Recovered memory as nightmare?

[AbsentFriend]

Has anyone ever had a dream about something from the past that didn't happen?

But then it turned out it did really happen?

I had a fairly disturbing dream last night, and I'm wondering if my subconscious is trying to tell me something. I still have no real memory of the event, just the dream, but in the past I had a brief, very mild suspicion of such an event occurring based on a present reaction to a person.

Sorry to be vague, I don't want to put the details out there if it's not real.

[siamcat]

I've certainly heard of such instances. Our dreams often try to guide us to resolve issues that are subliminally effecting us in our present. Usually they do this through almost nonsensical metaphor, but occasionally they can be very blunt with you. I wouldn't count on the detail of the dream being an exact account of how things happened, but it may certainly give you many straightforward clues as to why you might have an adverse reaction to this person in the present. In any case, I would suggest getting it down in writing immediately while the detail is still fresh, and remember, NOTHING in a dream is insignificant, every little detail, (how you felt about what you saw as well as physical things that you saw) really really count. If you decide you want to post it maybe we can unravel it with you

[tsukiko]

When I was a teen I used to have these 'odd' dreams to say the least. They were, well, I guess nightmares, except they weren't obviously horrific or anything; I didn't wake up sweating or breathing rapidly. Then I started getting this deja vu feeling and seeing bits of the dreams if I smelt a paticular smell or heard certain noises, certain words etc. For years I was adament that they were the product of a movie I'd seen as a kid because that's how they felt. Even in my dreams the perspective was almost third person. I didn't feel connected to the subject, the protagonist, in them at all. I even searched for for the movie title occassionaly, wondering why I couldn't remember more or anything distinct, just bits of dialogue or snatches of situations. Then, when I was fifteen I was at a friend's house and something we were watching, I d'know, didn't make me remember more, but made me realise why I hadn't ever been able to find the movie. I realised suddenly that she was me. I almost fainted, no joke. I went white, clammy and colapsed.

Within four of five days of that happening I'd remembered whole evenings, incidents etc. I'm sure, even now, there are things I still don't remember. I even have a memory in which the other person involved in these 'incidents' said things, specific things about other occassions, and i don't know even now if that person was being truthful or whether they were manipulating me. I was so young.

Not sure if that's similar to your experience, but its the only experience I have of anything like that.

[discontentmiser]

welll, to be technical, your brain/body is not able to tell the difference between memory or imagination.
so the only, obvious, way would be to find something else to verify the memory.

frig, that sounds like way too tall an order...

some other post (maybe SR, I forget) talked about emotional memory;
so the way you felt (scared, threatened, embarrassed, etc.) could be based off a real event you tried to forget, then the details got fuzzy and your imagination filled some in.
Then again, I'm good at conspiracy theories, so I could make up any explanation for you.

That doesn't mean it didn't happen.

whatever it is, hang in there.