Weird nightmare

[randy_byers]

I don't remember many of my dreams, but I had a nightmare last night that left an impression. I don't remember much about the nightmare itself -- something about a horrible witch swallowing my head (ahem) -- but when I woke up to escape there was a satanic figure hovering in the darkness in front of me and staring at me with great malevolence. It did not fade away even as I seemingly woke up more. I finally clawed the air just to prove to myself that it really, really wasn't there, and then I turned over and went back to sleep. Creeped me the hell out, so to speak.

Comments

[alces2.livejournal.com]

I actually remember many dreams and with some detail but I've never woken up to have a satanic figure hovering over me. How did you know it was Satanic or was that just a feeling.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It was probably "just a feeling" in the sense that dreams often seem to have their own semantic context, but the figure also looked a little like, oh, Emil Jannings as Mephistopheles in Murnau's Faust, or like the guy who plays the vampire in Polanski's Dance of the Vampires. Kind of aristocratic or noble, but in an icy cold, malevolent, and threatening manner.

I've more than once (although by no means frequently) "woken up" to see figures hovering in the air in my room. They aren't always malevolent.

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Obviously I'm going to have to look around the next time I wake up from a dream or nightmare. I don't actually think I even look up or around, except when I think there are spiders in the bed with me based upon what I was dreaming. Then I definitely check that out. Fortunately, no spiders ever found.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I used to call my bedroom the Kingdom of the Spiders, because there were so many living there, but they rarely bothered me in bed. Don't seem to be as many as there once were either.

[kdotdammit.livejournal.com]

Scary. I don't have nightmares often (or at least I don't remember them) but when I do they're really visceral like the one you describe and I always have to do something to confirm that it's only a dream. What I really hate is when I'm having a nightmare and then dream that I wake up so I can prove it's not real, but actually I'm still asleep and the nightmare seems even more real. Luckily that doesn't happen often.

Your nightmare made my chest constrict. That's how much I could feel it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that! Yeah, I don't have many nightmares either, but they always leave a very physical, muscular, visceral imprint on me. I can still feel the "taste" of the nightmare six hours later -- in my muscles, my joints, my lower back, the back of my head. It's almost a flu-like feeling. Maybe it's an overdose of adrenaline in response to the fear, I don't know. It's never a good thing when I have to force myself awake to escape a dream. I usually have to think about something else for a while (and change my physical position in bed) to make sure I don't slip back into the same dream space.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Totally freaky! Did the figure maintain its degree of seeming corporeality as you continued to wake up, did it grow more substantial or less or stay the same? Did it seem solidly there or was it ghostly?

I have nightmares from time to time and sometimes I wake up and am certain a malevolent presence is in the room with me, but I've never seen it as discretely as you did. I also sometimes wake up in that mental state where one is temporarily volitionless, unable to move, and it feels like someone is on top of me or about to attack me and I struggle to regain control of my muscles and wake up, open my eyes, move damnit, whatever it takes to break the "spell" of the strange presence. Come to think of it, it does seem like you were breaking a "spell" yourself, by clawing the air. Totally freaky!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'd say the figure stayed the same as I woke up. It didn't seem completely solid, but neither was it ethereal. Ghostly, but vivid, stable, coherent. Clawing at it didn't make it go away either, although it confirmed my rational understanding that it wasn't really outside my head, as it were.

[profgeek.livejournal.com]

So, Randy.... how hard have you been working on Corflu Zed? There's all sorts of con-running symbolism in this dream, y'know.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Do tell! I figured it was just an overdose of rarebit.

dream analysis of a con-chairman's nachtmare

[profgeek.livejournal.com]

Well, that witch devouring your head - whole, I assume - is symbolic of Corflu Zed consuming your life. As for that malevolent demon lurking in the background, that could be Ted White, or simply the manifestation of Graham Charnock badly in need of a shower.

Corflu is a nightmare from which I'm trying to awake

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, the satanic figure did look a bit like Ted, especially the eyebrows. Hm, you may be onto something. And yes, my head was swallowed whole. But I escaped alive, by golly, and I'll do the same with Corflu! *gibber, tweet*

[profgeek.livejournal.com]

Watch out for those tentacles!