My subconscious brain gets creative when sleep takes over. My mind likes to create buildings and landscapes that never existed. The buildings often include mysterious new houses in unexplored neighborhoods. The homes include basements with secret passageways, and I’m often fleeing a massive tornado which is bearing down on me. For some reason, it always spares me and the house that I'm in. I also have dreams and nightmares involving blizzards and windstorms, which sometimes do afflict us here in eastern Pennsylvania.
My most dramatic dream stories are of my Gothic nightmares; they are the stuff horror movies are made of. They often include me flying at dangerous heights, fleeing fire-breathing dragons, being lost in old medieval cities, and getting lost in vast forests, with tall, leafless trees. These stories of the mind would be worthy of Tolkien, which is not surprising because I often read The Lord of the Rings, and other books by J.R.R. Tolkien, before going to bed. My dreams of this sort are a combination of Norse mythology and medieval imagery.
I also frequently have vivid nightmares about natural disasters and other tragic events that rock our nation and my local community. For example, I have had numerous nightmares relating to 9/11, gas explosions and floods. For about 10 years after September 11, 2001, I had vivid nightmares about the event, even though I don’t live in New York, nor do I know anyone personally involved. The same thing happened with that grisly Allentown gas explosion of 2011. If I see images of a horrible tragedy on TV or the Internet, they are seared into my memory and manifest themselves in my dream life.
In my 20s, after a night of drinking, my dreams would be even more lucid and terrifying (I'm sure you guys can relate to this!). On those nights I would have nightmares about ferocious fires, collapsing buildings and, once, even being chased by a biker gang. In the latter dream, I was lured to a rural farmhouse by beautiful, eager women, where I was confronted by a group of irate, outlaw bikers. I led the biker gang on a chase that ended with me running through a subterranean irrigation ditch. On another such occasion, I suffered a lucid dream in which I was convinced that a flying squirrel had invaded my bedroom and was crawling up the side of the blinds; I woke myself up with a piercing scream that shook the entire house!
My dreams often involve a number of themes that relate to the human psyche. These include wish fulfillment; thoughts that terrorize us; fears that are present in our daily, waking lives; and subconscious concerns about our lives that we are ignoring. For example, the dream about the biker gang was at a time in my life when I was frequenting rough bars in order to meet beautiful women. There were some rough men at these spots who sometimes gave me trouble. In my nightmares of gas explosions, 9/11 and deluges of floodwaters my mind was retrieving disturbing images that I had suppressed in the awakened state.
I am often upset and physically tired when waking up from my nightmares. I often wake myself up with my loud, high-pitched screams. I also wake up bathed in a cold sweat and grinding my teeth; I’ve even had to have a root canal and wear a mouth-guard for this reason. At least, I have some great stories from my dream life. I can only hope that my dreams and nightmares are a sign of an active and creative mind, as each dream becomes a blank canvas for my brain to paint on.
No comments:
Post a Comment