Recurring Dreams

If we keep a record of our dreams it will soon become obvious that some of our dream themes, characters or places recur again and again. These recurrences are of various types. A certain theme may have begun in childhood and continued throughout our life – either without change, or as a gradually changing series of dreams. It might be that the feature that recurs is a setting, perhaps a house we visit again and again, but the details differ. Sometimes a series of such dreams begin after or during a particular event or phase of our life, such as puberty or marriage. There are several types of dreams such as recurring body dreams, recurring sex dreams, recurring death, etc. These are all similar in how to deal with them, but you might find other information under – Dream Body – Body – Parts of – Body Dreams –Sex and Dreams – Sex and Identity – Energy, Sex and Dreams – Sex – Dreams of Death and Beyond – Dreaming of Death – The Archetype of Death – Rudolph Steiner’s Philosophy of Life and Death

The theme of the dream can incorporate anxious emotions such as the example below, or any aspect of experience. One woman, an epileptic, reports a dream that is the same in every detail and occurs every night.

In general dreams recur because there are ways the dreamer habitually responds to their internal or external world. Because their attitude or response is unchanging, the dream that reflects it remains the same. It is noticeable in those who explore their dreams using such techniques as described under Practical Ways of Understanding Dreams – processing dreams, that recurring themes disappear or change because the attitudes or habitual anxieties that gave rise to them have been met or transformed.

Also we often dream about the same place again and again. It is because we each have an inner life that is real in its own way. We built and revisit such places again and again because we learnt or experienced something connected with it, and so gradually add to it or need to revisit it. See Inner World

Example: A woman wrote to me that she dreamt the same dream from childhood. She was walking past railings in the town she lived in as a child. She always woke in dread and perspiration from this dream. At forty she told her sister about it. The response was, ‘Oh, that’s simple. Don’t you remember that when you were about four we were walking past those railings and we were set on by a bunch of boys. Then I said to them, ‘Don’t hurt us our mother’s dead!’ They left us alone, but you should have seen the look on your face.’ After realising the dread was connected with the threatened loss of her mother, the dream never recurred.

People often dream about a place they knew over a period of years, like a school, college, the house they grew up in or experience things that are marked in their memory. They have recurring dreams about these places because we are all largely created as a personality by the things we experience and remember. It is out of such memories that our dreams are created, and the recur because they have contributed to things we face in the present, for from them we develop attitudes, skills or even negative feelings, all that influence us.

Sometimes people are puzzled by dreams about a country they lived in during their youth and now have lived in a totally different country and environment. In our youth or in the past we have absorbed so much and experienced so much that laid the foundations of our responses and behaviour, so dreams use the place again because there are problems from the past we need to review, or simply because we are always upgrading the past from present experience.

 Example: ‘This dream has recurred over 30 years. There is a railway station, remote in a rural area, a central waiting room with platform going round all sides. On the platform mill hundreds of people, all men I think. They are all ragged, thin, dirty and unshaven. I know I am among them. I looked up at the mountainside and there is a guard watching us. He is cruel looking, oriental in green fatigues. On his peaked cap is a red star. He carries a machine gun. Then I looked at the men around me and I realise they are all me. Each one has my face. I am looking at myself. Then I feel fear and terror.’ Anon.

A recurring environment in a dream where the other factors change is not the same. We use the same words over and over in speech, yet each sentence may be different. The environment or character represents a particular aspect of oneself, but the different events that surround it show it in the changing process of our psychological growth and experience. Where there is no such change, as in the example above, it suggests an area of our mental emotional self is stuck in a habitual feeling state or response.

Some recurring dreams can be ‘stopped’ by simply receiving information about them. One woman dreamt the same dream from childhood. She was walking past railings in the town she lived in as a child. She always woke in dread and perspiration from this dream. At forty she told her sister about it. The response was, ‘Oh, that’s simple. Don’t you remember that when you were about four we were walking past those railings and we were set on by a bunch of boys? Then I said to them, ‘Don’t hurt us our mother’s dead!’ They left us alone, but you should have seen the look on your face.’ After realising the dread was connected with the loss of her mother, the dream never recurred. Another woman who repeatedly dreamt of being in a tight and frightening place, found the dream never returned after she had connected it to being in the womb.

