Black Water

Okay, this is not a nightmare, but it is a recurring dream, or at least a recurring element in my dreams.

The first time I experienced was when I had a dream about scuba diving. My diving party had found a cave made of colorful stone. Inside the cave was a large chamber with a cloud of swilling black water at the center. We entered the cave and watched the cloud until we saw a strange creature swimming inside of it, it's head and tail occasionally peaking out. We were all terrified at first, the thing looked like some prehistoric shark, but we calmed down when we realized it was completely ignoring our presence and was not leaving the cloud of black water.

That was the last dream that took place under water. From then on, I frequently had dreams of floating on a still, waveless sea of black water with no land in sight. The sun is always out, but the light does not reflect and glint off of the water the way it does on the actual ocean. I can still see below the surface, and I see roiling glimpses of gigantic sea creatures, like the ones you would see in a National Geographic magazine about deep-see creatures. Giant squid-like things, colossal angler fish and other terrifying looking things. They often give me a shock when I first see them, but they never pose any threat. They never attack me or each other, but float along without seeming to notice me at all. Whatever vessel I'm travelling in (most often a simple canoe), it rides very low in the sea. The water almost breaches the edges, but never actually pours in.

Even on land, I frequently see a nearby river of similar light-absorbing water, only the creatures inside normally glow when I see them from land and musical bells accompany their movement.

Sometimes I'm in a freshwater lake instead. Here, the water is completely transparent instead of being black, but dark green plants grow along the floor of the lake, and it is often shallow enough to wade in. The boats here travel low in the water, as they do in the sea, but the creatures are far more active and they mostly resemble giant pikes and carp. They swim rapidly and, unlike their saltwater companions, often break the surface of the water. They are still not threatening, and they are sometimes even playful and allow me to touch them, but not for long.

Here, I often see things thinks sunken beneath the surface, such as boats and even a plane that seems to come up again and again, always covered in the same green algae that covers the floor of the rest of the lake.

These dreams frequently startle me at first, but not for long. I've had frequent and elaborate nightmares in the past, but this water is always a safe place. At the same time, I have no control here. I can't steer my vessel and I am often only here to observe.

On time I made it to an island on the other side of the black sea, and found an abandoned vacation destination. There were empty hotels and vacant cars. I saw several Dimetrodon-like things there that terrified me. Somehow I knew they were responsible for the people that had disappeared. When I ran back to my canoe and went back to sea with the giant creatures there, however, I felt save again.

There was one moment that paralyzed me with fear, though. I was on land and viewing the black river of primordial things and I realized I was dreaming. I thought I would try lucid dreaming and I commanded the river to change course. This is something that I had done in my first lucid dream (though that time it was a completely normal river). When I tried commanding the river to move, however, I heard a voice that shook the entire landscape reverberate "No." The laugh that followed paralyzed every joint in my body. Suddenly, I felt the presence of something standing beside me; it was a tall, dark thing, and I couldn't bring myself to look at it directly, but I knew it was the one that had told me no.

But then, as with my first experience with the black water, my fear faded. The thing beside me kept following as I walked, but he didn't mean me any harm. He seemed amused by my initial fear, but he had no intention of scaring me further, as if my fear was just a consequence of what he had to do and he happened to enjoy it, but he had no specific desire to cause me discomfort.

I've experienced his presence sense, and he sometimes seems to protect me. Things that actually mean me harm tend to slink away when he is there, but he also appears when my attempts at lucid dreaming fail (this seems to happen mostly when the black water is around).

I've read that water in dreams is supposed to represent an over-attachment to the material world, which does not describe me at all, and this isn't "normal" water. I was wondering if anyone had an ideas or if they have experienced something similar.