Bad dreams...

[kkecu]

Helloooooo All! Well...I have been away for a little while...my boyfriend and I took a much needed vacation to Sedona. (Some of you may remember a post about being fearful of the four hour flight from Columbus to Phoenix!) Well...I did pretty good. Definitely nervous...and I thought the plane would never land. I am not looking foward to the day that I take an international flight!!!!

But anyhoo...I was wondering if you guys have bad dreams about flying? Today I laid down for a little nap and I dreamt of being on a plane and it "overbanking" I have no idea if that is the right term...but you know where we go to turn and the wing goes up too far...and then we loose control. I wouldn't be as worried...had I not had a similar dream a couple of months ago. The thing that worries me the most...is that I hadn't even been thinking of flying and I don't have to fly again for two weeks!

Why does this happen? Do you guys get this? Can a plane turn upside down?

Kelly

[aerobat]

Hi, Kelly,

Now don't let this frighten you!

It is possible for an airliner to be rolled upside down. Just google 'Tex Johnson 707' and you will find links to videos and descriptions of his famous aerobatic maneuver in an empty 707 before an astonished audience, including prospective buyers. He was a test pilot for Boeing.

I have rarely seen a bank exceeding thirty degrees on a commercial flight.

Why did you have this dream? Well, a lot of things are percolating down in the depths of our unconscious mind, and they sometimes surface without provocation in dreams. There are a number of schools of thought about dreams and dream symbolism. My take on them is that some dreams are just gibberish--a buzzy rehash of recent ordinary events. It seems to serve a processing-and-clearing-out purpose, though. Other dreams are meaningful narratives, bringing things up that we are either consciously or unconsciously working on. Sometimes dreams provide solutions to problems or insights into them. Sometimes they are just the mind's way of saying hey. Sometimes they clobber us with material of staggering importance. No one knows better than the dreamer what the message is, but it helps to learn some things about dream interpretation to better understand the message.

Perhaps your dream is giving you a visual representation of your fear of not being in control while flying. That contrasts with your worthy goal of taking control of your anxiety--the one thing we truly can control. Sometimes worrisome dreams pop up when we are starting to get better--as if to remind us that there's still work to be done and not to get complacent. You just had a long, successful flight and maybe the dream is helping you process fear residue. The one thing I am confident of is that this is not an omen; it is not foretelling your future or anyone's.

In Jungian dreamwork one thing we do is called 'active imagination' or dreaming the dream onward while awake. If you feel like trying this, then pick up just before you woke up and roll with it, so to speak. I can imagine a positive outcome to this, with Tex J on the PA telling us pax we won't even spill our water glasses in a 2-g barrel roll.

But this is your dream! :)

[WillFlyToDisney]

Erika is our resident dream anaylst so I am sure she will chime in with her thoughts but I have heard her say many times that dreams about flying are RARELY about flying.

We have all had these bad dreams - just part of working thru anxieties and fear I guess.

Glad you had a fun trip to Sedona! I hear it is gorgeous out there.

I thought of you today actually as my little redhead was belting out Annie tunes at the top of her lungs from the tub. :rolleyes:

Kelley

[cshollingsworth]

You know, they say that bad dreams about snakes aren't even about snakes...:rolleyes:

[kkecu]

I have heard that dreams aren't really about what we dream about...thanks so much for all of your help! It really does help...dreams can be so scary...and so VIVID!!!!


It always amazes me that kids today still know and love ANNIE...I am 27 and I grew up with it!! We do eight shows a week and they are usually packed with little kids...most of which are probably under the age of ten. Its pretty amazing how good the show still is!!! Half of them dress in costume and little red haired wigs when they come to the show!!! If you use the restroom in the lobby after the show...its inevitable you hear little voices singing and singing from the stall next to you!!

We had a great time in Sedona...it was beautiful!!!!!! Everyone who is going to be in the Phoenix area should spend a day there!!!

We were off for a whole week!! Now we are back with the show...in Costa Mesa, CA for two weeks!

Thanks everyone!!
Kelly:sunshine:

[buckshot86]

Just a few days ago I awoke from a nap in which I was on a plane midflight and very anxious. Curiously there was nothing scary happening on the plane, I just realized I was very anxious and woke up with a start. It seemed I was much more worried in the dream then I ever am conscious (which is saying something for me). The strange part is I honestly rarely have dreams involving airplanes at all (that I remember anyway). Then again, with some inevitable flights approaching maybe they'll increase in frequency (but they won't influence my decision to fly).

Glad you had a great trip :thumbsup:

[noflyingfan]

I just saw this thread, so sorry I didn't post before. If this forum is the "meat and potatoes," I usually go for the "candy" forum of Club TF.

Kelley is right; in my experience (and let's just be clear that my experience consists of paying attention to my own dreams and the dreams of other people, not any sort of training whatsoever, so officially, I really have no idea what I'm talking about), dreams about flying aren't always about flying. To put it into perspective...my old college roommate used to have dreams all the time about her teeth falling out. She didn't have dental problems, she had no fear of her teeth falling out; it was just a symbol of something else.

I think that our subconscious mind is almost like an encyclopedia of images sometimes. Under "nervous" is a picture of an airplane. So if we are feeling nervous about anything at all, the airplane shows up in our dreams.

[EyesSkyward]

my old college roommate used to have dreams all the time about her teeth falling out. She didn't have dental problems, she had no fear of her teeth falling out; it was just a symbol of something else. I bet she grinded (ground?) her teeth when she slept.

Are you guys ready for something wacky? I had sort of a "plane crash" dream the other night! Not being a FoF'er, though it was kind of interesting (in retrospect) how I responded.

I was in the very back (furthest from the cockpit--symbolizing having the least amount of "control" I would guess) and something happened to the plane that I won't go into here. :P Anyway, I could tell by the way the plane was descending that the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing. Furthermore, I somehow "knew" that there was a not-ideal-but-at-least-passable place to land on below us. I realized that we were in a somewhat dangerous situation, but that our odds were overall pretty good.

So I made sure all the people around me were in their seats, I got in my own seat, tightened my seatbelt as tight as I could make it, and told everyone else to be sure to do the same. I remember being more interested in how well the pilot would pull off the landing than I was afraid of what would happen. :D

We landed fine, although we bent a few trees and dug up some dirt in the process. I recall being bummed that we had to leave our carry-on items on the plane when we made our emergency exits. Later in the dream, me and a couple other people snuck back on to retrieve them.

- Jeff

[aerobat]

Okay, I'll tell one...:)

The night before last, in the early AM actually (and I woke up after the dream and mulled it over), I was on a commercial flight departing from the Austin municipal airport, which is surrounded by farmland and new subdivisions. The takeoff roll was normal and I felt great...then suddenly I had a forward view, as if I were sitting just behind the pilots, and we were in a narrow, deep, forested canyon headed right toward a huge dam; it was no more than a quarter mile away. I was sure we would not clear it and thought 'this is the end'...but then we rose steeply over the dam and continued flying up the canyon, and it was spectacular, with big cliffs and high-canopy forest all around--not far from the wingtips. At this point I was not afraid at all; considering the amazing maneuver the pilots had just pulled off, I knew they would not scrape the wingtips. We continued climbing gently, and then I woke up.

[Rebecca]

We have been discussing emergency landings some lately, which could have prompted Jeff's. But his description of the landing reminds me of that Star Trek movie where the Enterprise tears through some landscape when it has to land on earth ...

I really pretty firmly believe that dreams are just our brain cleaning house, or defragging. But they can be really interesting!