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Falling dreams

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A number of dreamworkers and researchers say that falling dreams, even nightmarish ones, may be precursors to flying dreams. I'm not sure this is universal, but if you've been having a lot of falling nightmares, it's worth a try--push things along a bit! Ask your dreams, just before sleeping, for even more falling dreams, and tell yourself you'll fly in them. It's worked for me.

Though, I admit, I don't mind an occasional falling dream anyway. In my dreams, they often seem to bring, or predict, big revelations... Worth a little shock. Even if you hit the ground and die, so what? Dream-death is quite educational.

On the other hand, some falling dreams are literal warnings of real dangers--everything from weak railings to less physical support systems--jobs, lovers, jets, investments, nations--that your dreams think may soon fall apart. If you have plausible falling dreams, or recurring dreams of falling in similar circumstances, better look hard at those circumstances. Not all fears should be mastered. Sometimes loose railings need fixing, loose leaders need supervision, loose impulses need self-control...

RELATED TOPICS: death in dreams - flying dreams - nightmares - dream advice - psychic dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ANTI-LUCID FLIGHT: by Wayan, 2016/8/30, a friendly nightmare begging me to go lucid. Do I listen?
I fear falling? The drop increases. Want a softer surface? The rocks turn to dirt, then water.
Want help? Here comes a flying dolphin. Oh, but I'm not dreaming...
BALLOON DIVE: by Wayan; 2007/6/17, a nightmare saying I made the least bad choice
A boy leaps from a runaway balloon, falls 100' into a pond, and floats face-down.
I'm sure he's dead, but when a woman fishes him out...
BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death.
Helping out talking animals until I'm exhausted, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
CABIN IN THE SKY: by Wayan; 2005/7/25, a nervous, guilty dreamlet of escape
Bart Simpson leads me down from the Cabin in the Sky back to being... grounded?
CATFISH RESCUE: by Nick Munford, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream of shamanic kindness
I run away. A car nearly hits me and I fall into the lake. But
a kindly catfish drags me to an underwater phone booth...
CHASM by Nancy Price; 1948, a telepathic nightmare.
The scenery's so lovely my mother walks off a cliff! As I wake, a neighbor falls out a high window...
CHEAPSHIP!: by Wayan; 1996/8/6, a nightmare on my own stinginess.
I'm a crewman on a ship that's falling apart, and I do mean that literally...
CHOREOGRAPHY: by Wayan; 2006/9/7, a nightmare of murder in plain sight.
At a beach, a mob of kids stage an intricate practical joke full of coordinated “accidents.” How many of the jokers knew the end was death?
CAUTION: MALICE
THE COMING DARK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/3/2; a dream on one disaster averted, and one... not.
I climb down a cliff before night strands me; but in town, risky adolescent games cause a crash...
COMING TO THE JUMPING OFF PLACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 92/5/1, painting of an escape dream
Trapped on an island, spied on and controlled, we decide to jump off
a cliff and die; but as we jump, a spirit sneaks us off be reborn...
THE CONDEMNATION: by Georges Perec; Feb. 1972, a dream of cults, persecution, and timeslip. Dream #105
I'm on vacation, but cultists lick my feet--then turn on me, casting stones. But they miss.
So I wander the steppe for centuries, until I come to the City of Texas...
"CRY, BABY!": by Wayan, 1985/8/17, dream-farce with a warning.
The only man in the Miss America Japanese Tea Ceremony Swimsuit Pageant, I learn a tearful lesson...
CAUTION: DYSFUNCTIONAL FLIRTING
CYCLONE REPAIR: by Anonymous #36; pre-1961, a forgotten warning dream
Months ago, I dreamed of that exact wall--I fell and was hurt. So today I told my foreman
I'd rather work on the ground. But by 11, I forgot. I climbed up to nail in some blocks...
A DIFFICULT PATH: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/11/3, an advisory dream.
I lead my daughter up a thorny path; she’s getting scratched. She'd rather stay in that fishing village below...
DON'T GET UPSET: by Wayan; 1996/4/10; a warning-nightmare comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text)
A mob chases me chanting "Lyin' Wayan!" I get dizzy, fall off a bridge, and wake. Then comes REAL trouble!
CAUTION: FATAL FALL
DREAMKU, JANUARY 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to January 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku
A month of dreams full of science fiction: galactic navigation, spacedragons, oppressed fairies, alien love...
ELF RANGERS? NO WAY!: by Wayan; 1995/3/25, a dream on repression.
A logging war in the northern forests is confused by subjective realities. Am I sure what I see is real?
