"DreamCatcher" (unknown)Somehow I have actually avoided posting on dreams until now. This maybe a sign that I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas. However, I am quite proud of my dreamscape. It is suitably weird, nutty and imaginative.
1. COLOUR
Unfortunately, like everything else in my life, I do not seem to have the latest technology to play with. So while most of the world is experiencing their dreams in High Definition Colour, I almost entirely dream in black and white or monochrome. For many years, I asked people if they dreamt in colour or were they a freak like me. I finally found a serious study that reported that 12% of the population does not dream in colour.
My dreams are almost always in black and white or occuring under low light situations like night-time so that everything is monochromatic or in shades of grey. In one very strange childhood dream (which occured long before Antz), I was a black army ant off to raid a red ant nest. Everything occurs at night and along dark tunnels in the soil and part of the problem was trying to recognise whether you had bumped into friend or foe.
I can only remember vividly one dream in colour. Again I was an ant but I was taking part in the ant Olympics and the swimming competition was held in something that strangely looked like the pool of water that appears in the corner of my garden when it rains. The swimming lane was separated by long strips of runner grass. I remember the water was a deep prussian blue and the strips of grass were a bright brown. It was spectacular.
2. RECURRING DREAMS
I have several recurring dreams but one is particularly unusual in that my elder brother (14 years older) also has this same dream recurring. My childhood home is completely surrounded by a garden with large trees. At night, it can be very dark outside with very little external light penetrating the tree foliage. There is one room (my brother's actually) that had the peculiar design in which there were two set of windows that were right angle to each other, just a couple feet from a corner of the room.
The dream will start with the TV or radio announcing that tigers and leopards have escaped from the zoo. I will then rush around closing the doors and windows of the house. As I do this, I can hear the breathing of the large cats outside in the darkness. The hair on the back of my neck will stand on end. But as I rush into this final room and reach to close the windows, it is too late. The powerful dark form of a leopard or a panther will brush me aside and land in the room. I would scream like a little girl and then, inexplicably the animal will jump out the other window. As I step back and watch, big cat after big cat will jump into the room through one window and then with a growl, jump back out the other window.
Any theories, o budding psychologists?
3. NIGHTMARES
I do have nightmares from time to time and they can be quite scary. But I have one recurring nightmare and again it involves panthers. In my dream, I am walking in a small group with my cousins along an actual road in my hometown. Suddenly all the traffic and pedestrians, everything except us, disappears. It also becomes dark as if it was the deepest night. All is dark except for a circle of light of about 20 feet diameter. This circle of light seems to be centred on the group; when we move, it moves along. When one of my dream cousins (read "dispendable") ventures too close to the edge of the light, a dark figure or a panther will reach in and snatch him/her into the darkness. There is a great amount of fear in the group. We can sense the creatures out in the dark circling us, occasionally catching a glimpse of their eyes in the darkness. In the nightmare, we know we have to travel some two kilometers to the safety of my house but as we do so we notice the circle of light get smaller as we move along. Will we make it? I never remember how it ends.
4. Favorite Dream
In my favorite recurring dream, I am in a magical fantasy world of broad grasslands with large variety of wildflowers, crossed by sparkling brooks and streams and scattered forest groves. In this world, I have wings. I don't really fly but I can soar and I can glide. I would use my legs to push off against the soft ground and that will enable me to glide over the earth for a minute or so before I touch the ground again. Push. Glide. Push. Glide. In this way I can travel effortlessly over the land and I feel exhilarated. My favorite dream. I always feel good when I wake up.
Dream analysts? What's your verdict?
1. COLOUR
Unfortunately, like everything else in my life, I do not seem to have the latest technology to play with. So while most of the world is experiencing their dreams in High Definition Colour, I almost entirely dream in black and white or monochrome. For many years, I asked people if they dreamt in colour or were they a freak like me. I finally found a serious study that reported that 12% of the population does not dream in colour.
My dreams are almost always in black and white or occuring under low light situations like night-time so that everything is monochromatic or in shades of grey. In one very strange childhood dream (which occured long before Antz), I was a black army ant off to raid a red ant nest. Everything occurs at night and along dark tunnels in the soil and part of the problem was trying to recognise whether you had bumped into friend or foe.
I can only remember vividly one dream in colour. Again I was an ant but I was taking part in the ant Olympics and the swimming competition was held in something that strangely looked like the pool of water that appears in the corner of my garden when it rains. The swimming lane was separated by long strips of runner grass. I remember the water was a deep prussian blue and the strips of grass were a bright brown. It was spectacular.
2. RECURRING DREAMS
I have several recurring dreams but one is particularly unusual in that my elder brother (14 years older) also has this same dream recurring. My childhood home is completely surrounded by a garden with large trees. At night, it can be very dark outside with very little external light penetrating the tree foliage. There is one room (my brother's actually) that had the peculiar design in which there were two set of windows that were right angle to each other, just a couple feet from a corner of the room.
The dream will start with the TV or radio announcing that tigers and leopards have escaped from the zoo. I will then rush around closing the doors and windows of the house. As I do this, I can hear the breathing of the large cats outside in the darkness. The hair on the back of my neck will stand on end. But as I rush into this final room and reach to close the windows, it is too late. The powerful dark form of a leopard or a panther will brush me aside and land in the room. I would scream like a little girl and then, inexplicably the animal will jump out the other window. As I step back and watch, big cat after big cat will jump into the room through one window and then with a growl, jump back out the other window.
