Further dreams

[larryhammer]

When I was very young, I had repeated nightmares of falling. Usually, I fell off things, from at least second-story height, but sometimes I fell from mid-air. Sometimes this came out of the dreamstory, others it just happened. Either way, a nightmare. I always woke on impact -- except this one dream. It was one of the from mid-air ones, over our back patio. This time, when I hit the ground, I teleported twenty feet above the ground and fell again. And again. And again. Total major freak-out material here -- but not, apparently, major enough to wake me up. Finally, one repeat, as I plummeted at the ground, out of sheer panicked desperation, I ... missed.

Instead, I floated a couple feet off the ground. Which surprised me so much, I woke up. Finally.

That was my last falling nightmare -- and my first flying dream.

When I first read Douglas Adams's description of flying, I went, "Yes! Exactly!"

---L.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I get 'em both--always have. But when I fall in the dream, my entire body jerks violently and always wakes me up. Sometimes I can stop the fall first, but basically I loathe those. I prefer the easy flight ones. (i also never have liked the ones where I fly too high and see the night cityscape below me, and I am lost. It puzzled me exceedingly to figure out what this was I was seeing until I was on an airliner at 21, and recognized what I'd been dreaming. Oh!)

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

There's a degree of awareness I have in dreams where sometimes I know it's a dream and I can fly, sometimes I suspect it's a dream and I can fly, sometimes I think it's a dream but I can't fly but I can still jump off of high places and land on my feet, and times I know it's a dream and still can't get any altitude. Those last times are rarer and rarer, though I well remember early dreams where I tried to fly to get away from someone and got grabbed by the ankle.

There have also been dreams where I worked on my flying technique, using things I'd learned about birds and their wings -- fingers together on the downstroke, apart on the upstroke. More recently, I'm trying to get away from the labor-intensive sort of flying and just tell myself that if my arms are out, I should be able to fly high and fast. (For years, I suffered from a chronic upper altitude limit that made it entirely too likely somebody could grab me by the ankle.)

Flying is a good way to get places in dreams. Lots of good dreams start with me in the vicinity of my old house, and then I just pick a direction and head off, looking for adventures or at least amusement.

[larryhammer]

My awareness in dreams it fairly limited -- the only conscious control I have is that I can wake myself up, if I don't like where things are going. Last night, for example, I was aware that I was in a dramatization of a Sherwood Smith novel, but not that it was a dreamdramatization. I was very disappointed when I woke up and realzied it was a novel that doesn't exist -- something sort of like Inda, with a narrator that swooped between POVs gracefully, only science fiction.

---L.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

When I was about 12 I realized I could control dreams so that if bad things started to happen in the dream I could alter them.


With age, I seem to have lost this ability.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Dunno if that's good or implied notgood, but wow.

[larryhammer]

Good enough to be disappointed when I woke up.

---L.

[coyoty.livejournal.com]

So, you're really a drop bear.

I always recommend at least 450 mg. of the herb "gotu kola" before bed to enhance dreaming. You'll have more lucid dreams and greater control of your dreams. In my case, I find I have a lot of original story dreams with plots that resolve themselves brilliantly just before I have to wake up.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

I used to have some falling dreams as a kid where I was fine if I could just remember that green things floated. I'd try to be wearing my green blade guards over ice skates, so that I could hover *really* well and even skate in the air if the whim struck (there's some green in my eyes, so that helped to at least slow the fall). If you convince yourself that something floats, and that it's your shoes, jacket, eyes, or whatever, that might help with the dreams.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

I can't always fly, but jumping and hovering (even changing directions) for a very long time is quite easy. :)

[larryhammer]

I'm not sure I want more dreams, given I wake up several times a night.

---L.

[larryhammer]

My only control is a Wake Up Now! button, which I didn't acquire till I was an adult.

---L.

[jankenstein.livejournal.com]

I never had too many dreams about falling, but much like Twilight, I had lots of dreams where I could hover and move myself while hovering.
I didn't know lucid dreaming was unsusual until I got older. I've also had monochromatic dreams in red, blue, and sepia tones.

[larryhammer]

The startling dreams are the ones in monochrome but for one thing. Which for me usually turn out to be irrelevant random objects, without any significance. Mostly they're black-and-white for me, though there was the one sepia dream with a blue marble displayed in a cupboard.

My flying is usually a directed hover, though I used to have the occassional swooping transport.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Colors are rarely significant in my dreams, even when they're highlighted as below.

---L.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

A symbol, smell, sound, or something else might help to slow or stop the falling when you remember it within the dream as a trigger.