I have these, and do wonder if it’s related to the fact that I have a photographic memory and also a very strong ‘minds eye’ ie a very visual thinker the rest of the time. Is anyone else running a constant visual system the rest of the time?
There was a thread on that here before and loads of people don’t have it! I wonder if lucid dreams and strong visualisation when conscious are interlinked.
I do things in mine like, I can hear in the real world the house start waking up and moving about and so I expect alarm to go off any minute. I’ll then throw myself out of a moving car or jump off a cliff to exit the dream at my own crazy pace. That’s as opposed to waiting for someone to come and interrupt my sleep, or the alarm to go off.
Sometimes I sort of ‘land’ and will shout out. My whole body will have the genuine sensation of being dropped from a huge height when that happens. I’ve fallen off the back of those open backed London buses a few times, and ‘landed’ with a seemingly terrible crash back into bed. I’ve been hooked like a fish, which is bloody awful - painful and gasping for air. Even now if I see any kind of hook, I get a horrible sensation like it’s going to hook through my lip!
I’ve been burned as a witch, that was horrific. But I’ve also been swimming at great speed with a pod of dolphins, and rolled down sand dunes. I’ve never been on a sand dune in real life, but watch lots of travel and nature docs, read lots of books etc so some of these things are kind of fantasy sensations - but some are my biggest fears. Being burnt, or suffocated, brutalised, those are the nightmare sides to it.
Sometimes I’m better at getting out of them than others. I remember an evening reading loads about Doreen Lawrence, someone I’ve always very much admired. I fell asleep and dreamed my children were stabbed to death and I had to fight for justice against corrupt police. The dreaded hell of that nightmare was unshakeable. Every time I woke myself up, I’d calm down and go back to sleep and it would return. The whole of the next day I felt sickened, like I was bereaved and beleaguered in real life. The only good to come of that was I have even more admiration and sympathy for DL now, thanks to vividly spending a night living in her shoes. What she has been through makes me shudder.
Oh another one, I got bitten by a great white shark, tried to punch it on the nose because I saw that on some documentary or other. Unfortunately the water completely slowed my (probably feeble anyway) punch and it didn’t work at all so I just got shredded to death.
I’ve had some brilliant ones and some terrible ones. About 80% of the time I start coming round and interacting with my conscious self. I can always remember them if I’ve got to the conscious stage. If not, then they’re very vivid fragments, like the shark one or the fish hook one. I can’t really remember anything either side.
I’ve just remembered another one. We got a deal to go to v fancy restaurant for a fixed menu, and I was raving about the dessert, saying things like I could eat it forever etc etc. That night I dreamt that it was always there being constantly replenished and I never ever got bored of it, the amazing taste sensation was vivid and delicious and wonderful throughout the whole dream until I woke up. That was a lovely one. Like something from Charlie and the chocolate factory. Pure joy!