Can dreams dominate reality for some?

I will start this by saying that I am a very average 32 year old white male. I have been a bartender for 10 years, have a family and am very normal. In my entire adult life I have never witnessed a UFO, never seen a ghost nor experienced anything of the paranormal variety.

I do believe in UFOs and alien life and also in the supernatural although I think these things have more to do with inter dimensions than with spirituality per say. That's a whole nother post though.

That being said, for the first time I wanted to share some of the experiences I can remember from a very, very scary time for my family and I when I was 12 years old. This is the first time I have spoke of it to anyone, even my mother who was witness to it. If you ask why share now with ATS and with strangers then I would answer it is very awkward and uncomfortable to talk with my mom about it, she doesn't like to remember things like this and it would upset her.

I have been around this board for some time now and know that a good percentage of the people here are open minded and may have some ideas as to what actually happened.

When I was 12, my mother had just married my step father, we were poor in the most extreme sense of the word, we bounced around from my Grandfathers house to my Grandmothers house and everywhere in between until my step father finally got a job where we could buy a manufactured home in Florida.

Moving into a new place was exciting and to this point I was sleeping like a baby and to this day could not remember one dream or much else to save my life. The house itself was brand new, there was nothing unusual or "haunting" about it. Nobody had lived there before and nothing had happened there or on the land of any importance.

About a week after moving in, I started having strange dreams. Strange in that they were the same two dreams and I would have them night after night. This was the first time in my life that I every had the same dreams over and over and I know this because I would have remembered anything like this before this point.

Dream 1 - This is the scary dream. I would seem to dwell on something dreadful without any known fear, there was blackness and I could not see anything and the minutes would seem to turn into hours as I could feel my spirit and soul sink as I was left in the dark to ponder something so horrible that no human being on earth could even imagine or cope with.

I remember being so horrified I could not even move, it felt as if something had happened, something so bad that it made me weep and sob, something that could not be undone, something absolute and concrete.

The first few times I had this dream I would awake at some point sweating, flushed and terribly afraid. This progressed in the coming weeks to awaking screaming, shaking, violently throwing things in my room and completely and totally coming unglued upon waking.

About 2 months into this, I began sleep walking, I would sweat so much and become so hot that while sleeping I would sometimes shed my clothes, I would find my way to different parts of the house and on more than one occasion my mother would find me completely naked sobbing uncotrollably while completely asleep.

At times I would find myself waking in my mothers bedroom, usually because she was screaming at me to wake up. When I would come to my senses at least enough to not be asleep anymore I would just be standing over her bed, completely soaked by tears and saying things I had absolutely no idea what they meant. I could here her saying... "LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR" she would scream that too me as loud as she could to try and wake me up, she said the only thing that worked when I was like that was to look at myself in the mirror.

I tried so hard to remember the details of this dream, i've focused on it because I know there is something to them. Something unique. I remember the dark, the fear.


[edit on 16-7-2009 by Helious]

I remember the feeling that there was no going back, the feeling things could not be undone and the feeling that whatever is it was, was so horrible and so beyond my power to fix it left me with a sadness I could not know the rest of my adult life. To this day I have never had such strong emotions as those I felt from this dream. Outside of the dark and the feelings associated with it, all I can remember and I think all that was present was a wheel, a large spinning wheel and I remember it stopping and when the wheel stopped it had gone too far, upon that it felt like............. Death.

Dream 2 - Throughout the days of mother and stepfather enduring this on bi nightly basis I would have another dream, one not as bad as the first but notably, exactly the same every time, no change, no deviation, absolutely and vividly every detail down to the pictures on the wall.

I dreamt of a house, one that apparently we never lived in nor had visited (I would have known right away if we had) and it was ominous. I could feel the emotion as the dream started the same way every time I had it. I would start on the sidewalk right outside of the house and of no choice of my own I would walk to the doorway. I was somewhat conscious of this but I could not stop it. When I entered the house I would walk from room to room, looking at pictures, seeming to notice every detail and then thing would start to go completely dark, I could always remember feeling fear wash over me as this happened and would start to panic no matter how many times I had experienced it before.

Inevitably, the blackness would wash over the house every time, I remember cowering in fear in a corner for and sobbing. I would cry until something would break in my mind, please remember I was 12, I did not know what extreme fear or anger was at that time in my life and for lack of a better word and knowing what I know now I think I was overcome with rage, pure and unadulterated rage.

I would run through the house, pitch black and still feeling the horror welling up in my eyes but with helplessness evolving to desperate rage I looked for something or somebody to lash out at with everything I had. I never found anyone in that house but to this day I remember every detail about it.

