Long, vivid nightmare

[Jacqui]

About a week ago I had a rather strange, vivid nightmare. I'd love to see if anyone here could analyze it and help me understand what the meaning behind it is. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. I'll warn you now: this dream is LONG. Its actually a two-parter since I woke myself up in the middle of it, deciding I didn't like where it was going (I am a lucid dreamer but the extent of control I have in my dreams vary)

The dream: I’m in a room with a guy who I assume is my coworker. We’re movie-editors for “Saw 4”. I inform him that last night I edited one scene a bit and go over to the computer to show him.

I watch what happens next as a spectator watching the movie, unattached to whats happening: a boy and a girl are in what appears to be a school gym, though it’s very dark and has lockers running off from it. Theyre trying to look for a friend of theirs. They find a bloody sword on the ground near his locker. They open it and find his body stuffed in it, his head halfway sliced. The boy and girl scream and start running, but are stopped by an older man. He is their gym teacher or coach of some kind and is holding a gun. They boy and girl then start running up what appears to be a fire escape with the guy following them.

I now “enter” the movie. Rather than feeling like I’m a character in this film it is like there is no movie anymore and its just my life. I’m standing at the bottom of the fire escape looking up at the boy and girl running. The man with the gun stops chasing them and looks down and sees me. He points the gun at me and I run away hoping he’ll continue to chase the boy and girl and let me be. I’m wrong. The man runs down the stairs.

I’m trying to run out of the gym but its turned into a very long, dark hall. A woman comes out of nowhere with her gun pointed at me, and I’m at a loss what to do because Ive got the woman in front of me and the man behind me. Luckily I look down and there’s a gun lying on the ground. Even though Ive never used a gun before in my life, I pick it up and try shooting at the woman. I either have really bad aim or the bullets aren’t coming out, because shes not getting hit. I want to check if my gun has any bullets in it but I don’t know how to do so. I can't even tell if its loaded or not so I stop trying to shoot and instead run out of the gym/hall via a door that had mysteriously appeared to my right.

I’m in my old high school quad now. I tell everyone to run for their lives because there is a crazy man who is trying to reinact a horror script he read. (I dont recall this ever being mentioned in the dream before then, but I just know its right) I tell everyone to get out of the school but then I turn around and there’s the gym teacher/coach smiling at me with his gun pointed right at my forehead. He’s standing there for a long time not pulling the trigger so I start to move around a bit. I move my head a little to my right, a little to my left etc in a vain attempt to let the bullet NOT go through my brain. The man catches on to what I’m trying to do and laughs and then starts pointing the gun at places like my kneecap and my shoulder, knowing that shooting me in those places won’t kill me, just hurt me. At this point my subconscious catches on that there isnt going to be a happy ending to this and I force myself to wake up.

I remember looking at the clock and noting the time. I then fall asleep almost instantly and enter the very same dream.

This time I’m running out the school with a swarm of people. From what people around me are saying there are quite a few people with guns in the school now. Across the road from my school theres a mall and everyone is crossing the highway to get there. I’m in the middle of a huge crowd when I cross the road, but when I enter the shop theres no mob behind or in front of me. I walk through the mall not aware of what I’m looking for or where I’m going, when two women who are in line at Starbucks smile at me and say at the same time “I’m Jerry Seinfeld.” I smile politely despite being a bit freaked out and keep on going. I start taking the escalators up. There’s a group of men behind me who I find attractive. I start flirting with them on the escalator, which appears to be never-ending. All throughout the conversation I have with them, the escalator keeps on going. All four boys in this group have brown hair and wear blue shirts. They tell me theyre heading to some place and invite me to come along with them.

They lead me to a weird store in the mall I had never noticed before. The process we go through next is very similar to one you go through at an airport when you’re waiting to get your carry-on bags checked. We’re waiting in a queue when we finally reach the desk. The man behind it asks for us to go through “the scanner” which is a frame we walk through (similar to metal-detectors at an airport). I go through “the scanner” but it isnt working. The man behind the desk asks for my name, which I give to him. He says “But your drink says ‘beauty and the beast’.” And sure enough, from the scan I’ve just gone through, they’ve made a drink from it. Apparently the drink that’s made from the scan should match your identity. The man insists that the drink says ‘beauty and the beast’ and NOT 'Jacqui' and this means I cannot be granted entry into the next section. I start arguing that maybe I AM beauty and the beast if thats what the scan came up with, so who was he to deny me entry based on something that explicitly stated my identity. One of the blue-shirts I was flirting with defends my point and the man behind the counter eventually lets me through, passing me my drink and telling me I’ll know when I’m supposed to drink it.

