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Author Topic: Recurring dreams or nightmares  (Read 2115 times)

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Änσnymσus

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Recurring dreams or nightmares
« on: June 14, 2013, 05:33:42 PM »
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  • Does anyone else have any recurring dreams or nightmares?

    I used to have a recurring nightmare of being sucked into a whirlpool. Another one I had a few times was of a little girl sobbing in grief. They've both gone away in the last couple years.

    Can Catholics look for psychological meanings to such dreams, or is that too Freudian?


    Offline Nadir

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #1 on: June 14, 2013, 05:50:12 PM »
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  • Quote from: Guest
    Does anyone else have any recurring dreams or nightmares?

    I used to have a recurring nightmare of being sucked into a whirlpool. Another one I had a few times was of a little girl sobbing in grief. They've both gone away in the last couple years.

    Can Catholics look for psychological meanings to such dreams, or is that too Freudian?


    The Bible is full of dreams and their interpretations.
    Go here: http://www.drbo.org and put "dream" in the search engine.
    Help of Christians, guard our land from assault or inward stain,
    Let it be what God has planned, His new Eden where You reign.


    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #2 on: June 14, 2013, 07:42:47 PM »
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  • Going down dark empty roads.  Going into underground tunnels.

    Strange architectural landscapes.

    Offline Sigismund

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #3 on: June 14, 2013, 11:38:27 PM »
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  • I have some recurring dreams.  None that I would call nightmares.  
    Stir up within Thy Church, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the Spirit with which blessed Josaphat, Thy Martyr and Bishop, was filled, when he laid down his life for his sheep: so that, through his intercession, we too may be moved and strengthen by the same Spir

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #4 on: June 14, 2013, 11:47:49 PM »
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  • I have several recurring types of dreams, though they are not often identical:
    pulling teeth, being lost and confused, being with relatives and suddenly remembering they are dead, trying to keep windows and doors locked....I very seldom if ever have a "happy" dream. They are all either confusing, scary, or weird.
    Sometimes I have wondered if that is kind of what Hell may be like, locked into nightmares and unable to ever wake up. Only more real and worse.


    Offline jen51

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #5 on: June 15, 2013, 12:00:11 AM »
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  • I have recurring dreams about free falling off a cliff, my teeth falling out, running away from someone chasing me way faster than I would be able to run in real life, tornados, and some others. I dream often of the creek valley that I explored daily as a child.

    I never know what to think of these.

    Sometimes I'll wake up after a dream feeling very encouraged and refreshed, or on very seldom occasions with insight about what I need to do. When this happens I smile and thank God for pleasant dreams.
    Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.
    ~James 1:27

    Offline Frances

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #6 on: June 15, 2013, 12:32:22 PM »
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  • All people dream.  So do dogs, cats, cows, horses, primates, pigs...  Medically speaking, the thought life of the brain is in a state of suspended animation.  The will is not active, which is why an impure dream or dream of other sinful behavior cannot be held to person's soul.  Dreams are often a series of disjointed memories that come together to create a virtual reality.  God certainly CAN direct dreams, but this is the exception when He wishes to communicate with us.  Unless a person has compromised his spiritual integrity by mortal sin, especially by sins against the first, sixth and ninth commandments, it is unlikely the devil is the cause of bad dreams.  Victims of sɛҳuąƖ abuse or those who have experienced  severe trauma may suffer from nightmares.  In this case, I will not harm to consult a priest.  Some people remember dreams in fine detail, others, not at all. So long as one doesn't place trust in his dreams and live according to them, no Freudianism is involved. If, after consulting a priest, practicing good sleep habits, nightmares continue, a neurologist should be consulted and a sleep study done.  Often, bad dreams are a "side effect" of certain medications.  Two notorious offenders are Norvasc for high blood pressure, and trazodone, a muscle-relaxant.
    Be sure to "get ready" for sleep with a warm bath, putting salts or lilac extract in the water helps.  Be sure to offer up your sleep to God. Seep with a Rosary in case you wake up in a panic.  If you can't pray, finger the beads.  Sprinkle holy water on the bed before getting in.
    Don't eat or drink within two hours of be time, but keep a glass of fresh water beside the bed.  Sip as needed.  Make the room dark with curtains or shades. Play very low, soothing music or
    get a white noise machine.

