How seriously do you take your dreams?

[the.end.ish]

Hey everyone,

I can't sleep and I'm curious about how others interpret or view their dreams?

Do you take them literally, metaphorically?

Do you think they're foreshadowing what's to come?

Do you give heavy weight to your dreams or none at all?

I have vivid dreams and it can take me a long while to detach myself from the emotions experienced while in dreamland.

I believe they are my brain trying to process my experiences and emotions, but I don't think that's the full story...

 

[Lekatt]

Tell us what you dream about.

 

[Citizen Insane]

I personally don't think there's anything "special" to dreaming, not even on a spiritual level. All because of the fact that lucid dreaming exists.

I have had lucid dreams almost non-stop for the past 10 years, because I'm controlling myself in the dream I don't have nightmares anymore. Dreams can become somewhat meaningless in a way, I sometimes have to force myself to stay in the (lucid dream) or otherwise I would wake up not well rested enough.

Because it's possible to stay in the same place too while in the envisioned dream world and the fact that having a conversation with "someone in the dream" is just you talking to yourself. If you never learned certain parts of a language, never saw certain colours in reality, didn't taste and eat certain types of food - then you wouldn't be able to experience them in the dream.

 

[Shelly]

all of the above...

most times i have random dreams, a set of unrelated dreams in one sleep and because they're all so random i tend to easily forget about them.
there are times i thought i'm having deja vu but i realized it quickly that i had dreamed of this mundane situation from the past...
some dreams are impactful in my walking life while some are just my worries becoming real in my dreams...

 

[Dani24]

I completely understand I get weird dreams too. Then I great dreams about someone I like.

 

[MisterBGone]

I tend to take them semi-seriously, only on rare occasion. I sometimes find that they are our subconscious trying to work itself out, in some ways, similar to what you’d said at the end of your original post @the.end.ish - (have you read Freud & Jung’s Books on Dreams?). It’s come along way since then, from what I gather. And I once came into contact who was very into the most current studies on the matter. So much so that he was said to be in touch, or regular contact with one of the foremost experts on the subject. But the more I listened to him speak . The less interested, and therefore, “in tune,” I became. . ;^)~*•>

 

[Paisley]

I look at my dreams as if they were a reflection of my subconscious mind.

 

[KM76710]

I don't take mine seriously. Mine are typically oddball but I blame my unusual way of thinking. I dream of end of life or rather end of the world as opposed to me dying. Nuclear attack, tornadoes hitting the house and I have had one go over the house when I was outside and I don't even live in a trailer park, alien invasion, things like that.

 

[Sunspots]

I have different types of dreams. I've experienced lucid dreaming since I was a child - it comes in very handy at times. I can almost experiment with how I'd like the dream to end until I find an ending I'm comfortable with.

But sometimes it just doesn't happen and the nightmares can be awful. Recently I had a dream that my daughter was abducted while out on a date. It stayed with me for days and all I wanted to do was cling on to her. It certainly didn't help when she actually went on a date the following week - I nearly insisted I went with her.

I know they're just dreams and have no bearing on reality so I don't set much store by them but when they're disturbing they do hang around in my head for a while.

Then there are the dreams that are more like flashbacks. Memories of something that's already happened. There's no lucid dreaming possibility here as I already know the ending. They can affect me for days or weeks even, it's almost like that event happening all over again. They make me frightened to go to sleep.

 

[Lara_C]

I think dreams just reveal what's hidden in our unconscious/subconscious - all the things we repress from waking awareness eg, @Sunspots dream about her daughter points to a suppressed fear which the dream dramatized. Dreams seem to be a way of managing feelings we can't process in the waking state.

 

[the.end.ish]

Tell us what you dream about.

My dreams are too many and varied and freaky to document concisely in one reply, but I will tell you the last dream I remember.

I was in my apartment, but it didn't look exactly like my apartment. Maybe like some makeshift version of it. Next to the fireplace there was a hole in the wall boarded up by a shabby door I had thrown together myself. Despite it looking like a crocodile chewed on it and spit it out, it was sturdy and effective.

My sister was just there all the sudden (for the most part people don't come and go in my dreams. They're just there like they were always meant to be, like they were a part of the plot all along even though they didn't actually appear until later). She detached the door from the hole even though I pleaded with her not to but it was too late. And what we saw was a horrible dungeon/alley/sewer/ dumpster, where all trash resided, all blackness came to lurk, and creatures crouched in the shadows.

It felt evil.

And something full of soot and goo started running toward the entrance. I grabbed the pieces of the door and shoved them against the hole, but it wasn't enough. The thing got through. It was fast and looked like a cross between a ferret and a raccoon. We tried to catch it but it was too fast. And then as it was about to bite my arm, I realized it wasn't a weird creature but a puppy, sad and scared and all alone. I saw it's tags and started stroking it instead of fearing it.

And she gradually calmed down. Then I woke.

My interpretation: The dungeon represents my relationship with my sister and the issues we stuff into a corner and leave to rot and the dog represents my longing for a puppy but my inability to get one atm.

