What causes crazy dreams?

[Someone here]

I've been having weird ass dreams lately. Over the past few weeks I have been dreaming a lot of nightmares and just whacked out dreams. I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like those bad trips on psychedelics. I see people transforming into animals and other such weird stuff. And I'm like "God why my dreams are so fucking insane like this". And I wake up in terror at the middle of the night and it's hard for me to fall asleep these days due to fear of bad dreams happening again. And it's carried by a lot of toxic skepticism due to my habit of philosophizing everything.. "what if I get stuck in a nightmare"? "what's the difference between my life and a dream".. And this All makes me confused and just not comfortable with it. 

If you know the kind of dreams I'm talking of.. What caused them and is there a way to reduce them and sleep peacefully? 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Someone here

[Someone here]

@ll Ontology ll the fear is due to having those dreams in the last two weeks. Now each time I go to bed I'm afraid I'm going to have a shitty dream again. I don't know how to address it. 

[Someone here]

16 minutes ago, ll Ontology ll said:

My strategy was something like: If we understand why x particular dreams create fear it might be a good idea to simulate those dreams in the imagination in the waking state and see how our body and mind responds to us learning to engage with those perceptions. This might be a backdoor to handling the fear in the dream state

That won't work. Usually what you do in the waking state doesn't carry to dreams. They happen distinct of each others. It's just the thought that "what if I get stuck in a nightmare" that makes me afraid and unable to sleep. And when I wake up something very weird happens...... 

I see people transferring into animals and then they start attacking me. I wake up afraid. But then I started having the sensation and fear that I would forget how to move my body. Because I don't even know how I'm moving my body. If I don't know, then what if I forget?????     

 

[blankisomeone]

Your subconscious causes them. Usually it reflects some "stage" your going through in life. When you're getting a streak of nighmares (at night and waking life), you're going through a "calling stage". I've also been having some pretty weird nightmarish dreams lately, because I'm going through confusing times in my waking life as well. Check some of these out:

[The "journey stage", "predominant mood" at the end of each dream is something I'm learning from the book "Mindful Dreaming" by David Gordon]

Drunk Weirdo Lurching Towards Me: This drunk guy starts following me, lurching towards me, pointing at me, as I walk awkwardly backwards with my arms stretched out in front of me. I was very scared of this weirdo. I even try a couple of punches and kicks to scare him away. Then I find myself at a public space which is bustling with people so I feel safer. At a stand, there's a guy wearing a suit preaching about how it's important to have empathy with kids. -- Journey stage: calling | Predominant mood: fear | Predominant behavior: escaping

The Crazy Car -- I was watching the news with my mother. They were showing footage of this car in a big city that drove onto a big rubber band that stretched across the street. All of a sudden, the rubber band snapped and sent the car flying up towards the sky as if projected forcefully upwards by a slingshot. It didn't go up too high, though; the car hit an invisible cealing and came zapping back down towards the ground. The car got smashed completely flat on impact, and it now looked like a flattened out soda can. It bounced off the ground and shot up again. It bounced up and down, rolling forward over and over, getting more and more flattened out and destroyed. When the car finally stopped going crazy and disoriented, I looked at my mom and joked: "And the driver is alive and well!". The camera showed the inside of the car, which somehow wasn't flat anymore, and there was no driver inside. "Oh, the dude desintegrated into nothing", I joked. -- Journey stage: calling | Predominant mood: confusion

Dark Maze: I suddenly find myself in a very very dark room. I don't see anything!! I force my eyes, but nothing. Then I can barely make out the outline of a glass door, I slide it open and walk through it, only to end up in yet another dark room. Then another... Then another... Then another... I walk around very disoriented... It's very fucking dark.

