Dreams and the Subconscious

[Artifice Orisit]

What dreams do you have and what do you think they mean?

Feel free to discuss related psychology and the source of the dreams inspiration.

Edit @-Fernando
You need to sleep more

 

[Ermine]

I don't have any dreams. Does that mean anything?

 

[flow]

Yes, you need more sleep.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

My dreams are nonsensical. At least what I remember when I do dream.

One thing that I could say is a somewhat common theme is getting lost in places I'm telling myself I know. Like one time I dreamed that I was at my parents house....except it wasn't their house. My mind just told me it was and I accepted it as their house. It went on forever. One crazy room after another and the sense of being lost just didn't jibe with thinking I knew the place (or at least was supposed to) I'd wake up feeling confused and it would generally start my day off on the wrong foot. I've had similar dreams but in different settings but always the sense I knew the place even in some cases where nothing resembled anything in my experience.

That's actually about as normal as my dreams get. Some of them get really wierd. I generally don't try to analyze their meanings

 

[Auburn]

There's one dream in particular which stands out to me - which I've had more than once, years apart sometimes.

I vaguely remember - I am in a junkyard of sorts, alone, but there is no sky; it's either all white, or black, I think. The ground is there but has no color - it's all blank, except for a bunch of metal scraps from indistinguishable machines laying all around, as it would look at the end of a war. I search frantically for something or someone (it's difficult to remember). Then after failing... suddenly I turn around and I begin to have a terrible feeling of dread! I begin to panic, and get anxiety. I feel as if I'm going to be obliterated from reality, for some reason - it's a horrible feeling, and I feel it after the dream is over for a while too.
When I turn around, I have these thought in my mind that tell me that I blew it. Than I had one chance and I failed! That all is lost forever! That it's all my fault.

..I can best describe it as a feeling of complete hopelessness..​

I think I did see something when I turned around, but it's hard to remember. I think in one instance, I saw something disappearing before my eyes into the distance - which was what I was searching for, and I somehow knew that I missed my one and only opportunity to get it...

...It's the only nightmare that's made me cry...​

...but it's strange because nothing "bad" happens...

...perhaps there's a psychological meaning behind this? does it mean something? bad?​

 

[flow]

psychologically speaking, it sounds like in your dream (or reality) you have feelings of dread, anxiety, and a fear of failure. Perhaps your dream comes at a particularly stressful time in life when you are feeling these emotions and not consciously acknowledging it. Your subconscious could be trying to convey the message through intense and memorable imagery. Reoccurring dreams could possibly just be effective messages from the subconscious to the conscious during crises like these..

 

[Aphasia]

I dream sporadically, but when I do, they can be really weird/ disturbing.

There's a thread about dreams somewhere in the forum. You'll find some interesting ones there.

 

[Decaf]

I have dreams fairly often, but I never remember them. The only dreams I remember are from my childhood. I had a vivid one about abandonment during my parents divorce. Oddly enough the figures I remember leaving were my mom and my brother, where my brother left home a couple months later.

The other one that I remember vividly had to to with my hiding from mercenaries under an embankment, getting pulled out by my hair and being executed with a Gatling gun made of bamboo.

From those two and the handful of others that haven't faded, I have never been able to find any common thread. I still have no idea about the second one, but I wonder if I remember it just because on waking up I spent so much time thinking about the potential of bamboo based firearms.

 

[Ogion]

I don't know if there are common themes, reoccurring ones, to my dreams, as i generally don't remember them (unless after awakening i actively remember and repeat in words what i have dreamt), or if i do i don't interpret them.
One dream i often had was me sword-fighting with some woman (i do not remember her visually, just the feeling that she is a good looking woman, but mainly that she is kind and that i actually love her, at least my dream role does). I don't remember (in the dream and now for sure ) why we two are fighting but sometime i land a hit with my sword (nothing deadly but serious it always seems) and then i immediately turn from fighting her to try to save her and to care for and about her. Actually, once i do that, it feel more natural for both of us, than the fighting.
I am no psychologist but it always seems to me that the 'message' of this dream is, that fighting not the natural state, but caring and helping for another is. That actually is my own 'deep down' moral principle. I am a very helpful person and think that fighting (be it with weapons or with words; fighting for the sake of fighting at least, although strictly speaking i think every fighting) is destructive and not wrong.

