Dreams

[nin10doadict]

I'm pretty sure help from God's holy spirit is required. I doubt Daniel would have been able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dreams solely on his own merits.
That said, I feel like mobius's dream is probably not a divine message.

[mobius]

I was semi-joking but thanks for responding! I'm glad I'm not the only one taking an interest in dreams.

Though I'm not religious, I appreciate the interpretation. My first and obvious interpretation is that this was a reflection of guilt for not following the religious teachings I was raised on. And while certain aspects, (e.g. the snake etc.) are most likely taken from what I know of the bible, I'm pretty certain there was/is a lot more going on with this dream and it's deeper than that.

I remembered another couple of things about the dream;

I forgot to mention the whole dream took place in a desert like area, it was barren and sandy.
The stick/snake was big. 'Stick' isn't a good word; it was more like a large tree branch. I think there were more people present during this part, a woman in gold clothes? I think the cat at one point was watching me from a distance.

Near the end (after the snake/branch ordeal was over) I realized I was standing in a dry river bed which somehow I knew had once been a deep flowing river. I was left standing holding the branch in one hand but when I let go it remained in place and I saw it was very long and there were other twisty branches around. This is what brought on the intense emotional feeling.
The person I was with I don't think was exactly familiar but they seemed like a friend. I don't remember them really contributing too much. I remember pointing to the cat and saying to my friend; "ask him, that's God, after all. Ask him what to do."
When the cat walked away there was a staircase nearby (as if I was indoors, even though I wasn't, particularly in a basement) but I don't think it went up the staircase. 

The powerful feeling I described was truly strange and intense, I cannot put it into words; only describe an approximation.
On one hand it was a devastatingly sad and frightening feeling; like knowing I was about to die or that the whole world was ending.
On another hand it was a revelatory feeling. Like I just discovered something deep and terrible. Like I uncovered a lie or a hidden truth about the world or life itself. I felt totally deceived but at the same time awakened; like I suddenly had a new power that made me strong and opened up some kind of possibility. The feeling was so strong I believe this is what woke me up.

While trying to remember the dream for some reason I'm reminded of a wedding reception I attended at an early age. Seeing a very long table filled with food and a large fancy round plate, white and decorated with an elaborate design of many colors.

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Other recurring dreams I've had:

falling from a great distance. Often into water (from a bridge) and I continue falling through the water as if it's not slowing me down. The feeling is so strong it usually wakes me up. It's scary but also exhilarating. The craziest part is I still feel the falling sensation a little bit after I wake up. It takes a moment or two to go away. It's like I can literally feel my body coming to a rest (back in bed) or my brain realizing I'm not really falling but adjusting gradually.

[mobius]

speaking of biblical dreams; I've been reading about a lot of history and weird things lately. Like a theory that people from the bible were on hallucinogenic mushrooms; which is what really gave them these 'spiritual dreams'
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anyway a very cool dream I picked from my dream notebook from years ago:

First aliens were abducting people and eating them. Interestingly I was writing a book about exactly this at that time.

But then later in the dream I was part of this science lab studying animals and they discovered a skunk that was super intelligent and it spelled out "HELP" in ink after tearing through a room and destroying things. So we took care of it and studied it. Then later somehow somebody discovered that the aliens had implanted a human's mind into this skunk and somewhere there was a person with the mind of a skunk. So we were trying to help this human turned into skunk but I woke up around this point.

[mobius]

I was listening to this lecture of Terence McKenna talk about DMT and was reminded of my snake dream;
https://youtu.be/n3_Vw7Mzwhg?t=19m28s

At the end of my dream, this revelation and the feeling associated with it was quite like (but I think not as intense) as what he described when he says things like being "in fear of dying from astonishment".

Supposedly DMT is a chemical that is created in small amounts in our brain and scientist theorize that it's used during dreaming. When people take this drug (in a larger dose than that which would be produced in the body normally) the accounts they often give are like incredibly intense dreams.

