travel that path. Possibly why the struggle in the dream, until it sorts itself out. Either way, that would suck since you genuinely care about the friendship with your mate.

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah it was weird, he's a relatively new friend though, the newest member of a new-ish crew of people I hang out with. So no real big deal after I woke up.

But yeah I really do like the idea, intellectually. I guess I feel some envy at the couples I have encountered recently who it's working for. One of them is one of my best friends, he started hooking up with this girl because she'd go see his band's shows a lot, and now they're pretty serious, and they seem to have this great thing. She lives 6 hours away, though they see each other pretty often because my friend's band gigs within a couple of hours of her every week and they'll spend the whole weekend together most weeks. But as long as they tell each other about it and both agree, they're able to explore other people they happen to encounter. Seems really cool and ideal, doesn't seem to bother them either. Right now my girlfriend has been in California trimming buds for 2 months and she'll be gone for 2 more weeks. Furthermore, I spend time with my friend's band and even get on stage sometimes to sit in on songs, and am at afterparties, etc, and there are opportunities for me to explore other people for sure, a lot more than I've ever had. I go to music festivals with them when they perform there as a VIP. To complicate matters further, my girlfriend generally doesn't want to come to festivals or shows (unless they're my band's shows), she's a little more low-key than that usually. So it's like, I'm at these things, and it can be frustrating because everyone is being open and hooking up with people. I actually really enjoy the "me time" just 100% focusing on my friends and the music and such, it's cool when she comes with but in some ways it's cooler when she doesn't because it's not really her scene and then I feel responsible for her having a good time and I end up not participating as much, but I miss having someone there with me to be romantically involved with. Seems like a more free sort of relationship would be ideal for me here, but like I said, I love my girlfriend and I think she's amazing, besides this little aspect everything is as perfect as I can imagine, actually pretty much beyond belief. I think both of us feel identical about it also, in that when it comes down to it, neither of us likes the idea of the other being with someone else. In the grand scheme of things, she's amazing and we work exceptionally well together (over 2 years with no fights, but still we're really really close and are a big part of each others' lives) and this is just a little thing compared to that, but it's still a thing.

It also makes matters even more confounding because I married the first person I ever had sex with (we got together at 18 right at the beginning of college and split up at 30), and then after a period of a year where I didn't even try to date, I met my current girlfriend and she just happened to be the first person I tried to date, so she's only the second person I've had sex with. And after I split with my ex it was my strong intention to be single for a while and explore different people, but it didn't work out that way and I wasn't gonna pass on this great thing just for that. I get a little envious of my girlfriend sometimes because she's had sex with plenty of people over the years... she used to go to music festivals too and she'd generally find someone to hook up with. Which is specifically one of the things I have really wanted to experience, but now she's experiencing some sort of unknown health issue where her energy levels are lower than they used to be so she doesn't want to do stuff like go to music festivals anymore. So it's kind of frustrating. It doesn't usually bother me but I start to get that "grass is greener" thing when I haven't seen her for a while like now (every year she goes to Cali for 2-2.5 months for trimming so this is likely to be a recurring struggle for me).

 

[Broken74]

Xor- I had this great reply all typed out on my phone, received important phone call updating me on my bf withdrawal status, came back to submit and it's all wiped out! Idk if I can re create it.

The new guy, this adds to the dream...maybe your asking yourself can he be trusted or at what level, since there are different levels of trust and ur gf would be nearest and dearest to your heart. (I realize it wasn't ur current gf, but in dream realm she was the current gf). Or.... since you find his gf attractive, your questioning how would you feel if the tables were turned? Clearly I have no educational background to support any of this, but who really does. The dreams are always going to be up to interpretation some is an alternate reality which is why we are so curious about them.

I'd say the ex really had nothing to do with it, other than symbolism. Sounds like you have an awesome thing going currently and if you know you wouldn't feel good about her exploring outside the relationship, maybe it's best to leave it alone.

We are funny creatures, always wanting what we don't have or having both. But you nailed it... why pass up the diamond for a bunch of dimes. It's temporary at best with anyone else. You met this chic, knew she was good ppl and acted in it. Keep your eye on the prize, don't be distracted by cheap knock offs ?

I like my previously typed msg better, but I'm short on time now. Lol checking out for a bit so I can go spend time with the detox situation.
Love n light~
Kimmy