Do you remember floating down the stairs as a child?

[PornographicPriestess]

Last night my eldest DC (17) asked if I had any memories of floating down the stairs as a child. I do. Very vivid memories that I've never mentioned to anyone else. I don't know how old I was at the time, but we left that particular property (the memory is still clear in my mind's eye) when I was seven, so presumably it was prior to that.

DC also has their own memories of them floating down the stairs when they were young.

A quick Google suggests it's a common phenomenon, but it isn't something I'd come across before.

Obviously I can't possibly have floated down the stairs and it was probably a dream, but why on Earth do people remember that particular dream? It makes me doubt the reliability of my memory.

Whaaaat? Yes I had this dream aged about three. I was wearing arm bands!

My husband doesn't have this memory, but he doesn't have much of an, imagination either. Does everyone have this, or are those who don't have it just not replying on the thread because it's irrelevant to them.

Yes I had that dream frequently throughout childhood. It felt very real.

Always had a memory of being able to fly off from the front garden. I also have a menory of showing another child that i could fly but can't recall the child. I think I was around 6!!
I don't remember floating down the stairs or anything like that but we did jump from them, like others have said.. also used to jump out of the swing when it was as high as possible- I would die if I tried that now!

Yes! I thought it was just me but chatting with my DD she has it too. For me, it was like I was swimming through the air, breaststroke, each arm movement propelling me through the air up the stairs or down.

Yes I dreamt this very often and I thought I was the only one.

Freaky.

I have jumped an entire stairs as a child unscathed and I have hurt myself ever since as an adult

Yes to the stairs and floating from a bunk bed.

I don't have this memory but I do have a different (what must be a false) memory of my guinea pig jumping over the seat of the swing in the garden! I remember running inside to tell my mum how high Rosie could jump. She must have thought I was a right liar but I remember it clearly and feeling so excited at how high she could jump. I told all my cousin's too.

No, because I didn't have stairs. But I did dream of flying in the garden.

I have this! Pretty sure it’s a memory of being carried downstairs; it’s something we looked at when I did my psychology A level a million years ago.

My favourite dream that I still have is knowing how to fly. It’s so easy. You just do it (and it’s not actually flying, just floating along faster than walking). And when I wake up there’s a few seconds where I remember exactly how to do it and then it just…goes.

Yes I had this dream all the time. I also flew around wherever I wanted. I was absolutely convinced I could fly. It was so so vivid. I do believe we leave our bodies at night and travel on the astral plane. I think that’s what it was.

Oh yes. I remember.
Obviously it never actually happened. Nobody has ever floated down a staircase!
It's a mixture of dreams and memories of being carried downstairs as a young child but not remembering the being carried bit so a feeling of floating.

I was on the other thread and at one point it seemed like a couple of people actually genuinely thought they had floated 🤣

Yes I have this. My mum does too. Felt so real at the time but I know it's not possible.

To be honest, I don't think I actually have the memory any more, just the memory of the memory if that makes any sense?

Yes, and I jumped, like a flight, think I just grazed my knee and was fine. I was very young, I can vividly remember thinking I could float down them . Honestly thought in hindsight I thought i was a messed up kid and can’t get my head round it now, so surprised it’s common place.

Can anyone link to the previous thread?

Yes! Very vivid memories of me being able
to float down the stairs. I’d hold onto the bannister and float to the bottom. I can’t believe other people have this memory! This is crazy!!

Dreams of it, yes. Not a reality.. that is impossible. No one on MN actually floated anywhere as a child.

I actually gasped when I read the title.

Yes I definitely recall doing this and would swear blind it was real!!!!

This is so weird! I have lots of weird dreams and always remember them...but I missed out on this one! We used to mess around on the stairs a lot though....ride mattresses down them, slide down bannisters, all sorts 😂

I have no memory of flying down stairs, but I grew up in a bungalow which might be connected.

I've dreamed of flying as a teen and adult, but always outside, swooping low and high over fields and hedges.

I don't remember having this dream, but this thread is very sweet. All the floating children!

It’s funny some people associate it with a particular house - for me it’s my childminder ‘s house where I went between age 4ish and 10. So not somewhere I would have been carried.

My stomach dropped when my DC mentioned it. It's so bloody vivid. I don't understand why that particular dream stuck in my head.

I never did (wish I had) but the fantastic travel writer Dervla Murphy writes about it in her autobiography Wheels within Wheels. She also talks about things like teaching herself not to feel pain from hot water as a child (sorr of mentally disaasociating herself), and later makes the connection with certain yogic practices.