What was the significance of the pale arm in my dream?

[moe darklight]

this has probably been done before, but I love talking about dreams! everyone has all sorts of cool dreams, and for some reason it's not something that people talk about nearly enough! my friends always want to hear my dreams (I have really really weird dreams), but then they never return the favor and tell me theirs!

A weird thing about my dreams is that the plot nearly always somehow involves a toilet.— The toilet is either the source of conflict, or the dream revolves around my quest for a toilet... when I wake up, I don't have to pee... so it's not driven by a physical need to urinate. weird.

Sometimes the toilets are just in the background of the main plot... in one dream I was a soldier, and the final battle took place in a run-down public bathroom, where each stall was a trench used for battle.

Sometimes the image of the toilet is absurdly Godlike: my science teacher from high-school school is running after me, trying to kill me or something. looking for refuge, I stumble into the most glorious bathroom! rows upon rows of gigantic golden toilets! all of them much too tall to actually be usable.— in my search for truth, I find a toilet.

My dreams also often have recurring characters: the three government officials, the old doctor with a syringe, the disappointed middle-aged woman, the store owner who won't let me touch anything, the animal or creature I have to protect, the animal or creature that is trying to harm me, the unreachable purple building or city far away... all these are recurring themes and characters in nearly all of my dreams; it's very strange.

I'll write down a whole dream some other time. some involve talking cattle who want me to tell them jokes, others rabid turkeys guarding a castle in the sky...

but now you go! write down a weird/scary/insightful dream.

This thread could either turn out to be really cool, or a complete failure. I'll blame YOU in case of the latter, for not pitching in :tongue2:

http://z.about.com/d/animatedtv/1/0/U/T/spep_912_ginger_kids2.jpg

 

[ank_gl]

you are standing for the funniest member?

 

[kach22i]

There are several recurring architectural spaces in my dreams. One is a broken brick plaza with strong Aztec or Mayan influences.

Tornados and or end of the world with invading aliens is another, cities in ruin and I'm hiding or fighting.

Standing in line waiting to go to the toilet only to find the door will not close or people all around staring at me giving me stage freight so I can't go. Good thing I guess because I wake up having to go urgently.

 

[moe darklight]

you are standing for the funniest member?

that's not a dream related comment! you lose 10 points!

Tornados and or end of the world with invading aliens is another, cities in ruin and I'm hiding or fighting.

that's cool! I've never had a dream about aliens. I've had robots but not aliens.

you get 20 points.

 

[kach22i]

I've never had a dream about aliens.

I never seen the aliens, seen their ships and the Blackwater type guys working with the government to kill us regular folk.

Maybe they are actually republicans and I'm in Iraq.:rofl:

 

[Evo]

Ack, I have those toilet dreams too. Either I can't find a toilet, or what is supposed to be a toilet turns out to not be one, or the toilet is in the middle of a public place with no walls.

For several years after I went into telecom, I would have dreams that my life depended on making a phone call. I'd be at a phone and it wouldn't work.

Ok, one dream I remember from when I was perhaps 8-10 years old. I was walking in a void and came upon what appeared to be a large rectangular swimming pool. All around the cement perimeter of the pool were large fish, evenly spaced, all looking toward the pool and each had a single large feather sticking straight up from the center of their backs. I moved closer to the pool to see what they were looking at and the pool was a black emptiness, but then colors started swirling inside the blackness. I knew it was chaos and the world would be lost if it weren't destroyed. I realized that the only way to destroy it was for us all to jump into the black swirling what-ever-it-was. So all together we jumped in and I woke up.

 

[Evo]

From a previous post on dreams -

I remember one really eerie event. I was dreaming that I was sitting across from a man, and he held out a glass (drink) for me and I reached out to take the glass but my hand kept going through it and I couldn't close my fingers around it, I was confused and then I noticed that the man and the drink started becoming transparent, then they disappeared and I was sitting up in bed with my arm stretched out still trying to grasp the drink. I was fully awake at this point.