[grams88]

Incredibly intense dreams are a great feeling as long as it is a good dream not a nightmare. I usually think of a nightmare dream being a dream where you are so glad it was not real, you feel happy when you are awake. Dreams like being at the dentist or arguing with loved ones tends to be nightmare ones for me. Maybe everyone will have their own definition of nightmare, I remember having dreams in the past where there was lots of spiders everywhere all over the walls and pavements outside.

What about the dream where you are flying over water, well I sometimes get ones where I'm flying in a plane over the sea and I'm the pilot or someone else is. I fear falling into the sea and drowning.

I believe that you can tell a lot about a person if you study his or her dreams.

[mobius]

remembered another one from several months ago;

I was at my old job (except, as so often, it was totally different)
me and the guy I used to work for; were working in a large factory with large tanks around us. My boss was doing something I thought was dangerous. Some things happened that I can't remember; I can only remember feeling the urge to do or say something but I failed to do so and felt partly responsible for the problem later.
Alarms went off and steam began to burst out of pipes and tanks. People were running around to evacuate. I was immediately filled with a deep dreadful feeling of impending doom.
I got my boss and he called his wife then we both got to a safe place and he sat down to rest but I knew that we still needed to go further, but he wouldn't go. So I ran away alone.

I don't remember exactly when I had this dream but I think it was around the time my boss's wife passed away from cancer; I wonder if this had something to do with it. I knew that she had unhealthy habits for quite some time; now I wonder if I could've or should've done more to help her.

[mobius]

Somehow I almost totally forgot to record this dream: it was a pretty awesome one from several weeks ago! (ironically I was reminded of it while reading the bible)

Someone I knew showed me a special place; like a virtual reality chamber. It was a little like a movie theater; dark and very tall and large. But there was a large square room with glass walls or at least I thought they were glass. Some of the walls were solid with fabric straps along them.
I was allowed to test the chamber so my friend went away telling me he'd start it up.

At first the room glowed green and blue like it was underwater but there were little flecks of light glimmering around. I entered the chamber and I started floating upwards. My body felt weightless. I floated for a long time, then saw other things passing by. Different colors and sounds flowed around me. I can't remember it very well, but there was a lot of things, I think it was like a roller coaster at one point. At another point I was hiding behind a rock in the old west; there were cowboys and Indians shooting at each other, it was very loud.
Eventually the images stopped and I was standing in the room alone. Then powerful wind turned on and I was blown up against the ceiling. I grabbed onto a strap to hold on. I remembering wondering how the machine made such powerful wind...
The coolest thing about this dream was the feeling of weightlessness and being blown around at the end. It was so realistic!

[607]

I see my deceased brother come out of his room, and he was in a chipper mood, he even decided to show my little sister about Amiibos in Smash 4, I had a Samus amiibo in that dream to, I was thinking "No this isn't real" I felt like crying, next thing I knew, he was huging me tight, comforting me.

I know how you feel. I remember when my grandfather died I was little and I would start to see him in my dreams. The one that really got me was one where he hugged me and I told him I was glad to see him again.

This is different for me, actually. My father died over 3 years ago, and coincidentally, just this night, he appeared in a dream of mine. However, I only realised a few seconds after waking up that that was remarkable.
Earlier, less long after my father died, he appeared more often. However, I don't recognise what you're saying, being glad to see him again. I was often a bit annoyed in my dream, as in real life my brain was trying to process my father being dead, and now he was suddenly alive again. So I'd say to him "You're supposed to be dead!".

I'm pretty sure help from God's holy spirit is required. I doubt Daniel would have been able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dreams solely on his own merits.
That said, I feel like mobius's dream is probably not a divine message.

