nicked on 5/2/2012 at 20:44
I've had some horrifying dreams while ill, but the worst nightmare I've ever had was while I was completely fine. I was on holiday in Florida, and in the dream, I got up from the hotel bed to have a drink of water. I got a glass from the cupboard and filled it from the tap.
Now I'm guessing this was my brain trying to process the fact that the water tasted differently in Florida to back home, but for some reason the water in the glass was cloudy and green. It being a dream, I didn't really think much of it, and drank it all down.
When I finished the water, a little black speck caught my eye on the bottom of the glass, because it was pulsating slightly. As I watched, it started morphing, swelling and growing. The only way I can describe it is like a mollusc amalgamation. There were various features of squid, slugs, snails etc. all formed into an abstract, shapeless blob, constantly expanding and growing out of itself, like time lapse footage of a flower opening. It grew until it was pressed mushily against the glass, which had become horribly cold and heavy in the most excruciatingly realistic manner.
It was then that I realised there was another of these mollusc things in my throat. It grew until it was choking me; it triggered my gag reflex, but my throat was too dry to shift it. It was too big and obstructive to swallow. It swelled into my mouth with an oozing, earthy taste and just as it was growing so large as to force my jaw open, I woke up in a panic, desperately thirsty like I hadn't drank anything in a day.
Of course I didn't dare actually have a drink until the morning, and had to drink bottled water from the fridge. It's probably the most vivid dream I've ever had, I can distinctly remember the touch and taste as well and sight and sound. That and the deeply invasive body horror aspect mean that it's also definitely the most terrifying dream I've ever had.
Tocky on 6/2/2012 at 04:59
Hmmm. What have you been swallowing lately? I'm joking but I often see corrolations between similar fears in life and those in dreams. Because of Duckys surgery and his fight with weight issues I think I see where his comes from. I could be completely off though.
When my son was in highschool and rebeling and doing dangerous things and I had lost someone else I cared for I had a horrible dream. He was swimming in a lake near shore when an alligator grabbed him and began to pull him out into deep water. I managed to get to him just before he went down and went down after him. I don't think I can quite describe the horror that I would lose him in the murky water at odds with the fear that I would not be able to hold my breath long enough. I had a terrible dread that I wasn't courageous enough to keep searching without air.
The water was too cloudy dark to see but somehow I grabbed his hand. There was no way to keep from being pulled down with him but I now had a chance if I could just get to the gator before he began to roll and shook me off. My bouyancey was already pulling me up so I let more air out and my lungs began a desperation burn. I clawed my way along my sons struggling body praying he himself would not shake me off. I fought in my tangled wet pocket and pulled out my knife. In a moment of panic I thought I would not be able to open it and in another that I had lost the feel of it in my hands but I got it open.
I searched with the fingers of my knfe hand along the scaley head for the eyes. I knew he had to have them closed and I must just be going over them again and again. I tried to think of gator anotomy but I was crazed for oxygen. I tried to tug my sons ankle loose with the other hand. No dice. Firmly locked. I found a squishy point I had overlooked near the heads side. I stabbed and drove the knife home past the handle and all the way inside the skull. Damn it I wouldn't get another jab. That was it. I was too eager. I messed up. That likely wasn't even the eye.
The gator let go and the fight for the surface and the sunlight dancing there was on. It was so far away. We would never make it. I could make no headway. When I felt we were finally near and I may be just a dead weight on my son I gave him a shove sending him up but me farther down. I had to draw something in even if it was water. I gave in to death and did it. I woke with a lurching gasp in the darkness. I think I was holding my breath for the duration of the dream. It felt sweet to breathe.
Vasquez on 6/2/2012 at 07:07
I've had sleep paralysis only once, and I'm happy if I'll never have one again. I didn't have anything sitting on my chest, but I woke up in the middle of the night and there were red, glowing eyes floating mid-air above the bed, staring at me. I somehow knew that if I keep staring back and don't move at all, it - whatever was the owner of those eyes - can't get any closer.
So I lay "awake" as l long as I can, not moving a finger (probably I couldn't have moved, either) and holding those red eyes with mine. It felt like hours, but at some point I must have slipped, because then I woke to the alarm clock.
This happened over 10 years ago, but I still remember clearly the unspeakable horror I felt.
nicked on 6/2/2012 at 19:32
Quote Posted by Tocky
Hmmm. What
have you been swallowing lately? I'm joking but I often see corrolations between similar fears in life and those in dreams. Because of Duckys surgery and his fight with weight issues I think I see where his comes from. I could be completely off though.
I reckon it was the mild, irrational daytime worry about the tap water tasting a bit weird, distorted and magnified in the night by my subconscious. Not sure I've ever had a dream about drowning, but I'm sure Jung would say it's something about drowning under emotional pressure or something!
demagogue on 6/2/2012 at 20:17
The problem with psychoanalytic theories of anything (aside from the fact they aren't falsifiable so not real science anyway; Popper still gave the most devastating critique of Freud IMO) but at the root of it is they have the entire wrong level of explanation IMO. They come up with these convoluted psychological-functional theories when a physiological explanation is often much more natural and explains more. I remember an article talking about a physiological-based dream theory -- since the brain stores concepts through Hebbian network weighting (which strengthen when used and decay when not, so it's "use it or lose it"), I found it much more natural to explain dreams as a physiological mechanic the brain uses to rehearse concepts in sleep according to what it expects to need in the near future... I'm sure interesting psychological effects can still get involved (it probably primes important aspirations & anxieties more than just any random concept; also they know Hebbian dynamics is tied into the limbic system. Memories connected to strong emotion get weighted more strongly than emotionless memories, you remember them faster, more accurately, and longer; and I bet they get bumped up into the dream-rehearsal queue more for maintaining those weightings too), but describing them *because* of the psychological function is just the wrong level of explanation IMO.
But I think a physiological theory is better for us anyway... Then thinking about our dream is more like tapping into the real irrational primeval essence of being conscious at its lowest levels, rather than mechanically pulling the levers for some boring psychological function a la Freud & Lacan & Jung, etc. that makes being human and dreaming so much more deflating IMO ... oh, it's just the oedipal drives of the id talking to the ego; how disappointing.
Martin Karne on 7/2/2012 at 01:16
If we were in medieval times, you would have a chest infection caused by this gigantic almost demonic bug hitting at you.
But we aren't so...
feverish dream it is.
nicked on 7/2/2012 at 07:11
That's really interesting and makes perfect sense demagogue; it would explain why the brain needs to dream, and why the psychological explanations are usually correct, just that that's not the full picture. I'd never thought of it that way.
Tocky on 9/2/2012 at 05:24
Maybe, but he cheated us out of getting to read his own dream so I fear I must disregard his learned analysis out of bitter disappointment and go dream of beating chickens.
demagogue on 9/2/2012 at 06:10
Quote Posted by Tocky
Maybe, but he cheated us out of getting to read his own dream
How did I do this? I not only wrote out my nightmare, I even posted a video recreation of it as it happened!