One thing though i know for certain, and it is wuite useful : I have a certain mechanism, which wroks like this. When i sleep and dream, and i have to go peeing, my dream shifts towards a nightmare. It continues this road, to worsen and worsen. Now, somewhere along this point, usually it expresses itself in the dream by a normal dream with increasingly wrong-going things in it, i become lucid if you will and know that i have to pee and then i can actively wake myself from the dream. It is quite strange, but i dream this dream, and suddenly i know that this is only a dream, and that it turned nasty to say i have to wake. Then i wake myself up, it is just a matter of will, i guess, and then i am awake and can go to the toilet. This is pretty cool, although sometimes it annoys me because it corrupted a nice dream

Ogion

 

[Jules]

I haven't had a dream since childhood. Or maybe I have and I just can't remember any.

I do remember that at a certain point in these dreams I realize it's a dream and I can force myself to wake up. Just like Ogion, I guess. The dreams were eerie/nightmare-like. They always gave me an urge to wake up. Just as if when I didn't wake myself up I'd never wake up, if you know what I mean.

And now I just don't dream or don't remember any dreams. Or perhaps I block dreams subconsciously.

 

[kaririloto]

Well, I'm not quite sure what to think.

On one hand, dreams can be prophetic, say you have a dream of someone wearing a certain outfit, then the next day they wear it. Also, if you "follow the advice" in a dream, you may end up somewhere beneficial.

Are these simply coincidences?

From a Jungian point of view, dreams, depending on their content, can be seen from two ways: one is that the dream is commenting on your current lifestyle; emphasizing how you are living, the other being a way to improve it. (or something like that. Be gentle; I just learned this in a podcast about two days ago. =_= )

Again, not quite sure what to think. I just take them in stride.

For example, I had a vivid dream about two nights ago.

I had my "old" hairstyle; long and blonde. I was going to school, one i'd never seen before but was so familiar, when I suddenly ran into a nearby building. It had only three walls and 1/2 of a ceiling, and it was about the length and half the width of a master bedroom. It was somewhat like a daycare, as there were several young children playing. They were quite quiet, and somehow I knew they were very intelligent.

I ran over to the only “bed” in the room [the floor was covered with small blankets made into beds], and shoved an old, slightly rusty rifle under it. I then took a deep breath and walked back to my school.

An hour or two later, I was walking through my school with a navy blue backpack. [I’ve never had one.] I suddenly fell into a pit of despair, and sprinted towards the daycare. I fell to my knees by the bed, tearing the gun from its hiding place. I put it up to my neck, pointing upward, heard someone shout “NO!”, and pulled the trigger.

It was…so strange. I couldn’t feel the pain, but for a split moment, I could feel my skull cracking. I blacked out.

When I awoke, I was sitting up, cross-legged. I had on a black or gray t-shirt and long socks, I think maybe shorts. I had a blonde pixie cut. In my lap was a laptop, on it, a black screen (website?) with white text. It was some proverb from the bible, and it said something like “Those who Sin cannot go to Heaven.”

I realized that I would have to keep cycling through life in different human forms for the rest of eternity as my punishment.

-

Now, how would one interpret this? For one thing, my hairstyle was different. Does this mean anything?

I’ve been contemplating suicide [just another way to die, the only one you’re in control of] for a while, so I can see why I did so in the dream.

[FONT=&quot]I think it’s: a) interpretation / perspective and b)whether there’s really a “meaning”.[/FONT]

 

[Fleur]

In my strangest dream I was standing on the edge of the pier, looking down to the water. Then I realise that I`m going to fall, but, when I pace back, I find myself standing on the edge again. I try to back up one more time, but it still doesn`t work. Then I decide to jump in the water, even if I`m going to drown, but, after doing it, I`m teleported on the edge again.

I don't have any dreams. Does that mean anything?

No, actually you have - you just can`t remember your dreams.
There are two phases of sleep: REM and NREM. In REM stage humans are dreaming and if they`ve woken up in this phase, they can remember the dream.

 

[Ogion]

You know, it is funny, but i think i have two phases where i might dream. I mean, REM-phase is when you sleep very deep, isn't it? But sometimes when still really tired in the morning after wakening and i sort of half-sleep/doze for a few hours (when i don't have to get up) i dream a lot. Although i really am just sort of half asleep.These dreams however are oftnely not very visually vivid, but they are in terms of feelings behind it. I want to say they don't seem like movies, afterwards or while experiencing it, but more like... i don't know how to explain. It is just that in the lucid moments i don't remember the dream visually but by it's meanings and common themes and such, much like remembering a book not by its details but on a more abstract level.
Is this intelligible or did nobody understand what i was talking about?

