Does anyone here mess around with dream interpretations?

[blykins]

About once or twice a month, I have a dream where I'm in a confrontation. Someone is trying to hurt me, stab me, shoot me, etc. I have a gun in my hand, draw a bead on the guy, and then put my finger on the trigger. No matter how hard I pull, I can not get the gun to go off.

I had a similar dream last night. I was standing on a street corner when a car pulls up, two guys get out and start popping people. A guy that I work with has a pistol on him, so I grab it and sight on the first guy. I pull as hard as I possibly can on the trigger but I can't get the gun to fire. It's like pulling it with the safety on.

Since I have this dream so frequently, I'm sure there's something to it.

Any thoughts?

[joe g]

In your first life you where Al Capone

joeg(Smokingcobra)

[trularin]

There may be a sub-conscience unresolved conflict that your Psyche feels you need to resolve.

The confrontation is a possible symbol of something that happened where you later feel you did not handle well at the time. Your resolution to shoot the offending antagonist may be your quick way to end the confrontation and your inability to fire the gun may be your mind telling you that this solution is not the correct one.

Call me.

[392cobra]

[quote=blykins;917472]About once or twice a month, I have a dream where I'm in a confrontation. Someone is trying to hurt me, stab me, shoot me, etc. I have a gun in my hand, draw a bead on the guy, and then put my finger on the trigger. No matter how hard I pull, I can not get the gun to go off.


Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Yeah,I'd remove your handguns from your night stand.

[427 S/O]

I remember there was a 'mess' with that other kind of dream.....

[wtm442]

An average adult dream only lasts 3 to 5 seconds, and you should never try to self-analyze one. Could be very dangerous.

I had a dream one time that one of my sisters had both of her arm and both of her legs surgically removed.

The really good part that Freud would have liked was that it was elective surgery! Top that dream!

[CobraEd]

I had a dream once that I ate a giant marshmellow.



When I woke up in the morning, . . . MY PILLOW WAS GONE !!!!


.

[wtm442]

Originally Posted by CobraEd

I had a dream once that I ate a giant marshmellow.

By any chance, do you have the hots for the Michelin man?

[Maurice Johnson]

I went to see my shrink, and told him that on alternating nights I dreampt that I was sleeping in a teepee--next night in a wigwam. He said "pretty obvious, you're too tense"

[Tommy]

My reply consists of one part scientific theory, one part personal speculation and one part answer to the original question. The scientific theory (which has not yet been universally accepted) is best described in this quote from Wikipedia:

"Two researchers have postulated that dreams have a biological function, where the content requires no analysis or interpretation, that content providing an automatic stimulation of the body's physiological functions underpinning the human instinctive behaviour. So dreams are part of the human, and animal, survival and development strategy.

Prof Antti Revonsuo (Turka university, Finland) has limited his ideas to those of ‘threat rehearsal’, where dreams exercise our primary self-defence instincts, and he has argued this cogently in a number of publications. ( [1] (better citation needed))

Keith Stevens [2] [3] [4] extends the theory to all human instincts, including threats to self, threats to family members, pair bonding and reproduction, inquisitiveness and challenges, and the drive for personal superiority and tribal status. He categorises dreams, using a sample of 22,000 Internet submissions, into nine categories, demonstrating the universal commonality of dream content and instinct rehearsal. It is postulated that the dream function is automatic, in response to the content, exercising and stimulating the body chemistry and neurological activity that would come into play if the scenario occurred in real life, so that the dream does not have to be remembered to achieve its objective."

I understand this to mean that while we sleep, the brain randomly activates various parts of the brain stimulating senses such as fear, arousal, anxiety, frustration and happiness. If I happen to awake during or immediately after one of these random activations, I will feel that residual sensation.

My personal speculation is that the human brain does one task especially well. The brain processes the mountains of sensory input coming to it from the sensory organs (e.g., eyes, ears, hands, etc.) and converts that raw data into a model of the universe around us that we can use to guide our actions. When we awake from a dream with some random sensation echoing in our mind, the brain attempts to find an example from our past experience that best fits with that sensation. If that sensation includes elements of fear and frustration, I can imagine that the brain would produce a little scenario (a dream) that would explain why we had those feeling.

So my answer to the original question of "what does it mean" is this. It doesn't mean anything any more than the random ink blots in a Rorschach test have any inherent meaning. Ever since I concluded that dreams have no significance, I just enjoy the good ones and brush off the bad ones.

[SP01715]

Originally Posted by blykins

About once or twice a month, I have a dream where I'm in a confrontation. Someone is trying to hurt me, stab me, shoot me, etc. I have a gun in my hand, draw a bead on the guy, and then put my finger on the trigger. No matter how hard I pull, I can not get the gun to go off.

I had a similar dream last night. I was standing on a street corner when a car pulls up, two guys get out and start popping people. A guy that I work with has a pistol on him, so I grab it and sight on the first guy. I pull as hard as I possibly can on the trigger but I can't get the gun to fire. It's like pulling it with the safety on.

Since I have this dream so frequently, I'm sure there's something to it.

Any thoughts?

