Dreams

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:55 am

Is this a bad idea?

I’ve been having spectacularly weird dreams in quarantine. Before all this started I thought I was one of those people who was too busy/stressed/neuron-burned from a life of pot smoking to have dreams anymore, but they’re back with a vengeance.

Last night I had a dream that plants had made an evolutionary leap and were capable of growing temporary people. Like you’d see someone & then they’d be gone, because it was just a fern’s human avatar they were using for a second to get something done. The plant-people couldn’t talk but they could walk around untethered from their roots. I think my backyard is trying to communicate with me

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:21 am

My dreams have always tended toward the nightmarish/apocalyptic, but I don't think they've gotten worse during quar.

Here's one from a few months ago though:

there was a “rewilding” conference on some land that a rich guy owns (my friend Peter actually runs a real “Rewilding” conference and non-profit but this one was a fake nightmare one)
and there was a hot tub area behind a fence and a locked door

but the hot tubs had trapdoors in them, and somehow i knew that the trapdoors would open and people would get sucked down and get their organs harvested

then their bodies would get ground up and put into bottles or jars for rich people to drink i guess?

anyway i was like “we gotta get out here, this place creeps me out” to my wife Sasha but we couldn’t find our car

there was also a stadium that the rich guy was building for “events” and i assumed horrific stuff would go down in there too but couldn’t see in there

moral of the story is that rich people want to harvest our organs i guess

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:22 am

WOW, plant people!!!!! That's a great dream and so very Vandermeer.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:24 am

alexshred420 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:21 am moral of the story is that rich people want to harvest our organs i guess

I mean...your subconscious isn't wrong here

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:25 am

I tend towards dreaming a lot of crazy shit, both dumb anxiety dreams and fun weird stuff. I dream a lot about photography in silly ways- constantly waking up to realize that, no, I did not in fact take an up-close large format film photograph of a beluga whale. SAD.

Right now I'm taking an experimental drug to boost my shoddy immune system and it's primary side effect is sleep disturbance/increased dreaming, and I am having TOUGH TIME. All night long, a grueling march through diabolical dark anxiety dreams. I might have to quit taking it? I'm tired!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:55 am

I’ve been having some social distance anxiety ‘mares. Being outside in big crowds w everyone jostling and seeming unaware of the global situation. Last night I dreamed a rattlesnake bit me and I was panicking about having to go to a hospital

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:57 am

Good thread, Claire! I love hearing people's dreams. Dreaming is one of the first creative acts of living, and such a mysterious yet essential process of the mind. Even our pets dream of running and eating.

I don't have any cool dreams hot off the press but I will for damn sure pin them here when I do. A key part of my mental health hygiene is managing my dream and sleep life--I take medicine to prevent REM sleep disorder symptoms (thrashing and screaming) and to reduce the intensity and occurrence of nightmares.

Alex, I love your creepy dream. Please don't let them lure Sasha into the charnel Jacuzzi. Walking humanoid ferns, hyper technical photography simulations... That's the stuff that makes David Lynch love TM.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:27 am

Dreamt I saw a little kid fall horribly on her bike but I assumed her parents would panic if I touched her even though they were already blocks down the road, unaware. UGH.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:29 am

i was on tour with my band (mix of real and imagined) and I kept losing my shirt, then bra.* Finally it was time for our photo shoot but I was topless, so I said F it, commandeered a big and tough-looking guy who was nearby, and did kind of a tough-guy lean next to him in our band lineup.

*Interpretation: if in real life I show some deeply-held part of myself, it touches on feelings of shame and embarrassment akin to being seen at my most vulnerable. In this dream, I didn't let that shame get to me and I chose to turn it into a strength.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Apr 18, 2020 12:43 pm

I interpret this as a big step! I have had lifelong topless horror dreams. For reals. Vulnerability is terrifying and you honor us with your trust. You are a big tough guy!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:39 pm

Wouldn't it be cool if one person in a band lineup pic was a chick with naked boobs, chilling on some jarhead like he was furniture? Free idea to everyone here.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:35 am

Last night I dreamt that I picked up a small card and it was a tintype photograph in an oval paper mat, but it was only a centimeter or two wide! The image was of a woman outside, holding flowers, and it was actually a transparency and not a tintype. I held it up to the sky and felt a rush of emotions.

For reference this is what that kind of photograph looks like. It's bigger than a business card and smaller than a postcard:

When I woke up I started googling and discovered that tiny tintypes were a thing?!?! They are called GEM TINTYPES, and my mind is blown. I teach history of photography AND love tiny things and had never seen these before! Now I'm adding them to my fall class.

Gem Tintype, which is actually still bigger than the image in my dream:

THANKS, DREAMS!!!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:41 am

This is what the camera looks like, and I've never wanted anything so badly in my entire life:

And a tiny album:

I knew there were tiny photos but I didn't know there was a name and system for producing them !