Ogion

 

[Fleur]

There are sub-phases of NREM. In one (two?) of them it`s possible to have a dreams, but it`s very rare thing.

 

[Waterstiller]

Oh god I had some weird dreams last night.

The most normal one was that I kept on finding out that my friends were the authors of all these major book series. The guy I'm currently pursuing was the author of the Redwall series.

 

[FusionKnight]

I almost always remember my dreams. They're extremely vivid, visually, emotionally, thematically, etc. I would not be at all surprised if I were to learn that my dream-world is a real place.

My dreams always focus heavily on "spaces", buildings, rooms, houses, locations, etc. Many of these I have transcribed into the real world via pencil and paper, and many of them I wish to bring to full fruition by constructing their real-world analogues. They are incredibly detailed, unique, and beautiful; the images really move and haunt me. It seems my dreams are far more than dreams to me...

 

[Ogion]

that's nice, i think. I read a novel sometime ago in which the protagonist (in 'real'life' a crippled youth of 17 or so) in his dreams entered a 'fantasy realm' in which he was to become a hero. And on the end of one of the books (it'S a trilogy, i don't remember wether he did it in the first book or at the end of the trilogy) he actually 'really' enters this fantasy realm, and his 'real-life-this-world' body dies. Was a good fantasy novel.

Ogion

 

[Anling]

A lot of my dreams are storylines. I do have your regular random dreams, but frequently I dream out an actual stroy that makes some sense. I have even had dreams that I not only remember but continue the next night. So I actually use my dreams as inspiration for stories to write. If I ever get around to finishing said stories, some of them would be pretty good.

 

[Gorgrim]

I've got some dreams I remember, early ones people forget me or I end up somewhere I shouldnt be , and get attacked.. ( animal cage with mammoth? )

I've been attacked with axes, but the most MOST horrible dreams I had again and again as a child, is this Dark Shade... it is everything horrible, it will kill and consume me... and no matter where i go for peace ( out in the forest, or at home, under covers.. ) it comes to kill me, and i end up struggling to get away from it, and my family is helpless and I eventually cannot stop it and it is about to suck my life out of me, when it does, I wake up and feel unimaginately bad and afraid.


I also have some dreams, where I am beeing thrown so fast through the air my stomach is beeing pulled out, afraid of falling to the ground, too.

I would love to know why i had this dark shade after me, so many times maybe I had this dream haunting me 10 times ... and these certain parts were always the same..

 

[EloquentBohemian]

What?
...nobody has dreams anymore of furry little bunnies frolicking in the sunshine through fields of singing daisies while fairies, humming tunes from 'The Sound of Music', flit from flower to flower collecting dewdrops?



...of course Freud would probably say that this has to do with sexual repression or something.

 

[Ogion]

Well, Freud was probably sexually depressed, for him to put such emphasis on sexual explanations^^

Ogion

 

[Goodmaj]

I usually have adventurous dreams and rarely disturbing dreams and almost never have nightmares.

I have a lot of dreams which are almost like I'm living an alternative thread to my physical life. These dreams put me in a situation, which can be past, present or future. These dreams are usually concise, vivid, and are especially interesting, because they build on each other. A new dream will use events and facts (if you can call them those in a dream) from previous dreams. I classify this as my most frequent type of dream.

The other kind of dreaming I have done all my life is theme dreaming. The same theme over and over until something in my real life happens similar to the dream and then I don't have them any more. The most notable of late was sunami dreams. I would dream of being on the coast and having giant waves come in over and over. They ended after the super sunami happening in the Indian Ocean a few years ago. My theme dreams can last for years and I have them frequently when they are active.

I normally enjoy dreaming. I look forward to sleeping so I can dream and rarely have a problem remembering them when I wake up.

Sometimes remember inconsequential dreams virtually forever. I can remember some dreams I had when I was a teen and several along the way. What is funny is that a couple were dramatic, but others were totally ordinary and why they were stored in my memory is beyond me...

Enough rambling. This is a fun post.

L8r

 

[Ogion]

Hm, seems like a thing to be envied

Hi and welcome, by the way.

