Second Life & The Forum Causing Strange Dreams

[Persephone Emerald]

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

It was someone else who told me to "stop using that word". *hugs*

I'm also fine with it being used appropriately, just not indiscriminately.

[Persephone Emerald]

3 hours ago, Brightstar7777 said:

I couldn't decide if Second Life itself is significant to the meta in the way that first life is. My intuitive conclusion after experimentally building spiritual spaces in world is that the universe seems to consider virtual construction to be as real as material construction, which was quite interesting to discover. Looking at all these seemingly abandoned builds in-world, is it like a haunted house whose walls absorbed the lifeforce energy of its residents and are now full of episodic memories of intense moments that leave indelible marks hidden in the topology of a space for sensitive others to feel or find? Did an egregore form naturally, or was one or more created by the users? Ever get a strange gothic vibe walking around parts of an old region, say Grignano, which was built in front of you by your now-missing friends, structures now frozen forever in time like they're waiting for the return of their owners into perpetuity, a last memorial that once they too existed in our world? Do you ever feel parts of your old friends stir, alive, within you long after the material relationship ended? Have you ever been divided from a friend whose spirit within you is bewildered as to why and how their material counterpart has now gone and damaged the integrity of reality's continuity? I also get this spooky vibe around the Ivory Tower of Prims, it feels lively despite being lonely when I visit. And yet these ghosts are so close, you can reach and touch them.

Isn't it strange how oftentimes the virtual land never reverts, it's never turned back over to the market, like the spirit of this place is preserving the spot for them because they're alive and occupying Second Life in some parallel Earth's Timeline that spookily shares assets on the grid or something, separated beyond reach from this 'now' by an infinitely thin veil of space-time. 

Who's the spooky lady in grey, made of many faces in a spire-like structure centered in a room with living walls? Who's the British-sounding lady who looks like she was constructed from magazine photo cutouts of eyes, torn paper edges around each, and the well-dressed man with the scissors? Who's the big lion (usually in the sunlit sky, perhaps even the sun itself), or the mecha-spider centaur girl doll, the big teddy bear, and so forth. There are higher entities here, proximate, but it often feels like the causal connection between things that happen in-world or on the forums and these visions is a little ambiguous. Maybe some of these critters are from discord, but not all.

What hidden things or entities have you noticed in your time here?

I can't really relate to most of what you're saying here, but I do believe spirits can exist in virtual reality just as they can in physical reality and in dreams. They're non-physical beings after all. I think they come into SL with us, following us here. I think spirits that feed on certain kinds of human energies and emotions (those we might call demons) can thrive in an environment that encourages the types of emotions they feed upon - so lust definitely, but also confusion, anger or despair. I think the kinds of spirits that we label as deities also exist in SL - especially crossroads deities and those of communication and creativity. I think Crossroads deities in particular are attracted to places in SL where new people have been rezzing in for years, as well as old, established sandboxes. These types of deities are also often thought of as trickster deities, which makes sense when one considers that big public sandboxes also attract griefers. Maybe the spirit of these deities encourages the mischievous behavior of old-school griefers to challenge our beliefs about what is correct and proper? 

[Persephone Emerald]

I dream of SL more often when I'm in SL more . I don't think I've ever dreamt of the forums, though I have dreamt of text, inventory, and a user-interface, as well as being in a world that's like SL. In my last SL dream I think I was flying over or looking at the new Houseboat regions from above, because I've been watching the new regions way too much lately. It's normal for me to become lucid is my dreams and realize I'm dreaming. It's also normal to kind of sense this isn't normal reality, but not exactly know it's a dream. When I know I'm dreaming of SL I often know there are square regions, that we can fly up to sky platforms, teleport and rez stuff.

[Rat Luv]

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Edited August 11, 2022 by Rat Luv

[Rat Luv]

This might all be caused by the new run of the Hadron Collider...maybe when they turned it on again last month, we entered a new timeline  This new timeline might be one where the GD forum rules are completely different. I have noticed lots of other weird things, out of character behaviour in the past month...

[Rat Luv]

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Edited August 12, 2022 by Rat Luv
duplicated post for some reason

[Luna Bliss]

5 hours ago, Brightstar7777 said:

What hidden things or entities have you noticed in your time here?