Recurring dreams such as that of the railings, suggest that part of the process underlying dreams is a self regulatory homeostatic one. The dream process tries to present troublesome emotions or situations to the conscious mind of the dreamer to resolve the trauma or difficulty underlying the dream. An obvious example of this is seen in the recurring nightmare of a young woman who felt a piece of cloth touch her face, quoted under nightmares. See: nightmares; processing dreams.

But recurring dreams can arise because there is a need to learn something. Also the growth instinct is incredible powerful one and pushes us through growth, sometimes unwillingly. And if we resist it can cause recurring dreams. Here is an example

Example: A young girl kept coming up to me and placing my hand upon her breast. She was just developing her breasts, and they felt so very beautiful.

Still asleep I asked myself what the dream meant, and saw that the young girl is the divine female that I long for. At present she can only relate to me as a young girl whose breasts I caress, due to the fact that my sexuality is still developing. In other words, I have not yet developed out of my sexual stage of growth. But if I simply allow this stage to go on being experienced, it develops into a new relationship with her. She herself develops or grows as I grow, and this suddenly threw a new light on all my sexual dreams in the past.

recurring body dreams When we have recurring body dreams it can point to a psychological problem, because the body is often used parts of the body to represent such problems. See Body – Parts of to find the psychological meanings.

Problems we have not resolved show up in our dreams first. If the mental problem is not dealt with it may then show as a physical difficulty.

recurring themes If there is an overall activity such as walking, looking, worrying, building something, or trying to escape. Define what the action or theme is and give it a name, such as ‘waiting’ – ‘searching’ – ‘following’.

 Example: Feeling tired – exhausted – just lying drained of energy. I am conscious of people talking, saying I was ill. I thought I was just tired. Then asked what the matter was. I was told it was my heart, ‘dry and hard like a boiled egg’ they said. Found I couldn’t talk. Tried to write, wanted A. to know that I loved him, but the pen kept drying up. Finger and feet began to get cold. An icy coldness slowly spread all over my body. A liquid warmth was then all around me. I thought I was hemorrhaging. A needle was stuck in my left arm and my chest was being cut open – it didn’t hurt. There was a lot of activity. They said I had gone. I was trying desperately to let them know I was still there. Then I was in a bag and sliding off a table. The bag was tied above my head. Then from the confined darkness I was free. There was a brilliant light all around. I could still see the sack with a body still in it far behind me. I was incredibly happy and full of energy. Trish L.

Well, what do you make of the dream? What is suggested by Trish’s hard-boiled heart? What does it imply that Trish is ‘gone’ but still there?

There are several themes here that are worth noting. The first is the theme of tiredness. Then there is the theme surrounding her heart and the inability to express her feelings. Perhaps we can contain those two by saying it is about ‘emotional dryness’ or coldness. Then there is the theme of death/life, neatly packaged together. And something that we might miss is that overall an enormous change is going on. Trish changes from feeling exhausted and dying, to being ‘incredibly happy and full of energy’.

So if such themes recur often it suggests there is something needing attention because you are stuck somewhere. If you feel stuck in your life in some way see Stuck in Life

recurring nightmares Are those that happen again and again, weekly or even more frequently, and have the same basic plot. These are of course the same as ordinary nightmares. Their recurrence however is something to consider.

Dreams appear to present clear indications of what you are facing in your present life. They reveal past experience that through trauma may need to be met in order to live your life more satisfyingly or efficiently. There is neurological evidence that brain cells undergo a learning process during dreaming. In the area of personal growth, inquiry into dreams such as recurring nightmares shows them to be an attempt to bring to consciousness and release past traumas such as abandonment in childhood, involvement in war environments, or car accidents.

