What Are the Strangest Dreams You've Ever Had?

[zoobyshoe]

My last "odd" dream that I recall was:...

This dream strikes me as all sex issues: male/female, secret, hidden things, what's permitted or not, that sort of stuff.

I had a sort of interesting one last night.

I get a "Jungian" feeling about this dream, meaning it's one of those kinds of dreams where the characters in the dream represent aspects of the dreamer. The lonely, creepy guy may represent how you felt after your girlfriend on the phone treated you as a kind of non-person three times in a row. You're out wandering around trying to get away from that feeling, but it keeps following you around. His interest in the picnic gathering is really your interest, but you want to reject that kind of lonely "outside-looking-in" on other people's social interactions, so you run away from it. The dream began and ended with your upset over her rejection on the phone, so I think the whole thing stayed on that subject.

I think in real life, you probably wanted to approach that woman at some point when you felt unpleasantly lonely, but "ran away" from the impulse.

But I'm just throwing out my impressions here. Could be way off the mark.

 

[*Kia*]

This dream strikes me as all sex issues: male/female, secret, hidden things, what's permitted or not, that sort of stuff.

hard to see that.
especially not in my present life stage - no secrets, no hidden things and no issues about what is permitted

 

[zoobyshoe]

i have the WEIRDEST dreams ever. a few nights ago i had one about this poor family. they were so poor and living in this shack because they were dumb and were always spending money, and then somehow town records got mixed up, and they moved into this mansion. they end up spending tons more money that wasn't even theirs. like, the mum use to get gourmet cakes, and only eat a wicked tiny slice (cause she was on a diet) and then throw the rest away. anyway, eventually the rich old guy who owns the place came back. he was eccentric and didn't press charges, but the family had to move back to their shack. They were all disgruntled about losing the money, but one of the older daughters was frugal and taught them how to save by buying food in bulk and stuff. and then the son was like "ya mom, and now we've saved so much money, we can afford these sweet rocket surround sound speakers!" so in the middle of their shack are these sweet speakers...

Did the poor family not have a dad?

 

[zoobyshoe]

hard to see that.
especially not in my present life stage - no secrets, no hidden things and no issues about what is permitted

Then my description is simply a rohrschach test for me: themes that would apply if I had that dream, or what those images make me think of.

 

[scott_alexsk]

I believe that most dreams are just strange embodiments of something that one is thinking about. I remmeber one time when I went to bed thinking about fighter jets, that night I dreamed I was in the airforce, though it was strange and messed up. I remmber one really strange time I dreamed I was falling down an endless pit. The walls looked like the inside of a colossum except it was completely straight and went on forever. I only woke up from it when I hit the ground, on the floor of my bedroom.
-Scott

 

[zoobyshoe]

I only woke up from it when I hit the ground, on the floor of my bedroom.

You fell out of bed?

 

[hypnagogue]

Shortly after I had achieved deep self-hypnosis for the first couple of times, I had a vivid dream set around my childhood home (apartment building by the water). There was a submarine sitting by the shore and I entered it as it started to submerge. I recall pretty vividly the kinesthetic sense of descending and being jerked around in the submarine. Then I had a kind of disembodied third person view of the sub moving through the vast and dark waters with a pair of searchlights cutting through-- it evoked a really majestic and vaguely mysterious kind of emotion, not unlike the kind you might get watching a good documentary about the ocean I suppose. Eventually the sub reached the floor of the bay-- my memory gets fuzzy here but I recall being inside the house with some other people, and I think eventually some kind of law enforcement surrounded the house and either wanted us to stay in or get out, but I can't really remember.

