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fubarobfusco comments on Halloween thread - rationalist's horrors. - Less Wrong
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I have a recurring memory glitch that tells me I used to be able to levitate or fly. According to this memory, I used to be able to float a few feet off the ground simply by jumping up and holding there, choosing not to come down. There's a specific sensation memory associated with this, a tugging or lifting feeling in my abdomen.
The inference that follows, since I can't do it now, is that I forgot how to do it, or lost the ability somehow. This is moderately disappointing until I tell myself that it's just a memory glitch and humans can't levitate.
I have a few hypotheses about this:
I suspect my dad prevented this glitch from forming in my young mind. When I was a child, one of his favorite ways to tease me was to stand over me, and demand that I float in the air. He'd raise his hands over my head and pull them up, all the while saying "float! float in the air!" Of course I'd laugh, and I knew it was impossible, but I'd still try I'd strain, and rise up on my toes, and jump up and down, but I couldn't do it. Then he'd shake his head, and admonish that I'd better learn soon, because it would be too difficult to learn when I was "old and fat" like him.
The part of my brain that knew it was impossible would laugh, but a part of my brain would still try with all it's might to float, and quickly learned that it's impossible. Flying dreams are pretty difficult for me, now. I still find myself straining the way I did when my Dad commanded me to float.
This sounds an awful lot like my flying dreams.
I have a similar dream frequently, in which I levitate simply by pointing my toes upward, causing me to rise a few feet off the ground. Alternatively, I sometimes fly horizontally like Superman. This has led to the repeated experience of waking up and realizing I can't fly after all, and subsequently dreaming it and realizing "I can fly after all." But there are also times when, after starting to fly in a dream, I recall that this is something I can only do in dreams, and thereby infer that I'm dreaming. Sometimes this induces a creepy paradox feeling that compels me to wake myself up; at other times I'm comfortable continuing in the dream even while knowing it isn't real.
There are also times when I'm in a state close to sleep -- either having just awakened, or having become drowsy later in the day -- when my brain is in a state that makes me feel I should be able to fly. At these times I can't resist trying to "will it," even though I know intellectually that it's impossible.
I have a rare but recurring dream that resembles very much what you describe.
The only way I fly in my dreams is by swimming through air.
I occasionally have dreams in which I can fly. For me, it feels like it's just a matter of balancing correctly: I'm still affected by gravity the same as always; it's just that if I really concentrate, I can maintain a pose in which no part of me is touching the ground.
I've only rarely had flying dreams, but the sensation is similar to swimming for me, too. Not using any proper swimming strokes, but it feels like the air is thick enough to move through that way.
Me too! Though one time when I was little, I dreamed I was flying on a blue velvet cushion - straight into the mouth of my little plush fox, who had grown a lot bigger. What made it even scarier was that I knew I was dreaming, but I couldn't wake up.
I have the same memory. How do yo update ? :-p
I definitely had flying dreams, and the memory dates to when I was 2 or 3