Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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Jimr
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

Post by Jimr »

Speaking of taking control of a dream, My family and I were in Solvang in a very nice motel. That night, I had a dream that I was in a very narrow space, sort of like air conditioning vents. As I proceeded, the space became more and more restrictive. Just as I got to a space to squeeze out into freedom, I'd find myself again, in the midst of these tunnels from He!!. I was panicking in the dream. I knew in the dream that I was dreaming. That conscious part of me that was the observer kept telling me this. In the dream, I could see my wife in the bed next to mine, which was exactly the reality as well. I thought that if I could wake her, she could wake me up and get me out of this nightmare. I kept screaming in my dream, HELP, HELP. In the dream, I could scream, but the words would not come out. Finally, my wife awoke me. She said that I was screaming in a muffled tone, like my mouth wouldn't move, but obviously distressed. I told her I was trying to wake her so I could get out of this nightmare of suffocation. It was wild how reality commingled with the dream state.

I've had several dreams where I've realized that I was dreaming, then just watched the show knowing what it was, but this was nothing I wanted to sit back and observe any longer.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

Post by rlown »

Jimr wrote:I've had several dreams where I've realized that I was dreaming, then just watched the show knowing what it was, but this was nothing I wanted to sit back and observe any longer.
Definitely.. In some of my falling dreams, I actually get to choose when I wake up. Haven't let it just go splat yet. The "searching for lost stuff" dreams bug me the most now. One that stands out is, trying to find a conference room in a building where the hallways get narrow and convoluted. I get the the conference room, and it's on the other side of a wall; with just a window. Wish those would go away! I can now stop a fall.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

Post by Wandering Daisy »

One of my persistant nightmares is falling in a snow hole and not being able to get out. The snow keeps coming in over the top of me. Perhaps this is because a good friend of mine died in an avalanche. Another is walking or skating and falling through thin ice.

Oh, yes, "losing things" and "searching" dreams! Now that I am older, this is not just dreaming- it often is real life.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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What bugs me the most are those dreams where I can't get it right. When I was a kid, it was running a race in the grass at my elementary school. My legs just would not move. They felt like lead. Sort of like the screaming for help, but can't get the words out (above). These days, the "can't get it right" dreams revolve around playing guitar (I've been playing for 30 years) :rock: , but my fingers won't move and getting into a fight (I have a black belt in Hapkido) =; , but my arms and legs won't move. The interesting thing is that nobody in the dream seems to notice except me. We won't even get into the "can't get it right" (up) in those dreams that will not be mentioned :moon:
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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Sleep paralysis....I mentioned it earlier as experiencing it in the back country. But crazier than those two experiences are two others that I experienced.

My first experience with this was in my mid twenties....I awoke to my dog Nika on my chest. I was trying to yell for her to get off me (my eyes are open at this point....i'm awake!) but I couldn't make a sound, and I was trying to push her off me, but I can't move. Yeah that's why its called sleep paralysis, but it should be called awake paralysis as there is no sleeping about it. So I struggle and struggle and just as I break free and yell "Nika!" she sprints out the bedroom door.

Nika is an outside dog, but like Houdini she sneaks in every now and then. Anyway I get up cursing her to hell for waking me up and getting in the house....and there she is sleeping outside by the sliding glass door.

The next one happened right after the Nika one. It was your standard demon, on my chest. Needless to say I was scared shitless. Sounds total cheese ball but I still remember the eyes.....because when I finally came out of it, the thing didn't just disappear, it slowly faded into the wall. The last thing to fade away were those deep grey eyes of death.

