BS: Dreams

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: freda underhill
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 05:25 AM

sometimes dreams are a welcome escape from reality, bruce - i'll be glad when this year is over.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Peace
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 02:12 PM

freda,

Your remark about breaking into reality reminds me of a song by Patrick Sky in which he says, "Reality is bad enough, why should I tell the truth?"

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: freda underhill
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 02:38 AM

that comment rustic rebel has made me smile. yes, as the hindus and others see it, everything is a dream. everything, and we meditate to break through our dreams and into reality.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 11:30 PM

I don't think anything said in this dream will be a thread drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 08:21 PM

Shapechangers in dreams aren't unusual. The trick is to get them to stay in one shape for any length of dreamtime.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Joybell
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 07:03 PM

I frequently meet Shape-changers in dreams. They are very matter-of-fact, though. Something like an ordinary looking lady who tells me she is one of the parrots that lives in our garden. I sometimes talk to animals that I understand to be Shape-changers, but the conversations are ordinary and boring. I love dreams though. I'm one of those people who mostly know they are dreaming which is handy when coping with nightmares. I can usually change the direction of a dream if I need to. Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: freda underhill
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 06:26 PM

hi

did my thoughts about the parallel universe take this thread off track?

anyone had any good dreams this week?

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: MAG
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 01:30 AM

Far out; my library has it. Analog, that is.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 01:42 PM

MAG, there is a good story in the latest issue of ANALOG dealing with that very conundrum.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Jeanie
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 12:13 PM

Freda, I love that idea of a parallel universe, and it's really made me smile. For me it would mean me, other-world-twin, parallel me, parallel-other-world twin. I already have a "deal" with another lone twin ( living on this real earth now....just so as we don't start getting confused here..) that whoever gets to that "great other-world pub in the sky" first will get a round in ready for when the last one arrives. With your parallel universe idea, I reckon I would need to get my calculator out to see just how many drinks I'd have to get in. Eight, is it ? Sixteen ? Hope they do Barclary Card up there.... And just think of the harmonies when we all starting singing...

Cheers !
- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: MAG
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 10:38 AM

O there is one thing I wish I had done differently in my life, and my fervent hope is that in that parallel universe, I did ...

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: freda underhill
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 09:41 AM

hi everyone. this is a great thread, & i have enjoyed all of the very personal comments and revelations here. it is fascinating to try and understand part of us that is elusive and symbolic. stories of encounters with family, churches, burning smells, music and songs.. are a window into other moments and experiences. a song flowing from a dream seems like a pure channel of creativity, unadulterated..

to add another possibility to wondering about why we dream, where we go, how we can connect to other people, times and eras, consider..

a couple of years ago i watched an interview on late night tv. Philip Adams (those in Oz will know him as an athiest and skeptic journalist) interviewed a prize winning physicist.

one of the topics that emerged was that of parallel universes. this physics professor stated that he and many other scientists consider that it is likely that we have a parallel universe/dimension. The theory was that the parallel universe is very like our own, and we and the animate and inanimate beings/elements that make up this universe are copied in this other dimesion, altho with some minor changes.

according to this theory, which the scientist said was now held by many people in his field, we and the people we are, are replicated somewhere in this parrallel universe, with everything else.

so , for example, somwhere in the parallel u - I will be sitting typing a thread to mudcat, and you will be reading it. altho there will be subtle differences, I may have a different model computer, and my cat might be named Jimmy instead of Baxter.

if such a parallel universe exists, are our dreams linking us to events/ people/ places in such a universe?

now it is time for me to go and dream... 1.37 am!!

good night and sweet day dreams to those of you who are in awake-time!

best wishes

fred

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 04:21 AM

Suzanne, you did NOT rub me the wrong way. Please don't misunderstand me. I love you for whatever you believe. What ever you believe in is what makes..you. If that is your path sister go for it. I was just saying I can't go for it. I am a stubborn bitch that thinks I have it all figured out but in reality, I ...do! Because it is my reality!! But Suzy, I love you for your beliefs also. What ever works for you will work for you. Please, I don't mean to offend you but only to give my interpretation of my own thoughts.
Still lovin' SueB (and I love how SueB sounds) after our short but connecting conversation
Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: SueB
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 03:11 AM

MAG, I had no idea I was committing a faux pas by referring to a dream dictionary, but I can see how that could rub some people the wrong way. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: dianavan
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 01:43 AM

Jerry: That song is lovely. She was a true Muse. Inspiration comes to us from many places.

d

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: LadyJean
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 01:16 AM

I once dreamt that one of the women I was cleaning for fired me. Sure enough she did, four days later. Not for the reason she had in my dream. I also dreamed that her porch roof fell in. I've always wondered if that part came true too.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,MAG at Library
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 10:03 PM

trust me, Raedwulf, I know what lucid dreaming is.

