Travel ★ Dream Journal : Share your dreams ☯

[JessFR]

My dreams are off the charts strange. Anyone else ever experience dreams where they seem to be having two interconnected dreams at once? I've had dreams where one dream was the imagined reality within a separate dream happening above it. So changes in the primary dream where the 2nd dream is imagined propagate becoming reality in the 2nd layer of the dream, both running close to or at the same time.

I've asked but most people can barely understand what I'm talking about let alone having experienced it themselves.

Most of my dreams aren't that strange, but even my normal dreams are frequently very unusual, often having little if any connection to my real life. Sometimes it's me in the dream, sometimes it's me seeing through the eyes of a character in the dream. Sometimes i'm not in the dream at all and just seeing the events of the characters in my dream. Sometimes I switch characters within the dream.

I do have dreams that resemble real life, but they are usually nightmares related to trauma I've experienced. I virtually never have a dream that is both a dream and not a nightmare and also resembles real life. It's either crazy unusual, or it's yet another replay of shit that's actually happened to me.

 

[Tubbs]

I have had dreams about my best friend who od'd on a couple occasions. Guy was more like a brother to me than my own brothers.

 

[nuttynutskin]

Anyway, in the dream I was homeless again, junked out of my mind, John was there. We were talking philosophy, as we often did. He suddenly looked at me and asked if I wanted to know what life meant, of course I did, as he was about to tell me I woke up.

I always wondered why dreams fuck with you like that. Like you're making out with someone and wake up just before it gets good. Or vice versa, you're about to get mauled to death by a pack of dogs but wake up right before they get you.

 

[JessFR]

I have had dreams about my best friend who od'd on a couple occasions. Guy was more like a brother to me than my own brothers.

I still have dreams kinda like that from my own experiences. It often feels like I'm being haunted. Something I find particularly interesting and powerful about dreams is how they can manipulate memory. Make the past feel like the present. Like memories from long ago are recent again.

Or, with my more surreal dreams, create false memories with a false age. I've had lots of times where I've had a dream that has given me a memory of a previous dream and I've struggled to work out if I really had the previous dream or if it's just a false memory that's been created to seem old.

Your brains supposed to scrub dreams from your memory before you wake up, and keeps trying to do so if you wake up before it happens. Hence why dreams can be forgotten so quickly if you don't write them down or they weren't especially memorable.

But those scrubbed memories aren't gone. You just can't find them after waking up. Future dreams can bring them back again, or create false new memories that seem older than they are. I find dreams very interesting. Though I find it frustrating that so many people imagine them as more meaningful or symbolic than they really are.

 

[Xorkoth]

My dreams are off the charts strange. Anyone else ever experience dreams where they seem to be having two interconnected dreams at once? I've had dreams where one dream was the imagined reality within a separate dream happening above it. So changes in the primary dream where the 2nd dream is imagined propagate becoming reality in the 2nd layer of the dream, both running close to or at the same time.

I've asked but most people can barely understand what I'm talking about let alone having experienced it themselves.

Most of my dreams aren't that strange, but even my normal dreams are frequently very unusual, often having little if any connection to my real life. Sometimes it's me in the dream, sometimes it's me seeing through the eyes of a character in the dream. Sometimes i'm not in the dream at all and just seeing the events of the characters in my dream. Sometimes I switch characters within the dream.

I do have dreams that resemble real life, but they are usually nightmares related to trauma I've experienced. I virtually never have a dream that is both a dream and not a nightmare and also resembles real life. It's either crazy unusual, or it's yet another replay of shit that's actually happened to me.

I had multi-layered dreams all the time, where I wake up in the dream and I think I'm awake and had just had a dream, but I'm actually still asleep and I go on thinking I've woken up. Sometimes I wake up again and even again, without actually being awake. Sometimes the layers correspond to each other and sometimes they don't.

I always wondered why dreams fuck with you like that. Like you're making out with someone and wake up just before it gets good. Or vice versa, you're about to get mauled to death by a pack of dogs but wake up right before they get you.

Usually I find that dreams are coming directly from what you're thinking about and concerned with subconsciously. So if you dream you're homeless and a junkie again, it's probably because it's on your mind. I have been trying to not think about my best friend who is super methed out and psychotic and beyond help at this point, to protect my own sanity and ability to feel happy, but I was telling someone about him a few days ago and for the next 2 days I had dreams about him that made me sad because he was back to normal in them like the old days.

