I’m sure this is a frequently posed question, but I’d like to get to the bottom of my own underlying personal torment or anxiety that allows such fear to fester once I begin to dream.
When I was younger, around ten, I thought the scariest dream I’d ever have was this: I was running away from something, jumping from roof top to roof top–it was a city setting, pitch black, no stars, like all cities, but strangely not a lit window either, just darkness. I stood one the roof of a building, thinking I had ran far from my tormentor. Then I felt a wet cold drip on my forehead. I slowly look up, and I see a horrible face resembling the devil (I know it was) looking down upon me standing on a building taller than the one I stood upon. I woke up as quickly as I saw the devil, yet I could tell you every detail about his face even eight years later. I woke up, feeling so scared, not because I’d just encountered the devil, but because I felt like I could really feel that cold drip of drool fall upon my temple.
The fact that I can still recall that dream to a T is strange, but not surprising. I can recall to you a large sum of nightmares that I have had over the years; the one timers and the recurring.
For the past couple years my nightmares have consisted of one underlying theme. Typically, during these dreams, the world is about to end, but not really end more so the world is about to become apocalyptic due to what is known as a biblical tribulation detailed in the book of Revelation in the Bible. The themes of my most recent nightmares are often prophetic; something is trying to convince me to follow God before it’s too late and my self is trying to convince God that, even though this and that, I am his loyal follower after admitting all my wrongdoings openly. I have a nudge that my nightmares stem from religious trauma, but they don’t all have this recurring theme.
I dream often that I’m surrounded my water, soon to be consumed with it and it’s unknown properties. I dream of being watched, and of being hated, and of being in situations that I can not control, that I must sit back and watch.
A couple months ago I had a nightmare so bad that once I awoke I began to read my bible, something never do. This was a quick dream, it could be placed into inramebts of two palpable seconds for each happening, it was set during what I beleive to be the commencement of WW3; the sky was orange as wars were beginning to make there way to America, something unthinkable seeing as the only wars fought on United States soil have been ones civil or internal. Surprisingly, this was the least of my worries, for I had only deciphered that notion in the span of couple second before I made my way into the saftey of my home, where I found that I wasn’t safe at all. This is probably of little importance, but I was in the company of my people I knew, but strangely they were mostly acquaintances, no close friends, no family. We had witnessed the passing of what seemed like a UFO, I don’t ever have sci-fi dreams. Suddenly, without warning, without a linear explanation of how or why, I was struck in my temple, the same exact place where I had felt the cold wet drool almost a decade before, I felt a seething pain, that of what I imagine a laser beam would feel like if one would come into its contact, or smelting medal rod. The pain lasted for probably about five seconds, I woke up with it. I dreamt the pain and I awoke still feeling it as it got progressively worse, not more faint but stronger. As soon as the pain subsided I reached for my Bible sitting on my nightstand and opened to a random page, any would give me comfort.
I’m not sure if there is significance to any of this, I’m not even sure if I’d want there to be, but I wake up almost every night from a dream so bleak that sometimes makes me scared to fall asleep. These dreams don’t affect me throughout the day, they’re a scary story to tell to anyone willing to listen, but I can’t help wonder why they’re so consistent, and what can I do to prevent them.