Once I had a very special cat, named after a type of spirituality I was involved in, and given to me by the woman I was learning this spirituality from.
One early Spring day he was hit by a car, and I laid his body in the living room, awaiting burial in the garden.

I had a dream that night, and he appeared as a huge cat looking very wise with his same albino coloring, but with glowing, loving eyes. He communicated to me nonverbally, and he said "love never dies". It was the most important message I'll ever receive.

I think this is similar to what you describe, where all these places we had experiences in, where we felt love and that were so important to us, never actually die. Or at the very least what you're describing reminded me of this.

I had a park in SL once, and it was important to many who led virtual lives there as they were having fun, meeting others, some finding love. One person sent a framed photo captured one day as he and his love stood in front of a waterfall at Bliss Gardens. I think they even ended up as a couple outside SL.
Anyway, I put the photo on a wall in one of my houses that I sell. And I'm sure as long as the person who had all those experiences in Bliss Gardens is alive the virtual space where he existed with his love will always be alive for him. Egregore? Perhaps. Like you, I don't have a purely materialistic concept of our existence where only one definition of reality is allowed.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Luna Bliss

[blissfulbreeze]

I've had dreams where the guy that I was seeing was telling me to hurry up, wake up and come online. I'd wake up and check the dashboard and he would be online. So, I'd get on SL from mobile. and he'd say.. oh I was missing you a lot and wish you came on.

That happened more than once, and with maybe 3 different men.

[Jordyn McGregor]

I once dreamt my sig other at the time was getting me to move from our home and had all these skanks helping out...cos he was fooling around with them behind my back. 

Needless to say the "fooling around" part turned out to be 100% on the money.  

Edited August 12, 2022 by Jordan Whitt

[Ceka Cianci]

I really only ever had one thing happen that I haven't been able to explain.. This doesn't have to do with ghosts or spirits or supernatural things or Lucy brain powers where someone can read my mind or me theirs..

This was something that happened to me and another person in broad daylight right on our front porch on a cloudless day about mid summer..

We were standing on the front porch,   I can't remember how old i was, maybe 12 or so..  all was calm and then out of nowhere this thign came out of the sky and struck right at our feet.. It looks like a cartoon version of a lightning bolt.. It was white, flat and jagged on the edges and went from thin to wider.. Thin at our feet  wider at the sky..

It was loud as hell and scared the crap out of us to the point that we both ran in the house and freaked out the adults inside..

it was wide like you could have walked up it, and it didn't blind us and we had time enough to see it to have what it looked like burnt into both our brains.

Also, it didn't leave a mark in the ground..

That's about the onyl thing I haven't been able to think of what it could be out of just about everything else I've come across in my life time that happened to me.

If i can remember it later, I'll get in photoshop and draw it out..

 

[Luna Bliss]

16 hours ago, Jordan Whitt said:

I once dreamt my sig other at the time was getting me to move from our home and had all these skanks helping out...cos he was fooling around with them behind my back. 

Needless to say the "fooling around" part turned out to be 100% on the money.  

I've had similar type experiences where I wish I'd paid more attention to my dreams.
Sometimes dreams (our unconscious mind) knows things our conscious mind doesn't, and we're wise to pay attention or give some credence to the dreams.
Other times our unconscious mind is simply reflecting fear of a possible future we don't want to happen.
Now if I could only tell the difference!

[Luna Bliss]

15 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I really only ever had one thing happen that I haven't been able to explain.. This doesn't have to do with ghosts or spirits or supernatural things or Lucy brain powers where someone can read my mind or me theirs..

This was something that happened to me and another person in broad daylight right on our front porch on a cloudless day about mid summer..

We were standing on the front porch,   I can't remember how old i was, maybe 12 or so..  all was calm and then out of nowhere this thign came out of the sky and struck right at our feet.. It looks like a cartoon version of a lightning bolt.. It was white, flat and jagged on the edges and went from thin to wider.. Thin at our feet  wider at the sky..

It was loud as hell and scared the crap out of us to the point that we both ran in the house and freaked out the adults inside..

it was wide like you could have walked up it, and it didn't blind us and we had time enough to see it to have what it looked like burnt into both our brains.

Also, it didn't leave a mark in the ground..

That's about the onyl thing I haven't been able to think of what it could be out of just about everything else I've come across in my life time that happened to me.

If i can remember it later, I'll get in photoshop and draw it out..