It was like I woke up during the dream but it continued for just a second.

 

[G01]

From a previous post on dreams -

I remember one really eerie event. I was dreaming that I was sitting across from a man, and he held out a glass (drink) for me and I reached out to take the glass but my hand kept going through it and I couldn't close my fingers around it, I was confused and then I noticed that the man and the drink started becoming transparent, then they disappeared and I was sitting up in bed with my arm stretched out still trying to grasp the drink. I was fully awake at this point.

It was like I woke up during the dream but it continued for just a second.

Wow. That's pretty cool that you actually witnessed your dream ending and fading away in real time. I have never done that, but I have had a dream, woken up for a half hour and then fallen back asleep and continued from where I left off!

 

[Kurdt]

Toilet dreams are interesting. There interpretation (if you believe that stuff) is the cleansing of emotional baggage or the desire to cleanse so toilets in dreams are actually quite healthy unless they turn out not to be a toilet or are blocked etc.

I don't remember any dreams from ages ago nor do I have any recurring themes but here is one I had last night. I was cycling around in a four seater bike type contraption when I met a beautiful woman and we were both infatuated with each other instantly. We decided to head to her parents house to tell them we were getting married. We got into the four seater bicycle contraption which had a tent like covering over the three passenger seats but was open for the driving position. I couldn't see the young woman with whom I had just agreed to marry and was cycling to her parents house (which was a bit like Bate's motel) in the pouring rain. I was so excited to get there though that I was really pushing hard like a training session on the bike. Eventually when we get to the gatesI pull the tent like covering back to reveal that the young woman had turned into an overweight bald man in a white lab coat type garment and was tearing the intestines out of some small animal on a butchers slab. He also had raw intestines hanging from his mouth and was clearly consuming them and there was blood everywhere and it was clearly the same person (one of those weird dream effects where things are different but you know they're the same like when different roads connect to each other but they make sense in the dream). the I started running away through all these underground cellars full of mine workers with fork lift trucks and mining equipment. I can't remember anything else after that and that must have been where I woke up.

Actually thinking about it, I qite often have the dream where you're running from something but you're going nowhere near the speed you know you can run and the thing is catching up. Awful.

 

[larkspur]

I have toilet dreams all the time. I roam around a huge restaurant searching for the toilet. When I finally find one, I must stand in line for an eternity. When I get in the stall and am about to sit down I realize it is a shower stall! Then I have to start all over again searching for the toilet amongst the hundreds of shower stalls.

 

[moe darklight]

that happens to me a lot. I wake up but my dream goes on for like 5 more seconds... I don't really like the feeling though; it's very confusing.

that's so weird about the fish with the feathers! +25 points. it's weird that you can remember that particular dream from so long ago... I wonder why some dreams stick to the memory, almost as if they were real events, while most others fade by the end of the day.

The feathers reminded me of this dream I had where I had a thick feather coming out of my forehead, and I realized I had to water it or I would die, so I went to the store and kept asking the dude for a glass of water for my feather. but dudes in stores never let me buy anything in my dreams! ... my grandma was there for some reason too.

have you ever had a dream where you realize you are dreaming? it's only happened to me once.— I was a kid, it was a horrible nightmare about a rat. all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming so I started screaming "mom! mom! come and wake me up! come and wake me up!" hoping my body would respond and actually say it and she'd come and wake me up. but the next day I asked my mom and she said she didn't hear any screaming from my room.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hmmmm, never had a toilet dream. I've had the running and can't get away dreams, but not for years. Once I dreamt that I suddenly realized that I could travel through time by drinking anti-freeze. It was incredibly intense, and when I awoke I could actually taste the ethylene glycol for a moment.

 

[Kurdt]

Once I dreamt that I suddenly realized that I could travel through time by drinking anti-freeze.

Now my keyboard is covered in coffee you are definitely being sacrifised to the volcano god. That is the best method I've heard yet for time travel.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

I haven't remembered a dream for a good couple years, and I am the only one I know that hasn't! I think it's because I don't try to. I wake up, roll out of bed, and by that time if you asked me what I was dreaming about... I wouldn't know.

