To still believe I can actually fly?

[LilyPinkNoah]

Ok this is going to sound weird.

I have these memories and I’m convinced they are not dreams - I know maybe they are or it’s just utter madness but what does it mean?

I feel like I have real memories of being a child and physically flying - I would make this feeling in my tummy (this is in my memory) this memory would life me and I would fly down the stairs- I would also fly in our old lounge by once again creating this feeling.

Now I KNOW (or do I know) that of course I didn’t fly - but I genuinely feel like these memories of flying are so real.

Does anyone know what it means? I literally feel like I’ve flown.

How bizarre it’s so common - but that so many of us kept it a ‘secret’ and as grown adults have gone onto believe it was real.

I definitely feel I spent a lot of time physically making myself fly (the pushing into the tummy to then lift off) around my lounge - it’s always bright and sunny outside.

It is strange that most posters are telling about flying down the stairs. Does nobody ever go up stairs? What does that signify?

I've never had this. I wonder if it's because I lived in a bungalow as a baby so have no memories of being carried up and down stairs.

Oh my gawd!

I too have strong memories of jumping/floating from the top step , down the stairs. Like a really good jump but one in which I was a bit light so had a soft landing. They feel like real memories.

I also used to dream loads that I could fly but only if I felt right otherwise gravity would pull me back down.

How odd and amusing that so many people have this.

Yes yes yes to the flying down the stairs.
I was a very active sleep walker (and talker) so I have very many hazy memories of moving about in a very gliding/floating/flying type manner.
I would also fly to my grandparents house very regularly, flying the exact route we would drive.

I had childhood epilepsy and this would make my dreams very vivid. I often found it hard to differentiate between real memories and what I did in my sleep

I could fly/float as a child and also breathe under water. Feels so real.

Think it’s interesting that those that lived in Bungalows didn’t have the same dreams. So it’s probably a dream/memory related to being carried as a PP said. Funny it makes me feel secure thinking of it and so lovely to have the memory.

Upon googling you read in the olden days (so to speak) when perhaps these things were openly spoken about you would have people to talk to to help you understand these - projections - dream and out of body experiences

Oh wow. Yes I have had this. It presents exactly like you've all described. In fact I 'glide' in a lot of my dream. It's totally effortless gliding. But I also used to dream that I was a Male sometimes and had an erect penis if it was a sex dream so now I tell my husband that I know what it feels like to have an erect penis and described the feeling to him and he was stunned. The mind is a total madness.

i have exactly the same "memories", particularly of flying down the stairs. i can also remember dawning confusion as a very small child that it couldn't be real but it was

I had this. Loved it. Such freedom!

I've heard its a left-over instinct from when we were monkeys - its the feeling of leaping from branch to branch which is why its usually always flying down and not up, and why some people get a strong spontaneous urge to just jump from high places :)

I had exactly the same thing as a child and even now (aged 51) it still feels like a real memory and not a dream

I had this as a small kid. I didn't realise it was so common. I thought it as because I had a fucked up childhood which had in turn fucked me up at that point in time, at early primary school I recall thinking I could fly down the stairs and doing a jump, clearly I fell but didn't hurt myself which is surprising.

I also immediately realised that I could not fly at all and was a bit embarrassed by my own thoughts, I was only five or six. The teacher asked me why I jumped and I explained I was trying to fly and she gave me that look, you know the one,,,

I had that dream too! Tried to replicate it at first school by jumping off the wall with my umbrella if you could get the wind to catch you right for a second you could almost fly

I had the same memories of flying when I was younger, I've been seeing a psychologist due to repeated trauma from my childhood. She said I could have been experiencing depersonalisation which is a response in my brain to protect me from various trauma. Interesting stuff!

I suppose I could sugar candy my upbringing but there was a lot of messed up stuff that went on under the age of 10 too.

I did in fact try to do it in real life - at least I think I did as I sprained my ankle twice ‘falling’ down our stairs. We lived in a huge Victorian terrace with really wide stairs and we inevitably did slide down the bannister when our family wasn’t watching (or there) think we were left a lone a lot.

It was/is truly magical.

Also interesting on the monkey theory - it’s all beginning to make sense. I need to ask my young children if they’ve ever dreamed of flying!

Same, i used to fly down the stairs all the time as a young child

Yes, I also have the "memories" of floating down the stairs, and dreams of flying and also of taking long flights of stairs a floor at a time. I have also always assumed it was memories of being carried.

A similar dream-memory is of having secret passages in my house as a child. Obviously we didn't, it was a council house built in the 1950s, but in the same way that I "remember" floating down the stairs, I also "remember" squeezing through a secret passage that went from behind our long red velvet curtains/ the piano to the cupboard in my bedroom, and at some point being too big to do that. A memory of being born?!

My eldest DC just said (age 8) ‘yes of course I can fly mummy - I’ve flown up a mountain and back down again. It’s normal!’ Ha ha love it

OMG! This totally happened to me as a child but I flew around our living room (flat so no stairs). I remember looking down on everything with a bird's eye view. I'm convinced it is a memory. We use such a tiny proportion of our brain's potential and we lose lose other abilities as we grow up and are told that we can't do things.

Of course everyone else thinks I'm batshit

Yes!!! I’m still convinced I can fly/jump over houses and I vividly remember doing it or at least having the ability.

I had this as a child. I would be stood at the top of the stairs, jump and I'd float down and land really softly at the bottom, almost in slow motion.
My brother was then born and when he could speak started saying 'I hope I go dizzying down the stairs tonight' Our Mum was suitably a bit weirded out.
Thing is they never felt like dreams it was felt completely real. My brother and I thought we were fucking wizards or something.
Then google came into existence meh... and we read it was a common dream children had. Nooo
I mentioned it to my partner one time and he too had the same dreams. Gutted. Not a wizard.

I did think this thread was gonna be in support of R Kelly though.

Oh wow this is me too! I always think its astral projection. I remember listening in to a conversation my parents were having whilst hiding behind the sofa after flying down the stairs!

I have these dreams to this day, does it mean I never grew up? It's never down the stairs though, I do it all over the dream place(s).

I had completely forgotten my ability to fly down the stairs as a child until I read this thread!
So either
a) We have really been able to fly when we were children but have lost the ability or
b) We have never flown but this false memory is perfectly normal

I'm not sure which is weirder