At 'Debate and Argumentation', at my current study (that is almost over, I'm both very happy and sad about that), the first 'theorem' (I looked for the right word, but couldn't find it, I'll hope this is it... or perhaps 'preposition'?) we had to debate about was (translated from Dutch): "A Christian should let his life be lead by his nightly dreams."
What I got out of the debate is that dreams aren't always useful to interpret, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether they're from God or not. As such, I think Christians shouldn't let their lives be lead by regular, every-night dreams.


Some things about my own experiences: when I was young, I often had lucid nightmares. I'd know I was in a nightmare, and I'd be very scared. I'd hear my heart pound, and I used to think that that pounding sound was the sound of impending doom. At some point, more and more often I'd let myself be killed by the bad guy in those nightmares, so I'd wake up.
Then at one point, I realised I could actually open my eyes, instead of committing suicide. That was a lot more pleasant of a way for a dream to end. Since then, I've tried to wake up as soon as I noticed I was inside a nightmare. Sometimes I could open my eyes without much effort, but other times I didn't succeed right away. I discovered that terror shock would help me to end the dream. For example, I recall a time when I was cycling with some other people, in a nightmare. I wanted the nightmare to end, but couldn't open my eyes. So I decided to throw my handlebar to the right and drive off the road, into the water. Well, that woke me up.
The older I get, the less often I get nightmares. And during more pleasant dreams, I don't become lucid. I don't realise I'm dreaming. So because of that I don't have too much experience doing interesting things in dreams.
There were a few times, however, when I was having a nightmare and I became lucid, but it was quite a tame nightmare. So I said to myself "This is actually interesting, I won't wake up just yet." I'd make sure I wouldn't forget I was dreaming, so I could wake up whenever I got into real danger, but I could keep on experiencing the dream longer if I extended waking up. This is really interesting to me. It's been quite a while since I last had that, though.
There are two other special dreaming experiences I've had as a kid that I'd like to share. One of them was when I had a non-lucid dream, and then some weeks or months later, I was back in that dream. And then if I recall correctly, that happened another time. The only thing I remember for sure (I've got a vague location image, but it's too vague to share faithfully) is that in that original dream and the two follow-up dreams I had got the Ragdoll Cannon game with 170 levels. I wrote '120' at first, from memory, but the things is, that game actually exists. It's referenced at the title screen here. And as a kid I once installed it, but only the first 10 or so levels were available, which made me really sad.
So the big thing about those dreams was that I had the full Ragdoll Cannon game with all 170 levels, and all three times when I got that dream I was extremely happy, and when I woke up I was very disappointed. If only I could once play all those levels in real life... it must've existed, right?...
And then secondly: I once had a very long and special dream, where I had a guardian angel. I remember three locations: at the earliest I was walking in the ditch of a very long road, towards some kind of medieval building. At the second I was in the block I then lived, and I made up a song. And I actually remembered that song, and as a kid I'd sometimes sing it in the house. I am quite amazed by making up a song while I was asleep. At the third I was in a car, on the passenger's seat, and I was driving the wrong way. Then my guardian angel appeared again (I'm quite certain she was in other parts of the dream too, but I can only remember this specific appearance), and took the wheel to get me to safety.
Now, the most interesting thing about this dream was that eventually... I died. I unfortunately don't remember how. But as said before, usually when I got into danger I'd wake up, either from the shock or because I realised I was dreaming and opened my eyes. This dream, though, I wasn't lucid - it also wasn't a nightmare. But I died.
And then... there was a staff roll. The credits played.
That made me laugh out loud, and that's what woke me up.

[mobius]

interesting stuff there 607!

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A dream I remembered immediately because I slept late and woke up as it ended.

I was at my grandparents big old house; there were lots of people there, including my other grandparents. I remember saying hi and goodbye to my grandfather and uncle (both are long deceased) and hugging them. I was shouting at my grandfather because he was almost deaf my whole life. My grandmother (also deceased) wasn't there, which is sort of interesting because she died quite a few years before them. I don't remember who all the other people were but my other grandparents (still living) were also there and were living there like their house was gone or something.

