Moving Forward To The Past

Discussion in 'Dreams & Interpretations' started by Ken Anderson, Dec 15, 2016.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Before I get to the dream, I should first do the setup. There was a period in my life after graduating from high school where I was still in many ways a child, yet beginning to take the responsibilities of an adult, working different jobs in order to be able to afford to afford my own apartment yet, not viewing any of these jobs as a career, I would quit my job in order to hitchhike to California or somewhere, knowing that if I couldn't get the same job back when I returned, I'd be able to find something comparable, since that is what the work environment was like at the time. Bob worked as a DJ at one of the local radio stations, while I was working at a manufacturing plant. I either don't remember or never knew what Don did to support himself.

    During this period, I found myself spending a great deal of my free time with two friends, neither of which had been childhood friends. In fact, we had all attended different schools. While I had attended Mellen Township Elementary School and Stephenson High School, Bob Filler had attended Catholic schools in Marinette, Wisconsin, and Don Salewski had attended Menominee, Michigan schools. We had previously known one another on a periphery, where I had met them through closer friends that we had in common. Anyhow, for a period of about a year after high school, we found ourselves together, since this was a period in our lives when our other friends were moving on to other things, many were drafted or enlisted in the military, others went on the school, and some had moved to parts of the country where there were more opportunities. In some ways, this was a depressing time but, in many other respects, it was a good time as well, given that we had many of the advantages of being an adult while not fully taking on the responsibilities.

    After having hitchhiked to California together, and individually, a few times, Bob found work at an apartment complex, working as an assistant manager along with his sister. I later visited him there, at a time when he had been accepted an enlistment in the army in military intelligence. He had taken some preliminary tests and did well on them. He had given notice to the apartment owner that he would be leaving once the army had completed a background investigation. Since his sister wanted to remain in California, and the job required a couple, I was hired to take his place as an assistant manager of the apartment complex. The army completed their background investigation, and Bob left for a new career in the military.

    I never saw or heard from Don Salewski again. A couple of weeks later, Bob was back, having failed his physical or something else that he may not have wanted to talk about. I offered to step aside and let him have his job back as assistant manager of the apartment complex, but the owner wouldn't take him back since she knew he was looking for something else. Bob went back to Marinette, Wisconsin, and I remained at the apartment complex for a half a year or so before Bob's sister decided move back to Marinette. I moved on with my life and never saw or heard from Bob Filler again.

    Now the dream. I don't remember how I got there, given that some things tend to become fuzzy after waking up from a dream, but I had, I think, somehow stumbled into a place where I could go back in time. It was like walking in one direction, to the left. Along the way, I would meet people whom I had known at that period in my life, and I could decide to stay or to move on. As I walked in that direction, my age would change to correspond to that period of my life. I don't recall whether I had paused at any other periods of my life, but I stopped when I had reached the place and time where there were Bob, Don, and myself hanging out in Bob's apartment in Marinette, Wisconsin. We could each remember having been the age we were when we began our individual journeys back in time, but we could not remember anything in between.

    So there I was at seventeen or eighteen. I could remember having been sixty-five, having completed whatever path my life might have gone on, and facing medical problems, and I could remember my entire life up to the point where I had reached the age of seventeen or eighteen. I could travel within that time period. I could visit my father, who was still alive and living in Wallace. Presumably, I could decide to do different things with my life, but I never progressed beyond being seventeen or eighteen. At one point, during our real lives, we had discussed going to Woodstock, but instead we decided to hitchhike to California. In my dream, we went to Woodstock but, of course, we didn't remember having had made a different choice. Returning from Woodstock, in my dream, we could remember having been to Woodstock, but if we decided to do anything else that differed from what we had done in real time, that memory would replace the memories of Woodstock. We could do new things, and enjoy them, but we couldn't learn from our new experiences.

    Not only could we not learn from new experiences, we couldn't advance or have careers, since everyone around us was still living in that one place in time, where tomorrow wasn't much different from today. Although we could remember having been in our sixties, we couldn't act on anything that we had learned in between. Each day was a new day in which we could decide to do different things, so it wasn't as if we were reliving the same day over and over again, at least not so far as we were aware, but we didn't advance in our careers, go on to get degrees in college, or move on from that period in our lives where we were together, hanging out in Bob's apartment. Not strictly speaking, however. As I did during that period in my life, I could decide to do something by myself, to visit other friends, or go home to see my father and younger brother. While there, I was trapped in a period of my life, not one specific day.

    At one point, in my dream, Bob and Don were quarreling over something. Either I didn't know what it was about or I don't remember what it was about, but I was trying to bring them together again. Bob had decided to move forward with his life, either because he was angry over whatever they had been arguing about, or perhaps that is what they had been arguing about. I never found out. Bob was moving to the right, moving forward in time. In my dream, I could see Don standing where he was, while Bob was walking away. I followed him, hoping to talk him into coming back and working out whatever differences there may have been. In my dream, I wasn't aware that perhaps Bob had decided to move on, reclaiming his future, which included an aging body, an ending career, and whatever retirement might bring. I was only aware that they had quarreled, and I wanted to bring them back.

