Dreams are a funny thing. We all know the science behind it or at the very least would have heard it discussed at some point: the brain waves, R.E.M. sleep...etc.
At some point we've all had vivid dreams that we continue to remember for various reasons. Speaking from personal experience, I tend to have the most vivid dreams when I have a lot going on in my life and I've gotten very good at understanding/interpreting the various meanings of the imagery and sensations I encounter in a dream. Most commonly, they tend to reflect on "current events" that have the most impact on my life at the time, random thoughts and worries I may have had sitting in the back of my mind, and "wish fulfilment" i.e. something I've been wanting for a while and haven't obtained yet.
Some of the more interesting dreams, for me at least, are those that deal with strong emotions, lucid dreams and the "exploration dreams". Emotions don't often play a big roll in my dreams, most of the time it's a bit like Alice in Wonderland in which it flits from one peculiar encounter to another. But when emotions do come in, they take the centre stage. I've had less than a dozen emotionally charged dreams, and in all honesty I don't look forward to them.
It has been theorised that in dreams, the barriers are down, there is no adult-content filter, no firewall - nothing. Anything can happen! With that in mind, it isn't unusual for us to experience emotions a lot more strongly than we would when conscious.
So far, I have experienced: sadness, happiness, love, anger and fear in my dreams. And each emotional encounter has been so intense to the point of it being overwhelming. I've woken up sobbing into my pillow on more than one occasion. They've each been memorable in their own way, it is the fear dreams, naturally, that I hope never to encounter again.
Normally, when I have scary dreams and the situation starts to go beyond what I can handle a "safety-switch" comes into play, and I am in the dream physically able to back out of the scary situation, which becomes nothing more than a scene on a monitor or a television screen with me holding a game controller. I attribute this to the fact I play video games on a very regular basis.
Every once in a while, however, the switch doesn't come into play and I am stuck in whatever scary situation I've been placed in, and this is when the fear starts to build and build until it escalates out of control and I wake up so suddenly still gripped by that intense blinding fear that I can't even think rationally. I remember waking once, probably around two in the morning, so intensely afraid and thinking over and over, "Oh God, they're in the house! They're in the house!" Unable to move, all I could do was cower under my covers in panic until eventually falling asleep again.
I don't know who the 'they' were or why it all somehow made perfect sense at the time, but another dream I had was one of me in first person view lying in my bed, in my room...with everything as it would be when awake. It is at this point I feel something heavy moving across my blanket starting at my feet, very slowly working its way up towards my head. I am completely paralysed and terrified of what would happen once it reached my face. Thankfully I woke up before that happened and the first thing I did was throw my blanket off and inspect my bed for anything. I found nothing of course.
My grandmother gave me some very useful advice for what to do when you find yourself paralysed in a dream: Try to wiggle your toes.
Once you've moved your toes, the paralysis disappears - I've tried it and it works!
My grandmother passed away in 2007 when I was a first year at university in Australia. My mother had a very interesting dream when she came to the Philippines for the funeral. She dreamt that her mother (my grandmother) approached her while was lying in bed. When my mother started to cry, grandma comforted her and said that it would be all right, that she (my mother) had taken good care of her in her declining years. Then my mother says, she saw her father (my grandfather who had died long before I'd been born) waiting in the distance, calling to my grandmother, and that after one last goodbye, grandma went to join his side and that together they left.
I'd like to think that my grandmother's spirit paid my mom one last visit, possibly in her dreams because mother does not normally sense or see ghosts.
My room here in the Philippines, the room I am sitting in right now, used to be my grandma's room...I can't say I've (or any other relatives who can sense these things) ever sensed anything here or in my mom's room, which is where my grandmother passed away. I'm glad that her spirit did not feel the need to linger, but even if it did...It's not a thought that scares me since I know how much my grandma loved me and that she would never do anything to hurt or frighten me.
I'd like to think that she together with my grandpa watch over us still, from their respective plane of existence of course.
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