Then another aunt and my mother were walking through the house and I was following them. I found a secret passageway under a staircase and I could see into a room which I recognized but felt weird; which I realized then was because I was looking into it from an unusual angle. Then the room started shaking and I realized it was because my mother and aunt was walking up the steps above me.

Then I was with them upstairs in another huge room and also on a small train/cart ride thing within this room. The walls were weird, like carnival colored and there were lots of strangers also taking a ride on this thing. I was explaining to my aunt (this part is supposedly true) that this house was built in the 18th century and was used during the Civil War as a safe place for slaves escaping the south on the underground railroad, on their way up north.* I remember some stranger looking at me funny and then I can't remember what happened.

Eventually I was in another strange mansion with my parents. We were on the 3rd or 4th floor in some kind of living room. I remembering looking out the window seeing trees and a huge patio and a pool. It was getting dark outside. Then a fuzzy dog came in the room and looked really cute. But then It was a squirrel, and there were two of them and they looked a little vicious. They jumped onto me, one onto my back and one on my arm, creeping me out. That's when I woke up and I could feel tingling on my back and arm after I woke up where the squirrels were.

After waking I remembered my grandparents' family and how much I miss them.

*For those unaware: before and after the U.S. civil war the "underground railroad" was a term for a series of secretive places and people that helped black people under oppression during this time in America to escape from areas in the Southern US to places in the north or Canada.
My grandparents house was a 3 story house  built around 1770-1799 and originally was used as a hotel or  bed-and-breakfast. The garage literally used to be a horse stable. They believed their house was such a places during the 19th Century. (Ironic because my grandparents were a little racist)

[mobius]

I believe talking and thinking about your dreams helps you remember them better over time. This happened to me several years ago when I discussed them at length with a friend and on another forum. Now it's happening again

Last night I had this one at around 2-3:00 AM and it woke me up. Afterwards I couldn't get back to sleep for over an hour and my mind couldn't calm down about other things for some reason. I also experienced a weird phenomena where I would close my eyes and imagine my mind's eye moving forward slowly and my head would hurt. If I opened my eyes the pain went away. Not sure what this was all about but it was strange and I'm not sure if this happened to me before.

I was reminded again of how much like dreams David Lynch's films are. Though I've never heard him admit this I think he clearly gets inspiration from them.

Anyway, the dream:

I am seeing an image near an enormous mountain side, thousands of feet; maybe miles above the ground. I'm not physically on the mountain, I'm not even there in person, I'm just witnessing these images somehow.
There are two enormous rivers flowing down the mountain, with a large stone wall in between them and a ramp near/to the edge. The rivers flow to a waterfall over the cliff that leads to the valley below, so far down I can't make out the bottom. It is very dark, nighttime, maybe twilight. The view of the whole mountain is blocked by the cliff face near my view.
There is a high pitched, old man's voice speaking to me. Sadly I cannot remember a single thing said, but a lot was said and it seemed important to me at the time or surprising.
After a while this view slowly turns and moves forward around the corner to reveal more of the mountain and the rivers. Then it backs up and I return to where I was. This repeats several times and the old man kept speaking.

After a while the old man stopped speaking and I looked down at the river closest to me and saw, through the water; a place, like a room in a valley inside the river with a door with a light above, on a wall facing the waterfall. The water was gone and I went down into this place. Now I was standing with my body in this smaller place and there were two doors and a switch. I pulled the switch and something made a noise. I can't remember the noise, it wasn't like an alarm but it gave me the feeling of an alarm. I think I heard the sound of water rushing.

