Was I Threatened By A Demon?

Philippe de Champaigne's The Dream of Saint Joseph painted around 1636 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Last week I had a dream of a spiritual nature that I discussed from a Biblical perspective on my Sunday blog A Few Words.   I shared the dream on that blog because of the spirituality of the dream and the implications that I sensed from that dream.  You can follow the link to read that particular analysis if you are curious, but I will speak more generally about this dream in this current blog post.

          The reason why I want to relate this dream on this blog--aside from the fact that it was a dream--is that a few nights later I had a related dream with a very similar outcome.   Why I would have had these particular dreams at this particular time I do not know.   That is part of the reason why I'm discussing these dreams in this post.  Perhaps one of you will have some idea of what these dreams might represent.

         The first dream occurred sometime after the 2 AM hour on a day last week.  I no longer remember much about the dream other than the setting was a very large odd house that in the dream I recognized as my own, but it was not a house that I know in waking life.  There were a number of people coming and going throughout the dream.  At the point where memory kicks in...

          I am talking to my mother (who recently passed away).  She is relating how my father (who passed away in 1990) is in the hospital recovering from a serious condition.  I am puzzled as I know that my father died years ago, but my mother assures me that now he is back.   Soon after our conversation my father supposedly has arrived at the house and I see the door open.  A man who resembles my father enters.   He seems weak and sickly and is of a much smaller stature than he had been when I last saw him in life.  He does not acknowledge anyone, seeming to be in a daze or even lifeless.  He is not wearing a shirt and is clad only in a pair of white shorts.

         The small father-looking being is led back into a bedroom and the door is closed.   I become concerned about the man's presence and go into the room.  I find him sitting on the edge of the bed slumped over looking dejected and hopeless.  Suddenly I sense that this is not my father or if it is he is demon-possessed.   I become very afraid.  Knowing him to have been very religious I approach him and try to talk to him about Jesus.  Filled with terror I have trouble speaking, but finally I weakly force out of my mouth the name of Jesus.   I begin repeating "Jesus" and each time I say the name my voice gets stronger and my fear begins to subside...  

          Then I awaken.  My wife asks if I am okay. She tells me that I was repeating the name Jesus.

          Three nights after that, about an hour after I had gone to sleep, I had another dream...

          I am in an unfamiliar location, perhaps a place that is like a warehouse where I work (in this dream world),   I am in conversation with a group of three other men when a man resembling my father comes into the room.  At first I think this man to be my father and I am happy to see him.  Then I realize this man is taller and more imposing looking than my late father had been.  The man's face looks cruel, verging on anger, filled with an ominous dark expression.  I become afraid as I begin to surmise that this is not my father but a demonic figure assuming my father's image.  

          This man/demon first approaches me in a threatening manner.  I stand more erect to confront him.  Then the figure turns to one of the men with whom I had been conversing and moves toward this man as though he is going to attack him.   I begin invoking the name of Jesus to take away the demonic power.  I repeat the name of Jesus gaining more confidence each time I say it...

           I wake up in a fetal position saying "Jesus".  My wife asks if I am okay because I am repeating the name of Jesus just as I had done a few nights earlier. I look at the clock and it says 11:55.

           On the first instance that I had the dream, I remained awake for what was probably an hour pondering what I had experienced in the dream.  The second time I fell asleep almost immediately.  Both dreams impacted me such that I have thought about them often since they happened.

          There is no explanation that I can think of as to what may have influenced my mind that I had these dreams.   My wife believes that Satan had tried to trick me by taking on the appearance of my father.  Why I can't say.   As I considered the occurrence, I wondered if a demonic force was trying somehow to take my life--to kill me during sleep--and my resistance prevented this from happening.

          Do you think there was some sort of spiritual force at work in my dreams?   Do you believe a demonic force would have the power to enter a dream to take control of the dreamer or even kill him?  Have you had any dreams where you felt that spiritual forces were communicating with you in some way?

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Are Dream Fears Real or Subconsciously Fabricated?

 Words associated with Fear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        Let's say you are having a dream that frightens you--or perhaps even gives you a sense of absolute terror.   The dream may cause you to wake up.   You might be shaking with your heart pounding.  You might be sweating.   The dream that has awakened you causes you to lie awake afraid until the fear has subsided so that you can finally go back to sleep.

        Most of us have experienced a dream like I've described here.  Think back for a moment on what exactly it was in the dream that scared you so.    Can you remember precisely what is was in the dream that caused you to be afraid?

