Dreaming. This is a thought provoking topic that I think could bring about some interesting feedback. I’ve struggled with sleep for many years, but when I do sleep, I seem to dream vividly. I’ve studied books that discuss the meanings of dreams and pondered if things from the outside of my body have caused the subject matter, or just random thoughts being stored within myself. Lets take a look, shall we?

For those who may not have read my blog posting about my reoccurring dream, I’ll go back through it, and then move onto others that have been regular visitors. I have not had this one in awhile…which is a good thing because it’s the most terrifying and physically unsettling of all my dreams. I’m sleeping and can see myself sleeping in my bed. A group of people enter my home and begin to spread out to different areas of the home, while a female comes directly to my side and whispers in my ear. She’s asking where I keep all of my “stuff.” She’s looking for items that may have been in my possession during my younger years. She’s offering me death and doing so with such a hiss that I can hardly breathe. I tend to wake myself about this time and while I know that it’s a dream, I still don’t feel right. I need to do a full check of the home to make sure that no one is there. I check windows, doors and yards to be sure that what I regularly dream is just that and that I can lower my guard. I usually struggle to go back to sleep after this dream happens and that in turn, makes me more of Zombie.

I have another that comes on a semi-frequent basis. It involves winged demons that are flying around one of the homes that I lived in during my youth. They’re trying to penetrate the home, but struggle to get through the doors and glass of the windows. Some even stand at the door smiling, saying they’ll wait me out. That I’ll have to come out at some point and they’ll be there to take me away. I become so enraged by this threat that I open the door and begin to fly myself. A battle of good and evil? I don’t know, but it seems almost as though I was meant to fly in the dream. I soar quickly and with grace around the demons. It’s as though it’s become a game to me. Is this a reference to the life that I’ve lived? Have I dodged the demons for so long that I’ve become comfortable doing so? All questions that I’ve searched the powers of the internet many times for some kind of answers.

Another that I’ve had several times, and even as recently as last week. I’m walking through one of my old neighborhoods and it’s as though the shadows cast from dim lights are shape shifting into dark creatures. They whisper and speak to me, but I’m unable to understand what they’re saying. I’m uneasy in my dream, but I don’t fear them. One of the most popular Bible verses is applicable here: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”. Psalm 23:4. There’s more to that, but this portion is fitting for my nightmare/dreams.

When I have discussions about my dreams, there are some who have thought I must be a seriously tortured soul. On a certain level, I’d agree with that statement. While I feel strong and confident, I also feel vulnerable to things that I don’t understand or can’t control. My thoughts at times don’t feel as though they’re my own. Things that appear in dreams make me wonder if I’m seeing visions from someone else. It’s as though I’m seeing and feeling things that someone else has experienced. Strange, I know, but stay with me. Dreams are made up of so much that we don’t, or can’t understand. When you have no say in the movie/visions that are running, it can feel maddening. Like you’re locked into a runaway freight train with no brakes. Take a moment to think through some of the things that you’ve dreamed over the years. I’m sure not all are this dark, but were you always in control? Were you able to get out of them on your own, or did you have to see the whole thing through? Do tell…

Dreams of lost loved ones. This is a hot button for sure. A short time after my mother had passed away, I had a dream that I was speaking with her. She was smiling and happy. She stated that she was alright and passed on a message I was to give to my sister Patti. I woke with tears, not so much of sadness, but rather happiness. I felt relieved that she wasn’t suffering and was smiling. I don’t remember the message I was to share with my sister, but I did as instructed, and it threw my sister for a loop. Was it really my mother speaking? I think it’s worth sharing at this point that my mother and I had a pact. It was that when she passed, if there was truly an afterlife, she would reach out to me and let me know. This dream has made me ponder the pact and the subject of dreams quite a bit since then.

I know there are those out there who dream clearly, and some who can’t remember anything. This is also puzzling to me. Why can some see, yet others can’t? Experts on the subject go back and forth and there are so many different views on this, it’s head spinning in itself. I try to look at each of them as some kind of adventure. A show that for some reason I’m meant to view. Perhaps visions that someone wants me to see? Again, all very thought provoking and interesting. What is it that you dream about? What fears creep into your subconscious and stir your soul? I look forward to the discussions that this brings about.

In closing I’m adding the poem “A dream within a dream” by Edgar Allan Poe

Until we meet again…

~Robert~

A Dream Within a Dream

By Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand —

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep — while I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?