I Just Woke Up from a Mass Shooter Nightmare

[NJCher]

As is my usual routine on Saturday morning, I went to the community gardens I supervise. I worked there from 8 a.m. until about 11:30. Yes, I did pick two crates of squash which we will donate to the food pantry this Tuesday.
(That is relevant to the dream.) I had lunch and tried to watch "The French Dispatch," but realized I was too sleepy so I turned it off and fell asleep in my chair. Then I awakened from this horrible dream:

I dreamt I was in the small Midwestern town in which my brother lives. There is a wide street that runs through this town, which is a major highway but on this section the vehicles have to go very slow. It is so wide it would be equivalent to six lanes of a turnpike. On both sides of the street, the homes are very large, nice homes under big trees.

I was driving west and I came upon an abandoned Hummer type vehicle on the street approaching another car. The Hummer vehicle was lime green, the inside yellow, and the door was open. It had been abandoned in the middle of the street but was still going, although very slow. The driver door was open while it aimlessly went about 5 mph. It was close to the other car and I thought I should try to stop, get in the Hummer car and stop it from causing damage. I didn't see who was in the other car.

I turned left on the next street so I could go back and try to get the vehicle stopped when I saw an angry man with an assault rifle charging through people's backyards. He was about five backyards away from me. I think he was the person who abandoned the car on the street. He was shooting everywhere. This being a small town there were not a lot of people out but he was killing people wherever they were. Maybe around 16 people, many of whom were gardeners, working in their backyards. He was coming right at me and I knew I had to call my brother on my cell phone to say goodbye. I knew there was no way I could escape. He was coming right at me, and that was the end of the dream.

When he was shooting people, they were working in their gardens and he shot up the plants, too. I can remember large squash leaves being ripped through in addition to the people he was killing. The most distinctive thing I remember was the anger on his face as he charged through the backyard and the rifle's rapid shots going off mechanically like we heard in one of the last shootings, I think the one in Highland Park.


I haven't had a nightmare in decades. Most of my dreams are nice, airy, delicate dreams about artists. When I awaken from them, I think oh how nice it was to meet that artist.

I told my friend this dream and she said, "Well, the killer was driving a squash colored vehicle and shooting up squash so I think he really doesn't like squash." Of course she was just joking but I think this dream is a dream of a person, a regular citizen, who is traumatized by what's going on around us.

Or maybe I'm secretly mad because I had to pick two crates of squash and it was heavy and hard to carry in the sun. None of the other gardeners were around to help at that point. But geez, a mass shooter? I'm not that mad at the other gardeners.

[Hekate]

1. Oh

[lpbk2713]

2. Maybe this might help your crate problem.

If you're lucky you could find one at a yard sale.

[irisblue]

3. Oh Cher, not surprising you, well all of us are impacted by the idea we are all endangered now

[electric_blue68]

4. That's terrible. They feel so real at the time!

[Aristus]

5. I'm sorry. You weren't dreaming.

You really are living in a country where anyone can obtain military weaponry and take out a schoolyard full of children to express some frighteningly irrational imagined grievance.

[NJCher]

6. I will admit

I burst into tears after awakening from this dream.

It is still hard to carry on normally like I should be able to.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Trauma dream.

We are being traumatized by the gun violence, senseless deaths, and fear that we or our loved ones are next.

Interesting that the dream started with a puzzling situation with the empty Hummer that you felt you could handle and resolve. Then in an instant it all morphed into a nightmare totally out of your control, which you understood you could not control, and would die.

This is certainly the current reality. People going about their daily routines, school, the mall, church, plays, clubs, etc are instantly transported to a nightmare situation.

I think the GOP counts on this to make the population more docile, submissive, numb, detached from society. Helps the GOP install their minority rule.

[NJCher]

8. yes, and then there's this, too

puzzling situation with the empty Hummer that you felt you could handle and resolve. Then in an instant it all morphed into a nightmare totally out of your control, which you understood you could not control, and would die.



