LOOK BEHIND YOU!!!!

Aaaargghhhhhh!

gurgle, gurgle... s p l a t

I do this a lot, taz. I have dreams where I allow myself to jump or fall from high places, knowing full well that it's a dream and I won't get hurt. Have always had these dreams. I half-worry that one day I'll be awake when I think I'm dreaming and....

Well, I'm still too stable for that, so.

Entering a new phase of your life, blah blah blah?

Are you squicked out by it today, in the remembering?

The worst dream I ever had was that I was having sex with my own corpse. I kept realizing it, pushing dead me off of me, and fake waking and sitting on the floor (in the dream). . .then corpse me would drape over my shoulder again and we'd get back to it. Brrr.

It must be all about shedding old skins, changing the way you face the world, hu?

Heh... I think you have me beat on that one, rainbaby. No I didn't feel squicked, remembering... It was just more curious than anything else. And it's just weird that I should be *cough* as old as I am, and never had a dream (that I remember) about my own death or dying.

Oh. Oh. Well, hm.

Actually, this dying bit did involve something scythe-like... so, duh.

rainbaby: agh! I would have been disturbed by that.

Taz: I had a dead-me dream once. The most notable part of it was the observation from a short distance. It did seem like an oddly healthy and positive dream, given its content. I remember feeling free, set loose from the limits of the body and the sadness surrounding death.

That was totally different, though, than the time I dreamed people thought I was dead, but I wasn't. Yet I couldn't do anything to stop the declarataion of death, autopsy,and burial. Yeah, I changed jobs after that dream.

Damn, I have never had any of those types of dream at all. I don't think it ever occurred to my brain that such a thing could be possible. Of course, if I start having them now, it'll be all your guys' fault. Or else the fact that I am turning 40 in 11 days.

Yes, miko, this was quite a bit like the first one you describe... I was seeing this from a close distance, and I remember, inside the dream, being kind of, well... not pleased, exactly (I had just watched myself being cancelled in a rather gruesome manner), but yeah, sort of like "Aha! So it's like this, then... Well, this is interesting".

I had a death sream once, but it was first person.

I mentioned a dream earlier. What I didn't add was that I woke up in my dream as I was choking to death. And earlier I had a whole section of dream where my mother had died and I was talking to her ghost before the funeral. I had to go and email her as soon as I woke up. She still hasn't emailed me back (and it's after lunch in NZ now). Dreams never usually freak me out like that.

But a dream like rainbaby's would have me squicked for a long time.

I've never dreamt my own death, but I have had a dream once where a zombie came up to me on the porch of an old house and screamed in my face, "This is what the dead sound like when they all come back!" And this high, hideous wail came out of his face.

Talk about being squicked.

It was an old wives tale I used to hear that if you dreamed of your own death you would die in your sleep - I was disabused of the notion when I dreamed of my own death (car crash - everything went black - dream over) but the fact that it was a popular rumor says to me that dreaming of one's death is not hugely common.

was the watching you an individual character, or more like an omnipotent narrator? or a 3rd person limited? I often dream in 3rd person limited, i.e., watching myself (like, I can see what kind of haircut I have etc) but identifying with myself at the same time (I feel as if I am that main character even though I can also see her...)

In mine, the watching me was just me, myself.

20-odd years ago (och, I'm old) a girlfriend and I went on a jag writing down our dreams. After a few weeks, I was able to remember incredible amounts of detail -- it's pretty easy to train yourself to this point. I then moved on to trying to become aware of being in a dream, and then trying to affect the circumstances of the dream.

Anyway, two decades later and I rarely have episodes of uncontrolled falling or being stuck in mud or things like that, because I'm always able to "know" I'm in a dream and either metaphorically hit myself upside the head until the picture "improves" or, less often now, think my way out of the situation.

I have dreamed of my own death more than once, though. Again the training helps, and it doesn't really freak me out, though sometimes I'm left with a sense of unease that can last a day or two.

Dreaming of one's own death actually seems pretty common. If you start having the same theme every night, then you might want to worry. (^_^)