Author Topic: The Dreams thread... (Read 15458 times)

Edvard · « **on:** January 03, 2014, 11:43 PM »

Dreams... not the "I hope to someday tame a hadrosaur and play Polo with giant robot pandas" kind, but the "I had a strange dream the other night where I tamed a hadrosaur and played Polo with these really cool giant robot pandas" kind. I have vivid and bizarre dreams at least once every month or two. Some I remember, some not so much, but I thought I'd share some of them and I'd like to hear about yours, especially if they are detailed and interesting.

Caveats, please...

Please no "I don't dream... ever" posts because that's such a killjoy.
... and I die a little thinking of the dreamless void that you must suffer through each night.

Please no 'wet dreams'. Seriously, TMI.
Please post your OWN dreams. The telling is never as vivid in third person.

Post away!!

In this dream, I visited my friend who was living in the crumbling round brick chimney of a condemned smelter plant or something. The chimney was all that was left of the building. He was telling me how years earlier he had produced a radio play in which Frankenstein's monster meets Leonard Cohen. Nobody liked it, so the radio station fired him, which is why he was living in a chimney.

I asked to hear it and he was all nervous about it and said the cops would arrest him if they caught him playing it for somebody; apparently it was either 'subversive' or 'offended the sensibilities of the community' or something. I said I would love to hear it and would face the consequences myself. He put the tape on and turned up the stereo and showed me some figures he had made to illustrate the play. They were both crudely cut out of tin, and were attached to the chimney by thick wire wrapped around the outside wall. One was of Leonard Cohen and looked like a child-size paper cutout of a man, but tin instead of paper. The monster was full-size, but was colored black with two red spray-paint splotches for eyes.

As the tape played, I began to realize that his play was simply too ahead of the times when he wrote it, and I thought to myself that people might like it better now that a few years had passed. As I was thinking that, a group of about 5 women in their late twenties to early thirties were walking by on their way to a women's rights meeting, and stopped to listen. They were all wearing athletic t-shirts, 70s-style jogging shorts and sweat bands, but they weren't jogging. They admired my friend's tin cutouts and nodded their heads in agreement with what they heard as the performance played. Eventually they wandered off and my alarm woke me up soon after.

Your turn...

Edvard · « **Reply #1 on:** June 04, 2014, 08:16 PM »

Found a text file with another dream written down.

I was in a city, in a rather dirty and run down part, possibly in the late 1800's. I was riding on my dream's version of a subway, it was like old-fashioned passenger cars with velvet seats and cast iron fixtures, rolling along tracks suspended in the air that went around the perimeter of the city. When you wanted to get off, you were put on a side car that detached and went down another railway that curved away from the main one.

I was with a little kid who was very annoying and his mother, who was very strait-laced and a bit snooty, but quiet. We finally got off the train together and were looking for something in the basement of a very old brick building. The little kid was carrying a doll that was made of dirty, moulding burlap that was almost black, and had a square head with no eyes or mouth. As we wandered around the basement, trying to find whatever it was we were looking for, we suddenly heard the kid call from another room saying something about a "crackling noise".
We went into a separate room where he was and we found him pointing at a brickwork structure about 2 feet square and 3 feet tall and hollow in the middle like a short chimney. It had some straw on the top that was burnt-looking and slightly smoking, as if someone had recently tried to set it alight, but then extinguished it.

I told him the noise he heard was from the straw burning. "No, watch" he said, as he laid his nasty burlap doll on top of the straw. Suddenly the doll started to swell and jerk and began smoking along with the straw. I thought apparently the leftover heat from the burning straw was causing the strange movements, when suddenly it split open at the belly, and started to melt like burning plastic or melted cheese, all bubbly and steaming. The kid reached out to hold up it's bubbling head, when it started speaking in his father's voice rather jovially, telling him "where the money was hid".

His mother was observing all this very coolly until the voice started up. "Make it stop!", she suddenly snapped, "Shut it up now!". Her expression held no fear, but a very cool and cunning expression, as if she had heard enough to know the kid's father had hidden some money, and how to go about getting her hands on it.

In my dream, I knew she was plotting to rip off the kid, and I vowed to watch her every step.

40hz · « **Reply #2 on:** June 04, 2014, 08:51 PM »

My dreams have all been CLASSIFIED.

Sorry.

Edvard · « **Reply #3 on:** June 04, 2014, 09:36 PM »

Which reminds me, I did have a dream the other night that I was sleeping in some sort of maximum-security building (not a prison) in Nazi Germany. The building was like a huge concrete box, painted off-white inside with rust stains here and there showing where steel girders were embedded in the concrete, with a very high 50 ft. or so ceiling and a large window very high up and on one side. Inside were two separate rooms (one of them mine, I never saw the other room door open) that were painted that sickly hospital green color. The main door and the room doors were all like heavy-duty walk-in safe doors that boomed when shut and clanked reverberantly when you threw the latch.