RR, In my dream group we share our dreams and help each other figure out what they are about.

We have some guidelines which include NOT trying to tell each other what a dream is about, but offering suggestions. In spite of which, one person does drag along one of those 10,000 dreams interpreted books and look everyone's symbols up.

Two techniques which I find helpful:

The gestalt thing where you imagine yourself to be each element in the dream and see what it has to say.

The dialectic method where you dialog with another character in the dream and see what it has to say.

When a thought resonates with you you are probably on the right track.

Often a series of dreams in one night are on the same topic; your unconscious mind keeps sending it back until you get it. The unconscious cannot communicate directly but through symbolic means. Something can be a composite -- ie, a person can be a composite of different people who have something in common.

What's called "day residue" is you mind processing thoughts of the day. These still have a lot of signifigance, as your unconscious can glom on to some very minor incident which turns out to represent something your unconscious was chewing on. (Hence remembered it.)

Great thread. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Raedwulf
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 09:47 PM

I'm not sure that people have understood what lucid dreaming is. From a very early age (as in single figure years) I realised that I could force myself to wake up from a dream that was disturbing. This does not constitute lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is much more than the ability to wake yourself up from a dream with negative connotations.

R

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Mickey191
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 07:01 PM

Very interesting thread. I used to plan my dream subject as a young woman. Usually involved Paul Newman. Can't do that anymore, though I still try.

A cousin of mine has sleep apnea, and before his treatment he couldn't remember any of his dreams.
Now he has a mask which improves his breathing, thus bringing more oxygen to his brain cells. He recalls them now in great detail.

Jerry, that is a beautiful song you've written.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 06:28 PM

That's what I mean Amos, I can only dechipher my meaning into my dream. I don't believe anyone writing a book on symbolic meanings can actually do that, because, and you said it Amos, they mean what you decide them to mean. I have a book from early 1900's that has dream meanings (kind of what you are looking at Suzanne) and I just can't quite go along with the book or the belief that we are so structured in meaning.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:53 PM

RR:

Spot on. There is no external authority on meaning, especially the meaning of dreams which are your own personal Waring Blender on reality and mean what you decide they do. It is possible, surely, to invest a dream or any other creative act with meaning from a level of high creative energy, and then drop down to a much lowerr level of energy to experience it. That way you can enjoy the mystical mysteriousness of it all, and ponder indefinitely. If you go in for that kind of thing.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:42 PM

I got the Raven as my Totem Animal...had my Medicine Cards read and it came to me in meditation....

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:39 PM

Mag- What do you do in your dream study group? I'm curious about that, and would like to hear more.

I feel that every dream has a meaning for you as an individual. I can't really go for the idea that you can look at a book of meanings and that is exactly what your dream will signify. Does anyone understand what I'm getting at? Who is the person who makes up the rules on dreaming?

CatsPHiddle- that is one trippy story you tell. I would be interested to know the history of that church as well.

One more thing- if you believe in animal totems, it is said your totem will come to you in your dreams. The animal I dream most of is the bear.
Peace, Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Peace
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 03:01 PM

Jeanie,

Regarding your second-above posting. Wow. Sure is a shocker to find there are other worlds just as real as this one. I loved your dream. The joy you felt with each other is as real as it gets. So many near-death experiences speak to a life beyond this. You are going to meet again. I think the dream was just a way to prepare you for that. Your sibling already knows. Than you so much for sharing that.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: MAG
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 01:42 PM

The last time I had a lucid dream it was a bad one. I realized I didn't want to be where I was. and rubbed my arm on a brick wall until it woke me up. I have not had a lucid dream since. thank you for the info above, Daylia, so I can remember to take a different direction if I am blessed with this powerful experience again.

