The Longest Dream

[DorianMask]

The long dream is incredibly fascinating to me. The concept of time dilation in the dream state is very curious to those who have lived it indeed. Many different dreamers have many different opinions/experiences when it comes to days/months/years long dreams. Most reports I have read do indicate these experiences have profound affects on individuals psyches, as 'waking up' itself can feel like the death of a previous life. I myself have had several long dreams in my journeys, some of which took hours to 'recalibrate' to the waking state and anchor myself back into this reality. Personally I believe there is a fluidity if not a subjectivity to the passing of time itself. Now I am aware most materialist dreamers keep things pretty straight forward when the passage of time in the dream state is concerned, measured REM in the real world directly indicates the actual empirically experienced time in the dream. The illusions of elongated timelines being a facet of the minds ability to 'montage'/ surmise important details while assuming a greater passage of time than actually experienced. I personally am not entirely sure this is the case. My question is, has anyone else had one of these psyche rocking 'long dreams'? Do you believe time to be objectively locked to the passage of measured waking time? Or are we tapping into some greater ability to manipulate the time flux? I can't help but think of the Hyberbolic Time Chamber in the animated series Dragonball Z. Where individuals could lock themselves in a special chamber for 1 week outside time while having 365 days of fully unadulterated experience inside the chamber to develop skills/gain new knowledge. If this ability exists and is developable within the confines of our minds with the power of lucidity, it would be the single greatest mental breakthrough of our time. Share your experiences and thoughts

[Sivason]

I am not sure how long these seemed, but the content seemed longer than it could have been in waking life. Sleep is calling me so I may have thoughts tomorrow. https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/siv...0324/#comments https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/siv...ey-wild-30947/

[Hilary]

I haven't experienced this, but I have heard about it. Enough that I truly believe it's possible. I would like to experience it. What I have experienced is a series of 2-3 dreams, all on the same night, that continue the same story.

[DorianMask]

https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/siv...0324/#comments That's awesome! The amount of control and shapeshifting in this one was quite inspiring, makes me think of the Animorphs lol, I read that whole series as a kid. The varying degrees of clarity or 'resolution' in WILDs is very curious to me, it's almost as if the subconscious is stubbornly like "yeah ok, have your dream, but I ain't makin' it pretty!" Hah! Sometimes they feel hyper-real to me and other times it really feels like I have to work for a navigatable environment, wonder if this has anything to do with bodily/mental rest or REM deficit hmmm... What I have experienced is a series of 2-3 dreams, all on the same night, that continue the same story. See now this is something I've always been jealous of. Every once in a while I'll have similar themes or familiar dreamscapes but I've always been envious of the 'episodic dreamer', heck, even my guides are always in different forms when they choose to show their cheeky faces. It would be really nice to have an established realm to visit or reoccurring characters to get to know.. oh well, maybe when I'm older lol Thank you for the responses guys This is something I posted on the discord, but I'll throw it up here while we're on the topic, as it got me really thinking about the implications of 'other lives' in the dreamstate. a Reddit comment where a user describes his experience, the replies are interesting as well Here is a WILD/DIELD chain I had almost a decade ago that really cemented to me the reality of time dilation being a certainty in the dreams(12ish dreams in ~2 hours). There were very definable 'levels' to the dream and I would 'Wake up' into the WILD/green screen that began the whole thing, I haven't had an experience like this since, though I have been chasing the dragon.

[EddieDean]

When I frequented this forum a few years ago, I was always sceptical on this subject. You know, slight dilation seemed feasible, but minutes turning into weeks, months, years... It's quite an alien concept to grasp even if you've experienced it. A few years ago I first read up on psychedelics and found that experienced time dilation is a very common effect of various psychedelics, such as mushrooms. Having taken mushrooms more than a few times since, I can definitely confirm the phenomenon (as can many others). The notion is also reasonably well-supported in neuroscience as well. Crazy how our minds can manage such a thing!

