blather: weird question

[arrow00]

A weird question for my flist:

when you were a kid, did you have a recurring nightmare? if so, what was it?

I had one that was the usual monster-somewhere-in-the-house-coming-to-get-me, but whenever I had a fever and was delirious I had another that was very hard to quantify. It came in various forms but the theme was the same. there was some gigantic piece of machinery, ponderously heavy, made of wooden cogs and levers and chains, and if I touched the wheel the machine would creak into motion and I knew I was destined to be chained to it forever keeping it moving. Or a giant pyramid of stone was suspended above me and I was holding it up but knew it would crush me eventually.

Something about responsibility, or adulthood, but there was also a sense of my insignificance in the giant scheme of things.

What about you, oh my flist?

Comments

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Your second fever dream is very much like mine, except that the looming hugeness in my case was enormous trees or logs. Nothing ever actually happened... but they were still the most hauntingly dreadful dreams I've ever had. *shivers*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

yeah! something so huge and monolithic for some reason just made me sick with dread. I'm glad I'm not the only one. :)

[meresy.livejournal.com]

I used to have apocalypse/warzone dreams. It usually involved running and hiding a lot, and various relatives. (I don't even know.)

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Which ones would you want with you in the nightmarish post-apocalyptic landscape?

I remember dreaming about environmental apocalypse (all the oxygen leaving the planet because all the trees were dead) too.

[tipitiwitchet.livejournal.com]

I had a recurring dream wherein the three wise men had me dragged away kicking and screaming to have an operation to "fix me". I always woke up when the masked doctor came at me with a needle to put me under.

No, I don't know why it was the three wise men.*was odd even then*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

eep! wise men! they are creepy.

I don't think you need fixing, sweetpea.

[torra.livejournal.com]

I did, but I don't think you'd like me to describe it. Even the most hardened of doctors and counclers pale when I used to describe it to them. My nightmares are based in very real fact, very much grounded in reality, and the brutality man can inflict upon man. I actualy had two or three that would rotate around. I actualy have nightmares every night, pretty much without fail, and have since I was born (aint brain chemestry fun, kids? ::G::), but these three are always pretty much the same, and when triggered, shift into not just nightmares, but night terrors.

I have two triggers which would turn any dream into a nightmare, or any nightmare into a night terror: I would try to turn a light on (it would never work, ever, any light not already on in a dream, will never turn on), or I would try to scream (I can't scream in real life, either, I can yell, I can holler, I can sing a note to shatter glass, but I can't scream; when suprised, I only ever gasp or remain silent; my rapests were quite insistant on this fact, I was never alowed to scream...it's held over). If I tried either one of these things, I would imideady realize it was a dream, and then things would get bad. The dream, if it was not already one of my reoccuring nightmares, would imideatly become so.

In recent years, the three I had as a kid have become less frquient, though. My dreams and nightmares are both more varried now then they ever were when I was a kid. Which is nice in it's own way. But the old ones can still be triggered if I try to turn on a light or scream. Those triggers never go away.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

The light thing is interesting. What do you feel it represents?

I'm going for childhood dreams here, the top recurring one. You don't have to tell me if you don't want, though.

[grey853.livejournal.com]

I dreamed I was in a freezing dungeon with a drawbridge like door. When the door would lift the slab of stone, a skeleton would rise up and come after me. I'd stab the eye socket with a wooden stake, but it never stopped it. I could vividly feel the wood rub against bone, hear the scrapping sound, and smell the moldy dank rot of the place. Even now, just thinking about it makes me shudder.

I lost count of how many times I had that same awful dream of feeling trapped and terrified, but still fighting back.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

eep! amazing how visceral that sound is (wood against bone.) gave me shivers just now.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

As a kid I had recurring nightmares of a bear looking in the window. It never ATE me or anything, or even came IN the window, I don't think--I'd just glance over and THERE IT WAS OH NOOOOO BEAR!!!

Weirdly, I kind of BROKE this dream--after having it recur many times I finally had a dream where I glanced at the window and it was a TEDDY BEAR, with shiny green eyes. And then I never had it again.

