Lucid dreams...

[Tom]

As for the soldier dream, i've heard of people who've had ancestors who lived through things like the Holocaust have flashbacks from their ancestor's experiences. I'm a scientific type and I can't think of any explanation, but trauma does, actually, alter/damage the genetic code and affect subsequent generations.

I've had several dreams, starting when I was about 4 or 5, where I'm flying above mountains in a plane with engines so loud they drown out any sound. As I look down, I see the skeletal wrecks of other planes strewn across the snow-covered ground below. The air is so thin that I'm struggling to breathe, and my heart is beating too fast and shallow in my ears.

The real kicker is that my grandfather served in the Army Air during WW2. He flew dozens of missions as part of a cargo squad over the Hump, or the "aluminum trail", a dangerous route through the Himalayas named for the wrecked planes along it. He had had polio as a kid, which had weakened his heart; the Army Air didn't know this the entire time he served. He died of heart failure before I was born, and no one told me about his time in the service until I was about 9. But for years before I knew, I'd been having dreams that seemed like flashes of his memory. I've never been able to figure out how it happened.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I've had several dreams, starting when I was about 4 or 5, where I'm flying above mountains in a plane with engines so loud they drown out any sound. As I look down, I see the skeletal wrecks of other planes strewn across the snow-covered ground below. The air is so thin that I'm struggling to breathe, and my heart is beating too fast and shallow in my ears.

The real kicker is that my grandfather served in the Army Air during WW2. He flew dozens of missions as part of a cargo squad over the Hump, or the "aluminum trail", a dangerous route through the Himalayas named for the wrecked planes along it. He had had polio as a kid, which had weakened his heart; the Army Air didn't know this the entire time he served. He died of heart failure before I was born, and no one told me about his time in the service until I was about 9. But for years before I knew, I'd been having dreams that seemed like flashes of his memory. I've never been able to figure out how it happened.

Wow, that's really fascinating...

 

[Tom]

Wow, that's really fascinating...

It's freaky. I'm glad they've stopped happening because I'd wake up from them in a cold sweat.

 

[CelestialAeon]

I've experienced a few lucid dreams without practicing, however all of them have ended really fast because of lack of discipline and knowledge. I've every once in a while tried to dabble with dream journals and reality checks, but so far haven't really managed to "make it stick". Concentration has waned after a few weeks. Have to see if I'd have more self control nowadays. Have thought of getting one of those kickstarter lucid dreaming gadgets that give you light effects when you are in REM.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I've been lucid dreaming lately. It's been cool. I had one dream where i was standing in a city square at night and thought "wonder if i can fly" so i swooped up into the air and flew. Another where i was fleeing pursuers on horseback and i gave my horse wings to escape.

 

[LWFlouisa]

This is going to sound strange, but knowing I'm in a dream has never been difficult. It's figuring out how to wake up from a very realistic dream. And I always wake up still very tired.

This is why my stories used to refer to dreams bleeding into reality, and reality bleeding into dreams. The world in slow motion, like visual haiku.

I explore concepts like, like being born in the wrong time period. Which later evolved into "Historical Futurism", where a MC is reincarnated into the 21st century, from an untimely demise in their previous life. Usually involving figures like Charlotte Corday, Catherine Howard, and so forth.

It's distinct from Steampunk, in that this reincarnation is the only anacronistic element.

Such "21st century Charlottes" inherit a phobia do to this previous demise in their previous lifetime.

It follows closely to my own "inverse Buddhism" philosophy.