Dream within a dream and the meaning of such dreams

The first dream I had was of me going back to elementary school, with my class discussing some class-related business. Even in the dream, I had a degree of self-awarenes and I found the entire thing somewhat peculiar - I’m a college student now, what am I doing back in elementary school with my old class? I voiced my discontent and wonderment out-loud in the classroom, but everybody thought I was crazy and became extremely hostile towards me, even frightened of me. I didn’t like the atmosphere anymore, so with the little self-awareness I had, I tried to wake up, and I thought I did, but unwittingly I only entered

the second dream. This one felt much stranger than the first after actually waking up, despite feeling more real at first during the dream itself. In the second dream I fooled myself that I woke up, but that I was asleep for 10 months and that it was Christmas already (I know Christmas isn’t exactly 10 months away, it’s a friggin dream). I asked my parents how the fuck could I have slept for 10 months, but nobody seemed to be surprised except me. I asked them how was it possible for me to survive 10 months without food or water, just sleeping, they responded that my body went into some vegetative state or something, that they had a doctor check me and he said it was nothing unusual or to be concerned about. As all of this was occurring, my self-awareness was growing - I was becoming increasingly aware that this was only another dream, though not fully. The thought of sleeping for 10 months terrified me for some reason - it was like a part of my life was taken that I would never be able to live through again. Just as I was about to ask what became of my studies, and is really nobody surprised that I slept for 10 months, my self-awareness grew enough for me to become aware that I’m partaking in a dream, or rather, a nightmare. I began mentally struggling and tried to shake and move my body (real life body) with my mind alone, and whether I succeeded or not I managed to wake up.

This isn’t the first time it happened to me. Some years ago I had 4 dreams like this, and each time I thought I woke up, when in reality (or rather, in a dream) I just entered another dream. I wrote the content of those dreams down somewhere, so I might put them here as well later on.

Anybody with similar experiences and/or any thoughts about this?

Since there is already a thread dedicated to meaning of dreams, let this thread be dedicated exclusively to dreams within dreams and their interpretations/thoughts about them.

after the first dream,
you could have briefly woken up,
or been disturbed from your deep sleep,
and then maybe fell back into a dream state again?

i think what’s cool about dreams is that they can seem so revealing when you ponder their details.
also, it’s hard to know how accurate you remember your dreams even when you wake up immediately after.
I wonder how new memory storage works when we dream - if it happens normally or it it runs in reduced capacity.

that’s just like real life, though, for no one to be concerned about something that clearly feels is off.

I don’t think that ‘dream within a dream’ would have any special meaning compared to other contents of dreams (‘X within a dream’). Dreams use dreaming as any other material of dreams. In your case it seems to be a way to escape an oppressive situation: this is only a dream, by waking up I get out of it. It’s possible that the same figure appears in those other dreams; once learned it’s easy to repeat.

So what’s oppressing you? In the first dream you - a college student - went to elementary school, in the second you had lost 10 months by sleeping. Are you stressed for some schedule failure? In both dreams you seemed to defend yourself: It’s not my fault!

Interpretation of dreams depends on their emotional content. Outsiders can only guess what it might be; you are the only one who can know. My thoughts above interprete at best your description, not your dream. Hope it helps anyhow.

The only thing I get from this is that possibly on some unconscious level obviously - it is a dream[s] - you are questioning the validity of your life as it is now - perhaps you somehow think that you may be squandering it in some way. Maybe you are being told to move in some other direction other than what your life is now. But only you can decipher or see that eventually. Dreams are so full of wisdom.

This is just a guess, but it sounds like a struggle to overcome some past form of upbringing–something like the young adult who, after turning 18 or 19, begins to doubt, or wildly rebels against, his religious upbringing (wanting to move beyond elementary school and into college). Taking such a stand can be difficult not only in facing friends and family (who will insist that you’re over reacting) but it shedding all those wasted years (10 months) from within one’s self (still in a dream after having woken up). It will seem like a waste to you but those around you will not understand what the big deal is (doctor says not to worry and that it’s normal).

My perhaps strangest dream of all my dreams is when I was journalling obsessively, and I woke up about 5 AM to journal the thoughts in my dream… I journaled for about a half hour and then decided i needed more sleep after I journaled the philosophical content of my dream (I dream philosophy in theta states, not other types of dreams), anyways, after I went back to bed I tried to get back to sleep but after about another half hour or maybe longer, I just couldn’t, so I woke up to go back to my journal and it was completely empty, I realized i dreamed both the journalling and the trying to get back to sleep. The whole thing had been a hyper realistic dream within a dream.

You aren’t in a challenging major, and you were aware of your intellectual superiority threatening everyone in the first dream, and in the second dream, you recognized no one really expected much out of you, as you yourself didn’t really care. No real difference if your there or not.

Assertion and the lack of assertion on a extroverted level, minus the comfort you expect interpersonally. Your not fulfilling your own expectations, and feel unsatisfied, but can’t quite decide just what it is, beyond the intellectual coursework. This must go deeper, but you provided limited info, both in a educational setting.

I recommend sticking your penis into a gloryhole in a run down, diseased, impoverished part of town.