          Sometimes we can pinpoint the exact nature of the source of the fear in the dream.  It might be a frightening individual or an animal of some sort.   It might even be a literal monster or demon.  The fear may have been aroused by a dream occurrence or the expectation that something awful was about to happen.   Dream fear can be stimulated by a specific place or the unfamiliarity of a mystery place.   Just as happens in waking life fear in dreams can be incited by a number of things.

          On the other hand, there may be nothing you can pinpoint visually, aurally, or from any other reference of the senses that would seem to be the source of any fear.   The fear might just be there for no perceptible reason.   In the dream we might imagine that there is something to be afraid of but we can't identify anything that we should be afraid of.   In cases like these, fear is merely an element of the dream.  Waking from a dream like this can be the most puzzling situation, resulting in prolonged periods of inability to go back to sleep as we fret over the meaning of the dream experience and the reason for the fear.

          Either way we might be led to wonder why exactly we have the presence of fear in dreams at all.   The fear can stem from something we experienced in the preceding day or at some other point in our lives.  Why we would dream about fearful things from the past could be because we have recently been reminded of those events.  If our mind just randomly dredges up fears from long ago then that would be a peculiarity of the dream state that would be difficult to understand.   Surely the fear is most often related to recent events.

          Fear in dreams might also be related to something in the future that we feel insecurity about.    Events at work, situations within the family, or other circumstances that loom in our future with uncertainty can trigger fears related to failure, rejection, and other negative emotions.    The fears that we have about what lies ahead in our waking life might be reinterpreted as nightmarish situations in sleep.

           A final possibility might be that the frightening dreams are symbols that don't have anything at all to do with our actual lives.   Perhaps the subconscious fabricates nightmare scenarios to toy with us or even entertain us much like we might look for entertainment in watching horror films or reading scary stories.  Our minds can often come up with pretty random thoughts that seem to come out of the blue.    The subconscious mind maybe?  

           How do you usually respond when you have a frightening dream?   Are your dream fears something you can usually actually identify or do the fears seem to relate to something that is vague or unknown?   What frightens you most in your dreams?    Are your fears in waking life the same as your dream fears?

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Wake Up Call

Richwood is situated on both sides of a valley located in the Appalachian Mountains. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        Sometimes I wake up from sleep remembering the dream I have been having without that dream seeming to be any reason for my awakening.   However on some occasions a dream will specifically appear to wake me up.   Usually something in the dream has scared me into wakefulness.  There have been times when my awakening is due to something special about the dream such as certain words that have been spoken, a particular idea that has been conveyed, a person who has special significance, or a dream event that stimulates my mind causing me to wake up.

         These dream wake up calls frequently result in an inability to go back to sleep for a period of time. They are dreams that might wake me up and cause me to stay awake thinking about them.  Typically there will be deep significance concerning the dream message that has been delivered in whatever form it has been sent.   Apparently there is a need for my conscious mind to attempt to decipher what the dream mind has told me.  Much of the time I end up staying awake for some period of time and pondering the dream or mind writing a dream ending to the story in order to have resolution in order to peacefully return to sleep or get out of bed to begin functioning in the world of wakefulness.

Here's a recent example of a "wake up call dream":

         There is a long involved sequence of going places and encountering many people in different situations.  Eventually I am in the cab of a sort of truck with my father driving.   We are apparently in Kentucky in a rural Appalachian type area.  My father drives very erratically and I am somewhat nervous about his driving. We seem to be looking for somebody or going to pick someone up.   We reach an interstate that we are supposed to travel north on.   My father enters the cloverleaf ramp onto the freeway at too high a speed.  Our surroundings become a white blur as we round the loop.   We find ourselves on a somewhat narrow country road that becomes more narrow we proceed and then eventually turns to gravel.  We know we've taken a wrong turn and are now on the wrong road.

         Then the truck is gone and we are walking on what is basically a somewhat wide gravel trail.   We turn around to go back to where we had been.  We come to a willy nilly house with various porches and doors.  The house is not particularly old or run down, but it's not overly nice or sophisticated looking.  Country folk live here.  In front of one door I see a malformed youngish dwarflike human writhing on the ground wearing something similar to a Confederate soldier uniform.  A frightening looking middle-aged man dressed in overalls comes out to confront me.  Behind him I see what I take to be other family members--his wife and kids.  They all have a swarthy appearance that suggest to me that they might be of indigenous American ancestry.  They all look mean, angry, and unwelcoming.

          I tell my father to keep walking.  I stay to deal with the man whom I find very threatening.  I am very afraid of what may happen.  In my fear I wake up.

