Strange sequence of events

[Bronwyn sims]

Hi, this is my first post and hope that I have chosen the right forum for this query. I have had numerous experiences since childhood of waking screaming from dreams that I did not remember or having instances of trying to call out but having no voice. More recently I have experienced becoming aware just before waking, so I don't remember the majority of a dream but I will know that my surroundings change sometimes slightly, sometimes radically ie I may become aware of being in bed or in my house but then as I wake everything seems the wrong way around (like a mirror image) and it is very disorientating. I have also had a few occassions where I have been doing something and all of a sudden my whole reality just sucks away in front of my eyes and I wake screaming and realise that the reality I had been experiencing was my dream world. I am left feeling very fragile, it is as if I die and then am reborn into my waking life. All this is really just background info as a few months ago I had a very weird experience and I can"t get it out of my mind. I became aware that I was in a dream where I was in a narrow hallway desparately trying to hold a door closed because I was terrified of something which was tryiing to get to me from the other side of the door. I tried to scream out to my partner but I couldn't make a noise (i was aware that I was dreaming at this point ) I told myself that I didn't want to be in this dream anymore and fully expected to just wake up. The dream vision disappeared but instead of waking up in my body, in my bed I was in a dark void with no points of reference. I was fully alert and in control of my thoughts and emotions. I tried to call out again but I had no voice. I was a little afraid but not as terrified as I had been whilst in the dream. I made a conscious decision that I would have to go back to the dream deciding that this would be the only way to then wake up. I instantly began to dream again (ie vision began again over which I had no control and I was not in any control of my actions in this dream). In this dream my partner and I stepped through a door onto a landing of a busy street scape. (In my waking life I live a quiet rural existence) We began to go down the steps towards the street, there were people hurrying along and lots of traffic. A mother cat and her kitten walked along the street at the bottom of the steps. As we neared the bottom of the steps a large Tom cat came around the corner and stared into my eyes. He wasn't vicious but I knew he wanted to get me so I turned and began to run back up towards the door. My partner was ahead of me . Just as I reached the door the cat sprang and landed heavily on my back. I felt his claws in my shoulders I leapt through the door and found myself back in the void again fully alert and in control. This time I felt very worried. I looked around in the darkness but there was nothing, no light, no sound, nothing. I looked for my hands but there was nothing. It was just like my mind was floating in oblivion. I gathered my self together and tried to call out again but I had no voice. I thought to myself that I must have died but I wasn't afraid because I'm not afraid of death. But then I became concerned because I didn"t know where to go or what to do. It is hard to know exactly how long had transpired but I'd say at least 5 minutes. I finally decided that if this was being dead I wasn't actually ready for it. I just wanted to be reunited with my body. I was totally alert and in control of my thoughts!! I definitely was not dreaming . I focused all my wil on reuniting with my body it was very hard but eventually I began to experience a kind of sucking, squeezing sensation.(that is, I began having physical, feeling sensation) It was very painful and I can only think it must be what it feels like coming through the birth canal.Eventually i was in my body again. My eyes were open during the whole process I sat up and turned the light on beside my bed. I was very shaken and had a tight feeling in my upper body for about 15 minutes. I would really like some input into where exactly I had been. What was that void?

[Bronwyn sims]

It took me ages to write this and I was really hoping someone would give me some input. Please

[lvlindless]

Woah thats a pretty intense dream. Maybe your subconscious mind is trying to tell you something from all the crazy stuff in your dreams. Perhaps there's something with your waking life that you don't like or want out of your life and your subconscious is trying to tell you through the dream. I never get intense dreams like that, but mine are pretty weird.

[[Alpha]-0mega-]

1.: your punctuation is proper, but your arrange-style of the text isn't... It's almost like a newspaper, i'd suggest using ENTER a bit more. That aside: The void doesn't HAVE to have a meaning at all. But if you want one. Either, you are afraid of losing someone. (That you'll be left all alooonnne) OR, you were just in what I call "Zero-Point". I've had ''void experiences'' a few times in lucid dreams, usually before I wake up though, I don't know EXACTLY what it is but I do know that it's just blackness, and isn't really part of the dream.. Like a ''interval''.

[Wolffe]

When all sensory input is switching over :3 If you think that's freaky, you should see what happens when the two cross over! You get dream characters imprinted as realistic as it gets, across your waking life ceiling!