Anyway, aside from the vividness of the dream and some of the unusual sensations (the movement of the sub, the 'majestic' emotion), this one stands out to me because it occurred just after some experiences with deep hypnosis. I'm usually skeptical about dream interpretations, but it seems likely to me that in this one, submarining through the dark waters was some kind of automatically generated metaphor for the hypnosis experience, with the bay perhaps representing my subconscious and the submarine trip perhaps reflecting the exploratory nature of my hypnosis sessions. I could be wrong, but if I was then the dream and its relationship to the events leading up to it would constitute an unlikely set of striking coincidences.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Makes perfect sense and I'd tend to think you nailed it except what analogy to the hypnosis experience do the surrounding law enforcement people have?

 

[hypnagogue]

Makes perfect sense and I'd tend to think you nailed it except what analogy to the hypnosis experience do the surrounding law enforcement people have?

If you wanted to be speculative, you could perhaps guess that it was some kind of subconscious defense reaction (I was making autosuggestions while hypnotized)-- you're not supposed to be here, you're not supposed to change that, etc. But I'd be more inclined to say that it was just a random bit tacked on at the end that didn't really have anything to do with the hypnosis. At that point I think the dream was fairly far removed from the initial submarine/water theme. Besides, I don't think there's any reason to believe that dreams must have some unifying metaphor or whatever that applies throughout the course of the whole dream. It could be that if they represent anything meaningful at all, it's only in random bits and chunks that need not be related, much as the immediately experienced dream content tends to be jumpy and disjointed.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Were the law enforcement types wanting to arrest you or protect you?

 

[hypnagogue]

I don't remember that part of the dream very well, but I'm pretty sure their presence was not a positive one. I think they either wanted me and the other people to stay in or get out (whatever it was, it was against our wishes, or at least not something we appreciated being ordered to do), but it's fuzzy.

 

[Mk]

Shortly after I had achieved deep self-hypnosis for the first couple of times, I had a vivid dream set around my childhood home (apartment building by the water). There was a submarine sitting by the shore and I entered it as it started to submerge. I recall pretty vividly the kinesthetic sense of descending and being jerked around in the submarine. Then I had a kind of disembodied third person view of the sub moving through the vast and dark waters with a pair of searchlights cutting through-- it evoked a really majestic and vaguely mysterious kind of emotion, not unlike the kind you might get watching a good documentary about the ocean I suppose. Eventually the sub reached the floor of the bay-- my memory gets fuzzy here but I recall being inside the house with some other people, and I think eventually some kind of law enforcement surrounded the house and either wanted us to stay in or get out, but I can't really remember.

How do you get out of the self-hypnosis than? I guess you believe in hypnosis.

 

[hypnagogue]

How do you get out of the self-hypnosis than?

Just count up to 10, while telling myself that as I get closer to 10 I am becoming closer to normal waking consciousness. If I really wanted or needed to, I could just open my eyes and move around without doing that, though I might remain in somewhat of a hypnotic state for a while.

I guess you believe in hypnosis.

This is like me talking about my dream and someone saying "I guess you believe in dreaming." I have experienced various definite and distinct changes while under hypnosis, so I know there is something to it.

But if you don't believe me, perhaps you might believe papers published in peer reviewed scientific journals?

Functional MRI data revealed that under posthypnotic suggestion, both ACC and visual areas presented reduced activity in highly hypnotizable persons compared with either no-suggestion or less-hypnotizable controls. Scalp electrode recordings in highly hypnotizable subjects also showed reductions in posterior activation under suggestion, indicating visual system alterations. Our findings illuminate how suggestion affects cognitive control by modulating activity in specific brain areas, including early visual modules, and provide a more scientific account relating the neural effects of suggestion to placebo.

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1174993

To address these questions, 14 suggestion-prone healthy subjects rated reality of pain that was induced either by laser pulses to the skin or by hypnotic suggestion during functional MRI. Both pain states were associated with activation of the brain's pain circuitry. During laser stimulation, the sensory parts of this circuitry were activated more strongly, and their activation strengths correlated positively with the SRP. During suggestion-induced pain, the reality estimates were lower and correlated positively with activation strengths in the rostral and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex and in the pericingulate regions of the medial prefrontal cortex; a similar trend was evident during laser-induced pain.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=548310

 

[wolram]

my memory gets fuzzy here but I recall being inside the house with some other people, and I think eventually some kind of law enforcement surrounded the house and either wanted us to stay in or get out,

Sounds a bit iffy to me, are you planning a heist

 

[zoobyshoe]

Besides, I don't think there's any reason to believe that dreams must have some unifying metaphor or whatever that applies throughout the course of the whole dream.

