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Books, movies and video games feature characters that, at times, have recurrent dreams. Often times these dreams would serve the purpose of alluding to whatever transcendental theme was at play. I've never really had any sort of empathy from the dreams characters have, at least until recently. Recurrent dreams didn't compute with me, I didn't "feel them" or their significance.
As a younger boy than I am today time had been spent each week at church. Many of the stories, parables and other lessons that were taught to me I've absorbed and kept in the back of my mind. At various times god speaks to someone through a dream. These dreams are described as real to the bearer, so obviously real and meaningful that the viewer would immediately understand it was communication from a higher being. Due to these stories I hold the belief that dreams are important, but what importance they hold exactly I don't know.
In a similar way, maybe dreams can be a way of communicating with ones own self. Not to say that people are like gods to themselves, or any man-empowering bullshit. I mean that perhaps people are complex, and sometimes different parts of a person can communicate to each other through a dream.
I now have a little more experience with weird recurrent dreams, and they make me uneasy. My first recurrent dream was of myself riding on the Iron Giant's head through the dark, trying to kill huge monster rats. My family often stood in the middle of a room far away fighting with one another. They fought with such fury they didn't notice giants rats ready to eat them. Riding the Iron Giant's big head with flash-light eyes we pummeled rats to try to save my family. In the end I could never find my family. This specific dream occurred what felt like 5 or so times. Each time I had the dream I could remember the previous dream instance. I would try to follow a new route and try an alternative plan to save my family, but each dream ended the same way.
Fast forward 15 years and I'm having a similar dream, but more terrifying. I'll try to describe it.
+ Show Spoiler [Dream] +The setting is on a small town near the West coast of the United States. For some reason my family's house is right next to the ocean, as in literally a couple feet above the ocean water. At first I try to explain to my family that a house so near the ocean is dangerous. Nobody listens and I start getting shunned. As time continues and my family goes on with their daily activities I meander outside into the town. Everyone is walking around like you see in the movie "The Truman Show", as if they are following a script. I then realize that I somehow know the ocean is going to rise and swallow the town. I try my best to inform random passersby about imminent doom. Just like my family, nobody heeds. There's no sense of urgency, but for some reason I know that the ocean is going to swell. In the bible it says that after Noah's flood a rainbow appeared signifying a promise from god never to flood the earth again. As I constantly check the ocean in a panic to spot for swelling, I see a rainbow. Mixed in with the rainbow is a looming red haze rising from the ocean, and with it swells of water from the horizon. The swells look like rolling hills from the opening of the 1940 Fantasia. I run for my family and try my best to grab them and drag them inland away from the swelling water. If nobody can be convinced to run, then I'll have to drag who I can and take matters into my own hands. Each time I look back the rainbow stands stoically, despite the swelling water rushing towards land. Eventually the water blocks out the sun and the rainbow now shines threw the water. The water acts as a giant magnifying glass, and the rainbow colors in the water cover the swells as the swells cover the sky. The house is ripped apart, there's nowhere to run. Everyone begins to die a watery death, and they still try to carry on with their daily lives. People are swept to their death picking up the newspaper, and my family curses me for dragging them. We all die.
I had this dream last night, for what feels like the 20th time. Each time I have the dream I can vaguely remember my previous versions; this is how I know the ocean is going to swallow everything! I try to persuade my family to leave in different ways, I take different paths inland, I try to steal cars, nothing makes a difference. I'm just one person and I can't convince anyone to leave in time, and so they all die. And I choose to die with them, rather than to flee before the swells arrive.
I call this a dream because despite it being terrifying there's always a catharsis after death; I know I did what is right. It's not quite a nightmare. I did my duty to try to help as many people as I could. In the end I could only inform, but couldn't force anyone to safety. People should do what is right. There is a right thing to do, and in the dream it was to run. Despite the catharsis I still feel terrible in the frightening time before the ocean swells.
How this relates to my own conscious life I'm not sure. Hopefully I can figure this all out.
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Sounds like to me the complete opposite, the right thing to do maybe in the dream was to run, but IMO the right thing to do is to inform your family / friends of the right things to do in general....I've had some crazy dreams too, like several nights in a row I was having dreams about cops kicking down my door and arresting me, then a few days later, the cops kicked down my door and raided my house and arrested me....so...IMO you should listen to your dreams man....I think its telling you to not be afraid to tell your family / friends of what your opinions are on what they should do in life. Be honest with them, tell them how you feel.
