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Suicide

Suicidal figures and suicidal urges in dreams... As you'll see, even suicide can, in the dreamworld, sometimes be positive. A part of you may choose to die so that its energy can reincarnate in a healthier form.

On the other hand, suicidal dreams could just mean you're desperately miserable. Then you have to change or die. Not a fun message, but it's been evolution's song for four billion years. "Change or die"--I don't think it's gonna slide off the big pop chart.

My point is that suicide in dreams is more a wake-up call than a message of despair. So wake up. Wake up in your dreams (lucid dreaming is a good place to negotiate with suicidal urges, since, after all, it's the one place where your suicidal side can safely act out till it's purged the urge and feels ready to move on to something more constructive!)... and wake up in your so-called life.

RELATED TOPICS: dying in dreams - abiku: the death wish, or more properly, the longing for the spirit world - the dead return - anorexia - addiction and 12-step programs - abuse and healing from abuse - guilt - lucid dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ABORTION, SUICIDE, REBIRTH: by Christine Downing; 1974, a suicide dream preventing a suicide!
I was pregnant with a child not my husband's. I wanted to leave him, but not to join my lover;
I was done defining myself through men. Nor did I want the child. I got a knitting needle, and...
CAUTION: READ THE TITLE!
ANNE SEXTON: by J.D. McClatchy; 1974/10/4, a predictive dream.
I dreamt my friend Anne Sexton's death was on the news.
I woke, the phone rang, and I learned she'd...
CAUTION: SUICIDE
BUT I WANT TO LIVE!: by Wayan; 1995/8/5, a life-altering dream.
My job's to clarify people's deepest wishes. But when I meet two women who truly want to die...
CAUTION: SUICIDAL IMPULSES
CRYPTOMNESIC TROLLEY: by Wayan; 1991/4/22, a lucid dream of a suicidal experiment.
To prove I really am lucid-dreaming, I let a streetcar run me over. Mm, crunchy! Then I find out...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT OM...
CRYSTAL AND GUNSEL: by Wayan; 1997/7/2, a nightmare--psychic or not?
Gunsel kills my friend Crystal in a flaming aircar crash. But that's not enough--he comes back, and...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
A DART IN HER CHEST: by Wayan; 1984/8/21, a predictive dream
A woman loses patience with sexual harassment in an Air Force training program, and
stages a die-in. But why's she wrapped in an orange towel, why a dart in her chest?
CAUTION: TROUBLING REAL-WORLD AFTERMATH
DISEASE OF THE HEART: by Virginia Woolf; 1929/11/2, a false diagnostic dream--or is it?
I dream I have just six months to live. I go through a dozen phases and moods, preparing for death...
DIPSOMANIA: by Dick in L.A.; pre-1961, a suicide-preventing ghost/voice
I couldn't find Mrs. B and feared she was suicidal. But I heard my late mother say "She's in that hotel..."
DOG THIRST: by Cecy and Wayan; 1991/10/7, shared or telepathic dreamlets
CECY: In a desert, a thirsty dog jumps out of a tree--the first known dog suicide...
WAYAN: I'm a talking dog. Our owner denies us enough water, so we protest...
DON'T DO THAT, MARION: by Marion; 1947, a two-way telepathic intervention?
I planned suicide. Then my friend 1000 miles away said in my ear "Don't do that, Marion." Next day an airmail...
SUICIDAL NARRATOR
DOUBLE FUNERAL: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a nightmare on the First Gulf War?
Two kids I grew up with are dead. We carry their still-smoking corpses by the home of George Bush...
CAUTION: BURNT BODIES
DREAMING TO SURVIVE: by Christoph Gassmann, 2001/8/13 & 2003/9/2: two lifesaving dreams
A spot on my elbow triggers a dream of being in a suicide clinic, getting the injection, starting to die. Yet
for two years, I put off having that spot checked! Only after a second warning dream do I go in to find...
ELIZABETH'S SOLE ESCAPE: by Wayan, 2017/7/29, a genderbent nightmare on... genes?
I'm Queen Elizabeth I, but I made a mistake--focused too much on art and culture.
Now, plotters who I overlooked smash in my bedroom door. I snatch a vial of poison...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE REFLECTS REALITY
EMADRO: by Wayan; 1983/6/4, a wild dream on clinging--and letting go.
An elephant sinks in the North Sea, and the Oracle Mink says a wizard did it. Can old Lady Gandalf help?
