Times like this, it’s good to remember that the Int”l Association for the Study of Dreams still offers its free nightmare hotline. This service is staffed by professionals with decades of experience with frightening dreams and nightmares.

Here’s what the IASD suggests before making the call:

Nightmares and their associated feelings are normal reactions to non-normal, traumatic events. The Nightmare Response Line’s experienced dreamworkers offer debriefing, not counseling.

Research shows that a conscious focus on nightmares once they”ve occurred (just telling them to someone) can speed up coming to grips with the trauma and have a positive effect on an individual’s well being. Under “nightmares,” Cyberdreamwork loosely classify all dreams with strong overtones of fear, devastation, overwhelming shame, guilt, humiliation, or mutilation, as well as dreams of falling, burning, and so on. Calling the hotline, you’ll have the opportunity to tell your nightmare safely and anonymously.

Trick or treat!

I wrote about the creepiness of night terrors about a year ago on my culture shock blog, so I won’t go on at length here. Even though the REM paralysis is probably what is happening on the “exterior” levels of our reality, we really can’t reduce the entire experience of night terrors to biomechanics. After all, many people throughout history have described intense visitation dreams that follow from the initial feeling that “someone else is in the room.” These night visitors have ranged from dead relatives to benign ghostly apparitions to scary demonic entities to figures of light and peace.

These meetings have provided countless dreamers with deeper understandings of the psycho-spiritual realms that may be open to them. From my perspective, this isn’t evidence of the “supernatural” but an indication that we still need a more radical materialism to account for what is natural.

So rest assured that the experience of night terrors doesn’t have to be nightmarish. The best thing to do is to try to relax as much as possible, and if that doesn’t work, dig deep into your belief structures and find a way to trust in the moment. The experience will open up like a flower and you may find yourself in a whole kind of new dream.

I just spilled pickle juice all over myself so I gotta run.

Update: check out the comments to the previous post for Gyrus’s clarification about the distinction between these two states of consciousness.

Recommended Reading:

The Terror That Comes in the Night by David J. Hufford
Wrestling with Ghosts by Jorge Conesa Sevilla