One of the ones I had in the backcountry was scary. I was laying awake in my tent, my nephew was 10 yards away in his tent, with his headphones in his cook pot playing Radiohead. I remember that I laid down and was listening to the barely audible sounds of his headphones all the way in my tent. The sounds take on the quality of sounds you hear while under the influence of psychedelics.....cant describe....just random trippy sounds. Soon I realized I could hear a conversation between a man and his son in a camp close by. The voice of the man I soon realize is not a father, but a demon that means harm. I then realized it was 3 demons, and they were glowing squares. At this moment I realized what was going on, they sensed me, and instantly rushed over to my tent. My eyes wide open, not able to move or make a sound, I hear the sound of a tire sized boulder land right outside my open tarptent. This was just intense enough to break me free of it...I said "Bryce! Did you hear that?!?!" And he replied with a zzzzzzz....I knew what was going on. Damn sleep paralysis. There was no boulder.

Its pretty wild to see these things with your eyes open......and sober :-k

Anyone ever try messing with Astral Projection?
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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Sleep paralysis, got it. Never heard of that name, but read some time ago that the body tends to be immobile during a dream state. I guess those who didn't thrash around during a dream were less likely to become a late night snack. Makes you wonder how the sleep walkers and sleep talkers survived to send their genes forward.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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Could be a relatively new phenomenon, post neaderthal. Perhaps in a tribe, people with these attributes held roles as seerers or healers.

I think evolution can work faster than we realize. The developement of that attribute....or other things like gills ect....is pretty wild. How do these mutations occur? Its like nature follows a set of rules, but doesn't adhere to them 100%.

I guess with increased time, the possibilities realized increases.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

Post by Jimr »

Could be recent from an evolutionary perspective. Could also be that the anomaly wasn't serious enough to threaten that aspect of the gene pool. If you thrashed around during dreams, you may have had a greater chance of becoming a snack, but not great enough to eradicate your kind. Your social point is well taken. As more sophisticated methods of civilization progressed (i.e. constructed or otherwise more secure shelter, spiritual beliefs and practices, etc.), that anomaly became irrelevant with respect to survival.

It makes me wonder when, in the scheme of things, dreaming entered into the picture. How much awareness/self-awareness evolved to trigger dreams.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

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One theory that I like is that the universe is built in our perceptions....and dreams act as a sort of calibration to proper human perception. To "dial in the signal" so to speak. Just make sure you tune into the right channel! Like breathing or our heart beating, its an automatic response. Without dreaming, you go crazy, and eventually die.

Are dreams just the opposite of objective reality? If so which is more real? Is light more real than dark? Death more real than life?

Diving too deep into what is real, and what is not real is not really a good idea. That is probably how you end up in a padded room!! [-X

No matter what you feel, our imaginations influence and is manifested in objective reality, and objective reality influences and manifests in our imaginations as well. I think this interaction is interesting.
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Re: Odd backpacking dreams (why? because it's a bit slow)

Post by Jimr »

One theory that I like is that the universe is built in our perceptions
I not only like that idea, I believe it. I hold that our experience, hence, our universe is an out-picturing of the content of our consciousness. In other word, believing is seeing, not the other way around. Everything is an idea within consciousness. There's really nothing out there. Reality (heavy word) is merely a set of ideas each of us hold close to the core of our being ("being" used as a verb).

It's interesting to ponder dreams. They're sort of a microcosm of the creative principle that everything material is an idea within THE consciousness out-pictured as form. Our mind creates a bubble of time and space that only exists as an idea and perception of our sub-conscious. In that dream bubble of space and time, matter is formed, thoughts and ideas, action, feelings are triggered. Our experience is no less real in the dream than it is in our waking experience. Usually quite a bit odder from an awaken perspective, but no less real. It sort of adds a different twist on "created in HIS own image". Maybe imagination would be a more meaningful term, or not. :eek:

I've been to Tehipite Valley many, many, many times and felt the struggle to get there; the grandeur of the valley opening up before my eyes, etc. in the dream reality. This year, I get to have those experiences in the TV of the waking reality.

Disclaimer:
I haven't been smoking/drinking anything and I'm not off my meds and the above is the opinion of the poster and does not necessarily reflect the views of HST or any government agency, its agents or the POTUS :littledevil:
If you don't know where you're going, then any path will get you there.
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