Effects/Nightmares

[OriginalIdea]

You know... A post as long as that one almost negates any real honest apolgoy someone might have been willing to give if she had just told you 'concisely and succinctly': "I don't care what you think about it, but I really did have the dream."

If she ever does come back and discuss, I'll probably enjoy what she has to say, but what a bad taste to leave in someone's mouth.

I also consider it rather poor form to write such a long letter and declare they never intend to speak again. It said to me—as I was reading—she was a bit of a coward to write so much, declare so little, and be as insulting as that in response to

• "rosyxxx, at least plagiarize from one book, man! Either stick to the HoL Hallways or Peter Straub/Stephen King/Ramsey Campbell mystery girls and so on. Cohesion can lead to a more believable dream lie. Focus.
  
  Focus."

Doesn't that seem a bit disproportionate?

EDIT: 'One of those things...' By a complete coincidence, fatwoul made mention of the words 'expatiate' and 'mellifluous' ... Magnolia strikes again.

[sutrix]

I think she felt I flamed her and she flamed me back; you know, kinda like somebody blowing your house with a bomb because you pulled his ear, or something. It was quite a bit funny, let me tell you. Like hearing a kid brawl on and on about how he just hates broccoli.

If she ever does come back and discuss, I'll probably enjoy what she has to say, but what a bad taste to leave in someone's mouth.

I suggested creating a different username.

EDIT: 'One of those things...' By a complete coincidence, fatwoul made mention of the words 'expatiate' and 'mellifluous' ... Magnolia strikes again.

Yay, that's so... I don't know what you're talking about. I've written those two words down, though, and as and when I can see the film I will note their appearance in the film.

[NuerotoxicRomantic]

I haven't had any nightmairs, but because of the book I found common interest in a girl at my school, and now we have something to talk about (no, HoL didn't give me a girlfriend, already got one, this is just a friend)

[OriginalIdea]

The dream I had last night was me reading the book we all have. But during all the places where a scene in the movie was described, I was actually somehow watching those scenes instead of reading them. I later came to a page that was black with white print instead of the other way around. Although I didn't notice this detail until I was actually reading the page, it was the right-hand page. It seemed that the paper itself was somehow black, rather than it being covered with ink. Later was a page which had a block in the middle that was again inverted. Though, again, it did not seem to be ink on the page, the black went all the way to the edge of the paper and all the way into the binding. In the dream, I was also reading the book at a point that was obviously not the first, as I remarked having not noticed those pages the first time I read it—and wondering for all my perusing the work since, why I had not come across those strange pages.

[TheNarrator]

I've had this dream since before I read HoL, so it's of no relation. It does, however, corrolate quite well with HoL, and since reading it has always reminded me of the novel.

It reminds me of a remark made earlier, about how familiar the book feels when reading it, like you've been reading it your whole life.

The dream is in my old house. I'm a child of about 10 or 11. The house is darker than usual and I'm in the 1st floor family room. Nobody is home and there's a disturbing silence, almost as if the silence itself is an intrusion on normalcy.

It's grey out, like a fall New England late afternoon, or an overcast dusk. This lends to the lighting inside behind darker than normal.

For some reason in the dream, I have the desire to go upstairs, although why I couldn't tell you. So I leave the living room and have an immediate sense of dread. I know something is waiting for me upstairs, but I'm half aware this is a dream, so my curiousity pushes me forward.

As I near the steps to the upstairs, I can see that the upstairs is almost completely dark, whatever is upstairs would be able to attack without notice. For some reason, in the dream I justify that if I shut my eyes it can't hurt me, despite the fact that it's dark anyway. So I walk up the stairs with my eyes shut, not seeing in the dream.

At this point, I know it's coming, I can hear it growing louder. It's a deafening scream, like that of a thousand people. The scream grows to a cresciendo. it's volume bringing pain to my ears, I wake up then.

I always wake up at this point.

[Mad Alice]

sorry i have nothing more interesting to report....but....
i've always dreamt of houses...so no real change here.

[sutrix]

I had this one a few weeks ago, but didn't think of it as connected to the house in any way.

I'm in my house alone, and there's a knock at the door.

Through the peephole I see a clean shaved man with a red tie. Salesman.

I'm pissed off for some reason, so I don't open the door.

He knocks again.

I yell, "Go away!"

Then I see the doorknob turning. The thing is, though, my real door doesn't have a doorknob. I know this in my dream, but that knob is there and turning just the same.

I grasp the doorknob and yell, "Fuck off!"

He laughs sans echo or reverb or other associated evil laughter phenomenon.