    But as I walked toward Bob, hoping to persuade him, it seemed that I couldn't gain on him. He remained the same distance away from me and, if I paused, he would begin to fade. Looking back, I could see that Don had faded off to my left.

    I decided to go back, and there was just Don and I hanging out in Bob's apartment in Marinette. Upon awakening, I can see that it was interesting that we got to keep Bob's apartment, but we didn't wonder about that at the time. We remained in that period of our lives where we were seventeen and eighteen. Since time didn't really advance during my dream, I don't know how long we were there but there was a knock at the door. When I answered it, there was a man there. I didn't recognize him. He was an older guy with a beard. He introduced himself as Bob Filler, and made a joke about knocking on the door to his own apartment.

    Then I woke up. After thinking about my dream for a while I went back to sleep. Although I slipped back into the dream, I think I had made some conscious adjustments to it in order to have an answer to what had occurrred. While he appeared, to me, to be walking away from us to the right, to Bob he was living his life, moving at the pace that a life moves, from hour to hour, and from day to day. Throughout this life that he was living, he had learned how to find that place that we each had accidentally slipped into that allowed us to return to a previous point in our life, but he had figured out how to do this without becoming younger. He chose a time in his life when he had completed everything he hoped to do with his life, but before the medical problems came about. He didn't want to spend eternity as an eighteen year old, but neither did he want to experience his body falling apart with age.

    Finally, I woke up again, and that was it. That last bit, while I experienced it as a dream, benefited from my having had thought about my initial dream. I often do that when I wake up after an interesting dream, and particularly one that hadn't come to a satisfying conclusion, making adjustments to it, then going back to sleep so that I can bring it to something that more closely resembles an end. Otherwise, it's like the power going out before the end of a good movie.
     
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    Last edited: Dec 15, 2016
  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I never had a dream like that! It would make a good movie I think.
     
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  3. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    I have been able to go back to a dream 'once' before
    Now, I just don't recall them unless its a bad one that wakes me up !
     
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  4. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Some I recall, some I don't, but even the ones I remember can disappear from my mind in 2 minutes. Wonder why it's so fleeting?
     
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  5. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    I guess it just wasn't memorable :D
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Most of my dreams disappear. The ones that I remember are those that I think about after waking up and, even more so, those that I am able to rejoin. I think there's a mixture of conscious thought and dream that solidifies it to some extent, although all of the fine pieces disappear.
     
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  7. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Not lately, but in the past I have had a comical dream and woke meself up laughing
    I've also been known to talk in me sleep
    Thank goodness not sleepwalking, that's scary
     
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  8. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Even the ones I do remember disappear after I quit thinking about them that day.

    I've probably gone back into a dream a few times in 65 years but it doesn't happen often and usually when I'm awake for only a few minutes and I'm still thinking about the dream.

    Dreams are interesting and I like to dream even though most are strange...thankfully I don't have nightmares or bad dreams.
     
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  9. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    My daughter had a short period of walking in her sleep when she was about 10. Only a few times but it was weird.

    She'd come out of her room and look to be awake but she had no memory of it ever.
     
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  10. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Yes its really weird - fortunately I haven't seen anyone sleepwalk
    Do you wake them ?
     
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  11. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I don't remember what I did...I would talk to her and she would respond but now I can't remember if it was the right response or not.

    Then she would go back to bed and in the morning I'd ask her about it but she didn't remember getting up.
     
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  12. Denise Evans

    Denise Evans Supreme Member
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    Very interesting, I think I have those sort of dreams when I'm wide awake. I never heard anyone describe a dream where they actually had returned to their "younger" self, but I have, quite a few times in the last years. I meet up with mostly, the men that were in my life. For me, it seems I get to hang onto some of the knowledge/wisdom I've gained with age. I wake up longing for another shot at life. I think I would do it so differently. Thanks for sharing your dream Ken. I have to ask if you ever tried searching out your friends? There are people I would love to talk to again, but at the same time, I like having my memories. Some of the reality of what's become of people is hard to take.
     
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  13. Denise Evans

    Denise Evans Supreme Member
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    I wake up laughing, or crying sometimes. Dreams are a trip, literally, to me.
     
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  14. Denise Evans

    Denise Evans Supreme Member
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    Dreams seem uncontrollable most of the time, but I've actually (and I know many folks have as well) been able to repeat something I do in a dream, like fly over something. I love flying and looking down over places but I'm not in a plane, and I'm not flapping any wings, lol;)
     
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