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RE: Memoir Monday #36 (11/11-11/17) - Have you ever had recurring dreams? If so, describe them.

in #memoirmonday15 days ago

Dreams set to Haydn - that's not a bad deal at all. It's interesting to me that your recurring dreams are happy ones (often, people seem to remember more vividly the nightmares, and those seem to recur more often). So very interesting.

I feel a sense of joy and contentment, as though the year is the mid-to-late 1800s.

I love this phrase. Makes it feel like a very specific type of satisfaction/contentment. Do you wonder why both these happy dreams are period pieces, so to speak?

To be honest, I'm very curious about the final dream (perhaps more so than the other two, even). Do you smoke cigars in your real life?

PS: Love the theme!

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The really wild thing is I didn't know what song it was in the dream until I found it on the CD. There's little chance I ever heard it before either. I very rarely have bad dreams and when I do I hardly ever feel panicked. The only panic-inducing dream was this one...I was running down a flight of stairs in an old apartment building and heard people a few flights above running down after me. I didn't ever seen them but in my mind I knew it was soldiers chasing me. I only had this dream once. It ended before I was caught (or escaped).

The only thing I can think of is this is connected with either genetic memory or related to a past life?

Ugh, the Tobacco Shop dream fills me with a kind of dread and loneliness, like I've wasted my life (akin to Ebenezer Scrooge). Judging by my attire I was elderly and the way the shopkeeper treats me I get a sense I was wealthy/respected. I did used to have the occasional cigar! I had a humidor and everything but just lost interest in them after a while.

Thanks! Do you have any recurring dreams?

I didn't know what song it was in the dream until I found it on the CD. There's little chance I ever heard it before either

That really is odd! Maybe a remnant from a past life indeed. It's interesting also that the dream ends (as these pursuit dreams often tend to) before a clear resolution either way. Maybe it's not necessary for that kind of dream to end on either definitive answer in the dream world? I don't know.

Ah, so you're old in the dream as well! Hm that might be a significant detail - maybe there's also powerlessness? You passing by those seedy characters/places, but being old and keeping your head down (after your own pleasures and interests), maybe you're powerless to change the seediness of your surroundings? That's a cool dream!

I do :D Mostly bad ones for me, though. Pursuit, also, features heavily in my dreams. That and keeping monsters at bay. Typical childish dreams maybe :)

That was the part that kind of freaked me out. It was such a revelation when I heard the song from the CD though. Maybe it's an imagined connection? I'm not sure. Perhaps it isn't necessary for the those kinds of dreams to end. One common theme throughout most of these kinds of dreams for me is the emotional impact -- contentment, fear (with the staircase dream), dread, and joy.

Yes, I get the impression I'm old in that Tobacco Shop dream. I don't remember feeling pain but I was walking with a cane. The surroundings weren't seedy. This was a downtown city street filled with red brick storefronts. The weather was gloomy, overcast and grey. The tobacco shop was just down a small flight of stairs in the basement level of one of the buildings.

I kind of epiphany came to me last night that these three recurring dreams could be memories from a single lifetime. Wealth and privilege seemed a common thread throughout the three. The first two are filled with light, happiness, and joy...the last, sadness. Very Dickensian.

That isn't childish at all! I think a lot of people have these kinds of "bad" dreams. I think these are usually dripping with metaphor.