A few months ago I came here with this bizzare request: I wanted to have nightmares.
After dropping out of this idea and having a few vivid dreams (you know, those dreams that you remember and they make you think about them all day long) I want to have MORE of them!
Any suggestions on how? comment edited out, please read the LD4all guidelines If you want to discuss a substance in relation to LD’s it is only allowed if it is safe, legal and freely available.
You know how all of those surreal europeans (Dali, Magritte, Lynch etc.) say that their dreams influenced their works? I want to know how come their dreams are so weird and mine are so boring…
I used to have many such dreams - Crazy I called them, and was quite proud of them.
Eventually, I got tired of them - I prefered the more “structured” dreams, those that tell a story.
But from time to time I still enjoy those dreams - those crazy dreams, which are usually more vivd than the rest.
Anyway, looking back as in what difference there is, I notice that I used to think, a lot, before going to sleep about “stuff”. That means, whatever I could come up with. Wether it was imagining that I’m invisible and explaining myself quantum physics (I never got to do both of those, but you know what I mean) at the same night or just plain daydreaming.
Anyway, I had such a dream lately. Thinknig of it now, I did such stuff all day long.
In other words: Fill your mind, use TV and computers, but not too much. Think about every activity that you do.
Structured dreams can be equally as vivid as abstract ones, you know. I speak from experience.
Anyway, to the original poster: If you are having particularly boring dreams - then, as TwilightDreamer hinted towards, it might be because you don’t have a lot of variety in your life. I want to second what TD said and encourage you to pay attention to a lot of things that you wouldn’t normally care about. Watch more documentaries or science fiction shows. Take up a new hobby… or ten new hobbies.
I wouldn’t recommend taking any drugs, because with those you risk unpleasant side effects. I once watched a documentary about misdiagnosed antidepressants and how they could potentially change personalities for the worse (plus my med student friends also attest to this). Even if they do work, I don’t think the trade-off is worth it.
i know what you’re talking about. not nightmares as in “dreams that make you scream and cry”, but rather those heavy-symbolism “oh my, i’ll need weeks of therapy to get over this” dreams. i kinda like them too. (i got rid of a nightmare issue i had by transforming them into this kind of dream).
but here’s a couple of reasons why you might not want to anyway: first, when you hear that some drug produces collateral nightmares, bear in mind that this is most likely a “less than 5% of the people who take it experienced nightmares”. it’s enough to be listed as side effect, not enough for it to be a good bet.
but second and most important, you have to be in control. even of somewhat unsettling dreams, even when that’s your thing, remember you’re dealing with the part of you which is out of your control. the part of you which, by the way, is larger than you. it can just this easily become a monster if you let yourself lose the little control you have over it. so not only is it more rewarding that you learn to trigger this kind of thing by will, you will always be able to put an end to it. you were on top of it from the beginning. with drugs? suppose you get yourself into a nightmare problem. you’ll cut the drug, but what little guarantee does that give you that if the problem persists, you’ll know how to deal with it?
if it’s any help, here’s my story: i used to have a messed up life with a bunch of rather serious problems, and so i started having nightmares (the bad kind). i started to blank out memories and developed insomnia. at some point, i decided to take control. learnt some meditation, read a bit about psychology, found out what lucid dreaming was. so i managed to get rid of the bad nightmares, and instead my dreams became a weird bunch of weird plots filled with heavy (mostly personal) symbolism. at some point, that took over my other dreams, shall we call them the happy dreams, and ever since i have lots of weird intense dreams (though i of course still have more regular random dreams than anything).
quite unhelpful, eh? right. but you can take a couple of ideas from there. too much information follows.
[spoiler]meditation, especially about feelings, tends to not just be rewarding, but give you fodder for symbolic dreams. what else? ah, i’m into horror and weird stuff. my natural sense of humour wouldn’t be allowed in this forum under the “tasteless” razor.
i try to be on top of things, have my emotions under control. i have a reason for that, it’s related to the whole nightmare period i mentioned. but still: realising and bearing in mind what moves you makes it an issue to your subconscious, that’s good advice. as for the horror, all kinds of it. lots of it. from mild, Tim Burton surrealism to American McGee’s Alice, to Chuck Palahniuk’s “guts”, to Hideshi Hino and musing about hell.
also, poetry. not silly poetry, but Poetry ™. and all kinds of thick stories from Finnegan’s Wake to Le Spleen de Paris, not to mention the great, ultimate books, such as Grande Sertão: Veredas and Orlando. occultism, syncretism, urban legends and philosphy also make part of my everyday readings and day dreamings. and, living with your friends who degenerated into drug dealers and paralysed vegetables is always a helper.[/spoiler]
really. make a point at bringing your emotions to spotlight. feed yourself with imagery from stories and poetry and philosophy and what have you. meditate, incubate, give any dream proper attention. examinate them, mind them, live them. there’s no easiest way to filling your dreams with meaning than to fill your life with meaning. all in all, my tip here sums up as: make it happen. it’s no rocket science, you know?
Surreal dreams are not the same like nightmares…
Nightmares does make you scream, cry, be afraid…
Surreal dreams make you think like ‘‘whoow amazing…that’s a very strange -maybe an evil- animal but waaww…would it bite?’’
Surreals make you wonder (can be good or bad), nightmares lead you the the psychs.
Which one do you mean?