I served in combat in the Army, and I am also a retired law enforcement officer. As an LEO I was involved in a couple officer involved shootings. I have dreams just like yours all the time. They are very common in the L.E. and military community for those who were in combat. Since I retired ( a few years ago) I don't have them as often. I also have a dream where I can see the bullets going down range very slowly, and I am unable to hit my target because of this. Do you have any L.E. or combat experience?

[FWB]

if i had a dream like that i would be at the range the next day.

[bomelia]

I have a dream every so often about signing up for college classes. One or two of them (usually English) I keep blowing off till its time for the exam.

Turns out its a common dream for lots of people.

I like the dream where I want to beat this guy up, but I cannot land a solid punch anywhere (sounds like your dream).

Here is a random find. from that site: quote from some website:

Welcome to one of the strangest dreams of all. Just when we're really mad and want to throw a punch in a dream, it seems like we can't move at all. What's the meaning? Do we need to go to the gym and work to build new muscles?

Because the human body is paralyzed during REM sleep -- to prevent us from acting out our dreams -- researchers always have wondered Is the paralysis that appears so often in our dreams a result of the body's physical inability to move during REM, or does it hold a deeper, symbolic meaning?

The key to understanding your dream is the timing of your paralysis. You are able to walk and talk normally in your dream -- until you get angry, and decide to throw a punch. Because your movement isn't otherwise restricted, a symbolic understanding of your sudden weakness is indicated. Your dream shows you feel powerless to confront your opponent.

Whenever we have dreams where we can't hit an opponent or can't run away from an attacker (our legs feel heavy, like they are stuck in quicksand), the message of the dreams is the same. It's time to identify the challenge or relationship that is causing us to feel "stuck," and to begin thinking about a new plan of attack. The dreams represent challenges we will win with our minds, and not our fists.

[tcrist]

I used to have the same dream alot when I was between around 8 to 13 years old. I would be walking in a meadow and all of the sudden I would lift off of the ground what seemed like 100-200 ft and then come slamming back down and hit the ground. Always woke up just drained. What a rush.

[blykins]

I'm not a police officer and I haven't had any combat experience. I do have this dream quite often though.

I've also had the dream where I'm in a fight (usually self defense) and need to knock the crap out of somebody. However, no matter how hard I throw a punch, it feels like I'm punching through water.

I'm messed up. LOL

[Joe Wicked]

As far as the comment about not being able to move in your dreams, I guess that mechanism is broken in me. I act out my dreams all the time and so does my wife. I have woken her up because I am shifting gears hard and shaking the bed. I have also punched her once in my sleep. I felt so bad the next morning, and since then I have not had the fight dream. The weird ones I get now involve me being back in the Navy, but everyone I am around are people from my life now.

[Bill Bess]

Ya dreams are great! Mine are mainly strange past work experiences that don't ever make any since when I wake up and they're fresh in my thoughts. They go like this, "a hugh gas main is broken and blowing,.... I'm in an 18 wheeler going off a cliff, .....The damm key won't work the lock, ...I just shot the **** out of some asshole, Oh, I especially like the ones about the girl that was.......... well you know a lot of fun".

I hope I dream after I'm dead, and all dream of is haulin ass in my cobra.
Bill

[Bobcat]

Bill ... dreams can also be scary . About 6 months to a year before my wife died , I had a dream that scared the daylights out of me .... I won`t go into the details , but most dreams are forgotten shortly after you wake up . I kept remembering this one on and off for several months , ( and not in a good way ) , but couldn`t figure out why . It was only after she passed on that I made the connection .
After that experience , I firmly believe that dreams can be precursors to some future event , but have no idea why .

[Fordzilla]

Brent, PM sent. Mick

[Wes Tausend]

...

At one time I was quite interested in the evolution of humans and the only part that really sets us apart is brain development.

A couple of contemporaries whom I greatly admire were Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov.

I read a couple of books by Sagan that were quite good: The Dragons of Eden and Broca's Brain. They're both easy to read and written in laymans terms.

From these and some other books on human behavior, I developed a crackpot theory of my own concerning dreams.

All mammal brains theoretically developed from earlier forms of life and we basically develop through stages of this evolution as we develop from conception and childhood. The very base part of our brain, the brain stem, is pretty similar to total brainpower of fish and lower reptiles. On top of this, mammals have a highly developed limbic region that seems to account for our care of our young (mammal/mammaries) and empathy for others. In addition, we have large cerebral cortex logic sections divided into left and right growth. These brain parts are even supposedly somewhat separable during autopsy or student dissection. The difference between early life forms and later development is visually apparent in the lab.

All of these brain parts have distinct tasks and yet can operate in unison.

From this, it follows that, while areas of the cortex may require rest or shutdown, the more primitive lizard/fish portion never really sleeps. I observe it is true that these lower forms of animal life seem to doze, but not sleep, which could be detrimental to their survival. They are likely to have constant flickering eye movement in all but the least states of alertness. Cold blooded creatures may even have a problem moving if their body has cooled to an unfriendly cool environment. Difficulty moving would be their worst nightmare. But their eyes would freely move.

So I propose that all REM dreams are made of active primitive brain processes that leak into our dozing cortex, including immobility terrors. Maybe we need more blankets or the other half has stolen them. Can't get cold ...can't get cold...

That is my own crackpot theory anyway.

Wes


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