Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

Anonymouse · Living impaired

I remember most of a dream from last night.

I was ascending a infinitely tall tower. I progressed by leaping up the interior shaft of the tower via conspicuous ledges. Outside the shaft were offices and rooms and stairs - a slower, safer progression. Every leap I took upwards compounded the danger of falling back to Earth and I was being followed by someone whose business was to prevent my ascension.

When I was younger I had a reoccuring "jumping" dream where, midjump, the jump's dreamlike buoyancy failed. Joy metamorphosed to terror and I fell to death. I recognized and felt anxiety about that risk, but I never fell (typically, whatever I anticipate happens in a dream). I did recognize the person, but only from an earlier dream (I don't recall ever dreaming about strangers). The tower was infinite and the pursuit, consequently, was unending. To be honest, I'm not sure if him following me was a pursuit (fear of being hunted?) or a race to the top (fear of failure?) although I knew for a fact we had antagonistic intentions.

At some point, this person caught up with me. I didn't fall to Earth, but there was a clear transition in method. My ascension was now to be made via the maze of offices and stairs and my immediate goal was to catch up with the other person. The threat to my ascension was no longer behind me, but in front of me. Progress was segmented with "bosses" and "enemies" (video game tropes) and there was a palpable anxiety of being behind. After somehow bypassing the first boss, I was rewarded with a conspicuous measure of progress - one telling me I was halfway done, and that there was an end.

And the dream ended.

Yaish · Intel Chief

Interesting, and almost too structured to be dreamlike. It definitely seems pretty straightforward with its intentions.

Any real life similarities going on? One odd thing though - isn't the goal in gravedigging to go down?

Anonymouse · Living impaired

There are times when things have to come up...

In many ways I still think of myself as a child, and lately I've been considering the depth of the ways I am. I assumed the transition in the dream was transition in terms of maturity - as an adult I would have responsibilities in front of me, and I recognize the termination of the journey. As a child the journey is as infinite as the tower. I only postpone the inevitable transition, represented by the stranger.

I hadn't considered it occupational until you posted that. At work we are making a transition from a slow winter (where we can't do much more than the most necessary tasks, exerting some effort not to fall behind) to the normal summer business (landscaping, setting things, having lots of things in front of us). I have been feeling a little burned-out and have been wondering about my relationship to it and my coworkers.

Yaish · Intel Chief

Funny, I still think of myself as a kid too, until I see a real kid at least then I realize I am an adult with responsibilities.

Also, getting married and contemplating having kids has really cemented some life goals for me, much like the transitions in your dream. It very well may be personal rather than career oriented, but the offices seemed more joblike than homelike to me.

Have you either gone through, or contemplated some sort of rite of passage lately?

A friend of mine who is a bit younger felt like he needed to test himself in some manner before he could accept that he was grown from a boy to a man. I thought he picked a somewhat silly way to do it, but it wasn't about me it was about him.
I've never felt the need, but then I more or less had one when I went through Marine Corps boot camp, that was a definite rite of passage whether I wanted it or not.

Do you feel like you need to somehow change something about your life to get yourself to where you want to be by a certain time? Maybe you feel like you are falling behind your peers in your personal achievements?

WTB1

I was going to suggest what Yaish said in his last two sentences.

Or on the opposite end, without realizing it, are you bored in general and feel like you're not challanged enough?

Anonymouse · Living impaired

This is going to be nerdy, but the labyrinth of offices was a video game thing. An old Playstation game had an option of ascending the Chrysler Building (more or less) by foot after you beat it once. Video games appear a lot in my dreams, presumably for the same reason some people dream in black and white.

I'm torn as to the degree I feel I should measure myself against other people. A lot of what it means to grow up is to be able to step outside oneself. Pardon the mind-reading, but you can say "I'm a survivalist. I am confident that I can not only help myself, but others in certain desperate situations." You're surrounded by a lot of people that can't, and while you don't appreciate their ignorance, you earn some satisfaction having uncommon skills. If these skills were taken for granted in society you might take more satisfaction (and affirm your individuality) in something else, like competing well in the Highland Games. Other people give us a context to measure ourselves.

I haven't consistenty associated with anyone my age since graduating highschool - and not even then, really. As far as that goes, I do consider myself behind my peers in my age-group in a lot of ways. I'm not sure how much this self-assessment is appropriate and how much it's vanity. Either way, "catching up" is something I don't anticipate doing - perhaps it's appropriate my dream ended when I was half-done?

Work and school boring right now, in an unsettling way. Now they seem dull, but threaten (or seem to threaten) to become unmanageable if left any opportunity. Sleeping giants, I guess.

Yaish · Intel Chief

Well Anon, you are obviously well above the standard when it comes to intelligence and learning in any age group, but especially among your average late teen/early twenty something.

I'd guess through school you probably didn't identify with most other people in class, even the other smart kids. You've been posting on boards like this for about five years now right? You're definitely outside the norm.

Perhaps being so far outside the status quo has left you without a way to measure yourself. To go back to an example you gave, how could I measure how well I do at the Highland Games if I am the only person I know who competes? You need to share a group activity, if only to see where above/below/outside the group you fall.