 

Interesting experience, and I wonder what that was!
My first thought is that humans might all see lightening striking up close in a similar fashion in the way you describe, or at least with some 'types' of strikes. Hard to say as not many survive to tell the tale!
I read that lightening can strike without a cloud in the sky viewable, as it can strike from quite a distance away where a storm is brewing.
But then...there might be something Twilight Zone worthy here! lol

I had a dream last night where Nancy Pelosi was diving into the water on a mission to correct a problem at the ocean bottom (does dreaming about a politician qualify as a nightmare!? lol). Anyway, it was a terrorist cell or something bad down there she was aiming to take care of.
Exploring dreams is a diving of sorts, diving into something deeper within ourselves, so I see a connection between this thread where we are contemplating our dives and the dream about a dive. Also, because I've been messing with underwater environments in SL and Photoshop that might have contributed.
Of course, I woke up before understanding what the danger or solution was regarding the dive to the ocean bottom -- it seems I wake up when there is no solution OR when the solution is something my conscious mind is not ready or willing to know.

[Sid Nagy]

I don't have actual remembrance of dreams about SL.
But it happened more than once that I had a solution for a SL building problem after a good night sleep.
So there has to be something going on in my head at times about SL when sleeping.

[Luna Bliss]

4 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

I don't have actual remembrance of dreams about SL.
But it happened more than once that I had a solution for a SL building problem after a good night sleep.
So there has to be something going on in my head at times about SL when sleeping.

Very cool how we can do that -- just nod off and let another part of the brain do the work for us!  

An interesting link describing many discoveries inspired by dreams, including Einstein's theory of relativity:
https://www.readersdigest.com.au/true-stories-lifestyle/history/13-world-changing-ideas-came-dreams-literally

[Luna Bliss]

I had another unusual dream (well maybe most dreams are unusual!) that incorporated SL. I was viewing the inside of a large building, perhaps an old train station, and the huge room was very dark. People were sleeping or resting on benches and chairs. They appeared to be homeless or very down on their luck. There was one man I knew, and I was surprised he was there.

 I left the large room and began walking down a long hallway that seemed to stretch on forever. The hallway had doors. I opened one and apprehended a beautiful virtual scene outside the door that was magnificently alive. One of my enormous SL plants I use in fantasy scenes changed from a slight gray or fuzzy state and rezzed into view.

[Ceka Cianci]

22 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

Interesting experience, and I wonder what that was!
My first thought is that humans might all see lightening striking up close in a similar fashion in the way you describe, or at least with some 'types' of strikes. Hard to say as not many survive to tell the tale!
I read that lightening can strike without a cloud in the sky viewable, as it can strike from quite a distance away where a storm is brewing.
But then...there might be something Twilight Zone worthy here! lol

I'm sure there is a logical explanation for what happened.. It more than likely one of those one in a zillion things that happens, that someone is in the right spot at the right time, but happens a lot more times that we don't see.

It's good to have somethings left unexplained, I think.

 

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

On 8/11/2022 at 9:34 PM, Ceka Cianci said:

I really only ever had one thing happen that I haven't been able to explain.. This doesn't have to do with ghosts or spirits or supernatural things or Lucy brain powers where someone can read my mind or me theirs..

This was something that happened to me and another person in broad daylight right on our front porch on a cloudless day about mid summer..

We were standing on the front porch,   I can't remember how old i was, maybe 12 or so..  all was calm and then out of nowhere this thign came out of the sky and struck right at our feet.. It looks like a cartoon version of a lightning bolt.. It was white, flat and jagged on the edges and went from thin to wider.. Thin at our feet  wider at the sky..

It was loud as hell and scared the crap out of us to the point that we both ran in the house and freaked out the adults inside..

it was wide like you could have walked up it, and it didn't blind us and we had time enough to see it to have what it looked like burnt into both our brains.

Also, it didn't leave a mark in the ground..

That's about the onyl thing I haven't been able to think of what it could be out of just about everything else I've come across in my life time that happened to me.

If i can remember it later, I'll get in photoshop and draw it out..

You probably saw a "bolt from the blue". I've never seen one, but I've heard them. I'm jealous of your experience, Ceka.