[nautilus]

Now I am aware most materialist dreamers keep things pretty straight forward when the passage of time in the dream state is concerned, measured REM in the real world directly indicates the actual empirically experienced time in the dream. The illusions of elongated timelines being a facet of the minds ability to 'montage'/ surmise important details while assuming a greater passage of time than actually experienced. I personally am not entirely sure this is the case. My question is, has anyone else had one of these psyche rocking 'long dreams'? Do you believe time to be objectively locked to the passage of measured waking time? Or are we tapping into some greater ability to manipulate the time flux? I've had a few epics, the longest being this one from back in 2007: Spoiler for Part 1: I was a wolf, somewhere in the snowy mountains, possibly by a forest. I wandered around a bit, and discovered other wolves, some of which I seemed to recognize. I knew that it was the way of the wolves to be happy and grateful for the those that survived, instead of sad for those that had died. *** I was in my house by the roll-top desk, and apparently my name was Sam (as in Samantha). Suddenly, there were several explosions, and the wall by the deck was missing, along with other portions of the living room walls. I ran to the other side of the living room, and there was a lady sitting there crying. Apparently, she had lost someone she cared about, and I tried to comfort her, and remembered the way of the wolves, and tried to get that message across. I somehow knew that there was a worldwide invasion that would be difficult to survive, thus making the wolves' message even more important. *** I was with two or maybe three friends/allies. We were in the mountains, and we were trying to find someone who could help me learn magic to fight the invaders, as I seemed to have some minuscule talent. Once we finished hiking up the side of the mountain, we turned right and traveled for a short while along a curving road. Then we turned left into a medium sized room that was carved into the mountain. One of the friends said this was where the sorcerer lived. The sorcerer came into view, and asked my name. I was oddly mistrustful and reluctant tell him my name, especially not my real name (which apparently I remembered from waking life), so I said it was Sam. It was a sort of partial truth which also meant I didn't have to reveal my full name. The sorcerer looked a little suspicious, then went into another room to get something. My friends made no moves to leave, and although they meant well, I decided not to take their advice anymore. I was sure that the sorcerer was untrustworthy, so I quickly went back along the road by myself. As I walked, I thought briefly of the problem I now faced. The sorcerer was the most powerful magic wielder known, and I suspected he was one of the invaders. This meant I would have to develop magic on my own, and there was hardly any time for that, so luck was really all I had. I thought the situation was like many of the books I've read, where the characters are constantly winging it. I reached the end of the path, and began going down the side of the mountain. This meant taking a very unstable escalator. Instead of the steps staying flat like a normal escalator, they rolled beneath my feet, and I had to hold on tightly to the handrails to keep my balance. This was in itself unnerving, because they moved downwards at an uneven rate. Halfway down, I had to completely stop thinking about what to do because every moment I felt like I was going to fall. The stairs caught and pinched a blister on the back of my right foot. I pulled my foot free and jumped the remaining distance off the escalator, thankful to be back on solid ground. It seemed to be a short distance back to my house, and I found myself sitting by the dining room table, examining the blister that was still hurting a bit. I ignored it after a few seconds, deciding that it would heal on it's own, and went up to my room. I searched frantically for anything that might help against the invaders. With a sense of urgency, I grabbed my black fanny pack, which I figured would have the most useful items in it anyways. I hurried back down the stairs. In my mind, the next step would be to find a group of allies that could help. I hadn't the slightest idea of who they would be. I went downstairs to hide out in the guest bathroom. Then I inspected all the items in my pack and put them on the counter. I disregarded most of it. The most promising thing was my blue Swiss army knife. However, I knew that even a sword wouldn't do any good against the sorcerer. The sense of urgency grew stronger, and I knew I would have to leave my hiding place sooner or later, and the sooner I left, the more chance I would have of escape. I ended up carrying nothing with me, and came out slowly. I crept cautiously towards the sound of singing voices that were emanating from the living room. I peered around the corner, and had a flash of hope, for I had found the allies I was looking for. There stood five white robed figures in the center of the rubble strewn floor singing "Amazing Grace" with two more sitting on either side. There was an open feel to the room. This was probably due to the fact that the ceiling was gone. So were most of the walls. My living room was now a traveler's path in this new world of chaos and war. I almost ran to the figures, but stopped myself because something was wrong with the scene and the song. When I looked more closely, I realized