Later I moved up the river and entered a system of caves. It was darker inside here. At each room the floor was covered in bones and these things sort of resembling guitar picks (but more complex in shape).
There were groups of ape-like alien creatures roaming about and doing things like fighting each other.
There was a series of rooms; in each room I had to fight a creature to proceed, as if I was in some sort of trial of initiation or something. It was somekind of well established ritual, and I was doing it as if I was well accustomed to this. I encountered people I know in suits and they told me who was coming next to fight me each time. They said it was people I knew. And somehow all the people I knew where there, except they weren't really the people I knew; they were the ape alien creatures instead, but I felt like it was really the people I knew and I found this amusing. The first creature/fight was slow but over quickly.  Each fight was more difficult than the last one. The creatures in each room were a different color.
At the last room I asked who was coming. They said it was___ (an old woman I know in real life, I won't say names). And I said; "are they going to try to kill me?" The man chuckled and said; yes, they'll try to kill you." But I wasn't afraid.
When the creatures (who was somehow also this old woman I knew in real life) came, it came faster than all the rest. It was very fast and very difficult to fight. It also was not really a creature like the others, it actually looked more like the guitar-pick like things on the ground, but it was powerful. I picked up a guitar-pick like thing and fought with it. I was nervous and tense but not afraid.


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All day at work I have headphones in and I'm listening to music or the radio. I wonder if the presence of voices often in my dreams is a result of that. I literally have a voice in my head all day long. Hearing voices has been a staple of being human for thousands of years though...
The latter part of the dream felt heavily influenced by video games or movies like Bruce Lee.

[Colorful Arty]

For the first time in well over a decade, I had a dream that was NOT a reoccurring dream that I actually remember. As an added bonus, it was possibly the first lucid dream I've had. I'll share it here since I think you all will get a kick out of it.

The setting: I was driving back to college (I know I've graduated, but humor my unconsciousness). Along the way, I end up getting dinner and meeting a lot of people from the Lemmings Forums. As to who specifically on the forums they were, I have no clue. My dream told me they were from the forums, but none of them were people I've communicated with. They told me they were flying down to a video game convention and invited me to join them. Since I've debated going to a con before and I "knew" these people, I agreed, and got into one of their vans driving to the airport. This was the point I realized this was a dream and gained slight control over the dream, and the thing that caused me to realize it was a dream still cracks me up. I was in the back of the van and realized, "wait a second, I would never get into a car and go to a con with random people". The other thing that made me logically conclude it wasn't real and instead a dream: more than half of the forumers were women. Ridiculous! Clearly this must be a dream!

At that point, I decided to ride the dream out and enjoy it without focusing too much on the dream that I wake up. At one point, I realized I did not have my wallet, which would be a big problem at the airport when asked for ID. I then used my dream powers to basically think "No, I definitely remembered my wallet" and lo and behold: my wallet was in my pocket. Dream powers!

Many people use their dream powers they gain in lucid dreams to fly or experience crazy things; I used mine to remember my wallet and to ensure I sat next to the nicest girls in the van and on the plane.

The rest of the dream was a bit of a blur, but some highlights include:

The plane not having walls or a ceiling and literally taking off on a runway of water. Only I seemed to think it was weird.

Markiplier showed up at the airport we landed in, and he was a woman. No idea why.

[607]

Haha, that did make me laugh, Colorful Arty!


Tuesday, I was at one of the buildings of the University of Utrecht, and I needed to find a toilet. The 15-minute sequence that followed seemed identical in style to one I actually fairly regularly dream. I'm not sure if more people have toilet-finding dreams, but I always wake up at night to go to the toilet (the time when I do has changed throughout the years, and for a year or so a few years back I actually woke up twice a night needing to pee), and I guess if I'm in a dreaming state at the time I usually wake up, I try to find a toilet in my dream. As is to be expected from dreams, I am in a place I don't recognise. Every toilet I find is either occupied, locked/unavailable, a urinal (I don't like using those), or just not there. Tuesday, exactly that happened to me. I was in a place I didn't recognise, and for 15 minutes, I couldn't find a toilet to use.

