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Residual Somatic Energy after Vivid Dreams

Hi folks. I have a masters degree in myth/depth psychology, and am intimately familiar with the Jungian landscape. However, there some insights that I want and can't find anywhere, so I thought I would ask here.

First, some background: I have treatment resistant complex-PTSD. I experienced more **** by the time I turned nine than most war veterans ever will. It's kind of a miracle that I've made it this far and managed to be so well adjusted, actually. I don't have any personality disorders, I can maintain healthy relationships, I do good and fulfilling work. There are challenges, of course, but overall I manage to hold it together.

But there's a price that I pay. My inner world is incredibly complex and often very dark. My subconscious or unconscious mind is very active, and is disturbingly autonomous at times. My dream landscape is incredible. I have near perfect dream recall. I dream in color, I can smell things, feel pain. In fact, my dream reality is often much more "real" than real life. It's hyper-real, vivid beyond words. Every particle is infused with something...numinous? Probably the wrong word, but something more, something other.

My dreams have a powerful affect on me, but none more so than the dying dreams. In some of my vivid dreams I actually die. I don't wake up before I hit the pavement, so to speak. I hit the pavement and then I bleed to death and go through what it's like to have my consciousness dwindle to nothing in the gathering cold and then I cease to exist. And as I've said, I feel pain in my dreams. It's excruciating. I've been impaled on my own steering wheel in a car crash. I've had my head bitten off by a crocodile. I've been in a plane crash. I've been shot. I've been struck by lightning. I've drowned in a muddy puddle of rain and my own blood. The list goes on.

These dreams are extremely traumatic in and of themselves, but it's the secondary affects that have brought me here. Every time I have one of these dreams I wake up the next morning and feel completely drained of soul. Like I HAVE died. There is a significant amount of residual somatic energy lingering around. My body physically feels like how a field would look in the aftermath of a thunderstorm, trampled and broken. It's a physical reaction, like the flu but about ten times worse and with an existential component.

It ruins me for an entire day, maybe two. I'm completely sapped of energy, forlorn, operating from within a deep fog or miasma. I feel like I've been ripped away from the world. I feel like grieving.

I've heard of somatics informing dreams, but not really the other way around. What are these dreams? How can I stop them from having a debilitating physical impact?

EDIT: Mmm. And I should add. These are not night terrors. I have those too, and they are a completely separate kind of experiencing.

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Re: Residual Somatic Energy after Vivid Dreams

Mala,
I'll provide an in-depth response Wednesday. Until then a couple of questions/requests. What drugs do you take for your 'conditions'? Also, can you post a dream, one you feel was especially important or relevant to your post? And, what do you know about dreams and Jungian dream psyche? Jung's theories/concepts on dreams are valid {in my experience} and anyone with an education and possesses a developed intuitive sense can properly/successfully analyze and interpret most dreams{I am self educated-22 years of personal study and practical application but it is as much my intuitive abilities I cam read dreams}.

But there are factors outside the psychological than can affect dreams. Taking certain prescription medicines can affect dreams. Even seemingly mundane issues of sleep position can affect dreams. I have more vivid and memorable dreams when I sleep on my left side {had a couple last night}. We have learned so much from the new science about sleep and dreams, much which verifies Jung's theories/concepts. But a lot of the new knowledge provides more insights to the unconscious dream, knowledge I feel gives us greater insights to the functioning of dreams as well as the content and message. I get mostly a positive responses to my analysis using the new science and information.

As for loss of soul. That's an interesting comment. I will direct your attention to one of my teachers of Jungian psyche, Marion Woodman and her many books/interviews/audio recordings on dreams, and the soul. Here is one my pages on Woodman Marion Woodman. It includes information on her audio book titled, \\\'Dreams: Language of the Soul\\\'.

Jerry



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Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 64 Cocoa, Fl

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Re: Residual Somatic Energy after Vivid Dreams

I do not, and have never taken prescription medications to help me deal with PTSD in any way. I don't currently take prescription drugs for anything else, either. I also do not abuse other substances like alcohol or caffeine, nor do I have a history of doing so. I began talking therapy this spring, but I have been having these dreams for years, and they seem to be unaffected.

As I mentioned, I have a degree in myth/depth psychology, so as it pertains to Jung and dreams I'm quite well informed. The gist though, is that according to Jungian theory dreams are symbolic communication from the unconscious mind. Compensation, collective dreams, yatta, yatta.

I'm not so sure the interpretation of these individual dreams is useful, given the meta-narrative that they create is quite clear and is also the thing I want addressed. Dreams that go uninterpreted still perform their function. My question in this case is: What is the function? Why on earth do I wake up with all of these physicals remnants of a dream? How do I make it stop?

I can share with you however the latest one, if that helps.

I am on an airplane on the tarmac at an airport in New Mexico. There is a barren desert landscape all around, dominated by brown and dotted with the occasional green of scrub plants, The horizon is flat except for a mesa in the distance.

We begin the charge down the runway. I look out the porthole of the plane and I see a thunderstorm near the mesa--not near enough to stop air traffic, but it's close and I'm sure someone is keeping an eye on it. It casts the sky in gray and black and the most virulent red. The red is what I notice most. It is powerful and violent.

The pilot lifts the nose of the plane steeply and we leave the ground. We're only in the air for seconds during this initial ascent when an intense updraft forms right on top of us. It forces the nose of the plane up even further, to the point that we are then falling backwards. The pilot tries to recover by directing that backward fall into a loop, but its no good. We begin hurtling toward the ground.

