No predictions, just want to share some strange dreams from last night...

I'd like to start this by saying I don't sleep much. I feel pretty well rested after only 2-3 hours of sleep, I almost always dream but I forget most of my dreams soon after waking up. I can sit for a while and think about them when I first wake up, but once I think about something else the dreams are gone. This morning I remembered three distinct 'sections' of my dream(s) so I figured I would share the madness with ATS.

Another thing I'd like to say before I get into it is that when I dream there are essentially two overall feelings I get while in the dream. I either just go about my business, no matter how outlandish and unreal it may be, without feeling that anything is out of place. In other words I feel just like I do in the waking life, but the world around me is completely different. The other feeling...well I'll be in the dream and I will have this nagging feeling that something isn't right, like there is a fog between my senses and the outside world, if that makes any sense at all. I will be clumsy, get lost, confused, things like that. Last night was the foggy, confusing feeling.

So the first dream (or section of dream) was a recurring theme I see in my dreams quite often. I was in some sort of gigantic supermarket. Imagine something like 10 Sam's club or similar warehouse style stores and that was how big it felt. The interior of the store was very clean and tidy, and it had the feel of an upscale store...There were customers, everything seemed to be operational. I was in the store looking for a hat, which is strange because I don't wear hats. Here's the part where the recurring theme comes in: my method of movement around the store. I'm wearing my normal shoes, but I'm able to move like I'm ice skating (never ice skated a day in my life), but without the control of having blades under my feet. It's more like there is almost zero friction between my shoes and the floor. Everyone else is walking around like normal and doesn't seem to notice that I'm speeding around the store, periodically losing control and crashing into displays and shelves.

As I'm moving through the store, I'm searching for a blue hat. There are random displays with 10-15 hats each set up throughout the store, and I'm not finding a hat that I like. At one point I look to my left and notice a dedicated clothing section in the distance. So I head that way, but as soon as I turn the corner there is a big extension cord across the floor that almost trips me up. I look to see what the cord is going to, and there is an enormous audience again to my left. I turn to the right to see what they are watching, and there is an old lady sitting in a chair, with a spotlight coming from in front of her on the floor shining onto her. There are no shadows on this woman, and her voice is very raspy and slow. She freaked me out so I hauled ass out of there. I never found the hat I was looking for, and the next thing I remember is walking (in a normal way) in a parking lot, and getting into my truck. The truck I actually have in real life. Then everything changes in the blink of an eye.

I'm parked in a field. This field has made many, many appearances in my dreams. It's a huge field, I would guess more than 20 acres. Around the edges of the field is a thick pine tree 'forest', and the field always looks flat and without features until I start walking around. The first thing I came to was a ditch, about 15 feet across and 10 feet deep, there's a little stream in the bottom maybe 2 inches deep and a foot wide. The ground is muddy but solid. As I'm walking along this ditch (haven't crossed it at this point) I realize that I'm walking alongside my Grandmother, who was killed in a car accident about 8 or 9 years ago. We're not talking, I'm not astonished to see her or anything like that, I've dreamed of her before and she always appears silently and with the biggest, most comforting smile you can imagine.

So I decide to go down into the ditch and cross to the other side, and just as I get to the bottom I realize that my grandmother has now changed into her best friend, a woman named Jeannie who I consider to be another grandmother figure throughout my life. Again, this doesn't elicit a reaction from me in the dream for some reason. I'm at the bottom of the ditch now, and the ground is muddy but firm, my feet are sinking maybe a half inch under my weight. We walked along the ditch for a few dozen steps, and I decided it was time to climb out. As I'm climbing the ground is getting softer and softer, and my shoes are covered in black mud. I'm about halfway out of the ditch and I start sinking fast. The mud is up to my thigh and I look to Jeannie and panic consumes me. This is another strange thing because I can't remember the last time I panicked in real life, I'm somewhat of an adrenaline junkie. As I look to her I sink almost instantly, the mud is now up to my fingertips with my arms stretched straight up. I'm 6'2'' for reference. As quickly as I sink, Jeannie reaches in and rips me from the mud with insane strength. She's about 4'2'' and by no means a strong woman, for reference.

When I get out of the mud I'm suddenly in a big city, it's very cramped and reminds me of a poor Asian city you would see in an action movie. The only thought in my head is "Where the hell is my truck?". I start walking down the road, and there is this insanely loud alarm. If you've ever worked in a factory with alarms designed to overpower the sound of hydraulic presses and earplugs, then you can imagine this sound. I see a couple guys frantically waving me into this garage, the sound of the alarm has me confused and unable to think, so I run to the frantic waving guys. They bring my into a garage, close the door and drag these big chains underneath the door. I ask what the hell is happening, and one of them just says "Tar! It's tar!". I have no idea what this means at this point. The alarm stops, and I hear what sounds like a male screaming in agony in the distance.

I look up, and the ceiling of the garage is either missing or transparent. I see a balcony filled with people, and there is a man on the roof with a fire hose, spraying hot tar on the people! I ask why this is happening, and everyone in the garage just looks at me with a sad look. No one explains anything. The man with the fire hose leaves, and the people on the balcony are gone, not sure where they went. We open the garage door and we start talking about something, I don't remember what it was, but within what seemed like only a few minutes the alarm goes off again. We start to close the garage door, I have the big chains in my hands ready to drag in. Just as we get the door closed, we hear a small dog barking and scratching at the door. We let the dog in, close the door, and I look back up to the balcony. It's filled with people again, the guy with the fire hose is there again, but this time the people are climbing down from the balcony and heading towards the garage.

