What's the scariest (non-zombie related) dream you've ever had?

[JDFP]

When I was growing up as a kid in the 80's I'd regularly have nuclear war nightmares. I blame my dad for letting me watch "The Day After" when I was a kid -- and that flick has stuck with me (I'm now 30) and still scares the piss out of me. For one: it could really happen. I still have periodic nightmares about nuclear war and either being killed outright by the blast (those are fun) or being an unlucky survivor in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. These dreams still bug me when I have them because they are so life-like.

As far as real life scary dream-like situations: When I was little I also saw "Red Dawn" which had a huge influence on me. I was afraid at elementary school as a kid because I was always worried the Soviets were going to para-troop and come after me and all my friends and they'd either kill us all or lock us up somewhere. A good buddy of mine who had also seen it had planned along with me what we thought was a brilliant plan to hide in certain unused places of the school if the Soviets ever came. We were ready to escape and flee from the clutches of the evil Soviets if it ever happened! From around kindergarten - 3rd grade (before the Soviet Union fell) I used to think of different ways I could hide and/or escape from the school if it ever took place convinced that it eventually would.

I'm definitely a kid of the 80's.

I guess the worst dreams I have now are a mix between the nuclear war ones and the occasional much more mundane but still intense dreams about real life events. I wake up sweating sometimes in fear that I've got a research paper for class due the next day (and I graduated from college in 2004) and haven't started on it yet.

j.p.

[deadpunk]

I rarely have dreams that aren't disjointed fragments and non-sensical images. I typically have a lot of nightmares that involve being stalked by an unknown assailant in a house where escape seems impossible.

However, a couple weeks back, I had one mother of nightmare. The dream had a very RING or GRUDGE-esque feel to it that surprised me as my nighttime activities are rarely influenced by my media of choice :p

In the dream, my girlfriend and I had discovered a little girl living in the woods behind our apartment (in real life we live on a corner lot next to a Cath-o-holic church). My girl insisted we take the little waif in as we contacted the authorities. She was taken away in an ambulance. Then later, she kept appearing behind our apartment in a tire swing. Her eyes would melt from blue to pure black as she accussed my girlfriend of promising to keep her forever.

At points in the dream, a cat would appear that had the same hair coloring and eyes as the little girl. They never appeared together and the cat was anything but a house pet, if you dig.

The whole plot was complex and surreal, yet it made complete sense...

At any rate, for the first time that I can remember since childhood, I woke up sweating and afraid to go back to sleep. And if I rehash that nightmare tonight, jp, I'm blaming you ;)

[Legion2213]

I had a fear of nuclear war when I was younger, and some bad dreams to go with it. But I have to say, one of the worst dreams I've ever had more upsetting than scary...

I was wandering around what looked like a small farm in Wales or something with some girl and we discovered these barrels that were filled with dead children (and parts of them), I don't think the feelings I had in the dream were much different than what I would have had in real life...it was horrible, I was really upset and angry and the girl was crying and terrified, it was really intense. Straight out of a horror flick.

I've also had dreams where I have killed people (when a few punches would've done the job of getting me out of the situation). The cold hard realisation of what I have done is always really sickening and frightening.

I've noticed that when I am ill, I have some really odd/bizare/disturbing dreams as well.

The old human subconcious, it likes to really fuck around with us when we switch off and it is in control doesn't it? :D

[blind2d]

In the dream, my girlfriend and I had discovered a little girl living in the woods behind our apartment (in real life we live on a corner lot next to a Cath-o-holic church). My girl insisted we take the little waif in as we contacted the authorities. She was taken away in an ambulance. Then later, she kept appearing behind our apartment in a tire swing. Her eyes would melt from blue to pure black as she accussed my girlfriend of promising to keep her forever.

At points in the dream, a cat would appear that had the same hair coloring and eyes as the little girl. They never appeared together and the cat was anything but a house pet, if you dig.

The whole plot was complex and surreal, yet it made complete sense...
Someone needs to make this movie. I would totally see it.

