Reinvent the way you dream.

Children are often plagued with nightmares, and many of us can recall a few repeating horrors from our youth. Perhaps because the world is new and therefore still strange in many ways, we perceive the confused jumble of daily input as menacing creatures or situations in our childhood dreams. For me, there was a monstrous American bison which would manifest first as a wall-shaking rumble before it would literally burst into a room, then proceed to trample and gore anyone in its path while I'd scramble for a hiding place. There was also a strange steam-engine which traveled on tracks which would automatically appear before it, then vanish from behind, allowing it to go anywhere as it also ran over anyone and anything which got in its way. There were numerous dreams of abandonment, which I've learned is not uncommon with children who were adopted. As I aged, pursuit dreams began to take over, and from age five to about age eighteen, I was frequently running from the KKK or mafia hitmen, which later became US soldiers and government agents at about age twenty.

Perhaps your first instinct is to attempt to discern just what your subconscious may be trying to tell you through the symbolism of dreams. Perhaps the bison and train represented my future, coming to change everything as I knew it forever. Dreams I had of sharks which could swim through soil as well as water represent my mother according to one dream book I have. Pursuit, they say, is just a desire for attention or to remain chaste. But whether you buy into the symbolism or not, what are you supposed to do about the nightmares you may still experience in the meantime?

You can train yourself to behave in certain ways in your sleep, in your dreams. I'm a very lucid dreamer--meaning I'm almost always aware that I am dreaming, thus I'm better prepared than many people to deal with the things I dream. I have some control. I once brought my level of control up to the point that I could dream whatever I wanted, altering dreams the moment I gained lucidity into the types of scenarios I thought I'd prefer. I quickly learned that this type of control is quite boring and no longer take control the way I used to...unless I sense a nightmare coming on.

You can train yourself to become more aware of your dreams simply by making an effort to remember and record your dreams. Some people claim that we dream almost all night long, experiencing hundreds of mini-fantasies while unconscious. I usually recall three to five decent dreams a night, though of course I sometimes experience dry-stretches where I can't really recall much of anything the way most people do. One way to become lucid is to actually rouse yourself from REMsleep, then allow yourself to lapse back into it again. This can be accomplished as simply as drinking a glass of water or milk before bed, or setting your alarm an hour or so early, shutting it off, then going back to sleep again. Something about this procedure allows better recall and better ability to gain control. Most of the dreams you will remember will have occurred during your last few hours of sleep, so interrupt yourself during this time in order to begin practicing dream-awareness.

I read years ago about experimenters who had taught lucid dreamers that we can ignore outside influences which would otherwise wake us if we spin in our dreams. That is, say a car backfires in the street or the phone rings while you're out cold. If you are lucid enough, start spinning in your dream. Do cartwheels or fly loop-de-loops or pirouette your way to greater dream stability. Perhaps it only works for me because I told myself it would, but hey--don't knock it if it works for you, too! Often, the spinning will allow me even greater control and an enhanced sense of dream-detail. I've also experienced this sort of lucidity while taking melatonin as a mild relaxant. Cold medicine tends to do the trick for me, too, though some medications can actually help induce nightmares, so be wary. And never experiment with medications without a doctor's okay first.

When I was in my teens, years after I'd last seen the bison, he abruptly burst upon my unconscious world again. I was lucid now, thus better prepared for him. I recall racing through a parking lot toward an old car and popping the trunk. I snatched a rifle from it and dodged behind a flagpole while the animal continued to charge me. In my pocket was a candy-coated green bean (hey--these are dreams after all!). I loaded it in the chamber, took aim while bracing myself against the flagpole, then nailed the animal through the skull as it returned for one last charge. Dropped him stone-cold. The last time I dreamt about bison, a domestic one allowed me to drape myself over his broad back and lay there peacefully as he grazed amongst his herd. Eddie:1 Nightmares:0.

The trains I see in my dreams now are the modern kind, and they remain on fixed lengths of track and harm no one. It seems to me the way my mind perceived them altered as my perception of reality matured.

I recall being chased down an alley one night and finding myself irked over it, so I actually rewound the dream like a videotape and started it from the beginning, confronting my pursuer this time instead of fleeing him. I had taken a job in TV, so watching tape getting edited was a common occurrence. This time I asked the shadowy figure what he wanted, and he didn't seem to know, so he just sort of shrugged and walked away from me. The dream continued from there without any more problems.

Confrontation has been my best weapon against nightmares. For a while, I was able to "freeze" the dream, then alter the whole scenario so I could dream something else entirely, but occasionally, the nightmare themes would still "leak through". That's when I began to toy with straight confrontation.