Jeannie, you probably know this, but there is one theory that if you lose a twin early, you are searching for that something in your life. It sounds like the dream helped you find it. Very early experiences unquestionable mark us; some say pre-birth experiences also influence us. Controlled studies with mothers reading to their in utero babies show the babies responding to their mothers reading the same material signifigantly. You could be looking for Your twin's heartbeat. My apologies if this is all old hat. Your experience was very powerful. I think we needed to ponder it a bit.

My 20 something dream group helped me learn to deal with the nightmares. To begin to respond the the frightening thing in them -- to shout, even if it was a croak at first, and to turn and defend myself. The effect in my waking life was profound.

I am in a dream study group now, at 50+. I highly recommend dream study to all introspective types.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 11:19 AM

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 09:09 AM

I used to keep a dream journal. The more I wrote my dreams down, the more vivid they became and the more I could remember when I woke up. I soon began spending a lot of time scribbling down dream stories. Too much time. So I gave it up. Then the dreams left me. By that, I mean, I stopped remembering them as much.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: freda underhill
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 08:48 AM

i have never been able to experience lucid dreams, but i did eventually overcome a repeating nightmare.

For years, every now and then I would have a spider nightmare, dreaming that i was in bed, asleep, and woke up to find a giant black hairy spider - huge, metres across, leaping down on me from the ceiling.

Often, seeing a spider in the day would trigger the dream at night.

I would wake up paralysed with fear, so frightened i couldn't even scream, and would refuse to move until my then partner (Don, very patient guy) pulled back the sheets & blankets, inspected every part of the bed & room, & was able to assure me that there was no spider there.

after many years of this dream coming, maybe two or three times a year, i started to have dreams in which the spider was smaller, and crawling along the wall. They were still very scary and I still woke up in fright.

Then one night I dreamt I opened a small drawer in my cupboard. I looked in and saw the same, huge black hairy spider crouching in the drawer. in the dream i took the handle of the wooden drawer, and closed it, closing the spider in.

Í haven't had a spider dream since! (at least 5 years free!)

recovering nightmare survivor

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: *daylia*
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 08:30 AM

RE lucid dreaming - as pointed out above, lucid dreams happen when the dreamer "wakes up" in the dream, and realizes that s/he's dreaming. With that awareness, the dreamer can learn to take control of the dream while it's happening, to consciously direct it via thoughts, emotions and expectations.

THis is why it's so important to stay in a positive, loving frame of mind during lucid dream experiences. If you can't do this, you'll be at the mercy of your own uncontrolled (and sometimes monstrous) fears/hatreds/guilts etc, instead of you controlling the experience to your own benefit.

If you want to learn lucid dreaming, my suggestion is to start by setting the mental intention to remember your dreams before you fall asleep. Record anything you remember as soon as you wake up, even if it's just an fleeting image or a feeling or seems nonsensical. Soon you'll find that your dream-life starts changing -- you remember your dreams better, they become more vivid, more meaningful. WIth practice, and again by setting that mental intention before sleep, you can train your conscious mind to "wake up" during a dream and take control of it.

This process takes time and patience, though. The subconscious mind functions as a "filter" or "censor", protecting the conscious mind from remembering upsetting dream experiences, or any "overload" of information that may cause the dreamer to become unbalanced in their everyday lives. (That's why a lot of people don't remember their dreams at ALL, although everyone dreams). It can take a lot of effort to convince the subconscious mind to relax the "censor" function, that it's safe to let dream information/experiences through, but it's definitely well worth the effort!

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 07:14 AM

I honestly cant remember the name of the church, it could well be all saints...if its the only church there on the top of a rather large hill! but Mrs Cobble or Cobble should be able to confirm the name. Interesting about the earthquake. Someone has offered to regress me and look at any past lives I have had to see if there is anything in the dream but the fear I felt in the dream and then in relaity I don't really want to have to find out why!

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,Buffy the Hamster slayer
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 06:44 AM

What if ................. Hamsters were 11 foot tall? Oh, sorry, wrong thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 06:36 AM

catsPHiddle
Is the church at Holme on Spalding the All Saints Church ?, I seem to recall a story told to me when I was doing some walking round that area. It was told to me by one of the locals about an earthquake that was felt in the area years ago. A quick search on Google shows 18th of January, 1822, at 10 o'clock at night. Don't know if this is associated with your dream in any way, any ideas anyone ?