Having said that, I don't have dreams in general often anymore... usually if anything truly exciting/scary happens in them, it involves me falling for some reason. (Like I was walking down a well-lit hallway and somehow tripped). It feels real, and wakes me up, really scared for some reason... but yeah, that's it besides the demon head from a couple years ago. I'm lame, I know...

[rongravy]

When I was growing up as a kid in the 80's I'd regularly have nuclear war nightmares. I blame my dad for letting me watch "The Day After" when I was a kid -- and that flick has stuck with me (I'm now 30) and still scares the piss out of me. For one: it could really happen. I still have periodic nightmares about nuclear war and either being killed outright by the blast (those are fun) or being an unlucky survivor in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. These dreams still bug me when I have them because they are so life-like.

Same here, but now I have TDA on dvd. It looks kinda silly now.
Mine are two involving my mom: one where we have a wreck and my mom is the only one that dies, and one where she is attacked and murdered.
I woke up from both crying and told her I loved her as soon as I saw her next. Fucked up.

[ProfessorChaos]

my nightmares that bother me the most involve getting blown apart or burned alive in an IED explosion in iraq or afghanistan. having lived through a couple of IED attacks and also having lost a handful of friends to those fucking things, they scare the shit out of me.

seems i have one of those dreams about every other month or so, i usually wake up sweating and don't go back to sleep. when i got the first CoD: MW game, it was so surreal at times that i actually stopped playing it for nearly half a year till i could handle it, as it caused me a lot of fucked up nightmares for about a week or so when i first got the game.

i actually had a very vivid zombie-related dream after last week's TWD. i was stuck on a roof of one of the taller buildings in my hometown and had no food or water, just a lot of ammo, but nearly the entire population of the town was swarming around the building and i had to figure a way out of there. woke up before i actually got to the ground, but i do recall taking inventory of my ammo, planning my escape, trying to divert the zombies' attention to the other side of the building, etc.

[Tricky]

I can still vividly remember a bad dream I had when I was probably around 7 or 8 years old, the dream took place in the house we lived in at the time, and my little sister got stung by a bee in it which killed her, and for some reason (these reasons only happen in dreams) her body was left where she fell which was sitting down facing the wall in our driveway. In one of those weird dream timelines several weeks passed & I was playing in the yard with my cousins, and I started walking round the body & I can still remember my cousin screaming at me in the dream not to, but I did anyway & saw my sisters face which was all rotted with one eye wide open. That was the point where I woke up feeling extremely scared & went running into my mum & dads room in the middle of the night in tears & wouldnt go back to sleep. I've still no idea why I had that dream, whether I'd caught a part of a horror film or had seen a picture in a book of a scary face or something, I dunno, but I've never forgotten it. I have a couple of other recurrent dreams that I cant really remember now in any detail but I had them as a kid, and I still sometimes have them as an adult, weirdly within the dream I know whats going to happen next as they play out exactly the same as they did all those years ago, they arent nightmares as such, just a bit scary & odd. Another weird thing about my dreams is that I'm always a kid or a teenager in them, despite being 28 years old!

[JDFP]

Same here, but now I have TDA on dvd. It looks kinda silly now.


I don't know that it's necessarily "silly" (I think it holds up fairly well) so much as very dated -- like many things from the 80's (hah, including me). I'd love to see a contemporary re-make of "The Day After" with more modern/contemporary situations/outlooks. If anything, a contemporary nuclear war would be even more devestating than it would have been 25 years ago because now we are so glued to our technology. People would be flipping out over not having the internet and their iPhone's not working any longer. Things would happen much faster -- because the world is much more interconnected now -- but people aren't ready to become prepared (digging trenches, storing supplies, digging dirt to put against basement windows) like they were 25 years ago. If anything -- it would be far worse.

I know they are making a re-make of "Red Dawn" which I'm really looking forward to seeing. The big difference is that if something like "Red Dawn" were to happen today we'd be in the same situation where we'd be far less prepared and ready for it. The center would fall apart much faster -- appeasement to the enemy would be faster and there would be fewer John Wayne types to yell the "WOLVERINES!" mantra and stand true to liberty. Hell, that's probably more terrifying than the situation the film portrays anyway.

j.p.

[clanglee]

I'll just pull this from a previous dream thread that we had.
I had a dream when I was a kid that was so weirdly scary that it stuck with me to this day.