 

[JessFR]

I had multi-layered dreams all the time, where I wake up in the dream and I think I'm awake and had just had a dream, but I'm actually still asleep and I go on thinking I've woken up. Sometimes I wake up again and even again, without actually being awake. Sometimes the layers correspond to each other and sometimes they don't.



Usually I find that dreams are coming directly from what you're thinking about and concerned with subconsciously. So if you dream you're homeless and a junkie again, it's probably because it's on your mind. I have been trying to not think about my best friend who is super methed out and psychotic and beyond help at this point, to protect my own sanity and ability to feel happy, but I was telling someone about him a few days ago and for the next 2 days I had dreams about him that made me sad because he was back to normal in them like the old days.

I wasn't talking about waking up into another dream, similar but not quite. I'm talking about having two different dreams running concurrently. Often with one of the dreams being the reality of another dreams fiction. So for example, say in one dream you're writing a book, and the other dream is the experience or the book. So changes in the first dream are reflected in the second. With both continuing to run separate to each other.

I do very much agree with you though, there is an extent to which dreams are meaningless, largely random as a result of lowered consciousness causing your mind to wander. But to the extent that they do mean something, it's generally that they are a rehearsal system. A way for you to practice events that are on your mind.

Hence why a traumatic event will frequently result in dreaming becoming consumed with repeating that event. Its to rehearse for events you're thinking about, and the more you fear the event the more you'll dream about it and the more exclusively it takes up your dreaming.

The only dreams I can think of that I have that aren't either trauma repeats or have almost no resemblance to my real life whatsoever. Are drug dreams. Dreaming I'm using with my junkie friends, or trying to get money together. So that's probably the most normal dream content I have.

 

[Escape Fantasy]

Okay, haha. Coincidentally, I had a bad dream the last night. My dreams are pretty fucked up (Warning).

Basically,

I was in a classroom, early morning. The floors were all wooden and the walls were painted some kind of orange/brownish paint to match the wood floor. The room looked nearly orange from the sunlight breaking in from the windows.

And I remember the teacher giving out a big assignment/project we had to do (felt like high school all over again). And I was trying so hard to keep up. I guess days would go by and I'd be shuffling out pages and pages of written work, struggling to keep up and finish the work.

Throughout the period, the teacher would announce what things needed to be in the assignment. I struggled my hardest to write the last few words before the teacher announced to hand in our work. I still hadn't finished and saw everyone else standing up to go hand in their work. I reluctantly stood up and handed in my work to the teacher. The next day when we got back, our graded assignment were being held back.

I got like a 70% written in pencil while everyone else around me I saw got a blue A+ on their papers. I felt really ashamed and blamed my stupidity on my race (weird I know, but I have this thing against my race).

Then I looked back at everyone else and saw (this part might sound really weird to y'all, but this is what happened in my dream) the good-looking white kids and one of them was fucking a blonde pornstar in class with her oiled ass out. The guy had kind of an "oh yeah" expression on his face and was smiling. I just looked for a couple of seconds then left for my second class.

And this part really reminded me of high school because I actually saw an old friend. He sat beside me. I remember the room had a grey color to it with white lights from the ceiling and was centered like an auditorium with no windows. The front had a projected screen where all the powerpoint slides would show up as the teacher taught the class. Then I remember during class my friend would start to make these jokes and make everyone laugh. Then someone from the back of me through food at me and landed on my desk. I started laughing too and started throwing it back at them. It was some kind of red spaghetti but I didn't want to give up my seat so I started playing along with them. It was all really funny until the teacher told us to stop. But me and my friend kept making jokes at each other, and deep down I felt really ashamed.

That's all I could remember. I woke up this morning with a tingling sensation that I need to work harder. And so I did. This week I'm going to give it my all at my college, stop eating junk food, stop being lazy, and keep going at it at the gym.

Yes, I am hard on myself but I want to keep shaking off this feeling that I am not good enough.



That's enough internet for today ..

