I had another nightmare the other night. This time,
it had something to do with a grizzly bear. I think
I was chased or attacked by the bear, but the dream dissipated
before I wrote about it, so I’m not quite sure.
More
importantly, though, I’d like to follow up on my previous
nightmare article, as I’ve received quite a bit of fan response
to it. Thank you to everyone who has been reading
my articles, and keep the feedback coming.
Almost
immediately after the article was uploaded onto the internet,
I received two e-mails from my dad. Both e-mails were articles
that he found on the internet related to nightmares.
The first article indicates that 5-8% of adults have recurrent
nightmares, and that it indicates a “thin-boundary” personality/creative
personality and may have associated psychopathology.
Now tell me something I didn’t know! I guess I’ll
have to leave the psychopathology stuff to the professionals,
but I’ve always considered myself to be a somewhat creative
person. However, I’ve never heard of “thin-boundary”
personalities, so I decided to delve into the internet to
see what I could find.
According
to Intuitive
Connections, unlike “thick-boundary” people, who tend
to fixate on definitive goals and anchor themselves in the
sensory world, “thin-boundary” people act with apparent
detachment, characteristic of artists, writer and musicians.
THIN-BOUNDARY TYPES ALSO TESTED SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER FOR
CLAIRVOYANCE. And I thought I was kidding about having
mind-reading
abilities.
This
article also declares “recurrent nightmares are the most
defining symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
If you ask any of my ex-girlfriends, I’m sure that they
will tell you that I’m “damaged goods” and that I am very
likely to have suffered some sort of trauma to make me that
way. Looking back, I can think of only two events
that might count: The Challenger Explosion in ’86
and 9/11. I clearly remember where I was when both
of these events happened--they’re two of the moments that
my generation will remember the same way that people of
my parents’ generation remember the day that JFK was shot.
I
know that many people feel that they were traumatized by
the Kennedy assassination, but neither of these other two
events could have possibly had the same effect on me.
It’s not that I didn’t care about the people that died during
these events; it’s just that they did not affect me on a
personal level. (Well, due to increased security,
I did have to wait an hour to get into the Long Beach courthouse
earlier this year, but that’s another story.) So,
I was not traumatized by either of these events. Hmm...I
guess there’s a third incident that I remember just as clearly--the
day my parents got divorced when I was five years old.
I think that might help explain why my ex-girlfriends might
call me damaged goods, but it doesn’t do anything to explain
my nightmares.
The
second article my dad sent me offered advice on dealing
with chasing dreams. Instead of asking your chaser
why they are chasing you, this article suggests a more confrontational
approach. The dream story in the article has the dreamer
confronting the chaser by yelling, “You can’t hurt me!”
Then, as if out of a movie (which dreams sometimes resemble),
the chaser tells the dreamer that he wasn’t trying to hurt
her--instead he was chasing her to tell her that he loved
her. So, maybe my nightmares aren’t from trauma, but
are still affected by my parents’ divorce. Maybe my
nightmares are trying to help me stop sabotaging all of
my relationships.
The
second response to my article came from one of my aforementioned
“sabotaged relationships.” One of my ex-girlfriends
wrote me to tell me that she thought my article was hilarious.
Not because she (still?) enjoys my misfortune, but because
my nightmare was remarkably similar to her own. She
commented on how her dreams (and probably everyone’s) take
random inexplicable twists that seem somehow to make sense
or are otherwise accepted as normal. More interestingly,
though, she told me that she has had chasing dreams for
as long as she can remember, and a few years ago, she experienced
the same shift that I have--she now is the one doing the
chasing. This is both bizarre and comforting, for
the same reason--someone else has experienced the same pattern
in her nightmares that I have.
The
third response was neither bizarre nor comforting, but somewhat
upsetting. It came from my sister, about two weeks
after my article was published. She called to tell
me that she had her first chase dream last night.
And she blamed it all on me. Little sister still blaming
me for everything; and I thought that we were all grown
up. Not only does she blame me for her nightmare because
it came after she read my article, but in her dream, she
was being chased by ME! Apparently, I was trying to
kill her, and when she ran to the police department, they
made her call our mother. 26 years old and still crying
to mom when I try to kill you. Sheesh! Anyway,
she did have the compassion to tell the police not to kill
me when I found her at the station, which is more mercy
than I was shown during our childhood. I guess she
no longer relishes in my misfortune either.
Oliver
can be reached at oliver@babblog.com. |
