Halloween is soon, and scary times are ahead! In honor of this occasion, I wanted to tell you about tropes of my recurring haunted house dreams.
Haunted House Dream #1: I'm going on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, but it's totally different. Like it's in a long hallway with ghostly green dioramas on either side, or it's part roller coaster/water ride. Sometimes the ride breaks down. This dream isn't too bad.
Haunted House Dream #2: The Haunted Mansion ride becomes a really creepy walkthrough, and the people who are going on the ride with me keep disappearing and whatnot. Or it's mashed up with my grandmother's house, and the yard or the front stairway or the basement is now haunted with Haunted Mansion-type ghosts.
Haunted House Dream #3: This is the Other Room dream. An Other Room dream is where extra rooms appear in a place that is familiar to me in real life. Whenever I approach an Other Room in a dream, I feel a sense of foreboding. I know that going into the room is probably a bad idea. There's always something in Other Rooms that's better left alone. Sometimes there's dusty old treasures, sometimes there's evidence to a terrible crime, or sometimes they seem to be haunted by malevolent spirits. I often have dreams that there are Other Rooms in my grandmother's house (a disproportionate number of my dreams seem to take place in my grandmother's house). Also, since I moved out, I have occasionally dreamed that there is an extra hallway in my apartment full of Other Rooms. There's at least one extra bedroom and a ton of storage space in that hallway, but my roommates and I are always too afraid to make use of it.
I'm particular curious about the Other Room dream. Do other people have Other Room dreams, or is it just me? Does it mean something? I think that if it means something, it's that I am the kind of person who would survive a horror movie. When I think a place might be dangerous, I leave it well enough alone. But that's just me.
Hey Awkward Mormon Girl. I know this is year old but I would like to share with you that I, like you, have had these exact same recurring dreams about the one room. In fact, all my searching on google for other people having this dream, I could only find your version that describes my dreams almost verbatim.! It's always in my grandmothers old house (which I havent been in since I was a kid but remember perfectly). Theres always either one entire new wing added that I've never seen or been in before and in always one room in which I absolutely will not go into. I cant describe it but theres an awful awful awful malevolence emanating from that room and it's so terrifying that when I wake up , that foreboding feelings lingers all day. Have you found out what it means?
ReplyDeletePS: From your blog I take it you're a mormon lol. I am a born again christian who was brought up in a very strict fundamentalist church/school/home (like mormons). I wonder if this restrictive upbringing has anything to do with it. Always being told no. What and where we can and cannot go. I dont know. Just a thought.
Oh, hi! Sorry, I didn't see this comment until today.
DeleteAs I sort of mentioned in the last paragraph, I feel like this dream is related to my love of safety. I find ghost stories to be creepy because I'm the kind of person who always wears a seatbelt, wears tons of sunscreen, etc. So whenever I see s movie where there's nothing the protagonist can do to be safe and protect themselves against a ghost, that does scare me. Honestly, I think that if there's a psychological reason I avoid Other Rooms in dreams, it's that I'm all, "Hmm, something bad is in there, better not." Of course, it could also just be a dream. I also have recurring dreams that I've forgotten my math class (even though I've been done with school for years), and I don't think that means anything except that I'm completely aware that I've forgotten most math.
It sounds like your upbringing had some difficult parts. I'm sorry to hear that! Actually, my parents weren't very strict with me. If anything, I think I could have used more guidance. They trusted me to pretty much make my own religious and moral choices since a pretty young age. I didn't have a curfew or anything. See the posts below if you want more info.
http://awkwardmormongirl.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-post-that-took-me-two-years-to-write.html?m=0
http://awkwardmormongirl.blogspot.com/2017/04/teenagers-are-better-than-writers-think.html?m=0
Thanks for stopping by! If you have any more questions, I'll try to respond more quickly.