Banishing Nightmares Options

hey everybody! i have a friend who keeps getting a serious nightmare since he was 11, something about a monster with red eyes. anyway...he stops breathing in his sleep (to make the monster go away) and gave me quite a scare, so that got me thinking its about time to run some interference. anyway i was wondering if anyone knew a way to banish the nightmare so that he can get a good night's rest? i was thinking about the process of hand making a dream catcher...but how is it done? any ideas would be great....

The red flag that popped up when I read this was:

he stops breathing in his sleep (to make the monster go away) and gave me quite a scare

If he's litterally sleeping and he stops breathing on a regular basis that is an indication that he is suffering from some kind of sleep disorder. Maybe I have this wrong. Reoccuring nightmares can also indicate some level of post trauma. It is possible your friend has some kind of condition, neurological or psychological, that should be at least examined by a doctor.

Just a suggestion you might run by him.

Aside from that I wouldn't try any magickal route to start, except maybe to help the process. I would simply have him record his dreams involving this shadow character, have him ask himself questions like "how am I like this shadow figure?", "What does this shadow represent?" Things like that. He could even write the question down on paper before he goes to sleep and place it under his pillow.

Nightmares can often represent our personal insecurities, fears, anxieties. Qualities about ourselves we don't like to talk about because they reveal self-doubt, low esteem things we aren't really proud of, even if they are pretty minor things. The nightmares could simply be related to a fear of sleeping in general. Sometimes the vulnerability of sleep scares people.

One thing you could have him try: Before your friend sleeps, have him cleans him self, then his room. He could walk in a circular fashion around his room touching random things as he goes. He could walk a number of circles, the number can be something special to him - 3, 7, 13, etc etc. At the same time he should say something (and say it with passion) like "This room is mine, pleasant dreams will be mine" By doing this he will reinforce his own will in the room. He will reinfornce the notion of not having bad dreams. And if it works, he won't have bad dreams. But he can't be afraid of sleeping or even afraid of the nightmare because then all this ritual will accomplish is dizziness.

yes...i DID suggest that his night-terror could be a symptom of sleep apnea. however, he remains cynical about it...he reasons that the breathing problem is deliberate (if he holds his breath, the monster will go away). in any case, you make a strong point about it possibly being a response to trauma. He denies that there is a physical issue so blatantly, i wonder that he actually DOES know what started it all. In any case, im not sure i can convince him to do a particular ritual like the one you suggest...he is not as "superstitious" as i am. And also, there is the issue of forcing introspection, which cannot be done. That is why my immediate focus was on a tangible item that is already reinforced by popular culture (hence, he already has an unconscious impression of its power in his mind). It would not be so easily swept aside or taken for granted. i guess what im trying to say is...the guy is daft and its no wonder that the nightmare is as bad as it is with his listening problem the way it is.

still you are right...he needs to see a specialist. perhaps a spell to force him to go to the doctors is in order. sigh*

In my humble opinion it is never a good idea to "force" someone to do something through spell craft. Say for example you force your friend to see a doctor by casting a spell on then he ends up going to the doctor - but not because he wanted to but because something made him go (like a car accident or some such event). You might try to cast a spell on him to make him more open minded to at least considering any psychological cause. Past trauma doesn't have to mean abuse. It can also include near death experiences or the loss of a loved one or witnessing a traumatic event. Like for example after 9/11 parents complained to news networks about replaying footage of the twin towers collapsing because it was giving their kids nightmares (true story). To adults and out developed brains we can understand that that one event was a single event, but to smaller children seeing the attack over and over again was like constantly reliving the event as though it had just happened. Its why kids can have nightmares after watching scary movies too.

But in my experience people who are resistant to change are resistant to magick and it is likely if you push the issue it will reach a breaking point where he gives you a bad reaction. Some such reaction might include not speaking to you or being verbally abrasive/argumentative. Chances are even if you cast some spell on him, he will still avoid the issue until he no longer can. It is an indication of delusional thinking to believe that holding your breath will prevent a "demon" from attacking you. While having that delusion doesn't mean anything serious, holding on to it really suggests this nightmare is being used as an inlet to avoid dealing with something. It could be your friend just has a hard time venting his emotions or expressing himself in a positive way. You can continue to press the issue if you wish and you might convince him to take action. But until he is really willing to help himself he will not likely every recognize the importance of the issue or that questioning and really dealing with the dream imagery is the only way to get over it.