I don't have a whole recurrent dream now that I can remember, but there is one recurrent event or theme which is, whenever I'm having a bad dream and I need HELP in the dream, I cannot ever, ever get a phone to work. Ever. This is probably something about being rotten about communicating when I'm fucked up and need help, who knows.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

yay teddy!

me, too: I had a recurring monster dream (pounding slow footsteps, always coming) and I remember the time I finally decided to wait for him. When he showed up I talked to him and found out he was more like the funny monster in the Bugs Bunny cartoon (Bugs puts his fur up in curlers.) I never had the dream again.

The phone thing is interesting. ::peers at you::

[secretlybronte.livejournal.com]

I did, indeed. I had/have what I call "the Nazi dream." In it, I am living in some sort of rural area with rolling green hills. Someone comes to the door and pounds on it. I have to come downstairs really quickly. I'm scared. I walk for a really long time. We come to a barn and there are all sorts of atrocities - people being kills in various ways. It ends with me bleeding to death in a field and the last thing I think before it goes dark is that I'm alone.

I die in dreams a lot. I think that's supposed to mean something like new opportunities, but I'll be honest and say that it doesn't feel even *remotely* like that to me. :)

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

the last thing I think before it goes dark is that I'm alone

Oh, man. ::smishes you::

I've never understood the dying thing to be anything but dying. usually if I die in a dream it's a falling dream, and I die when I hit the ground.

[imwalde.livejournal.com]

No matter what scares me when awake, in my dreams: velociraptors. Awake, I don't find Jurassic Park all that scary, but apparently my subconscious has decided that they are the ultimate scary thing. Awake, non-corporeal malevolent entities scare me much more than monsters or psychos, but when I watch something scary (for instance, I remember one recent example of a Doctor Who episode that scared the BEJEEZUS out of me) later that night it'll be velociraptors in my dreams. I don't/didn't have a recurring nightmare, per se, it'll be different dreams and then all of a sudden, dream me will be all, why are we fleeing in terror? And then dream me'll be all, oh right, velociraptor attack, right, time to run now.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

That is a recurring dream, though. What are velociraptors to you?
(btw I find them hugely terrifying.)

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

I don't really remember specific dreams, and yours sound really terrifying. Poor wee/ill!Arrow! *snugs you*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

aw, pooks.

one time when I was very ill, I woke up standing in front of a mirror pointing at myself and saying, "It's you! It's your fault!"

I have no idea what was my fault. everything, maybe. my parents were heavy into guilt. ;) but the weird thing is, I vaguely remember I was dreaming about the easter bunny at the time. I've always wondered what I did to him.

dreams

[southerndue.livejournal.com]

when I was teenage, i had a recurring dream of being in public (usually in school) in my night gown. I was never able to get home or get changed.

I have had a similar theme recurring dream all my life in which I dream about people and scenarios that I am not familiar with. These dreams are like watching movies, as I am not a part of the action, and I don't know the people in the dream. It's weird. No two are alike and I've always wondered if the ppl I dream about actually exist somewhere, and I am tuning into them some how.


Lisa

Re: dreams

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Do you ever try to write down the stories?

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I had a bunch of them, most of them coming down to being chased by animals. The worst, and most common, was being chased through a haystack by a black boar. The weirdest was being chased through a maze of giant kids cartoon style lunch boxes by a giant rat-terrier puppy.

I should note that I lived (still live) on a farm and had been chased and bitten by geese, muscovy ducks, and dogs. Nobody I know even raised black pigs, though, and the one in my dream was like a European Boar.

Julia, I also dreamed about being chased by fighting bulls, a la Pamploma

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

If you had the experience of being chased a lot as a child, I'm not surprised. EEP!

Did you ever read "This Immortal" (...And Call Me Conrad) by Zelazny? There was a gigantic mutant black boar in that one. :)

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

I used to have this dream that the street would split open while I was riding my tricycle (in the street instead of on the sidewalk) and that there was always this danger I would fall into the world underneath the street. There may have been devils or something down there. But I have this distinct memory of that dream and having it more than once. It was also an extra vivid dream too.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That's serious Stephen King material.

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Read your description and got an odd chill... because there was some gigantic piece of machinery, ponderously heavy, made of wooden cogs and levers and chains about fits a recurring motif of unease and dread I saw often as a child/ teen in dreams. Though mine was black and towering, and I never touched it - I even thought it was something I must have seen somewhere once, a true memory.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

!!! Yay, I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone. Altho sorry for wee!sheila, of course. :)

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is really freaky, because I would have a similar dream when I was sick except that the machinery was a roller and it was getting closer and closer all the time and I knew it would crush me. Of course, it never crushed me but truly it's the only nightmare I've ever had. And it was the same everytime I got sick. Never changed.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

What is UP with that, anyway? And why does being sick change the tenure of our dreams so radically, and make them recurring?