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,Hag
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:51 AM

ClaireBear - there's loads of info on the internet about those hallucinations. They are particularly associated with narcolepsy - though you can have them without. The thing that clinched the recognition for me is that it is common to hear/feel a buzzing just at the start - which is a very prominent feature for me.

I was disapointed & relieved too when I found out that they are a well-known phenomena. But at least they're fun now instead of petrifying!

However I think that it is not completely proven that there isn't some real base beneath it all. Perhaps, in that special state of concious+subconcious we are more receptive to psychic or paranormal phenomena.

Anyway - the fact that our dream mechanism is out of kilter might mean we have a head start on achieving that lucid dreaming thing. Also we tend to be more creative - which is a good thing for musicians...

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:20 AM

Here's one of my recurring dreams........

I am standing at the bottom of a hill by a natural pond looking up at a chruch on a hill. I am overcome by fear and at this point I wake up short of breath.

I spoke about this dream to a couple of catters......Mrs Cobble and Cobble and Micca. The Cobbles were kind enough to show me some pictures of churches in the area and when I was shown particular picture the feeling of fear swept over me again. The church actually exists and stands on top of a hill at Holme upon Spalding Moor in Yorkshire.

Well Mrs Cobble and Micca thought it would be a good idea for me to visit the church....I wasn't too keen!! When we got there I looked down from the top of the hill to the pond. We walked around the grounds and once again I had this uncontrolable fear and there was a strong smell of burning. After we had been around the grounds we went home for a stiff drink!

After visiting the church in reality I have only had the dream 3 or 4 times in the passed 18 months.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Jeanie
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 05:01 AM

Amos, Dianavan: Thanks :) And you are so right, Dianavan, about the importance of forgiveness and about 'dream' meetings taking place on a spiritual plane.

Rustic - I know very well that feeling you had after waking up from your dream about your mother, and my heart goes out to you. Having these kinds of dreams can be a mixed blessing. For myself, my reconciliation with my twin showed me exactly what I had been missing and had never experienced in this 'real' world, because she has never lived in it. At the time, and even after writing about it here yesterday, there was a part of me that became very, very sad. I do believe these dreams happen, and the people you have lost come to you, out of a great love for you. They long to be with you as much as you long to be with them. It is painfully sad, but also breathtakingly wonderful at the same time.

As has been said by the people who are movingly recounting their dreams over on the 'Grieving' thread, these dream encounters can serve as a loving pointer for what may be to come, and that in the present, these people are only missing from *this* world.

I do believe that these very heightened dream meetings have the power to change your perception of your living in this 'real' world. For me, my dream accentuated for me what I was missing, but it also made me look for that in other places. I have consciously and deliberately never imposed a wanting of any other person in my life to replace my twin - that would be too much for any one person to take on, and anyway, an impossibility. What my dream has encouraged me to do is seek and find little bits of "twin-ness" spread around in lots of people, places, activities and things. Dreams are such wonderful and powerful events.

With Love,
- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,Why
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 04:16 AM

I dont think the above explains wet dreams, I dont believe they fall into the catagory of lucid dreams or am I missing the point ?

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: dianavan
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 03:08 AM

Dreams seems to come in all shapes and sizes. I used to have the same, recurring dream as my brother when were kids. Sometimes, a wolf visits me in my dreams. In another dream, I saw a distant, shimmering city of pink and gold. I saw it again 20 years later, from a beach. I live here now.

How about this one: I used to wander on the most beautiful piece of waterfront on any island anywhere. I lived there and used to worry about what would become of the land (365 acres of waterfront) when the owner died. I didn't want it to fall into private hands because I longed for it to belong to all people. When he died, it became a marine park and wildlife reserve. I did nothing to make it happen. I only dreamed it everyday for 10 years. Nobody knew my dream but through a series of very swift real estate deals by others, it actually happened.

I will never stop dreaming. My dreams are so real and so true!

My dad used to tell me there was nothing wrong with being a dreamer but it was the quality of the dream that counted!

Now I know he was so right!

d

d

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Teresa
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 02:56 AM

What a great thread. ...