I don't think "underlying metaphor" either, but I do think they're coherent according to a dynamic we don't employ while awake, things like the mean aunt's "cutting remarks" can become a wall studded with sharp things in a dream. A word to picture translation.

Also, as I was saying to Greg, I think similar things that happen at different times and places get pidgeon-holed together and come out all together in dreams.

The overall course of a dream is probably also coherent in that it sticks to a train of emotions we often experience. I think people have emotional "routines" that they tend to stick to. One specific emotion tends most often to lead to another specific one, and so on, in series. That can be interrupted by external events of course, but I notice the same ones getting repeated in my dreams, sometimes in daydreams and mental wanderings, too.

It could be that if they represent anything meaningful at all, it's only in random bits and chunks that need not be related, much as the immediately experienced dream content tends to be jumpy and disjointed.

I think the "random bits and chunks" though, are related, probably by emotional reaction to them. If I dream of a particular person in the same dream as a particular animal it's probably because they both evoked the same emotional reaction from me at some point: one reminds me of the other in a strong way, so that thinking of one leads to thinking of the other.

 

[Mk]

This is like me talking about my dream and someone saying "I guess you believe in dreaming." I have experienced various definite and distinct changes while under hypnosis, so I know there is something to it.

But if you don't believe me, perhaps you might believe papers published in peer reviewed scientific journals?

Well, sorry! I asked a question in a thread in M&B, but no body really answered. It wasn't its own thread. I'll ask.

 

[scott_alexsk]

Yeah Zoobyshoe I did fall out of bed. It was strange since it seemed like I was falling for five minutes in my dream.
-Scott

 

[Drimar]

Yeah Zoobyshoe I did fall out of bed. It was strange since it seemed like I was falling for five minutes in my dream.
-Scott

u didn't hold tight enough.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yeah Zoobyshoe I did fall out of bed. It was strange since it seemed like I was falling for five minutes in my dream.
-Scott

Very interesting and intriguing. I haven't ever fallen out of bed but have heard of it happening to people. Yes, I agree that's strange about the sensation you were falling for five minutes. Hard to explain.

 

[scott_alexsk]

I think the answer in the apparent length of my dream may lie in the human stress reaction. The human body undergoes several changes, in the stress reaction. These changes include the movement of blood away from the skin, deceasing the chances of the person bleeding to death if an injury occurs. Also the blood is flooded with fat, to allow the muscles the most energy possible to get out of the stressful situation. It seems to me but I am not sure that during this stress reaction the perception of the brain changes. People always seem to say during dramatic events that "time stood still." I have no idea whether or not this is shown to exsist or is shown to be a part of the human stress reaction, but it seems like this is coherent since the changed perspective of the human mind on time, slowing it down substancially, allows the person the most chance to act and safe himself. Now with this in mind it is possible that when I rolled off the bed, the sensation of falling triggered a stress reaction and in turn caused my persecption of time to change. I am sure this seems very far fethched to everyone else . Does anyone else know anything detailed about the human stress reaction? (proably a Biology or Brain Science Question).
-Scott

 

[Cyrus]

I just realized a nightmare I have from time to time. I’m sitting in school and then I somehow find out I enrolled in an English class that I totally forgot about. It’s past the drop date to not get a W, and I am weeks behind from completely forgetting to go. That’s when I get that feeling when you can literally feel your heart come to a stop. It’s always an English class though.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I just realized a nightmare I have from time to time. I’m sitting in school and then I somehow find out I enrolled in an English class that I totally forgot about. It’s past the drop date to not get a W, and I am weeks behind from completely forgetting to go. That’s when I get that feeling when you can literally feel your heart come to a stop. It’s always an English class though.