Hundreds of ex-soldiers suffer recurring nightmares about battle scenes. The dreams re-presented the original experience, often accompanied by the original body movements made to escape the horror being faced.

 Example: ‘I dream night after night that a cat is gnawing at my throat’ Male from Landscapes of the Night, Coronet Books.

The dreamer had developing cancer of the throat. These physical illness dreams are not as common as the other classes of nightmare.

A young woman told me she had experienced a recurring nightmare of a piece of cloth touching her face. She would scream and scream and wake her family. One night her brother sat with her and made her meet those feelings depicted by the cloth. When she did so she realised it was her grandmother’s funeral shroud. She cried about the loss of her grandmother, felt her feelings about death, and was never troubled again by the nightmare. The techniques given in processing dreams and Being the Person or Thing will help in meeting such feelings.

 

Comments

-Lauren 2015-04-26 12:20:01

I’ve been dreaming of being in this woman’s house almost a few times a week. In reality she is someone my mother and I clean for. The first dream I remember having where I was in her house it was almost a nightmare. I was just looking around and in the reflection of a glass door I saw a demon-like thing. All the other dreams aren’t nightmares though. I’m always there in my dreams to clean her house and some occasions she has guests over when we are trying to clean and it frustrates me. Every dream I have of it the house is always different but I know its her house. I would like to know why I’m dreaming this its starting to really confuse me. Why her house?

-Adam Russell 2015-02-20 8:11:15

I, for the past 12 years or so have had dreams about an old house i used to live in for a large porion of my life. I lived there from the age of 8 till 17. This was our home from when my mother got married upto them getting divorced. This man wasnt my father but i know that the divorce had a big impact on my life. Although it did have a big impact on my life i dont dream(very often) about the divorce or the lkkes but almost every dream i have is in that house or has that house in it. Can you explain why ir try to as i cant understand why.

-denise 2014-12-11 11:17:19

I have had this dream 6 to 7 times over about a 25 year period, it never changes, its exact every time: I am watching a plane take off (I am just outside, not at a airport and no one I know is on plane) the plane gets up in air not very high, banks right and crashes, I atop the dream as I am walking towards the crash

-Jacqui 2014-12-05 16:11:08

I went to Florence, Italy in 2008 through a college to study abroad. My brother came with me as well. We lived there for 3 months. My brother and I and some of the other students would go out at night and one time, my brother and I found this Irish Pub that serves really good hefeweisen beers in huge glasses. Ever since I got married in 2013, Ive have constant recurrigg dreams about finding that Irish Pub. That dreams are always slightly dofferent and Im with different people each time, but the end result is always the same- I never find the Irish Pub. Im to the point where I want to scrounge up enough money to go back to Florence and find it because its driving me crazy. Last night I dreamt I was in Florence explaining to someone about my recurring dreams about Italy and then ran off to find the pub which I couldnt find. I woke up and realized it was yet again another dream.

-erica 2014-11-29 21:17:29

I keep having a dream of a huge mansion that is now a public museum type place but the top floors are closed. but I explore them and I always go to the top flor that has a walk out balcony but the top floors are occupied by someone who lives there secretly. and it looks old not like a mansion but an old carpeted house from the 70’s with paneled walls. downs stairs is extravagant but upstairs seems to be occupied by people not wanted to be seen. so its unkempt. and I know the mansion well in my dreams because in every dream I have I know that I have been there in previous dreams. its like I tell myself in my head that I know where to go because ive dreamt of this place before. except lastnight in my dream I was guiding a small boy upstairs and teaching him to use what could find as a weapon because the mansion was becoming over run with zombies. and the people that had lived upstairs in my dream before were dead and about to become zombies. so we ran back down stairs to some sort of formal gathering that was taking place there and armed ourselves with old shotguns that had swords on the ends…everydream is different and im always therefor different reasons but the details of the manion are exactly the same as far as ieces of paper that were laying on the floor upstairs to the smell. and the whole tie I know ive only been there in my dream?

