Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

What do you dream about?

Rate this topic


D'kian

Recommended Posts

Speaking of dreams, I'm curious as to what kind of dreams people here have.

I used to have a recurring dream some years ago. It was almost always the same. I was in a very nice, luxurious living room done in various shades of white. I remember a couch facing a huge panoramic window, beyond which there was a night city-scape. the furniture looked modern, all tables made of metal and glass. On one table stood a clock set at 11:50 PM (it was night, but even so I knew when I saw the time that it was PM).

The curious thing is that nothing happened at all. I would sit, stand or lie down and look out at the city (I recall no details of the city). That's it. But I felt a deep feeling of well being and peace. Nothing more. I awoke in a very good mood when I had that dream.

I remember a very vivid dream. I was outisde a grey building with very large windows. People and aliens (don't ask) were streaming out of the building in panic, yeling that it was dark adn they couldn't see anything. Oddly enough ti was near noon on a bright day. I walked against the current of those fleeing the building and enetred it. Inside it was a bit dimmer, about what you'd expect on a bright day. there were tables, arranged as in a restaurant. Some people sat by the tables, talking and eating. Others ran blindly around, saying it was dark and they couldn't see.

One of the people at a table turned to tell me, "Oh, it's ok. They're the ones who don't know how to think." I knew she was talking about those running around in a panic. I said "Maybe they like it in the dark." The woman at the table said "So what? Stay away from them."

I remember waking up thinking it was a very odd thing for me to say. I mean, these people were in a panic about being in the dark, so how could they possibly like it?

I've had several dreams of driving a car I couldn't slow down, a light I couldn't turn on, a computer or TV that worked but gave no picture. Different dreams, but with that recurring theme. At the time I felt frustrated and afraid, and promptly woke up, feeling very glad I had been dreaming.

Sometimes when I have a big or important event in the days ahead I'll dream about it. For instance, prior to going to Vegas I dreamt about playing in a casino and winning big, or losing big. Nothing very clear, and nothing at all as it turned out to be in reality. I sometimes ahve to put together samples of various dry goods (sometimes as many as 200 diferent products), neatly labeled and ordered. Sometimes on the day before delivery I dream of rpesenting the samples. Usually everything turns out allright, but sometimes things go vary badly in the dream. Samples are missing, some are mislabeled, sometimes I just don't reach the customer before the deadline passes. These qualify as nightmares when they do happen.

My worst nightmares always include insects in some shape or form. But I don't recall them at all, beyond knowing there were bugs and I woke up sweating and in a near panic.

How about you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MY dreams are large, varied, and odd.

One of my dreams I remember best, I only dreamt one time. The Sun is setting on a pink ocean and there in the center of the waters sits an island. The island is old, made out of metal, and rusted. The island get closer and closer until your on its shore. Around you stand tall trees made of twisting meatals strips and hangng from their branches are cages filled with men, animals, and monsters of all sorts.

The ground begans to shake. The beings inside the cages screeches, squawk, and howl at you with unimaginable anguish. Then, some where in the metal forest, a gaint pillar made of iron burst forth from the ground and raises into the cloud. You look up in awe at the sight. There, on top of the pillar, stand the toughest look man you've ever seen.

But there is something wrong with the man. You stare for a few second trying to fiqure it out and then it hits you like a ten ton truck. Wha-Whats wrong with his head. Where the man's head should be sits the monstrouly huge cranium of a fly! You fall to the ground wanting to throw up, but you can't , your whole body is paralized. Then, the last thing you see is the man-thing swipe his hand through the air and fire reigns down on you.

Then you (me) wake up feeling quite odd....to say the least.

I also have recuring dreaming about things not working, falling from high places, fire (I dream about it alot), aliens, and mostly about people i know.

Edited by John Kay Herdz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I normally have dreams that start off rather logically, like just driving, and then for no reason I'm in space or something.

The dreams I normally can remember in detail are the bad ones, or the ones that are so illogical it's scary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dreams never make any sense. One time, I was swimming in a gigantic pool held up in the sky by four balloones. But their was a dragon swimming in it. As my family and I were swimming around near the edge, it ate my mother. Then I woke up. I was confused to say the least.