that the five figures standing were chained together, and the two on the sides were holding the ends of the chains. I recognized the one on the left as the sorcerer, who began laughing in a sort of mocking way. Now I was very scared and slightly sick at the surreal mixture of singing and laughter, and I ducked back behind the corner. As I passed by the kitchen, I could see the opening in the wall which led to the back yard. I wondered if I should flee the house right away, but the idea of running through the dark in the wilderness was somehow more scary than staying inside. I guess my dream experience warned me against that sort of thing. I stopped to think at the beginning of the hallway into the family room. I needed to decide which direction to go. In my panic, the best plan I had was to go to the room most likely to give me safety, an escape route, allies, or anything useful. My mind raced through the limited options (amazing how small a house can seem when you're life depends on your choice of direction). Obviously the living room was out of the question. I had already searched the upstairs and it was unlikely anything had changed. Besides, there was no escape route. Other than the questionable idea of climbing out the window and trying to find a way down from the roof. The bathroom and laundry room were dead ends as well, and I didn't even consider the garage. The only direction that made sense was the family room, since there was another exit to the backyard there as a last resort. My mind made up, I ran down the hall, then came skidding to a halt as a creature came towards me. It was a wolf. It was looking directly at me with it's teeth bared and growling. It was at that moment that I realized I was in the midst of a nightmare. It took but a few moments for the meaning of this revelation to sink in, then I began to try and take control of my surroundings. The wolf slowed and then stopped. I woke with the haunting sound of singing and laughter, still ringing in my ears, long after the dream was over. Spoiler for Part 2: The dream started in on a situation very similar to the one before it, with invaders, only this time it seemed to last two or three times longer. The first thing I remember was that I was in a large city. People were taking shelter in the larger buildings, and there was a group of warrior rebels who were making plans. Two or three of them scouted ahead to look for the invaders, while the others stayed at the fringes of the city. They couldn't come back because the invaders got too close. The edge of the city overlooked a road about fifty feet below, that eventually curved into the city. After a while, the invaders could be seen marching along the road. They just looked like little black figures from that distance, but there were a lot of them, moving in large blocks like an army. It was immediately apparent that the rebels were very much outnumbered. *** I was with my parents. We still had some time before the invaders got to the city, but not much. We checked into a hotel as a hiding place. For some reason, the hotel room looked a lot like my bedroom. In fact it was my bedroom. My parents opened up some boxes of paper that were in my closet, and started ripping up their contents. They said that we had to destroy all evidence that we existed, including birth certificates, ID cards, and anything that had our names or information on it. This would make us harder to track. In the meantime, my dad sent me to gather supplies, especially food. According to him, we would need enough for thirty years. As I hurried out onto the sidewalk, I thought we would be lucky to remain undiscovered for a month. The city was unfamiliar to me, and I didn't know where I had to go to get food. As I started to look around, I saw a minivan parked nearby with a dark haired oriental lady and a little girl (her daughter, I guess) standing next to it. The lady was helping the girl into the seat, moving slowly and casually, as if nothing was happening. The streets were almost completely barren, and those that didn't have a hiding place were panicked or getting ready for a rebellion. I tried to warn the lady about the invasion, but she didn't understand me very well. She mumbled something about picking her son up from grandma's and began driving slowly away. I ran after the car. The hotel was towards the top of the hill, and I was running uphill for a while. When I caught up with them in a parking garage, the lady was buckling a baby into the back seat. I tried to communicate again, but she said she was very busy and had to get groceries downtown. By now I was thoroughly annoyed. I felt like a bit of an idiot as I chased the car again, this time downhill. I started to get worried that time was running out, but I wasn't willing to give up after wasting a good amount of time already. I found myself in a small store, but most of the food was gone. While I waited for the lady to finish arguing with the shopkeeper, I noticed a vending machine. I took out some money, thinking that even if vending machine food wasn't healthy, it was better than nothing. I found out soon enough that even the vending machines were totally empty, the glass smashed through. I knew that the invaders had reached the city, and the shopkeeper left. The lady finally seemed to understand what was going on when she went out the door, and began running with the girl up the sidewalk while carrying the baby. I followed, dreading the long hike uphill. I could hear explosions behind me, and had to keep going even though I was really tired of