telepathy (Photo credit: jox.)
In our previous post our guest Stephen T McCarthy related a fascinating dream experience that seemed to involve telepathic communication between him and a friend in another city. This story would suggest telepathy or perhaps even messaging from a supernatural source. It seems highly unlikely that this was just something that happened out of the blue.
Shared dreaming or communication among dreamers or between a dreamer and someone else is a theme that has been explored in movies as diverse as Inception, the Freddy Krueger films, Dreamscape, and many others. These dream concepts have fired the imaginations of the authors of fiction as much as practitioners of true and pseudo scientific dream research.
Many people have given accounts of telepathic and shared dream experiences, including some of those who commented on Stephen T McCarthy's post. Evidence suggests that there may be real substance to these dream communications.
We'll save dream messages from those who have passed, spirits, and God for another post. In this current post I would like to only think about dream communication between individuals whether both are sleeping, one sleeps while one is awake, dreamers in the same room, and dreamers in different locales.
After I had entered my twenties, my father became more spiritual than he had ever been before. My sister who is a year younger than I and I had moved away from home. She was living on one side of town and I was living with some friends in the mountains about fifteen miles from my parents.
One night I was experiencing a very deep traumatic depressive state that caused me to think strong suicidal thoughts. Fortunately I did not follow through in any way, but the thoughts were powerful. The next day my worried mother drove up to check on me (we did not have a phone in our cabin). She told me that during the night my father had dreamed that I was in trouble. Had he heard my anguish in his dream or was it a divine message? I do not know, but I was very impacted by this.
On another occasion my father awoke from a similar dream concerning my sister. He and my mother got up in the wee hours and drove to my sister's house. I don't recall what the exact problem was, but I do recall that it was serious enough to warrant attention that night. After I was told the story days later I was once again amazed by this uncanny ability my father had acquired. It was an ability that he demonstrated on other times in later years according to my mother.
I never asked my father about any of this and I haven't discussed it with my mother since her initial recountings of the stories. I can't determine exactly what the communication was, but it caught my attention and has been something for me to wonder about.
I cannot recall ever having personally experienced dream sharing or telepathy that I could verify, but I have had many instances where I suspected it could have been a possibility. There have been dreams in which my connection with a dream character was so vivid and palpable that I had an acute sense that a communication was occurring. I only wish I had been able or made a better effort to see if this had occurred.
In fact, since having started blogging, I have had several occasions where I have dreamed of other bloggers--people I have never met. The dreams seemed very real and the characters seemed very credible. I wonder. Have any of you ever dreamed of me? Perhaps we have had a telepathic dream experience.
Have you ever shared the same dream simultaneously with someone else? Have you ever inexplicably dreamed about the same topic as someone else at about the same time? Do you have any telepathic or shared dream stories to tell?
This is all very interesting Lee, dreams are strange things some I remember others I don't.
ReplyDeleteI don't need to dream of you and wonder what you're like I had the pleasure of your company back in Feb.
Happy dreaming.
Yvonne.
Hmmm... I can't think of any instance in which I "shared" a dream with someone else simultaneously. (I would have been most interested in reading FarAwayEyes' stories in that department.)
ReplyDeleteI have, however, had a lot of interesting dream-related experiences, such as receiving guidance I'd asked for, visitations from people close to me who had passed away, and I even had a dream once that interpreted an earlier dream that I had been unable to decipher. I thought that was rather unique.
Ever since I was a young boy, I was enthralled by the strange stories collected by Frank Edwards and published in books like 'Stranger Than Science', 'Strange World', 'Strange People', etc. And his books include a number of very peculiar dream experiences.
Dreams... yeah, fascinating stuffs!
(Say, Lee, did you get the Email I sent a couple days ago? I'm just wondering if you thought I had also misunderstood the meaning of your 'A To Z' post.)
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Before I comment, I have to say that I am intrigued with the artwork at the top of your blog. Did you paint that?
ReplyDeleteI have no stories on telepathy to relate but I do think it is worth considering. I remember when my brother was in college, I had a frightening dream about him - one in which he was lonely, depressed and suicidal. The next
day I made a care package and sent it to him. I don't think I ever told him why I sent that but I just wanted him to know I was thinking about him. Dreams are so fascinating!
Yvonne -- Before we actually met in person, I once had a dream that you were in a parade and I met you there.
ReplyDeleteStMc -- I did get your email. I will try to remember to respond to it. I used to (and still do) read about dream studies and paranormal type topics. I'll write something about dreaming about those who have passed in a future post.
Gracie -- The artist Ada Zdanowicz is mentioned in my sidebar. I need to get some more illustrations from her. Several of my earlier posts used her artwork. She's my daughter by the way.
I don't know if some of the messages we receive in dreams are telepathic or just something the mind cleverly deduces based on other information. It is well worth exploring I think.
Lee
I had to watch 'Inception' three times--so much to see!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have had similar dreams. My father sometimes called after dreaming I was in trouble; I wasn't, but he knew how stressful my life was at the time.
If you see me in a dream, I am actually much younger and thinner in real life. Maybe.
Susan-- I need to watch Inception again--I only saw it once and it deserves multiple viewings. Fortunately I own a copy.
ReplyDeleteI too am much younger and thinner if you see me--yeah, in my dreams!
Lee
WOW! I enjoyed going to Ada's website - very cool art work - I have requested to be part of her FB group so I can admire new pieces that she posts!
ReplyDeleteI find the topic of simultaneous dreaming fascinating and wish I could share that experience with someone, but have never had it happen.
ReplyDeleteGracie- I'm sure she'll be thrilled. I think her artwork has been cut back considerably since she's dealing with a baby now and a job as a busy video editor. I need to get her to do some new dream illustrations.
ReplyDeletePaula --What I suspect is that we all may have these experiences but never realize it because they are rarely followed up on and verified.
Lee
Hey Lee...I don't know if I mentioned it before, but when we were kids,(living in neglectful and abusive circumstances), my brother and I had very similar dreams about being left alone in a parked car that was rolling backwards into traffic...it was terrifying because we were around 5 or 6 or 7..somewhere in there, and had no idea how to stop the car.. I have no idea if we dreamed these dreams on the same night or anything like that..it was a long time ago! Very interesting discussions!
ReplyDeleteHi Lee, funny I should read this article just now. I recently experienced a joint dream with, of all beings, my CAT! Serious. What I remember of it was quite brief because when I realized we were both there, I woke up. He awakened startled as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog earlier. I like your blog, it's an about-face from Tossing It Out. I like your direction.
Happy Dreaming,