GHOSTS PUSH TOWARD THE SUICIDE DOOR: by Wayan, 1997/8/7, a nightmare that wants a break.
I live in a haunted house where ghosts push you to suicide. But they're as tired of it as I am...
THE GREAT PEACE: by George Antheil; early 1922; two predictive dreams that change a pianist's life
I dream it's after a great war; I hear the music I must write, and meet the girl I must marry...
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...
HITCHCOCK BIRD: by Wayan, 1982/9/8, a shamanic little predictive dream
I'm trapped in a Hitchcock thriller. Then one suicidal gunman turns into a songbird!
Next day at lunch a bird acts crazy. Over the next year, I do change from human to...
CAUTION: SUICIDAL BIRD
HOLY ZEN MONK: by Wayan; 1978/4/24, a dream of suicide as political protest
I'm a Zen monk riddled with holes from a weird disease the government denies
is real. So as a protest, I stand naked atop a wall and let the air-sharks take me...
CAUTION: SURREAL SUICIDE
HONESTY THE WITCH: by Wayan; 1974/6/1, a flying dream.
A witch advocates honesty, but kids mock her; one boy tries to rape her. We fight mid-air, riding her broom...
CAUTION: RAPE ATTEMPT
I AM A BIRD by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of another life... well, two.
I live as a small falcon, glad I'm no longer human. But when that life ends...
THE ILL-FORMED TALE: by Wayan; 160K, 1981/4/7, a wild dream anti-epic.
To reach the Peak of Happiness on the Isle of Dreams, I must pass four Perils--but they're all backwards...
CAUTION: RELIGIOUS NUTS, KNIVES, NUDE ALIENS, BACKWARD PLOT...
IMMOLATION MAZE: by Richard Turner; 1973, a nightmare expanded into both sculpture & story
Saigon, 1973. Lost in a fabric maze. I find, wearing Buddhist robes, the skeleton of a dog.
Years later I write of Buddhist monks burning themselves, and build an ominous maze...
CAUTION: SUICIDES BY FIRE
IN IO: by Wayan, 1981/8/7, a wild otherworldly dream with 3 illustrations.
I live on Io. It's nicer than its photos. At least inside, where the oceans are--where I grow a second head...
JIM'S POWDER: by Helen; pre-1961, a telepathic warning dream
I dreamt I was begging Jim not to kill himself, but when I woke, I couldn't bring myself to call. I hardly knew him...
CAUTION: GUILT OVER (PREVENTABLE?) DEATH
KITTY WANTS TO DIE: by Wayan; 1981/11/9, a nightmare baring a side of me ready to DIE to avoid stuff
Kitty, exhausted, stops fighting what's inside her, and lets herself die.
Crystalline alien worms burst out, growing till they loom over the spaceport...
CAUTION: ADDICTION ROOTED IN AVOIDANCE
THE LONGING TO BE SAVED: by Maxine Kumin; 1980? a poem based on recurring nightmares
I save our horses from a fire, but they run back in. Then it's
my family I must save from themselves. At last, it's my turn...
THE MÖBIUS STRIP OF GRIEF: by Ruth Stone, 2004-2008; a dream poem
You say you're leaving me. I go to grab an ice pick to stab you, but my hand
freezes to the ice block on the stair--I dare not even dream of murder. Since...
CAUTION: RESPONSE TO SPOUSAL SUICIDE
MONK: by Anonymous #2323; 1945-1991 (at least); a recurrent dream of a past life
All my life, from age three or four, I've dreamed of being a young monk named Stefan
somewhere in southern Europe. And aspects of his short life have shaped my own...
CAUTION: SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
THE MOUNTAIN, THE MAGPIE AND THE ROAD: dreamed 2013/3/26 by Rustling Leaves; epic nightmare
I visit a beautiful artificial mountain with loved ones--but my demons overwhelm me one by one.
CAUTION: SUICIDAL FEELINGS, BODY HATE/FATPHOBIA, IMPLIED RAPE
MUNCH'S BLUFF: by Wayan; 11x14", 1983. Nondream erasable crayon
A sea-scape somewhat in the style of Edvard Munch: midnight-sun madness with a hint of suicide...
NEW LIFE: by Deena Metzger, between Sept. 1982 & Sept. 83, an apocalyptic dream
Nuclear holocaust. Outside, an ashen waste. I decide to cut my wrists in the tub. But a corpse already fills it.
A man drives up. A voice commands "Make a child!" I protest--the world's gone--but the voice says...
NIGHT FLIGHT: by Catherine as told to Wayan; c. 1962, a recurrent childhood flying dream.
My friend Catherine dreamed she was a flying mare with golden hooves. But in real life, she lost them...
ON BEING NEEDY/NEEDED: by Roswila; February 2002, a dream-poem
In her kitchen she offers me shortcake. She's short herself, for she gives away all
to everyone--only her bodiless head is left...
THE OUTER LIMITS: by Marianne A.; 1988/3/13, a dream that lucidly intervenes in itself!