Then his hand slips through the gap in the door for letters.

And I recoil; for some reason I'm very afraid.

I wake up sans sweat and other classic nightmare phenomenon, but my heart's racing.

My door doesn't have that gap for letters either, I think. And that is somehow enough to convince me and comfort me, so I go right back to sleep.

Apart from this, though, unlike Alice, I don't dream about confined spaces a lot. When I dream (which is not that often) I usually dream of roadside action. And the amount of quirky supernatural dreams I have is next to nil. Freud would without a doubt call me insane.

[KriegsaffeNo9]

of Leaves has afforded me a great number of nightmares... Every time I close my eyes for a decent period of time, I usually think a little thought re: what will appear when I open them again, be it a door or ghost or monster.

Hell, I scare myself on my own... stuff like Blair Witch, Silent Hill, and now of Leaves have chucked napalm and such upon said pyre o' terror.

A big fear is that as I lean against the wall of my room while at my laptop, that I'll slooowly slide back... and then realize that the walls in my room are further than when I leaned back. It doesn't help my mattress has a habit of sliding...

Sleeping in a new place is an experience in terror. I keep expecting some new great form of horror. It's kind of sad that I have to meditate upon Lovecraftian horror to lighten up nowadays.

Mind, even knowing what would happen, I'd gladly re-re-re-reread of Leaves.

[KriegsaffeNo9]

More on nightmares.

My nightmares are fairly inconsistent in terms of what they're about, though there's usually a monster figuring in. Most of my dreams are about video game characters in games I'm playing--my sister's heard me muttering about Legend of Zelda and Pokemon in my sleep, and mom told me about the time I listed a long list of books and who wrote them, giggling after each title and author... Most of my nightmares, then, are about monsters. Usually movie monsters.

The first thing I had nightmares about was the Crypt Keeper, that undead bugger. Well, I love the show, but damn, the dreams... That was when I was three.

When I was five I had nightmares about The Blob. See, as it turns out, I was an eschatophobe back in the day, and I feared the end of the world. I made light of my nightmares, joking that I was having nightmares about Barney the Dinosaur.

My eschatophobia's more-or-less faded now. Far more pertinent horrors are up in my grill nowanights. Stuff like... paintings moving. Spirit posessions. Things under the bed. Ghouls and dark young and undead fetuses. Doom 3 has inspired quite a few nightmares.. the worst being HoL-y, if you pardon the pun, and with a dash of Werewolf: The Forsaken. I dreamt that the Spirit World from Werewolf was beginning to interpose on the real world, and everything was growing a hungry spirit. But my room was the only place you could escape them and wait for the Forsaken to show up and save you. But I go in my room... and the lighting is stained red... and all my action figures have moved, and are staring at me, and I know that my room has been haunted. And it's either my room, which is beginning to rebel against me (bad bad bad bad bad--because I have big heavy books and numerous swords), or the rest of my house and the outside, which is beginning to crawl with angry sofa-spirits and computer-virus-spirits. The nightmare ended happily, I suppose, as I recall a Forsaken ritualist (one from out of the book's illustrations, in fact) calmly invoking the sacred Moon to cleanse my room...

Oh, Johnny's treatise on the monster hiding in the silences? Been there time and again.

[sutrix]

I'd advise you to stay away from System Shock 2, then. Or if you do play it, be sensible and turn off the audio.

Or don't say I didn't warn you.

That game is the only one which actually scared me.

[fearful_syzygy]

:shock: the Monkey!

[po-m]

I had a dream once that I can't remember most of, except it had to do with being operated on. I could feel everything. Finally, I woke up to the distinct noise and pain of having my back cracked in half. I opened my eyes to my father's voice saying, "Your'e mine. Get up." I couldn't move. I had somehow wrenched my back in my sleep and woke up with bruises everywhere. My dad said he hadn't been in my room, so that part must have also been a dream. To this day, it was the most realistic nightmare I've had.

I have a couple of superstitious friends who have apparently been stalked by demons or been haunted and I've always laughed it off, but this was very close to their accounts. Anyone have a reliable normal explanation as to how I could have kicked my own ass in my sleep?

[sutrix]

the Monkey!

Yes, and their chattering! I don't know if it's my computer or the game in general, but the 3D audio doesn't work properly. So even if the monkey is three floors down you'll hear him chatter as if he was standing behind you. Scary.

Say, you got the hidden basketball easter egg?

[fearful_syzygy]

What are you talking about?

[sutrix]

What are you talking about?

What? You don't know the hidden basketball easter egg in System Shock 2? Or am I assuming something completely different from your " The Monkey!" comment? :?