I've seen several lightning strikes fairly close up. They look exactly as you've described. One bolt struck a neighbor's house at the gutter, traveled along it, then down the spout, fanning across the lawn. In the following days the lawn revealed a pattern that could best be described as "looks like lightning".

https://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+strikes+on+grass&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiawvbHosT5AhWbs3IEHQJhC0YQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=lightning+strikes+on+grass&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1CoA1ioA2CABGgAcAB4AIABQogBe5IBATKYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=utX3Ypr9IJvnytMPgsKtsAQ&bih=1178&biw=1363&client=firefox-b-1-d

Here's what some strike survivors look like...

https://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+scars&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4uayuosT5AhXhEGIAHbTOA28Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1363&bih=1178&dpr=2

The most impressive strike I've seen was in my neighbor's yard, when a bolt hit one of their massive willow trees. We were sitting in their gazebo at the time. The entire trunk of the tree (all we could see from the gazebo) lit up. The energy from the bolt was so high that it vaporized water in the trunk's cambium layer, causing the cambium and bark to launch explosively out onto the lawn. One large branch died, but the bulk of the tree is still standing, over a decade later.

The least impressive strikes have been on  local cell towers, which don't bat an eye. That is, of course, expected behavior, thanks to Ben Franklin.

[Ceka Cianci]

11 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

You probably saw a "bolt from the blue". I've never seen one, but I've heard them. I'm jealous of your experience, Ceka.

I've seen several lightning strikes fairly close up. They look exactly as you've described. One bolt struck a neighbor's house at the gutter, traveled along it, then down the spout, fanning across the lawn. In the following days the lawn revealed a pattern that could best be described as "looks like lightning".

https://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+strikes+on+grass&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiawvbHosT5AhWbs3IEHQJhC0YQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=lightning+strikes+on+grass&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1CoA1ioA2CABGgAcAB4AIABQogBe5IBATKYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=utX3Ypr9IJvnytMPgsKtsAQ&bih=1178&biw=1363&client=firefox-b-1-d

Here's what some strike survivors look like...

https://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+scars&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4uayuosT5AhXhEGIAHbTOA28Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1363&bih=1178&dpr=2

The most impressive strike I've seen was in my neighbor's yard, when a bolt hit one of their massive willow trees. We were sitting in their gazebo at the time. The entire trunk of the tree (all we could see from the gazebo) lit up. The energy from the bolt was so high that it vaporized water in the trunk's cambium layer, causing the cambium and bark to launch explosively out onto the lawn. One large branch died, but the bulk of the tree is still standing, over a decade later.

The least impressive strikes have been on  local cell towers, which don't bat an eye. That is, of course, expected behavior, thanks to Ben Franklin.

It could have been one of those.. The thing that throws me off is how fat it was up in the sky and thin at our feet and how  it never left a mark.

If i had to describe it, the closest thing I could say it looked like was a cartoony looking Shazam or Black Adam lightning bolt. but more jagged on the sides and on an angle that it looks like you could walk right up it..

I think because it looked so fake is what is throwing me off, but lightning comes in all shapes I guess.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

It could have been one of those.. The thing that throws me off is how fat it was up in the sky and thin at our feet and how  it never left a mark.

If i had to describe it, the closest thing I could say it looked like was a cartoony looking Shazam or Black Adam lightning bolt. but more jagged on the sides and on an angle that it looks like you could walk right up it..

I think because it looked so fake is what is throwing me off, but lightning comes in all shapes I guess.

Here's my guess:

From your perspective at the end of the bolt, you might have perceived all the branches as one. They were farther away, dimmer and radiating from the bolt in all directions, so the bolt would appear as fat far away, coming to a focus at your feet.

[Love Zhaoying]

23 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

The most impressive strike I've seen was in my neighbor's yard, when a bolt hit one of their massive willow trees. We were sitting in their gazebo at the time. The entire trunk of the tree (all we could see from the gazebo) lit up. The energy from the bolt was so high that it vaporized water in the trunk's cambium layer, causing the cambium and bark to launch explosively out onto the lawn. One large branch died, but the bulk of the tree is still standing, over a decade later.

 

I guess the xylem still phloem..

I saw a strike 20 feet away, on a tennis court where people were playing. (Texas)

But anyway..I supposebly live in the Lightning capital (Tampa Bay, Florida) but I've heard it's not really true. (I live there, just not the most lightning there.)