Ogion

 

[Goodmaj]

that's nice, i think. I read a novel sometime ago in which the protagonist (in 'real'life' a crippled youth of 17 or so) in his dreams entered a 'fantasy realm' in which he was to become a hero. And on the end of one of the books (it'S a trilogy, i don't remember wether he did it in the first book or at the end of the trilogy) he actually 'really' enters this fantasy realm, and his 'real-life-this-world' body dies. Was a good fantasy novel.

Ogion

Sounds really similar to Tad Williams 'Otherland' series that is based virtual reality (computer based). I think the characters name is 'Orlando Gardiner'. Great set of books if you can get beyond the boring start.

 

[Perseus]

What gave you permission to get into my dream?

I see them as messages. I had a message that somebody wanted to marry me. I turned up and got beaten up and ostracised.

That's the trouble with girls. They might love you but the Guardians insist on marrying for money. There could be the possibility she was in love with getting married and sending the same message out everywhere?

Well, Freud was probably sexually depressed, for him to put such emphasis on sexual explanations^^

Ogion

I expect so, I tend to agree, but the cocaine addiction may aso account for some of it. I think he was most probably a Hawk INTJ under continual stress.

I am a Jungian INTP.

 

[Decaf]

Just as a side note I've decided to use this thread as my new dream journal (mostly cause all the other dream journals only have one dream written in them before I lose them or become disinterested in the concept.

___

So revolution has come, but my first dream memory starts like a western with me doing a bunch of trick riding on a horse and shooting down dozens of other mounted cowboys. After that I'm walking down a path, followed at one point by a small bird walking behind me. Eventually I move to the side and let the bird pass. I come up to a street and lay down behind a bush as a car passes. I have a clear view of the driver through the bushes but he doesn't see me. I get a feeling like if he saw me, I'd have to kill him (though at this point I don't have a gun in my hand anymore).

I find myself downtown (unrecognizable) at an enormous building. I check a massive plaque and see that my partner has an apartment in the building, so I go into the bank with her mom and look for the way up to her place, but see nothing. Apparently I'm missing something so I wander the neighborhood. The setting my dream shifts to an enclosed neighborhood and now I'm thinking about what seems like a movie script where two friends are caught in the middle of a revolution. One is considered acceptable and is treated like a king, the other is unacceptable and people try to kill him. The second friend survives for long enough for the first friend to realize that his good treatment does not justify the other's bad treatment and steps in to help. Then there's more walking around, some train traffic, including a really weird looking rail work vehicle that I think my brain made up. Then my alarm went off. The end.

 

[Ogion]

Damn, alarms are too often nasty little killjoys, aren't they?

Ogion

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Realistically I think dreams are just figments of a semi-conscious mind, however that hasn't stopped me from coming up with some strange theories. The first being that we are all connected to a dream-world which explains how characters in my dreams often act seeming independent of my thoughts.
Another theory that I'm more fond of is that dreams are glimpses into alternate realities, parallel universes and such. So when I die in a dream I'm experiencing my alternate's death first hand and so he becomes part of me as my life continues. Makes me wonder if eventually I'll be the last surviving "me", I think there is a movie somewhere that follows this plot.

Anyway here are a few of my more memorable (hence more disturbing) dreams.

The Sister Dream
I'd first like to point out that I'm a only child, so experiencing a dream with a hypothetical sibling in it was somewhat surprising. It started off nice enough with a childlike version of myself playing with my "sister" (very weird for me) but like most of my dreams before long it took a darker turn. Our game consisted of doing dream-only activities like changing size and shape, like turning into a ball and being bounced around the room. At some stage we came across a kitchen sink with one of those drain grinder things, you know, with the spinning blades in it. Well at this stage my literally little sister decides to explore it... and for whatever reason or simply for the sake of plot, I flicked the switch. I then spent the remainder of the dream trying to piece her together and crying "don't die, don't die" as I also worried about my parents coming home. Because the idea of transmutation is so normal in a dream I felt that I could save her by putting her back together, but apparently there are limits to this. How's that for a messed up nightmare? In one night I felt what it was like to have a sibling and lose one; this is what I meant by “most memorable” dreams.