running. I came to some sort of train yard that had to be crossed. There were about ten tracks, one after another, with trains zooming by at high speed in either direction. I managed to time my crossing just right for most of the way. I had to pause on one point, and was terrified about a train coming directly at me. My intuition told me to stay right where I was, so I did, despite my fear. A train I hadn't noticed rushed by on the next track over, and it passed soon enough for me to leap out of the way of the one coming at me. By the time I had crossed the tracks, I had lost sight of the dark haired lady. I made it back to the hotel room only to find that we had to leave immediately. The buildings were going to be searched, and hiding was no longer an option. We checked out and left just about everything that hadn't needed to be destroyed in the room (except the violins, which we gave to someone for storage and safe keeping at my mom's insistence). As we were getting ready to leave, someone who looked a lot like the sorcerer walked in and questioned the lady at the front desk. I saw her point in our direction, and we left right away. We were on a different sidewalk, this one level. My mom got separated from us. My dad talked about how the invaders could disguise themselves, and there were several already doing so, such as the lady at the front desk and a news reporter. We were going to try and find where the enemy "headquarters" were, and attack from within. We ran past a homeless person on a corner. He yelled out something about how there was no invasion and how the whole idea was ridiculous. We crossed the street, and didn't know which way to turn or whether to go strait into an alley. The homeless person continued to yell, "You might think that there are ENEMIES but you wouldn't be RIGHT!" We went right. It wasn't long before we came upon a guarded building. By now it was night time. Luckily, the one guard that could see us was very sleepy, and we managed to sneak past him. There were a lot of windows, and some of the walls were made of glass. There were several more guards both inside and outside. I managed to just barely get past the remaining guards and into the building, although my dad was still outside. I found a lower level that seemed relatively quiet. There were some people that saw me, which worried me at first. I realized that they were probably prisoners and wouldn't give me away. While I was investigating the room, my dad started talking to me on a walkie-talkie. All I can remember was something about "inheriting the Earth", which reminded me about the saying "the meek shall inherit the Earth". And then he died. I didn't have much time for that to sink in, because some people came in the room, telling me I had to hurry. One of them looked like a guard, but apparently he was on my side. The other was a lady who started giving me directions. I went into an elevator. They continued talking through the open door. I can't remember everything they said, but basically, I was supposed to take a device with a button on it from the elevator (I could see it on the lower right hand side) and walk into a classroom, saying that I was there to lock up. They said it was important to actually lock up. The elevator doors closed, and I pushed the button for the level they said to go to. I picked up the device and exited the elevator when it made it down to the right floor. I was in a wide hallway, which turned further on. The hallway was empty, but I saw a door nearby and went through it. I was in the classroom, and it was apparently an all girl class. The students looked very bored. The teacher finally noticed me, and I explained nervously that I was there to lock up. They waved me ahead after giving me a suspicious look and also dismissed the class, I guess for a break. I went out the door on the other side of the classroom after everyone else had left. I found that pressing the button once locked the door that I pointed it at. I followed the students around the turn in the hall. At the end of the hall, there was a miniature arcade where some were playing video games. Others just stood around in the hall. I walked up to the arcade for a closer inspection, and was surprised when TF turned around. She looked as if she wasn't expecting me to be there either, and we talked for a while about nothing especially important. That was the only bright spot in the entire dream. After a while, I remembered why I was there, and started telling her about the invasion and everything that had happened. I felt a little guilty when she looked suddenly unhappy and worried. *** I was back in the elevator, talking to the same people again. I guess I ended up in a dream time warp or something, because I knew that I was back in time, before I had gone into the classroom. This time, I heard a little more of what was said. One thing was that there was blood on the elevator floor, and the guard pointed out that it me. He apologized for having to shoot me in the foot because he was the head guard and others were watching. This time as the elevator went down, I stared at the top of my foot for a while, which was starting to hurt. I grabbed the locking device just before the doors opened. When I stepped out into the hallway, it was different; there were lots of people standing around outside the room. I figured they were parents that had come to pick up their kids. I entered the room and was surprised to find a crowd. The doors on either end of the room had been propped open. I made my way slowly towards the other door, looking