I'm trapped in the scary show The Outer Limits. A man scolds me: "You think not, but you MATTER!"
I try suicide rather than face my worth! But my dream fences off the river, forcing me to confront...
CAUTION: SUICIDE ATTEMPT
PANIC ATTACK IN MY SLEEP; 2012/1/11 by Rainier Mathee; a nightmare on every level
No work, no friends, no lover. People power-drill their own skulls. My uncle's going insane. And when I call 911...
CAUTION: BLEAK
PAUL PULLS THE TRIGGER: by Paul Sharits, 1969/12/16, a dream of a replayed, amplified suicide
I see myself shoot myself. Director-me decides this isn't dramatic enough to wow audience-me, so
actor-me tries again, firing half a dozen times! Maybe suicidal imagery is how I realize no-self...
CAUTION: SEVEN BULLETS IN THE HEAD
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: SEXIST BLINDNESS TO VIOLENCE
RECONCILIATION: by Martha Sherwood; 2003/6/19, a dream-parable
Even after the Resurrection, a mother and daughter still have issues to clean up...
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
SEVERED HEAD: by Dr. Walter Prince, 1917/11/27, a detailed predictive nightmare
DREAM: a thirtyish blonde says her death is ordered. Her head's cut off. But it won't die--bites his hand!
Dr. Prince feels the dream shouts "premonition!" and writes an account at the Society for Psychical Research.
Next night, a thirtyish blonde nearby commits suicide, leaving a note saying her severed head will live on...
CAUTION: CREEPY DREAM, CREEPIER NEWS
SHOOT THE MIRROR!: by Sir Oliver Lodge; 1927/10/15, a dream of stagy twists
A man frames his big brother, til their sister makes him shoot his own reflection. Neither one expects...
SOCK PUPPETS OF THE GODS: by Dee and Wayan; 1994/4/14. Parallel shamanic dreams!
I dream I'm suicidal; but I'm saved when I'm shown the flow of human development--the same pattern,
from souls to civilizations! Eddies and knots recur, but the challenges slowly get more spiritual.
NEXT DAY: I learn what my shaman-friend Dee just dreamed. And now I'm unsure whose dream this is...
CAUTION: IDEAS
SUDDEN DEATH: by Cory; 2008/3/1 to 2008/3/14, a series of dreams on a friend’s suicide.
I’ve had premonitory dreams of friends’ deaths, but never ones clear enough to spur action...
THE SUICIDE TRACK: by Wayan; 2023/2/25, a disturbing non-nightmare
My clinic's euthanasia program is so warm and cuddly I barely notice I'm drifting toward death
til I reach the final form... and it's in Russian. They think I'm a refugee! Don't know me at all...
CAUTION: FLAMES ANTI-ABORTION AND HEALTHCARE IDEOLOGIES
TO KEEP HIM COMPANY: by Robert Southey; 1806/1/23; a Wertheresque suicide dream-comedy
My German friend resolved to commit suicide, so I agreed to poison myself to keep him company...
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
THE TYRANT'S WIFE: by Wayan; 1980/6/9, a dreamtale.
In our plot to kill the Tyrant, we used his wife. Or... did she use us? She goes mad, but--she's HAPPY...
VIRGINIA'S TRAIN: by Emily Joy; 2005/9/24, a psychic dream and poem
We lose control of our new time machine, which seems to have its own agenda...
CAUTION: CONTEMPLATION OF SUICIDE, CHRONOLOGICALLY IMPAIRED DREAMER
THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic.
Half-mad with fear, I massacre a cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle.
Then I'm a cultist, resisting the Voice of God pushing all us mortals to murder in His name.
I woke up haunted, and wondered for weeks what this was about... until the Waco Massacre.
CAUTION: CREEPY VIOLENCE, CREEPY GOD, CREEPY PREDICTION
VOLITION ON THE BRINK: by Dr William Hammond, c.1867.
I'm on a mesa, looking down in terror. I try to pull back but a compulsion
overrides my will--I crawl helplessly forward until I go over. As I fall...
CAUTION: PRE-FREUDIAN DISMISSAL OF WARNING
WAITING FOR PIGFALL: by Wayan; 1979/10/31, a puzzling Halloween dream.
The messiah of a suicide cult prepares to ritually sacrifice me. Then a miracle occurs! But... whose?
WEREWOLF PARADOX: by Garvin Jabusch, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; an ironic nightmare
I must outrun the rising moon so I don't turn into a wolf and
kill my friends, but only a werewolf is swift enough to...
YES, YOU CAN DIE IN A DREAM; 1998/12/12 by Anonymous #37; a nightmare
I was fatally wounded in a Star Wars battle, so I shot myself in the head.
For a solid minute, there was nothing but blackness...


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