Survey

[quesarah]

A couple days ago stevienicks321 posted about dream space, specifically about recognizing a place in her dream. It's not a matter of recognizing a location from waking life, but a matter of "visiting" a particular place often while dreaming. This was my reply to her, with a little more detail added:

I have places I always go when I dream. I don't know if it's all one big city or different places. But when I'm stressed, there's sort of a ghetto-inner city area I wander around. There's a university where I spend time going to lectures and such, a nice funky downtown with really cool cafes and an arty-bohemian flavor, and a seaport area that's really pretty and quaint with cobblestone streets and lots of ivy-- the streets are old and narrow, and you have to park your car and walk.

It's sea-side and sometimes I just drive along the coast.

What about you? Do you have regular haunts in your dreams, is every place a new one, or do you not remember?

Comments

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

There have been many times I've dreamed of a place, then in real life ended up somewhere that looks just like it. However, it never *is* the same place--I'll explain.

I remember this vivid dream of visiting a "Christmas Village" type thing. The same circle-drive-around area and surrounding condos looks JUST like my in-laws' neighborhood they recently moved into. Weird.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I have a favorite cousin -- she's one of my favorite people period. When she was in high school, she used to travel a lot for music festivals etc. and would randomly call us to say "Hi i'm in town. Want to get together?" I was never surprised when she called, because 1-2 days before I'd always dream about bumping into her.

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

my dreams tend to feature places that i know - even if they are meant to be somewhere else...
an example dream i had last night, which could also serve to show that i spend entirely too much time on LJ...
i went to spend the weekend with some LJ peeps in san diego (which is actually just outside toronto!!) - i was unpacking my bag, and realised that id forgotten my socks, so i went outside, walked up the hill to my house, and got a pair - then went to the airport, got another flight back to san diego, and back to the house...
funnily enough, this house was next door to the scuba shop where i get the bus to manchester.
no, seriously - out in the real world, there is a random scuba diving shop just down the road from me, even though there isnt anywhere to practice the sport!!
but yeah - like i say, san diego apparently looks like the bottom of my hill

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

*lol* Now I know what the bottom of your hill looks like! I sometimes have that phenomenon, where several places end up adjacent to each other. Cuts down on travel time, which I like. ;)

Have I mentioned how much I like the Grover icon?

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

nope - but then, youre not the first person to mention it.
and my dancing does bear a surprising resmeblance to this.

[woe2you.livejournal.com]

I very rarely remember dreaming. I wish I knew why.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Well, it may have something to do with alcohol or drugs as both affect REM sleep patterns.

[lizardsmae.livejournal.com]

There is a desert that i wander. I once met a skiny aboriginee there. he asked me if I wanted to explore my subconcious, i deferred. That is a very powerful dreamscape for me. Another is a volcano that i travelled days and days to arrive at. All to visit a dragon who told me the purpose of my life. I of course don't fully remember what She said, but it did encourage me to get back into therapy.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Those are powerful. I used to have iconic dreams like that; they usually involved all-white animals.

[kimberlychapman.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Most of my dream places are strange amalgamations of real-life places smushed together, but what's odd is they stay consistent within my dreams, and across many dreams over many years. For example, I have a very clear dream-version of Toronto that has elements of Toronto in it, and when I'm there in a dream my dream-self thinks I'm in Toronto for real, but there are actually parts of my hometown suburb outside of Toronto, plus occasional bits of Ottawa and lately even a bit of Las Vegas has crept in.

Or I'll dream that I'm my current age but my home is an amalgamation of my current home and my childhood home. These are usually stress dreams where my I'm still/once again speaking to my parents, and that never goes well.

On rare occasions I dream up completely new places, but always with sufficient logical consistentcy that they work in the real world. The book series I'm writing started as a strange dream, and the office where the characters work, as well as Nick's apartment, were in that dream more or less as they ended up within the book itself.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think I should write about my city, but I don't know if the inhabitants would be keen on that. The funky boho types would probably be annoyed that I stole their thunder. "That's my material, go get your own!"

[kimberlychapman.livejournal.com]

Well Corran keeps insisting that the fake people in my head are indeed fake, and that I can do whatever I want to/with them, including letting them live happy lives with no drama, but I think Corran is very silly. :)

He does have a point insofar as you're allowed to be the goddess of the people in your head, though. If your muse is calling, I say write! :D

[mystikalwomyn.livejournal.com]

There are several places that pop up frequently in my dreams.

One is a deserted beach with huge flat rocks overlooking a lagoon, and I seem to end up there when I need a place to think, or if I'm really stressed. These dreams often involve delving into some troublesome aspect of life, but sometimes they are more just awareness of warmth and water and space that bring me into a deeper sleep. I've actually used this place for guided meditations, and I've had people ask me where it is because I make it sound so real. I wish it were real and nearby!

Another is the imaginary desk from hell, where I'm surrounded by mountains of work, computers that are soooooo sloooowwww, machines that don't work, phones that ring endlessly.... wonder where that comes from! There are dark, dreary halls leading nowhere useful - I've checked! I can spend whole nights trying to get the mounds down to a manageable level, and I wake up exhausted.

By far the strangest dream place first appeared when I was in 3rd grade, and it has popped up again several times in my life. It starts in a familiar but uncomfortable place (back then, it was my classroom, since then, it's been any number of real locations), when the whole room/place is enveloped by a starship full of aliens. No one but me can understand them, and they take me away on their ship. The ship is a totally fascinating place, and I always feel like I belong there. Within the ship, there are lots of places that I've been as well as places I've yet to find (or perhaps they are only imaginary places). These dreams tend to go on for many nights, kind of like a tv series, and get pretty involved.

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

hehehe - aliens in dreams...
back when i was - oh, maybe 13 or 14 (back in '84-'85) i had this dream where aliens took over my town - there were these big squid-like things in massive, clear glass helmets walking around everywhere, picking people up and shaking them, pointing guns at people, and generally being really nasty - and somehow, i was part of the underground resistance...
i had a series of these over a period of about 8 years - think they stopped when i discovered the simpsons in the mid 90's - i swear, i nearly shit myself the first time i saw kang and kodos!!