Andrei, The dream you shared is a powerful one. I think there are very different dream spaces, liminal borders, and I don’t think strangers in the waking time can “interpret” your dreams for you, but strangers that appear in your Dreamtime might.
The weirdest thing (if we can still use the word) is that I’ve had several experiences of synchronicity in past couple of days, including reading this post! I am working on set of dream poems titled “ Remember Upon Waking” that I haven’t been able yet to release to strangers.
Again, this is very weird. And yes I think you can definitely use that word. Please read Cindy’s comment above. It seems I’m experiencing synchronicity twice in this comment section. Looking forward to reading those poems when they’re ready, Sharon!
When I was a kid, I was positive that lightning was able to come through the window and strike me. That was a very specific fear of mine. I found comfort in counting the seconds between the flashes and the sound as a way to count how many miles away it was. The higher the number, the safer I was. It's wild to me that you dreamed this as an adult. I don't know what it means but...damn!
I grew up and decided lightning doesn't do that. My dreams are very vivid and I tend to remember quite a few of them. If I dreamed I was struck by lightning in my bed, I think it would mean something really powerful like a life-changing epiphany or the manifestation of a deepest fear or maybe a heart attack. It's a big deal. Bed is supposed to be safe. Your childhood bedroom should be a safe place. Was it? You don't have to answer but think about those kinds of things to come up with your own interpretation of your dream.
Hmm, yeah, that’s a thread I could go on. The thing is, it definitely was a safe space, and I think that’s reflected in the fact that the lightning didn’t harm me. As for what the lightning itself could mean, I suppose I’ll have to figure it out someday.
I absolutely believe that dreams are more than just dreams. They’ve always meant a lot to me. Sadly, the older I get, the less I remember… but they always leave a lasting impact. Can’t remember the exact things that happened or places I went, but the feeling I’m left with… it affects me. Like I’m missing something important. And I’m furious I can’t grasp it. The more I try, the quicker it vanishes.
Also, I keep getting flashbacks of dreams (short pieces of them) I had in childhood. When I can’t remember what happened to me last month or the names of people I interacted with a few years ago. 🙈
Dreams are absolutely fascinating, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. 😅
I agree! They can reveal a lot, even and especially immediate insights into your state of mind. I’ve sometimes realized I’d been feeling a certain way or that something had been bothering me after a particularly poignant dream. Thanks for reading, Elena!
"Wouldn’t making sense of someone’s dream mean making sense of their mind?"
Indeed. Well put, Andrei.
I love reading about dreams. They're such wild, varied things. I am like your wife. I have the craziest and wildest dreams every night and tend to remember all of them. It comes from my father's side. He is the same and he hates it; he finds it too exhausting. I love it, though.
Honestly, you’re blessed. I wish I could remember more than I do, especially since I KNOW that I dream complex dreams. I can tell from the cocktail of feelings I feel when I wake up. Thanks for reading this one, Nathan!
I'm a stranger and cannot tell you anything about yourself. But I've had a long experience with dreams. Like you my dreams evaporated quickly but always left a peculiar, sticky emotion. During a stormy period of my life when I was being pummeled by unpleasant dreams I decided that I would write down my dreams as soon as I awoke. I accumulated a large volume and with the help of a very enlightened mentor gradually learned that the dreams, though diverse, were trying to tell me something dreadful I did not want to remember. Once the dreadful event was uncovered, my life changed for the better in a dramatic way. And my dreams diminished in intensity. So, is that lightening bolt delivering some hidden message to you? I don't know.
Thanks for telling me this story, George. It seems amazing how powerful dreams are. Looks like your were really persistent, too, whereas mine only showed up once. Maybe it’s because I learned what it wanted to teach me, and I just don’t know it yet?
I’m the same as you, Andrei, in that I usually forget dreams more or less as I’m opening my eyes. But I did have one when I was about four years old where goblins were chasing me to cook me in a giant cauldron of stew and it still lives rent free in my head all these years later, lol
It ended before they caught me, luckily! I remember them stirring this black giant pot over a fire…you know how in some dreams there isn’t really any dialogue, yet you somehow know everyone’s intent without them saying it? It was like that. I feel like it was a bastardization of some animated movie I’d seen that scared me but I am honestly not sure which!
God, this is priceless😂😂 and yeah, I imagined it might have been like that. There are some dreams where your head is just filled with information even though nothing much happens.
"Not as though someone had turned on the lights, nor as if it were morning, but as though the moon had left its place in the sky to stand before my window." - What a striking image! And certainly a powerful dream. It's good it has stayed with you and you wrote about it.