I have dreams like that, Cyrus - about forgetting to finish something I started. It usually involves an apartment I used to live in. Somehow I forgot to completely move out and I remember that a lot of my stuff is still in there. There is always a feeling of panic because I never returned and got everything out.
Did you ever have any desire to be a writer? Did you abandon it?

 

[Cyrus]

I never cared much for English or books, and it shows. I just don't like sitting there reading a story. Bores the hell out of me, I would rather watch the news all day.

"I failed anglish, that's unpossible!"- Ralph from the Simpsons.

Oh, and sometimes I wake up an hour before I set the alarm despite being dead tired because somehow my mind says 'oh **** I’m late for class!' I don't gradually wake up, I literally just spring up from my pillow so that I’m sitting upright in my bed wide awake instantly. Then I look at the clock and realize its 1 hour early and go back to bed.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Gosh! You poor thing! You are under a lot of pressure. What year are you in? In school, I mean.

 

[Evo]

I just realized a nightmare I have from time to time. I’m sitting in school and then I somehow find out I enrolled in an English class that I totally forgot about. It’s past the drop date to not get a W, and I am weeks behind from completely forgetting to go. That’s when I get that feeling when you can literally feel your heart come to a stop. It’s always an English class though.

For years after I finished school I would have nightmares where I am in class and there is going to be a test and I know nothing about it, I don't even remember enrolling in the class.

 

[Mk]

Bad directing if you ask me.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Bad directing if you ask me.

Yet, strangely, no one did.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

When about 17 years old I dreamt that I was standing on the beach with many other people. A car was spotted - submerged in about six feet of water - and people began to yell and call for help. Suddenly the car was being pulled out of the water with a winch. When we rushed over and opened the door, a badly decomposed body fell out right in front of me; and it was my dad! I had no idea how he could be there, or what had happened, but I couldn't accept that he was dead. I started yelling things like "no this can't be", "I won't accept this", and was certain that I could force him back to life by willing it hard enough. If I could only concentrate hard enough... Then, while staring at his bloated, ashen blue face, his eyes snapped open! I heard someone yell "death has come alive", and then he opened his mouth and roared, and became this horrible monster. Next... wide awake.

Don't ask me how or why, but as soon as I awoke, or shortly there after, I knew that this dream was about my girlfriend. I knew things weren't really working, but I wanted them to work out so badly that I was trying to force things to work. The "death has come alive part" meant that if I try to force things that aren't supposed to be, the results won't be good.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Bad directing if you ask me.

Yet, strangely, no one did.

These two posts are incomprehensible to me. You seem to understand what each other is saying, but in the context of the thread they both seem like complete non-sequiturs.

Is this a carryover from a conversation in another thread?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Don't ask me how or why, but as soon as I awoke, or shortly there after, I knew that this dream was about my girlfriend. I knew things weren't really working, but I wanted them to work out so badly that I was trying to force things to work. The "death has come alive part" meant that if I try to force things that aren't supposed to be, the results won't be good.

Sounds like you dream in poetic metaphor.

There are lots of stories about dead things coming back to life not being a good thing, and that seems to be a commonly arrived at conclusion whenever something resembling it is encountered in any culture or society. Since things that die never do literally come back I'd have to suppose these stories are about the same kind of thing your dream was about: trying to force things.

What's your take on why it was your father's body instead of the more obvious choice of it being your then girlfriend? I have ideas.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What's your take on why it was your father's body instead of the more obvious choice of it being your then girlfriend? I have ideas.

No idea. I could venture some guesses, but unlike the meaning of or reason for the dream, the content, and esp the inclusion of my father have always been a mystery. Also, I assume that the meaning was clear to me since it was likely brewing in my thoughts for weeks, but why it was so morbid, I have no idea... well I shouldn't say that. I figured death = death of a relationship, but it wasn't all that bad!