In another, I was sleeping in an apartment in the inner city (I dont live in the city). A gigantic rat began stomping on all of the buildings. It was weird because I wasn't controlling myself, it was more like I was a third person, watching myself do things. I got out of bed, went outside, and bit the rat in the leg. Bleeding, it fell down and died. Again, I woke up very very confused.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a notion that dreams are a function of the subconscious mind. If there are symbols in it, they're likely particualr to the individual dreaming them. That is, if you want to "interpret" a dream you have to introspect for the meaning, if there is any meaning.

For example, I have a phobia regarding insects, so it seems natural they'd be featured in a nightmare. The looking down on a city at night from inside a room done in white, as far as I'm concerned, while feeling a deep sense fo well-being and peace may be an expression of the love I have for riding on airplanes (an idealized version of flight, as it were), which would also naturally put me in a good mood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My most memorable dream is looking up at the night sky, and realizing that the darkness of the sky is actually made up of those claymation California Raisins. I then zoomed in on one of them and watched them brush their teeth and get ready for bed.

A disturbing dream I had a few months ago involved a family trip, in which we suddenly found ourselves driving through increasing amounts of road kill, and eventually the road kill turned into lots of dead and dismembered people, random body parts, in larger and larger piles, and we just kept driving over it all. The disturbing part, when I woke up, was that I wasn't grossed out at all in my dream - I was completely indifferent. I actually felt guilty, like I had done something wrong, for dreaming that.

I have a lot of dreams where I somehow get myself thrown in the air too high and I know I'm falling. I can actually feel my stomach churn like I'm weightless. For most other dreams, I'm either being chased or chasing someone, or trying to piece together some mystery that has no real plot.

When I was younger I would frequently have lucid dreams (where I knew I was dreaming and could control my dreams). But sometimes, I knew I was dreaming, and believed I was awake (maybe I was), but couldn't move or speak. I would try yelling for my parents but only my lips would move. It was as if my vocal cords had been disabled. (sleep paralysis, apparently)

Edited by brian0918
Link to comment
Share on other sites

About 10 years ago, for a span of two years or maybe a bit more, I would have this same dream about being chased by tornadoes of varying sizes. It was horrifying because there were multiple tornadoes, perhaps 10 or more and I was on the open prairie. The only structure for me to hide in was an old farm house and the wood plank walls were so deteriorated I could look out through the cracks in the house to see where the storms were moving. Before any storms ever hit the house, I would always wake up. My life was a mess back then and I was not in a good place. I've always wondered if the dreams were an indication of that mess??

I can rarely remember dreams anymore. Usually, if I eat something chocolate flavored before falling asleep, I will have really surreal, strange dreams, but that's about all I can recall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About 10 years ago, for a span of two years or maybe a bit more, I would have this same dream about being chased by tornadoes of varying sizes. It was horrifying because there were multiple tornadoes, perhaps 10 or more and I was on the open prairie. The only structure for me to hide in was an old farm house and the wood plank walls were so deteriorated I could look out through the cracks in the house to see where the storms were moving. Before any storms ever hit the house, I would always wake up. My life was a mess back then and I was not in a good place. I've always wondered if the dreams were an indication of that mess??

I had tornado dreams too, only I was in my childhood home, standing outside, and there were tornadoes of every size in all directions, At least a couple dozens, all swirling around. I had that dream a few times.

I have always wanted to see a tornado. The only one that happened anywhere near where I live occurred on my birthday, but I was only two years old, so I don't remember anything.

Edited by brian0918
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a lot of dreams where I somehow get myself thrown in the air too high and I know I'm falling. I can actually feel my stomach churn like I'm weightless. For most other dreams, I'm either being chased or chasing someone, or trying to piece together some mystery that has no real plot.