I had to be somewhere in 15 minutes, but I wanted to go to the toilet first. First I waited minutes on an occupied toilet, and when finally one of the doors opened, it turned out to be a urinal. Which quite surprised me, as usually urinals aren't behind locked doors. I then figured I'd look for another toilet, as I hadn't heard any sound come from the other door. Fortunately, I found a sign with the icons on it. It pointed up, and I found some stairs to go up. I ended up in some kind of library. But there were no toilet signs anymore. There were more stairs, however, and having gone up them, I was in a room that seemed identical to the last. Including more stairs. Climbing those, it appeared I had reached the top. Still no toilets, but I could go to the left here. From here I could look down on where I had been at the start. There was a disabled toilet here (as in a toilet for disabled), and I figured I'd have to go there - which is fine on me, it just didn't feel appropriate. I tried the door, and it wouldn't open. I checked if it was locked, but it didn't seem to be, and I tried again: nope. So I went back to the library. I decided to head back a different way, as I might come across the toilets the sign pointed to that way. Climbing down stairs after stairs, I reached the bottom without any signs of a toilet (ha, double meaning there). Eventually, though, I saw one! I followed it, and sure enough, a toilet. ... that was unavailable, as there was a cart with cleaning equipment blocking the door. Eventually I went back to the start of the building, as I remembered seeing another sign with the disabled toilet icon on it, there. I followed it, and I arrived at another sign. I followed that... and it pointed me into a wall. There was an elevator to the right, but I didn't want to use it, and even if I could, it might've just lead me to that disabled toilet that I couldn't open before.

It was so strange to experience this dream scenario IRL that that wondering feeling predominated my frustration. xD

At this point, the 15 minutes had almost passed, and I still hadn't been able to find a toilet. I decided to go find the place I needed to be first, because I realised I wasn't quite at the right place yet, and fortunately, while finding my way there, I eventually came across a toilet I could use. I was late, then, but it turned out I could've been even more late, as there was still a large queue of people needing to 'show up' (basically get your name crossed out).

[mobius]

I've many times had dreams where I need to go to the bathroom and so in my dream I'm running around looking for a bathroom. Then when I wake up I actually have to go to the bathroom. For some reason though, sometimes these dreams what also happens is my body acts weird like it deforms or starts to melt, which is usually very freaky.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who isn't super fond of urinals. I use them when I have to but idk; I never really felt 100% comfortable with chatting about your day next to a guy while peeing.

Jordon Peterson on dreams:

https://youtu.be/44f3mxcsI50?t=1h20m30s

[Proxima]

This isn't directly connected to dreams, but relates to the above post. When I'm asleep and my body decides I really need to use the toilet, I hallucinate our front door bell ringing. This has become so regular that by now, I can even distinguish this sound from the real thing.

[mobius]

Another really cool one last night!

First it was like I was playing Super Mario 64, Mario was climbing up a tall level like the inside of a tree (also a lot like the Great Hollow from Dark Souls). There were goombas and those enemies I believe were called "amps" (small grey sphere's that fly around and electrocute you). I was climbing up large brown steps. There was a goomba that turned to look at me then got real still and it's face started to disappear.* Then it turned into an amp. I tried to run past but it attacked Mario. But I kept climbing.
Later the place changed from being a blocky polygonal Mario64 into a scene much more like the Great hollow. It was darker and creepy with branches everywhere.  I was climbing up huge fungus ledges attached to a large ugly dark tree in the middle of this huge cavern like place.
I reached the very top (very high up) and on the top most ledge around little twigs and sticks lying on the fungus thing was a tiny blue glowing octopus. At this point I wasn't playing a Mario game anymore and I entered the scene. For some reason I felt the need to do this, but I was apprehensive about it like I knew what was going to happen. I moved my hand in toward the octopus and one of it's tentacles reached toward me. It touched my finger, some kind of needle like thing on it's tentacle stabbed me and injected something into my finger. I immediately felt a very strange cold and sort of lightweight sensation in my feet.

*I just realized that this is a common reoccurring theme in my dreams: faces on people or objects disappearing. I once had a dream where my cats face disappeared into just a big fuzzy orange ball.