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:53 am

I saw an exhibition of those tiny tintypes at the National Portrait Gallery last time I was in DC! They were displayed in dark recessed little shadow boxes with special lights

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:56 am

So cool

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:58 am

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:53 am I saw an exhibition of those tiny tintypes at the National Portrait Gallery last time I was in DC! They were displayed in dark recessed little shadow boxes with special lights

holy shit, that sounds amazing!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 12:41 pm

I can’t believe you dreamed a real thing that was an invention you wanted to know!!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:43 pm

I know!
The dream picture was the size of a fingernail, so tiny. I'm going to try and recreate it.

Post by **joni** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 6:43 pm

What a great thread! GEM is such a cool qualifier for a smaller version of something.

richjensen · Post by **richjensen** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:03 pm

I think my meditation hours are bringing back my dream life. The other day I had a hipster cannibal dream.

There was some uptight party with a bunch of goons sitting down cross-legged like something was supposed to happen. There had been a lot of fancy cooking going on with the result that there was a pretty charred-up, batter-fried human leaning against the wall. No features, like a burned up mummy, but we all knew what it was.

I was feeling snotty so I walked up and tore its right arm off and headed for the door.

As expected the room went silent and as I passed this one wag at the back he dismissed me with, " This isn't a movie."

As I flounced by I threw back, "Neither are you."

Once through the doors I took a bite. Kind of a very stringy, flavorless chicken wing. Disappointed I tossed it on lawn and kept on moving.

I woke with a clear impression of this experience though the dreamer felt completely unfamiliar. A version of me, I guess.

Felt very COVID-19.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:08 am

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:08 am

Rich, that dream is next level!!! I used to have recurring body horror dreams about giving birth (which is fear #1 for me) and one variation was being forced to eat a deep fried human fetus. Consistency of jackfruit—that same stringiness.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:18 am

Also! I had a dream last night that involved @RCH. We were building the perfect prepper bunker in a basement carved out beneath the ramshackle workshop of an old theme park. I was in charge of legumes and root vegetables & we had to keep clear of the theme park manager, a holdover from another era who was nostalgic about the golden age of the park, when he’d invented a roller coaster for children that was coated in chocolate that you could lick all the way down

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:28 am

GOOD dream, Rich. Wow.

Here's one from a few weeks ago:

i was at my credit union, except it wasn’t my regular credit union. the ATM was inside right next to a window, and i was like “you really shouldn’t have an unsecured ATM right next to the window, somebody could break the window and tow the ATM away”
the employees didn’t really listen, and then some dudes broke the window and tied a chain around it and towed it out with their big ole pickup. then they came in and made everyone get on the floor at gunpoint for some reason, even though they were just going to take the ATM away.

they were like “we’re going to shoot some people just for fun" and shot me in the head.

i didn’t die but i was bleeding, and ran outside to try and flag down some help. then sasha woke me up.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:42 am

This sentence though! "I was in charge of legumes and root vegetables & we had to keep clear of the theme park manager, a holdover from another era who was nostalgic about the golden age of the park, when he’d invented a roller coaster for children that was coated in chocolate that you could lick all the way down."

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:01 am

Claire I also have a recurring pregnancy nightmare!!! In it I realize I'm 9 months pregnant somehow without knowing it. And I'm filled with the most extreme panic and dread and just absolute horror. The horror of this dream is so intense. I always wake up super sweaty with my heart pounding. What is it about??

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:21 am

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:18 am Also! I had a dream last night that involved @RCH. We were building the perfect prepper bunker in a basement carved out beneath the ramshackle workshop of an old theme park. I was in charge of legumes and root vegetables & we had to keep clear of the theme park manager, a holdover from another era who was nostalgic about the golden age of the park, when he’d invented a roller coaster for children that was coated in chocolate that you could lick all the way down

I would watch, or, hell, finance this film!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:07 am

That will be seven million dollars (just to build the coaster)

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:12 am

ritchey wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:01 am Claire I also have a recurring pregnancy nightmare!!! In it I realize I'm 9 months pregnant somehow without knowing it. And I'm filled with the most extreme panic and dread and just absolute horror. The horror of this dream is so intense. I always wake up super sweaty with my heart pounding. What is it about??

