Tony

I think everybody had nightmares, especially children. I never was religious, so I never had religious nightmares. I had other nightmares. They were even recurring nightmares – I had them every once in a while: a skeleton was after me or a bad guy from the really violent movie. When I got tired of them I decided to create a way (during day, of course) how to get rid of the skeleton and the bad guy. I think I was 8 or 9 years old. I knew that a skeleton can’t walk – there are no muscles. So, I continued to prepare a plan for defense, I’ll throw stones at the skeleton and break it. Next time I had that nightmare I did what I prepared. At the beginning I was scared, as usual, but when the skeleton approached to me I recalled my daytime preparation. Suddenly I’ve got a few stones close to me, I throw them at the skeleton and it broke in pieces.

When I thought about the bad guy, I realized that he was only human – he can be killed by the handgun. Next time I had that nightmare… you guessed right.

So, I’m curious, how the religious nightmares look like and were you able to get rid of them?

Tony

It looks like I touched something that people don't like to talk about.

Sorry if I caused any pain.

Evangelion

I've never had any religious nightmares.

This is probably also the case with the many people who have not responded to your thread.

wildernesse

My nightmares were always about being chased. I don't think religion had anything to do with them--the earliest dream I remember was being chased by the Incredible Hulk.

My mother is usually in these dreams also, looking like she just fell out of bed. (Meaning she's wearing glasses and her hair's not done!)

--tibac

Salmon of Doubt

"What the worst nightmare you had that you wouldn’t have had if you weren’t religious?"

That's a bit of a weird question, really. How do I know what I would or wouldn't dream about if I were religious? Maybe I would just have the same nightmares, but instead of being chased and attacked by a big dog, I'd be attacked by some red guy with a pitchfork.

Maybe if I were religious I would have been inside reading the bible instead of watching X-Men, and would therefore have a nightmare about falling off the tower of Babel instead of suddenly finding I had Wolverine's claws and had to fight a really huge tiger. (my dreams are weird!)

But I have never had any religious dreams, so I really don't know. What kind of responses were you expecting?

Lobstrosity

I was once trapped in a house with an invisible mummy that was chasing me and killing people. I'm not sure how I knew it was a mummy or why mummies would necessarily be invisible (the probability of a mummy's coming back to life coupled with its also achieving invisibility has to be astronomical). If I had been religious, maybe it would have been throwing bibles at me as well?

beth

I used to have religious dreams. Some would have called them prophetic. I grew up in a church of god and the preacher would scream hell, fire, and brimstone at us. He would give horrifying accounts on Revelation and the tribulation. It scared and fascinated me so much that my six year old mind read Revelation almost every day. In fact, I think I've read that book several hundred times.

This caused me to have dreams on the rapture and the tribulation. I would dream of the antiChrist and I would try to flee from him. I was being hunted by him. I'd wake up crying, or I would jump awake with a start. I always remembered every detail to the dreams and I would make them even more horrifying the next dream.

Demigawd

When I have dreams with religious symbols, they tend to be animistic or pagan. The brown bear is a typical totem for me.

One time, Apollo in glowing golden armor showed up to save me from a slasher-film type demon.

Christian mythology has rarely played any role in my dreams, despite a fundie childhood. I have dreamt of Hell, but it wasn't the fire-and-brimstone one so popular with the bible literalists. It was a grey desert packed full of people crying out in alienation. You see, while they were packed like sardines together, they had no senses such as sight, hearing, touch, etc., to realize they were not alone.

God, the supreme creator diety, has made a brief appearance, actually a couple of nights ago. He was the Cosmic Janitor. Very Terry Pratchett.

Tony

Dear Salmon of Doubt,

Sorry for the confusion.

What I meant is: If you are religious person, what nightmares that involve religion you had? Do you think you would have the same nightmares if you weren’t religious? Did you try to get rid of these nightmares? If yes, what did you do?

I’m asking these questions to find out if religion adds extra problems (like fears, phobias, nightmares) to someone’s life.

Thanks for your replies everybody.

Treacle Worshipper

Well, I'm no longer religious, but I was until about a year ago.

When I was a child & into my teens I had recurring dreams about being burned alive, frequently as a martyr tied to a stake.

I'm pretty sure these had a beginning in my religious upbringing & belief. Haven't had them for a long time, tho'.

TW