In the dream, the Nazis kept trying to get in the front door (unsuccessfully), so I would wake up to the sounds of them going at it with bombs, drills, battering rams, etc. I would get up and open the door to my room (CLANK! Whoosh!), peer out and see that they still hadn't gotten in, and go back to bed (BOOM! CLANK! squeak...). This happened many times throughout the dream, and I finally wondered why they didn't try getting in the window at about the time my alarm went off.

phitsc · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2014, 01:32 AM »

Been playing too much Wolfenstein lately?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2014, 05:30 AM »

My dreams have all been CLASSIFIED.

Sorry.
-40hz (June 04, 2014, 08:51 PM)

Heh heh. I'd be tempted to share some. But I'm afraid others would be tempted to analyze them. It's tough enough being crazy without someone making it official.

Edvard · « **Reply #6 on:** June 05, 2014, 07:34 PM »

Been playing too much Wolfenstein lately?
-phitsc (June 05, 2014, 01:32 AM)

Naw... the walls weren't pixelated enough

Heh heh. I'd be tempted to share some. But I'm afraid others would be tempted to analyze them. It's tough enough being crazy without someone making it official.
-MilesAhead (June 05, 2014, 05:30 AM)

Aw dude, I've posted 3 already, if someone wanted to analyze, I'm sure I'd have had it in spades by now. I do understand though, sometimes dreams are a very personal experience and I wouldn't encourage anyone to air out their bloomers simply on my suggestion. So many of my dreams are not just bizarre, but also entertaining, and I thought I'd share the mirth.

tomos · « **Reply #7 on:** June 06, 2014, 08:10 AM »

I'm enjoying the dreams

Plan to contribute when I remember a decent amount of a dream - and it's suitable :p
(I usually just remember snippets.)

40hz · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2014, 09:56 AM »

About half the time, the dreams I have are very chaotic replays of various moments in my life. One time there was even a commercial in the middle of one of them. No joke. A voice said: we interrupt this program for a special announcement and a commercial for shaving cream (go figure) began.

The other half of the time I get a recurring lucid dream of a city, which I've been exploring for several years now. I don't know its exact location. But I'm guessing it's on the northeastern seaboard. Most likely somewhere in Massachusetts based on various regional details.. And it's in the late 40s or early 50s near as I can tell based on the technology and fashions. Or at least a place very similar. I'll probably use it as the basis for a story some day. There's some low-key but very serious crisis in progress because the city has experienced something that is only obliquely referred to as a "near incident" which nobody ever willingly talks about - and which it is not wise (the government being authoritarian bordering on fascist) to seem too curious about. My subconscious hasn't decided exactly what this near incident was. But whatever it was, it's caused a gradual but radical change in the psychology of the entire population. And from what I can gather (in the dream) the 'incident' isn't completely over yet. The sky has perpetual resemblance to the peppered gray static you'll see when tuned to a dead TV channel on an old analog receiver because of it. And the weather is usually a November-y "cold and damp," although it rarely rains, and it seldom (very lightly) snows.

Guess I'm wedding some of H.P. Lovecraft, the movie Dark City, the USA post-9/11, and apocalypse scenarios from the Science Channel into a long running series in my brain theater.

It's not my fault! I want a good Lovecraft movie or TV series to get made. Based on one of his big stories like At the Mountains of Madness or Shadow Over Innsmouth. And I'm not gonna wait forever Hollywood! If you won't make the bloody picture - I will! Even if it's only in my own head.

"I'll see you in my dreams..."

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2014, 01:28 PM »

I think it's amazing that another part of our deep cultural indoctrination is that even when talking about dreams we're still "Rated G through R". I find surreal NSFW daydreaming relaxing to help me go to sleep. No details here, but just mentioning that it is possible to angle your dreams based on your initial mood in the twilight period before full sleep.

Edvard · « **Reply #10 on:** June 06, 2014, 07:55 PM »

(I usually just remember snippets.)
-tomos (June 06, 2014, 08:10 AM)

That's usually what I get, so the big dreams I hold onto and cherish. ...And if I don't write them down (and soon!) then I either lose it entirely, or I may remember the main sequence, but most of the details are gone.
Latest snippet (seen on a magazine cover in a dream last night): "The fat joke all your other fat jokes don't get"

The other half of the time I get a recurring lucid dream of a city, which I've been exploring for several years now.
-40hz (June 06, 2014, 09:56 AM)

I'm jealous. None of my dreams are lucid, though I've tried actively inducing lucid dreams many times. I can never seem to pull it off. The one lucid dream I remember is of being on the grassy hill next to a church my family used to attend when I was very young, and my friends and I were throwing frisbees. I remember thinking "If I flung the frisbee and hung on instead of letting go, I bet I could fly". I tried it, and it worked.