I was in my bed, the lights are on in my room and it is daylight outside. My parents are standing next to my drawers and discussing something while my mom is folding my socks and putting them in the drawers. There is a witch in bed with me, a real old school hag with green skin and warts and all. She has a bowl of potato chips. She is holding my wrist and using my hand to get chips and put them in her mouth. I am completely paralized aside from the ability to grab chips. And I know intuitively that when the chips are gone, the Hag is going to start eating my hand. My parents are like 10 feet away from me, but neither seems to notice me or the witch. I cannot scream or speak, every time I try it comes out as a tiny raspy "help"

So yeah doc. . . . what do you think that one means?

[Andy]

You guys will probably all laugh at me, but the first terminator film absolutly traumatized me as a child.

I watched it at a age when i was comfortably watching dawn, night, childs play, nightmare on elm street, halloween, friday the 13th.. none of those films fazed me, but i vividly remember the scene where the tanker explodes and kyle reese and sarah connor think they have killed it, and they cuddle and you have the nice end of movie, we won, music playing and then all of a sudden it rises up out of the flaming wreckage, just the robot endoskeleton with the red eyes and they focus on sarah and then it moves forwards.. i actually had nightmares about that for months after seeing it and i still get a cold chill when i watch that film.

[triste realtà]

OK, here's one that I will never forget...

I don't remember a story line but just a weird moment with the creepiest feeling where I was in a kitchen, and this was late 70s or early 80s when olive was a popular kitchen color, and there was a dim olive light (well it seemed like a grey green type thing which is the kind of stove top light I think we had) and I could hear an AC/DC song like Ride On (I always thought Bon Scott had an eerie voice). I opened a cupboard above the stove to find some kind of olive colored liquid in big jars and I knew it was a very evil thing in them.

[clanglee]

OK, here's one that I will never forget...

I don't remember a story line but just a weird moment with the creepiest feeling where I was in a kitchen, and this was late 70s or early 80s when olive was a popular kitchen color, and there was a dim olive light (well it seemed like a grey green type thing which is the kind of stove top light I think we had) and I could hear an AC/DC song like Ride On (I always thought Bon Scott had an eerie voice). I opened a cupboard above the stove to find some kind of olive colored liquid in big jars and I knew it was a very evil thing in them. Sounds like you may be a bit scared of 70's design and decor. ;) http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:8WZVRbshJVE7UM:http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.113225879.jpg

[Danny]

J, didn't you make this thread already a while back? Not being a bassman here, but i swear you got a decent thread going about this topic already. :rockbrow:

[JDFP]

J, didn't you make this thread already a while back? Not being a bassman here, but i swear you got a decent thread going about this topic already. :rockbrow:

I've had alot to drink since then. I don't remember. I think I did a topic recently about zombie related dreams, but I don't know that it was necessarily a "non-zombie dream" related thread. It may have been -- I don't still have those brain cells.

Eh, it's a good topic regardless.

j.p.

[Danny]

eh, true.

Still, fair warning for when commandant basshounds hot on your ass about it. :lol:

[bassman]

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/why-i-oughta.jpg

[JGEnviro]

gotta be where I am left in the car by mum with brother. Car starts to roll down the hill and the steering wheel falls off and I can't reach the pedals. haha, used to wake up in sweats.

[Publius]

Several years ago my wife and I were in a pretty bad car accident when someone ran a stop sign in front of us. No serious injuries, but for a few weeks after that I occasionally had dreams that my wife had died in the crash. Not pleasant.

[MikePizzoff]

I have had this reoccurring dream for about 12 years now. It always takes place in the same location.

I'm driving a car just fine and enjoying a warm, sunny day. As I'm coming up to the red light at a T intersection, with a brick apartment building in front of me, I go to push the break. That's when I realize I'm sitting in the passenger seat and the steering wheel is with me, however the pedals are in their normal spot, and for some reason I can't reach them with my feet. The dream then turns frantic, as I always turn left, narrowly missing many cars, and continue barreling down the street at increasing speeds, until I wake up.

