h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All right - I *definitely* need to have a more interesting dream tonight!

Hmmmm... the difference between a bad dream and a night mare?

I'd say a night mare is where you forget all about 'Don't Panic' and loose your head completely, and wake up sweating and heart pounding...

...while in a bad dream I don't panic, I just feel extremely distressed or upset or uncomfortable

Well, what do you know ... I did indeed have interesting dreams last night! I think I'll stay active here in this forum: I'm sure it will encourage me to remember my dreams better.

I can remember two dreams from last night. The first may qualify as a nightmare ... but strangely enough, I wasn't really afraid. It was about an alien lifeform that, as far as I can remember, came from the future, or some different realm. It could disguise itself as something else. It could shape-shift very rapidly and it did not have any single natural shape.

I remember this dream only vaguely. It was in the middle of the night, as far as I could tell, and I did not wake up directly after it. I remember that the dream had lots of details, but not the details themselves that well. I remember the alien creature was incredibly difficult to kill ... and yet, we had a weapon that worked well against it, but it had to be fired quickly enough. There were a bunch of us fighting against the alien. I can remember many scenes where the creature was pursuing us and we had to fire continuously to fend it off.

There was also a scene where the alien had returned to its realm with human victims. I remember there were eight or ten ... and the alien spread the victims around it with each of its legs resting on one victim, like a huge spider. Then, in each victim an egg or embrio would be deposited, and from them new aliens will arise and consume the victims and grow big and strong and join their parent when it returned to earth. We had to prevent that from happening.

There's also another scene where the alien was imprisoned in a closet. Our 'weapon' then went into the shelf above that of the alien. The weapon was a kind of robot that could operate on its own. From the upper shelf it extended appendages through cracks down to the alien and tried to kill it .... but the alien fought back vehemently and we could hear bubbling and fizzing sounds coming from the closet and some multicoloured fluid bubbled up to where the robot was. Then at last the alien succeeded in *merging* with the robotic weapon and became very much more powerful than it was.

When this scene happened, my awareness was outside my body ... I had a view of the robot struggling from above to subdue the alien, and of the fizzing bubbling fluids, but no sense of my own body. During most of this dream I had no distinct sense of self ... though I had the idea I was one of the folks fighting the alien.

The dream had more than one ending! In one we just plain killed the alien. In another a professor-type devised a chemical to inject into the alien that suddenly turned it non-violent.

The second dream was not nearly so exciting or detailed, but I remember it much better. I simply dreamt that there was a big mound of a termite nest in my garden. I dug into it. The earth was loosely packed and gave way easily - nothing like a real termite nest. I excavated ordinary termites, and also small black termites, and small white ones. I do not know what the black ones were, but the white ones were clearly young ones. It was strange to me that I saw no soldiers. I dug deeper and at last came across a bunch of 'cocoon'-like cells with flexible walls. I opened them up. The first contained a young termite that would grow into a big soldier. The others also contained soldiers in various stages of growth. Finally I found the cell containing the termite queen. She did not look like a real termite queen does - her body was long but pointed at the rear, and she had big, red, lobster-like pincer-claws at the front. I saw that where I had removed the queen cell, there was an opening in the termite mound in which another queen sat. I wanted to test some theories that I read about, so I prodded the queen in the cell I had opened, and watched the reactions of the other termites. Sure enough, at every prod they showed signs of distress ... running around agitatedly and waving their antennae around. I then wanted to see if, or how, the queen would return to the nest. I backed away and, sure enough, the queen from the opened cell ran back towards the place I had removed her from. For some reason there was some water lying in a pool around the base of the mound; the queen rapidly and expertly swam through this.

Both these dreams included colours - the multicoloured fluid in the alien dream, and in the termite dream, the reddish-brown colour of the earth and of the fully grown termites, contrasted against the black and white of the smaller termites. The alien dream also contained sound - bubbling and fizzing sounds.

One of the two dreams I remember last night, I went to a Royal Bank of Scotland cash machine (something I've never actually done) and asked for ten pounds. It gave me an £80 note (despite no such note existing). I hadn't heard of it before, so I thought about going in to the bank and asking them if it was genuine, but then I thought they'd take my extra free £70 away from me, so I wandered in to HMV and considered spending it, but felt guilty and wandered out again. Eventually I decided to go back to the bank.

Then I woke up.

