Good thing I don’t believe in prophetic dreams!


It’s too bad I don’t have a therapist, because we could have a lot of fun with this dream.

It wasn’t much. I dreamt that the omega variant had come along, there was mass death everywhere, including my wife and I. Our floppy, decaying bodies were flung into a mass grave, and then her corpse rolled away from mine and we were separated by piles of dead strangers. The end. That’s when I woke up at 4am deep in the slough of despond and have spent the day stumbling through a grey world.

Anyway, I need to take some time off. Classes start on Tuesday, and ain’t nothin’ gonna stop them.

Well, other than death.

Comments

  1. robro says

    But hey, omicron has already peaked…right? On to the next flavor. Speaking of the next flavor, I read something about a new variant under investigation in France. I guess it’s this one: B.1.640.2 or IHU. Detected in France from someone who had traveled to Cameroon.

  2. NitricAcid says

    I have never considered any of my dreams prophetic. They’re just too damned weird for that. The most reasonable one I’ve had lately was the one where I was wandering through the various bars and nightclubs of Edmonton, in the rain, looking for one with a D&D game that I could join, but they were all the new editions instead of the one I play.

  3. microraptor says

    Yesterday, my county’s new Covid cases were 156. In a small, rural county.

    Yeah, I’m staying home and avoiding people.

  4. birgerjohansson says

    My nightmares surprisingly often involve alien xenomorphs. So far they have not been prophetic.
    As for humans dying off, your dream failed to answer the obvious question; are there robots around to replace us? If the answer is “yes” it was a good dream.

  5. cartomancer says

    I have had unpleasant yet entirely explicable Covid dreams too, over the last six months. They started at around the time my twin brother told me his wife wouldn’t let him get vaccinated, and they haven’t stopped since. They involve him dying in hospital and me feeling awful I couldn’t persuade him to protect himself.

    I tried bribery again this week. Hasn’t done much so far, but you never know.

  6. unclefrogy says

    I have for most of my life never paid paid that much attention to my dreams particularly the ones I have at night. the ones I have when I am awake however are gone over and reoccur with variations all to often. they are either like yours here doom and monsters and pointless or they are overly optimistic to be almost pollyannish. lately the optimistic ones have taken the back seat I have no idea why that should be. Its not like things are difficult lately any more then they have been for some time. Maybe I just getting tired after all of this constant upset.
    I have to remember I am not a purely rational being and my emotions are very strong they are just feelings however and while I need to acknowledge them they are not objective facts. sometimes even in the midst of feelings of gloom good news arrives usually from a different direction.
    “It’s just a box of rain”

  7. DanDare says

    Councelling my good fellow. I have undertaken it in the past few months for anxiety and depression perhaps less advanced.

  8. larpar says

    PZ, do your dreams include an old black woman from Nebraska or a dude dressed in denim with worn down bootheels?

  9. jacksprocket says

    JW Dunne notwithstanding, there’s no evidence that dreams can be prophetic- though they might give a visual representation of what you are (subconsciously?) worrying about. Which leaves me in a poor state- my recurring dream is being at a party or some public place, and suddenly realising that I have no trousers on.

  10. PaulBC says

    I remember having a dream as a teenager in which a lightbulb burnt out. Then after I woke up, the first light switch I turned on, the bulb went “pop” and burned out just like that.

    When I say I “remember” that does not mean it actually happened. It’s possible that the bulb burning out triggered some kind of deja vu. It’s also possible that nothing like it ever happened and I am just confused all these years later. Finally, it could have happened and just be a complete coincidence, but it’s not like I dream about lightbulbs burning out all the time, though I dream about similar things, trivial incidents and breakages.

    I find the notion interesting though. What if I could sporadically see trivial events happening in the near future? It would be weird to be sure. It wouldn’t exactly be a superpower if the events have little significance and are not actionable. It might make an interesting fictional premise–more of a side theme than main plot.

  11. moarscienceplz says

    PZ, I am sorry you are surrounded by Republican death zombies. I live int the SF Bay area, where the great majority of my fellow citizens have been fully vaxxed and boosted. I personally, know nobody who has gotten sick, let alone died. All I can say is, let all good people work as hard as they can to defeat EVERY Republican, in EVERY place. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD REPUBLICAN!!!

  12. moarscienceplz says

    P. S., I don’t think the Democratic party is worth much either, but, one war at a time.

  13. PaulBC says

    moarscienceplz@12 The SF Bay Area isn’t utopia, and real estate is absurdly expense. But I agree that people in my area are reasonable about masks and I assume vaccination though I can’t observe it directly. It holds across a wide range of demographics as well (at least Costco and Target shoppers). I have no idea why something as common sense as disease protection has to be politicized. It does vary somewhat by zip code, and I am personally quite tired of this pandemic. I thought I was cheerfully in it for the “long haul” but coming up on two years, I’ll admit it would be nice to be done with it.

  14. brightmoon says

    Frankly I’m tired of the antivaxxers . We New Yorkers still have a few. Standing on the corners with megaphones screaming like crazy soapbox preachers . We’ve got a few of those too. New Yorkers tend to ignore the preachers and talk about the antivaxxers like a dog using words like aww shutup, moron and idiot!

  15. brightmoon says

    The lines to get vaccinated or tested are very long . Unprotected People are realizing that this WILL kill or injure you. I just got over Covid but it wasn’t even as bad as a cold but I’m vaxxed and boosted .

  16. Ridana says

    A total stranger knocked on my door at 7:30 am to check to see if I was ok or needed anything because he’d had a premonition something bad was going to happen to me. He assured me he wasn’t asking for money or anything and just stopped by on his way to the ER, and that they (or someone) had killed his daughter but he couldn’t prove it. Said he’d check on me again. I said please don’t. He showed me the crucifix he wears I guess made of his daughter’s ashes? and then cheerfully left.

  17. says

    Huh. If it’s any consolation, last night I dreamed that a sinister government cabal was attempting to create a band of magically- and psychically-powered secret agents who would be able to do literally anything they wanted (who of course would all be loyal to the evil bad guys), and somehow I was present at the attempt and absorbed all the magic and stuff, so although I didn’t apparently gain any powers (or at least the dream ended before any manifested) I was still able to thwart an evil world-conquering plot by The Bad Guys. Just as much likelihood (i.e. none) that that was prophetic as yours.

  18. davidc1 says

    “B.1.640.2 or IHU” Can’t see the new variant catching on with a name like that,well you know what I mean.
    I spent nine years in that London as a Motorcycle courier,I often have dreams about it.Mainly I am trying to get in touch with the office,and I keep calling the wrong rider number.Or I am using a mobile phone, but I have forgotten the company’s telephone number.
    I did have one dream ,it was Friday afternoon I was going home to Shropshire that day ,and I wanted a job to take me there.
    I got a job going to Shrewsbury, for cash,and somehow a big jar of honey and that nice receptionist from Crutched Friars EC3 were somehow involved in it.
    Weird, or what.

  19. davidc1 says

    @15 I did read of one ICU doctor in the UK who was asked if it was possible to take a cancer patient off a ventilator so a unvaccinated covid patient could have their bed.

  20. birgerjohansson says

    Do your dreams ever include me standing in a lab coat and laughing diabolically? Because I am thinking of creating super-covid so we get rid of the Ark B passengers.

  21. lumipuna says

    I’m revising a paper that’s almost ready for resubmission and last night I had a dream where I included the word “fuck” in the manuscript.

  22. rietpluim says

    That’s odd. I’ve always thought that people can’t dream of their own deaths. It appears they can dream of their remains.