 

[moe darklight]

hahaha go toilet dreams!

I haven't remembered a dream for a good couple years, and I am the only one I know that hasn't! I think it's because I don't try to. I wake up, roll out of bed, and by that time if you asked me what I was dreaming about... I wouldn't know.

try writing them down (whatever details you do remember). for some reason, once you start writing down your dreams they start sticking to your memory better... I don't know, maybe it conditions your mind to remember them because it knows you'll want to write them later or something?
I think dreams are almost like a second life. I mean, you spend a good percentage of every day dreaming. it seems like a waste to dismiss them and forget about them.

kurdt, you get 30 points and a get out of jail free card for the bride/fat guy dream.

Once I dreamt that I suddenly realized that I could travel through time by drinking anti-freeze.

:rofl: ! haha +1000 points

 

[larkspur]

Hmmmm, never had a toilet dream. I've had the running and can't get away dreams, but not for years. Once I dreamt that I suddenly realized that I could travel through time by drinking anti-freeze. It was incredibly intense, and when I awoke I could actually taste the ethylene glycol for a moment.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[larkspur]

have you ever had a dream where you realize you are dreaming? it's only happened to me once.— I was a kid, it was a horrible nightmare about a rat. all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming so I started screaming "mom! mom! come and wake me up! come and wake me up!" hoping my body would respond and actually say it and she'd come and wake me up. but the next day I asked my mom and she said she didn't hear any screaming from my room.

My key to realizing I am dreaming is when I float out of my bed. I have that dream often. I can take control and make myself float through walls and out of the house. When I start to see or feel other people around me I usually wake up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Heh, I never thought that would sound so funny.

It was certainly a very strange and intense dream. I even remember the date that I had it - 3/3/09.

 

[zoobyshoe]

My key to realizing I am dreaming is when I float out of my bed. I have that dream often. I can take control and make myself float through walls and out of the house. When I start to see or feel other people around me I usually wake up.

One of my favorite dreams involves the ability to do something like "glide". I begin by running as fast as I can down the sidewalk. After a point I can feel that I have collected enough momentum to simply lift my legs up from the sidewalk, and I will continue forward at the same speed without having to use my legs.

Once this threshold is reached I can also steer by will, and increase my speed by concentrating in the right way. The sensation is amazingly fun, and I enjoy zipping past mere pedestrians who haven't figure this technique out yet.

 

[Huckleberry]

Hmmmm, never had a toilet dream. I've had the running and can't get away dreams, but not for years. Once I dreamt that I suddenly realized that I could travel through time by drinking anti-freeze. It was incredibly intense, and when I awoke I could actually taste the ethylene glycol for a moment.

In another thread someone recently said that beer was only one molecule away from anti-freeze. HAve you been performing experiments on yourself recently?

 

[Werg22]

Most of my dreams turn out to be nightmares; it's almost a condition. Though it's better now, when I was about 5 it was almost on a nightly basis. That said, among the not-so bad dreams I have, they're always related to some event or thought I had earlier during the same day so it terms of being interesting, they're pretty mundane.

 

[kach22i]

I'll list a few.

1. Toilet dreams - no walls once in the stall, waiting in line - I've had it all.

2. Flying; like doing the breast stroke often not flying high enough or fast enough to get out of the reach of danger (10-20 feet) but sometimes its just fun.

3. Teenage girls temping me to cheat on my wife with them, hey it's was only a bad dream and I said no to them more than once. Sometimes the woman starts out as my wife and she morfs several times into a younger version not always of herself though.

4. I sometimes dream about riding on a motorcycle I sold 25 years ago, very fast and several different versions of the bike.

5. Ghost dreams, I scream to wake up. Once this did not work and it was scary, a blast of air hit me in the face. I ran into it like a linebacker and woke up.

6. I dreamed I woke up from a bad dream but I was still dreaming.

7. I woke up with eyes open still dreaming for a minute.

8. I wake up fall back to sleep and pick up where I left off in the dream. If it's a bad dream I'll just watch "Adult Swim" on TV or something.

 

[Gokul43201]

I've either stopped dreaming or stopped being able to recall them in the morning. On the rare occasion that I do recall a dream, it is something mindnumbingly trivial.

My last dream was about a cube. There was this cube.

That's it.

When I was younger, I had slightly more elaborate dreams: trying to escape from scary animals, falling off buildings, and flying like Superman. I've had the flying dream quite a few times, and it's always the same sequence of events, but each time I had the dream, it was like a new experience. The key to my power was a magic, flying pillow that I would stretch in front of me and fly, Superman-like, over busy city streets. Everywhere I flew, people would look up at me in awe (and shock). After a while of feeling great doing this, I'd suddenly realize I was completely naked. <the end>

I would then wake up and start working on my homework that was due in a couple hours.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I've either stopped dreaming or stopped being able to recall them in the morning. On the rare occasion that I do recall a dream, it is something mindnumbingly trivial.

Same here. Because of this thread I tried to pay attention to my dreams last time I slept, but what I recall is nothing but me having a low key conversation completely void of surreal oddities or even much emotion. I can't recall having any dreams worth remembering in the past few months.

 

[Huckleberry]

I find that I dream much more if I get an extra hour or two of sleep. I get dreams with a better sensory quality that are easier to remember after waking.

Try sleeping 8 - 10 hours a day.

 

[B. Elliott]

The flying dreams are definitely my favorite and seem to be the most consistent. I seem to have them fairly often... at least once or twice a month. During the dream I suddenly realize that if I concentrate hard enough or just have a certain mindset that I start to levitate. In every single dream like this I never seem to have 'complete' control over how I fly or how I keep myself oriented. It's as though I'm truly just learning how to fly... can't seem to keep my body 100% parallel with the ground, I can't maintain a consistent airspeed, I have trouble slowing down in time when i need to land or stop, ect.

It's always a very enjoyable dream. There's been a couple of times that I was able to take control of the dream to an extent but, in the end they all turn out the same way with me suddenly forgetting how to fly and crashing into the ground at freefall speed. One dream in particular when I was younger stood out in my mind. When this flying dream ended I fell from approx 100 or so feet and landed flat on my chest. The strange part was, when I woke up I felt the most intense pain I have ever felt all over my chest... It hurt even attempting to sit up in bed. I'm not sure if I overflexed my chest muscles as a reaction to falling in the dream or what, but ever since that night I started maying much closer attention to the dreams.

 

[kach22i]

Flying dreams are supposed to be sexual in nature.

I'm not sure if this is old or new thinking on the topic, just what I've heard a while back.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Flying dreams are supposed to be sexual in nature.

I'm not sure if this is old or new thinking on the topic, just what I've heard a while back.

Flying dreams are about showing off, which is why they are so much fun, but also why they end badly if you suddenly become self conscious.

 

[scorpa]

I used to dream there was this cougar in our yard and I had to go and shoot it...that dream always freaked me out so bad. I never really had any super interesting dreams unfortunately. Oh and I have dreamed I have missed exams and woken up and really believed it had happened.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Flying dreams are about showing off, which is why they are so much fun, but also why they end badly if you suddenly become self conscious.

I don't accept that at all. I've never felt self conscious or had one end badly. What's more, I am almost always alone in flight dreams. The only sense that I've ever had was that flight is exciting, just like in real life. What's more, the first time that I tried lucid dreaming, the first thing that I wanted to try was flying like a bird, and that's exactly what I did. Next was the Dallas Cheerleaders, but we won't go into that. :uhh:

Perhaps for some people flight dreams are about ego, but for me they seem to be about the fantasy of unaided flight. However, I suggest that Dallas Cheerleader dreams are about ego.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't accept that at all. I've never felt self conscious or had one end badly. What's more, I am almost always alone in flight dreams. The only sense that I've ever had was that flight is exciting, just like in real life. What's more, the first time that I tried lucid dreaming, the first thing that I wanted to try was flying like a bird, and that's exactly what I did.

