Dreams

[Kesteven]

I thought about posting this in the 'tell me about your dreams' thread, but I decided to make a new one since it concerns more the form than any specifics.

I've always had a strong interest in dreams, as I'm sure most people here have - what they mean, what their function is, what determines what we dream about and so on. I also just love dreaming itself, it's just so interesting and fun, even bad dreams.

The thing is though, according to people I've talked to, my experience with my powers and abilities in dreams has been rather unusual. I'm not sure if it's a result of a gradual increase in confidence or some kind of skill, or just a result of my over-familiarity with stories and RPGs, but instead of there being 'lucid' and 'non-lucid' dreams, there's been a definite progression in what I can do.

For most of my early years, I had a lot of bad dreams. Hardly nightmares, but lots of that boring 'being chased around but you can't run fast', that sort of thing. In highschool things got a bit more interesting and it was more a case of unsettling weirdness, my abilities to run and speak etc were pretty normal except at moments of extreme anxiety. I think it was somewhere around that time I started 'hovering' - I found that if I fell forward just right, I could float about 2 feet above the ground and slide down inclines like I was on some kind of trolley. This was pretty hit-and-miss for a while, but when I started getting used to it, I discovered I could also levitate. It was a pretty different experience, hovering just required a focussed mind, but levitating was an active thing that felt like my hands were pushing downwards. I also found it helped to hold them in a position a bit like the Vitarka Mudra, although at the time I didn't know what that was. At that time I could only levitate for short periods and the more I used it in one night, the less powerful it became, like I had a supply of it I was using up. I also suffered 'dream degradation' in other ways; my dreams had a tendency to start pretty good and get continually worse and worse.

When my dreaming got to this stage, I started suffering a 'jarring' effect when I used powers that ran contrary to the 'intention' of the dream. Like if I tried to push my flight ability too far, or if I turned around and started fighting a monster that was obviously too powerful for me to beat, the dream got muddled and thin as if it was resisting the influence I was trying to exert. This would usually result in the power rapidly diminishing to the point of uselessness, and the changes I'd made with it being reversed or somehow turned against me again, and if I kept struggling, I'd just wake up.

I can't remember what was next, but I think sustained flight was pretty soon after. Now I can fly around dreams like it's nothing. I think it was also around then I started deliberately pushing new powers into my dreams - I imagined a kind of arm-mounted laser while I was awake and made an effort to materialise it the next time I was threatened. That didn't go so well. It came through but the appearance was indistinct and insubstantial, like when you try and superimpose something imaginary on the real world. Instead of firing lasers it fired large energy bullets that disintegrated after a few metres, and every time I used it there was serious jarring. I gave up pretty quickly. I guess long-range weapons aren't allowed; even these days the best I can do is a kind of telekinetic pulse.

Flight though, as I said, is a piece of piss, so long as I remember I'm able to do it. In addition, provided I'm in a good mood, my hand-to-hand fighting can take care of most normal dream opponents (if only my real-world kung-fu was that strong), and super-speed's been a staple for a while as well. I recently broke my 'record' by going so fast I could barely keep track of where I was, and ended up on the other side of town. I can also materialise basic objects pretty easily. Come to that, a lot of the time I can just make up new powers on the spot, provided they're easy enough to conceptualise, although that can cause jarring. The general tone of my dreams has become more consistent as well - if it starts good, it usually stays that way, for the most part. Bad dreams tend to be more action than horror, too.

Naturally, when I'm feeling anxious I have a lot more dreams where it doesn't occur to use powers, and there's serious jarring when I do. On the other hand, if I have a bad dream and manage to summon enough power to turn it around, I wake up feeling great.

Another interesting feature of my dreams is that I seem to have unintentionally developed a 'landscape' that mirrors my local area, with a few important differences. It shifts around a bit and not all my dreams can be located in it definitively, but there are consistent features that keep cropping up. Unlike my real area, there's a kind of underground village dug into the chalk of the cliffs, which are much higher than the actual, and scaled at certain points by steep concrete staircases. The tide comes in very fast and very deep, submerging the entire beaches and coastal defences, and going halfway up the cliffs. Tornadoes are also very common, although most of them pass by harmlessly. Half of my suburb has been replaced with fields of tall grass which it's not safe to enter, and a lot of the buildings are run-down or deserted. And naturally, the buses are completely unpredictable. There's a school on the hills where no actual school is, which is an amalgam of my primary and secondary schools (I'm British, in case I hadn't already given that away) and some made-up stuff. There's another school closer to its actual location which I think is supposed to resemble my A-level college. Although there's day and night, a lot of dreams are set during a kind of strange twilight in which the sky is dark and normal shops are shut, but everything is clearly illuminated and there's a lot of activity, especially unusual things.

Sorry if I rambled a bit, but this is just the sort of thing I find fascinating. I'd like to know if anyone else has similar experiences, and if there's anything unique about the way you dream.

[Kaito]

Haha. Dude. That sounds awesome in itself.

I have had some funny things happen in my dreams too.

Only generally, I don't dream often. I've never had a bad dream, or a nightmare, or anything. All I've ever had were either a) boring dreams, b) awesome dreams, or c) strange dreams. Whereas the category c) is the most awesome, actually.