Everyone is screaming and panicking. I look out the window again and I think to myself that if I can just somehow get clear of the plane itself I might survive the fall. But there's no way to get outside the plane before it crashes. I grab onto the headrest of the seat in front of me to brace, but it's pointless. On impact everything hits everything. Dirt hits metal hits flesh and bone. It's a cacophony of chaos and I can't even keep track of how many ways I'm being ripped apart in the quarter of a second before something hits my head so hard that my skull caves in and I die. And then blackness. And then nothing.

For these types of dreams, this is one of the fastest deaths I've experienced. Sometimes it takes me a while to die once a mortal wound has been inflicted, and that is overall a much worse experience.

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Re: Residual Somatic Energy after Vivid Dreams

Mala,
I am not a psychologist nor an expert in any related field. I am an 'intuitive' Jungian and my 'expertise' is in analyzing and interpreting dreams using Jung's concepts and theories {as well as my own experience from working with dreams}. I am self educated in Jungian psyche {I have no real interest in academia} and use my intuitive senses along with my education to analyze dreams. This Dream Forum is my body of work and in it there is evidence not only of my skills but of what Jung proposed as being true. I differ from Jung on some aspects {I have more of a Freudian take when it comes to childhood influences being the major determiner of unconscious motivations} but generally use his concepts {successfully I might add} in my analyzing and interpretations.

Having said that to give you some perspective on how I approach dreams I can say this from reading the dream you posted. Normal dreams pretty much follow predictable patterns {laid out by Jung}. Abnormal dreams may not. Different things can alter the normalcy of dreams including drugs. I read what you stated about your dreams but for me the dream you posted said more about your abnormal dreams. The big difference being in normal dreams a person wakes up before they 'crash' or die. To experience an actual death in a dream is very much different and very unusual. Death in a normal dream is purely symbolic and thus a real death would not occur in the dream. Your dream experiences are entirely different. Even those who have PTSD have nightmares but most do not include the graphic death experiences you have. I can only surmise there is something very different about your psyche . The PTSD of course would be relevant. Why you have these type dreams I can not answer. I will attempt to make some sense of them using what I know about the psyche and dreams and how they function as therapeutic tools provided by nature {much like the immune system of the body, dreams attempt to help heal emotional conflicts}. I will analyze the dream as I would any other dream posted.

Your dream up until the death part pretty much describes a life of someone who is experiencing a difficult emotional life {normality for most people to some degree}. You are attempting to get off the ground that is your difficult life {the PTSD part of your life}. Like any other person with a difficult emotional life there are periods of melancholy if not depression dotted with good times {instead of the other way around}. This would be the desert landscape {your landscape} dominated by brown and dotted with the occasional green of scrub plants. The opening statement of a dream usually sets the tone for what the dream is attempting to communicate. Your potential {horizon} is bleak except for the mesa in the distance. A mesa is a challenge in it is an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides. This statement says to me despite your best efforts your life even in good times is a challenge emotionally.

The plane is you and what you see are emotional 'thunderstorms' in your life. But not so severe to strangle your life completely. It causes your life to be grey and dark {melancholy/depression}. But the worse is the red color which is the color of blood, the symbol of life and life energies. It can symbolize passion, anger, sexuality, revolution, danger or a 'symbolic' death {in normal dreams}. Death in normal dreams represents an end to something which leads to the beginning of something new {death and rebirth/resurrection}.

The pilot is also you. The ground is the ground of your being {this often represents the fundamental principles of the person's life}. There is a 'steep' upward ascent from your grounding {psychological as well as physical}. The updraft forming on top suggest an aspect to do with thinking or the mind. This causes even a more difficult ascent from the norm, so much so you fall backwards {regression to a more difficult state}. No matter the efforts there is an impending crash.

The next paragraph offers possible hope. Getting clear of the airplane, that thing that is taking you away from your natural ground {self}. But there is no way to get outside {the outside is usually symbolic of the conscious ego self}. Even grabbing hold of the headrest {head, the physical mental aspect?} doesn't help. Whatever it is that is taking you from your normalcy/ground is not consciously known. In a normal dream this would be a statement of what the problem is {and needs to be realized and acknowledged} and not an actual statement that it is impossible to do. But in normal dreams the dreamer doesn't die or is killed.

Everything hits everything, the many ways you are being ripped apart. This suggests there are more than just one conflict that is taking place, more than one reason for your condition. Dreams deal with the psychology. Beyond the psychology is the physical body and the metaphysical self {which can not be seen}. Something hits your head causing your problems, a psychological condition. The skull caves in. The skull may symbolize psychological mysteries but it also is the physical protector of the brain {psychological mind}.

If I were analyzing this dream {as I have done} I would think it is saying there is a physical condition that is affecting your psychology. But there is also a mystery beyond that. Of course we know that many psyche problems are caused by a chemical imbalance, there is something messed up within the normal chemistry of the body. I dare say this is true for you but to a greater degree that is a mystery. But a mystery remains such as long as it is not known what it is. I take this as a statement you have yet to find the source for your condition. This would reflect your true self/life at the time you had the dream {what dreams do}. It brings us no closer to what the mystery is but it does define a part of the problem {at least for me}. A physical condition beyond just the psychological {to include the psychological}. PTSD is a psychological condition?

I will leave it at that and let you comment on what I have posted. As I stated previously my expertise is in analyzing/interpreting dreams. Your dream defines your life {and seems to fit} but again there are other aspects that are unanswered. This is not unusual since even the best interpretation can only provide insights, a periphery, and not detailed information to what a dream is attempting to communicate. Let me know your thoughts and we can go from there.


Jerry



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