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Rubbish => Preaching and Worship => Topic started by: majingojira on July 14, 2013, 11:48:10 pm

Title: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: majingojira on July 14, 2013, 11:48:10 pm
I heard from one ex-christian that she had a nightmare where the rapture had occurred. As she flew up into the clouds, she saw Jesus, but he was evil and his eyes were glowing red. He caused a plane to crash because he could.

My question to ex-believers, did your religious beliefs ever intrude upon your dreams? If so, what were some of the things you dreamt about?
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Stormwarden on July 15, 2013, 01:31:07 am
I used to be LDS, and I dreamt once that someone had thrown those golden plates into a river somewhere, and I leapt my dumb ass in to rescue them, never mind that I can't swim to save my life :P
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Witchyjoshy on July 15, 2013, 05:35:34 am
I've had rapture dreams before.

Amusingly, one ended up being a bizarre transition of being in the car waiting for the rapture to happen, then it turns out that the entire thing was a computer game when the game "Crashed" and I'm sitting at the computer going "Well, heaven's sure buggy."

Now all I have are church dreams where I go church shopping.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Star Cluster on July 15, 2013, 08:45:53 am
Nope, none that I recall.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Shane for Wax on July 15, 2013, 01:59:05 pm
I had a couple Rapture dreams.

Mainly I was left behind because of [insert reason here].

I preferred the dreams where God actually answered my prayers for once.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Vypernight on July 20, 2013, 06:46:59 pm
The closest I had were constant nightmares that haunted me to the point that I suffered from insomnia.  As a Catholic, I prayed every night and started asking god, Jesus, and anyone else up there for help.  Nothing.

Then, in the middle of one such dream, I called out to Thor.  Problem solved.

Sorry, but i have to go with the results.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Raymond Dullaghy on July 22, 2013, 04:17:19 pm
I am still a Christian, but even I have them. A key difference is that God is not the villain, but rather other people. In one, I was being burned at the stake by a mob of nondescript fundies. In another, I was being...probed by a lab coat-clad Nietzschian ubermensche figure, while Billy Joel's "Pressure" was playing the background. I can't tell if I need to see my pastor or my psychiatrist, because it seems I'm caught between two equally terrible fates.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Errata on July 22, 2013, 10:46:28 pm
I had a few as a kid. They all freaked me out. Glad I stopped having them.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Nightangel8212 on July 23, 2013, 04:41:58 am
Shortly before I converted to paganism, I had a really messed up dream where a Zombie Jesus (seriously, he was like a walking corpse, in the process of decaying) was chasing me, and when he caught me he ate my brains. I'm serious. In my dream I reached up and could seriously feel the inside of my skull with my hand. I think I watched "Return of the Living Dead" one too many times... though why there was an ACTUAL zombie Jesus there... fucked if I know.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: PosthumanHeresy on July 23, 2013, 07:32:56 pm
I used to have nightmares about dying, demons, dying in my sleep and the apocalypse. The demons and apocalypse dreams went away after I stopped believing in that stuff, and the death fears went away soon after.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: mythbuster43 on July 23, 2013, 08:21:09 pm
Strangely, I don't recall ever having dreams about demons or the apocalypse when I was a kid. My family was Catholic, but we weren't fundie, so maybe that explains it.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: PosthumanHeresy on July 24, 2013, 11:15:03 am
Strangely, I don't recall ever having dreams about demons or the apocalypse when I was a kid. My family was Catholic, but we weren't fundie, so maybe that explains it.
My family was barely religious, but even just praying before bed (plus the "History" Channel), with the idea that I could die in my sleep repeated nightly, fucked me up there.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: mellenORL on July 24, 2013, 11:45:59 am
I always assumed that kids in hell-fire-and-brimstone fundie households would have nightmares about hell and demons. Kids naturally have a predisposition to fear darkness, monsters, etc., it being an atavistic predator avoidance instinct channeled through their fertile imaginations. That said, I always saw the teaching of dogma about going to hell - a place that defines terror and pain - to be a form of ignorant, unknowing psychological child abuse :(
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: anti-nonsense on July 24, 2013, 11:51:07 am
I've read lots of stories of kids having nightmares about that shit, I agree, it's child abuse.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: PosthumanHeresy on July 24, 2013, 02:28:09 pm
I'd agree. Even being told it existed fucked the shit out of my brain, and that's with constant reassurances I wouldn't go there.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Sleepy on July 24, 2013, 06:50:54 pm
My family was never really religious, but I did sometimes say prayers before bed when I was in middle school. Those scared the hell out of me, mostly because of the "if I should die before I wake" portion. Sometimes I'd go to bed fearing that tonight would be the night.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: wrightway on July 24, 2013, 09:51:46 pm
Growing up in the hellfire and brimstone flavor of fundie religion gave me nasty nightmares. I was convinced I'd be forced to take the mark of the beast when I was five, that'll do you in the nightmare department.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Sylvana on July 25, 2013, 10:31:12 am
I grew up in a pretty strongly religious household, but I don't remember ever having any kind of religious themed dream. I think it was because I was not brought up fearing hell, or believing that god was in intricate all consuming part of my life. While that all consuming aspect is what my mom now believes, at the time I think things were lighter and as a result religion to me didn't really mean anything other than waking up early to go to Sunday school.

I find it interesting that I didn't have any dreams because for as long as I can remember, I have had vivid dreams almost every night most of which I can remember (to the point where I actually have trouble remembering what was real and what was just a dream). I never really thought about it before though. It makes me thinking that I was never really a true believer, or at the very least that god and religion never carried any emotional weight.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: ThunderWulf on July 25, 2013, 08:29:45 pm
I can't remember any religious nightmares myself off hand, but I did have an ex who was from a really religious family and I remember she once had a nightmare that the earth like opened up beneath her and these shadowy tentacles spewed from the crater and started dragging her down into hell.
Title: Re: To Ex-Believers: Did you ever have dreams/nightmares when you were a Christian?
Post by: Thejebusfire on July 25, 2013, 08:45:38 pm
I was terrified of the rapture when I was a kid. Because my mom would talk about how the dead would rise from their graves. You don't discuss that in front of your nine year old.