Most of my dreams happen in some imaginary setting. In msot dreams, the whole setting is nothing I know. I never see any faces or hear any voices in my dreams. If there's persons, I know who they are. If they 'say' something, I know what they say, without hearing it.

I've had some of those things happen in my dreams, too; flying was very fun to do. But the most awesome dream-power I ever had was being able to breathe underwater
I had that dream when I was like, 5 years old or so. I was diving around (actually holding my breath!) when I realised I need to breathe again, but somehow couldn't get up in time. I did take a breath underwater, then, and it worked. Was the most awesome time after that.
(only next time in the pool I had to learn that it was just a dream that I could do it.. of course I knew I couldn't do it, but subconsciously I was already used to it and just did it in the pool.. ugh)
Some years later I was thinking "hey it would be nice to do that again" and tried to summon that dream up, again, and it actually worked.
Endless diving awesomeness.

But yeah. The most awesome dreams are still the strange ones. There's sometimes so much wtf in there. Does anyone know Immanuel Kant? He only wrote deep in the night when he was half asleep; pretty much writing out his strange dream stuff. If you've ever read something from him, you will know I'm right.

[Kesteven]

Immanuel Kant, are you sure? After Wittgenstein, he was probably the most insistently logical thinker in the history of philosophy. Not that a lot of what he wrote wasn't occult gibberish, I suppose. But it was very methodical, logically consistent gibberish.

And yeah, breathing underwater was one of the first things I could do. Makes me wonder why I was always so afraid of the tide in dreams.

[Kaito]

Yes, concerning philosophy he was very logical, and for my taste, very cold.

But if you've ever read some of his stuff.. damn, that's some messed up stuff.

[Guest]

Growing up I consistently had dreams in which I was being chased by things, human or otherwise, and I just couldn't run fast enough to get away. Or if I could, they would always find me again.

When I lived in the mountains, I had a house on a large hill top, with my grandparents' house a little higher up the hill. Just behind our house was a barn. And that barn...my god...spawns the most horrible nightmarish creatures to ever visit my dreams.

Anyway, as a result of constant nightmares of that sort, I learned how to tell when I was dreaming, while I was dreaming. I knew, during the dream, that I was dreaming, and that if I could find a way to end the chase I would wake up. I always knew that if I could just kill myself, that would jolt me awake. It didn't always work though. Either I couldn't die (no matter how high of a cliff I jumped off of to land face first on a rock), or it would actually end the dream, though I wouldn't wake up. It would just transition into another dream.

But since then I've always found it really interesting to know when I'm dreaming.

[Kaito]

I am amazed at the way everyone has nightmares.. even on a regular base. I mean, seriously, I never had a nightmare. Never ever. Maybe when I was really really young and I can't remember, but ever since I can... nope.

I wonder why this is so. It's not like I've had the best childhood, but it's not like I had the worst, either.

[Kesteven]

Yeah, I've met a few people who claim never have nightmares. It's hard to say why without knowing where nightmares come from, but the obvious explanation would be they're simply a manifestation of anxiety, so you might simply be a positive-thinking person.

For some reason I've never had much of a problem knowing when I'm dreaming. For a start, my visual imagination is quite poor, so the lack of visual fidelity is kind of a giveaway. On the other hand, I have had hyper-realistic dreams, which makes me wonder how my mind manages it then and not other times. I've had some dreams where it never occurs to me to think 'is this a dream?', but I've never had a dream where I thought 'this might not be a dream'. As soon as the question arises, the answer follows immediately.

[Sighlent]

I don't have dreams, I have nightmares - or I just don't dream. More or less when I'm restless during sleep I don't dream, or when I'm really just conked out. However, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps my mental state is currently array because my nightmares are getting worse.

[Kesteven]

Since nightmares have their origin in the subconscious it seems more likely to be the other way around.

[Anemone]

Imagine that you're a chair girl on a one chair rampage with a chainsaw against the Table-oid empire. And the tables dress like people.

Thats an average dream for me.

[Kesteven]

You must have a very furniture-oriented mind, Anemone. Speaking of that though, something else I wanted to ask people: how often do you have dreams where you're not yourself, i.e. the dream gives you a backstory or role to play? Since we're role-players, I'm guessing most people here have dreams like that (although anyone who watches TV will probably carry that kind of perspective into their dreams). I think about half the time I'm given a backstory, the rest I'm just me. Also I slide in and out of characters a lot.

Oh, and another thing about dream powers: I've recently developed quite an interesting 'power' whereby I can create rooms by putting my hands on an area of blank wall and imagining a door. That's pretty symbolic.

[Fluff]

My dreams always revolve around sex and violence, no exceptions.

[Anemone]

You must have a very furniture-oriented mind, Anemone. .

No, not really...

I've had dreams where I'm having a tea-party with lizard men and Bender from futurama... Where I was a character inside Super Smash Brothers, and playing at the same time. A dream where I was lying awake in a backwards version of my room.... One where I was a freedom fighter on some random planet where the sun was blue and the sky was yellow, and the water was purple.

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