Self mutilation by accident

[kmr_13]

Apologies for the odd title but I can't really think of anything else more suitable. Over the last week or so I've had two dreams that may or may not be connected. To me they seem connected in some way but what do I know. I'm not trying to complicate things at this point but it's better for me to give the dreams in reverse order. It somehow seems to make more sense, if indeed it makes any at all. Most recently, I had a dream where I cut my arm in a quite innocent manner. In the way that maybe a child might test the strength of the skin of their thumb with a pin and then draw back at the last minute, in order to avoid injury or real pain. I seem to remember simply drawing a sharp object across the skin of my forearm and then getting involved in other things around me. Not entirely sure about the other aspects of the dream at this point, but then I noticed that the skin of my arm was cut into a kind of band, a ribbon even, that was separated from the skin of the hand and the skin of the upper arm. The upper arm here ended just below the elbow. The cuts at the top and bottom of the ribbon of skin revealed that the cut was very deep to the point where the skin from the ribbon could be moved to the skin at either of the other two areas of more stable and fixed skin. In order to fix this most disturbing accidental damage I simply pushed the skin together, over the gaps, so one layer was on top of another. This seem to stablise the situation. I think other more mundane things happened after this incident but then I woke up. Not often I remember dreams but this has really stuck with me. After writing the above and then reading it through I think it best to keep the earlier dream to myself for now. It just seems a lot to look at at first. Thanks to anyone who has a clue what this may mean.

[Dreamcaster]

I'm not sure if I understand your discription of the mutilation. It sounds like your saying you were able to rip off the skin on your arm. Am I wrong?

[kmr_13]

I'm not sure if I understand your discription of the mutilation. It sounds like your saying you were able to rip off the skin on your arm. Am I wrong? Possibly a bad term to use, I did say it was difficult to describe. The cuts where much deeper than just into the skin hence the way it moved about. Sorry if I've explain this poorly but it is just tricky to put into words. Just noticed that I can add an image, I'll get back to you with a diagram.

[IrisRavenstar]

Hi kmr, Assuming you are not actually cutting yourself, which I hope you are not, this dream kind of reminds me of some movie scenes I've seen with androids, who seem to be able to pull off part of their "skin" and work on the electronics inside, usually to the shock of the human observers. It always looks so strange! I'm thinking of Robin Williams in "Millennial Man" or Hayley Joel Osmont and Jude Law in "A. I. Artificial Intelligence." I think that's probably where I saw such scenes, when they needed repairs. I'm not sure... both are good movies though! A.I. is a futuristic version of Pinocchio, really. Millenial Man seems more inclined to explore what makes the difference between man and machine. It's like exploring this human body, wondering what it's really made of, if it's really what we think it is. How flexible is this skin stuff... pretty flexible, really, though if we don't patch it up properly, we can get bad scars from damage done. Still, it does self-heal. I hope that helps!

[kmr_13]

Hi kmr, Assuming you are not actually cutting yourself, which I hope you are not, this dream kind of reminds me of some movie scenes I've seen with androids, who seem to be able to pull off part of their "skin" and work on the electronics inside, usually to the shock of the human observers. It always looks so strange! I'm thinking of Robin Williams in "Millennial Man" or Hayley Joel Osmont and Jude Law in "A. I. Artificial Intelligence." I think that's probably where I saw such scenes, when they needed repairs. I'm not sure... both are good movies though! A.I. is a futuristic version of Pinocchio, really. Millenial Man seems more inclined to explore what makes the difference between man and machine. It's like exploring this human body, wondering what it's really made of, if it's really what we think it is. How flexible is this skin stuff... pretty flexible, really, though if we don't patch it up properly, we can get bad scars from damage done. Still, it does self-heal. I hope that helps! Many apologies as I haven't had much time to get back to the responses to my own posting. I promised to draw a diagram which I didn't have time to do, I will. However, your mention of sci-fi does make some sense. Perhaps not the films you've mentioned, I've never seen MM and only have vague recognition of AI, but Westworld immediatey springs to mind. I did watch Bladerunner recently but pretty sure I don't need a test to confirm my human credentials. Not sure where the sci-fi thing is leading but it is certainly food for thought. I will have a ponder. Thanks very much. By the way, I'm certaintly not cutting myself in the real world and even in the dream it was purely accidental. I now have more questions than I started out with, that's life I guess.

[kmr_13]

I'm not sure if I understand your discription of the mutilation. It sounds like your saying you were able to rip off the skin on your arm. Am I wrong? Sorry, took ages to get back and still no diagram. I described the dream to a friend and they commented, 'so it was like a bangle'. It was exactly like a bangle of skin & flesh. Hope this makes my previous textual description more clear. Thanks for your response.

[IrisRavenstar]

Hi kmr, Had you *SEEN* someone who was a cutter and been disturbed by the scars? I didn't understand that it went around the wrist, but I once met a man who had cut both arms repeatedly over a period of years, all the way up his arms, and it did look kind of like a series of bangles. It was kind of amazing he lived through doing all that. I forgot all about Westworld, that was a scary one. I don't really remember Bladerunner. But maybe it's not science fiction; it was just the way you described it at first that reminded me. And yes, sometimes the deeper you dig into dreams, the more questions are presented, but some of us like that! Then we're always on a quest, you see?