    Persevere!  Pray!  Sweet dreams!
     St. Francis Xavier threw a Crucifix into the sea, at once calming the waves.  Upon reaching the shore, the Crucifix was returned to him by a crab with a curious cross pattern on its shell.  

    Offline TKGS

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #7 on: June 15, 2013, 02:59:51 PM »
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  • I can't say that I have recurring dreams, but I do have dreams that are very different from other dreams but the setting of the dream is in the same place.  Oftentimes, I can't remember what was happening in the dream; I can only remember the location.  And now that I am wide awake, I couldn't even describe the place, I just know it when I see it.  I've even dreamt that I was in that setting and knew that I've seen this setting in other dreams.  It is a location I've never been to but if I ever go there, I'll know it.  

    I don't think it's an omen or that God is trying to tell me anything by this particular setting.  I think it is because I lack an imagination to have dreams is other places.


    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #8 on: June 15, 2013, 10:04:36 PM »
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  • A person can look into the psychological meaning of dreams.. as long as one treats it lightly enough... and certainly would not go looking at strange books offering to interpret them or give symbolic meanings to anything in them.

    The stuff in one's dreams comes from within one's mind and is more basic than that. Simply think about it yourself and what it might have come from if you wish.

    'Believing in dreams' I saw once on an old examination of conscience I think.

    In cases where the supernatural is involved you have to practice spiritual discernment and reserve just as when there are waking visions.

    I used to have dreams of my teeth falling out. This because of the slightly loose feeling your teeth can give when you move them against each other. Somehow or other it bothered me slightly, and I'd have this dream ever so rarely.

    A little bit of an anxiety dream, one can easily see that. Nothing deeper than that. I think it's rather common actually. What is it with teeth? One of those shared human experiences..

    A saint giving some advice on dreams:

    'The dreams which appear to the soul through God's love are unerring criteria of its health. Such dreams do not change from one shape to another; they do not shock our inward sense, resound with laughter or suddenly become threatening. But with great gentleness they approach the soul and fill it with spiritual gladness. As a result, even after the body has woken up, the soul longs to recapture the joy given to it by the dream. Demonic fantasies, however, are just the opposite: they do not keep the same shape or maintain a constant form for long. For what the demons do not possess as their chosen mode of life, but merely assume because of their inherent deceitfulness, is not able to satisfy them for very long. They shout and menace, often transforming themselves into soldiers and sometimes deafening the soul with their cries. But the intellect, when pure, recognizes them for what they are and awakes the body from its dreams. Sometimes it even feels joy at having been able to see through their tricks; indeed it often challenges them during the dream itself and thus provokes them to great anger. There are, however, times when even good dreams do not bring joy to the soul, but produce in it a sweet sadness and tears unaccompanied by grief. But this happens only to those who are far advanced in humility.

    We have now explained the distinction between good and bad dreams, as we ourselves heard it from those with experience. In our quest for purity, however, the safest rule is never to trust to anything that appears to us in our dreams. For dreams are generally nothing more than images reflecting our wandering thoughts, or else they are the mockery of demons. And if ever God in His goodness were to send us some vision and we were to refuse it, our beloved Lord Jesus would not be angry with us, for He would know we were acting in this way because of the tricks of the demons. Although the distinction between types of dreams established above is precise, it sometimes happens that when the soul has been sullied by an unperceived beguilement - something from which no one, it seems to me, is exempt - it loses its sense of accurate discrimination and mistakes bad dreams for good.'

    St. Diadochos of Photiki

    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #9 on: June 16, 2013, 09:56:49 AM »
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  • Quote from: Guest
    Does anyone else have any recurring dreams or nightmares?

    I used to have a recurring nightmare of being sucked into a whirlpool. Another one I had a few times was of a little girl sobbing in grief. They've both gone away in the last couple years.

    Can Catholics look for psychological meanings to such dreams, or is that too Freudian?


    Try reducing your food intake at night or only eat something very light. See if this helps.

