Conference hydra::dejavu

    It cannot be genetic in the literal sense of the word unless in the
    sense that your gene-line contains an affinity for tornadoes of which
    both your Mother's encounter and your dreams are a manifestation.
    Life experience does not translate into genetic change.  Any
    substantial change to that statement would change the literal meaning
    of "genetic" to mean something entirely different.
    
    We cannot, however, given our current limited knowledge of
    parapsychological mechanisms rule out that somehow the concept of
    "tornado" was transfered from your mother to you paranormally.
    
    On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to suppose that this
    occured in this case -- purely psychological mechanisms suffice.
    Tornados seem to be a fairly common dream element.  Lots of people
    dream about them vividly -- occasionally or regularly.  They are huge,
    powerful, uncontrolable, thoughtlessly destructive -- wonderful symbols
    for all sorts of things.
    
    Your knowledge of your mother's experience would make tornados
    particularly meaningful for you -- the technical term is saliant.  Even
    if you did not know that you knew about this incident, tornados could
    be saliant for you given perfectly "normal" psychological mechanisms.
    Subconscious recognition of the reaction of your mother or others
    to the word or images of tornado would suffice.
    
    Dream symbolism is very personal, so I could not say what your dreams
    mean.  You should think about the "attributes" of tornados, both in the
    abstract and in what they suggest to you in terms of associated images
    and emotional responses.  See if you can find common threads in your
    life when these dreams occur.  Look at other images/situations etc.
    in the tornado dreams -- try to figure out how they relate.
    
    Meaning of them getting closer?  Lots of possibilities 1) approaching
    the age when your mother was swept up (age of parent = age of child is
    a common subconscious association) 2) change in symbolism requiring
    an introduction of threat and insecurity 3) You were subconsciously
    getting "tired" of the distant tornados -- the close up ones are more
    interesting 4) greater stress in your life in general 5) You've seen
    some neat close-up pictures which have caused your older picture of
    a "typical" tornado as distant to be replace with a picture of a
    "typical" tornado as being up close, 6) whatever they symbolize is
    more immediate in your life, hence closer.
    
    Once you understand what they mean, then you will have a shot at
    understanding why they are closer.
    
    					Topher

    Thanks Tpoher...you've got me thinking now! I can't wait for the
    next one. Unfortunately they only come once a year. 
    
                                   -M 

    
    When I was a child, I would run into little dust devils, because
    I would enjoy the feel of the wind as it swirled around me.
    
    I was told that this behavior disturbed the wind's karma(?), and
    that I should expect the wind to return likewise a diskarmatic
    retribution.
    
    Well, a couple of years ago, I used to get very vivid and frightening
    dreams about tornadoes.  These dream tornadoes (there were always
    three) did very unusual things,
    and always never harmed me, but did dastardly things to my loved
    ones around me!  Awful dreams came almost every night!
    
    Well, this started when I moved to Albuquerque; and one evening
    when I and my girlfriend were strolling about, she mentioned the
    three dormant volcanoes that silhouette the western horizon.  I then
    somehow came to some realization that the volcanoes and the tornadoes
    were "brothers",  I then gave an apology to the volcanoes to relay
    to the tornadoes.
    
    Well, I no longer have these bad dreams.  Needless to say, I don't
    run into the path of little dustdevils anymore.
    
    T
    

    As a child, and even sometimes as an adult, I had a very strong fear of
    fire during the night and would try to stay awake as late as possible
    because I was afraid of what would happen while I was sleeping.  This
    didn't affect my dreams that I remember, possibly because the fear was
    so strong that I remembered it when awake..
    
    Later I discovered that I had burned to death during a fire at night. 
    I woke up at the last minute and there was no escape.  It was such a
    horrendous experience that I carried those strong emotional effects
    into this lifetime.                                 
    
    Maybe your tornado dreams are associated with a past life
    experience(s!) with tornadoes.
    
    Meredith
                       

    Maybe as a very young child your mother simply related her experience
    to you which left a frightening & threatening impression with you.
    Over time its re-enforced through TV, stories, and other people.
    
    It culminates itself in your dreams as symbols of various fears or
    insecurities in your life.
    
    I'd tend to discount paranormal, genetic, or anything abnormal.
    
    

    up to when i was a teenager i would have these bad twister nightmares.
    which i had always thought was triggered when our house got hit
    when i was about 4. the last one i recall was a real bad one, 3
    killers touched down in front of the house. i remember not running
    and hiding that time, but standing up and looking at them filled
    with wonder. as soon as i did that the tornadoes crystalized into
    these pretty ice scuptures, kinda like those funny land masses that
    were painted on YES record covers. i never had a tornado nightmare
    after that.
    pete

    I'm inclined to agree with .5 .  My wife, two children, Mother,
    and I were in a tornado in Indiana in 1973 on the same day that
    the tornado struck Xenia, Ohio.  5 of the 6 people killed in the
    town we were in a Volkswagen microbus that we passed trying to escape
    on a bridge when the wind struck.d
    	The town was heavily damaged, and all of the local people were
    in a state of severe shock.  Because we were not local, we were
    not troubled as much.  There was, however, significant long term
    effect.  
    	About two weeks later, my son and I were in a second tornado.
    He reacted intensely to the second one.  
    	To this day, the tornadoes are vivid.  We believe that God
    protected us by causing a Light pole on the bridge to drop across
    the car preventing it from being swept from the bridge as the microbus
    was.  The experience was a faith-strengthening experience for us.
    	The tornado often comes up in family discussion.  My suspicion
    is that, particularly when you were younger, your mother talked
    about the tornado a great deal.  Her experience must have been very
    frightening.