Meeting my Subconscious
This dream isn’t nearly as disturbing as the last; in fact it was actually kind-of cool. It started with me standing in a massive dark cavern that I somehow knew was the inside of my skull. A formless black mist covered floor stretched out in all directions, perfectly flat; making the cavern a giant half-sphere dome. Although I knew all of this the black misty floor and black ceiling made it seem as if I was standing in a complete void, even though I knew exactly where I was. After I had established my bearings a dark figure rose out of the floor and stood in it, like the floor was lake surface that he couldn’t fully leave. I knew it was a he because despite being only an impossibly dark silhouette (as visible void in darkness) I recognised him as being exactly my shape and size (well dressed too). Without speaking or even really moving he introduced himself as my subconscious and explained to me that he was my true self; whilst I was the sentient masquerade mask that he used to stay detached from the world. By directly giving me his thoughts he explained how he watched the world through me and influenced me with carefully selected titbits of inspiration and insight. He is the voice in the back of my mind that by careful suggestion plays me like a puppet. I wasn’t overly offended by this since this was how it had always been and I was in awe at this being that was evidently far beyond my intellectual capacities. Our relationship is much like that of a limo driver and his passenger or a shy gentleman and his masquerade mask. My subconscious protects me from myself and guides me like an omnipotent, ever patient parent. Whilst I protect him from the stresses of existence and from those who would try harm understand and harm him.

more later...

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Did I scare everybody off? I'm not that mental.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Did I scare everybody off? I'm not that mental.

Okay, if we're going to share specific dreams, here's one I remember (most I don't or do only vaguely)

Now don't get all Freudian on my first sentence!!

I'm in a tunnel. It's too dark to see but I'm feeling like I'm Indiana Jones or some such nonsense and I'm looking for something in particular. Others (including my girlfriend) are with me at least at first. I go from walking to stooping to crawling as the tunnel gets narrower and then I see a faint glow along the wall. I rub my hands on it to wipe away the grime. It's a window of sorts, small and not very clear. I see through it a large tree basking in the sunlight. I think "that's it! The tree of life!"

Next thing I know, I'm standing next to the tree (it is huge and round) when one of the branches picks me up and passes me around from branch to branch (picture crowd surfing). I see my girlfriend there and sense the others but don't see them. The branches take me up to the top and down the otherside. Back and forth. A wonderful sensation.

Suddenly it is over and I am back at the window in the tunnel taking what I feel is one last look at the tree. Then I begin the journey back. Darkness smothers me and that feeling wakes me up.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Now don't get all Freudian on my first sentence!!

I'm surprised nobody has tried to interpret mine yet; be as Freudian as you pleas.

 

[flow]

@Cognisant

Okay, your dreams are quite intriguing. I think they both have to do with your mind being so detached from your body that you think of yourself as two people. Maybe your body is trying to tell your mind this, through a "sister" and "subconscious" character.. I'm really not sure, but they both are similar in that the other character seems to also represent you.

 

[Decaf]

@flow
Damn, that was good. Freud would be proud. Perhaps not sexual enough, but maybe that's just my impression of his theories.

 

[Waterstiller]

The most prominent dream I had last night involved my dad not being my biological father, and when I was introduced to my real dad he was Korean. Then I remembered thinking "this makes a lot of sense!" and looked in the mirror and saw that I was a sexy hapa guy. I looked a lot like Dennis O.

I don't really think it means anything. It was a little freaky though and I felt out of place looking at the mirror image.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

I'm surprised nobody has tried to interpret mine yet; be as Freudian as you pleas.

Perhaps more Jungian?

The Sister Dream

Sister = anima = feminine attributes in males which are normally suppressed in male-dominated societies.
Something you did or you inadvertently caused which had traumatic consequences split your anima off and decimated it. You are attempting to reconstruct your anima as it was, putting the pieces back together, but you may have to reconstruct your anima differently.
Parents represent authority figures. You were aware that what you had done would have consequences to yourself.
You are being judged by your own internal 'authority figure'.

Meeting my Subconscious

You are meeting your Shadow which resides or is 'caged' in the subconscious.
It is part of the floor because it is a part of you.
It looks exactly like you because it is your 'doppleganger' though the opposite of those qualities you consider you are and you usually choose to interact with the world.
The Shadow is easily 'harmed' because the qualities which make up the Shadow are not utilized often and therefore are 'innocent' and vunerable.
It is representative of all your attributes which are suppressed whether self-suppressed or externally suppressed.
Shadow qualities, if suppressed too long and 'caged', it will erupt and seem to assume control.


My take on your dreams and note that I am in no way a psychologist. This is from reading the dreams and intuitively jotting down what comes to mind.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

That was quite impressive and completely devoid of the word "phallic"; I can't understand how you could let such an opportunity for humour pass.