around as I went. I caught a glimpse of the top of my dad's head in the crowd, but didn't think much about it. In the center of the room was the lady with the two children who I had tried to warn about the invasion. They were on an upraised platform in chains, and I realized for the first time that everything was set up like a court hearing. I was afraid they would be killed, and tried to figure out what to do. The only thing I could think of was the device that I held. I pressed the button, trying to unlock the chains from a distance, but apparently it only works on doors. The device emitted a sound. A few of the people near me started to look around, and I had to hurry away to remain unnoticed. I left through the door on the far side and began going down the hall again. To the right, I could see the same section of hall that I had gone down and found the arcade. Instead, I turned to the left, where there was another, unexplored section. Then I saw my dad. I began walking towards him, when I remembered that he had died. I realized that it was actually an invader, and ran in the other direction. I ended up back in the court room, in the middle of a crowd that was staring at me. The invaders had finally noticed me. By now I was really tired of all the running around. I tried turning the invaders against each other with words. This didn't have much affect at first, but other people in the crowd caught on and started talking also. There were a couple of scientists who told me about how they had been isolated in different buildings and how they had communicated by sending messages out the window and across the power lines using some string attached to a coat hanger. They said that they had created a device to create a portal. While the invaders started arguing about who should be the leader, a portal was successfully opened, and they were all sucked into it. It was like the end of the story (complete with narration) when I knew that the invaders would have nothing left to destroy except themselves. The last thing I remember before I woke up was the image of many glowing eyes sinking to the depths of a black ocean, far away in space. It's in two parts because I actually woke up in between and the dream picked up roughly where it left off when I fell back asleep. Subjectively it felt like I'd lived a couple days or so in that dream. The thing is, I'm not sure that defining empirically experienced time is an easy task in itself. We can empirically measure time but the experience of the passage of time is inherently subjective to begin with. Personally, my own experiences of (apparent?) time dilation in dreams have made me more aware not just of the "tricks of the mind" that make dreams feel longer or shorter, but how those same mechanisms are often happening in waking life as well. For instance, I've noticed a pattern in my more "epic" length dreams that events are happening rapid fire one after another, either through long chains of cause and effect or sudden cut scenes to the next point of action. This makes everything feel like it lasts much longer, similar to how an action packed day in waking life with lots of new stimulus and things to think about can feel longer than sitting home and surfing the internet. You can also observe that cut scene effect in movies, by the way, where the new scene contains cues about how much time has passed, which in turn affects the viewer's experience. Then there's the experience of time passing during the dream experience itself. Remember how long five minutes felt when you were four years old? And then how days, months, or even years seem to just blow right by as you get older? In some of my favorite lucid dreams I feel much more like that little kid, taking everything in in absolute awe, and time just seems to stretch out. I find it comforting to realize that I can carry that sense of awe into my waking life as well and, at least while I'm being conscious of it, keep the days from passing me by without much notice. And finally there's the effect I find the most mind blowing; memories. I began noticing instances where I had an entire, alternate life backstory in certain dreams. I could sit there and pour through a lifetime of memories and personal information or access that information as I went about my dream day... only to wake up and realize that none of those memories correlated to my waking life memories. The thing is, if I hadn't woken up, the experience of "this is who I am and this is my life story and this is how long I've lived" in the dream would have been indistinguishable from the waking life experience of knowing who I am and how long I've been alive.

[Sivason]

Very good post nautilus! I agree with all those observations. I am also amazed at the false memory experience. I was just looking for something unrelated from about 7 years ago in my dream journal and found a good example of time dilation. It seemed much longer than it ended up being. Time Dream

[FlyingFree]

So, first of all, a warm hello to all you dreamers out there. Regarding lengthy dreams, I once dreamed I was an ancient statue. Civilizations rose and fell around me as I remained inert, sticking up out of the ground. I have had numerous long dreams that simply had a lot of continuous story flow in them. In other dreams, they have been very long due to 'compressed memory' where the dream wasn't long in the literal sense, but due to memories of story line, it can be very long.

[Sivason]

So, first of all, a warm hello to all you dreamers out there. Hi there! Welcome to Dream Views!