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I have a few recurrent dreams although off the top of my head I can only remember one of them completely, (which I'll talk to about soonish), and the others I can just remember a bit but once I enter the dream, I know exactly what will happen. I think the "theme" with my recurrent dreams are that... to a certain degree they relate to the events that happened the same day. From there, in my dream I will experience similar feelings, but they sort of go to show something about the kind of person.
For instance, the dream I fully remember is... a darned horrendous example. It's me being in a bathroom. With lots and lots and lots of stalls and I'm the only person there. So what do I do? I KNOW it's a dream, and I've had the dream before, but I do the same thing anyways. I do what's natural for someone there, I go piss. And voila, I'm awake, and I've wet the bed. I've had this dream upwards of 5 times and you'd think I'd just wake up without having to piss myself but NOPE. My bladder wants to teach me a lesson.
Other dreams that re-occur sometimes happen after I've watched movies with a good deal of violence, or read a scary story. Same things always seem to happen, there's a monster, there's a person I have to save often, there's magic involved, and I always get multiple chances in the same dream.
Maybe what I said about these dreams showing a bit "about me" isn't exactly true? I think a lot of it is because I play a lot of games, and read a lot of fantasy and well... that's probably where all the magic/saving/multiple chances comes from. Dunno.
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the dream is made by you and for you. your only duty is to save yourself, irl, then it'll stop.
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IMO a dream never refers to ANYTHING in your life, right & wrong, it never goes beyond the boundaries that is your mental state.
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Stop drinking so much liquid before going to bed.
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Hi, psychodynamic psychology student 3 years into his doctorate here!
So usually in dreams, water of any kind represents your id or subconscious. You in the dream represents your conscious or your ego, the person thinking who makes all the decisions, and your house/family right next to the water appears to mean that the issue is "close to home" in some sense. Your house and family represent your superego, all the things you've learned from society as right and wrong. It seems as though there's some massive struggle in your life that nobody seems to think is dangerous/hard or important for you, and despite you trying to warn your family about it, it only seems to backfire on you when you warn them.
Color in dreams generally represents emotion. So the red waves and the rainbow are strong points of emotion for you, and whatever they represent likely means a lot to you. It's interesting that you can sense the swell coming. Keeping in mind that the ocean is your subconscious, what do you think that might mean? These waves are going to tear your family apart, as you've had this dream before and you know what the outcome is, and you try to save them but they don't want to be saved.
I might be way off on the conclusion that follows, but the analysis itself is right, so apply it however you want to whatever issue it is:
I mean, I'm not really an expert or anything yet, but it sounds like you fear you might be gay and are not open about it and you're afraid it will tear your family apart. (Edit: LOL okay way off .)
In any case, the issue is one that's not going away for you any time soon. Some desire within you is frowned upon by your family and it needs to be expressed before it causes a catastrophe. Whatever it is that you want to say or do can't be stopped and will feel good when it's out there no matter what the consequences (even if it kills you and your family) because that's just who you are.
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I feel like if I had to come up with a dumb hobby it would be trying to convince people they're secretly gay over the internet.
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It's just the go-to thing, you know? Especially with the rainbow .
In any case, Cecil PM'd me about more details and it turns out that's not the case lol
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4713 Posts
I believe dreams are very important signs/tools in your life that you shouldn't ignore. They can be a small snapshot into the inner workings of your mind giving you a heads up regarding any issues, or in general the state of your mental well being. Sometimes they can even be flashes into the future.
I won't do any interpretation, ZERG_RUSSIAN already covered that and I think he did a good job. What I'm going to tell you though is just not to ignore them, and don't dismiss the possibility of dreams revealing something of what might happen.
About a year ago I had a dream, it wasn't at all straight forward, it actually contained a lot of symbolism, but after some thinking and reflection I understood what it was trying to tell me. My best friend was leaving and I'd have to learn to cope or I'd face a very tough time. A couple of months later it happened and I'm still working it out, my best friend was like an older brother to me, his leave hurt as much.
You can find whatever justification you want to make sense of it, you could say my subconscious picked up on cues and clues that I didn't notice, whatever, the point is, you can have dreams like this and its good to pay attention. And also keep in mind, there might also be nothing at all you can do about it, you also have to learn to cope with that.
Good luck, I hope you learn what the dream means for you.