That is actually explainable. It usually happens before you fall asleep, and is a nonsensical reflex left over - most likely from a pre-human that lived in trees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're scary. Although I didn't see it, one ripped up the suburb I lived in when I was a kid in Texas. I saw a funnel cloud at the beach once, but it never made it to the ground. We just kinda stood there watching it wondering what we would do if it touched down. The only shelter we had on the beach was our car and getting tossed about in my car doesn't sound fun either. :lol:

If you really want to see one, I think you can book a tornado chasing vacation with some of those storm chasers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine are rare, but when they do come they are so bizarre that the only conclusion I can come to is that they are a random grab bag whatever thoughts and daydreams I may have had recently.

Strangely enough though, since I dream so rarely, I have found my most of my nightmares entertaining after waking from them, except for one.

This one I had in particular two years ago was terrible mostly due to me being half awake the whole time throughout, so I couldn't distinguish if I was asleep or not. I was in the Grand Canyon at night, with this huge "machine" to the left of me. The machine itself did not look like a machine, but a glob of oil in the shape and form of a 30ft tall leech. Apparently there was this big flood of water, which I could see using my sleep endowed powers of seeing miles away, rushing through the canyon towards where me and a bunch of these other unknown people were. We would drown unless we used this machine to drill holes in the ground to drain all the water, but all the women and children and such were somehow getting stuck in the gears, and were moaning quite terribly. I was trying to figure out how to get these people out while at the same time keeping an eye on the fuel gauge, which happened to be my alarm clock (4:30? What unit of measurement is that?). Also at the same time I was quite concerned that I would drown once the water starts coming in through my bedroom windows, which is a strange thing to be concerned about since the canyon had no windows. I could not make myself aware of the fact that I was seeing two different environments depending on whether or not my eyes were open. In a rush of frustration I hit a button which turned my bedroom lights on, and then stared around, trying to remember that my room is not in a canyon, and then went to the bathroom to sick. For these kinds of dreams I coined the phrase "Dizzy dreams" to describe a class of dreams that always make me want to throw up. After sicking and going back to bed, I had another dizzy dream about some sort of cartoon clown jugging foam balls in a yellowish darkness, and then I got up and sicked again. Never on any other day was I so grateful for Vernors.

If I was still a kid, however, my answer as to the worst nightmare I ever had would be different. It took a lot of introspection to find out, but apparently these dreams were influenced by the movie Look Who's Talking, where in one scene the child of the movie has a nightmare that the toilet wants to bite off his genitalia. In my version of the dream I was going up the stairs when suddenly one of them turned purple, and the whole staircase started moving downwards like an escalator. The dryer came out of the laundry room and ate me in a single cylinderful. For a few moments I floated around in a dark bluish-purple environment along with the Kool-Aid man, whom had either been devoured or drunken, until I came along side a rocket ship. I boarded it (being inconsiderate to the Kool-Aid man) and blasted off, puncturing a hole in the top of the dryer which then caused it to deflate. Finally I woke up, with a new childhood fear.

After that I would not go in the basement without having an adult waiting at the top of the steps until I turned a light on or fetched whatever they needed. I remember once the power went out while I was watching television in the basement, and I screamed thinking it was the dryer messing with the fuse box.

If that wasn't bad enough, I had two more nightmares (different enough not to be called recurring dreams) about that dryer. In the second my friend and I were playing chicken with the dryer as it chased after us (this time it was hiding in the bathroom) when we went to the bottom of the steps. The second time I ran up the steps my friend did not follow, as he was watching the dryer move after him, in awe. The dryer ate him up and then went back to the bathroom, to take a leak I suppose. In the third nightmare the dryer attempted to go up the steps after me and my grandfather, but failed and sent a policeman after us instead.

I'm not certain, but I think this fear lasted several months, if not several years. Good thing I'm over it now, as I'm near the darned laundry dryer now.

Nowadays I either don't dream or don't remember the ones I have. The ones I remember quite vividly are a quite random selection, and include such insignificant dreams such as running through the kitchen at night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One strange thing about my dreams is that I have never, EVER, had a nightmare. Not a single one that I can remember after waking anyhow.