[fearful_syzygy]

I've never played Sistem Shock 2. I was quoting Peter Gabriel, for some reason, mainly because 'Kriegsaffe' means 'War monkey'.

[sutrix]

I've never played Sistem Shock 2. I was quoting Peter Gabriel, for some reason, mainly because 'Kriegsaffe' means 'War monkey'.

#-o

So what have you played, anyway? Half Life 2, nope. System Shock 2, nope. Have you at least played Thief or Deus Ex?

Or are you a non-gamer?

Just so you know: in System Shock 2 there are lab monkeys gone crazy. They usually eat potato chips or drink orange juice till you (the enemy) come in sight. Then they let rip with ESP blasts. But that's not the main thing, really: the main thing is their sound, as I already said in the earlier post.

I'd highly recommend playing System Shock 2, even if you don't play games--even though learning the game is very tough.

[fearful_syzygy]

This isn't really the place to discuss this, but no I'm not a gamer, mainly because I find it difficult to stop once I've started, and I don't want to be an addict. Just recently when I was back at home a friend of mine and I sat up till four in the morning playing Heroes of Might and Magic IV, and when I was at uni I jeapordised my entire second year by playing more MarioKart64 than you would have thought humanly possible, let alone healthy.

I have occasionally toyed with the idea of getting a PS2, but I know that I just wouldn't do anything else, so I haven't, and I won't.

But to bring this back to nightmares, back in 1994 or so I played so much Syndicate that whenever I closed my eyes all I could see were those little red dots from the radar in the bottom left hand corner moving around. Either that or something from UFO: Enemy Unknown which I also played to death. :|

[KriegsaffeNo9]

I was quoting Peter Gabriel, for some reason, mainly because 'Kriegsaffe' means 'War monkey'.

That it does. Comes from Hellboy.

"It's a monkey!"
--"It's an ape!"
"IT'S A MONKEY!!!" (destroy)

[Opaline]

Admitting to being of a highly suggestible nature--but two post hypnotic effects in the past 24 hours (after reading for 12 straight hours each day):

Yesterday afternoon, during my exploration of all matters blue, I hit the chapter about the SOS tapping being heard through the walls, about the middle of that, when it is getting very creepy--suddenly a John Philip Sousa march erupts somewhere in the room with me. Obviously a cell phone ring tone. My daughter comes running in. It's her phone. But we can't find it. It rings again. It sound very close and yet very far away (and without explaining why, I'm already freaking out on her a little). I put her on the land line and tell her to keep dialing herself until we can find it. I mean we are looking in places like the cushion under the cat's bed. Thirty minutes later, we finally find it. Where? Behind the pillow I been using to prop myself up on the couch so I could read more comfortably.

Nightmare. My husband is the sort of snorer who would wake the dead. I have a white noise machine next to the bed, Yosemite Falls, full blast. For years now. Can't sleep without it. So this morning, in the dream, I think I am awake (I hate those). It is utterly dark. I can hear my husband snoring and the noise machine masking it--but then I pick up a pattern in the sound, a kind of pulse of organic loudness that backs off and then comes back, each time at shorter intervals. I know what's going to happen, it's going to become a full fledged roar--and I'm trying to get awake enough to get out of bed before I have to hear it. I fail. The sound is awful. Then I really do wake up, nearly screaming. It was only 5 AM, but I got out of bed and haven't been back to sleep yet.

Probably doesn't help that my real name is Karen and that I write gothic novels about insane gothic houses. Man, I am preloaded and hair-triggered for a monster like this. Having the time of my life.

[marsjams13]

Nightmare. My husband is the sort of snorer who would wake the dead. I have a white noise machine next to the bed, Yosemite Falls, full blast. For years now. Can't sleep without it. So this morning, in the dream, I think I am awake (I hate those). It is utterly dark. I can hear my husband snoring and the noise machine masking it--but then I pick up a pattern in the sound, a kind of pulse of organic loudness that backs off and then comes back, each time at shorter intervals. I know what's going to happen, it's going to become a full fledged roar--and I'm trying to get awake enough to get out of bed before I have to hear it. I fail. The sound is awful. Then I really do wake up, nearly screaming. It was only 5 AM, but I got out of bed and haven't been back to sleep yet.

That has to be one of the best nightmares i have read. . .beauty!

[Opaline]

It wasn't all that beautiful to get through. Still, I know what inspired it. I was interested in the notion that the dream link to the book came as sound. But then, after I posted this and asked my husband if I disturbed his sleep--well, the answer came from a different level than I expected. He doesn't recall me waking up near 5 AM making noises. But. Later this evening he asked me if I was feeling guilty about something. I said no. He said that in my sleep I kept grabbing him and saying that I was sorry.