    -Tony Crisp 2014-11-30 12:17:52

    Erica – To understand properly what I am going to tell you please read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing

    You are a much bigger person than you let yourself believe, because the mansion which is your inner life is a picture of you. But for some reason you have you’re your highest self which has talents you kept secret and hidden perhaps even from yourself.

    I think the way you see yourself as a person had been influenced by the seventies. You keep dreaming about the house because there is so much of yourself you do not understand and so do not use because you did not want to express it. Perhaps as a child you were told it was foolish to believe what you did and so kept it held back to the point where all that ability and all the self you didn’t express has died and becomes a threat – the zombies.

    But the young boy is at least a growing part of you so there is hope, but do not kill all you talents.

    The formal gathering is a meeting with yourself, and if you carry some understanding to it you can make a life changing difference.

    But remember dreams are simply images you inner being uses to show you yourself. Also the emotions, fears, sexual feelings, thoughts and beliefs are fine but they are not you, so do not be trapped by them. They all come and go and the real you stands firm in the middle of it all. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/spirit/ and http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/

    Tony

-Boonnonta 2014-11-28 14:17:08

Dear Tony,

Yes, this is possible, thank you very much for your guidance. I’ll read a bit more on the links you suggest.

Thank you,
Boonnonta

-Boonnonta 2014-11-27 19:09:09

Dear Tony,

I’ve learnt about your website from one of my best friends. I know that she very much appreciates the learning and good guidance she receives from your website. This is though the first time I write to you, I’m writing with a hope to receive your guidance on what my recurring dream is trying to tell me. I could not figure it out and it very much affects my sleep every single night. I will be very thankful for any advice you may give.

I had an open heart operation four months ago; I’m now doing well although the number of the heart beat still needs monitoring. Since my operation I have been dreaming every night. I wake up often and when I eventually fall asleep, I dream again. The dreams are all full of tension as I am busy in the dreams trying to stop bad things happening to my family and friends. For example, my family/friends are in some sort of danger and I’m trying to lead them out of the situation safely. No two dreams ever seem the same. Nothing ever bad to them actually happens as I always wake up before the ‘end of the story’. The dreams are very realistic and not abstract in nature.

Your guidance will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Boonnonta

-Bec 2014-11-26 23:38:48

I keep dreaming about the house I grew up in, but it always seems to be nightmares, one dream it was a ghost living in a back room ( that was not there while we lived there) he was a truck driver, I was scared at first then once he talked to me it was ok, another dream I was with my current dog and we walked into the house to find weird things all over the place ie stubbie holders stacked in a upside down pyramid, then my dog started barking and a man with his face covered lunged at me.
Why do I keep dreaming of my old house and why nightmares?

-Darla 2014-11-07 18:53:02

Hi, my friend keeps coming to me about his recurring dream. The first dream he told me about, he was driving my home from school and our car exploded. The second he told me of, he was driving by himself and drove off a cliff. There are more but he chooses not to remember them so I don’t know if the factors in those dreams were also different like in these two. Could you help us figure this thing out so he can stop dreaming about dying in a car crash?

Thank you for your time,

Darla

-patrick 2014-07-27 23:48:10

Had a recurring zombie apocalypse dream last night. Only this time I knew I was dreaming.. When I got to a certain part in the dream I realized we would eventually meet up with somebody and as soon as I realized this my gf decided to call him. Its weird cause the first time I dreamt this we just randomly met up with him and did not call him, now as she was calling him I kept telling her to hang up cause that wasn’t how its supposed to happen. Well he ended up answering and had no idea who she was so she hung up. Ten seconds later she gets a call from herself with a very creepy and distorted voice telling her not to call him again and to let it just happen, I woke up after that. What could that mean I’ve never had a dream where I knew I was dreaming and knew what was gonna happen next and I’m 29 so it kinda creeper me out..

    -Tony Crisp 2014-07-29 7:58:25

    Patrick – I think it would be a good idea to read http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing as it’s like a primer in understanding your dreams.

