Wednesday 28 March 2012

Travelling Dreams and Sleep Paralysis

Travelling Dreams

Dream 1 - Rural Life: I dreamt I had gone to visit Valerie, my friend who had recently returned from Kazakhstan, who had somehow moved to Korea instead. I don't know why I was in Korea. Valerie lived in a rural suburb in a big house. The floor was sandy inside the house, and outside, there was a donkey on the road and a covered cart with a mountain of giant white radishes on top. Val told me that she was moving out and if I was interested I could live there - it was an hour's commute to Seoul and perhaps I could take over the rental. She told me the rent in a foreign currency's number, and i took some time to calculate it in my head into something I understood. For some reason I simply understood it to be £200 per month which was very low so I said "why not!", rationalising that I had reached a point in my life where I would love to live far away from the city so i could produce my own work in peace. However, when Valerie called her landlord, he said that he had other plans to build walls within the large space to make many rooms which he would rent out individually. Valerie said, "Oh no! I know i should never have mentioned that idea to him! Now he's going to split up the space!" As the news broke, I also realised that for a moment there I had actually convinced myself out of living within a city. Imagine not being in a city, but in a place far away from civilisation?

Dream 2 - Airport Life: I dreamt I was stuck in a big airport, about to fly to London. There was a big concert inside for a thai skincare brand. They were using music to sell skincare products. I was stuck and I couldn't find my way to the gates. I called up the concierge and told them of my difficulties in finding my gate, and that I was almost late for my flight. At this point, I realised that I didn't know where I was going to stay in London. "Oh well! Its alright if my flight is delayed so I can go sort that out!" I thought to myself. But then the airport called me back and said "THE PLANE WILL WAIT FOR YOU! WE'RE SENDING SOMEONE TO PICK UP YOU NOW!" Their impeccable service would mean that I would get to London on time after all, but I still didn't know where I would stay when I got there...  [I often get dreams of this nature; where I have begun to travel somewhere far but have been delayed, and then when the delay suddenly lifts and I can go on my way, I also suddenly realise that I have forgotten something very important that I should have tended to earlier...]

What is the meaning of this: I CAN'T WAIT FOR MY NEW PASSPORT TO COME SO THAT I CAN TRAVEL INSTEAD OF DREAMING ABOUT TRAVELING

Sleep Paralysis

I have been getting sleep paralysis and other peculiar disruptions of sleep. For me, these attacks seem to have increased over the last two years. I guess this is partially because I am quite a workaholic and I also have a habit of sleeping in a supine position. What happens is that I seem to have woken up but then I cannot move. Sometimes I can hear the sounds around me as well, sometimes its all woven in together - when I wake up I'm in the position that I fell asleep in but I can't move. My hand might be outstretched with my glasses at my finger tips. At first its terrifying, as if you've been horribly paralysed, but after a number of attacks, I've found that wiggling my fingers and being patient and persistent in throwing myself out of this state eventually gets me out of it. Recently I watched Lost Highways - the part where the strange man comes up to Fred and tells him "Call your house. Ask me how I got inside" - I feel like this piece of dialogue from the film perfectly captures how I feel about the sleep paralysis. It is both surreal as well as uncanny.

What is the meaning of this: I THINK I WILL BE CUTTING CAFFEINE AND ALCOHOL FROM MY DIET. AND NOT GOOGLING FOR SLEEP PARALYSIS LATE AT NIGHT BECAUSE ITS EVEN MORE SCARY AFTER YOU READ THE WIKIPEDIA POST ON THAT.

Temporal Displacement

I had a dream in which I was transported back to the year 2009. I was suddenly back at home, living at home in Singapore, and I was talking to S____ on the phone. I did not know how I had gotten to the past. It was horrible, because I felt as if I would have to relive all these intervening years again with the prior knowledge of what had come before. I knew that anything I said to S____ now was horrible because I knew what was going to happen eventually. I wondered if it would be insane to call P_____ if I had not yet met him at this point. It was utterly horrible. I tried to do all the things that they often say to do in order to test for lucid dreaming, like looking for marks on your hands or features on your body such as the small mole on my wrist. I pinched myself very hard and it felt so real. Worst of all, I didnt know if knowing the future would also affect the future from the past. In the end I began to dial M____'s number to ask him what time or date it was at his side because I thought maybe he might have the most accurate clock. Fortunately, while waiting for the call to connect, I woke up in the future or rather the present day.

What is the meaning of this: IF GIVEN THE CHANCE, I WOULD NOT LIKE TO TRAVEL BACK THROUGH TIME.

Effie is Changing the Fabric of Reality

Phone Conversation a few moments ago - unknown number dials me up:
"Hello."
"Hello?"
"It's me."
"What do you mean, its me."
"Don't you remember me?"
"No, who is this?"
"ITS ME! U FORGOT ME?"
"Do I know you?"
"ITS ME! DON'T TELL ME YOU'VE FORGOTTEN ME!"
"Can you give me a clue?"
"YOUR VOICE HAS CHANGED! WHAT'S HAPPENED!"
"I'm bad at this guessing game, who are you?"
"ITS ME! OH MY GOD! YOU FORGOT ME! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! AND YOUR VOICE HAS CHANGED COMPLETELY!"
"Who is this? My voice has changed? What? Who is this?"
"OH MY GOD! EFFIE! YOU FORGOT ME! YOU FORGOT ME! EFFIE!"
"But I'm not Effie."
(Pause)
"Oh."
"My name is Debbie."
"Have you always had this phone number?"
"Yes, since the first day. I'm sorry this isn't Effie."
"Oh. Ohhhh. OH…. I'm so sorry."
"It's okay."
"No wonder you don't sound like Effie. For a moment there I thought Effie had changed since the last time I had seen her. It would be even more horrible if even her voice had changed and she had forgotten me completely."