The guys and I are now walking to the next section when one of them states out of nowhere “You go to my school, don’t you?” I say yes, and tell him about my encounter with the crazy man with the gun. (This is the first time in the second part of the dream that I acknowledge the first part) Theyre all amazed I’m alive. Then one of them turns to me and says “I’m writing this movie script. Do you want to read it?” He pulls it out his bag while we’re still walking. I look at the title and I somehow instantly recognize it as the script the crazy gun man was trying to reinact. I stop in my tracks trying to piece all of it together, and the four guys smile at me while they pull out their guns from their jeans. I start running the other way with the guys following me.

For some inexplicable reason I run back to the school across the road. I run up to my old homeroom to hide and it appears that I have lost the blue-shirts, as I dont even hear their footsteps. I open the door to check out the hall and it turns out that the blue shirts are nowhere to be seen. I start running the same way I came hoping to get out of the school again and back to the mall. I turn the corner and run straight into the four blue-shirts. They cock their gun and I BOLT back to my homeroom. I can hear them shooting but they never get me and surprisingly dont follow me.

In my homeroom I decide to leave the school another way. At that moment all four blue shirts and myself were on the third story of the school. I figured if I could use the fire escape to go to the second story I could safely exit the school without running into them. I make sure that I’m walking calmly when I do this, not running like a lunatic and drawing attention to myself. It works. Though on the second story I see some more guys in blue shirts waiting around with guns (not the guys I was flirting with and ran into before) they don’t notice me because I’m blending right in with the rest of the crowd who are trying to escape the school. I make sure I’m always looking down so they cant identify my face but I hear someone sniffing beside me. I look up despite myself, and see a girl crying. I say to her in a Texan (!) accent “Dont be scared, youre gonna be home with your Momma soon” She looks at me and smiles wiping away her tears.

All of a sudden it jumps forward in time and I’m at my high school again. I’m going to Drama class and a few of my old high school friends are sitting on the veranda waiting for the teacher to arrive. My friends and I discuss the events of “yesterday” so I assume it’s the next morning. I tell my friends how I can’t believe I’m still alive considering the people with guns were targeting me specifically. My friends are confused so I start to explain the story to them when in my peripheral vision I can see a group of people approaching the Drama room. Its the blue shirts. They stand on the veranda with us and one of them says to me “You didn’t think we'd leave without saying goodbye?” and pulls something out of his pocket. I presume its going to be a gun but instead he pulls out a sharp, long compass (The one you use to draw circles) He smiles as he walks towards me, the compass pointing directly at my face. I dont want to know what they’re about to do to me so I force myself to wake up again



Some things that may or may not be important to note:
- Despite having went to a school that strictly enforced a uniform, everyone in this dream including myself is in normal, every-day clothes.
- Despite all of the guns in this dream, the only time I distinctly hear a shot is when the blue shirts start firing after I run into them at school for the first time. Guns are pointed at me a lot, but never actually fired except that one time.
- I’m Australian, NOT Texan. LOL I have no idea where the accent came from when I was talking to the girl; I speak in my normal Aussie accent when I talk with the blue shirts.
- Despite getting the feeling that I was a student attending the high school in this dream I actually graduated in 2004.
- Despite the man telling me I would know when to drink the beauty and the beast drink he made, it didnt come up in my dream again.

[holydiver]

The problem with lucid dreaming is that it takes the true intent of the dream away because it then becomes a part of the waking life and not the subconscouse life, meaning the waking mind is in control, and thats why the subconscouse mind symbolizes, thoughts and emotions. Lucid dreaming takes the fear out, but im not saying that lucid dreaming doesnt have a purpose. Lucid dreaming is only to be used to wake up from a bad dream, because when used in the dream, makes the dream forever null and void. Most likely the dream will never happen again because its fear has been confronted.

The subconcsious mind must go over all conscious thought, and symbolize it. When it comes across a lie in symbol form it must make the correction known both in feeling and action. This because of the trauma caused by a conflict that can be small enough for you to say to yourself what you will do or will not do because of it. Thats then becomes the lie because genetically we know what we are and who everyone else is, and is basically not putting ourselves into the shoes of others. Since its unlikely we would have a terrible problem with the tree outside, dreams are normally about ourselves, and others in relationships with each other. They are the only ones who qualify as being as smart as we are.

If you use lucid dreaming to get away from nightmares then it makes the nightmare null and void in meaning. Im not saying its a bad thing, just that you will have to depend on the normal dreams. So unfortunatly im not able to solve this one.

[Jacqui]

I appreciate the feedback, but I am afraid I may have missed your point. Or rather, you might have missed mine. Your reply focuses on the lucid aspect of my nightmare, and I have to say I don't even really consider this dream to be lucid. The only times I remembered it was a dream were the two times I made myself wake up. And just because I did so, does not mean everything else that happened in the dream is meaningless. I don't think that assumption is correct at all.