As a kid I used to have recurring dreams about flying. Usually I am in some sort of open space and just running, then after building up some speed I started skipping higher and higher until I finally took off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One strange thing about my dreams is that I have never, EVER, had a nightmare. Not a single one that I can remember after waking anyhow.

As a kid I used to have recurring dreams about flying. Usually I am in some sort of open space and just running, then after building up some speed I started skipping higher and higher until I finally took off.

I've heard it said that most people actually have several dreams a night, but they only remember a small fraction of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard it said that most people actually have several dreams a night, but they only remember a small fraction of them.

There are several REM periods per night, so there are several dreams per night as well.

Assuming you don't wake up during the night, you'll likely remember only one if you remember any. What happens most often is you remember you dreamt, but can't recall even a notion of what the dreams were about. Sometimes I wake up two or three times during the night, and I remember a different dream each time.

Another odd thing that sometimes happens is a continuing dream. You wake up for some reason, go back to bed, and find the previous dream continuing. At least it seems that way.

Question: do you experience tastes or smells in dreams? Offhand I can't recall any.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a better question--and I don't mean this in any "mystical" way--but, how many here have had a dream about some future event in your life and then it happens exactly like you drempt(?) it would? This has happened to me MANY times, and when I say exactly like I dreamed, I mean it, although usually one important decision that I need to make is slightly different. I don't want to speculate on how this is possible, I just know that it is from experience. And, I'm wondering how many other people here experience this weird event from time to time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a better question--and I don't mean this in any "mystical" way--but, how many here have had a dream about some future event in your life and then it happens exactly like you drempt(?) it would? This has happened to me MANY times, and when I say exactly like I dreamed, I mean it, although usually one important decision that I need to make is slightly different. I don't want to speculate on how this is possible, I just know that it is from experience. And, I'm wondering how many other people here experience this weird event from time to time?

My mom has never needed a pregnacy test. Every time she has gotten pregnant she dreams a family memeber comes and tells her. She has known our genders and everything before even going to the doctor.

One time she had a dream that my aunt was pregnant and actually dragged my aunt into the doctor to see. And sure enough my aunt was.

She has speculated it may be her maternal instincts of someything simular portraying themselves through her dreams.

Edited by John Kay Herdz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The part of your brain that forms long-term memories is actually shut down normally when you're dreaming, so not remembering your dreams is quite normal. As for so-called precognitive dreams, they are similar to the phenomenon of deja vu. I've had *several*, but when I critically examined them after the event I "predicted" I realized that I did not actually *know* beforehand, I just *remembered* that I knew. In other words, I made an error of chronological memory.

It doesn't help that subtleties may register on your subconscious without your conscious awareness, making you feel like you "just know" some things.

That being said, I have *excessively* weird dreams on the few occasions I remember. When I was younger I would have frequent falling/flying dreams, along with the ever-popular one about my teeth (I'd dream that my teeth kept falling out and growing back in, like a shark). More recently they've been quite gruesome, such as the one where my brother Gareth got frozen solid, my other brother Benjamin got run over by an ambulance, and my dad tried to thaw Gareth out with a hairdryer. Then I had a lovely dream about processing tissue at home using the bathroom sink and a centrifuge in the garage (I distinctly remember thinking, "that's not sterile!") so that my dad could--get this--launch the tissue into space.

At previous jobs I would also have frequent dreams about being late to work (I hate having to clock in and out with a passion)--no matter what I'd do, I couldn't get to work, it'd keep getting later and later, yet for some reason I kept trying. It was weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone had a dream that involved them actually realizing it was a dream? One time a dreamt I was in a mall of some sort and I suddenely realized I was dreaming. I decided the best thing to do was to begin shooting fire out of my hands (I was quite young). It actually worked for a few seconds, then I woke up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone had a dream that involved them actually realizing it was a dream?

The dreams I have that I remember, I *always* realize that it is a dream at some point (possibly just because it's too bizarre to possibly be real), but I have greater or lesser degrees of success in trying to "take over" the dream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a better question--and I don't mean this in any "mystical" way--but, how many here have had a dream about some future event in your life and then it happens exactly like you drempt(?) it would? This has happened to me MANY times, and when I say exactly like I dreamed, I mean it, although usually one important decision that I need to make is slightly different. I don't want to speculate on how this is possible, I just know that it is from experience. And, I'm wondering how many other people here experience this weird event from time to time?