Any theories, o budding psychologists?
3. NIGHTMARES
I do have nightmares from time to time and they can be quite scary. But I have one recurring nightmare and again it involves panthers. In my dream, I am walking in a small group with my cousins along an actual road in my hometown. Suddenly all the traffic and pedestrians, everything except us, disappears. It also becomes dark as if it was the deepest night. All is dark except for a circle of light of about 20 feet diameter. This circle of light seems to be centred on the group; when we move, it moves along. When one of my dream cousins (read "dispendable") ventures too close to the edge of the light, a dark figure or a panther will reach in and snatch him/her into the darkness. There is a great amount of fear in the group. We can sense the creatures out in the dark circling us, occasionally catching a glimpse of their eyes in the darkness. In the nightmare, we know we have to travel some two kilometers to the safety of my house but as we do so we notice the circle of light get smaller as we move along. Will we make it? I never remember how it ends.
4. Favorite Dream
In my favorite recurring dream, I am in a magical fantasy world of broad grasslands with large variety of wildflowers, crossed by sparkling brooks and streams and scattered forest groves. In this world, I have wings. I don't really fly but I can soar and I can glide. I would use my legs to push off against the soft ground and that will enable me to glide over the earth for a minute or so before I touch the ground again. Push. Glide. Push. Glide. In this way I can travel effortlessly over the land and I feel exhilarated. My favorite dream. I always feel good when I wake up.
Dream analysts? What's your verdict?
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16 comments:
Your parents took you to the circus when you were very little . This gives you the circle of light. It also gives you the cats jumping in and out.
No theories to offer Lgs but I remember having a nightmare all the time of a bull chasing me - I did always manage to reach the fence in time. Years later I read somewhere this was a sign of fertility but I only have 2 children so that doesn't seem a good theory to me.
Love your favorite dream - sounds like a magical time being able to glide over the world - like a flying squirrel almost :)
No I have no degree in dreams but i love the explanation of Dr. John. You must have been to the circus.
I had a flying dream once as well. but it was a bit more than that.That is a great feeling isn't it.
I have this phobia of things escaping -- animals from the zoo, prisoners from jail, mental patients from psychiatric hospitals, etc. etc. It's strange.
Have you ever read LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel? Your recurring dream about tigers escaping just brought this book to mind...I can see you liking it.
And I can't believe I've never before thought that some people might dream in black and white.
Yup. You need the house by the water.
dr.john,
a very good theory indeed. makes a lot of sense but I have never been to a circus. The circle of light actually probably came from a sci-fi short story I read whose proposition was that all of our reality was really the product of the dream state of God and as God began to wake up, our world was reduced to just this one small disc of reality.
janice,
2 children is pretty good by modern standards. Yes, gliding is fun. The earth speeding below you and the wind whistling past your ears. :)
marja,
Dr.john's explanation was very clever but I don't think it was right (see my reply above). Flying or gliding is a great feeling alright.
thethinker,
Hmm. You are afraid of letting something escape your control. That will be 5 cents please.....the doctor is in.
jocelyn,
No, I haven't read that book. It's another on the pile of books to be read in my lifetime. Yup, most of my dreams are sans colour
daysgoby,
yesss. near water please.
You work with all these animals. I'd ask you what the animal mean to you? Some may have significant soul meaning - others are just there. BTW, the best thinking on recurring dreams is that there's a tiny piece of unresolved memory in a recurring dream. Often it's something small, insignificant but the brain doesn't know where to put it in your memories so it keeps processing. If they bother you, I can tell you how to fix it... :)
Have a great weekend!
ugh, my dreams are about work, how bad is that?!?
Funny that I should read this today.... We were just having a long discussion on this topic just a few hours ago. I very seldom remember dreams but last night.... Whoa! How could I forget that one! LOL
claudia,
Actually this dream started in childhood, long before I even thought of doing conservation work. I can tell you that I am very scared of the animals at the beginning of the dream but of course it just becomes comical seeing them jump in and out like that. Perhaps the only meaning is that I am a nutter! :)
ruth,
I gotta say, dreams about work are not good. Clearly your mind is trying to solve the problems at work but it doesn't make for restful sleep. Do something fun just before sleeping and hang on to that mood. Tell your boss to stay out of your personal dreamtime! Here's wishing you visions of sugar plum fairies, or join me for a glide over the landscape. :)
dave,
you are leaving us hanging here. This dream that you could not possibly forget is...?
And I thought everyone dreamt in black and white.
I also have a few dreams that I keep dreaming, they are secret though or u´ll think I´m crazy.
I used to have really violent dreams for a few years, people were trying to murder me or I was murdering them...
I also used to dream my boyfriend strangling me, according to an analyst that meant I trusted him, which was true!
evalinn,
Hello fellow b & W dreamer. Your boyfriend strangling you means that you trust him? What would you dream about if you didn't trust him, I wonder. :)
your number 2 dream just plainly describes your self. the tigers are your worries. they won't go away but just coming and going in circles because you decided to be a non-delectable small lonely grey....he he m a born psycho...the room came true it's your realm the right angle blog where you are most at your best.
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