FAKE IT!: by Electra Johannes and Patagia; 2007/9/22 and 2007/9/23, linked dreams.
Patagia dreams she fakes a Hindu rite, causing Electra to dream she fakes leadership in a refugee band. But are they faking?
FALL AT THE RIGHT SIZE: by Wayan; 2018/7/14, a dream shape-poem on a lifesaving indecision.
I fall off a tower, but I can change size. Tiny things fall slower, but they also tempt the local falcons!
Be big & hit hard, or tiny & be eaten? There's a third choice, but I sorta fell into it...
FALL FROM A STAR: by Edwin Muir; 1920, a hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Escaping the tiny red plush room inside a star, I dive back to earth. Oops. A beast eats my broken body. My soul waits...
FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity
I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me...
THE FEARFUL INSECT by Nancy Price; 1948, an episodic circular nightmare unified by a leitmotif
A bug with a horse-skull face reappears all through this nightmare of betrayal. I only know I feared it...
FOR THE FIRST TIME: by Jack Kerouac, Nov? 1954, a lucid dream of escaping a rut
I've climbed a cliff and cower on the brink; but for for the first time I need not
fall or retrace my dangerous path down. I know I'm dreaming, and wake...
HEADING FOR A FALL: by Wayan; 1993/11/2, a dream of drastic shortcuts.
I crash my car on the way to therapy. I ask my dream why. And it tells me! Deliberate, but not suicidal...
HELL HALL: by Anonymous #3; c.1920?, a dream of initiatory cannibalism
A revival meeting goes bad--suicides, 'long pig', a hell-pit. If you sup with the devil, carry a long fork!
I DIDN’T DIVE IN: by Herbert Read; before 1938, a dream-poem experiment.
I watched her dive into the lake... and fail to come up. Her golden cloak
floated on the water. I hesitated just a moment, and...
JUMP OVERBOARD: by Graham Greene; 1925/12/11, a possibly psychic nightmare.
Wednesday night I dreamed I had to jump overboard... that night there was a wreck
off the Yorkshire coast in a storm and the captain ordered his men to jump into the sea...
LAURA: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/10/24; painting in the Box of Dreams
As we climb down the steep mountainside, clutching bushes to keep from falling,
I ask Laura "Do you want another child?"
LET GO THE SAFE: by Wayan; 2014/2/6; poem of a lucid flying dream
I'm pushing a safe off a roof in Berkeley so it won't be pushed off the roof
(yep, you read that right) but it pulls me with it! Either die, or go lucid and fly...
LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Edwin Muir; 1920, an epic hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Creatures in the primal sea touch my third eye, dragons cry their eyes out, I fight the Sphinx, and arrive at last in...
MARTHA'S FALL: by Barbara, Martha, and Wayan; 1977/5/18. 3 linked warning, sex, and flying dreams
Wayan makes love to Martha's double, then sees her soul watching from the shadows...
Barbara can't reach Wayan to say farewell...
Martha falls off a mountain and decides to let herself die, just to see what happens...
CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
MARTIAN TIME-LOOP: by Wayan; 1994/5/2, a dream of the future shaping the past.
I'm a small boy in a ship docking in Mars Orbital Station. I meet a strange man: myself as an adult! Uh-oh...
MEOPHAM AIR DISASTER: by G.H.M. Holms; 1930/7/18, a surreal predictive dream
Suddenly, out of the clouds, a man came shooting down, head first, at a terrific pace. He landed on his head with a sickening...
CAUTION: GRISLY
THE MIX-UP: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, an early comic dream of human-induced climate change
Tibetan prayers for good weather are answered too well. Heat wave! Tourists fly in, but planes can't land--
melting glaciers flood the airstrips. So tourists eager to sunbathe in Tibet strap on parachutes, prepare to jump...
THE MOUSE BANNER: by Wayan; 1986/9/4, a dream fable.
I'm a mouse with a protest banner saying "FREEDOM!", having a slight argument with a cat...
MY DREAM NIGHTJOB: by Jack Kerouac, late 1956 or early '57, an outa-the-mouths-of-babes dream.
I commute to my dreamjob on a four-story bus; then my baby brother
(who I wouldn't let eat any chocolate pudding) utters a new poem by William Blake...
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream.
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when
our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
THE NEPALESE DROP: by Wayan; 2000/4/20, a predictive nightmare.
I climb a crumbling slope to a cliff with a Himalayan view; I slip, and no one lifts a hand to help as I...
NINA'S RING: by Nina's clown, 1955/4/20, a lifesaving intuition
While rehearsing our circus act I mentally saw Nina's ladder breaking loose.
Next day, a supporting ring snapped. Being forewarned, I pulled hard...
THE ONION: by Sunshine; 2015/3/16, a magical dream voyage
My love and I steal the only onion in the world! To make our getaway we sail off the edge of the earth...