I've never become self-conscious or had one end badly either. I have also had a lot of dreams where I fly by flapping my arms to incredible heights, all alone, with no observers. Never the less, I recognize that the emotional quality of the exhilaration is exactly the same as that experienced during showing off.

I happened to read a biography of Da Vinci last week and found myself a little taken aback by a couple things he said concerning the upcoming test flight of his flying machine:

"Among his papers from about this time there is a page on which is written, 'From the mountain which takes it name from the great bird, the famous bird will take flight, which will fill the world with it's great renown.' The mountain is believed to be Mount Ceceri, not far from Florence, for the Italian word cecero means "swan". This is made surer by a sentence written on the cover of the same notebook: 'The great bird will take its first flight on the back of the great swan, filling the whole world with amazement and filling all records with its fame; and it will bring eternal glory to the nest where it was born.'"

Leonardo Da Vinci by Jay Williams, American Heritage, 1965, p.99


This is pretty surprising because Da Vinci was not one to puff himself up at all concerning his other achievements. He was mostly his own worst critic. The belief he was about to become the first man to fly, however, filled him with dreams of his own celebrity.

Being, apparently, unobserved in a flying dream doesn't make it any less about showing off since, like Da Vinci, the bulk of our (we who lead lives of quiet desperation) showing off is done in fantasy in the privacy of our own minds. We indulge in private in the fantasy of having something remarkable to show off.

If such a dream ends badly with embarrassment it might mean the person is reliving such an incident from real life in disguised form; an incident where showing off ended badly. In any event, Da Vinci never said another word about his flying machine.

 

[moe darklight]

I fly in dreams somewhat often... it is always accompanied by this strange "back home" feeling. I don't know how else to explain it... when I pick up flight in a dream, it feels as if the non-flying awake me is an artificial construct, and the moment I start flying I am back in my own self.

There is indeed a sense of pride and superiority. I find not only the dream pedestrians artificial and funny, but also my old self, for not having figured this out. once I pick up flight in a dream, I rarely touch the ground again, it just doesn't feel right... I realize the only purpose for the ground is to be nothing more than a guide or map of which way I am headed; that it's not normal to have to rely on it for movement or stability.

my flying is more like swimming. I don't flap my arms or glide, it's more like swimming like a fish (not with the hands, but by waving my spine)

in one dream, I was flying through my dream school (in search of a toilet, of course), until one kid shouts "MY GOD! HE'S A ROBOT!"

all of a sudden everyone was cheering for my flying-robot powers, and I started doing stunts up and down stairs (EVERYTHING is filled with stairs in my dreams; even the outdoors. stairs everywhere, they never end). when I realize I have more fans that I can handle, and I don't really want so many people surrounding me, I look for refuge... in the downstairs (you guessed it) TOILET room

but alas! for 'tis not the toilet room, but some sort of giant stadium. I am on top of some sort of stairway, then there is this bridge and in the middle of the bridge some sort of machine. on the other side of the bridge are the three government officials. one is a female, one is a male, and the other I can't remember. they explain to me that I am indeed a robot, and not just any robot:

I am the government's most advanced weapon ever, and they must run some tests of my powers.

"shoot!" says the male government official. and I shoot a laser missile out of my arm... only then I this bridge is not an indoors bride, but it is right in the middle of a city, and I just shot a building and caused a massive explosion.

The three government officials are now yelling at me, and I start running away. passing by I see people screaming and running all around the destruction site.

I reach a forest; it is daylight (the previous part took place at night). I meet a talking lizard, whom I feel I must protect at all costs.

me and the talking lizard are now searching for a city. we reach this bridge, and see the city in the distance. it is beautiful. it lies in the middle of a desert; it glows a bright purple, and seems to be engulfed by this blueish hue (the main object of threat/desire are often blue or purple in my dreams).

me and the lizard reach a path that forks. we start fighting about which way to take; it's getting late. I'm concerned about the time... the lizard takes the path I didn't want to take and I lose it... so I'm looking for the lizard in the trees and shrubs and it's getting dark.

when I finally see it, I realize we are being persecuted by a fox. I must protect the lizard from the fox! (it should be noted: I have a terrible fear of canines. so me protecting anything from a fox is literally me facing my worst fears for this animal).