Over the years I have thought about this time in my life as these things abruptly stopped happening when I moved out when my mother and step father seperated. I have wondered what could have possibly been the cause sense they so abruptly started and ended within a 6 month period of my life but has stayed with me every day ever since.

My question to ATS is has anyone had a similar experience to this and what do you think it means? What could cause this and is it possible dreams are something more than non meaningful brain activity while we sleep?

Meaningful? Almost certainly yes. The meaning? Up to you to find, IMO. To me it sounds like some sort of trauma that you were / are meant to come to terms with. Personally, I have had something similar but it only lasted for a couple of weeks. Finally, my dad convinced me it was nothing. Still not convinced... Another of my "dreams" I found out later was likely an NDE in a hospital. I would speak of the dream and was told that there was no way I could remember details from when I was 9 months old. But yes I did, and still do some 30 years later. Eventually, I was able to convince those involved that I remembered the incident. Unfortunately, that was the end of any meaningful discussion of the events. People get creeped by this stuff...

reply to post by Helious


I used to have repetitive dreams all the time but no more. I found that when I figured out what the dream was telling me and changed, it went away.

When I was young I had a repetitive dream and never understood it. It was a white frame house and my mother and I was standing on the side. It has been 50+ years now so details are vague. Seems my mother was crying and I was sad. We lived in a house like that but years ago I thought it was after the dream but I know the dream was also repeated after we lived in the house.

I had a very difficult life as well, as did my mother emotionally.

I now have precognitive dreams at times. Sometimes I will get a strong feeling or sense of something while in the process of waking.

As the other poster said, only you can interpret your dream. Maybe it was a subconscious reaction to the life you were living or a past live memory. I find looking up the symbolism of different things in my dreams helpful.

reply to post by Chemley


Yes, I know what you mean without question. I cannot talk to my own mother about this as she will change the subject right away and almost refuses to believe it actually happened.

I often wonder what this series of dreams could have meant. As I search for the answer I wonder if I did not experience for a brief time something that may have happened to somebody else. Perhaps the loss of a loved one very close or possible even experience the death or aftermath of another person.

It is a very sensitive subject, people tend to think you are crazy if you try to take anything away from a dream other than retorical brain activivity gained from everyday life.

Like I said before, I am completely normal and even question my own thoughts when I think about this subject and find myself looking for other answers outside of the norm.

reply to post by liveandlearn


You also bring up an intersting point liveandlearn. I do think dreams can have a subconcious meaning in life and that should be considered at times. The thing about my dreams though is it did not conform to any situation I had lived or was living through.

My life at that time was filled with 7th grade, nintendo and oatmeal creampies. I had no cares or worries and no reason to have such terrible nightmares that appeared without any warning with such a grave attatchment.

reply to post by Helious


What about prior to that? Was your life always peaceful?

BTW, I failed to mention that I had a stepdad at the time as well, and he was the meanest man I have ever known.

Then it could have been precognitive. Intuitively knowing something before it happened. I do no believe dreams that effect one to the extent this one effected you is without meaning and for no reason.

reply to post by liveandlearn


Believe me, my stepdad left ALOT to be desired, he was a horrible and selfish man but he never laid a finger on me, never abused me or my mother, he was just simply devoid of feelings.

I knew he didn't love me and more over, knew he probably didn't even like me but I didn't care, I had never known my father at that time of my life and only cared about my mother who seemed completely happy with him.

So, as far as that was concerned, it meant very little to me, as long as I had my own room, my GI Joes and my nintendo I couldn'td of cared less if he loved me or not..... Believe me.

This had NOTHING to do with my step father, trust me.

To the OP:

Did your mother have difficulties during labor?

Did you have any life-threatening ailments as a child (pre-recollection)?

I've found those 2 factors to be a big factor in inducing repetitive dreams in children. I won't go into detail, but I used to have the same dream at least weekly, for years... though I guess I was lucky because in my dream, I was saving the first girl I ever loved (1st grade romance).

Also, do you consider yourself to be "above normal" intelligence? I think people who are more in touch with themselves, spiritually (which does require intelligence), are more comfortable with their thoughts, and in turn are more likely to remember their dreams (your mind isn't subconsciously throwing them away before you wake)...

That's my .02, hope it's at least food for thought!

reply to post by ninecrimes


My mother was a very young mother, giving birth to me at 15 but as far as actual birth complications I am not aware of any.

I was never ill as a child nor had anything that was really out of place in my life, it was what I would describe as a normal childhood and believe me I have over the years tried to point to one thing that may have triggered the episodes but was unable to locate anything specific.

I would also consider myself to have an above average intellect but then again.... Who wouldn't? lol