    Änσnymσus

    • Guest
    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #10 on: June 16, 2013, 11:34:27 AM »
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  • Quote from: jen51
    I have recurring dreams about free falling off a cliff, my teeth falling out, running away from someone chasing me way faster than I would be able to run in real life, tornados, and some others. I dream often of the creek valley that I explored daily as a child.

    Those are very common dreams.


    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #11 on: June 16, 2013, 11:36:58 AM »
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    Strange architectural landscapes.


    Of dark and dripping stone, in alien geometry, and a constant monotonous and incomprehensible chanting?

    Do you have dreams of the sea, or the smell of fish and aquatic environments?

    Änσnymσus

    • Guest
    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #12 on: June 16, 2013, 12:46:33 PM »
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  • A dream I've had since age five:--I'm running from three men dressed in black who are trying to capture me.  I've done something wrong for which I must be punished, but I do not know what it is. (I grew with the dream until about age 10.  But to this day, I'm 10 years old in the dream.) I run across a hot, dusty field that has patches of dried-out grass here and there.  I'm wearing a green cotton dress and navy Keds sneakers that I see, to my annoyance, have gotten reddish brown from the soil.  I'm all hot and sweaty and the men are gaining on me.  Then I jump into the driver's seat of a tiny French car, but I can't seem to steer in a straight line.  The men pursue me in a black Cadillac.  I leap out of the car and notice it has castors for tires.  Next, I'm running towards an old farmhouse and barn.  I climb up the outside of a silo and jump into the corn cobs inside.  As I force my way downward, there are cracks in the sides and I see the men have abandoned the car and are running towards the house.  Suddenly, I'm in the upstairs of the house.  There is a long dark hall of floor-to-ceiling mahogany with closed doors of the same wood.  The hall seems to have no end or beginning.  I hear boot steps and gruff voices below me.  If only I can find the stairs I used to get up!  In desperation, I try to open several doors, to no avail.  They're all locked.  I hear the men on the stairs that have vanished.  At last, a door opens.  I fall through onto the floor of a choir-loft.  There to greet me is a diabolic looking man with frazzled white hair.  He is playing Gothic music on an organ.  He turns around and I see it is my dentist, Dr. Chamberlain, ready to torture me.  I scream and wake myself up.  
     :sleep:

    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #13 on: June 16, 2013, 01:19:27 PM »
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    A dream I've had since age five:--I'm running from three men dressed in black who are trying to capture me.  I've done something wrong for which I must be punished, but I do not know what it is. (I grew with the dream until about age 10.  But to this day, I'm 10 years old in the dream.) I run across a hot, dusty field that has patches of dried-out grass here and there.  I'm wearing a green cotton dress and navy Keds sneakers that I see, to my annoyance, have gotten reddish brown from the soil.  I'm all hot and sweaty and the men are gaining on me.  Then I jump into the driver's seat of a tiny French car, but I can't seem to steer in a straight line.  The men pursue me in a black Cadillac.  I leap out of the car and notice it has castors for tires.  Next, I'm running towards an old farmhouse and barn.  I climb up the outside of a silo and jump into the corn cobs inside.  As I force my way downward, there are cracks in the sides and I see the men have abandoned the car and are running towards the house.  Suddenly, I'm in the upstairs of the house.  There is a long dark hall of floor-to-ceiling mahogany with closed doors of the same wood.  The hall seems to have no end or beginning.  I hear boot steps and gruff voices below me.  If only I can find the stairs I used to get up!  In desperation, I try to open several doors, to no avail.  They're all locked.  I hear the men on the stairs that have vanished.  At last, a door opens.  I fall through onto the floor of a choir-loft.  There to greet me is a diabolic looking man with frazzled white hair.  He is playing Gothic music on an organ.  He turns around and I see it is my dentist, Dr. Chamberlain, ready to torture me.  I scream and wake myself up.  
     :sleep:


    That's a very common dream.

    Änσnymσus

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    Recurring dreams or nightmares
    « Reply #14 on: June 17, 2013, 08:23:34 PM »
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  • So you too, went to Dr. Chamberlain?  Poor child!