Black Lives Matter Heaviness: I was walking down my street and there was this black lives matter sort of protest going on. The atmosphere felt very scary and heavy. People were angry. I asked this girl what she was protesting about and she couldn't tell me. She just looked at me in silence, with a closed off face. -- Journey stage: calling | Predominant mood: fear, mistrust

Hellish Agony Trying To Get Dad To Quit Smoking: I got into a huge argument with my dad because he went into my room smoking. I was screaming at him so loud, but it's very hard to get my words out, it feels like I'm screaming under water. He's completely brushing off my yelling, looking at me as if I'm losing it and my anger towards him is unwarranted and over-the-top. My voice doesn't come out as loud as I intend and it makes the agony even worse. He's slowly walking around, keeping some distance from me, eyeing me up and down cynically, as though I'm going insane. Then he lights up another cigarette. And that does it for me! So I start going around punching things, breaking things, trying really hard to express my anger, going off on him hard. I almost turn over a table with my mom's stuff but stop myself as none of this is her fault. The highlight in this dream was the extreme agony that I felt, not being able to get my words out as loud as I intended.| Journey stage: Calling | Dream type: Control (powerlessness) | Predominant mood: frustration, powerlessness, anger

Poor People Give me Money: I'm at the backyard of a group of poor-looking houses made of bricks. It's the backyard of my friend E*'s house I think. It's muddy. I look around, confused maybe as to how these people live. I see my friend T*. He walks up to me and hands me 50 dollars. I don't understand why I'm deserving of that money. I have a sense that he's splitting an amount of money with family and friends, but I don't understand why he'd do that, given that he already lives in such poor conditions. -- Journey stage: calling | Predominant mood: confusion | Assumptions: "Poor people have nothing to give", "I am not deserving of someone's money"

You're Not The Savior: Teenagers are at school walking down the hallway. Then this guy comes walking down in the opposite direction. I could feel in the air that he was about to start a school shooting. Then this other dude, let's call him the school savior, walks up in the direction of the potential shooter. Then I find myself in the school savior’s POV. His life flashes through my mind and I see everything he went through. He used to have thoughts of a school shooter as well. But he got his act together. He used to be awkward and ugly looking. Then I see how he improved over time. He started working out, got bigger, got rid of his dark fantasies etc. So now here he is to save the day. He walks up the potential shooter, snatches the gun out of his hand and shoots him down. The school savior is standing over the dead body, looking down at it smiling triumphantly. Then something very strange and sinister happened. The dead guy's body slowly opens up and there's this eye in the middle of his entrails which seems to be looking directly at the saver of the school. Then this dark, deep, booming voice emanates from the guy's dead body, worms its way into the school saver's head, saying: "You want to do it too! You want to shoot this entire school too, thinking you're the saver." He chuckles trying to shake off the thoughts going "I'm way over that". And the sinister voice, getting louder and louder, chants: "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!"

Awkward Dancing With a Ghost: I was dancing with someone. A ghost, I think. I couldn't make out who at all, but it felt female. There was a dance instructor and he had said something about swinging back and forth. I felt like we could continue dancing smoothly, each of our shoulders smoothly taking turns touching each other choreographed in perfect sync, but each time we swung off from one shoulder to the other, I felt very dizzy, feeling like I could miss her shoulder and slide off and fall to the ground. And that's what happened. -- Journey stage: calling | Predominant mood: disorientation

Slippery Dolphin: I was at the supermarket. I ran into my friend A* from high school. I hugged her. Saying "hey! Longtime no see!" Then our convo becomes extremely awkward. Then there's this creature, I think it's a dolphin. It's very slippery. It's sliding across the supermarket disoriented and wanting to play with me. At first I'm disgusted by it. But then I start to get into the game, but still kind of cringing at its texture... It feels very weird to the touch.

Edited April 26, 2021 by blankisomeone

[blankisomeone]

Here's something from the book. Usually nightmares (the Calling and Quest columns in the picture below) are inviting you to learn how to release some ego strategies: distraction, control, judgment, attachment, impatience. You have to embrace all dream characters, because they're all inside of you, they usually carry a lesson with them. You‘ll have to pick up the book if you want everything nicely spelled out for you. The book goes into great detail on how to release each one of these ego strategies. Take it easy, it’s a lifelong process  Adopt a playful mindset towards your nightmares; like a movie director directing a horror movie. Fun and exciting

Edited April 26, 2021 by blankisomeone

[blankisomeone]

Some types of dreams in the "Calling stage" (characterized by a streak of nightmares)

 

[Nahm]

13 hours ago, Someone here said:

I've been having weird ass dreams lately. Over the past few weeks I have been dreaming a lot of nightmares and just whacked out dreams. I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like those bad trips on psychedelics. I see people transforming into animals and other such weird stuff. And I'm like "God why my dreams are so fucking insane like this". And I wake up in terror at the middle of the night and it's hard for me to fall asleep these days due to fear of bad dreams happening again. And it's carried by a lot of toxic skepticism due to my habit of philosophizing everything.. "what if I get stuck in a nightmare"? "what's the difference between my life and a dream".. And this All makes me confused and just not comfortable with it. 