    The zombie is not an external character but an image your dream uses to show you a part of you that is only half alive. The part of the dream which says – Ten seconds later she gets a call from herself with a very creepy and distorted voice telling her not to call him again and to let it just happen – is very important. But basically the advice she/you got was to let things happen without interfering.

    That might be completely non-understandable unless you are aware of certain things about yourself. As it would take all day to write it out for you I suggest you read http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/ It is a bit long, but if you manage to understand even a bit in the links given you will never feel ‘kinda creeped out’ ever again.

    Tony

-Hariharan 2014-06-27 9:21:17

I experience the same dream that you have written here, the railway station. It keeps coming regularly. Can you share anyone who has same experience.

-Abbi 2014-03-26 11:43:12

I’ve been having my dreams since I was around the age of 4. There’s no reason what so ever for a 4 year old to dream this.

Dream 1 – I am stood at the top of a lane on a dull day, the sky looks like its going to burst any moment. There’s a thatched roof cottage at the bottom of the lane. There is a dense forest to my left with tall christmas tree type trees that you find in england. As I look straight ahead I can see the cottage is on a small field with a forest not far behind, the cottage is straight ahead if me because its on a bend kind of. Theres trees to the right of me but ive never really paid much attention to that side. I walk down to the cottage and walk through the wooden door and its actually an inn. Theres an open fire and wooden tables to my left and a bar to my right. I sit in the left corner facing the bar but at an angle that I can freely look out of the window that im sat next to. All I can see from that window is part of a field and the trees behind the inn. Thats all I know. I dont know how old I am or what im wearing but I know im still female. My parents insist ive never been to a place like it but I still have this dream.

Dream 2 – Its spring or summer, its hot and the flowers are beautifull. Im at a fast flowing river with big rocks in it. Im not alone because im talking. I have no idea what im saying or who im talking too but im definately not alone. Im with 2 or 3 people. We cross the river via the boulders and as I jump onto the last one I slip and almost fall in. I pull myself back up but im sure I was helped. Once we crossed we walked along the bank but I must always walk ahead as I never see anyone. Thats another incident my parents say didnt happen. Why have I had this dream for the last 23 years I dont know but im curious.

    -Tony Crisp 2014-03-27 9:14:19

    Abbi – Our education and common beliefs are so misleading. Of course it could mean that your dreams are about feelings you have that are put into imagery. But that doesn’t explain why the dreams recur.

    I often say to people that if you plant an acorn and its grows into a tree, do you think it has suddenly appeared and is a totally new tree? Of course it is not new, it is the result of thousands of trees before it – as are you.

    I know it is common belief that it is all to do with our DNA, but that is simple our body, and DNA does not bring forth a living and dreaming you.

    So read this – It began after a father-son bonding trip to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum outside of Dallas. Bruce picked up a video of the Blue Angels navy flight exhibition team for his 2-year-old son, James, who had become instantly enamoured with the jet fighters in high speed formation.

    However, soon afterwards James began to smash his toy airplanes repeatedly into the coffee table screaming that the aircraft was on fire. It was then that the nightmares began. His mother Andrea would find her son thrashing around on the bed letting out blood curdling screams, shouting, ‘Airplane crash on fire! Little man can’t get out!’

    The disturbing nightmares were physical too, with James kicking upwards on his bed as if trying to kick open the canopy from inside an aircraft.

    It was over a bedtime story that James suddenly began talking to his parents about the nightmares, turning them from night terrors to lucid details and conversations.

    James told his staunchly Christian parents, that he was flying a Corsair during the Second World War and that the Japanese shot him down. ‘Mama, before I was born, I was a pilot, and my airplane got shot in the engine and it crashed in the water and that’s how I died.’

    He told his parents he flew off a carrier called the USS Natoma Bay and his name was James and that he had died during in a horrific plane crash. The growing implications of what their son was telling them began to trouble the religious beliefs of Bruce and Andrea. When James was two-and-a-half he was sitting on his father’s knee going through a book on the Battle for Iwo Jima.
    Opening the book to a picture of Mount Suribachi, James exclaimed, ‘That’s where my plane was shot down. My airplane got shot down there daddy.’ James began to draw disturbing pictures of fiery plane crashes – Dr Tucker believes this kind of compulsive repetition had all the hallmarks of how children deal with PTSD.