ORCA TOWS: by Wayan; 1984/5/25, a dream with impact.
I show an Ohio friend the latest California sport. But
we haven't quite worked out how to land just yet...
PINKIE CLEANS THE WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION:
by Wayan; 2017/2/5, an advisory dream fusing Aldous Huxley & My Little Pony.
My new housemate Pinkie is a party animal, but she's really nice.
Pinkie climbs a high ladder to help wash my Windows of Perception...
Then our unicorn friend Rarity walks in. She warns me to pace this renovation project...
CAUTION: PONIES
POLE OF THE EMPIRE STATE: by Wayan; 2002/3/26, a 9/11 nightmare about... suspension?
I find myself clinging to a pole as tall as the Empire State Building. Can I slide down
without falling? Or burning from friction? And... what's down there?
PRESIDENTIAL TACO: by Robert Adams, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream farce
I botched President Clinton's taco. And on the way home, I fell in the river.
Luckily, Jesse Jackson happened by and pulled me out, restoring my faith in...
RAIN OF PLATONIC IDEALS: by Wayan; 2015/1/20, an absurd dream image done as a short poem
Strange beings from the realm of Platonic Ideals rain down like meteors on San Francisco.
I work as a tour guide, teaching the newbies not to step in front of a bus...
CAUTION: CRUSHED IDEALS
RAIN OF WOMEN: by Wayan; 1999/6/11, a warning nightmare.
Women rain out of the sky. People shrug "Suicides." I don't believe it--and what if one falls on me?
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
RORAIMA JUMP: by Wayan; dreamed 2016/9/18, a surreal dream of deadly outrage
I'm a Brazilian in the Olympic waterfall-jumping finals. The Russian & American cheat--threaten my family.
I snap! Fight recklessly, knocking them off their ropes. We all tumble down the cliff...
CAUTION: BULLYING, VIOLENT REVENGE
RUNNING BIRD: by Alder; 1953, a kinetic nightmare with double selves.
I'm a flightless bird hopping down a line of marble columns rising from the sea, as they topple behind me...
SEPTIC: by Steve (age 6), pre-1961, a recurring predictive nightmare
For three weeks he wakened screaming in fright; he said he "fell in a hole." Then, one snowy day...
SHOVED OFF A CLIFF: by Wayan; 2017/9/7, a nightmare-warning (I'd asked what to do next).
Atop a sea-cliff, I meet a young couple in love. One look at me and they
push me off! When I see I can't save myself, I try to take them with me...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE BARING UGLY TRUTHS
SNOW STALLION: by Wayan; 1994/6/4, a tangled political/spiritual dream.
I'm a peace terrorist trapped in Squaw Valley, herded like a mare by a huge stallion made of snow...
And then the dream shifts. I blurt out the truth behind our idiotic waking world! And wake believing it...
CAUTION: MERMAID AND HORSE NUDITY
SPECKLED EGGS: by Starvibes; 2008/6/16, a dream of intrigue.
I dreamed of speckled eggs, Caribbean drug traffickers and of
almost drowning near a sinking boat...
SPIRAL LAUGHTER: by Alder; 1953, a child's feverdream
The world is a whirlpool, a black and white spiral pulling me down toward a black hole, and it’s laughing...
SURVIVOR'S CURIOUS: by Wayan; 2010/7/7, a dream of an inner guard relaxing
As we cross a scary ledge, my tough survival-guide, always no-nonsense before,
finally willing to consider... intellectualism, dating, ethics... fun?
TINA FEY TRIES TO FLY: by Wayan; 2017/4/24, a mystical feminist farce of a dream
In a world where speech is in Mayan glyphs, comedian Tina Fey (dressed for prom night)
climbs a Tibetan peak to learn levitation. But the flying monks are scared of women...
CAUTION: COOTIES; ROWDY JESUS; MAY FLUNK THE BECHDEL TEST
TO GET DOWN FROM OUR APARTMENT: by Jack Kerouac, ca. Halloween 1957, a telepathic nightmare?
My mom had to climb a ladder down the side of the Empire State Building; I'm told she fell and died...
TOO MUCH TO BEAR: by Wayan; 1997/4/28, an alt-world 10p. dream comic or text w/pics
I dreamed that huge nouveau-riche polar bears invaded San Francisco, evicting us locals...
CAUTION: CORRUPTION, URSACIDE, MATH!
TRUE LOVE = CHOICE! by Ms. Mira; Jan. 2008, a dream-lesson on compassion and free will.
I'm on an alien world inside the minds of two women and a child struggling with moral choices in a civil war...
CAUTION: DEATH, LOSS
VULTURE PEOPLE: by Jack Kerouac, 1962, a gross-out nightmare--and a warning?
The vulture people are fucking in the city dump. I end up their guest, given putrid food
in their cold stinking house of rancid grease. I'll become a vulture too...
CAUTION: UGH!
WILD W.I.L.D.: by Dream Junkee; 2008/1/19, an epic lucid frustration dream?
I'm lucid but paralyzed. A weird child spies on me; is she controlling me?
Then I'm having sex--but if I come, I'll wake up! Then some thugs jump me.
I make sure they won't bother me again, but... is everyone in this dream out to distract me?
CAUTION: SEX, MUGGER-STOMPING


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