No More Nightmares and the Dreams That Came True (With Pics)

Hi everyone, I have something I'd like to get off my chest.
It’s a long story, so bear with me. There are 3 points I'll discuss, (the final point being the reason I decided to write this), and I've also included TL;DRs for those with busy schedules/low attention spans such as myself.

I haven't mentioned any of this to anyone beyond my closest friends and mother, for fear of the inevitable eye-rolling and disinterest commonly associated with claims of such nature.
However, following my most recent experience, (of which I'll include a photo for reference) I'm frankly a tad shaken up and felt like alleviating some of the nerves and malaise through sharing it and expressing myself.
I’d also really like to hear of similar experiences among those here at ATS, but PLEASE avoid minimal input as one-liners and single sentences simply clutter posts. Great!
Thanks for listening.

To begin, I have throughout my life experienced frequent dreams, the vast majority of which were quite detailed and memorable.
I had kept many journals over the years, and often reflected on past 'favorite' dreams for amusement, sort of like looking back and watching movies I'd once loved. (I VERY strongly recommend this practice, on a rainy day it's like having free Netflix, or YouTube without the annoying ads

).

*Note: I don’t take any medication, I’ve always been in great mental health and I don’t do drugs.

1) How Fear Killed Fear

When I was younger, I would have nightmares often, and always had throughout my life.
Until 3 years ago, after I'd experienced sleep paralysis.
I knew immediately what it was when I woke in that state, because it'd happened to me twice before, years since and between, although on a much, much lighter scale. Frozen for a few minutes, somewhat uncomfortable, nothing major.
This time, however, I was terrified beyond what I thought possible.

I woke on the floor lying on my back (sometimes prefer it, does wonders for my back) unable to move. 'Oh, this again' I thought, 'This'll be over soon'.
I was annoyed but not worried. I began trying to move and open my eyes.
Then I began to hear this progressively loudening, strobing, buzzing sound, what I would liken to a lawnmower swung quickly around on a long rope. It was slowly getting very, very loud and felt like it was getting closer.
I was a bit weirded out, but not worried.
I was able to open my eyes for a few seconds and see the room around me, enough to know I was indeed awake, (as well as the feeling of the floor and sheets, smell of the room, etc.) though they grew heavy and were between open and closed for most of this.
As I tried to open my eyes again, I felt footsteps running right past my head, heavy and aggressive like steel-toes worn by a large man. I could feel the floor shift under the weight.
This caught my attention, and was followed by the single most uncomfortable and horrifying I've ever felt- 'fingers' (dozens) being pressed against my sides/stomach/back, wiggling like worms THROUGH my skin and into my intestines. Imagine being tickled violently, although it was occurring both inside and out like long snaky fingers.
Now I was scared absolutely s#@tless. I've never felt anything like it nor been as shocked/frightened before or since.
The sounds changed to a sort of 'static crackle' and screeching like scraping metal on metal, and all the while I'm basically crying in my head and screaming yet unable to move. There was more discomfort than pain, but it did hurt.
The 'fingers' became liquid and flooded my body, and every muscle in my body tightened for a few seconds (which was excruciating) and I immediately shot up screaming at the top of my lungs. I was alone in the house, in a total panic, sweating profusely and sobbing to myself until I calmed down and called my mother (I’m a big momma’s boy, laugh if you want).

My mother has also experienced sleep paralysis and night terrors very frequently (once every couple weeks if not more) for her entire life. I’ve witnessed her during attacks and it’s very scary, especially when she snaps out of it in hysterics. It’s affected her deeply over the years.
I sometimes fear it’ll be the end of her someday via heart attack, although I stay positive about it.
She's a religious person, and for her, these events are the attacks of demons, and praying is the only way she can escape them. It’s strengthened her faith tremendously.
*I've never subscribed to the idea of 'demons', I'm not religious and I'm not much of a believer in the paranormal- I agree with the scientific perspective, and chalk it up to the transition between states, when the body is paralyzed (to prevent movement and injury while dreaming) yet the mind wakes up and is still partially in La La Land.
Still, I’ve always worried about developing such an affliction, as these things are known to be passed generationally.

An interesting side-effect of this experience, (at least, it's only occurred since) is that I've had exactly ONE nightmare in the last three years (which is mentioned later). I used to have horrible nightmares and wake up in a cold sweat from time to time, yet now all I've experienced is pleasant or 'neutral' dreams, which is both extremely welcome and somewhat unnerving- but I'm glad for it either way.
Only one unpleasant dream in three years.
The effect this has had on my dreams doesn't stop there.