 

[the.end.ish]

I personally don't think there's anything "special" to dreaming, not even on a spiritual level. All because of the fact that lucid dreaming exists.

I have had lucid dreams almost non-stop for the past 10 years, because I'm controlling myself in the dream I don't have nightmares anymore. Dreams can become somewhat meaningless in a way, I sometimes have to force myself to stay in the (lucid dream) or otherwise I would wake up not well rested enough.

Because it's possible to stay in the same place too while in the envisioned dream world and the fact that having a conversation with "someone in the dream" is just you talking to yourself. If you never learned certain parts of a language, never saw certain colours in reality, didn't taste and eat certain types of food - then you wouldn't be able to experience them in the dream.

For me lucid dreaming doesn't negate the possibility of meaningful dreams. I still think they are our subconscious attempting to process and make sense of reality. The fact that we can be present in them and control just means another part of our conscious came to play.

I used to lucid dream a lot but other than a few great dreams where I flew and kissed some people, I didn't like it all that much because I could change some things but not everything. For example, when I tried to fly it was like I was running out of oil and kept teetering almost hitting the ground a couple of times.

I feel like having a conversation is you talking to parts of you you have trouble accessing... but it's all conjecture.

 

[the.end.ish]

there are times i thought i'm having deja vu but i realized it quickly that i had dreamed of this mundane situation from the past...

I've noticed this too and I absolutely loathe the feeling! To have deja-vu from a dream memory... sometimes it does make me think our dreams are premonitions.

 

[the.end.ish]

I tend to take them semi-seriously, only on rare occasion. I sometimes find that they are our subconscious trying to work itself out, in some ways, similar to what you’d said at the end of your original post @the.end.ish - (have you read Freud & Jung’s Books on Dreams?). It’s come along way since then, from what I gather. And I once came into contact who was very into the most current studies on the matter. So much so that he was said to be in touch, or regular contact with one of the foremost experts on the subject. But the more I listened to him speak . The less interested, and therefore, “in tune,” I became. . ;^)~*•>

I think I've read passages of both but I don't remember. To be honest, I tend to stay away from both names as a rule... though Jung I can connect with more.

I do think dreams are just there to process our emotions and experiences but I can't help but feel there must be some further mystery we're missing.

 

[Lara_C]

I don't dreams have any prophetic value only that they reveal feelings we want to repress from awareness in waking life. To me this shows we can't really get rid of unwanted feelings by repressing them

 

[the.end.ish]

I don't take mine seriously. Mine are typically oddball but I blame my unusual way of thinking. I dream of end of life or rather end of the world as opposed to me dying. Nuclear attack, tornadoes hitting the house and I have had one go over the house when I was outside and I don't even live in a trailer park, alien invasion, things like that.

I dream of similar things often. I blame my imagination coupled with suicide ideation and a tendency to think globally.

 

[Shelly]

I've noticed this too and I absolutely loathe the feeling! To have deja-vu from a dream memory... sometimes it does make me think our dreams are premonitions.

I remember in grade school during art class i told my seat mates “wait, this happened before already...” and then i proceeded to tell them exactly what’s going to happen next after one thing to another, like predicting everyone in class... they looked at me weirdly and said it must be deja vu, but i swear it’s from a dream i already had from the past...

 

[Shelly]

There’s also a theory (well i’m not really sure if it’s a theory) that you could be peeking in to your other version of your self from another time or a parallel universe...

because sometimes i also dream of different worlds, places, time, where i am someone else just living a normal life or an adventure, but i know it’s not the “me” version from this time or from this earth.

 

[the.end.ish]

I remember in grade school during art class i told my seat mates “wait, this happened before already...” and then i proceeded to tell them exactly what’s going to happen next after one thing to another, like predicting everyone in class... they looked at me weirdly and said it must be deja vu, but i swear it’s from a dream i already had from the past...

I've had experiences like this too. Aside from the deja-vu, my dreams are too real sometimes, so much so that I will think a dream happened and give my fiance the silent treatment for days before we discover together that I'm mad at him for something my subconscious did.

 

[the.end.ish]

I have different types of dreams. I've experienced lucid dreaming since I was a child - it comes in very handy at times. I can almost experiment with how I'd like the dream to end until I find an ending I'm comfortable with.

But sometimes it just doesn't happen and the nightmares can be awful. Recently I had a dream that my daughter was abducted while out on a date. It stayed with me for days and all I wanted to do was cling on to her. It certainly didn't help when she actually went on a date the following week - I nearly insisted I went with her.

I know they're just dreams and have no bearing on reality so I don't set much store by them but when they're disturbing they do hang around in my head for a while.

Then there are the dreams that are more like flashbacks. Memories of something that's already happened. There's no lucid dreaming possibility here as I already know the ending. They can affect me for days or weeks even, it's almost like that event happening all over again. They make me frightened to go to sleep.

It seems like your dreams are just as vivid and intense as mine. I also battle the sandman so I don't have to nightmare... and some nightmares have stayed with me for... well over 10 years now.

I hope your daughter's date went well in the end?