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The worst dream is when, about an hour or so before you get up, you´re in this dreamy state, where you shift from sleeping to being half-awake and back to sleep again, where dreams feel almost real. And you know you gotta pee hardcore. There´s this giant pressure on you´re bladder, but still, you´re not awake enough to realize, or you say to yourself: Yeah, I´m gonna get up, just five more minutes. And you go back to dreaming. The pressure rises so much that it pulls you out of sleep again, and you shift around, trying to find a position where you don´t feel like bursting. And then it happens: You´re asleep again, but you kind of you know it, so you can´t be fully asleep, really. And you go right back to dreaming again, only that now, in your dream, you really gotta pee badly. And it´s the same after-a-6-hour-drive-and-several-cups-of-coffee pee you felt when you were awake. Only now, it so happens you´re just in the perfect place for a good old rewarding relief. And you´re like, wow, how incredibly convenient, I´m just the luckiest guy. So you unzip, right before your belly bursts open and let it go and it feels just sooo right, like lay-of-all-your-burdens-and-come-to-inner-peace-right... And then you wake up, again not fully though, but you´re half-awake and you still long for the relief, it could be so easy, you could feel sooo good, you´re practically feeling it already, just let go. And I mean, you just were in the proper place for it, there´s no reason you shouldn´t be now. And then, as your conscious mind slowly kicks in, you realize how you´re just about to pee in your bed... And, holy mother of Christ, it is so friggin hard not to. I mean, the ship has left the port, sails are set and it´s going full speed ahead before the wind. So you grab that steering wheel like a motherfucker and try to change course, no matter where, only away from the currents. The crew have already made up their minds, they want to keep going and they start pulling at you, but you hold on like your life depends on it. And then, as you have successfully contained catastrophe for the tiniest of moments, you jump out of bed, run to the toilet and go all-out Niagara on that poor thing. There is this weird mixture of heavenly relief mixed with the adrenaline of a near death experience, leaving you exhausted, but happy. And yet, you´re still under a little shock as your own body tried to trick you, hijacking all your senses and driving your mind around like a bicycle.
So, I can appreciate apocalyptic and getting-chased and morbid-stuff-of-nightmare-dreams, but that peeing dream is truly of the asshole-kind.
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On June 30 2014 11:43 GGzerG wrote: Sounds like to me the complete opposite, the right thing to do maybe in the dream was to run, but IMO the right thing to do is to inform your family / friends of the right things to do in general.
Yeah, but imagine there's an afterlife. Imagine a person can go to heaven or hell based on some sort of judgment. "Running" can be viewed as trying to do what is right during your lifetime, not literally running from the water. In my dream I'm "running" around trying to do what I'm supposed to. During reality I try to inform others of what is right, and they choose to ignore. In my dream I only experience the death of reality, not my afterlife.
I've gotten a lot of PMs saying right and wrong is subjective from person person (just one on TL). What was meant by this is that right and wrong are just axioms of the populace. In this way man is his own authority. If there were an afterlife and higher power (like we are currently imagining), whatever he says is right would probably supersede whatever axioms we hold. This might be where some of the terror comes in my dreams.
My personal world view doesn't matter so much, as now I think my dream is just about right and wrong. I believe that choices (somehow) matter, and my life experience so far is that many people I've had direct contact with just don't care. It's usually just pure laziness and widespread apathy. No discipline, drive, or ambition. I would posit that a lack of "urgency" in life is very bad sign.
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-nuked-
User was banned for this post.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Does sound like quite the terrifying dream. Seeing as you realize it's a dream, have you tried to change the actual dream itself? I mean, so far, you've tried to change everything else by trying to get people to escape etc... but what if you were to fix the main problem, the water rising part? What if you made it so that as soon as it rose, it evaporated instead? Or rather than it rising, you convinced yourself that it won't happen? Dreams work on thoughts. Conscious thought in a dream can help you alter what happens.
Now, I may be misreading what you wrote but I'm basing the above on the idea that you are conscious that its a dream when you're in the dream based on 'I can vaguely remember my previous versions' which indicates that you might have some lucidity there. If you want more explanation of what that is, let me know and I can pm you some links and explanations etc... As for what the dream could be, that's a tougher one. Have you recently went swimming? Do you fear water? Any drowning experience? Honestly, it can be a lot of things. You might be able to see it from your mind telling you something important but it would be hard to guess what that is based on what you wrote.
edit: just realized the post date T.T
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