In a dream wherein corpses began to claw their way up from graves in a cemetery, I got that nightmare sensation...that inwardly cringing, almost paralyzing, heart-speeding sensation of extreme discomfort, and rather than flee (once the nightmare sensation hits, I lose my dream abilities to fly away and such) or try and change the scenery--knowing the nightmare could possibly recurr in altered dream surroundings--I reminded myself it was all my imagination and stalked toward the nearest rotting, staggering figure, grabbed her by the shoulders and planted a big wet one over that dried, maggot-filled, flaking mouth. I had to close my eyes to do it, and it wasn't a pleasant experience by any means, but when I released her and stood waiting for her reaction, she and the other animated corpses seemed at a total loss and just stood there, bits dropping off like corpsefetti, looking at each other as if to say, "Gee? What are we to do now?" The nightmare sensations abated completely, I went my merry way, and there were no more nightmares for the rest of that night.

I only bring this up because while I now seldom or rarely experience anything even remotely resembling a nightmare, last night I was walking through a hallway in a strange house when a long, snake-like, silvery smooth limb reached toward me from beneath a heavy cabinet I was passing and the nightmare sensations started. I steeled myself and grabbed the limb, tugging on it until I'd revealed a huge, gangly creature which looked part human, and part Weimaraner, standing well over seven feet tall. As I stood there waiting to see what it would do, its right eyeball burst and began to melt down its face. Aware I needed to nip the 'mare in the bud, I jerked the creature's head down toward me, then tongued the slimy eyesocket. It fell back against the wall when I released it, and I continued enjoying the rest of my dream nightmare-free.

Many of us experience dreams regarding loss of teeth or hair. These dreams are less common with me due to a very easy trick I picked up on early in life. When I dream my teeth are rotting or broken or falling out of my head, I immediately begin a regimine of thorough oral care. I brush more, I floss extra, I'll spring for a bottle of pre-brush tartar-softening chemical, go for the pricey brand of mouthwash. Instantly, the teeth dreams vanish. If my subconscious is trying to tell me something not really related to my teeth, then it will attempt to alert me again through some other dream theme. As you guessed, if I dream my scalp is scab-covered or I'm going bald, I just buy that really nice shampoo and conditioner I usually can't afford, try a little hot oil treatment, and voila! Same results. Better hygiene, no more freaky disfigurement dreams.

Because I've become so adept at thwarting nightmares, my mind has had to come up with more ingenious ways to frighten me. Why we have nightmares at all is a mystery--though I suspect it may be a primitive reaction to an external influence. I know when I'm cold, I dream of snow, and I'll wake enough to pull the covers over me. When I have to pee, I dream of toilets. A ringing phone is sometimes incorporated as a fire alarm. My mother once burst into my room while I was napping, and there I'd been at a very nice campground they'd erected at Jurassic Park, but (of course) a handful of velociraptors were loose, and one suddenly burst through the door of my cabin the exact moment Mom shoved open my bedroom door! (I don't consider that a nightmare--it was fun!) At a time when our ancestors still slept outdoors or in flimsy shelters, being awakened abruptly from deep sleep in the nick of time as trouble was approaching would be an excellent thing! Anyway, that's my current hypothesis, an' I'm stickin' to it.

As I mentioned, I'm not totally nightmare-free yet. They say that artists, possibly due to their heightened awareness of detail and advanced imaginative ability, tend to experience more nightmares than the rest of the general public. There are still times when I will experience nightmare-like symptoms with no knowledge of having had a nightmare at all, or while dreaming something else entirely. Is this a hormonal thing? A brain chemical mix-up? Something tells respiration to increase and speeds up the heart, and sometimes I will vocalize like a brain-damaged person, or speak coherently, or twitch or even sit up unexpectedly. This frightens the wife, who then wakes me automatically, thinking she's saving me from a nightmare, after which I'll explain to her that I was not having a nightmare or was perhaps dreaming nothing at all at the time. Recently, I walked up a flight of stairs and found a friendly, well-lit room on my right and unnaturally extreme blackness in the room to the left. Because the dark room made me nervous, I charged inside and stood there, unable to see or sense anything, feet apart, fists ready at my sides while I bellowed, "What do you want? Come get me! I'll take ya! Come on!" I was aware I was moving in the bed as I dreamt this and knew I was vocalizing, but what startled me when Em woke me was her insistence that I had been whimpering and moaning and mumbling, "No! God, noooo!!!" Is that freaky or what?

Thus, I've defeated the symptoms on the subconscious level, but not all of the physical ones so far. I'm making great progress, though, and still recommend lucidity training and the confrontation technique as a way to eliminate the bulk of nightmares you may have. If you're still troubled by frequent nightmares, please tell your doctor or speak with a professional analyst or counselor who is knowledgeable of dreams, dream therapy, and treatments. For more information on dreaming, please don't bother with those stupid "dream dictionaries", though I do recommend the one by Jo Jean Boushala which focuses on Jungian analysis, and the excellent book by Robert L. Van De Castle which gets quite technical and is not a dream dictionary at all. Techniques for lucid dreaming may be found in some Eastern philosophies and guides on meditation. Good luck with your nightly travels. I hope I've armed you against at least a few of the more frightening pitfalls.

Sweet dreams.
Love,
Eddie