Um, no I have no recall of that. And no, I have nothing to be sorry for. We've been married 23 years.

Yet...

[marsjams13]

It wasn't all that beautiful to get through. Still, I know what inspired it. I was interested in the notion that the dream link to the book came as sound. But then, after I posted this and asked my husband if I disturbed his sleep--well, the answer came from a different level than I expected. He doesn't recall me waking up near 5 AM making noises. But. Later this evening he asked me if I was feeling guilty about something. I said no. He said that in my sleep I kept grabbing him and saying that I was sorry.

Um, no I have no recall of that. And no, I have nothing to be sorry for. We've been married 23 years.

Yet...

Yeah, I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience. . .i just meant that it makes a good story now, very creepy - And that new detail too

My strange HoL inspired dream happened after i had awoken one morning around 5:30 am. i felt wide awake but it was to early and i wanted to sleep more. i stayed in bed and as i lied there a my mind turned to HoL. In particular, i starting thinking about caves, the deep underground caverns. . .and i guess this is where i started drifting.

i was in the woods and i came upon the entrance to a cave - not very large, but large enough for me to fit through. i moved toward the cave, i remember feeling curious. As i started entering the cave however, i became aware of thwo things: 1. that i had fallen asleep and was dreaming and 2. that i didn't want to go into the cave; It was a sudden, overpowering sensation - nothing i've ever felt in a dream before. Since i knew i was dreaming i thought if i could just move, i'd wake up. i had only been asleep for a couple minutes so i figured this should be easy ( i know about the different levels of sleep - psych 100), but i guess i had immediately gone into a deeper sleep, and even though i knew i was dreaming, i couldn't stop myself from going into the darkness. With every step i felt more panic and i was willing myself to move or make a sound- i thought if i make a sound my wife will hear it and wake me.

i remember the sensation of light draining away from me and just before i was in complete darkness, i woke up literally thrashing around and kind of moaning and my wife was asking me "what's wrong, are you ok?"

It may not sound like much, but i was shaken for a couple days, just because of the feelings that darkness gave me.

[Opaline]

The dreams in which you know you are dreaming and are trying to claw your way out of before the "bad thing" happens are the ones that leave us the most shaken. I think that the power of the Navidson Record, it is a dream that Karen cannot get out of before the bad thing happens. She can't save herself or her children or her husband because she can't seem to wake up enough to act.

Back in the 80's two Russian philosophers wrote a paper that became quite famous in lit crit circles about human response to the unknown. We either take the stance that the unknown is knowable and set about exploring or we hold that the unknown is evil and therefore must be barricaded against. Hence Science and Religion. What makes HoL so deeply resonante is that it shows both the necessity and the cost of each approach. I was talking with a fellow writer who had read the book and we were saying that the complexity of the thing sort of forestalls really connecting with characters in the tradtional narrative sense--but the sheer humanity of the whole enterprise was utterly heartbreaking and unforgettable. That element of the book fascinates me far more than the word play and code cracking puzzles.

[OriginalIdea]

Yes, I agree with that.

The way this book represents much more realistic reactions from so many people about something like that actually happening, I think, is also what makes the story resonate so strongly after having finished it (obviously sor some more than others). The reactions are realistic ones, slow ones.

Stephen King did this sort of things well, I think, in the beginning of Bag of Bones. The lead in to the horror aspect was slow and creepier than some of the other things. But then, as he does, he went to the wild things that he's always written about; dreams of other people, ghosts, etc.

[Oddex]

Hey everyone, im new here.

Well, ive only been able to force myself all the way through the once, but i now own a copy and i am on my second time throught it.

Nightmares, most of them revolve around doors leading to doors leading to rooms leading to more doors. I keep looking for something but im not sure what exsactly. But i know i must find it before i wake up, unfortunaly, i never have found it.

As for side effects of the book...

1) Sometime during the reading of it i picked up the OCD of counting stairs. Still to this day over a year later, i must count every stair i walk on. If i dont, i have to count my way back up or down, and start over. It drives me mad to think that i dont know if there was 7 or 8 stairs in a paticular spot.

2) I can not be in a cold dark room with out a sorce of light longer than about 15 seconds. I break out into a cold sweat, start shaking and eventualy have a panic attack.

3) If i can not see the bottom of a set of stairs, i will not walk down them. Example, long stair case leading into a dark basment, it will not happen, about 3 or 4 steps down i have a panic attack.