I pick up flight again! pick up the lizard, and put it in my backpack... there's a pair of blue -shorts that belongs to me in the backpack, and, reaching in, I realize something has been spilt on them. I get angry at the lizard for wetting my shorts; it says it's not her fault and to let her down.

we land on this park by a picnic table... here we meet the bald man. he starts walking with us; he too is going to the city.

we walk by this soccer game that is hosted by my local radio-station NEWSTALK 1010 CFRB... then the bald man realizes the border to the city is right there! but they are closing the gates! there is a huge line of people and we start running towards the gates but his guard stops us!

the lizard says "on the count of three." and we all run into the multitude of people and the guards can't catch us and we're through the first gate and... the main entrance forks again! gah! and I've lost the lizard and the bald man... where are they... I see the bald man walking in through the left gate. I follow him, when this female guard tells me that my city is to the right... I turn around and they've locked the gate for good.

the entrance is blocked by what seems like a gigantic glass wall. through this wall I see a little girl and a little boy, they look like they are in love and glad to have passed through. then I see the lizard! she sees me and climbs the wall and falls, right into the wall...

it turns out the giant wall was actually a giant fish-tank that separates both sides. the lizard is now inside that fish tank; floating between me and the city. I start crying, "I want to come with you!" and the lizard starts crying too.

another couple of two kids walks past me, smiling (almost mockingly, but not quite), and climb right over the wall and into the city and run off happily into the distance.

"please! I want to come with you!" I scream at the lizard. at this point I'm crying like I've never cried. it was horrible, like I just lost the person I loved the most.

and the lizard says "can't you see? we're too different, you and I."that's when I wake up. that wasn't really one of my "weird" dreams, but it was definitely one of my most vivid dreams— in the sense that I remember them almost as if it had actually happened... which is kind of sucky in this case because it was a really sad experience.

in case you're wondering. no, I am not in love with a lizard . I have no clue what the hell that was all about... I get a lot of talking animals and plants in my dreams. I'm sure it means something?

EDIT: wow, I didn't think it would come out this long... ...

 

[zoobyshoe]

It's amazing how your dreams run you through every known emotional experience, Moe. I haven't had emotionally charged dreams like that in a very long time.

 

[moe darklight]

yea I have very vivid dreams. my mom is a bit like that too I think.

it's kind of lame when they're sad dreams like that though.. I remember when I had that dream I felt crappy that whole day. it felt so real that for the rest of the day I had this depressing feeling of having lost someone.

is it normal, or could it be a sign of something bad to be so affected by one's dreams? I don't have trouble knowing the difference between a dream memory and a real memory. but dreams like that that feel almost like they actually happened, or where the feeling from the dream remains throughout the day are not uncommon for me. which is why I'm so fascinated by dreams.

funny Mitch Hedberg quote "I hate dreaming because when you want to sleep, you want to sleep. Dreaming is work. I lay down on the couch; next thing you know, I have to build a go-cart with my ex-landlord."

 

[zoobyshoe]

is it normal, or could it be a sign of something bad to be so affected by one's dreams?

There's an episode of TNG where someone asks Geordi that question and he says, yeah, sometimes a dream will upset him for three days. I used to have that happen to me once in a while.

As far as your mind is concerned the dream is real while it's occurring. Waking up to realize many of the elements are not real can take quite a bit of the sting out of it, but you do suffer a certain amount of post traumatic stress for the duration of the time you believed it.

Imagine if a doctor told you you only had six months to live. You go home in shock. Half an hour later he calls and says it was a mistake: he gave you another patient's test results. Of course you're relieved and feel much better but you still have the residual stress from the time you believed it was true.