If you know the kind of dreams I'm talking of.. What caused them and is there a way to reduce them and sleep peacefully? 

Life is the dream. Make a dreamboard. You’ll directly experience the miracle of what’s on your board showing up in reality. 

Then, for having listened to the nighttime dreams, rather than trying to stop them, you will inevitably no longer experience nighttime dreams at all, let alone nightmares. 

Not. Two. 

[Someone here]

@Nahm

Hmm. Idk as far as I know dreams are intrinsic parts of REM sleep..they must happen.. Although not necessarily that you remember it when you wake up.. Is it possible to have no dreams at all? 

15 hours ago, ll Ontology ll said:

@Someone here Just to move into this tentatively I know it sounds like a stupid question but what is it about nightmares that you're afraid of? For example, if I pose that question to myself, list out all the reasons why then attach myself to those reasons I'm naturally more afraid of the prospect of experiencing a nightmare. However if I'm not only less attached to those reasons but convince myself that I can handle the experience of the nightmare there's a natural change to the colour of the experienced emotions. 

I don't know. The fear is part of the dream itself. 

[Nahm]

11 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Is it possible to have no dreams at all? 

Yes. It’s the default. 

[Someone here]

@blankisomeone thanks for the resources man 

[Someone here]

@Nahm weird. I dream every night multiple dreams 

[roopepa]

I'm a crazy dreamer too. I often meet aliens or other beings in my lucid dreams. Sometimes I wake up only to realize I'm still dreaming.

No worries. You get used to it and even find beauty and cool insights from this craziness. And I got a feeling these dreams won't be a part of your life for too long.

[roopepa]

7 hours ago, Nahm said:

Not. Two. 

I once had this super-lucid dream. Walked around and looked at my hands, the buildings, the trees. They were right "here". All the sensations and little details. It was literally as real as me writing this right now. A second later I woke up, did a dream check and yep, I was back in the real world.

Then I realized that the only difference between the dream I just had and the world after waking up, was the thoughts "this is a dream" and "this is not a dream".

Shapes, sounds, colours, sensations, all were the same 'stuff'. Only the thought changed. I simply saw a dream about waking up.

[Nahm]

@roopepa

Yes! ?? 

[Derek White]

On 2021-04-25 at 5:20 PM, Someone here said:

I see people transferring into animals and then they start attacking me. I wake up afraid. But then I started having the sensation and fear that I would forget how to move my body. Because I don't even know how I'm moving my body. If I don't know, then what if I forget?????     

Do you have any tension or anxiety in your real life? Usually these issues transfer over to your dreams in cryptic ways, especially if you are ignoring them.

So, maybe people shifting to animals indicates you are afraid someone in real life would cheat on you or betray you. Maybe you are afraid that things in your life can change very fast for the worse. Do you have trust issues or uncertainty in your life? 

Not being able to move your body after a nightmare is normal.

You can do one more thing, when you sleep at night, if the nightmare comes, try to imagine a different scenario. So say you’re dreaming and people turn into animals, then try to imagine something pleasant, like you’re having fun or sex. Just something really beautiful to contrast with the nightmare, this may make you lucid dream or remove the nightmare all together.

When you go to bed, actively keep a beautiful image in your mind (eg: image filled with roses, beautiful women, red and pink, hearts, etc.) and visualize beautiful and pleasant things. Before bed, try to be positive and optimistic about tomorrow.

When you wake up after a nightmare, immediately go back to sleep and become more and more aware of the nightmare. The nightmare will lose its power that way.

Subconsciously, you are afraid that something or someone will turn bad and harm you in your life. What are you avoiding/ignoring in your life? I think solving that will be the best solution. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Derek White