 

[zoobyshoe]

No idea. I could venture some guesses, but unlike the meaning of or reason for the dream, the content, and esp the inclusion of my father have always been a mystery. Also, I assume that the meaning was clear to me since it was likely brewing in my thoughts for weeks, but why it was so morbid, I have no idea... well I shouldn't say that. I figured death = death of a relationship, but it wasn't all that bad!

My first idea, and the one that strikes me as having the most promise, is that what was making you want to make the relationship work was that you may have sensed your father approved of it, thought it was a good match, or a good thing for you.

Another related interpretation could be that being in that relationship made you feel like, or identify with your dad in a way you thought should be sustained, but which you really couldn't put your heart into.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hmmmm, need to stew...

Did I mention that my dad ran off with her?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay, you know I'm joking about the last part. The rest is true.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Okay, you know I'm joking about the last part. The rest is true.

Reading the dream over again, it could be simpler than my previous thoughts. You really wanted the relationship to work and may have generated an equation in your mind that came out in the dream, an equation like: the only thing that would upset me more than this relationship ending would be if my dad died!

 

[Math Is Hard]

These two posts are incomprehensible to me. You seem to understand what each other is saying, but in the context of the thread they both seem like complete non-sequiturs.

Is this a carryover from a conversation in another thread?

Let me rephrase:

Bad directing if you ask me.

Yet, strangely, no one did ask you.

 

[Gale]

So i had a REALLY weird dream last night about PF. i wish i had written this out when i woke up, but i had to get to class.

So anyway, pf was like this big office building. General Discussion was like the main floor, and serious stuff could be found on some of the upper levels. There was a big elevator that took you to the different levels, and each mentor had a desk set up at their level in the lobby. I forget which thread i was replying to, but for some reason i had to reference this other thread. I went to see moonbear about it, and she was like "ooh, that one's old, you'll have to check archives." Archives of course were underneath the entire building, and were held in a bunch of underground levels. So i was like, DAMN, and went to the elevator. I pressed the archives floor, and down i go.

The building was so huge that we used a high speed elevator. So I'm like woah, when i feel the elevator moving. then it gets faster. Suddenly, I'm nearly touching the ceiling and I'm like OMIGOSH! and like bracing my hands agains the sides and roof trying not to get hurt, and getting all worried about the landing. I look around trying to find the door so i can reorient myself when the elevator stops, but the inside looks all exactly the same, a solid bluish color. and I'm like, OH SHOOT. and now I'm getting dizzy cause i can't remember where the floor is and which wall my hand is on, or wait, was my hand against the ceiling.. oooooh... finally i reach the bottom and it turns out i was sideways. i hit the floor with a thud.

the archives are all dark and ill-lit. i can't even remember what i wanted any more. everything is all dusty and scary looking. and I'm like UGH. i decide the elevator is better than down there, so i get back in. again, getting dizzy when i can't find the floor halfway through my trip. (yeah, i know it doesn't make sense..)

so then the door opens, and i thump against the floor again, and i look up, and there's MIH at moonbear's desk, and they're chit chatting. and I'm like "hey guys!" and they look at me like "uh.. wtf?" cause my hair is all messy, and I'm squinting from the daylight, and holding my arm up against my chest. "something wrong with your arm Gale?" and I'm like DAMN, cause i realize that in the fall i hurt my arm, and then i remember, oh yeah, my arm was against the ceiling, no no, the wall, or was it the door... UGH. and halfway through remembering how i was hurt i get sick to my stomach. "that elevator is too high-speed" i say, and MIH is like ? and i just say "my arm... the ceiling... blue... we need a new elevator guys." Moonbear just laughs and is like "MIH, Gale is so funny isn't she? i guess we do need a new elevator, hehe" and MIH laughs too.

i half smile and walk away, remember my arm hurts, wondering if there's a doctor up in biology...