Nadia, you have such a way of discovering my own favourite paragraphs 😂 thanks for reading this one! And yeah, I’ve been thinking about writing about it for months. This one, I wrote using the new mobile editor, in an evening. It was a wonderfully cathartic experience.
So, I’ve had many dreams in my life, some of which I wake and go, “huh, okay.” Most, like you, I don’t remember at all. But three have been ingrained permanently into my mind.
The first happened as a reoccurring dream from when I was little, always sad, a melancholy one about a lullaby my mom used to sing. Then, when she would sing the song to me, I would cry. I never understood why until after she passed. Somehow, it’s like I knew her songs were limited, like the dream was trying to warn me of it all along.
The second I had about a year after I moved out on my own. Walking through a hotel lobby full of dead bodies. I can still see the images just thinking about it. When I awoke, I had this horrible feeling of dread that I couldn’t shake. Two days later, my father suffered a heart attack. Thankfully, he survived and fifteen years later has not had another incident.
The third was the clearest of them all. My friends and I were hunkered down in some kind of large underground bomb shelter, chaos and war raging outside. Again, there was that feeling of dread waking up. A week after I had that dream, my best friend’s mother died suddenly.
That was over ten years ago now and I haven’t had another one since. But, you can bet if it does happen again, I’ll be paying close attention to it.
Damn, those three sound gruesome. So it sounds like your dreams function as a kind of death messenger. Tragic, but pretty useful when it comes to preparing yourself for an eventual passing. Thanks for sharing these illuminating insights.
Not really. I usually dream and remember my dreams when I wake up 😊
Some dreams are repited and when that happends I usually one page about dreams... but in the end, a dream is a product of your mind. And it depends on how stressed or tired you are your mind will create different kinds of dreams... If you only have dreamt this one time, I'd let ir pass, but if that dream is repeated in time, them you should look inside of you for answers, because the answer is always in us. 🙂
I suppose that’s all true, and beautifully said! I only remember that one time, I don’t think I dreamed of the lightning again. And no other dream has carried as much weight as this one ever. Thank you for reading, Sara!
In my experience, to approach an intelligible interpretation of a dream, a parallel should be drawn to the dreamer’s waking life and hours—and the contents of their conscious mind. Otherwise its symbols are as good as random.
I can believe that. I once listened to a podcast by sleep researcher Matthew Walker, and he said that recent research points to the fact that dreams are most often populated by significant emotions and thoughts that obsess the person. They’re not a reinterpretation of daily life, nor are they random, but are instead a way for the mind to process difficult things.
It occurs to me that your sharing of this remarkable incident is just the beginning. I think you have a story to write here. Not necessarily in the first person -- write it as fiction if you like, but there is much more to the story that you may be holding in. Let's have it, Andrei
And so will you yourself, right? We’re the biggest liars when it comes to ourselves. At the same time, how much can a stranger ever know beyond surface stuff?
Yes, we’re a mystery to ourselves and others. The German film director Warner Herzog once said that we should never look deeply into our own eyes because we might be frightened by what we find there. 🥲
No idea what makes us remember some dreams and not others, that is not the purpose of my comment. I want to ask if you have you ever considered that the dream was your mind's way of creating a story to explain a physical event happening to your body as you slept?
Hi! It’s possible, but I don’t see how that can be the case, at least for this dream. I woke up the same physically as I was when my head hit the pillow. But I’ll keep this question in mind for other dreams. It’s quite interesting.
You want to remember? Tell yourself I want to remember my dreams before going to sleep. When dreaming try to return to the beginning of the dream. Remember main events. Wake gently with note pad handy. Write. No matter where you begin. Don’t get distracted. When finished. Return to sleep. In morning see what you wrote. If this fails ask your wife how she remembers dreams. As for lightning flash, who is to say it was a dream?
Tell yourself. Prepare with notebook by side. Your mind will acknowledge the concept. BTW you can change your dreams if you don’t like what’s happening. If you are falling tell yourself to fly.
Andrei, The dream you shared is a powerful one. I think there are very different dream spaces, liminal borders, and I don’t think strangers in the waking time can “interpret” your dreams for you, but strangers that appear in your Dreamtime might.
The weirdest thing (if we can still use the word) is that I’ve had several experiences of synchronicity in past couple of days, including reading this post! I am working on set of dream poems titled “ Remember Upon Waking” that I haven’t been able yet to release to strangers.
Again, this is very weird. And yes I think you can definitely use that word. Please read Cindy’s comment above. It seems I’m experiencing synchronicity twice in this comment section. Looking forward to reading those poems when they’re ready, Sharon!