Sister Dream
I've always assumed that it was just a manifestation of instinctual feelings that have never had an opportunity to be used. But your suggestion that I'm judging myself for inadvertently damaging may anima is very likely; I've always been uncomfortable with my emotions and it makes perfect sense that I'd harm my anima whist trying to suppress them.
My complements on a very insightful assessment.

Meeting my Subconscious
Actually I that I am quite close to my shadow and this dream wasn't really a representation of my interaction with it, but with my subconscious as a whole. Black is a natural colour for me, which is probably why I like dark cloths and prefer this site's darker colour palette. The dark colour of my manifested subconscious seemed peaceful for me; possibly result of the shadow archetype being one of the more powerful portions of my mind. This dream showed me the inner and outer components of my mind and the nature of their interaction.
The subconscious is deep thoughtful, a quiet advisor who despite being polite can also be frightening; he doesn’t back down from frightening thoughts or conflicts.
The conscious is childlike by comparison, which makes it better suited for the rigors of existence and living in a world of consequences.
Flow came closest on understanding this dream; although I've never considered it as detachment before.

Seems my subconscious is made up of unimplemented shadow attributes, a suppressed (possibly damaged) anima and a overbearing focus on logical thought. I suppose it is a very good thing that it cannot interact with the world directly; it would make me a monster to put Hannibal Lector to shame. Acting upon curiosity and intellectual impulse with little to no regard for consequences; or the harm that could be caused by those actions.

Well that was fun, now I'm shivering a little too. Does anyone else want to explore the inner depths of their psyche?

 

[EloquentBohemian]

That was quite impressive and completely devoid of the word "phallic"; I can't understand how you could let such an opportunity for humour pass.

There are times I can show considerable restraint.

Of couse, you don't know how many replies I composed after this one which included a Russian dancing troupe, several Maine lobsters, buckets o' honey, trained seals, ropes, chains, and other assorted chrome hardware and a super-sized 'My Little Pony'.



...did I forget to mention the Tele-Tubbies?

 

[loveofreason]

Okay, if we're going to share specific dreams, here's one I remember (most I don't or do only vaguely)

Now don't get all Freudian on my first sentence!!

I'm in a tunnel. It's too dark to see but I'm feeling like I'm Indiana Jones or some such nonsense and I'm looking for something in particular. Others (including my girlfriend) are with me at least at first. I go from walking to stooping to crawling as the tunnel gets narrower and then I see a faint glow along the wall. I rub my hands on it to wipe away the grime. It's a window of sorts, small and not very clear. I see through it a large tree basking in the sunlight. I think "that's it! The tree of life!"

Next thing I know, I'm standing next to the tree (it is huge and round) when one of the branches picks me up and passes me around from branch to branch (picture crowd surfing). I see my girlfriend there and sense the others but don't see them. The branches take me up to the top and down the otherside. Back and forth. A wonderful sensation.

Suddenly it is over and I am back at the window in the tunnel taking what I feel is one last look at the tree. Then I begin the journey back. Darkness smothers me and that feeling wakes me up.

*envy* I wish the tree of life would pick me up. Lucky IB

Sister Dream

When I read that I was sorely tempted to make a bad joke about you macerating your anima, but Eloquent has been far more eloquent and less taunting that I would have been.

Good luck putting it back together.

Well that was fun, now I'm shivering a little too. Does anyone else want to explore the inner depths of their psyche?

I almost do nothing but explore the inner depths, but old psyche's just become more and more elusive. I haven't remembered a significant dream in years.

Perhaps I'll just live vicariously through yours.

(Blame me if no one else posts...)

 

[Agent Intellect]

i have the problem of not remembering most of my dreams, either. i'll remember just a certain "scene" in it, a certain image, but i won't remember the plot. the main thing i know about my dreams is that they are all in the third person (me watching myself) and they often have made up people in them (my mind just created characters that don't even exist) along with people i actually know. most of the made up characters in my dreams are black.

any freudian examinations about that?

 

[flow]

well how do you consciously feel about black people?

*loves playing freud (but hates freud)

 

[Anling]

the main thing i know about my dreams is that they are all in the third person (me watching myself)

I almost never dream in the first person. It's happened, that I remember, maybe three times. I didn't know anyone else dreamed in the third person too.
Anyone else do that?