One guy somehow makes it into the garage, the ceiling/roof is now completely gone/open, and the fire hose guy is dousing the guy who made it into the garage. The only thought I have is "Man, I hope that # doesn't get on me!". The runaway guy is screaming, running around the garage, and suddenly the fire hose guy changes his aim and starts to spray me with the hot tar...I just start screaming "I wasn't there, I wasn't there!" (Continued on next post)

The guys in the garage start to explain that the tar is for control, and there is no way to know if you're going to be the 'target'. I started freaking out, but realized that I was feeling no pain. So I started to move towards the fire hose guy, with the intent of going Chuck Norris on him, but the guys in the garage grabbed my shirt and pulled me back and said "No! Look!" They opened the garage door, and there was my truck! I ran to it, started it up, and drove away. I got about 3 blocks and the truck died, I had no steering, no brakes, just momentum. This is another recurring thing in my dreams, driving a vehicle that either just doesn't work right (no brakes, keeps stalling, things like that) I started to panic again, and I seriously just asked the truck to start back up, and it did...creepy...I was driving around in circles, I couldn't figure out where I was or how to get out. I parked in an area with no people, started to search for my cell phone (I guess I thought it was in the truck somewhere) and that's when my 80lb pitbull decided to jum on my bed and wake me up with a big sloppy face licking hahaha...

I'm sure that was hard to follow, but I'm trying to get it all out while I remember it all.


ETA::I left out a part that happened in the 'supermarket hat search'.

After running from the creepy old lady, I was in some sort of auditorium that was set up like a store...there was the theater style seating with the back of the room being raised up and the front near the stage being ground level, except it was reversed with the stage being at the high end of the room. There was a lot of screaming and applause, like a band had just taken the stage but the stage was empty. I just wanted a hat so I was making my way out when I saw 3 or 4 'people' walking up the walkway. They all had elaborate costumes, reminded me of a cheesy scifi movie or something from stargate. Like an Egyptian take on the Predator. In my dream I recognized them and stood up on the back of a seat, put my fists in the air and screamed a deep, gutteral, insanely loud scream. The 'people' in costumes stopped, looked at me, and I jumped down about 20 rows of seats. That's another recurring thin gin my dreams, extreme jumping/running. When I landed on the ground, there was a security guard. He had this look on his face like "Yep. You're outta here." He walked towards me and I said something like "What you're gonna kick me out because of that?? I know these guys!!" He just said "You gotta go buddy" and threw me outside. That's when I ended up in the parking lot I mentioned above.

Dreams are often ways of dealing with life, playing out any fears etc in a safe way.

Perhaps that dream is relative to your life situation as it is or a fear of something you might be aware or unaware of, a need for wisdom / love (the grandmother thing), a feeling of being pulled down (mud), could be something that is nagging at your conscience or things you need to do that are always on your mind. The tar could suggest some confusion or others getting in the way or controlling things.

Sometimes dreams are spiritual and those of such realms might appear, giving advice.

You know your life situations and perhaps can 'decode' it yourself, though dreams are often not so much a direct play out of your emotional state etc but sometimes IMO, are an emotional preparation, such as tuning in to something for the purpose of clarity, something that was needed to be placed in the mind /consciousness.

Additionally on a more mundane level, sometimes dreams are a reflection of the physical. I happen to know that I often kick my duvet off and like fresh air from the windows however cold it is. My mind wakes me using a slightly scary dream if it got too cold for body. A natural alarm of sorts.

I'm no expert, but here are my two cents:

You afraid to lose control of our life. Your truck is the symbol for (what you percieve) is the means of maintaining control in your life. You are discovering that life and the society you live in here on Earth is not what it seems, and this scares you. All the other people and their interests is starting to seem bizar to you as you are being awakened while they are still in their old mindset; hense all the strange situations with crowds doing weirds things/acting weird. The blue hat is a symbol for your current goal in life; if I just get that [insert object here] then I will be happy etc. You never find it, because you know deep inside that finding your hat will not truely make you happy and will just spawn a new object to be desired as a goal for you happiness. This is why you say you don't need a hat; humans don't really need a lot of the stuff we consume but we still crave "symbols of happiness" that have little practical purpose in our life. The guy with the hose is a symbol of society conformity, and the part of yourself that wants to conform to society regardless of your own feelings at the expence of your individuality. The amazing superhuman feats in you dream is a symbol of your individuality; hense you can do things other people cannot in your dream. The cop is a symbol of the punisment you are afraid the society will put on you if you decide not to confirm to societies rules; will you loose your friends/wife/job? The alarm is a symbol of your subconsious that is telling you these things.

To put a bit of positive twist to you first dream, here is a quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sometimes it is good to take a break from ATS, believe me I've been there too :

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe gets that.

The dream with your grandmother I believe is someting else; I believe that it is a potential future you are seeing. The future is never fixed; this is why there are so few features in that dream. The only noticable features are only the beginning of someting being created (ie. the pit), the future may be like that (your plans to do something), as symbolized in your dream by the pit. Someone that loves you will save you then, someone you take for granted - that is why you never seem surprised that "your loved one" pops up in your dream. But, they will only save you if you ask them and reach out like you did in your dream. In your future you may get into something bad, and you will try "to solve it all yourself", you will need to reach out and ask help from a loved one to get youself out of that "pit of troubles".

-MM