         Once awake I found that I was unable to go back to sleep.  My mind was absorbed by the circumstances of the dream causing me to feel uncomfortable.  As I lay awake I began to imagine the dream scenario as I played out what the outcome of the dream encounter might have been.  In my imagination I began having a conversation with the man.  I asked if the small person in the uniform was his son and he confirmed that it was.  Then I continued to discuss other things that I now don't remember.  Eventually we were having an almost pleasant conversation.  I smiled at the man and a trace of a smile seemed to appear somewhere in his scary countenance.

          As my wakened mind finished out the story to a more amenable conclusion, my mental state became more relaxed to a point that was more conducive to sleep.   A lingering awareness that I had been afraid cast a pall upon my mind, but I was able to go to sleep feeling that the threat of the dream had been diminished and probably dismissed for the most part.

       Various dream events and images can sometimes awaken us to leave us in a state of discomfiture, paranoia, or even terror.   We may lie awake or have to get out of bed to do some activity that will distract us from our thoughts.  The result may often be a restless night of sleeplessness or sleep deprivation.  Perhaps the best thing to do is immediately confront the dream issues and resolve them to the best of our ability in order to remove the distraction from our mind.

         Have you ever been awakened by scary, puzzling, or even good dreams that have caused an inability to go back to sleep?    What dream people have caused you to wake up and think about them for an extended period?    Have there been any ponderables (such as things you are concerned about, forgot to do, or need to plan on doing in the future or anything else that causes enough fretting to interfere with sleep) that have notably awakened you from your dreams?

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A Scary Halloween Dream

Jack-o-lantern (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       This past Sunday morning I had a very scary dream.  I dreamed that my Monday post  for my Tossing It Out blog had become infected with a virus from a website that was taking over my site with links attached to key words within my post.  I was not sure where the links would lead to and I was unwilling to click on them to find out. They seemed to appear randomly and each time I fixed one, another link appeared in its place.

      The night previous to the dream I had been finishing up "My Brain is a Blog", a satirical humor post with some serious controversy that was to be a sort of lead-in to Halloween and  my Battle of the Bands post for Friday November 1.   I had some concern as to how that post would be received since it was a rather peculiar one.  This concern was probably what caused my anxiety laden dream.   This is ironic considering that the subject matter of the blog post had to do with blogging taking over the brain of the blogger, but then again having a dream with this content might make perfect sense.  The dream may have been merely a subconscious recreation of my blog post infused with my sense of concern.

       The dream seemed very real and I was believing that what had happened in the dream was something that was actually happening to my blog.  Within the dream I pinpointed the source of the problem and decided to get rid of all of the nefarious links that had been placed by an evil program that I had tapped into the night before.  I also tried to figure out how to disable the program.  Each time I tried to fix the problem I would go back to check to see if everything was okay and at the bottom of my blog post I would see the message:

          "This blog has been infected."

      In the morning after waking and rising I went to my computer to just make sure there was not an actual problem with my blog.   All was well.   The dream seemed so real that I actually believed that what had happened in the dream was a true event.   It had all seemed so convincing.

      Thank goodness it had only been a dream.

Happy Halloween!

        Have you ever had a blog dream?    Does the intensity of a dream dilemma every carry over into the immediacy of awakening so that you have to check to see if something from the dream was true or not?   What real-life related fears enter into your dream life?   

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Animals

Hippo animal (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

         Dreams are typically weird and when I dream about animals, those animals are often strange.  Sometimes the animals do not even appear to be what they are called in the dream.   For example, in a recent dream my attention was drawn to what were called mice in the dream, but actually I recognized them as some sort of insect such as large mosquitoes.  

        Other times the animals are what they are supposed to be, such as dogs or wolves.  In nearly all of my dreams that involve animals of some sort, those animals appear to be threatening and I often experience a certain sense of fear.   It's not to the extent of terror usually, but enough apprehension to cause me concern in the dream that the animals could hurt me.

         They never do.  They may scare me, but I am never attacked.

          The animals seem to represent some sort of threat--something that I am afraid of in waking life.   In most cases the fears are based on what others in the dream tell me or the way they are responding to a situation.   This might indicate to me that I am essentially in control of most of the things in my life that could pose a threat and that I should not allow others to make me afraid of that which I need not fear.

         In a few cases the animals have been very docile and appealing.   These animals may represent something in my life that is bringing me happiness or peace.  This symbol is there to remind me to embrace those positive things in my life.

          Do you have dreams about animals?   Are they fearsome or pleasing?   What do you think dreaming of animals represents?

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