Its kind of like putting your hand on a hot stove. The first time you do it, it really hurts. You learn to not put your hand on a hot stove. But the trauma of the first event is so great that now you are afraid to even go near the stove. Every time you see it, it evokes fear. So you avoid it and deal with the trauma by doing something that doesn't hurt. The demon in his dream represents something unpleasent, thats simply the case. By holding his breath, he is avoiding this unpleasant thing. In fact breathing has its own symbolism. Dreaming that you are holding your breath can mean tension and anxiety or being unrelenting in your ways. Breathing can relate to life and relaxation. So if you are holding your breath in your dream, you are avoiding life and not relaxing.

"it is never a good idea to "force" someone"

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/respect.gif) oh good lord no! i wasn't serious when i said that lol. that was a joke. he HATES doctors. (of course you guys wouldn't know that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/oops.gif) ) still, it would be nice to speed him to a proper kind of confrontation, so that it doesn't snowball and hurt him.

"Chances are even if you cast some spell on him, he will still avoid the issue until he no longer can. It is an indication of delusional thinking to believe that holding your breath will prevent a "demon" from attacking you. "

yeah amen to that. every time i ask him about his reasoning in not confronting the problem, he reverts to a five year old mentality. still, i guess even if i 'check underneath the bed' for him...and keep a metaphorical night light on...he'll find other reasons to be afraid. you make a good argument...you are right, i probably can't help him. I'm not even sure its necessarily my business, except he was eager to tell me everything about it and the whole breathing problem scared me. I forget that what i turn to for empowerment, isn't going to help skeptics much. lol.

I don't think you need to get all mystical and esoterical about it its not that hard to get rid of nightmares. I don't have nightmares anymore simply because nothing scares or bothers me. Its about your philosophy. Take the worst case scenario as a challenge. Is a monster with red eyes really that scary? Whats the worst it can do to you? Rip you apart? I have dreams from time to time where I get attacked by a dog but I just fight the dog and every single time I win so its never a nightmare. I think its about accepting that whatever happens happens. Being torn to pieces by a wild animal isn't really that bad. Its a bit of pain but its not gonna last that long.

This post has been edited by Xochipilli: Aug 24 2008, 07:49 PM

Xochiphilli has a point there, your friend can simply learn to ignore the bad imagry of the dreams through a sort of self imposed desensitization treatment. What therapists can do for example in the case of those with a fear of snakes is they can progressively introduce a snake into therapy sessions. So a client goes to therapy and usually talk with a councelor about things related to anxiety sense irrational fears like that are usually a transference of real life fears to fearing things like the dark or snakes and spiders. Thus they go to these sessions and over sometimes a long period of time (as in years, but it can be as short as a few sessions as well) a therapist slowly introduces the snake (or whatever fear) by saying things like well we have a snake in the next room, how does that make you feel? And the client proceeds to describe how knowing there is a snake in the other room makes them feel (generally tense, nervous, worried and so forth). But for the duration of the session they talk about real life fears and anxieties, each consecutive session induces the snake closer and closer to the individual until they are litterally conducting the session with the snake in the client's hand. Thus the client learns to differentiate fear and axiety about snakes and that of real life - which enables them to deal with those real world things in a good way.

Another more extreme route is to the snake and pretty much toss it on the person - intentionally traumatizing them and repeatedly doing so until their body simply becomes desensitized. However in my opinion that can have the potential to have serious draw backs if it fails.

With most phobias people just avoid the fear and then have a physical reaction if they are forced into such situation where they have to face it (EEK!!! ITS A MOUSE!!!). In the case of dreams a person who experiences fear reactions within them, is unintentional and unavoidable. Therefore a person who has specific phobias to elements within dreams is repeatedly traumatized by them. In the case of your friend it sounds like this has been going on for years. So its no wonder he's not open to seeing any doctors or trying anything he considers out there or unorthadox. At this point there may even be a measure of hopeless in that your friend simply believes there is no solution other than to go about business as usual and deal with it in the only way he knows how. Which touches on underlying factors in behaviors. We are conditioned according to the way we behave, its why people get addicted to gambling. Your friend has practiced these behaviors for a period of time and has gotten good at them so really there is no simple solution. If your friend refuses help, legitimate or alternative, its ultimately your friend's burden to bare. However in the case of all addictions (be they chemical or simply cognative/behavioral) no amount of advice or words of good hope will change a person until they are ready to change themselves.