Same! It's always I'm pregnant, I keep saying "I'll take care of it" and then suddenly somehow it's been nine months and I never "took care of it" and it's time to GIVE BIRTH NOW. I think it's one of the few completely literal dreams. We are scared of this extremely scary body-rending thing human women sometimes do! I am scared of giving birth even in waking life! And I think probably it's also a fear of one's own body becoming an alien, lack of control, being subjugated to a biological process that is way more ancient than us as individuals, etc.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:28 pm

UGH
your body BETRAYING you (who even are "you" if you aren't your body)
yes the forceful fact of relinquishing autonomy, like now the baby IS and things are changed forever and there is NOTHING you can do about it now, it's too late.
Sometimes in the dream I'm like going around to people in my life (my mom, Andrew) and screaming HOW DID THIS HAPPEN and they are never impressed or interested

I only have two recurring body horror dreams--this is one, and the other one is that my mouth and throat are filled with gum (GUM!!!!!! It's all coming together) and I'm tearing it out with my hands but there's always more of it and I can't breathe or get rid of it, this alien presence completely filling my mouth and going down my throat. I literally think this dream is just caused by the fact that I sleep with a huge mouth guard in my mouth which causes weird bouts of drooling

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:28 pm

I have that recurring dream too, although sometimes it's more of a dough or paste!
I thought maybe it was about communication, but who knows. So gross and awful, but now I feel less alone and freakish about it!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:34 pm

Whoa!!!!
That’s so good to hear

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:54 pm

I've never been pregnant but I have enjoyed the songs of pregnant women writing from that angle. But not horror, the opposite actually.

But anyway, this is not really a dream, more of a fugue state vision, but last night all night I smelled what seemed like smoke from a smoldering large stump fire. The window by my head was open and cool air blew in.

Probably the smell came from a smoldering large stump fire. Surely there's at least one going not far away. It's spring here and chainsaws, lawnmowers and machinery fill the air every day.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:48 am

It is incredible to me that anyone can just go out and buy a chainsaw. Surely you should need to take some class first? I kind of feel the same way about pitbulls. But that's another story for Pet Cemetary (not scary).

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 1:50 am

It just occurred to me that I used to have a recurring pregnancy dreams a few years ago. But in mine I am very pregnant, wearing a yellow sundress with little ties at the shoulders. I am strolling along in what looks like a busy weekly farmer's market from the movie The Birdcage (don't know if that scene really exists but you can imagine). My hair is in pigtail braids and I am chatting with all the vendors and buying like bouquets and baguettes and live lobsters. Picture Mrs. Dalloway in Miami circa 1998. I think that fact that I'm pregnant is more of a style accessory than anything else? I don't seem to pay it much mind. It is not discussed.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 5:58 am

my mother just texted me saying she dreamed last night that I was playing Dracula in an opera, wearing a red dress and with long golden hair

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:57 am

I was at a bachelor party and both Pete Buttigieg and Tony Soprano were there

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:02 am

@molly I own a chainsaw and use it occasionally and often wonder the same thing. Why am I allowed to do this without any training? It's nuts, and never really stops being scary.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:15 am

It is WILD.

Post by **joni** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:41 am

I was on set for a Red Hot Chili Peppers music video. The band and a small crew were in a giant pool with all kinds of rigging and stuff, not unlike where they have the big stunt action performances at Universal Studios.

Anyway, the band and a handful of crew (and maybe me) were treading water in the pool while smoking cigarettes and loudly singing a chant-rap that was new to me but very much in the style of what the Peps are known for.

Flea started to struggle with keeping his ciggy above water while he treaded and his entire body was submerged with only his hand and cig above the water. He got out and was immediately dry and pacing in a bright chartreuse tight v-neck t-shirt and grey hippy-ish pants.

I remembered the chant-rap for a little bit this morning but now it’s GONE.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:46 pm

"Dreams" is one of the top few Cranberries songs.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:50 pm

it's so good to sing along to, especially the yodel-y part

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 5:21 pm

How to buy a chainsaw:

https://youtu.be/B19pXly8d6k

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:29 am

Got one from the interwebs! I'll be bringing it to class in the fall, and definitely telling my students I dreamed them.

Still wish it was even smaller, though.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:31 am

Does anyone else have alien invasion dreams? I don't really see the aliens, but I have a lot of dreams where there are lasers and things coming from the sky and mass pandemonium.
Pretty unpleasant!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:42 am

No but I used to have a recurring dream where I was hiding behind a heavy velvet curtain and I KNEW for certain that on the other side of the curtain, just in front of my face, was an alien, and that the minute it tore the curtain away I’d be face-to-face with unspeakable and unknowable horror

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:29 am

I have never had an alien dream of any kind!
Am I unimaginative? OR highly evolved/an alien????

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:51 pm

claire, good GOD!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:16 pm

My alien dreams are very War Of The Worlds (love that book) and involve lots of hiding in ditches and ruins with a ragtag vestige of humanity. The sky is lit up with their alien signs, as though our atmosphere is a smartphone notifications center that they control. There is little if any face-to-face imagery happening; it's mostly about a collectively-felt fear of losing touch with our own planet and humanity. So basically a story about climate change and war anxiety.

I have a lot more zombie dreams though!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:33 pm

I have long dark zomb dreams although not as bad as I used to

I have recurring nightmare where I realize I’m married to some random person and then the whole dream is me crying and panicking trying to find a phone to call Andrew, but no phones I find work OR I cant remember his number or I find an iPhone but can’t figure out how to use it so the dream degenerates into me like asking people “where is safari on this phone” so I can log into my gmail and email him but no one can ever help me