When Is A Tree Not A Tree

I had been experiencing vivid, recurring dreams that feel eerily real – the kind I never had before, despite having no recollection of dreaming or mental imagery. For a long time now, my dreams have become increasingly vivid and detailed, with almost total recall.

This phenomenon has been happening at least twice a week, often with continuity into the next night. What’s even more unusual is that I feel like I’m watching myself from outside my body, observing events unfold without any control over the dream world.

To Make Change

One such dream was especially surreal. I found myself standing on a high cliff-top, overlooking what seemed like a forest. The sky turned out to be a liquid surface suspended above my head, reflecting the scene below.

Suddenly I was above it all, looking down at myself through the choppy, reflective surface, wondering why I hadn’t noticed the dangers and stepped back from the edge. But I couldn’t move back, turn around, or run in the opposite direction. And then, as the liquid surface calmed down, I saw myself transform into a large oak tree. Why an oak tree? I couldn’t tell you.

Later in the dream, I found myself diving from a high platform into the liquid without fear or hesitation. Seeing myself transform into a tree seemed like an everyday occurrence for me – when thinking back some years ago I could not swim left me feeling both fascinated and unsettled.

Not A Walk In The Park

I found myself back in the dark room. At its center stood an oak tree, its gnarled branches reaching towards the shadows like skeletal fingers. A round hole, about three feet in diameter, opened up on the opposite wall, and at its center stood the same oak tree.

No longer on the cliff’s edge, the tree stood in a barren wilderness, surrounded by a desolate landscape that stretched out to the horizon. At its base was a large black patch that didn’t look particularly remarkable, at least not until it started moving—the black patch, that is.

It was at this point that I began to feel like I was floating, slowly getting closer to the black patch or it was getting closer to me, I wasn’t sure which. As we approached each other, shock and horror overwhelmed me. I could now see that the black patch was more than just a mark—hundreds of large black beetles, similar to cockroaches, seemed to be moving in slow motion.

I tried desperately to move backward, but the harder I tried to backpedal, the faster I felt myself drawn closer to one of my worst fears. The air was heavy with an unsettling stench, like rotting vegetation and decay. It was a smell that made my stomach turn and my skin crawl.

My Thoughts

“I don’t know how long it took to reach this point in the dream. I woke up covered in sweat.” Getting out of bed I went to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face still trying to shake off the lingering sense of unease.

Going back to bed was out of the question; instead, I spent the rest of what was left of the night updating posts on this website, my mind still reeling from the vivid nightmare that had just unfolded before me ^{_{(Shahd 2024).}}

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