 

[Ogion]

Well, yes. I mean, in some dreams there is a constant shift in identification, if i may use this word. For some time i am just an unvisible observer, then i merge with the protagonist (which wasn't me before) and sometimes i become an observer again. This is not in every dream, but from time to time.
(Always talking about the remembered dreams here, obviously )

Ogion

 

[Anling]

I always know which person is supposed to be me, I just don't experience the dream actually through their eyes.

 

[Agent Intellect]

well how do you consciously feel about black people?

*loves playing freud (but hates freud)

during high school, the majority of the people i talked to were black. i have black relatives (and you'd be surprised how many people ask me how this is possible). i don't really see them any differently then i do white people (in fact, i probably trust white people a little less then any other race looking back on their history).

 

[Sylzarra]

My dreams consist of me in New York City hiding in a bunker and waiting for a neuclear bomb to strike. I'm usually not alone there's others with me, some with families and children. However i feel no kinship or identity with them and feel as if I am totally alone against this threat. We are all waiting silently (or maybe I'm the only one who is silent?) for the bomb to hit. I usually wake up before it does though. I have other similar dreams as well. One is in the aftermath of the bomb drop and it is of me struggling to get out of the city with my injuries, through the debris.
The last kind takes place in my own suburban home and consists of me trying to pack all that I might need into one small bag because an army is invading my area and i have to run to safe ground. I am alone and when i look out my window I don't see anyone...
In all these dreams i have a sense of being alone, of dread and fear of what might be coming.

 

[flow]

@Agent Intellect

Sounds like you're just comfortable with black people, and so your subconscious is surrounding you with what you perceive as your peers. I often have dreams with black people as well (and black friends/family).

@Sylzarra

Your dreams seem to be very similar to some of my own, and I'm sure all INTPs have similar overlying themes to both their conscious and subconscious thoughts. As for my analysis, I'd say those dreams are representing feelings of uneasiness about the future.. You're probably worried about where you'll be in a few years, and who, if anyone, you'll be with.

I think as INTPs, we should all pay special attention to the characters in our dreams. If any of them are real people in our lives, we might have some important feelings towards them that we might not have been consciously aware of. I currently "feel" like dreams are the expression of thoughts/feelings/senses/intuitions that our mind cannot seem to consciously access. I'm thinking each personality type has archetypal dreams inherent to their type. Hmm.. don't hold me to this.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

A Zen monk once fell asleep under the shade of a tree and dreamt he was a butterfly.
Upon waking, The monk thought: "Am I a monk who dreamt I was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I'm a monk?"

 

[Kidege]

How about these dreams:

• Being Obi-wan's Padawan (not Anakin)
• A tarot study session in a Rennaissance palace. The Inquisition arrived.
• The king of England killing people with his bare hands.
• A cardinal making the actor who plays Draco Malfoy deliver a speech because he (the cardinal) couldn't tell fact from fiction.
• Raiding a Giles de Rais-ey palace.
• A space ship. Ogion was there. I think he was an engineer. *waves*
• Delivering a message from Fidel to the Che Guevara who was in China.
• A family in Russia gets kicked out of a hotel.
• A group of spies going for uranium in Ukraine. They ended up as a comedy group.
• Orphan kids being herded to church.
• Meeting a serial killer who had never been discovered.

I really like my dreams. Who needs RL adventure? I suppose you could get a pattern even from these one liners. I keep a diary, so they're almost clear to me, but any thoughts will be welcome.

 

[Ogion]

I am honoured (Though, how can you tell it was me?)

Before reading your last phrase i thought: Get a dream journal, write your dreams down, because they seem like veritable plotlines (which could be made into short stories for example). Then i read to the end

Ogion

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

I dream in first and third person... on uncommon occasions I will be one person from the first person, transfer to the third person, and then un-become that person. I think of it as just changing the point of view that I am watching whatever the story is. It's just... really cool that the character matches my emotion and thought almost exactly when I'm in the first-person mode.

When I was a student in Denmark I had a lot of spare time and no internet. So I'd try to write stories- and that fed into me trying to remember dreams, as a form of getting new material and ideas. At my height I was remembering 5 dreams a week, and of the five I was writing down about three of them. Making it a habit to remember your dream when you first wake up is how you retain the memory- writing my dreams was really just more of something to solidify the habit.

I like Cog's "meeting my subconscious" dream, as well as EB's analysis of it. I had a pretty serious shadow dream awhile back... I'll get around to editing it what I wrote into a presentable format.