Soothsaya that was a interesting dream to say the least. l wished l had dreams so vivid. The only dreams that l have that l remember that well come true. l've been having dreams since l was a child. that come true nowadays. not bragging it can be a pain. the other dreams l have are a blur and l don't remember much. The first dream you relaid to us is much more interesting than the second one. l'm glad this forum has helped you to remember your dreams. A while back it looked like this forum would be forgoten. l posted on it in a attempt to keep it from going away. l'm glad to see it paid off. l guess you never know until you try. Although l don't dream much, l think it is theraputic for all of us to discuss our dreams l remember ones from the past to tell y'all.

MaW l think you are an honest person. Your dream would indicate that. l wished l could see the UK. l would like to tour it one day. If l'm not mistaken l might have citizen rights there. My Great great Granddad Thomas FitzGerald came from Dublin in 1850 or so. l saw some thing on the news that said if your relations were in the empire and you could prove it, and l can you'd could have rights in the UK. Believe it or not there relations to Mary Queen of Scots in my line. But l'm just a regular bloke or American. Well it is a dream to see the Isles so l hope l not to far off thread.

Thanks! I do like to think I'm honest...

It always surprises me how so many Americans are fanscinated by their family history and loads can say "oh yes, my great great grandmother was from Norwich" and so on. All I know is that my mother's family are from Norfolk and while Dad's mother was from Cambridge, his father was from Lincolnshire.

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by 'rights' though - do you mean for obtaining British citizenship?

My Great great Granddad Thomas FitzGerald Left Dublin, Ireland in 1850. Also thru him I'm have relation to Mary Queen of Scots.
l'm not sure myself how citizenship rights would be granted eitheir. l just heard something on the news about it. By the by l received knowlegde of my relations thru my Family Tree thingy.
Pretty neat huh.

Titania - your words are an absolutely exact description of my nightmares, and my bad dreams! Except perhaps I feel panicked and scared in my bad dreams as well, and only the fact that I don't wake up means they are not nightmares...

Just by the by, I do get some pretty wonderful dreams too. But the scary ones have more sticking power in my memory (I'm capable of discussing these in the middle of a different conversation, even a few days after a bad dream)!

x x Fenny (UT)

THE KID - Dublin is in the Republic of Ireland rather than Great Britain although Dublin would have been part of Britain in 1850, so I'm not at all sure where you stand on British citizenship.

Thank You Sir for the interest. Even if l could get rights l could'nt get there. l do enjoy having some connection there. l always loved a British accent.

I dream in colour - except the colours are usually sort of pale and watery, except for one that stands out in its intensity. The colour is usually what I remember most about a dream. I know, for example, that this morning I had a dream that was very yellow, but I have no idea what actually happened. Might just be another part of synaesthesia, I don't know.

Sound - yes, and my nightmares (which I distinguish from ordinary "bad dreams" in much the same way Titania does) always have soundtracks involving string music. And I mean *always*.

l had a dream that had a yellow tone to it. l had one dream one time that l saw my room in it a wicked voice in it said. And you think you control the wind. Then it was like l blinked my eyes and l was awake. l never told anybody that one. l had those all the time. l haven't had one like that in quite a while. But they are wicked. l sure l'll have one before long. they scare the stuffings out of whilst in them but when l awake. They are a mere inconvience. But when l was younger they scared me so l did'nt want to go back to sleep. l think Titainia knows what l mean.

These past two nights I have had fairly boring dreams, but there were a few noteworthy things in them. Sunday night I dreamed I had a pin in my ear ... in the *inner* ear; it was pushed perpendicularly into my flesh, deep into my skull, and I dreamt it had been there for some years and was starting to fester. So I pulled it out - I had to stick my finger deep into my ear in order to reach it - which was very *painful*. In other words, the sensation of pain was there. I later, in the dream, lay with my head on its side on a pillow and pus dripped out of the wound onto the pillow. I can remember feeling pain while that was happening as well. In 'real life', there was absolutely nothing wrong with my ear.

I also dreamt a while later the same night that my sister made food for me and some roommates ... it was crumbed slices of fish. I did not eat them in the dream ... but with the dream sense of the fish there was taste included, so there you have another form of sensory awareness.

I usually dream in colour and with sound, but the strangest part is the perspective. A lot of my dreams are in 3rd person view. It's weird...

Yeal had them that l was lookin at me in the dream. that happen to y'all

I have that sometimes. It seems to be quite common, although you're right, it's real weird!

But I find it really frustrating when I suddenly go from being one of the 'main actors' to 3rd person, thus not being able to do anything but observe!

The most frustrating kind of dreams I have is when I am trying to run and my legs don't work.
I once dreamed I was trying to play a football match in these conditions - needless to say I didn't exactly have the best game of my life.