Posts from — March 2008

(Female, 40’s) This dream started out as “merely” an anxiety dream but it became a true nightmare before the end.

In the dream, we were getting ready to have a big party at our house. It wasn’t our real house, but some weird mash-up of a bunch of different houses: the basement was from my childhood home, the kitchen was from an aunt’s house, and the huge living room was like something from a magazine, really big and modern with a wall of glass sliding doors. My whole family was helping to clean up the house and get organized for the party. My husband and my mother-in-law were setting up a dozen round tables in the living room and covering them with table cloths. It looked like a reception hall. The problem was that I just wasn’t sure why we were having a huge party at all.

Then I remembered: our daughter is graduating from high school so we must be having her graduation party. I was confused however– had we sent out invitations? I didn’t remember doing that! What were we having for food and drink? I didn’t remember doing anything about that either.

Some guests started showing up suddenly. I suggested they sit on the stairs until we were ready to get started. So they sat down and talked to each other and I ignored them.

…I kept saying, don’t worry– it’s under control…

I remembered that in the basement there was a box of party supply odd and ends: some pink plates, some red cups, napkins of various colors. If I could find that box, we’d be all set! So I went in the basement and started looking. I looked for a long time, interrupted by various people asking questions about food and drinks and guests and what time the party was going to start. I kept saying, don’t worry– it’s under control. And I kept looking, but I couldn’t find the party box.

Then I started looking for my daughter. It was her party after all so she should come and talk to her guests. No one had seen her. No one knew where she was. I was worried about her missing the poorly planned party, but I was more upset because I knew she was gone now. Just gone.

(Male) I dreamed last night that I was waiting in line at the bank. As I neared the tellers I realized that I was carrying a handgun with me. I was flooded with a sense of embarrassment and fear but I figured the best way out of the situation was to rob the bank. So I stepped out of line and yelled at everyone to get down on the ground. I waved the gun around a little bit to show everyone just how serious I was. And I dropped the gun. I didn’t just drop it but rather I let go of it and watched it go sliding along the floor ending up probably twenty feet away from me.

…As I neared the tellers I realized that I was carrying a handgun with me…

There was a painfully awkward moment when the crowd at the bank wasn’t sure what I was going to do and when I myself didn’t know what I was going to do. At just about that point I saw someone I knew in line. He was extremely angry at me. I guess we had gone to the bank together that day with the idea of robbing the bank but that now I was messing things up, he didn’t know if he could save the situation. I felt so clumsy and alone. There were guards and security cameras. I was going to jail forever.

(Male, 30’s) This dream was very convoluted and crazy and parts were just so very sick and tawdry. I kept trying to do the smart thing but the situation just kept getting worse and worse. I was a college student and I was trying to fit in. There was a group that seemed very popular, not quite as organized as a fraternity, but perhaps more like a secret society. It was made up of at least 40 athletic guys and one very attractive brunette girl. They let me hang out with them for awhile but then, for no apparent reason, a half dozen of the guys beat me up, knocked me to the ground and kicked me until I couldn’t move. I think one of the guys peed on me when I was lying there nearly unconscious. They laughed and said it was part of the “hazing.” I wish the nightmare ended there but it just continued on and on.

…this secret society of thugs would do something simply horrible if they had that key…

I knew that this secret society of thugs would do something simply horrible if they had that key so I asked them for time to think about it. I used that time to gather together my family, my mother and father and our pet dogs (?) and get us all into a station wagon so we could flee. I didn’t know exactly how powerful this society was but I had reason to believe they could hurt my parents and it would be best if we just re-located to someplace far far away. This station wagon was a mess by the way, it barely ran at all. It was gray and dingy on the outside. I drove it down these heavily rutted gravel roads because I was trying to avoid the major roads that might have been watched.

As I turned a corner, the car flipped over into a ditch. There was another vehicle there, conveniently, a small red car. We piled out of the station wagon and started carrying our luggage over to the red car. It was clear we were going to have to leave many things behind, probably most of our things. Just then a big truck appeared with a dozen or so of the society thugs. I stopped loading up the car we were using to escape. I turned to face the truck as it pulled up and right then, I woke up.

(Male, 30’s) Maybe this isn’t a traditional nightmare but I woke up pretty shaken. I dreamed there were riots in my home town, riots about unemployment. The economy had gotten so bad that most people didn’t have jobs and they were really angry. At first I saw on TV how crowds of people were standing beside the major highways, throwing stuff at the cars that went by. I think that the thought was if you had enough money to buy gasoline, you must be in management and therefore responsible for the people being out of work. I was trying to get across town, actually not even going through downtown and I was walking since I was unemployed like everyone else. But as I walked across a smaller street, there were already dozens of people lining that road as well.

…Everyone was so angry…

I was amazed that there were that many people living in the city. I tried to make it down an even smaller street, a residential street. There was a package I had to deliver. The sense was almost that if you weren’t standing beside the road you were breaking a picket line. Everyone was so angry. I finally found the house where I was to deliver the package. Someone accepted it at the door, though he was initially unwilling to open the door. I had hoped he would invite me inside at least until things got a bit safer on the streets but he didn’t. I turned and started the long journey home through the riots.

(Female, 20’s) - Maybe this isn’t exactly a nightmare but it was pretty exciting and I remember it vividly to this day even though I had this dream about ten years ago.

…There were many men, a whole carload full of them, all with guns…

I was riding in the car with my mother and we pulled into a convenience store to get some gas. We were getting ready to pump some gas when we looked over at the store and saw it was being robbed. There were many men, a whole carload full of them, all with guns. At that moment they saw us and started to pour out of the store. They ran right toward us. My mom said “Get back in the car.” But even when I got in the car, I wasn’t safe. The robbers started firing their guns at us. The bullets shot right through the windows and the doors of the car. My mother said “Get down” while she started the car and pulled out of the gas station. It was just like she was an action adventure heroine!

(Male, Middle-Aged) My wife and I had just gotten into town, a small town with what appeared to be only one stop light and one main intersection. We arrived by train I believe because we exited a large brick station. I was wearing a black suit and black gloves and the only luggage I was carrying was my laptop from work which is in a black satchel. My wife is also dressed somberly. As we start to cross the road, a fancy old-style hearse turns the corner and heads toward us. It’s blaring a siren and flashing its lights which is pretty strange. Where would a hearse have to go in a hurry? We stop and let it pass. I am very tired, maybe from the journey, maybe from exhaustion or hunger. I am fighting to keep from passing out. My wife keeps telling me “It’s just a little way further.”

…They’re walking along, all in black, half like a mob and half like a parade of mourners…

Just as we are nearly across the road, I notice a whole family of people turning the corner where the hearse came from. There’s an older man and woman and their four full grown children and probably a half dozen other people. They’re walking along, all in black, half like a mob and half like a parade of mourners. The mother in particular is highly distraught and cries very loudly into a hankerchief. She keeps choking like she’s trying to stop crying. I recognize the family once they get closer. They must be arriving for this same funeral. They’re friends and normally I’d want to talk with them but in this dream I was filled with panic. I just wanted to get to my hotel room or where ever I was going and close my eyes. The fear of talking with them made me try to escape but I was horribly dizzy. They kept gaining on me and my wife but at last we entered the building where we were heading to. I felt worse and worse with every step, a little like my head was emptying, like my brains were just evaporating and pouring out my ears. Despite these disturbing sensations, I knew I had to hold onto my brief case because I had to do work while I was vacationing at this funeral. My wife was quite a ways ahead of me by now. She opened a door and held it open for me though I realized I would never make it that far.

At just about that moment, I figured out that I was arriving at my own funeral.