[Bronwyn sims]

To Alpha Omega, Thanks for taking the time to reply but I must say I find your arrogance a little overwhelming. I didn't realize that I would be marked on my composition technique. It is very difficult to retell a dream experience in written text but the guidelines for placing posts is to be specific and to include all the detail that you possibly can. You are obviously very experienced with lucid dreaming but if you noticed my profile I am a beginner and although I have had many dream experiences throughout my life they have all been random, unplanned experiences and the unknown can be quite disconcerting. I feel your sarcasm re the fact that I could be afraid of losing something rather off putting. I'm not sure how old you are but I am 48 and have experienced much loss in my life. I have learnt through my experience that loss can be a huge learning curve but definitely not something to be sarcastic about. May I suggest that you add a little compassion and empathy to your replies, especially to beginners. I have taken membership to this group because I was hoping to link up with people who are serious about the learning that can be gained from intergrating their dream life and their waking life into a positive amalgum not to be treated like an idiot. My experience in the void was very difficult. I was totally alert in my mind but completely without any of my waking senses ie voice, movement, sight and it was a very drawn out experience not just a fleeting moment. I know the void "doesn't have to mean anything" the fact is it "was" something which I vividly experienced. To Wolffe I have experienced faces staring down at me through the ceiling after I was completely awake and yes it was extremely freaky, but it is good to know that I'm not crazy and that others have also experienced that phenomena.

[memeticverb]

thank for sharing browyn dont mind the grumpy folks. I think what the above posters are refering to is a state where the dream content is as vacant as possible, and in a lucid dream if one has sufficient control, one could strart from this blank slate to create whatever dreamworld they wanted. but your specific dream may be very personally and psychologically influenced. your subsconscious is bringing in aspects of the real world at first, and then something from the real world chases you into "the void", a place where you have total control over your own possibilities. the dream might have been encouraging you to think about death, or may have had some deeper subconsious purpose. anyways, have fun lucid dreaming and take care m

[ArchSeraph]

Hello Bronwyn . I'm sorry to hear what happened in that lucid . It really sucks to have realistic nightmares (trust me I know ).For instance, about a month or two ago I had dreams where I was shot, stabbed, drowned, poisoned and it all felt real. The only void dream I had (or that I could recall) was in a diffrent topic but is quoted bellow: These are one of the frequent dreams I had before I got my dry spell. The only one I can remember (actually the one I had right before I lost lucidity ability) went like this: That day: I'm at school etc... kids start to annoy me. I felt alot of rage building in me and all I thought of doing was beating their heads into the concrete. But, being the good kid I held back the impending rage that was trying to claw it's way out of me and put it in a little place that I made up when I was a little kid to control anger and such, I named this place Pandora's Box . The dream: After I fall asleep I believe I was in the void (world of nonexistence, purgatory, what ever you want to call it). This was in third person. I looked in the distance and I could make out a shape. As it got closer I saw that it looked exactly like me only with slighty glowing blood red eyes and was eminating what looked like black and red vapor . Since I praticed swordsmanship at a very young age I imaged I had a katana and got ready to defend myself, but as I did this my dark-self manifested a obsidion colored katana (just for the record obsidion is black volcanic shiny stone). After this we began to fight. The only reference to the type of fighting we did would be fighting like Cloud and Sephiroth (from Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts I and II, etc... ironic heh). A while passed and I was getting tired. All I could do at this point was block attacks until he striked the sword from my hands. The last thing I remember was looking up, and him striking downward at me and then I woke up bolting upright. The funny thing with this dream is that I remembered it when I saw the title of this topic. Hmmm... So ya anyway, it was a rather envigorating and disturbing experience. Now that I think of it this dream may have been the cause of my six year dry spell (screwy ain't it). It looks like I inevertly opened my Pandora's Box. [/b] So, ya, I know how you feel . I hope you get good lucid dreams soon. Good luck and sweet dreams .

[Bronwyn sims]

Hi again and thanks to the last two repliers. I'll send you both a PM. It is comforting just to know that this void is experienced by others. I'm sure I was given an opportunity in the void to go back and face the fear on the other side of the door and even though I made the conscious thought to return to the dream I obviously wasn't specific enough in my thought to go back to that exact dream and the cat dream came instead. I feel that they were both dreams about embracing the unknown or facing fears. The experience has definitely pushed me to work harder on looking inside myself, challenging my fears and embracing my shadow side. Now that I am understanding more about the dream process and with the helpful explanations of the void that you have all given me I am hopeful that I will begin to again have lucid dreams which I can participate in much more actively and confidently, because since that experience, although I have had some vivid dreams that I have been able to remember, my frequency of recall has been much lower than normal and I have not had any lucid moments, whereas before the void experience I would have them regularly (even though I didn't truly understand what they were at the time). I know that I am blessed to have had the numerous spontaneous lucid dreams that I have had through my life and want to be open to them without fear and with much more control. I'll keep asking for the opportunity to go back and face the fear behind the door and one day it may happen.