I'm a broker, and this has happened several times where I dreamed about how a stock is going to develop right down to the exact prices, and it hit the mark exactly or off by a tiny fraction. I even awed my co-workers by announcing my dream prior to the market opening.

There are also some situations where I felt like I was in a dejavu but turned out I had dreamed it. Usually in mundane kind of situations though -- sitting with the same company in the same coffee job in the same seat drinking the same drink, that kind of stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's an example of a dream that happened nearly exactly as I had dreamed of it a couple months before it happened if anyone's interested. It was so vivid and I know I had it in about October of '99 and that it was about New Year's Day 2000.

At that time I had an apartment with my child's mother. Now are relationship was rocky and I might have been worried about it continuing to exist, but as you will see my dream only show's that we broke up in a round about way.

I dreamed that I was living at my grandparent's house (even though, I knew I didn't) and that my aunt and uncle were also living there and I had just woken up on New Year's Day and went into the kitchen and looked out the window into the backyard after saying good morning to my grandmother.

As I was dreaming this I was confused for several reasons. One, as I stated, I really lived with my fiance'. Two, my aunt and uncle had their own home and didn't live with my grandparents. So even in the dream that definitely confused me.

Now before I tell you the conclusion of that dream that I had several months earlier, let me tell you the events that did happen starting around the beginning of December. First, one day when I was at work my girl called me and told me that she was moving out, and taking everything, and since the apartment was in her name and she wanted the deposit back I also had to move out. So, I of course moved in with my grandparents after that. :P Around the same time my aunt and uncle had suddenly sold their home and had to be out immediately. My uncle is a carpenter and wouldn't have their new home built until the spring at the earliest. So without any prior knowledge to me they also moved into my grandparents home.

Fast forward a few weeks and deja vu. Everything was exactly as I had drempt about it. I woke up went into the kitchen, said "Good morning," to my grandmother and as my dream is now beginning come back to me I say, "Whoa", I think to myself and glance out the kitchen window in great fear....

And here's why I looked out in absolute fear, and where my "dream" finally and thankfully diverged from what really happened... in the dream I look out the window and see two or three mushroom clouds in the distance. Everyone rushes out the house to the car so that we can get away and I'm seeing additional mushroom clouds in the direction of Dearborn or Detroit, south, and west towards Ann Arbor. Just as we are all hopping in the car to "get away" I hear a voice telling me, "Eric, head east." Then I wake up terrified and sweating. And now you know why I looked out the window terrified out of my mind when the rest of the events did happen as I had dreamed a few months before. I think I remember my grandma asking me what was wrong, and that it looked like I had seen a ghost. In a way I had, too, because for someone as rational and objective as I have always been this was it's equivalent.

Now, we all know that of course there was no nuclear war on Jan. 1st 2000, but everything prior to that did happen. One other thing during that month at my grandmother's house I met a new girl that lived in Maine (EAST) and I went to meet her and eventually lived there for about six months.

I do not how to explain this stuff although I know that their has to be a scientific and rational answer for this phenomenom like every thing else that exists. What it is I do not know or can even fathom at the moment. I've had similar "pre-cognitive" dreams in my life, but that was by far the most intense, memorable, and accurate of them all. I've never really knew what to think of all this and still don't (unless I went temporarily insane or something, which I highly doubt).

Anyone else had any dreams like that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EC, while your example is unusually detailed, I've had similar experiences (and so have most people) and I briefly gave some thought to it once.

The best theory I could come up with is that we have so many strange or insignificant contemplations (especially when dreaming) that some of them are bound to occur, this surprises us but the rest of our contemplations are forgotten. Like when you think "I haven't heard song X in a long time" then it comes on the radio, and you are surprised because you were thinking about it a few days ago. You probably had similar thoughts about songs Y and Z, but nothing happens to remind you of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had similar "pre-cognitive" dreams in my life, but that was by far the most intense, memorable, and accurate of them all.
Often, we are aware of various facts, though we have not consciously integrated them.