2) Awake or Not?

For those last three years, I've noticed a major increase in the vividness and detail of my dreams. They were once 'whispy' or not too 'realistic' in their feel or appearance, yet now feel just as real as waking life. I've tested this on numerous occasions when I have some measure of control, looking very closely at a wall or the ground to see if there's any 'pixellation', or examining the scenery carefully, taking note of the smells and sounds- and I'm absolutely astounded by how convincing they've become. It’s indistinguishable at times.
They're not what I'd consider fully lucid, (I've been lucid in dreams a few times) but are as close as it gets otherwise in my opinion.
Sometimes, I'll wake from a dream and have to think for a minute to determine if it was a dream or not.
Or I’ll reach in my pocket while awake to retrieve an item I’d sworn was in there, before remembering it was placed there in my dream.
These false memories have, on more than one occasion, caused me some headaches- especially since they’ve begun to more closely mimic lifelike situations than fantasy. Such as once forgetting to set my alarm because I’d thought I’d done so or returning a call I didn’t receive. It’s somewhat annoying but not threatening in any way.
We've just had snowfall where I am, but prior to this I'd had a dream that I'd taken a leak (peed) outside, and I didn't know this was the case until I asked a friend about the snow and he told me it hadn't yet.
That was an interesting conversation, and brings me to my third point, and the reason I wrote all this.

CONTINUED

3) Things That Haven’t Happened Yet

When I was a child, I’d had a few dreams that seemed to ‘come true’:
9 –Dreamt of a giant military plane flying overhead while going to the store with my mum. The following year, we were near an air show and I saw the same giant green bomber fly over when we were at exactly the same store.
10 -I’d dreamt I was out riding my bike and ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in years, only to see them the next day while out riding my bike, at the same park in the dream.
13 –I’d dreamt a friend smiled at me and his teeth fell out. A week later, that same friend slipped and knocked out 3 teeth on the playground, but laughed it off and smiled at me.
16 –Dreamt of being in a hospital with a bunch of people my age there staring at me. The week after, we had a field trip to a hospital. They were performing a recreation of a drunk driving victim dying in emergency, grieving parents pushing in, fake blood and everything, very convincing acting.
I have a weak stomach and fainted, and woke up to everyone staring at me, exactly like in the dream.

There are many more that I can’t remember.
Since the event 3 years ago, I’ve been having frequent dreams with strikingly exact details replicated later in waking life, and in the last 3 months it’s become unsettling.


- This past spring (June), I dreamt of visiting my old hometown, specifically the old trailer park I used to live in. There were two trailers missing, and in their place was an empty lot. Beside them is a small incline leading to a path, but in the dream the path was blocked by a fallen tree.
I visited for the first time in a decade a few months ago (August) without hearing or seeing anything of it, and there were two trailers missing- in the same spot, now empty. The path is now gone, and the trees along it have been cleared away save for one stump blocking the entrance from the road.

- After that visit, a week later, I dreamt of pulling a stove out from the wall to clean behind it, and a swarm of bees flew out but didn’t attack me. A couple days later, I dreamt of being in a different trailer park (one I didn’t recognize) at a friend’s place, and I ended up getting caught sleeping with his girlfriend. In the same dream, I was later standing in the middle of the road looking at the moon which had the picture of a bird carved into it, and it was spinning rather quickly.
Two weeks later, my brother visits me and takes me to see his friend in another town (also a trailer park). As we’re sitting in the yard, I look to the back and notice (with a snap, kind of like déjà vu) it’s the exact place as my dream. I was blown away, and told them of my dream.
Through conversation, I learned she’d cheated on her boyfriend the week before, and he’d trashed her house to some extent, including pulling the stove from the wall, but wasn’t violent towards her or the other guy. Needless to say, we were all shocked.
Later, in September, I was out for a drink with family as a late birthday celebration (my birthday is Sept 16). We stepped outside for a smoke when someone mentioned it was a blood moon that night, Sept 27.
We went to the back of the bar to get a better look and up in the sky was the orange moon, with a plane flying across the face of it at the same speed the moon was spinning in my dream.

And then the most recent and scary example.

A week before Halloween, I’d had a very vivid dream of sliding off the road while driving, smashing through a guard rail and falling off a huge cliff. This was the first scary dream I’d had in years and it really shook me. I told my best friend about it, and he was surprised as well because he knew I didn’t have nightmares (and interestingly, he hasn’t remembered a single dream in years).