I have had at least 3, perhaps 4 dreams that all played out in a similar geographical locale. I don't get any overarching theme to them, but strangely, everybody knows me there by name...

I'll probably use it as the basis for a story some day.

Please do!!

I find surreal NSFW daydreaming relaxing to help me go to sleep.
-TaoPhoenix (June 06, 2014, 01:28 PM)

That has never worked for me. Glad it works for you, though. All of my dreams are totally random, and my NSFW dreams are very infrequent, short, and slightly disturbing.

Deozaan · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2014, 01:31 AM »

Many years ago I had a dream that I was on a covert ops mission infiltrating the enemy base. My team and I had snuck into a relatively small utility room through a window near the roof. We had just lowered ourselves to the floor and were beginning to unpack the supplies we needed to perform the mission when an unsuspecting, innocent woman opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks when she discovered us. Both parties were equally surprised to see the other. I quickly grabbed her, keeping her silent, and pulled her into the room, closing the door behind us.

I was overcome by an awful feeling of guilt and sadness because I knew we had to kill her to keep our mission a secret. Then I woke up.

40hz · « **Reply #12 on:** June 08, 2014, 08:24 AM »

Randall Munroe nails it. (Like always.)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #13 on:** March 23, 2015, 01:47 AM »

Bumping this.

It came up in the chat room tonight and might amuse me in some coming nights.

I have had vivid dreams before too.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #14 on:** March 23, 2015, 02:57 PM »

Randall Munroe nails it. (Like always.)
(see attachment in previous post)
-40hz (June 08, 2014, 08:24 AM)

I used to have the flying dream often when I was a kid in the old neighborhood. Mostly when I was around 10 I think. Not exactly flying so much as "swimming in air." I would perform this swimming motion like when you swim underwater. I would slowly get a little higher as I moved along. Seems like always though I would slow down and come back down to earth.
Later I would have similar dreams about trying to stuff a basketball. No matter how hard I reached up or how long I hung in the air, I would slowly go lower and lower until my feet touched back down.

I guess it indicates I felt something was always holding me down.

tomos · « **Reply #15 on:** March 23, 2015, 05:05 PM »

^ Dont know if it's true, but I've heard flying dreams are related to times of big change in life, or very stressful times - like growing up. Around ten years of age would fit that I guess?
I used have them quite a bit in my teens and early twenties. Like you say Miles - like being underwater, but in the air.
I always really enjoyed them though

app103 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 23, 2015, 08:42 PM »

All of my flying dreams were nightmares of being chased and then escaping by unintentionally flying away, out of control, followed by falling, with me waking up at the moment of impact. This often alternated with the driving dreams that were quite similar, with an out of control car traveling at high speed and no brakes, that was difficult to steer and ended up going off the side of a bridge into water, with me trapped inside and unable to get out.

Dont know if it's true, but I've heard flying dreams are related to times of big change in life, or very stressful times - like growing up. Around ten years of age would fit that I guess?
-tomos (March 23, 2015, 05:05 PM)

Yes, very stressful times when I felt like I was not in control of my life or direction it was headed. And yes, 10 would be about the age where they came more frequently (coinciding with a traumatic event), but I can remember having the flying ones as young as 5, shortly after starting kindergarten and being exposed to one of the meanest, cruelest teachers I have ever had in my life. To this day, I am still paranoid about fire and being trapped in a burning building, because of something horrible she said to me (which led to reoccurring nightmares of a different sort). She enjoyed scaring the crap out of kids and making them cry. I am pretty sure I am not the only one she gave nightmares to.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #17 on:** March 24, 2015, 05:40 AM »

All of my flying dreams were nightmares of being chased and then escaping by unintentionally flying away, out of control, followed by falling, with me waking up at the moment of impact. This often alternated with the driving dreams that were quite similar, with an out of control car traveling at high speed and no brakes, that was difficult to steer and ended up going off the side of a bridge into water, with me trapped inside and unable to get out.

-app103 (March 23, 2015, 08:42 PM)

I was going to say when I read as far as the word "impact" I often had dreams driving out of control on a narrow winding road with no guard rail. But I would wake up before careening over the edge. That bit about trapped in the car underwater I think I only got one time. Very scary. Those trapped underwater ones are when I "learn to breathe water" real fast.