My lucid dream story:

In the dream, I am in an airplane, which suddenly starts to pitch violently and I can hear the sounds of stressed metal. I know we're about to crash. But suddenly, I realize that this is only a dream, and I don't need the plane to come down safely; I can just float down on my own. So that is exactly what I do. The plane dissolves and down I go, light as a feather.

Also, one technique I use when writing down my dreams is the present tense. This gives the dream a sense of immediacy and somehow helps me remember. Thanks for the thread, RR.
Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: dianavan
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 02:53 AM

Jeanie: Just read your post and totally understand it. Forgiveness is a great liberator. The act of forgiveness does more for the person doing the forgiving than for the one being forgiven. Its a huge burden but you don't know until you get up off your knees and feel the light. Its like cleaning out the cobwebs and getting a fresh start. It allows you to move forward with clarity. I think thats why you were able to unite with your twin on a spiritual plane. When anyone tells me they are feeling depressed or confused, I always suggest a good session of plain old private forgiveness. It does wonders for me.

d

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: LadyJean
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:44 AM

Last week I put in my application for a booth at the S.C.A's annual Pensic war, and, sure enough, I had my annual Pensic dream. It's always the same, I'm at the booth with nothing to sell, or next to nothing to sell. This year had me making my stuffed animals from sheepskin instead of fake fur.

An African American woman who cleaned for my mother claimed to be able to predict the future with her dreams. She more than once predicted my marriage. But I'm still single.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: SueB
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:43 AM

Lonesome EJ, I could find references to what it might "mean" if, in a dream, you commit murder, witness murder or are murdered yourself, but not really anything so far about dreaming that you are an accessory to the crime - interesting stuff, though, you can see what I found in a dream dictionary by clicking here

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:17 AM

Recurrent dreams are fascinating to me. I have often visited landscapes and houses that I immediately recognize in my dream, although I couldn't describe them to you now. There is also a peculiar continuity to the bizarre nature of relationships in dreams. For example, in dreams I know Bob Dylan pretty well, not a close friendship but one that goes way back, at least through numerous dreams.
I'll share one recurring dream plot that is unsettling. This dream concerns me and two friends, and it seems that long ago we were involved in a burglary at the house of an elderly woman. During the robbery, one of my cohorts murdered her. I didn't witness this, and in fact I don't believe I ever actually dreamed the crime, although I know what happened. The police suspect our involvement, but have nothing to go on other than their suspicion. They refuse to close the case. In the recurring dream, the main sense is of fear and paranoia that one of the two others will talk, that we'll be arrested and imprisoned. Oddly, there is no real sense of deep guilt over the death of the woman on my part, but chiefly regret at having been involved, and the dread of discovery. It is interesting to speak objectively of this dream, especially knowing that, if I dream it tonight, I will recognize it as recurrent without the ability to step back from it and disengage emotionally.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 11:52 PM

Jeanie:

Your dream sounds like an amazingly uplifting experience.

Lucid dreaming: it is reported that people can learn to do it; the boundary of   separation modulates such that the individual remains conscious and in command, as he is while awake, but in the universe of his dream time. This can of course be risky, depending on how willing the being is to experience "extracurricular" reality. It can shake up your most cherished assumptions. On the othe rhand it can lead you into some very interesting corners and reportedly wreak cghanges in your life in real spacetime, as well.

Or so I am told...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Raedwulf
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 08:27 PM

For more on Lucid Dreaming try here.

I've a lot more to say about dreaming, but it'll be a longish post & I want to work on it a bit! Tomorrow maybe. It's about time I went & did some! ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 04:36 PM

Claire, maybe you have an entity hanging around you!
Jerry, that is a beautiful song you wrote. I love that it came from your dream.

My dream this morning was strange enough. My mom and Dad were together in the dream. When I woke up I thought to myself, "I knew mom was alive." I was feeling very happy about that and content. Then I woke up again and realized I was back into my now reality and it made me feel sad that I woke up to the realness.

Most of my dreams are of many places and people I haven't been to, or met. I think that is when I am either free spirit roaming or I am living a multi-dimensional existance and those lives I live are revealed in dreams.