Halloween Day, we were driving to meet some friends in another town.
We were pulled over for doing 20km over the limit, bummer as it was. We laughed it off.
10 minutes later, we approach a curve in the road, hit a slippery patch and began to slide.
The driver panicked and slammed the brakes, and the car fishtailed, spun out and slid off the road.

Here’s the scene:

Here's where we went in:

And the railing on the opposite side:

Nobody was hurt, and the car will live to drive another day though it needs some serious work.
Later that evening, we had all discussed the accident and the possibility that much worse could have happened.
What if we hadn’t been pulled over earlier? We likely wouldn’t have been watching our speed as closely.
We may have slid into an oncoming vehicle, or hit a tree or something.
We will never know, but what we do know is that we dodged a major bullet that day, and that any slight change in circumstances may have put us in trouble.


>>>>>>>>>TL;DR:

CONTINUED

TL;DR:
1) Had a scary experience with sleep paralysis 3 years ago and since stopped having nightmares.
2) Discussing the increase in vividness and realism in dreams since then.
3) Discussing dreams that seemed to come true.

I make no claims beyond that which I’ve witnessed and the dreams I’ve had, and I simply wish to share my experiences to get some weight off my shoulders and hopefully read of some of your own experiences.
I’m no psychic, but I’m both intrigued and a little freaked out about about what I’ve shared.
The strangeness of dreams and oddities of coincidence/correlation is fascinating!
What say you, ATS?

Man, that is some strange s*it. I don't know what to tell you other than you're psychic I'd say, pay closer attention to your dreams. If one day you have a dream of you or a relative dying while driving or something like that, I would avoid the activity as much as possible.

Pretty interesting stuff!

@ DarkestConspiracyMoon I don't know that you can change outcomes, I'd like to think you can at least alter them tho. From my limited experience if something is going to happen it's going to, at best you can work hard to make things not as awful.

For a period of years I would have dreams of insignificant events and days or a few weeks later like ADAMandEVIL I would find myself in those places doing those things. One time was particularly memorable as I kept having a reoccurring dream of falling into rapids in a mountain river. Over & over night after night I would climb out onto these rocks in some river I didn't recognize and invariably fall in.

Weirdly some disembodied voice would tell me to try it again an again, after a couple of months of this the dream just quit. I actually didn't think much about it at the time or after the dreams stopped.

Fast forward a few years later.....we took a trip camping to western Maryland and were hiking along a nice little creek. Further up the valley this nice little creek widened out as another stream joined it and BOOM! I'm sure the look on my face was priceless!!! Despite wearing crappy worn sneakers with no tread here I was climbing out on the rocks while squealing 'I've been here before!!!" My husband was pretty adamant I was going to break my neck out there but I blew him off knowing everything that could possibly happen already had in my dream and it was ok.

Needless to say I scrambled out there, the same rock was unstable, the other one still had slippery alge on it, and once out there I looked down into the water and more BOOM!! There was a beautiful heart shaped rock in the fast moving water. Didn't ever see that rock in the dream, but me being a rockhound it would be about the ONLY reason I'd be clambering around out there like that.......

Just like in the dream I fished it out and carefully Weeble-Wobbled my way back to the riverbank.

All I can say about your dreams is sometimes we're lucky enough to "get to practice" events ahead of time. Seeing is knowing,so for me it's always simply been just another reassurance things in my life are as they are supposed to be, or what I wanted. Since this occurs randomly for me I never got wound up about it. Seeing places I've never been than finding them in real life later is just something I consider "my normal". None of the places are important, or unusual or even notable for any reason to anyone, including me.

At one point it was a fun thing to ponder if once again on our camping trips I was going to find someplace I'd already been too. To eliminate the possibility we took turns tossing a dart at maps and just heading off to random places. This is how I know if it's going to happen, it's going to happen in one form or another. If we didn't know where we were going and had no itinarary then I couldn't influence the outcome, right?

Well wrong. I would think we were all in undiscovered country sometimes to find out instead of accessing a place from the well traveled east side, we came in from the west and once there I'd recognize the place......in fact to prove myself NOT a liar to my husband I would describe the trail ahead and send him on. I'd wait and he'd come back with a funny look on his face.

Laugh if you want, this all occurred before cell phones, GPS or Google. Also unlike the OP none of my dreams involved accidents or life changing events.