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I had one where I was a small ball-bearing and the big ball-bearings were after me. It was TERRIFYING. There was also the one where I was trying to get over razor-blade fences but whenever I got over one, some more would pop up.

I had a phase of recurring zombie nightmares a few years ago, but I know exactly where those came from. (Watching 28 Days Later while drunk.)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That razor-blade one is really scary...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Flying pigs. Recurring. For years. They would look in through windows, hover above rooftops and always, always be able to find my hiding place.

Your ponderous machine shook loose a recurrent thing I'd forgotten: a huge (pirate?) ship crewed by monsters and general unpleasantness. There were steps up to the deck - not the usual sort of steps for a ship, but a wide staircase - and I'd walk up it. As I climbed the stairs I knew I was walking into nightmares, and I'd will myself - so hard - to turn around but it rarely worked.


Free associating: I spent my childhood being taught to hide (intellect, skills, knowledge, emotions, desires) and being trapped in situations that made me bored and unhappy. I could, theoretically, have walked away from these situations since there was no physical restraint, but parents and guilt were forces too powerful for me to fight.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Oops, I feel so bad because your ominous flying pigs made me smile.

There is no more powerful force in the universe than parents + guilt.

[scherwood]

I had a dream that would start with my mother fighting down-stair and my in bed on the upper floor. I would hear everything, but wouldn't be able to help her or anything. And that's something I find terrifying, not being able to help my family if they need me. Anyway, I would lay there and listen to all the horrible things that went down down-stairs. Sometimes it would just be noises other times it would be much more. But the worst part about it is the end. My mother would scream my name and then it would be this horrible loud sound of footsteps up the stair and pounding sounds so loud that I would have screamed if I could. And then I would wake up shivering all over and looking around for that sound. I can still remember that sound so well, and I hope I will ever hear it in real life. *shivers*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds just awful.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky, I've never really had nightmares, but I have had the odd, recurring, unnerving images in dreams - stairs that subtly twist and buckle under your feet until you can't keep balance on the treads or your feet get caught; elevators which start going faster and faster and can't be stopped (both up and down); having to travel overseas (and I do mean overseas in a make-believe wrecked car...

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've had those elevator dreams.

Do you drive underwater? Can you breathe there?

[luzula]

Wow, your machinery dream sounds terrifying.

I don't think I've have recurring nightmares, unless I don't remember them. Usually when I have nightmares, they're caused by something really obvious, like dreaming about war after watching some gruesome TV footage, or dreaming about being speechless on my Ph D defense on the night before I did it (most obvious dream I ever had, that one). *g*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Hee. I bet you were naked AND speechless. :)

[dragonflymuse.livejournal.com]

Oh honey, if you only knew how many different recurring nightmares I had growing up... and still now as an adult. I am a psychic mess.

When I was growing up in the 1970s the biggest bogeyman that was flashed all over the pop culture/tv was Bigfoot. I would dream he was coming after me. The version I kept having the most was one where I was at my aunt and uncle's home in the US. They had a lot of cats (mostly feral ones that lived in the woods) and one - Calico - who had habituated to the house was meowing out on the front entrance. I would open the door to let her in and all she would do was spin and meow in front of the door. Then I could hear this very deep thudding noise and Calico would take off into the woods. Scared, I then would close the door, lock it, and run to lock the backdoor. The thudding got louder and when I looked out the front window, this big hairy thing vaulted over the longfence between the road and part of the front lawn. I went and hid in my aunt and uncle's room, in their closet, which was in two parts on either side of their bed, closed with curtains. The thudding got louder and louder, I could hear the door break open and all this crashing, and the thing scrabbled down the hallway...

Then silence. I held my breath, squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to make any noise. It seemed like hours passed before I felt ok to breathe, and when I let out my shaky breath, the curtains whipped open and the thing was there, growling.

I always woke up before I could scream.

I was a pretty fucked up kid.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

I can so totally relate to this dream. I remember my heartbeat was always the thumping footsteps coming after me, which meant the more scared I was the faster the monster was running. :)