Hell, or rather my brief experience of it.

[pocaracas]

It is relatively common for me to dream I'm a goalkeeper (my favorite position on the soccer court) and reflexively throw my hand to catch a ball... and the hand moves in real life and hits my wife.

[Cyberman]

As excuses go, "sorry, dear, I was going for the ball" probably don't help very much in that situation.

[Borunel]

So depending on which specific type of dream you were referring to, your comments may be accurate. However, as an overall description of dreaming, it suffers from over-generality and imprecision.

I'm not a psychologist (oneirologist? is that the term?) so I'm afraid the info was a little above my head.

My point was that (and I think this is supported by your info but please correct me if I'm wrong) dreams don't provide any new information - only various representations or permutations (including projections into the future) of what is already in your head. That is certainly my experience of dreams anyway - the best they have ever given me is perhaps pause for thought and a new viewpoint on how I am really feeling about issues that are bothering me.

[Anomalocaris]

This is called dreaming. It happens while you are asleep. Ask your friends, they dream too.

How can you explain the concept of dream to someone who has never been awake?

[Aroura]

I once dreamed of an appatosaurus in a poppy field.

That sounds like a children's book.

[Cyberman]

Now I want to read that book!

[LastPoet]

Anyone ever have a dream crash, followed by the Blue Screen Of Death? Just me, then.

When a dream BSOD's You awake, when you die its an hardware problem.

[Anomalocaris]

Anyone ever have a dream crash, followed by the Blue Screen Of Death? Just me, then.

I dreamt Jesus came to take me up into the sky to suck his cock for an eternity. But then I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and awoke, and everything was bright and hopeful again.

[Drich]

[quote='Borunel' pid='359220' dateline='1352196833']
[quote]I too have disturbing nightmares - often I get them when I'm really stressed or ill. I've dreamed some fairly weird things over time and have even kept a dream diary and my conclusion after studying it is that nothing -but nothing- that happens in my dreams is new information.[/quote]
Well, this is where we differ. Everything in the Hell revelation was 'new.' I had a very traditional view of Hell a literal lake of fire a horned devil with a pitch fork pushing everyone in. Hell went from a literal place where the Devil reigned to a nothingness where the devil like everyone elses suffers the same fate. Afterwhich I studied the biblical depictions of Hell (All of them and at some length, not just the illertations of a firey lake) and found my dream to have been more accurate than my sunday school understanding was.

[quote]Everything I dream can be described as a recursion of events, experiences and thoughts that I have had (usually) recently.[/quote]I have NEVER experienced anything like this prior or since.

[quote]I suspect that unresolved psychological issues may underlie. Was the message that you feel you experienced in your nightmare unexpected?[/quote]Yes, get my life together or be cast into Hell after this life is over.

[quote] Perhaps you felt on some level as a Christian that you did deserve to go to hell thereby explaining the dream - who knows? maybe not even yourself.[/quote]At the time I was an Atheist.

[quote]My main concern with the OPs line of reasoning in justifying the dream is this:
I speculate based on this that you stressed yourself out to such an extent over such a long period of time that you triggered your nightmare yourself - your subconscious gave you exactly what you were expecting. [/quote]Again as an atheist douche bag I wasn't expecting to see anything unless I was wrong and God existed, then I felt that He would be obligated to show me the 'proof' I needed because He made a promise to do so.. I was looking for an excuse to live a 'moral' life, and to wash my hands of what little exposure I had with christianity.

[quote]1) Why is it that you think God has shown himself to you when if you think about it he has shown you nothing tangible at all - why not show you a real life burning bush for instance or burn his name in the bonnet of your car with lightning? Basically something that can't be mistaken for, or explained as something else?[/quote]I guess you have not read my "Messenger/message thread.
http://atheistforums.org/thread-13378.html

[quote]2) If you at some point accept this may have just been a dream why is it that some part of you believes that you deserve to burn in Hell? [/quote]At the time I didn't, I a was a big bag of douche much like many of you. I was basically a 'good person,' who had never hurt anyone, and had done more harm than good. I just did not want to live my life under christian rule, and some old man told me about asking God for the 'proof' I needed. That if I just earnestly ask, seek, knock I would get what I was looking for. So I did, just to see what would happen. when nothing did right away I began to taunt and challenge God to show up. He did.

[quote]Do you think that is a healthy way to feel?[/quote]Depends on what you mean by the word healthy. If Healthy has anything to do with mental or physical health then it completely depends on my ablity to find a resolution to the conviction I experienced. As it was that 'resolution' came in the way of the attonement Jesus christ offers. so yes In this situation this was a heathly way for me to feel as it deals with my physical or mental state.

Now if you mean to ask is it 'healthy' as a measure of social conformity, in that do I think, say and do as the majority of the members of this board approve. Then i say no.. But then again, who cares what you say is 'healthy.' I don't remember having to answer to any of you in the end.

[LastPoet]

Well, at least if they kept their BJ's for themselves...