One more thing I will reveal about my dreams. When I have those sex dreams I am always close to getting "some" but it almost never happens. Now what is up with that? I always feel cheated and those are the dreams I can never get back into! I must to to faithful to my man even in my dreams!

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:53 PM

Hag -- yes, I have hypnopompic hallucinations! Thank you so much for telling me what they are. All these years of being held down at night by an unseen, terrifying foe, and I never realized it was a known halluncinatory pattern. This has been happening to me for at least 22 years, along with (evidently related) out-of-body experiences and flying episodes.

I admit to a little disappointment that I might not really be flying, but it's nice to know I'm not necessarily being singled out by a malevolent demonic entity, either...

(And no, I'm not nuts, this is exactly how it feels and it happens to a lot of folks!).

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: SueB
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 01:53 PM

Wow. I had no idea that could be done. Can people really do that?
How?

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: GUEST,wd
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:29 PM

lucid dreaming is dreaming where you conciously control what happens in the dream. very handy I'd say.

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: SueB
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:09 PM

OH, and I meant to say, freda, what an interesting story, and Jerry what a beautiful song...

Subject: RE: BS: Dreams
From: SueB
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 12:04 PM

Amos, or somebody, could you clarify for me what is meant by a lucid dream state?

I once had a dream where I was at elementary school trying to cope with my child, who happened to be Calvin, of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons - someone at the time told me that you are all the people in your dreams, which when I worked it out made alot of sense to me - I *was* Calvin the irrespressible child, I *was* the hapless parent, I *was* the disapproving (and smug) authority figures whose faces appeared through the doorways as I pursued Calvin down the hallways - at the dreams' end Calvin and I were handcuffed to each other and to a chainlink fence in some far corner of the schoolyard.

Years layer, I look back on that dream and say, oh, of course, how obvious...

The "naked in public" dream I think must be almost universal - who hasn't had one of those? Also the "unprepared for the exam" dream I have heard from so many people that I think it must be universal too - here's what dreammoods.com has to say about both of those situations:

****
Dreaming that you are completely or partially naked is very common. Nudity symbolizes a variety of things depending on your real life situation.

... Metaphorically clothes are a means of concealment. With clothes, you can hide your identity or be someone else. But without them, everything is hanging out for all to see. You are left without any defenses. If you are in a new relationship, you may have some fears or apprehension in revealing your true feelings.

Nudity also symbolizes being caught off guard. Finding yourself naked at work or in a classroom, suggests that you are unprepared for a project at work or school. You may be uninformed in making a well-formed decision. With all eyes on you, you have this fear of having some deed brought to public attention. You fear that people will see through your true self and you will be exposed as a fraud or a phony.

Many times, when you realize that you are naked in your dream, no one else seems to notice. Everyone else in the dream is going about their business without giving a second look at your nakedness. This implies that your fears are unfounded; no one will notice except you. You may be magnifying the situation and making an issue of nothing. On the other hand, such dreams may mean your desire (or failure) to get noticed.
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To dream that you are taking an exam, indicates that you are being put to the test or being scrutinized in some way. Such dreams highlight your feelings of being anxious and agitated. You may find that you cannot answer any of the questions on the test or that the test is in some foreign language. Is time running out and you find that you can not complete the exam in the allowed time? Or are you late to the exam? Does your pencil keep breaking during the exam? Such factors contribute to you failing this test. These dreams usually have to do with your self-esteem and confidence or your lack of. You are worried that you are not making the grade and measuring up to other people's expectations of you. You may also experience the fear of not being accepted, not being prepared, or not being good enough. You feel nervous, insecure and tend to believe the worst about yourself.

These dreams also suggest that you may feel unprepared for a challenge. Rarely, are these dreams about the content of the test, but rather the process and how you are feeling during the exam taking process. Generally, you feel distressed and frustrated. These feelings may parallel how you are feeling in a particular challenge or situation in your waking like.

Dreams of this nature are also an indication that you are being judged and this dream is a signal for you to examine an aspect of yourself that you may have been neglecting and need to pay attention to. You may harbor some guilt because of your neglect in preparation for a school exam, meeting, business project, or some challenge. Most of the time, though, people who have such dreams are unlikely to fail a test in real life. This dream goes back to their fear and own anxiety that they may not meet other's standards of them. They are afraid to let others down.