I was hit by a van, as a pedestrian, at that very intersection when I was 14 years old. The accident caused permanent back injury, months of rehabilitation, and reconstructive facial surgery. I guess that's what brought on this reoccurring nightmare.

[Publius]

The dream then turns frantic, as I always turn left, narrowly missing many cars, and continue barreling down the street at increasing speeds, until I wake up.

I was hit by a van, as a pedestrian, at that very intersection when I was 14 years old.

Interesting. Is there any relationship between what you do as the driver in your dream (turn left through the T intersection) and what the van driver did?

[BillTheButcher]

I dreamt I was executed by having my head chopped off. I don’t mean I was about to be executed or sentenced to be executed. I mean I was executed.

I have no memory of my crime, if there was a crime, or of sentence being imposed, but here is what happened…

I was in a room – the execution room – that looked just like the room in the Saddam Hussein cellphone video (it even had the cellphone video granular appearance, only the dominant shades were reddish, not green), except there was no noose. Instead there was some kind of leather pad on a stand, and I was made to kneel before it and my head was bent forward so my neck was stretched over it. I don’t know if there was a guillotine, but I rather think I was to be decapitated by the old method of the executioner’s axe. I don’t remember being scared. I don’t recall any emotions on my own part, in fact. I felt the hands stretching my neck; I heard the noises of people moving around me; and then I felt a blow on the back of my neck, very distinctly, like a slap. That was the end of the dream, of course – I defy anyone to sleep past his or her own execution.

But then – I guess – I fell asleep almost instantly again and this time I dreamt I had gone somewhere, far away, to another town, with the dogs, and I had put them in some kind of makeshift kennel. I’d gone looking around for some booking office where I could find tickets for the journey home (I was rather anxious to get them back, and anxious to be back myself). While looking around cigarette stalls and grocer’s stores for a booking hall, and being misdirected by everyone, I was shown – somehow or other – my own skull and severed vertebral column, lying on white cloth in a display case. I remember my own emotions that time, looking at my polished brown skull and the thin bones of my vertebrae – a sort of calm sorrow compounded with a feeling that was "You need not have used an axe to cut such thin bones; they’re as delicate as a chicken’s."

And then I woke up for good.

Obviously, this was not the best dream I have ever had.

[MikePizzoff]

Interesting. Is there any relationship between what you do as the driver in your dream (turn left through the T intersection) and what the van driver did?

The van that hit me actually turned RIGHT through the intersection. Perhaps the dream is my subconscious wishing the driver had made a left?


Obviously, this was not the best dream I have ever had.

Welcome to the boards, I'm pretty sure you're our first member from India!

[deadpunk]

– I defy anyone to sleep past his or her own execution.


They can't. It is physically impossible to dream beyond one's own death.

[Publius]

The van that hit me actually turned RIGHT through the intersection. Perhaps the dream is my subconscious wishing the driver had made a left?

Maybe so! How weird.


They can't. It is physically impossible to dream beyond one's own death.

To die, to sleep
To sleep, perchance to dream -- ay, there's the rub
And in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause, there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

[JDFP]

They can't. It is physically impossible to dream beyond one's own death.

I'm curious about this. Has this been proven? I can't recall any dreams where I've died and continued dreaming anyway -- but I suppose if it's more a "out-of-body" dream then I could see it possibly happening ("Oh look, there I am dead"). Are there studies showing that someone can't dream their death and still keep dreaming after being dead in the dream (the same dream)? This is fascinating to me.

j.p.

[Publius]

I'm curious about this. Has this been proven? I can't recall any dreams where I've died and continued dreaming anyway -- but I suppose if it's more a "out-of-body" dream then I could see it possibly happening ("Oh look, there I am dead"). Are there studies showing that someone can't dream their death and still keep dreaming after being dead in the dream (the same dream)? This is fascinating to me.


I think he was talking about continuing to dream after actual physical death, not just death in the dream. That's probably not something that could ever be proven through any scientific study.

[Mike70]

a nightmare that i have from time to time about being crushed in a vast crowd, so tightly packed that i cannot move to make an escape.

[acealive1]

simple answer, i dreamt my mom called me and told me my dad had died. SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME.