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The monster of my boyhood dreams

Scribble

Archmage
When I was a boy I had a recurring dream. I think it started one night during a thunderstorm. Upon the window of my bedroom, shadows would be cast by the branches of our tree when the wind would blow. Lightning exploded outside my window, but in the flash I saw a figure, something unreal, something terrifying. I'm not sure if it was an episode of Scooby-Doo that conjured the Electricity Monster, or if it was the lightning I saw that later was manifested by what I saw in the cartoon, but it was a creature made of pure energy, a being of pure electricity that frightened me. The dream would proceed always in the same way. I would be in the living room of our home at night. As if on a line, I was carried inexorably down the hallway, into my room, and unavoidably under the bed. I would come face to face with the electricity monster. Terror would grip me tight and though I wrestled against the flow of this dream I could not escape it. This nightmare tormented me for many years, but eventually ended. I cannot say whether any event ended it, or whether it simply faded from my mind.

Many years later, as a man, I had the same dream. It began like all the others, in the living room of my childhood home, being dragged down the hall as if on a line, falling under the bed to face the creature. This time, it was different. This time, I was a grown man, who had faced many things, who had reckoned his fate, who accepted his mortality, who was afraid of nothing except harm to his own loved ones. I stood before the monster defiantly. I said to it, "I'm not a boy now. I am no longer afraid of you."

It replied to me, "That was the face I bore when you were a child. My True Face would have broken you. You are now ready to see my real countenance." It pulled back its face and revealed a cosmic horror beyond any words I could use to describe it. I felt cold into my bones and I was paralyzed with fear. I woke gasping for breath, shaking, covered in sweat, shaking in terror. I felt all the walls of security built by my adult life fall away like a castle of wooden blocks made by a child, knocked over.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Scribble!

Thanks for sharing that most interesting dream with us here in the Dreamscape Forum. Even though recurrent dreams are not that rare in the general population, yours sounds particularly intense, mysterious and frightening if compared to most other cases that I have read about.

In case that you were afraid of thunderstorms when you were little, that could have contributed to the creation of that electrical monster in your dreamworld. I had a similar experience when I was about ten years old, when one night a lightning bolt landed very close to our place and the resulting thunder exploded like a terrible bomb.

The blast awakened the entire family, and it was so powerful that my parents dashed to my room just to see if I was alright!

That night I was dreaming about one of my favorite cartoons. When the thunder came, all of the characters and buildings in my dream setting were shattered to pieces like a broken window... It took all of us quite some time to calm down, and indeed I was afraid of thunderstorms for a long time after that incident.

In your case, I think that something else was involved in those recurrent dreams.

There is probably some deeper fear, an unresolved worry or a traumatic event of some kind that caused the dreams to start, something that calmed down or retreated to darker parts of your mind as you grew up. However it never really vanished, it was still there somewhere and that's why one night it happened to come back into your adult life.

The fact that you talked to the entity and it replied to you with those words is particularly interesting, and also quite unnerving if you ask me. I would suggest to never talk to that thing again, just in case the dream comes back.

Also, do you think that this dream could transform into a Fantasy story for you to write?

If this had happened to me, I would seek a psychiatric analysis just out of curiosity.
 

Butterfly

Auror
I remember one dream... more of a glance at something.

A man in a coat, or a blacksmith's type of apron, (I don't really remember) was standing at work bench with all sorts of tools over it. He glanced at me, and suddenly he wasn't a man at all, but some sort of demon with big pointy teeth and gnarled old skin, and it said, 'I am Bloodthirsty.' - for some reason, I assumed Bloodthirsty to be his name.

Then I woke up.
 
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Scribble

Archmage
The dream has some influence on a story I am working on, a dark fantasy.

These are the ideas driving the story: Unresolved emotions or obsessions, if left to grow hidden, fester, can rise up and become terrors in our dreams. Young children are susceptible to night terrors, but mostly as they reach adolescence, this recedes. Sleep is not a loss of consciousness, but a different state of consciousness, a different world altogether than the day-to-day world we become used to seeing in our waking hours. In some insomniacs, the same state that children inhabit can be achieved where the world of dreams meets the world of everyday waking. When this happens, something from the dream world, if strong enough, can break through to the waking world. The things born of our longing or hidden pain or deep desire can manifest themselves under certain circumstances.
 
When I was a boy I had a recurring dream. I think it started one night during a thunderstorm. Upon the window of my bedroom, shadows would be cast by the branches of our tree when the wind would blow. Lightning exploded outside my window, but in the flash I saw a figure, something unreal, something terrifying. I'm not sure if it was an episode of Scooby-Doo that conjured the Electricity Monster, or if it was the lightning I saw that later was manifested by what I saw in the cartoon, but it was a creature made of pure energy, a being of pure electricity that frightened me. The dream would proceed always in the same way. I would be in the living room of our home at night. As if on a line, I was carried inexorably down the hallway, into my room, and unavoidably under the bed. I would come face to face with the electricity monster. Terror would grip me tight and though I wrestled against the flow of this dream I could not escape it. This nightmare tormented me for many years, but eventually ended. I cannot say whether any event ended it, or whether it simply faded from my mind.

Many years later, as a man, I had the same dream. It began like all the others, in the living room of my childhood home, being dragged down the hall as if on a line, falling under the bed to face the creature. This time, it was different. This time, I was a grown man, who had faced many things, who had reckoned his fate, who accepted his mortality, who was afraid of nothing except harm to his own loved ones. I stood before the monster defiantly. I said to it, "I'm not a boy now. I am no longer afraid of you."

It replied to me, "That was the face I bore when you were a child. My True Face would have broken you. You are now ready to see my real countenance." It pulled back its face and revealed a cosmic horror beyond any words I could use to describe it. I felt cold into my bones and I was paralyzed with fear. I woke gasping for breath, shaking, covered in sweat, shaking in terror. I felt all the walls of security built by my adult life fall away like a castle of wooden blocks made by a child, knocked over.

That's terrifying. Do you know what the being looked like, just that you are unable to describe it, or do you just know how it made you feel? Or something else?

Perhaps a problem you had as a child has recurred now, sparking the dream? Dreams usually have reasons for occurring.

But then again, maybe some evil, unknowable being visited you. o_O
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
You know, talking about our most unnerving Dream Monsters can be very interesting.

One of my dreams from years ago is relevant in this aspect, but I am not sure if I have told you guys about it. I have already searched the entire Dreamscape Forum trying to find it, and so far it seems that I have not described it here so far.

Just tell me, have I told you about my Hungary Dream already or not?
 
You know, talking about our most unnerving Dream Monsters can be very interesting.

One of my dreams from years ago is relevant in this aspect, but I am not sure if I have told you guys about it. I have already searched the entire Dreamscape Forum trying to find it, and so far it seems that I have not described it here so far.

Just tell me, have I told you about my Hungary Dream already or not?

I don't think so.
 

Butterfly

Auror
You know, talking about our most unnerving Dream Monsters can be very interesting.

One of my dreams from years ago is relevant in this aspect, but I am not sure if I have told you guys about it. I have already searched the entire Dreamscape Forum trying to find it, and so far it seems that I have not described it here so far.

Just tell me, have I told you about my Hungary Dream already or not?

Don't think so. Do tell.
 
I actually believe that's a good possibility Dragon, even if the idea seems impossible to many others.

Dreams do have some sort of unexplainable mystical or supernatural qualities sometimes. There's a lot we don't know...and it seems far-fetched that ones brain would just make up something so terrifying...and articulate. I've never had anything like that happen. O_O
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Thank you for your personal interest, Dragon and Butterfly!

I have the Hungary Dream recorded in one of my Dream Journals here, but I do not remember exactly which and what date. That's why I am going to try and recall it as best as possible, and post it tonight in our excellent Nightmares thread.

It's an eerie dream but also it was very beautiful.

Dreams do have some sort of unexplainable mystical or supernatural qualities sometimes. There's a lot we don't know...and it seems far-fetched that ones brain would just make up something so terrifying...and articulate. I've never had anything like that happen. O_O

Totally agree Dragon, today I am still convinced that I actually visited the red castle of Princess Catalina.
 
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