Ok, first off, I haven't remembered a dream for awhile. I've been through a long period (6+ years) where I've not remembered the greater majority of my dreams and (almost) never awoken in the middle of the night. This was after a series of recurring "bloody chainsaw guy chasing me" nightmares when I was a child which led me to decide to "stop" dreaming altogether. From what I've know about REM sleep I can't have stopped dreaming altogether else I'd be constantly exhausted, which I'm not, but I also haven't done any waking up in the middle of the night/remembering of dreams for, as I said before, 6+ years.

Anywho, as of lately I've started remembering my dreams a little again, though only near the morning and usually only in a half-sleep state. Just last night I had my first deep sleep dream that I can recall in a long time. The dream was fairly impacting, so I decided to write it down. While I can't claim to have documented my dreams before I would like to note that I was very careful to not embellish my dream. All these details came from what I remember of the dream.

So, here we go:


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09/07/2012
The Native People’s Graveyard

My entire dream begins with the idea that a tribe of native peoples from some sort of forest/jungle were the first to train to a certain type of monkey. I realize that while the history books date the first monkey being trained “200 years ago”, the native peoples trained such animals 500, or more years ago.

I then find myself at a scene inside a forest/jungle. It’s a lightly forested area. I’m with someone, a guide, someone who has already gotten to know the native people. I believe she’s a woman. We hop a fence and we go through a graveyard. The grass in the graveyard is yellow. We avoid the graves fairly well, though we had to pass some in order to move to the back of the graveyard, where we are to be meeting a native. As we walk across the graveyard to our meeting place my guide explains to me the burial practices of the ______ people (something like kiduki, sunki, or nindooku?). They have different burial practices for when they’re at war, when they’ve won a war, and when they’ve lost a war. When they’ve lost a war they bury their dead non-stop (I have a feeling this means they don’t eat/sleep until all their dead are buried). When they’re at war they bury them only once every two days. And I don’t remember what they do when they’ve won a war. I nod my head in understanding (I think that I believe that the reason for their different burial practices at different times is of some strategic value/spiritual significance to them).

She then warns me that the kiduki are a fiercely ceremonial people, and have as many as 15 unique handshakes. As she warns me of this a red-skinned big-bellied, long straight black haired indian moves out of a slightly elevated grove of trees down into the graveyard towards us. As he approaches I stand to the side so he can greet her first. He goes up to her and lifts his left hand and waits. They then high five with their left hands, their right, and then their left again, all in extremely quick succession and at different heights, which I figure must be important to the handshake. He then lifts up his right hand and they high five right, left, then right again, in the same sort of fashion. She then stands aside as it is my turn to do the greeting. I take a deep breath, as I only got a short look at the handshake, and did not yet feel completely confident that I could do it. I think something along the lines of “Oh boy”/”I can do this”. Remembering the heights that each high five was at was the hardest part. For the first handshake I miss the second “five”. I feel kind of disappointed. But he seems to be ok with it and proceeds to the next handshake. This one I get perfectly, and is resoundingly loud, which I gather must be “good” when you acknowledge someone and they acknowledge you in this strange fashion. He smiles afterwards.

We then proceed to the right, towards a line of 3 graves, fairly isolated from the rest. The native leads, my guide follows, and I tail. When we’re about halfway there (10 of the 20 meters) a soft blue glow starts to appear over the leftmost grave. As it appears I have the eeriest chills, and a strange sound of reverberation seems to echo through my skull (almost like the tardis from doctor who). They (the native and my guide) don’t seem to see it. The blue glow/mist slowly resolves into a person, who slowly fades into place where it was, above the grave. She is distinctly physical, not translucent in any manner. However, I know she is a ghost. I freeze up. I feel like I’m moving through molasses. The fear and awe inside of me petrifies me. I try to tell my guide, “Gh-Gh-Gho-“, but I can’t seem to form the words. I’m frustrated with myself for freezing up, but I can’t seem to get out of it. My guide doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to me anyways.

The ghost is a woman with long straight hair (I think). She’s definitely Caucasian, not Indian (or extremely pale due to death), which seems eerie. I only realized this after my dream, but why would a Caucasian woman be buried in an Indian graveyard? One idea which passed through my head is that she was the ghost of my guide, which doesn’t really make any sense. Though I never really clearly recollected the face of my guide. However, she could just as easily have been a ghost of no one from my dream in particular.

My fear and certainty that she is real and no one will believe me is so strong it wakes me up then and there, ending the dream. After waking I have to shake off the certainty that I just saw a ghost, for it was still so strong on my consciousness.

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And that was my extremely detailed, long, and somewhat-odd (but distinctly sane) dream. Thoughts?

You are right that you always have dreams, you just don't remember them.

Changes in whether you remember your dreams can have to do with changes to your sleep cycle, diet, stress, other mood changes, etc.

When I think of someone training a monkey, I think of their making it act like a human being, so I think that part of the dream has to do with learning how to fit in with society and with conforming to society's expectations. The monkey in the dream could be you.

I think that passing through the graveyard means that you feel that you will have to give up something of yourself in order to be the person society wants you to be.

It's interesting that in the dream you know that monkeys have been trained longer than the history books say. That could mean that you feel that you have been acting against your natural character longer than people realize.

When you say the grass is yellow, do you mean dead and dried out?

The different burial practices depending on whether there's a war could have to do with how you express yourself when you are experiencing conflict.

When they've lost a war they bury their dead non-stop: This sounds like your unconscious is saying that when you feel you have been defeated, you repress all your feelings.

When they’re at war they bury them only once every two days: This sounds like when you still have the energy to fight you try to be true to yourself.

It's interesting that you don't remember what they said about winning a war. Maybe you feel that you can never win?

I think the idea that the kiduki are ceremonial with all those different handshakes also has to do with the idea of conforming to the expectations of others and you figuring out how to do the handshakes also has to do with the idea of you being "trained" (like the monkeys).

The ghost also represents the idea of the past and of things that you have given up.