Conference hydra::dejavu

    One way or another dreams are like movies created for your "conscious"
    by your "subconscious" for serious or for trivial reasons.  With that
    as context, it seems to me that there are three basic possible
    explanations (each of which have many variations):

    First, you may have subconsciously detected the presence of the spider
    via ESP (specifically clairvoyance), and then incorporated the
    appropriate response into your dream.  Vast quantities of experiential
    evidence and substantial quantities of scientific evidence indicate
    that information obtained by ESP can and does influence dream content.
    Since we don't really know what ESP is or how it operates (we only know
    that it *does* operate) this possibility cannot really add to your
    understanding.  But you may feel more comfortable knowing that this
    can occur.

    Second, more conventionally, you may have briefly wakened and seen
    the spider near you on the floor, and then returned to sleep.  Your
    dream prepared to respond to the potential threat if it materialized.
    When you felt the spider on your hand, your subconscious generated
    the appropriate response.  It has been conclusively demonstrated in
    dream/sleep laboratories that very brief awakenings are not remembered.

    Finally, it has been shown that the memory of dreams are subject to
    huge amounts of revision after awakening.  This is something
    undetectable to the person who does it, and is pretty universal (i.e.,
    there is no personal criticism implied).  Until recently, when Steven
    LaBerge was able to communicate during (lucid) dreams, the theory that
    *all* dreams were memories fabricated during or just after awakening.
    The application of this to your case is that your dream may have been
    initially much less explicit, and the spider was edited in, without
    you being aware of it, after you awoke and saw the spider which you
    had compulsively crushed.  The editing in of a large hairy spider
    could have begun from the moment you felt it and the visual details
    could have been added after you actually saw it.  I think that this
    "editing" theory is very unlikely, but it *is* possible.

    Hope this helps.

				Topher

RE: .0

What a gross thing to wake up to!

Even though you were asleep, you were still capable of feeling.  Have you
ever dreamed that you had to go to the bathroom, and then awoke to a full
bladder?  I can think of several instances where I was feeling something
in my dream that was really happening.

What I think happened is that you felt the spider crawl into your hand
while you slept and crushed it.  Your dream was simply reporting to you,
in its way, what was really going on.


John M.

    
    I can relate to the last few.  My left hand is still bothering me
    thinking about that spider!  YUCKO!
    
    The body and mind together can produce strange images when trying
    to tell your subconcious and concious that there is a problem. 
    When I was tweleve and had walking pnemonia (I didn't know it at
    the time), my dream was so vivid that I remember it to this day.
    
    I was sleeping on my back in this dream, and an elephant, rather
    cute and 'Disneyish' walked over and sat right on my chest.  I had
    the most spectacular view of an elephants backbone!  But I couldn't
    breathe!!!  i couldn't even get words out.  And this semianimated
    pachyderm just turned and looked and wouldn't budge even when I
    tried to push him off.  I tried for what seemed to be hours calling
    my mother, and she was a little teed off at first when she came
    into my room thinking i was talking in a sleep.  When she turned
    on the light, I was lying on my back, gasping for air.  With her
    help I was able to roll over on my side and breathe freely.
    
    Went to the doctor next day and had a nice 6 shots of penicillin
    in the old backside!  OUCH!  But the feeling of that dream has never
    left me and I can still see that elephant.  The feeling was worse
    when I woke up from it.
    
    Leigh

    From a Shamanic perspective, dreams, especially disturbing ones,
    involving an animal that covers or attacks you, and you overcome,
    are related to obtaining animal allys.
    
    Elizabeth

    Re: .4
    
    Hmmmm . . .

    I dreamt of spiders for years--they were one of my standard nightmare
    symbols.  Then, about 10 years ago, I dreamt of being chased by
    a spider, dashing into a room and locking the door.  It started
    to squeeze itself under the door, and I took a huge book and dropped
    it on it.  Woke up with a big smile on my face, too.  I felt as
    if I had triumphed over some subconscious ugliness.
    
    After that, my spider dreams took a different turn; I would start 
    out dreams afraid of them, whack at them, injure them, and then be 
    disconcerted when they would begin to talk to me, or cry, or ask me 
    why I was trying to kill them.  This was unnerving at first, but
    coincided with a period when I began questioning why I was trying
    to "kill off" troublesome pieces of my soul rather than trying to
    integrate them.
    
    The last "spider experience" I had was a daydream, or vision, if
    you will.  I was working on cleansing a newly acquired crystal,
    and suddenly got the idea to sit with it in my hands and see what
    visual images rose to mind of how best to cleanse it.  In the "movie"
    that passed in front of my closed eyes I found myself in a cavern
    and came upon a gigantic injured spider--one of its legs was missing.
    I found the leg and managed to maneuver it into its socket, and
    somehow it healed and reattached itself.  The spider reached out
    its little "feeding legs" and stroked my shoulders in what seemed
    a gesture of thanks.
    
    Allies?  :-)
    
    Marcia