Or, dress up in some hiking clothes, and head out for a long hike, very long… let the stretch of road break your inhibitions about returning before dark, or even before dawn, and let your imagination rise and fall. Where does your excitement and doubts keep stirring? Women? Future accomplishments? A house in a certain part of the country? What exactly is it that your doing in these fantasies? What is your concerns and doubts? What are the great ideas that continuously return to you, push you, motivate you? What to you expect from your community in terms of recognition and validation, both of your future, and of your past?

Either the questionable gloryhole that can ruin your future in countless ways, or a challenging journey that causes you to confront yourself in your mediations upon life.

Or do nothing, but the gloryhole is preferable to nothing, cause at least you get potentially sucked off, but if you do nothing, your only fucking over yourself, and you seem sadly aware of it near lucidity, but not fully awake.

Change,

I know very well what your dreams actually means, and that fits on you perfectly also.

But, there is no way that I can make you believe all that.

With love,
Sanjay

Hah, I don’t think of myself as very intellectually superior to other students, but, I have to admit that I am surprised at the number of people who took up philosophy because of the other subject that goes along with it, usually a language, and aren’t very interested in it. I guess they’ll either get to like philosophy (at least in the academic sense), or have serious issues the next 5 years.
The entire situation in the second dream was weird and unbelievable to me precisely because, in real life, it is quite the opposite and people do expect much of me.

I’ll think about it.

Those are the questions I’ve been asking myself lately, trying to set my priorities straight.

Why would you have to make me believe it? I assume your interpretation is a religious one. While I highly doubt the accuracy of such beliefs, I don’t doubt, or at least have very little doubt in your sincerity, so I am interested in your interpretation whatever it may be.

I’ve had one of these dreams some days ago, possibly exactly on the day this thread was revived :neutral_face: 8-[

It wasn’t as intense of an experience as the previous, and I don’t remember it in detail.

I was in the city square, running, trying to catch my tram home. It was night, the rain was pouring, and my feet were bare. But I was late, and the tram began to move. Luckily, the driver saw me and stopped for a second, and I was able to enter. The tram was almost empty, aside from a few shady characters who didn’t seem to mind each other, but all of them stared at me. I wasn’t frightened, nor did I perceive the situation as eerie. All of them had clothes which were ripped apart, like they escaped from somewhere, and then I noticed that my are, too. I almost felt… at home.
Then I was walking home, but it was in the middle of a day (the trip usually takes half an hour, so this was impossible). I was going down this street in which I played and walked through a lot, in childhood. But for some reason, walking was exhausting… I don’t recall why. I stressed my muscles to their limits, yet I barely moved. I noticed that there is some rain/snow on the ground, but just a little, surely not enough to hinder my movement to the extent it did. My walk was soon reduced to a crawl, and my energy reserves were depleting, fast. I had almost reached the end of the street, but I had another, equally long one to pass through to get home. I knew I could never make it.

Then I thought I woke up for a short time, but I really didn’t. This second dream is weird, because it is based on a real event that happened some months ago:

What happened is, there was a huge, green grasshopper which entered my room. I felt something on my forearm for a moment, then I woke up and thought it was nothing, but then I saw a huge, really fucking huge, grasshopper on the clock on the wall, some meter and a half above me. At first I was uneasy, because I didn’t know what it is. When I realized it was a grasshopper, I decided to let it be.

That’s the real event. Now the dream was based on this, but this time it was an even bigger bug, a huge green mantis, long like a human hand. It’s funny, because I’ve initially perceived the grasshopper to be a mantis, the first second I saw it, before I came to my senses. I don’t recall what emotions the mantis in the dream evoked in me… I don’t think there were any, at all… then I woke up.

Change,

It is good to know that you at least do not doubt my sincerity. That is enough for me, whether you agree with me or not. Agreeing/ disagreeing is not that important. To me, trust in integrity is the most important thing, not in ideology.

Your first dream of studying in lower classes is one of the most common dreams. All people use to see it not only once but many times. I have seen dreams of studying and giving exams right from primary classes to higher studies enumerable times, besides getting report cards. This is perhaps most repeated dream-type for me, though the classes changes all the time.

The reason behind these studying dreams is related to the basics of human life and its purpose. The whole of human life is meant only for two things, training and testing. And, that is precisely what reflect in these dreams.

Your second dream of waking from the sleep in the dream and being told about your ten month sleep is related to the mechanism of that very training and testing too.

Ten month sleep in your house means that though you were physically present in the native place of your soul, but only unconsciously. Your consciousness had left your body to learn, as shown to you in the first dream. That primary class represents human life and realm while your home represents the realm of your soul. Waking there means that from hereon, the direct connection between those two your life forms, which was disconnected for some time in the past, has been restored again, and you will be constantly kept in touch and monitored in the future.

Change, this awakening from the long sleep is also a common dream. It has some more but slightly different versions but with the same massage. Some people see it as the birth of a child. It is also shown as someone sleeping in the bed under small blue canopy, tent or sheet.

I know that all this will be looking completely bizarre and un-understandable to you, because there is an entirely different and complex ontology behind it. If you are interested, read my conversation with Gib in the below mentioned thread. That will help. Besides that, you can ask for any clarification, if you want.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=187069

With love,
Sanjay