When I first left the borg about 9 months ago, I had nightly nightmares, more likely night terrors. They were so real, I wont even get into the images I saw and the horrors. My doctor told me I was having post traumatic disorder, and that I must have suffered some kind of abuse as a child. I agreee with tex on this one, what kind of mindcontrol did they really have on us? It scares me to think of this, like the movie Jacob's Ladder. What is real , what is just in your head? But here lately, the night terrors have started to fade away . I have kept trying to pray and maybe this helps. But also I think what is helping me now, is letting myself not take things so seriously right now in my life. I am giving myself a little time to heal. I like to go out and dance and just have fun. The constant worrying about if I was an evil apostate or not was just getting to be to much. I feel alot better now, I think we all have to go thru a recovery phase as we leave the borg , your mind is just trying to sort thru what is nessesary to keep , save and what to throw out the window.
Do you still get Nightmares?
by sleepy 16 Replies latest jw friends
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Sirona
Its taken me YEARS to stop being scared of demons. It still creeps up on me now and then. Most of the time everything is fine, but then I will have a nasty nightmare. Last night I dreamt I was in someone elses body, but that person was really mental! LOL! It was really scary though, because I just felt this tremendous anxiety. I woke up screaming so hard, but in my dream my voice wouldnt sound...
the best nightmare I had was one where I decided to fight back. I looked at a vampire and said "do you know who you're messing with? I'm Buffy!" and proceeded to kick ass. LOL
SIrona
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Hyghlandyr
Here is the FAQ on Lucid dreaming, I will post other links later on.
http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as flying or meeting the deceased. Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dream; they just suddenly realize they are in a dream.
Lucidity is not synonymous with dream control. It is possible to be lucid and have little control over dream content, and conversely, to have a great deal of control without being explicitly aware that you are dreaming. However, becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase the extent to which you can deliberately influence the course of events. Once lucid, dreamers usually choose to do something permitted only by the extraordinary freedom of the dream state, such as flying.
Upon hearing about lucid dreaming for the first time, people often ask, "Why should I want to have lucid dreams? What are they good for?" If you consider that once you know you are dreaming, you are restricted only by your ability to imagine and conceive, not by laws of physics or society, then the answer to what lucid dreaming is good for is either extremely simple (anything!) or extraordinarily complex (everything!).
Unfortunately for many people, instead of providing an outlet for unlimited fantasy and delight, dreams can be dreaded episodes of limitless terror. As is discussed in the books Lucid Dreaming (LaBerge, 1985) and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (EWLD) (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990), lucid dreaming may well be the basis of the most effective therapy for nightmares. If you know you are dreaming, it is a simple logical step to realizing that nothing in your current experience, however unpleasant, can cause you physical harm. There is no need to run from or fight with dream monsters. In fact, it is often pointless to try, because the horror pursuing you was conceived in your own mind, and as long as you continue to fear it, it can pursue you wherever you dream yourself to be. The only way to really "escape" is to end your fear. (For a discussion of reasons for recurrent nightmares, see Overcoming Nightmares from EWLD.) The fear you feel in a nightmare is completely real; it is the danger that is not.
Now a bit about my own experience. I began lucid dreaming when I was 14. Up until that time I had two recurring themes in a series of dreams/nightmares. They were closely linked. One was a constant dream about falling. Falling off of a building, off of ladders, down a flight of stairs, over a cliff and so on. The other was that I was being chased by a T-rex. I would hide, usually in a tall building. Then to escape I would leap out a window, and, you guessed it, fall.
Now the dreams themselves did not frighten me. What was bothersome was that each time I dreampt these, I would awake very sore from the fall. The physical pain was very real. When I was a child I had fallen down a flight of stairs, about age eight. I always knew these dreams were related to that fall. Certainly the pain sensations were simply a memory and nothing more.
I finally got fed up at age 14 as the dreams happened more and more. I decided, that was it, no more. I was simply not going to have those dreams anymore. End of story.
A few nights later I was on a ladder, it started to fall, as did I. Then I said, hey, I am dreaming. I awoke. The next time I had the dream, I drifted slowly to the ground. By the third time, I was flying around like superman. Um, no, more like Greatest American Hero. I could fly, and high, but I always have had to concentrate on it. Now I do not have dreams of falling. On occasion I do not fly, but I leap. And I have to focus as I come near the ground so that I land on my feet.
I do not know what nightmares yall are having. But it is very possible to control them yourselves. All of this happened to me when I was fourteen, and had no idea of lucid dreaming concepts. Just a strong willed determination that I was in charge of my dreams, not them in charge of me.
Dia dhuit.
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LyinEyes
Thanks Hygh for the info on lucid dreaming, I am a very lucid dreamer.
I can even use my dreams to work thru emotional issues. I can make myself dream about what I want to. Sounds weird ,but true, I have since a very young child been able to do this. Sometimes if I want to dream I am visiting a dead loved one ,all I have to do is meditate on doing so, and it usually happens. The scarey thing that has happened to me , is I have accutually dreamed of something happening and it comes true.The events take place just like I dreamt them. This is not common but has happened. I think our minds are so much more powerful than we , the average Joe, can even imagine, and I am not talking witchcraft here. The brain is still the one organ , not fully understood. At least I havent figured mine out yet. -
teenyuck
Hyghlandyr, very good information...I did not know the name of some of the types of dreams I have had. Definitely lucid. I know it is a dream.
One recurring theme in my dreams, recently, since joining the board and bringing out all the JW crap I had thought I had put to rest, has been about my mother, sister and a group of JW's. This has not been a lucid dream.
In my dream, I am in an old house in a city. It is a Victorian type home, with many stories, many hidden rooms and in disrepair. In my dream, I am forced to live with my mother, sister and a group of JW's from the KH who I never liked.
It is a bad dream because my mother is a JW nut, my sister is just nuts and is always putting me down, and the JW's do nothing but talk about armageddon.
I have woken up crying from that dream. It keeps coming back.
Now that I know I can have some control, next time it comes on, I am kicking all of their asses...out the door!!
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butalbee
My life is a nightmare...
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sleepy
Since I left the witnesses I have lots of dreams about them.
Its hard to remember what happens but usually I am in a meeting or something and reaslise I dont belong.
I get a bad feeling about everyone , thinking they all hate me, and in one dream I got up on the platform and started telling everone they were all wrong.I sometimes wonder if I suffer from post traumatic stress or something similiar.
The dream I had that started this post happened to me one time before , while I was still a witness and on holiday in Rome.
I felt something shake me and it woke me up .I tried to knock it away.
I looked ahead and saw a green shape like a human which quickly disapeared.
At the time i thought it was demon.
I don't believe that anymore.Also sometimes I have super vivid dreams , were evreything is in intense , more brilliant than real life colours.I can look and move around and see things in detail sometimes even touch things and talk.
I think we still have a lot to learn about what is happening when we dream.