hey everybody! i have a friend who keeps getting a serious nightmare since he was 11, something about a monster with red eyes. anyway...he stops breathing in his sleep (to make the monster go away) and gave me quite a scare, so that got me thinking its about time to run some interference. anyway i was wondering if anyone knew a way to banish the nightmare so that he can get a good night's rest? i was thinking about the process of hand making a dream catcher...but how is it done? any ideas would be great....

I've normally been able to tell the difference between nightmares that were purely about my own head, and those which weren't. The ones that weren't usually fell into either two catagories; a) the Greys, or b) acorporeal randoms who noticed that I was sensitive to them and wanted to communicate to someone about how they had died.

It's worth noting that inducing nightmares are strictly the domain of the bush league, at least in my own observation. Anything capable of causing more serious problems is usually both more direct, and more mature, even if still malevolent.

That being the case, for me the LBRP has generally worked. If you want to go to more effort you can draw up a multi-sigil pattern for warding as well, but such is probably overkill.

Sandalwood incense was very effective before I found out about the LBRP as well, but the single most effective thing I've ever found for protecting my sleep has been a statue of Kali Ma.

If the kid has a sleep disorder, then maybe he does need therapy; although truthfully I would tend to share his cynicism of that diagnosis. My own opinion on sleep apnea is that the term is an atheistic rationalisation for something unpleasant from astral space which is actually trying to pull you back into a nightmare so that it can continue to screw with your head.

Given that when I'm under attack, the undesirable in question will usually be able to cause the nightmare to continue from the moment I fall back to sleep, (and I am unable to continue dreams in such a manner otherwise) I tend to believe that said interpretation, however seemingly implausible, is actually accurate.

That being the case, for me the LBRP has generally worked. If you want to go to more effort you can draw up a multi-sigil pattern for warding as well, but such is probably overkill...

...If the kid has a sleep disorder, then maybe he does need therapy; although truthfully I would tend to share his cynicism of that diagnosis. My own opinion on sleep apnea is that the term is an atheistic rationalisation for something unpleasant from astral space which is actually trying to pull you back into a nightmare so that it can continue to screw with your head.

LBRP works fine.

Something also to remember - night terrors and sleep paralysis are almost always accompanied by a feeling of suffocation, choking, drowning, etc. Not being able to breathe. The old idea that nightmares are caused by a "witch" or "demon" sitting on your chest probably derive from this (at least that's what we're told).

There's typically not much to be done from a modern medical perspective, but the LBRP or similar centring rituals cannot hurt. I think the real risk isn't apnea (dreaming about not breathing doesn't mean you're not breathing, and feeling like you can't breathe while you're sleeping doesn't mean you aren't breathing normally), but mental/emotional. That's where the banishings can help before and after, and that's where one might be vulnerable to picking up Something/Someone else while asleep.

The one thing that can minimize these sorts of dreams is what we should all be doing anyway - good diet and regular sleep. Keep to a schedule - that in itself is a sort of ritual.

On the plus side, dream states like night terrors and sleep paralysis are the first steps in achieving lucid dreaming. I had both for many years before getting to the lucid dreaming stage. Made everything completely worthwhile. Lucid dreaming is a powerful tool.

Best,
Hermetic668

wow I had no idea this thread was still active. lol. thank you guys. my friend is doing much better. i think the more he talked about it the less it happened.

yeah petrus i know what you mean about those freakin leaches that drag you back into a dream (or try to)...haha. they never seem to get too far with me. I have too much will power (and also, I am very ADHD so I don't pay attention to them long enough hehe) that I assert in my dream state, and if i have to i can consciously wake myself up...but it still surprises me from time to time. i ALSO get those visitors you're talking about...haha, what strange and random conversations those moments bring!
the most recent leach was much larger and smarter and had deliberately sought ME out to feed so it has actually got me worrying; I haven't effectively scared it away yet or tracked down where it came from so I'm waiting to see if it returns. Anyway let that f-er come back and see it bite off more than it can chew....

yes I agree Hermetic668, Lucid dreams are the BEST! -V