Edvard · « **Reply #18 on:** March 24, 2015, 07:24 PM »

I had a dream the other night, that I and the regular #donationcoder IRC denizens were trying to survive in a time that was right on the edge of falling into a 'Post-Apocalyptic' scenario ('Mid-Apocalyptic?'). All we had was a raft of canned goods and some rag-tag assemblies of various floating devices (pool toys, rubber rafts, a half-sunk plastic kayak, etc.) in which we tried to escape the chaos by floating down a river with our stuff. I remember us yelling at each other a lot, usually to call attention to some floating thing that had a leak.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #19 on:** March 24, 2015, 07:26 PM »

Oh yeah, I recall now a small fragment of a dream - I've been watching too much procedural TV, so I recall "noticing" when I woke up the dream was boring, something about one of the govt accountability offices, so I "ditched it" as a boring dream!

"I'll try to have a cooler dream later"

MilesAhead · « **Reply #20 on:** March 25, 2015, 05:30 AM »

I had a dream the other night, that I and the regular #donationcoder IRC denizens were trying to survive in a time that was right on the edge of falling into a 'Post-Apocalyptic' scenario ('Mid-Apocalyptic?'). All we had was a raft of canned goods and some rag-tag assemblies of various floating devices (pool toys, rubber rafts, a half-sunk plastic kayak, etc.) in which we tried to escape the chaos by floating down a river with our stuff. I remember us yelling at each other a lot, usually to call attention to some floating thing that had a leak.

-Edvard (March 24, 2015, 07:24 PM)

I can see it now.. the people on the raft.. we have water, but it's only tap water.. ok, we can get by.. we have food but it's only dog biscuits.. ok, we can get by. Now the bad news.. No WiFi!! Everyone jumps overboard.

app103 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 25, 2015, 12:47 PM »

I had a dream the other night, that I and the regular #donationcoder IRC denizens were trying to survive in a time that was right on the edge of falling into a 'Post-Apocalyptic' scenario ('Mid-Apocalyptic?'). All we had was a raft of canned goods and some rag-tag assemblies of various floating devices (pool toys, rubber rafts, a half-sunk plastic kayak, etc.) in which we tried to escape the chaos by floating down a river with our stuff. I remember us yelling at each other a lot, usually to call attention to some floating thing that had a leak.

-Edvard (March 24, 2015, 07:24 PM)

I can see it now.. the people on the raft.. we have water, but it's only tap water.. ok, we can get by.. we have food but it's only dog biscuits.. ok, we can get by. Now the bad news.. No WiFi!! Everyone jumps overboard.
-MilesAhead (March 25, 2015, 05:30 AM)

Except mouser (who has been known to code with pen & paper, just for fun*). He jumps overboard when he discovers the paper is too soggy to write on.

_{*Ask mouser about his days at camp, with no computers, and what he and his friends did to keep themselves entertained.}

MilesAhead · « **Reply #22 on:** March 25, 2015, 12:54 PM »

Except mouser (who has been known to code with pen & paper, just for fun
-app103 (March 25, 2015, 12:47 PM)

Yeah, my first PC, the trusty Leading Edge Model D 8088 I used to write routines on scraps of paper while at the diner or wherever, away from the machine. That was in the old days when you used a dot matrix printer to look over your source code at your leisure. Of course every edit without a good compile you ended up printing out more hard copy. Waste of trees.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #23 on:** March 26, 2015, 02:42 PM »

Got one!

The structure was a little strange - I was not quite "in control" like a full lucid one, but I could def tell portions of it unfolding.

Near as I can tell, it was like being a nobody-cast-extra in something on TV. By the lack of "dominating title characters", it felt like a TV movie.

It was something like a "soft crime" mystery taking place at something like a college where the Star Trek club got the funding for a "Day with Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski from ST TNG)." Typical of those second string college activities where they can only afford one of the "B list" stars.

So we were all riding around in a car going places, and there was something about packages. Suppose Ms. Muldaur had either engineer or prop manager friends and maybe had brought custom Trekkian gifts for the club to mail home.

But because of a recent unrelated mail bomb scare, we were all talking about asking for police assistance while we mailed them to demonstrate the authenticity of the gifts.

It all went off without any "plot developments" - the tone was much more "slice of life". It gets a little fuzzy but I presume the Trek club and friends just wandered around campus and maybe the d-list local tourist attractions of a small college town and probably had lunch in there somewhere.

Fun little dream!

MilesAhead · « **Reply #24 on:** March 26, 2015, 03:22 PM »

I know I had some weird dreams when I read The Silmarillion for the third time. Luckily I don't remember them.