I dont know if anyone else has been effected as seriously as i have, nor do i hope they have.

And to make one more thing clear. I was raised on horror. I was watching the Amitiville horror when i was in elementry school, no horror movie or book has effected me besides the occational startle or raised heart rate. MZD has given me a dark place to look for something that i look for in my dreams when i am awake. I am not sure if i am grateful or not yet.

[victus_again]

you sound looney, dude. =; [-(

[chaosBYvirtue]

Not really nightmares, but more like that feeling of dread like there's something behind you (remember the first incident at the tatoo shop, in the hallway?). It's like that. If I don't allow myself to turn around once and a while, I start getting anxiety attacks. There's this one redlight that I hit every night driving home from my girlfriend's house that gives me this feeling especially. And the more I try not to think about it, the more I can't get it out of my head, and I get too scared to look behind me.

Also...this is just a wierd thing that's started since reading this book. I always sleep with just a sheet, becuase I don't have an air conditioner in my room. It's been like two weeks straight now that I've woken up wrapped in my comforter. I even tried putting it across the room....I wake up in the comforter. I don't remember a thing, I do it in my sleep. I've done everything short of setting up a video camera to see what happens. It's been next to me, on the floor, under the bed, across the room, in the hallway, under a pile of books...same result, I wake up in the comforter.

[Chinawhite28]

So, since I'm back and having just finished the book I was reading, i decidied to pick up HOL again yesterday. I forgot how disturbed I was the other times I read it.

1. I slept about a total of 1 1/2 hours last night.

2. About 1:30 am I decidied to pick up the book and read, giving up on sleep. Unfortunately, I was at the part where z. describes "Exploration #4" with the whole...

Trees in winter.
Blood on the kitchen floor.
One shot of a child (Daisy) crying.

all the way to Hollaway's rant "I'm lost. Out of food...there's something here...stalking me.."

That part always creeped the shit out of me. I was lying in bed on my stomach with the book on the floor in fron of me with only one of those clip-on book lights on. All of a sudden I didn't want to turn around, but I had to pee, and when I was done I couldn't bring myself to turn off the bathroom light and walk down the dark hall, so I left it on, then returned to bed for more not-sleeping. I always sleep like a rock, mind you.

So I was got on the bus this morning, took a seat, looked at the back of the seat in front of me, and , no shit, somebody had written "Hollaway" on it in black marker.

Not a nightmare, but still very odd, I think I would have preferred a nightmare. At least that would have meant that I was sleeping.

Why is ith that I can watch all the horror movies, Buffy, etc..with vampires, demons and all, but a 1/4" is what really terrifies me?

[kittee]

So, since I'm back and having just finished the book I was reading, i decidied to pick up HOL again yesterday. I forgot how disturbed I was the other times I read it.

1. I slept about a total of 1 1/2 hours last night.

2. About 1:30 am I decidied to pick up the book and read, giving up on sleep. Unfortunately, I was at the part where z. describes "Exploration #4" with the whole...

Trees in winter.
Blood on the kitchen floor.
One shot of a child (Daisy) crying.

all the way to Hollaway's rant "I'm lost. Out of food...there's something here...stalking me.."

That part always creeped the shit out of me. I was lying in bed on my stomach with the book on the floor in fron of me with only one of those clip-on book lights on. All of a sudden I didn't want to turn around, but I had to pee, and when I was done I couldn't bring myself to turn off the bathroom light and walk down the dark hall, so I left it on, then returned to bed for more not-sleeping. I always sleep like a rock, mind you.

So I was got on the bus this morning, took a seat, looked at the back of the seat in front of me, and , no shit, somebody had written "Hollaway" on it in black marker.

Not a nightmare, but still very odd, I think I would have preferred a nightmare. At least that would have meant that I was sleeping.

Why is ith that I can watch all the horror movies, Buffy, etc..with vampires, demons and all, but a 1/4" is what really terrifies me?

Okay here goes.
1) Your back? i didnt realise you left or who the hell you are.

2) Decidied is spelt d-e-c-i-d-e-d (a little advice from one bad speller to another)

3) The thought ofshit creeping out of you is disturbing enough for me, to now not sleep. Thanks

4) I had to pee? Well at least we ALL NOW KNOW your bodily functions work.

5) No shit? I thought shit was creeping out of you?now there is no shit? You should consult a doctor about that!

6) Buffy is what a four year old considers horror! Ohh look the vampire is coming, let me guess Buffy is going to punch him, flip him and yes kill him, how predictable! Maybe you should think before you post! Invest in some good horror, not that excuse for crappy TV

Thanks