Recurring dream I've had in the past and question about a recent string of " sequential dreams" I

Hello ATS,

I didn't want to waste a thread so I'm gonna put 2 instances I want answers for into this thread.

Last night I woke up pretty much every hour from a dream, they didn't put me in a state of shock where I couldn't go back to sleep (until the last one) but these dreams were different from any others I've ever had that I can remember (can't actually remember the content of these sadly) because they were in a sequential order even though I was being awoken every hour. Are sequential dreams in the same night a common occurrence? I haven't really been able to find much about them online other than Freud was investigating sequential dreams at one point.

Now to not waste your time I have an interesting recurring dream I have every few years usually in spurts (last occurrence was twice within the same week in 2012) that I'd love an interpretation of if possible. I've been given the suggestion that maybe it's a past life experience but I'm not sold on that idea as I'm not sure I've ever learned of a time period where the police/military are in this much control of our lives. Anyways, onto the dream:

I'm walking home from work (the whole town works in some sort of factory, I'm never in the factory during the dream so I don't know what we make or if it's a factory at all, just the feeling I have in the dream), most of the population is walking single file down the street to our homes (more like the section 8 duplexes I grew up in).

As I'm walking home I notice police pulling people randomly out of line and questioning them about a certain person (going to change the name of this person just in case I do need to keep this identity hidden for future purposes, as I know this username has been traced back to my actual identity or can be fairly easily, just know that it definitely relates to my personality other than the gender is wrong, but the feeling I get was I did this on purpose to keep myself that much safer in this time), Ms. Smith. I do not know why they are looking for me, but I feel safe walking down the street as my normal self as I don't believe they can prove I'm Ms. Smith unless someone were to rat me out, but for whatever reason the community also feels a need to hide me as well.

After I see a lady pulled out of the line near me and hear them question her about Ms. Smith my dream skips ahead to me walking into where I'm staying. At this point I'm living with a black family who doesn't seem to like me (they don't acknowledge me at all and only give me the stink eye as I walk in). I walk in, nod in the direction of the mother and then go to my room. This is where the dream has changed.

The first time I had this dream I went over to my dresser (has a mirror on top but I can't remember ever seeing my reflection) and I specifically remember staring at the baseboard to the right hand side of the dresser (everything was normal the first time). The second time and ever since that I have this dream, that baseboard is missing as if something is hidden there but it's empty when I look at it and I don't get a feeling as to what was in there.

Any ideas/interpretations?

Quite interesting. Just reading your narration of your dreams I get the feeling of a very repressive government. Walking home from a common work place, in a single file line, with cops (or whatever) pulling people out of the line and questioning them, looking for you apparently, reminds me of that older 1984 movie but I got a vibe from the silent flick Metropolis too.

Living with a black family that seems to barely tolerate you (I get that your a white 20 something male?) this feeds the paranoia of the rest of the dream. As for the missing item hidden behind the baseboard in your room, perhaps this is what the cops are after, and someone beat them to it.

It sounds like it would be a cool movie theme, but I'm not coming up with the possible meanings for the over all dream and it's symbolic content. Something about not seeing your own reflection disturbs me, I can't put my finger on it though.

I have sequential dreams all the time...

and not just in one night - I'll find myself back in certain buildings, towns, areas, houses, with certain people (some known in waking life, others known only in dream life)... sometimes several nights in a row, but more often 'every so often'.

I know my way around the various 'locations', and in each location there's a different "group" - and different 'sequential things' going on...
always very realistic. Sometimes 'characters' will appear in a different 'setting/location' when they are usually in the others - weird.

I'm pretty much convinced that we (our ethereal 'selves') are in different dimensions when we dream - our consciousness doesn't seem to need as much rest as our 'bodies'.

But, I dunno. Fascinating subject.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Indeed 25 (23 last time I had the dream). Not entirely sure if you're implying I'm racist, but if so I can ensure you that's not the case. There's many reasons I find to not trust/dislike people, their color is never one of them. Actually, many of my closer friends in life would be placed into stereotypes that most people wouldn't even consider you racist for not associating with them. I find that "dangerous" people have the most to teach you about society/reality and have always given people the benefit of the doubt until I'm able to form an accurate opinion of their character.

Just an FYI, I've never read/seen 1984 (pretty sure it was a required reading in high school. I'm not against reading or anything like that I just choose to read what I'm interested in, not something I've been told is important to read. To put some perspective around this I graduated with a 4.2, 3.7 unweighted, GPA while sleeping through high school.) I've also never seen Metropolis or any silent film for that matter.

I found the no reflection kind of weird as well, the person who suggested it may be a past life memory suggested that I focus on the mirror instead of the baseboard the next time I had the dream to see if I'm actually myself in the dream or what, but I've yet to have the dream again since that suggestion.

Rereading it triggered another memory of a dream I had where I worked in a very strange factory, but there's nothing I can think of in this dream that would suggest the 2 are related other than it was in a strange factory.

It was my first day at this job, I was being shown around in an elevator, mainly the areas I would need in my day to day job duties. The job, and it's very hard for me to put into words because it makes no sense to me, was that I would be "balancing" (don't have a better word for this) boxes into a lift of sorts. 2 parallel pipes ran horizontally along the ceiling and then bent and came down to about chest height where they bent again to make a platform (the platform never moved, it always stayed in the same place, ready for the next box) where I would place the boxes and they would start to rise up and line up along the ceiling pipes, kind of like a conveyor belt but there wasn't anything there except the pipes that guided them along. I never saw what was inside of the boxes nor did they ever tell me.

During the dream I was placed with a black lady for my first day to show me what to do, etc. Somehow she ended up dislodging one of her pipes from the ceiling (breaking the machine or whatever it is) and was taken away by 2 men not long after to the elevator (this lady was never in my original dream, but I guess could be the reason the family I stay with doesn't like me if the dreams are related). There were probably about 50 other employees in this room and as soon as the machine broke I remember the room going completely quiet before the men came to get the lady. I'm not sure what happened to the lady as no one would or could tell me, but definitely got the feeling it wasn't good.

The only other weird part of this dream that I remember (I could barely explain this dream right after having it and a lot of the details were lost as soon as I woke up, unlike the original dream) was that elevator. They used it to show me around in the beginning and it seemed to be able to go anywhere in the factory but once I had been shown around would only go where I needed to (work area, lunch room, and exit). I also don't remember any buttons on this elevator or my work equipment, everything seemed to be automated.

I never even considered the idea that those dreams may be related in any way until today (and for the most part had forgotten about the factory dream altogether), the factory dream definitely happened after the recurring dream and only happened the one time as far as I can remember.

Thinking I should definitely start keeping a dream journal now lol.

reply to post by McGooferson


McGooferson, I had no intention of implying you might be racist. In fact, the way you described coming home to a black family in your dream indicated the opposite to me. If anything, the way you related the story, it was the black family that may of had a problem with you. Even that didn't seem based on race, just something about you in the dream, like an uneasy truce.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


No worries, I wasn't sure. Figured not, but saw a way the meaning could be skewed and wanted to make sure.

reply to post by McGooferson


Cool, I should have put in a disclaimer in my post.

People will jump on anything, esp. in this forum (actually pretty much all these forums).