Dreams have symbolism and what better symbolism could there be than the backyard. "Not in my backyard."

Well, yes, in my backyard.

I noted in my dream recap that the sounds of the rifle were like we heard with Highland Park. If you recall the clips from Highland Park that gun just went off in a monotonous, dulling, repetitive sound. Now that I think about the dream more, it is another reference to this gun violence hitting close to home. That is because I had a great aunt for whom I was the executor and POA (power of attorney), and I had to travel to Chicago to care for her on occasion.

Highland Park is close to Park Ridge, where my aunt lived, and when I went to do stuff for her, I would often go to Highland Park. In fact I think I stayed in a hotel in Highland Park. I patronized restaurants there, too.  This might mean the shootings are "hitting close to home."

Thanks for your comments, Irish_Dem. Morphing into a reality we cannot control is indeed what I think this dream means.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Yes the backyard setting is also an important part of the dream.

I am a PhD (retired) psychologist, and in my doctoral program, I specialized in testing and assessment, including projective measures such as Rorschach, etc. and dream analysis is also emphasized.

Dreams are seen as true projective information, unique to each person. Therefore we do not do the cookie cutter type dream analysis, where a snake in a dream would have the same meaning for everyone. But focus on the meaning of the symbols for each person. So your additional information is quite helpful.

I really like dream work, there is always so much to unpack in each dream. And your dream is a very good one to take a look at, since you write very well and give so much detail.

Yes of course, homes being the scene of the crime is important. Most people feel safe in their homes and backyards. We believe that mass shootings would never happen in "our own backyard." We want to believe such violence is far away from us.

The homes you describe were upscale, large homes with the residents doing work in their yards. So people who generally feel safe in their neighborhoods are no longer safe.

Sometimes we incorporate recent events into our dreams which may not be symbolic but just our brain rehashing the day's events. You had been in a gardening situation the day you had the dream and perhaps just incorporated that into your dream. But we could interpret that mass shootings now seem personal to you in that the shooter is harming gardeners, and you are a gardener. Also the dream occurred in a setting similar to where your brother lives. So you do not think you or your family are safe. You do not feel safe from gun violence on a personal level. And that is why you had the trauma dream.

Also the dream was a vivid, memorable dream indicating it is an important dream. You also indicate that this is a highly unusual kind of dream for you. Also making it an important dream.

You speculate it might be the result of minor difficulty occurring during the day, and I think not. That does not fit. This is a dream where you are in grave danger and certain you will die. That is trauma, not irritation at the day's events.

I was a bit stuck on the meaning of the lime green vehicle with yellow interior in the first part of the dream, in terms of the color. The colors are unusual I assume in a Hummer.
In most vivid dreams there is a piece that doesn't fit, and it is usually important. I thought the color of the hummer might be the thing that doesn't fit.

But I looked this up online and did see some pictures of Hummers in lime green. But I am not sure if that is a standard color or custom. But it is still unusual I think.

I took it to mean that gun violence is something we cannot ignore, there is a red light going off, no one can miss it now. It is sticking out vividly. Your dream is a warning.

Of course this could be a unique function of the person reporting the dream. I can see from your narrative that you typically dream about artists. And I can see also from your narrative that you are bright, artistic, literary, creative with a good imagination and attention to detail.

Artists are always a bit more complicated when it comes to projective testing interpretation. They provide a lot of rich, complicated, detailed and off beat information that has to be filtered out to get down to core meaning. But I do think it means that there was a problem you came across that caught your attention and could not miss. Though perhaps you can comment about what the lime green and yellow interior meant to you.

I also want to point out that 20, 30, 40 years ago this kind of dream would have an entirely different interpretation. But dreams reflect not only the individual but the individual's zeitgeist, or current social reality. These kind of dreams are now normal and reflect that Americans are becoming more and more traumatized by our environment. It is no longer a safe environment.

I would also add that terrifying a population is a typical ploy of dictatorships and fascist regimes. It produces a docile, numb population, detached from society. Your dream is one that we should pay attention to, because that is where we are headed.