[MandaMay]

for as long as I can remember, I have had this dream, in which how ever old I am at the time of the dream is how old I am in the dream, but I move through life, present and past on an elevator going up and down, each "Floor" is a moment of one life or another I have lived, or supposed to have lived. One floor I am a little girl again reliving the time my dad was teaching me how to count (I was about 4) and no matter how many time he tried I would skip over the number 7..... then I would get back on the elevator and move to another floor, where I was an old man working a farm and watching my cattle across the back 40..... on the elevator and I was a princess in King Henrys court, and off to another floor, I never step off the elevator, just watch as the doors open and relive that event... some times the memory makes me smile, other times I wake up people in my house screaming... I have not had this dream in a while but I had it again this morning. I dont really believe in "past lives" but when I have this dream it makes me wonder if we are "recycled" spirits sometimes...

[medkev13]

Scientific documentation of children under the age of 7 has given serious weight to the legitimacy of past lives. I say 7 because the same studies that have documented the past life dreams have also reported them dwindling out at around the age of 7.

But I know you irl, and I've seen something you forget to include in this equation...something I've not seen termed, so I have basically given it my own name of "dream regression". Much like memory regression in hypnosis, dream regression does the same thing, except that the altered state is achieved through your sleeping pattern instead of a dangling pocket watch or a pen light.

I think a LOT of this dream in particular has to do with your latent ability to dream regress...and might actually relate to the fact that you bounce around different characters in your dream, picking and choosing what to alter and what not to. Almost like being lucid, but without having TOTAL control over the scape. As for the past life floors on this elevator... well that's got its own twist.

Fact :: The human brain treats memories as if they were actively occuring events (the reaction you had when you lost your dog years ago is the same physio-neuro-logical reaction you'd have today when remembering it). This being the case, our brains treat our dreams like every other memory. Ergo, dreams are treated like memories, which are treated like present events...so dreams are active events. Any time you have the same dreamscape occur, the same symbols will tend to rise up (the recurring animus, a fire that keeps growing from one dream to another, the same elevator each time, etc). Your past life memories are still in the elevator because they are treated like any other memory within the elevator scene.

Bottom line. Could be past lives. Probably also is just your brain regressing over past memories. Remains consistent because it's all treated as a giant memory.

[MandaMay]

Yes, but knowing me, and the meds I am on and Knowing I do not "dream" like a "normal" person, what does it mean... does it mean I can not let go of the past (dauh we have had this in one of our late night discussions) or why cant I let go of this dream, knowing it disturbs me so much....

[medkev13]

Door #2.

Some things go beyond whether you dream "normal" or not.

[BlueInanna]

Originally Posted by MandaMay

I dont really believe in "past lives" but when I have this dream it makes me wonder if we are "recycled" spirits sometimes...

I think so. Thanks for sharing your dream. I know it sucks when you wake up screaming and scared, etc. But I think it serves some sort of purpose to maybe get some old energy un-stuck.

I've had 2 "bad" past life dreams that left me panicked. The first one involved me dying and my son was there - I told him to run. I woke up crying couldn't breath, couldn't stop crying for about an hour. About 3 years later in rl when my son was 3, he woke up next to me looking shocked, put his hand on my cheek and he'd had the same dream, described the same exact scene and events. It was kind of cool though that I'd already had the dream/memory and knew what to say to console him, so he didn't have to be as traumatized and confused as when I had the dream. Or... maybe he was just 3 and more in touch with the past lives, more resilient..

It would be awesome if you could learn to lucidly control this elevator, and take a tour of your history without it being horribly painful, like choose when to just say, "ok next floor please, I don't like this one" staying somewhat detached from what you observe.