 

[Jabberwocky]

That's all I could remember. I woke up this morning with a tingling sensation that I need to work harder. And so I did. This week I'm going to give it my all at my college, stop eating junk food, stop being lazy, and keep going at it at the gym.

Hey EF, welcome to Bluelight and thanks so much for contributing to my thread!

Isn't it cool how our dreams can inspire us sometimes? (ESPECIALLY the ones that suck... maybe that's one reason why everyone has so many sucky ones)

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah, after I took ibogaine and got off opiates, I would have opiate-using dreams fairly often, but they would just be like I was suddenly plopped into this situation where I had been chipping and then fell back into physical dependence and I would feel all this stress and guilt and shame and anger, and then when I woke up, I would be so glad it was a dream, and it made me be like, fuck opiates, no way do I want to do those anymore.

I haven't had one of those for a long time.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I've had very, very few dreams about using opioids or any other drugs since getting off opioids. Haven't had any at all since getting on and off kratom not long ago either.

The few "using" dreams I have had were pretty weird though. Either really intense, horrible, short-lived and intense, leaving me feelings like "fuck..." or the more "normal" anxious of my average dream, not so dramatic on the drug use, and leaving me with a sense of "yeah, not interested in that shit anymore" instead of merely fml.

 

[Xorkoth]

That made me laugh. Sometimes dream logic reminds me of the way I occasionally get flashes of remembering feeling like as a really young kid. Strands of thought tied together in ways that don't actually functionally make sense... but sometimes thoughts are like that. You ever almost fall asleep, like to the point you lose awareness of each passing moment, but some thought process is going on, and then you wake up before fully falling asleep, and if you try to think of whatever you were just thinking about, it makes absolutely no sense at all?

 

[Shady's Fox]

I don't understand something, why every time when I dream, a demon or some kinda spirits i don't fuckin know just appears and does diff stuff every time like sometimes it hold my hand or it's playing something, make a circle or scratch me/ -anyway in past I had a dream in a dream but this time feel like a world you know, a place to live. It's just weird, now I know who I am and myself, evil..and yeah. Maybe I will try to burn that place down next time, damn

 

[JessFR]

I heard a two-part theory recently that made a lot of sense:

1.) We are genetically predisposed to dream about things that are early ancestors feared, whether imagined like monsters and demons or actually experienced like deadly snakes and predatory animals.

2.) Dreams are designed to help us both face our worst fears and also prepare/rehearse for times of danger... sort of like a virtual flight simulator.

As a child I was plagued by dreams of these vicious, scary and mutated-looking animals of various sorts. Killer dogs without skin or fur, house pets that transformed into demonic creatures... really creepy stuff. And this was long before I was allowed to watch horror movies of any kind, so I always wondered where these ideas came from as well.

Lucid dreaming helped with this a great deal. If I realized that it was only a dream then I would say, "You can't hurt me." and either tame the beast, make it disappear, change the entire scene or wake myself up.

Sweet Dreams!!! ​

8(

Dreamflyer​

Lucid dreaming is amazing. There has been some research done to suggest it may have some benefits in people with PTSD. I've experienced that somewhat. I still have PTSD nightmares sometimes, and time has probably helped more than anything in reducing them, but it has helped sometimes being able to take control of the dream through lucid dreaming. It's rare I attain enough lucidity to actually change the dream entirely, but it's not uncommon for me to realize I'm dreaming and be able to at least even the odds by consciously giving myself a weapon so I can fight back.

It's far from perfect, perfect would be not having the dreams at all anymore, better would being able to stop the dream entirely rather than being able to fight back. So it's far from perfect. But it has helped.

And as a drug free way of dealing with ptsd induced nightmares, lucid dreaming still has a lot of potential.

 

[Shady's Fox]

I heard a two-part theory recently that made a lot of sense:

1.) We are genetically predisposed to dream about things that are early ancestors feared, whether imagined like monsters and demons or actually experienced like deadly snakes and predatory animals.

2.) Dreams are designed to help us both face our worst fears and also prepare/rehearse for times of danger... sort of like a virtual flight simulator.

As a child I was plagued by dreams of these vicious, scary and mutated-looking animals of various sorts. Killer dogs without skin or fur, house pets that transformed into demonic creatures... really creepy stuff. And this was long before I was allowed to watch horror movies of any kind, so I always wondered where these ideas came from as well.