When I was a kid, I was positive that lightning was able to come through the window and strike me. That was a very specific fear of mine. I found comfort in counting the seconds between the flashes and the sound as a way to count how many miles away it was. The higher the number, the safer I was. It's wild to me that you dreamed this as an adult. I don't know what it means but...damn!
Wow, that’s so weird! I don’t even know what to say. How did you manage to get over this fear?
I grew up and decided lightning doesn't do that. My dreams are very vivid and I tend to remember quite a few of them. If I dreamed I was struck by lightning in my bed, I think it would mean something really powerful like a life-changing epiphany or the manifestation of a deepest fear or maybe a heart attack. It's a big deal. Bed is supposed to be safe. Your childhood bedroom should be a safe place. Was it? You don't have to answer but think about those kinds of things to come up with your own interpretation of your dream.
Hmm, yeah, that’s a thread I could go on. The thing is, it definitely was a safe space, and I think that’s reflected in the fact that the lightning didn’t harm me. As for what the lightning itself could mean, I suppose I’ll have to figure it out someday.
Being empowered wouldn't hurt. Maybe that's it.
Could be. It would make sense, looking back at the last four years.
I absolutely believe that dreams are more than just dreams. They’ve always meant a lot to me. Sadly, the older I get, the less I remember… but they always leave a lasting impact. Can’t remember the exact things that happened or places I went, but the feeling I’m left with… it affects me. Like I’m missing something important. And I’m furious I can’t grasp it. The more I try, the quicker it vanishes.
Also, I keep getting flashbacks of dreams (short pieces of them) I had in childhood. When I can’t remember what happened to me last month or the names of people I interacted with a few years ago. 🙈
Dreams are absolutely fascinating, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. 😅
I agree! They can reveal a lot, even and especially immediate insights into your state of mind. I’ve sometimes realized I’d been feeling a certain way or that something had been bothering me after a particularly poignant dream. Thanks for reading, Elena!
My pleasure. Dreams are very important to me. 🥹
Good on you, and wise!
I've been dreaming about these Solzynytsyn quotes lately
https://files.catbox.moe/pti3tl.jpg
https://files.catbox.moe/khk98o.jpg
"Wouldn’t making sense of someone’s dream mean making sense of their mind?"
Indeed. Well put, Andrei.
I love reading about dreams. They're such wild, varied things. I am like your wife. I have the craziest and wildest dreams every night and tend to remember all of them. It comes from my father's side. He is the same and he hates it; he finds it too exhausting. I love it, though.
Honestly, you’re blessed. I wish I could remember more than I do, especially since I KNOW that I dream complex dreams. I can tell from the cocktail of feelings I feel when I wake up. Thanks for reading this one, Nathan!
I resonate with that surprising moment of feeling unharmed.
I’m glad. I think this was the most poignant aspect of the dream, and why I still remember it.
I'm a stranger and cannot tell you anything about yourself. But I've had a long experience with dreams. Like you my dreams evaporated quickly but always left a peculiar, sticky emotion. During a stormy period of my life when I was being pummeled by unpleasant dreams I decided that I would write down my dreams as soon as I awoke. I accumulated a large volume and with the help of a very enlightened mentor gradually learned that the dreams, though diverse, were trying to tell me something dreadful I did not want to remember. Once the dreadful event was uncovered, my life changed for the better in a dramatic way. And my dreams diminished in intensity. So, is that lightening bolt delivering some hidden message to you? I don't know.
Thanks for telling me this story, George. It seems amazing how powerful dreams are. Looks like your were really persistent, too, whereas mine only showed up once. Maybe it’s because I learned what it wanted to teach me, and I just don’t know it yet?
I’m the same as you, Andrei, in that I usually forget dreams more or less as I’m opening my eyes. But I did have one when I was about four years old where goblins were chasing me to cook me in a giant cauldron of stew and it still lives rent free in my head all these years later, lol
Did they manage to get you? Or how did you know what they wanted to do to you?
It ended before they caught me, luckily! I remember them stirring this black giant pot over a fire…you know how in some dreams there isn’t really any dialogue, yet you somehow know everyone’s intent without them saying it? It was like that. I feel like it was a bastardization of some animated movie I’d seen that scared me but I am honestly not sure which!
God, this is priceless😂😂 and yeah, I imagined it might have been like that. There are some dreams where your head is just filled with information even though nothing much happens.
"Not as though someone had turned on the lights, nor as if it were morning, but as though the moon had left its place in the sky to stand before my window." - What a striking image! And certainly a powerful dream. It's good it has stayed with you and you wrote about it.
