Death?

[citizennumber3]

This may sound like a completely morbid topic--but this morning I had my third lucid dream ever, but it was such a terrible dream that I got out of it instantly by jumping in front of bullets. The dream was about an intense argument I was having with my father. He had a gun, and my mother was trying to make us stop fighting before anything fatal happened. Below is what I wrote about it in my dream journal. I hid behind the side of the house, watching cautiously through the window, into the kitchen. I had managed to leave, but the argument had really heated up between my parents. He threatened her again, and then he did it. He shot at her at least five times, blood flying everywhere, her body instantly collapsing and falling to the floor. By this time I was crying uncontrollably and shaking by the side of the house. Then I realized--"I must be dreaming; this can't be happening!" And sure enough, I realized it was all a dream. I knew I was lucid, but I was so upset and depressed that I didn't really want to be in the dream any longer. Who wants to be around a homicidal father? I was also kind of curious about how it felt to die. So I jumped out from behind the side of the house, into his line of sight. He instantly shot at me, and the bullets ripped through my skin. But by the first bullet, all I could see was the color blue. The sensation was like each bullet was a drop of ice-cold water tearing through me, and eventually it felt like I was swimming under freezing water. Visually, the only way I can describe it, was like seeing a bunch of blue butterflies just scattering away in all directions. I guess that's how my mind interpreted dying. I woke up and my body ached unbearably, but the pain slowly faded.[/b] I thought it was very odd my mind associates water with dying. Perhaps it has some baptismal aspect to it--being raised by a Catholic family, baptism is like birth in the church's eyes. Either I thought it would all come full-circle, or maybe that's the cynic in me, recognizing my own baptism not as new life, but as death. I'm actually Toaist, but my entire family is Catholic. That's actually what started the dream argument between my father and I. Has anyone else tried to die in a dream? What did it feel like? What did you see? What did you hear? Have you tried to interpret why your mind handled the situation the way it did?

[NeAvO]

I always wake up before I die, think its just my minds way of handling the situation. Although I have had dreams where I'm a ghost.

[TweaK]

I think's there a topic about non-lucid deaths, if you are interested in dream deaths in general. Personally, I have not died in lucids. I have died in non-lucids though.

[The Blue Meanie]

I thought it was very odd my mind associates water with dying. Perhaps it has some baptismal aspect to it--being raised by a Catholic family, baptism is like birth in the church's eyes. Either I thought it would all come full-circle, or maybe that's the cynic in me, recognizing my own baptism not as new life, but as death. I'm actually Toaist, but my entire family is Catholic. That's actually what started the dream argument between my father and I. Has anyone else tried to die in a dream? What did it feel like? What did you see? What did you hear? Have you tried to interpret why your mind handled the situation the way it did? [/b] Wow... that's facinating! Water and death... that's very interesting... I've never died in a Lucid, but, I've died plenty of times in non-lucids. And, funnily enough... yeah, water WAS involved. One time I was gunned down in a corridor by Al Capone sort of gangsters... and, it was raining heavily outside, the whole dream seemed "drenched" in rain. Another time, I fell into a pool of water that sort of made me "explode" like acid, but, it was like drowning, almost. Another time, when in a Dream, Oneironaut cut my legs off (I was Tonado Joe in the dream, weirdly enough), I could feel the life leaving me. And... it DID feel almost... liquid? I'm not going to jump to conclusions, but, I think the connection between water and life/death is... quite facinating, to say the least. I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences with dreamdeath, lucid and otherwise.

[Casualtie]

i always seem to wake up before i die. usually, i'm only certain im going to die when i'm falling and i wake up as i hit the ground. i remember i dream where i was falling into a volcano and i woke up just before i hit the lava!

[kichigai]

I once had a dream where I was chased by three Freddy Kruegers (lol, ). They all caught up and stabbed me with their claws and I ended up dying. Strangely whenever I end up dying in a dream, I lay still on the ground. I can't move yet I can still see things around me. I also get the feeling that I'm "pretending" to be dead.

[Jlick]

i always seem to wake up before i die. usually, i'm only certain im going to die when i'm falling and i wake up as i hit the ground. i remember i dream where i was falling into a volcano and i woke up just before i hit the lava! [/b] next time try doing butterfly in the lava

[PhowaBoy]

The part about "seeing a bunch of blue butterflies just scattering away in all directions." is pretty interesting to me. In Buddhism, it is believed that during the death process, the mind dissolves inward through various levels of subtlety. The levels are marked by various hypnogogic imagery. There is a subtle mind two levels away from the 'clear light mind' (which is thought to travel from one life to the next) called "firefly like appearance". I guess at this stage of the dieing process your mind sees fireflies flying off in every direction (according to the practice of 'Phowa&#39. I just thought it was cool how similiar it was. I recently had a dream in which I had died and entered the 'Bardo' or afterlife, which was represented by a dark movie theatre with red seats and all kinds of strange people hanging around. I didn't want to leave my current friends and family so I decided to go back. At the bottom of the screen in the theatre was a large pool of blood (swimming pool sized). I dove down through the blood until I got to a layer of water in which I swam up to the surface and popped out of the pond at my childhood home. I was a different person and the forces of nature wanted to sweep me back into the pond, but before I took a breath, I ate some dirt from the nearby garden which gave me some time to set things in order. I then went to convince the neighbour of who I really was (even though I appeared to her as a stranger). I convinced her of who I really was and she signed a note saying I could stay on her land, buying me more time before the forces of nature could sweep me back to the pond. It seemed the only way I could get my old life back was if my mom or dad signed a note saying that I could stay in the garden. Pretty weird dream.. not sure how it ended.