Lucid dreaming helped with this a great deal. If I realized that it was only a dream then I would say, "You can't hurt me." and either tame the beast, make it disappear, change the entire scene or wake myself up.

Sweet Dreams!!! ​

8(

Dreamflyer​

Nah, I mean as a child I was weird since birth, lived in a house that was old, childhood stuff, events/life , etc. But I don't count these things, dreams I think in my opinion it has to do with your personality and character, I mean how you are you know what i'm sayin so they are created based on that & how you think.

Now, no fairytales or something but tho thought about a journal to write these things down and put A - Z, I blame this house anyway since it's pretty old but.. or maybe a spirit contacts? Scratches on my skin sometimes they disappear but recure later, then some shadows walks bypass me even on streets, it just doesn't leave me. Nothin new, my mind used to it

 

[Xorkoth]

I have had really intense dreams the past 2 nights... I find at my parents' house where I'm visiting, I sometimes just really can't sleep much and I'll toss and turn all night. Well, 2 nights ago I had this crazy dream where I woke up so many times and I'd always keep going back... it was very abstract, It was like I was all these different people at once in different times, sometimes I'd interact with myself as both of the people at the same time. It was like the past was affecting the future and the future was affecting the past. It reminded me of a fever dream kinda of, where it was like I was facilitating this process that had to be done, and even when awake I'd sort of still vaguely be participating in the process. Really strange, but it was quite cool... I just can't remember any details concrete enough to describe other than the general gist of it.

Then last night I could barely sleep again and I was having more almost fever-like dreams (no fever though). Earlier in the day my mom was giving my dad scopolamine he's prescribed to dry his mucous membranes, and she was like, I wonder what would happen if he took too much of it (there is a warning not to dose too much). I told her about datura/those alkaloids, and it made me think about some trip reports I've read that were particularly memorable and creepy. So my dreams basically consisted of me seeing some of those scenes as I recall picturing them in my head while reading them. The most vivid memory I have of the night was where this man dressed in all black with a Chick-fil-A cup for a head (yes this was actually in a datura trip report) would decompose and then come back to life repeatedly. In my dream he was walking down the hall towards my room. I woke up and was sort of both dreaming and awake at the same time for a second, and I seemed to see a large figure walk through the bedroom door and into the bathroom. It made me feel very uneasy and not quite fearful, and then I could swear I was hearing rustling around in the bathroom. But then I shook it off a little more and realized it was just the dream carrying over into wakefulness. I had some moments of feeling really uneasy, and wondering if perhaps someone had broken in and was in the next room over. But then I got up and cautiously went to look and of course there was no one. Pretty eerie... on the other hand I just laid back down and tried to sleep.

 

[sigmond]

I wrote something like this about a dream recently..in the dream i lost my bag..

You ever have a dream, and in the dream you lose your bag. And when you wake up you realize it was just a dream, there was no bag or if there was a bag its not lost, but for awhile after it continues to feel like you lost your bag.

I guess its a case of your emotions needing to catch up to your intellect.

days later..

no lie, just awakened from a dream, in the dream i was smoking crack with Rodney Dangerfield.

 

[Jabberwocky]

My dad just passed away last week so I basically haven't slept long enough to dream. Hopefully soon.

no lie, just awakened from a dream, in the dream i was smoking crack with Rodney Dangerfield.

Thanks for giving me a much-needed laugh. Hopefully he finally got some respect!!!

 

[Xorkoth]

Hey man, thanks for sharing. The first one sounds beautiful.

 

[Tubbs]

Welcome to my world lol, would not be surprised to wake up and it be 2015 again.

 

[Xorkoth]

Welcome to my world lol, would not be surprised to wake up and it be 2015 again.

When I was a middle-aged kid (silly term, but like, 12 maybe), I used to be obsessed with the thought that I would suddenly wake up and it would be years before, and I'd be 7 again or something. When I did ibogaine to get off opiates, I had that experience, except it was a dream... in that dream I "woke up" and I was in my childhood bed and I was a kid again, and the "dream" that was my life since then dissipated into nonsense as dreams do, and I fell back to "sleep".

I haven't remembered any dreams enough to be able to relate them to this thread in quite a while, I just realized... I wonder what's up with that?