Nightmare with shadow people

**kneejo** · 09-13-2022 12:50 AM

This was an odd one. Just woke up from it. I get attacked in dreams often but this time felt different. I was sleeping in a bed in a house in the dream. I had a gun nearby. 3 beings that came from the shadows tried to grab the gun from me and proceeded to attempt to possess my body. They held me in place, impossible to move while I feel like something was trying to get inside me. A woman with black hair and purple shirt was sitting nearby smiling. I remember the feeling of something trying to possess me from other dreams. I could not become lucid, instead I had a few false awakenings, until I woke up in the real world finally. In other dreams I usually fight back, shoot the gun at them, but now all I could think of was hiding the gun from them. I don't own a gun in real life, it's just a common weapon in my dreams. I heard one of the beings wondering if it was a real gun or not. I knew it was real.

**Hilary** · 09-13-2022 01:29 AM

What an interesting dream.

Just my thoughts, but if this were my dream I would think that the gun is symbolic for my personal power. In the dream this is being taken away from you. Can you think of a situation recently in waking life where you felt like your power was taken away or denied? In this dream you wanted to hide the gun from them - you wanted to hide your power from them so that you could use it effectively when the right opportunity presented itself. Perhaps that power is the power of walking away from bad relationships, or leaving a bad work situation. They wonder if it's a real gun or not - perhaps they are wondering if you are the kind of person who will stand up for themself, or not?

Just thoughts... of course I don't know you personally, and so it could be about something completely different. Good luck and I hope you find more peaceful dreams.

**kneejo** · 09-13-2022 03:41 AM

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I feel like in real life people want to just use my talents, without respect for the person behind them. Once I noticed that, I got rid of a lot of people in my life, only keeping those that value me for who I am. I want to be in relationships with people but most of them turn out to be abusive. I have a lot to give but I decided I'm not just going to give anymore just for them to take. This has given me a lot of peace in life. It feels like people are jealous of that peace. My power is saying no to people. Not allowing them into my life to take advantage of me, not allowing them to use me for their personal gain. Spiritually I have been dealing with people spreading false ideas about me and often this conflicts with who I know I am. I tend to keep to myself now and that gives the impression I have something to hide. But all I do is hide from bad people. And I think there's nothing wrong with that.

**kneejo** · 09-13-2022 08:37 AM

Follow up: I went to sleep again after writing this. Peaceful dream with family members. Until I got chased by flies. They bit me. I saw a maggot under the skin where they bit me. I panicked a bit, the flies starting biting more, and every time there was a maggot under the skin which I was squeezing out. Then on one patch of my leg there were a lot of bites and maggots under the skin. I started scratching at it an my skin ripped open, revealing hundreds of maggots inside. I started scooping them out. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. A woman was nearby, asking me what's up. I said, I'm dreaming again, darnit! And then I woke up.

Disclaimer: in real life I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. Daily life is pretty okay since I had therapy and I'm on medication. But I do tend to have a vivid imagination that sometimes causes psychotic ideas. My dreams are worse. I think this dream made that clear, how my mind can race and make an elephant out of a mouse. This reminded me that I should be working more on becoming lucid and attaining dream control. So that I can have peace of mind in my dreams just as I've achieved, for the most part, during waking hours. I feel like the woman is a recurring figure, perhaps a dream guide of sorts.

**Hilary** · 09-13-2022 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by kneejo

Follow up: I went to sleep again after writing this. Peaceful dream with family members. Until I got chased by flies. They bit me. I saw a maggot under the skin where they bit me. I panicked a bit, the flies starting biting more, and every time there was a maggot under the skin which I was squeezing out. Then on one patch of my leg there were a lot of bites and maggots under the skin. I started scratching at it an my skin ripped open, revealing hundreds of maggots inside. I started scooping them out. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. A woman was nearby, asking me what's up. I said, I'm dreaming again, darnit! And then I woke up.

Disclaimer: in real life I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. Daily life is pretty okay since I had therapy and I'm on medication. But I do tend to have a vivid imagination that sometimes causes psychotic ideas. My dreams are worse. I think this dream made that clear, how my mind can race and make an elephant out of a mouse. This reminded me that I should be working more on becoming lucid and attaining dream control. So that I can have peace of mind in my dreams just as I've achieved, for the most part, during waking hours. I feel like the woman is a recurring figure, perhaps a dream guide of sorts.

Just a thought, but if you do have trouble with reality vs. hallucination because of paranoid schizophrenia, please make sure your therapist knows about your lucid dreaming practice. I know some therapists do not want their patients practicing that, but yours may feel differently. Good luck. <3

**kneejo** · 09-14-2022 03:10 AM

I had years of therapy, but that stopped in june 2020. They think I'm doing good enough. I just have a talk every half year with a person through my primary doctor, to check if the meds are still doing their thing and just general catching up on me. I am very much recovered because I learned to deal with the day to day workings of my mind. Lucid dreaming feels like the next thing to manage. It's my life and I think I deserve to have my own way in that. I can't imagine why a therapist would be against that, as it helps many people who have frequent nightmares. I don't want to be lucid all the time, as I do find meaning in what happens when I don't have control over the dream. It teaches me about myself and my dream guides seem to be very much involved with my mental state. Thanks for interacting with me on this subject. Much appreciated!