[Luna Bliss]

59 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I'm sure there is a logical explanation for what happened.. It more than likely one of those one in a zillion things that happens, that someone is in the right spot at the right time, but happens a lot more times that we don't see.

It's good to have somethings left unexplained, I think.

 

 

Well fear not, Ceka, because this thread really isn't about the supernatural per se, although I do admit its existence (whatever it might be, but in my mind presently it means not having a purely materialistic sense of the world, that there are aspects of reality that are presently hidden to us).

The thread is primarily about how SL, the forum, and our dreams intermingle. So nothing really spooky here unless one is frightened of their subconscious mind due it being somewhat mysterious and out of our conscious control.
Our subconscious mind is where a big part of our imagination and creativity lie, and since so many virtual residents enjoy a surging of creativity and imagination when encountering SL this can further open them up and facilitate dreams about experiences in SL, especially if one is prone to remembering their dreams.

Last night I decided I wanted to dream more about SL, and lo and behold this actually happened! I'll try it again tonight.
I'm going to try something else too -- when encountering a problem (especially with a creative project in art) I'm going to ask my subconscious to dream the answer.
I'm also attempting lucid dreaming where one is aware in the dream that they are in fact dreaming (like you described earlier).

Edited August 13, 2022 by Luna Bliss

[Ceka Cianci]

10 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Well fear not, Ceka, because this thread really isn't about the supernatural per se, although I do admit its existence (whatever it might be, but in my mind presently it means not having a purely materialistic sense of the world, that there are aspects of reality that are presently hidden to us).

The thread is primarily about how SL, the forum, and our dreams intermingle. So nothing really spooky here unless one is frightened of their subconscious mind due it being somewhat mysterious and out of our conscious control.
Our subconscious mind is where a big part of our imagination and creativity lie, and since so many virtual residents enjoy a surging of creativity and imagination when encountering SL this can further open them up and facilitate dreams about experiences in SL, especially if one is prone to remembering their dreams.

Last night I decided I wanted to dream more about SL, and lo and behold this actually happened! I'll try it again tonight.
I'm going to try something else too -- when encountering a problem (especially with a creative project in art) I'm going to ask my subconscious to dream the answer.
I'm also attempting lucid dreaming where one is aware in the dream that they are in fact dreaming (like you described earlier).

I'm not worried about if the thread were spiritual or not spiritual. I just expressed it being logical as to not have people thinking I see it that way..

I'm not trying to rain on anyone else's parade. Just being clear of my perspective in my situation is all.

[Luna Bliss]

27 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I'm not worried about if the thread were spiritual or not spiritual. I just expressed it being logical as to not have people thinking I see it that way..

I'm not trying to rain on anyone else's parade. Just being clear of my perspective in my situation is all.

The thread was veering into a detailed conversation about RL lightening, and I was trying, in a nice way, to veer it back to the topic of the thread.

It's annoying that we have to be so careful about staying on-topic now, as derails can be such fun -- often more fun than the original topic!

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

The thread was veering into a detailed conversation about RL lightening, and I was trying, in a nice way, to veer it back to the topic of the thread.

It's annoying that we have to be so careful about staying on-topic now, as derails can be such fun -- often more fun than the original topic!

Ya, I didn't mean to take it off the rails.. I actually just wanted to share what happened and that be it.. But it took on life.. hehehe

[Maryanne Solo]

SL used to feature in my dreams when I was up to say,  3yo in world? I was obsessed with making clothes so that would explain it metinx.
There has been a bit of hoo haa over here recently about psilocybin trials conducted over previous years.
Some people lost the plot and freaked out totally during them. Who now claim "damage".
Others had brief but intense affairs 😲 with the organisers - no pun intended.
It turned out those who conducted the trials were mostly "know it alls" with wonderous magical theories.
None of them had any actual formal qualifications or experience either. Neither do I.
All I know is you don't give anyone hallucinogenic substances unless someone who has considerable experience
in said substance is with them and prepared to "reign in" any negative experiences that may begin to fester.
They certainly shouldn't take "advantage" of incredibly strong, but temporary amorous feelings either. 
A very close friend and I embraced, complimented each other, (using personal character descriptions) and stared into each others eyes for
pretty much 7 hours straight once 🤭 which was one of the most amazing, deeply respectful and gratifying experiences I have ever had.    
No hanky panky required, there OR in SL.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Maryanne Solo