The only distinguishing feature of this dream that sets it apart from other ones I've had is not that it was any more or less lucid, it's that I have no idea what it could mean. I think the lucid aspect has nothing to do with my dream, to be frank, because that's how I always am when I sleep. It's not like I went, "I want to escape from this dream, I'll make it lucid!" and I don't agree with the suggestion that even if I were to do that, the nightmare would suddenly become meaningless. There was a reason the things in my dream happened, that's why I'm here.

[holydiver]

I will take your word for it, and give it a shot.

You may feel unjustley blamed, or ridiculed for your efferts in lifes trials. You also might in turn have ridicule for those who dont understand your attempts at getting things done. This could be a struggle with your plans for life, and what you want to do and how you want to do it.

I noticed there being a lot of men in the dream with blue shirts, and most likley means working men, or co-workers/friends. Maybe even someone like a boyfriend your trying to work things out with. The fact you flirt with them very well could mean that your using what you know or have, to get what you want out of life. This looks as though the reason you had the dream.

Writing a script might mean what you have made plans for in the future, as you could expect this reasoning to play out in life. You may be finding that in playing this out in life hasnt turned out as well as you thought it would have, and is possible that this has caused you some conflict, making for a trauma that had to be worked out within your mind.

The compass could be the symbol for masonic, which is all about secret symbols and meanings, which is telling you the end of the problem solved by those symbols. It also might at the same time symbolize going in circles up to this point.

Though writing a script with a co-worker may mean trying or making plans with someone you care about, and the theme of the script is by force, whats good for you regardless if you like it or not. Since this is the theme of the dream, you dont want any part of it, and run from it. This may be the original trauma forcing the dream to surface.

I have known many a women to flirt or flaunt what they have to get attention or even to get out of life what they wanted. The popular theme of those who are pretty feeling they dont have to work for what they have, if they are that good at it. Over time those i have known in life who have done that have nothing, no marrige, no boy friend, and some even homless. I saw a women down the block from me who had a boyfriend, and she was arguing with him outside, and told him he was lucky she let him store his stuff at her house. My only thoughts were that im not going to be next. After he left, she has made it a point to go past my house when i get home from work. The point being Men know what going on, eventhough they will go along with it for a time just to see where it goes. Thats how men find out things.

Because of the theme of the dream being saw, possibley symbolizing whats good for you, and at the same time teaching you by force could mean starting over. Men often go by trust, when you break that trust you start over. Its never you are equal with them unless you dont break that trust. Once you break it, you start over. The way i tell it is more true in wording and real life, and thats Men want to be believed in. Thats what Love means to men. If you work things out, or make a deal, then you must keep it or change it. But if you dont keep your agreement then he wont believe your there for him, and your there only for yourself. He will then place distance between you and him.

Most women dont have any idea how to treat a man, and its not really that hard. You have to believe in him no matter what. If you cant find a man who you can support in his efforts, then he is not worth your time. Support to a man means something different, they give support in their jobs. Im not saying it has to be that way, but normally works out better that way. If a man gets something wrong, it doesnt mean its time for ridicule to put him down for it. If he gets it wrong its because of a wrong idea women have about being spontaniouse. Men can never be spontaniouse unless they have done it before, and have a ready answer for it. If its their first time, and they havent had time to think about it and put it together they will most likley mess it up.

If the relationship means to have children in it then a women must believe the man can support them enough in his means to do so. If a women takes over for a man doing everything for herself then the man wont have any reason. He then turns into a whimp and worthless. Men will never have the personality of a women, their both unique unto themselves. A man has incredible focuse power, while a women has the ability to see everything. Their reasoning based on who they are and what their purpose in life is. Men will distinguish the differance between would, should, could, might, and may, while a women might not see the differance. A man might say you could marrie him, but that wouldnt be the same.

In the movie forest gump, the saying stupid is, is what stupid does, might seem to be really stupid, but has its meaning in life. A women might take it onto herself to do a prodject around the house. She will just jump right into it regardless of anything. The man sitting on the couch watching football might be thinking she isnt very smart no planning for it first. He draws his opinion from watching, and will always seem to be a man opinion of any women who does it, dispite she thinking that at least she is doing something about it, and thinking the man is stupid for not helping. Though both men and women often think the way each other do things is stupid, they havent spent the time to work things out.

Trauma is caused by not working things out, and having to start over all the time. As long as there is conflict there will be trauma, and trauma not being worked out leads to starting over because everything is stupid. Its the great lie we all live with, we see it in our dreams.