 

[zoobyshoe]

Let me rephrase:

rofl, hehehehe, rofl!

 

[Math Is Hard]

Gee, that was rude of me, Gale. I am sorry I laughed after you hurt your arm.

Greg! We've got to do something about the PF elevator! It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[Gale]

Gee, that was rude of me, Gale. I am sorry I laughed after you hurt your arm.

Greg! We've got to do something about the PF elevator! It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

heh, its alright. you guys weren't being mean, i felt like it was some inside joke about the elevator. it was a really weird dream though. like, really weird.

 

[larkspur]

astral wandering

Sometimes I dream and sometimes I do my "astral wandering". *yawn* Think I'll go do some of that now. Do not be frightened if you see me, Woolie.

When you "astral wander" do you feel or hear a slurping/popping noise when you exit your body? I have had "several out of body" dreams where I float out of my body. If I realize I am dreaming, then I try to float out of the house. One time, I made it through the crack in the door and outside to the top of the hill, in the back yard, where I was met by others who told me it was time to go back. Then I was sucked(same slurping noise) back into my body and woke up with my heart racing.
That was the only time I remember the slurping noise.
Anybody else experience "Out of Body" dreams?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Anybody else experience "Out of Body" dreams?

I once dreampt I was out-of-coffee:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=108665

post #14

 

[Math Is Hard]

When you "astral wander" do you feel or hear a slurping/popping noise when you exit your body? I have had "several out of body" dreams where I float out of my body. If I realize I am dreaming, then I try to float out of the house. One time, I made it through the crack in the door and outside to the top of the hill, in the back yard, where I was met by others who told me it was time to go back. Then I was sucked(same slurping noise) back into my body and woke up with my heart racing.
That was the only time I remember the slurping noise.
Anybody else experience "Out of Body" dreams?

That's really interesting. I don't hear any noise. I just suddenly look over at my sleeping body, and it's like "oh, dear, I'm out again". Sometimes I fly or go places. Sometimes I don't leave the room. It used to always happen if I would try to make myself sleep when I wasn't tired. What's weird is last weekend, I distinctly heard the word "larkspur" in a dream. I tried and tried to remember the context but couldn't. I thought it was odd, but figured maybe I had just read one of your posts and that influenced my subconscious. So now it is really funny that you replied to a comment I made in a thread about strange dreams!

 

[Math Is Hard]

I once dreampt I was out-of-coffee:

I thought it was an out-of-jelly experience that you had?

 

[zoobyshoe]

I thought it was an out-of-jelly experience that you had?

And I thought an out-of-jelly experience was what you had when your cat, Jellyroll ran away.

 

[Math Is Hard]

What I had in mind was post #1021 of the stupid quetion thread, when you mentioned that you had an authentic out-of-jelly experience during your visit to the refrigerator.

 

[zoobyshoe]

What I had in mind was post #1021 of the stupid quetion thread, when you mentioned that you had an authentic out-of-jelly experience during your visit to the refrigerator.

That was authentic. Several para-jelly investigators and refridgerator repairmen to whom I've related the tale have confirmed it. My out-of-coffee experience was a whole different ball of jelly.

 

[larkspur]

It used to always happen if I would try to make myself sleep when I wasn't tired.

Come to think of it, all of my OOB dreams have occurred when I was napping during the day.

What's weird is last weekend, I distinctly heard the word "larkspur" in a dream. I tried and tried to remember the context but couldn't. I thought it was odd, but figured maybe I had just read one of your posts and that influenced my subconscious. So now it is really funny that you replied to a comment I made in a thread about strange dreams!

Cool!

 

[larkspur]

I once dreampt I was out-of-coffee:

post #14

Did you ever get your coffee and did it make a slurping noise?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Did you ever get your coffee and did it make a slurping noise?

Slurping noise?