For instance, I'd summarize the prediction in your dream thus: I'll be moving in with my Grandma, and so will my Uncle and Aunt. As a third-party with a skeptical eye, I'd say that (since you knew your relationship was rocky) you probably contemplated -- at some level of consciousness or sub-consciousness -- the question: what if it breaks up? what would be my immediate steps, in terms of where to live, etc.? One does not have to ask these questions consciously; that's the beauty of the subconscious. On simply has to ask one's subconscious to imagine the break-up scenario, and it will supply concretes like your grandmother's house.

Similarly, even though your uncle and aunt had their own house, it's possible that you knew something about their situation that made you ask: what if things go worse for them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not how to explain this stuff although I know that their has to be a scientific and rational answer for this phenomenom like every thing else that exists.

One possible explanation is coincidence.

Further, I'm willing to bet you'd stayed at your grandparents' home before (weekend visits, holidays, wahtever). I will further speculate at one such visit your uncle and aunt stayed there as well. If so, your dream might have been a replay of a memory of the past, not the future.

As for mushroom clouds on Jan 1st 2000, I'm not surprised at all. Remember Y2K? For some reason lots of people thought it perfectly logical that a date bug would launch nuclear missiles all by itself, among other armaggedon and apocalyptic scenarios. there were even parodies by the Simpsons and in a Nike ad. Dreaming about it is just normal.

What it is I do not know or can even fathom at the moment. I've had similar "pre-cognitive" dreams in my life, but that was by far the most intense, memorable, and accurate of them all.

Some time ago I played lotto twice a week (I've given it up). Once I dreamt I was trying to cash a prize, but the machine kept spitting out the ticket. The agent then said to me "The machine won't accept. It seems it wasn't cut properly. Too bad," and I left empty-handed. Well, a few days after that dream I won a $1,200 prize. When I went to cash it the machine kept spitting the ticket out. The agent told me "This ticket was improperly cut." She then proceeded to input the number mannually and, eventually, I was paid off.

Before anyone makes any kind of big deal about this, let me explain that minor prizes are cashed at any lotto agency. Often the mahcine needs several tries before reading the ticket. Sometimes when the ticket is printed the cutting mechanism malfunctions and makes a ragged cut (the improper cut I mentioned abobve), which makes those tickets harder for the machine to deal with. I witnessed that countless of times with prizes between $1 and $50. So having it happen to a larger prize is as likely.

When I have an important meeting or a presentation or a sample delivery with a large customer, I often will dream about it. Again, I know how such things usually go, and again I dream details that have happened and, I know, are likely to happen again. Sometimes the meeting goes well in the dream, sometimes not. Once I dreamt the customer wanted a different brand of olive oil, and in reality the customer wanted a different brand of gelatin (a week before, a different customer had asked for changes in several products, so the notion was bugging me).

So, coincidence. Some events happened to be similar to past events, and I dreamed about it before it happened in one place, but after it had happened in a different place.

I've never really knew what to think of all this and still don't (unless I went temporarily insane or something, which I highly doubt).

Anyone else had any dreams like that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone had a dream that involved them actually realizing it was a dream?

There's a guy who wrote his thesis about this phenomenon and has a kind of business going: The Lucidity Institute

I've personally had a couple dreams in which I realized it was a dream. One time I got so excited about it that I woke up immediately; the other time I carefully examined a large crystal on a table thinking "so this is a dream crystal", then drifted back into a normal dream state. I have no idea why these occurred when they did and have not been able to do it by deliberate intention. It seems like it would be a great kind of "natural holodeck".

I don't normally remember my dreams unless I write them down as soon as I get up, either in the middle of the night when I get up to let the cat in, or in the morning. The more I do this, the more dreams I remember.

I think the main benefit of dreams is to help to understand my values - I notice what emotions they evoke and work back to the value judgments that gave rise to these emotions.

Edited by Tom Hall
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...