    Bruce in particular wanted to get to the bottom of his son’s insistence that he was indeed describing the past lives of a downed pilot named James. He attended a reunion for USS Natoma Bay veterans under the ruse of writing a book and was stunned to discover the only pilot killed during the Iwo Jima operation was a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania named James Huston.
    Further unnerving research revealed that Huston’s plane had been hit in the nose and lost its propeller – exactly where James had intentionally damaged all his toy planes.

    As their belief in their son’s extraordinary claims grew, Bruce and Andrea began to take what he said seriously. One night Andrea said that she was told by James that his past-life father was an alcoholic and when James Huston was 13, they put their drunken dad in hospital for six weeks.

    By now they had tracked down Huston’s sister Anne, who was in her 80s by now and asked her if these claims were true – which she confirmed. More staggering coincidences began to occur. James knew details that no four-year-old or even 40-year-old would know about the operational details of a Second World War fighter.

    He knew that Corsairs were notorious for getting flat tires and when handed a model of the FM-2 planes he would fly aboard the USS Natoma Bay he noted that a small antenna was missing from the side, which research by his father noted to be true.The most incredible moment though was when James attended his first USS Natoma Bay reunion. There he was stopped in the hallway of the hotel by Bob Greenwalt, a NatomaBay veteran. When he asked ‘do you know who I am?’ James replied, ‘You are Bob Greenwalt.’ Asked how he knew that by his father, James replied that he simply remembered the man’s voice.

    Indeed, after that, back at home in Dallas, James was sweeping the front lawn with his dad when Bruce bent down to hug his son and tell him that he loved him. James replied that when he saw Bruce and Andrea eating dinner in Hawaii on WaikikiBeach he knew that these were the right parents for him.

    Bruce still has no idea how his son knew about the romantic trip he and his wife went on to start their family – before James was born. After this he was invited to Japan where he was shot down and was honoured by the Japanese officials who said he was obviously a reincarnation because he knew so much about them.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509769/New-book-reveals-children-believe-reincarnated.html#ixzz2uWJkLKb1

    Tony

-Renee Hankins 2014-03-22 5:58:11

A recurring dream: I’m to massage a client, but I never go into the room because: there’s too much outside commotion (the business site/room has become like a retail sales location), or I dally about, or the only available room to give a massage in is a tiny closet with too much crap in it so I have to clear out the mess first – hence, I never do give the client a massage. The client waits patiently throughout…but for naught.

I realize this scenario spells delay, yet, I never am able to do anything to correct the situation. It always ends up with me not giving and the client not receiving a massage. It doesn’t matter if the client is male or female, young or old.

    -Tony Crisp 2014-03-23 15:06:16

    Renee – It would have been good to know whether this was a real work scene of simply a dreamt one.

    I believe the dream is a problem you have not faced or sorted for a long time. It causes you to not be or do your very best. The mess and the situation are probably to do with your own sense of being confined or not be able to find peace in yourself.

    The suggestion is that you clear up the mess or move to a better situation. But this applies to the inner world you live in not the outer waking work, although one influences the other. It might be helpful if you use Secrets of Power Dreaming or Being the Person or Thing

    Tony

-Michael Ellis 2013-09-10 17:40:36

I just posted a comment, but I also forgot to mention,

In my dreams, I know that i’m SUPPOSED to be afraid of what’s going on, but i’m not. Not even a little, it’s like i’m in post zombie apocalypse type setting, where i’m trying to save everyone, and we get cornered or I need to go save someone and I’m never afraid of what’s going to happen, just that I don’t want anyone hurt. I’ve had these group of dreams for over 20 years and i’m 27 now. I have these dreams every couple of months and when i’m sick to the point where i’m sleeping mostly I always have these dreams.