Nadia, you have such a way of discovering my own favourite paragraphs 😂 thanks for reading this one! And yeah, I’ve been thinking about writing about it for months. This one, I wrote using the new mobile editor, in an evening. It was a wonderfully cathartic experience.
These lines are fire!
So, I’ve had many dreams in my life, some of which I wake and go, “huh, okay.” Most, like you, I don’t remember at all. But three have been ingrained permanently into my mind.
The first happened as a reoccurring dream from when I was little, always sad, a melancholy one about a lullaby my mom used to sing. Then, when she would sing the song to me, I would cry. I never understood why until after she passed. Somehow, it’s like I knew her songs were limited, like the dream was trying to warn me of it all along.
The second I had about a year after I moved out on my own. Walking through a hotel lobby full of dead bodies. I can still see the images just thinking about it. When I awoke, I had this horrible feeling of dread that I couldn’t shake. Two days later, my father suffered a heart attack. Thankfully, he survived and fifteen years later has not had another incident.
The third was the clearest of them all. My friends and I were hunkered down in some kind of large underground bomb shelter, chaos and war raging outside. Again, there was that feeling of dread waking up. A week after I had that dream, my best friend’s mother died suddenly.
That was over ten years ago now and I haven’t had another one since. But, you can bet if it does happen again, I’ll be paying close attention to it.
Damn, those three sound gruesome. So it sounds like your dreams function as a kind of death messenger. Tragic, but pretty useful when it comes to preparing yourself for an eventual passing. Thanks for sharing these illuminating insights.
I’m a total skeptic when it comes to the supernatural (ghosts, etc.) but I’m totally convinced they were sent as a warning.
Not really. I usually dream and remember my dreams when I wake up 😊
Some dreams are repited and when that happends I usually one page about dreams... but in the end, a dream is a product of your mind. And it depends on how stressed or tired you are your mind will create different kinds of dreams... If you only have dreamt this one time, I'd let ir pass, but if that dream is repeated in time, them you should look inside of you for answers, because the answer is always in us. 🙂
I suppose that’s all true, and beautifully said! I only remember that one time, I don’t think I dreamed of the lightning again. And no other dream has carried as much weight as this one ever. Thank you for reading, Sara!
In my experience, to approach an intelligible interpretation of a dream, a parallel should be drawn to the dreamer’s waking life and hours—and the contents of their conscious mind. Otherwise its symbols are as good as random.
I can believe that. I once listened to a podcast by sleep researcher Matthew Walker, and he said that recent research points to the fact that dreams are most often populated by significant emotions and thoughts that obsess the person. They’re not a reinterpretation of daily life, nor are they random, but are instead a way for the mind to process difficult things.
It occurs to me that your sharing of this remarkable incident is just the beginning. I think you have a story to write here. Not necessarily in the first person -- write it as fiction if you like, but there is much more to the story that you may be holding in. Let's have it, Andrei
It’s quite, quite possible! Maybe this is the beginning of a future novel. I’ll keep that in mind.
Yes. You can only trust a stranger to tell you who you really are.
People who know you, and especially those who know you well, will always lie.
And so will you yourself, right? We’re the biggest liars when it comes to ourselves. At the same time, how much can a stranger ever know beyond surface stuff?
Yes, we’re a mystery to ourselves and others. The German film director Warner Herzog once said that we should never look deeply into our own eyes because we might be frightened by what we find there. 🥲
No idea what makes us remember some dreams and not others, that is not the purpose of my comment. I want to ask if you have you ever considered that the dream was your mind's way of creating a story to explain a physical event happening to your body as you slept?
Hi! It’s possible, but I don’t see how that can be the case, at least for this dream. I woke up the same physically as I was when my head hit the pillow. But I’ll keep this question in mind for other dreams. It’s quite interesting.
You want to remember? Tell yourself I want to remember my dreams before going to sleep. When dreaming try to return to the beginning of the dream. Remember main events. Wake gently with note pad handy. Write. No matter where you begin. Don’t get distracted. When finished. Return to sleep. In morning see what you wrote. If this fails ask your wife how she remembers dreams. As for lightning flash, who is to say it was a dream?
I suppose you’re right. Who’s to say it was a dream? And thanks for the tips. I keep meaning to try the notebook thing.
Tell yourself. Prepare with notebook by side. Your mind will acknowledge the concept. BTW you can change your dreams if you don’t like what’s happening. If you are falling tell yourself to fly.
Read Jorge Luis Borges, Book of Sand. One chapter before sleeping. Guarantee you’ll have dreams.
I did! Great collection!
Yes. You are in control. Even prophetic dreams.
Have you managed that ever?