Metal Reviews

And it was through a dream.

*collective groan*

No, really. This is why. Several weeks ago I had a very disturbing dream. The context of the dream itself is not important. What it was about was global warming. Disturbing? Like this it was;

As all dreams are usually indescribable as they are consisted of, say, 90% emotional response to 10% imagery. Well the emotional context of this dream was dread. Dread that very bad shit was happening and there was nothing that anyone could do about it.

It was a suburban street, starless night, and dead quiet. Global warming was causing random and devastating lighting strikes. There was no power, and people were cowering in their houses hoping theirs was not the next to be struck.

I noticed across the street that the neighbour's house had been hit and the bottom floor was on fire. I raced insided and (after many surreal and non-sensicle events) persuaded the resident to abandon the house. It was what I heard when I got back out onto the street that has led me to my epiphany on past lives.

Three houses had been hit by lightning. All were on fire. One was burning like a campfire and I knew everyone inside was dead. The other two were raging infernos as well, yet the occupants (or some of) were still alive. What struck me was the screams. I have never heard children being burnt to death. I have heard and seen representations of people screaming as they are burned in movies and tv, but it does not compare to this. What I heard in this dream was the most blood-chilling, horrific and hopeless sound imaginable. They were trapped in the burning house and screaming for help. I knew they were going to die, and the sound of it was beyond any attempt at realism that tv could try to come up with. It was pure pain, horror and it has stuck with me ever since.

So how did such a sound enter my mind if I hadn't experienced it before? I have thought about every possible situation where I may have come across this in real life, and I can not think of any other explanaition. It had to be a memory. But it is a memory without the event. So when and where did the event happen? Not in my lifetime, that is for sure. Anyway, this has been my sole philosophical occupation at present.

dude. ow.

On a similar note this reminds me of an experience I had when I was very young. When I was about 4 I caught scarlet fever (which I thought was extinct) and got so ill I started hallucinating badly. I started seeing images of shit on the wall next to my bed, and one of the images I saw was someone getting decapitated. Thing is this decapitation was really realistic, now how the fuck could a 4 year old who had not seen anything like this on movies / tv at that time conjure those realistic images of head choppage.
Freaked me out to this day...

Old debate on wether or not memories are inherited.

From parents? Cause if that's what you mean I don't see how it could still be a valid debate now. Memories are not stored in chromosomes and therefore could not be "passed on" like height or eye color or other 8th grade science class traits.

Or the dream told you that this sound was as horrific as it was. Your very reaction to the screams was a part of the dream. Thus, you'd not have to have heard them, but rather just believed that they would have been horrific to hear.

Seems more logical than past lives anyway.

I have flown in dreams. Was I a bird in a past life.

i agree with jaden.

it's like deja-vu i think, when your brain tells itself that it had seen or experienced something before but it only really did at that moment when you are currently seeing or experiencing it.

Yeah that's a good point. If you were a sadist, then your dream would have been a wet one.

Just because in a dream something was realistic, it doesn't mean it actually was. A recurring dream of mine has me falling off something, the edge of a roof or whatever. There's frequently a moment when I've just woken and I still get that falling sensation, whilst knowing that I'm safe. The brain's a funny thing, it can convince you of just about anything...

That was one consideration I have thought about. Yet the problem remains of not having heard the sound in real life before. I don't think my brain could have manufactured it by itself.

Your explanaition would have been sufficient if, say, it was just the images I was reacting to. I have seen houses burning before and that is not an issue. Also you brain can create the most abstract associations; you dream about a lizard named Martha who lives in your icecream - and in the dream this makes you feel a sense of deep shame. All well and good because you have experienced the components of the situation in real life; just not exactly in that combination.

Have you considered trying hypnoisis to look into your past lives? I've considered it myself, but I worried that I'd be opening doors I shouldn't. I guess I feel that these memories are to be remain hidden for a reason.

i think it could have created the sound by itself, and your brain is convincing itself it's the real deal.

My sister has and was told that both she and I were brother and sister in a past life. We were Native Americans of the Nama tribe (which I have failed to find any reference of, yet there was no mention of when this tribe existed - if at all). We were both killed in our sleep by an enemy. I mean to get around to something like this myself one day. Hypnosis that is, not killing an enemy.

I mean to get around to both hypnosis AND killing an enemy. But I actually agree and believe in the whole possibility of past lives. I haven't experienced anything freaky like your dream but for some reason it's still something I consider as a definite possibility.

Glad to see I'm not the only one feeling this way.

I just think it's weird that nobody ever finds out that in a past life they were a garbage collector named Russel.

This is like when I went into my first sexual experiences assuming the girl would be all, "Ohhh, aahhh, ohh," like in my dreams. But, alas, it was not the same. Instead she just kept blowing that damn whistle in my ear. Afterwards, I was all "What the hell was that about?"

...Actually it's nothing like that.

You do know there are some fundamental flaws to this entire rebirth thing and souls, right?