Oh i’m not sure if this matters but when I was 12 till about the age of 16 I could ‘leave my body’ and see myself sleeping and like fly around and stuff. I could do this regularly up till 16 then once in a while till i was 21, then haven’t had one since though I’ve also tried not to, because it scares me when i start to fall asleep and then i partially wake up and i feel crippled, i cannot move my body and i can really only move my eyes and look around. So since that scares the crap out of me, I probably am subconsciously stopping myself from doing it

    -lily j 2015-03-31 19:44:50

    I’ve read both of your statements and I’ve never read something more similar to my sleeping habits than yours. when you can take control of your dreams like that its called lucid dreaming and it’s happened to me on a couple occasions and the part when you can leave your body but you can only open your eyes and just look around it’s called sleep paralysis. I have sleep paralysis so often it doesn’t really scare me anymore but it used to. I kind of like having it now. in my first lucid dream I had about 8 different dreams and every one of them started off the same way; me waking up in my bed and looking around. the ending of each dream affected the way I woke up in the next one. in the second of the 8 dreams, I woke up and there were people all over my house and I knew something was weird but i couldn’t put my finger on in but I couldn’t figure out why they were all over my house and they were almost ghost-like and it really scared me and I was crying I went into the shower to be alone and then so many people that I recognized were zombies and they were trying to come after me and wants to pull back the curtain I woke up into my next dream.
    I’ve also had dreams where I knew I was dreaming but I couldn’t really control them. for example I had a dream and I went into a swimming pool where there was a mirror underwater I was looking at myself and I knew that I was dreaming but I didn’t do anything about it.
    whenever I used to have sleep paralysis I’d try to wake myself from it so badly and be so scared but I feel like its best if you kept your eyes closed when you try to wake yourself up. after having it so often I’ve come to kind of like the feeling that your body gets during sleep paralysis and if you get past the fear of the paralysis and you start to dream your dreams are pretty cool. I know the feeling of going deeper and deeper into the paralysis if you cannot wake yourself up and it is scary but once you get past it your dreams are pretty gnarly.

-Michael Ellis 2013-09-10 17:30:38

A lot of times when I dream, I am aware that I’m dreaming and have extensive control over my dreams. But there are these group of dreams that I’ve had, where I’m half-way aware that I’m dreaming, yet have no control over what I do. It’s not just one dream, or even two dreams. It is a bunch of dreams, where the end result is almost always the same, with slight changes depending on my dream beforehand.
I don’t know if I can explain it to the extent that I need it, but it’s like if you have a movie that’s a quadrilogy and no matter which order you watch them in, the ending is the same but something significant happens in all of the movies to lead up to that end. In mine, the place is the same, but the ending is always changing and depending on where my dream started, i have different people with me or different items or the way we get to the house is different.
I refer to the location as just “The house” and it is a very big house, almost mansion like, with a lot of windows and a very ‘open house’ feel. We’re inside trying to stay safe and (again the amount of people differs sometimes 3 sometimes 20) all the sudden we’re completely surrounded by disgusting people, that are not scary to look at but i can feel that their intent is not good which makes their outer appearance look as if they’re zombies. They surround us, I lock the backdoor because they are beginning to get through the back and as i run back to the group i realize that we have 2 major options, we can go to the left, which has a bunch of stairs leading down to the outside pool that is completely open, I can see the pool and the grass outside and it looks relatively safe or we can go to the front door on the right, which i cannot see which is on the other side if anything or if it’s safe. another option i’ve had previously is instead of going those ways I’ve gone through the backdoor and then also on the other side.
I don’t know if the build up to that point in my dreams, is the significant part or if the build up is just cannon fodder for the last decision i have to make because I always wake up before we do anything and because the beginning is always different and i’m always partially aware of my dreams, I can make some changes in the dreams leading up to “the house”. Again they aren’t really scary, and it more seems like In the dream leading up to the house i’m rescuing people and we end up there.

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