Intrusive thoughts—do they only happen in dreams?

Alright, let me cut to the chase.
In an attempt to make my daily life more manageable, I try to find the "silver lining" in everything,
looking at the bright side and keeping my mindset on a positive frequency and all that.
It honestly makes life easier—I’d even go as far as to say I’ve used the Law of Attraction to land a few lucky breaks.
But sometimes, my mind just drifts during sleep. I get these horrific nightmares about everyday stressors... it's like everything I spend all day trying to suppress just explodes in my dreams. It's all irrational fears, but still... how do you guys deal with this? What have your experiences been, and how do you make it stop?

Of course, we’re talking about pure repression here—or just your classic way of running away from subconscious discomfort. Trying to bury those feelings under a layer of so-called "positive vibes" isn't going to get you anywhere; honestly, it’ll probably just lead to health issues down the road. When you try to suppress things subconsciously, your mind starts "screaming" through your dreams the moment your focus shifts from being fully conscious to that deeper, less aware level. But hey, that's just the problem with modern society today—we sacrifice our health and quality of life just to keep up appearances! It’s actually kind of shameful how we treat showing any inner negativity as a sign of weakness, especially when the people we're hiding it from are carrying around their own piles of childhood baggage too.

So, how do you actually help yourself? It comes down to opening up, observing that "ugly" internal stuff, and finally letting it go... I know, I know, the experience can be incredibly uncomfortable! But really, isn't that better than letting that whole mechanism cause real damage to your well-being?😁

No, that wasn't it. I actually tried following that whole "positive vibes attract positive outcomes" mantra.
For the longest time, my mindset was purely cynical and negative.
Now, I feel better with this "new" approach... but honestly? It’s been pretty unsettling.
I had this nightmare about an incident from exactly one year ago—happening at the exact same hour, maybe 3 or 4 AM.
It was incredibly vivid. Almost visceral.
Which is bizarre, because lately, I’ve been focusing my visualizations on success, peace, and good things.
And it was working fine. Until this dream hit.

Honestly, I’m having the exact opposite experience. In my dreams, everything is totally dialed in—things go down exactly how I want them to without breaking a sweat—but once I wake up to reality? Man, life requires way too much actual effort. Have you ever messed around with lucid dreaming? It’s actually pretty wild; there’s a whole bunch of stuff you can pick up, and eventually, your subconscious stops hijacking the dream because you finally step up and take the wheel.

Douglas Edwards said:No, that wasn't it. I actually tried following that whole "positive vibes attract positive outcomes" mantra.
For the longest time, my mindset was purely cynical and negative.
Now, I feel better with this "new" approach... but honestly? It’s been pretty unsettling.
I had this nightmare about an incident from exactly one year ago—happening at the exact same hour, maybe 3 or 4 AM.
It was incredibly vivid. Almost visceral.
Which is bizarre, because lately, I’ve been focusing my visualizations on success, peace, and good things.
And it was working fine. Until this dream hit.

Well, like it said above, you might just be masking it. You might feel better on the surface, but a mask is still a mask, and reality remains reality. Healing is a long road; you can't expect some New Age positive thinking to fix everything in a single year, haha! It might be more helpful to write down your fears and desires on paper and tackle them one by one. You'll find that after some time, your dreams will start changing, and you'll experience true happiness rather than just wearing a mask. Positive thinking is useful, sure, but there is much more to it than that. Good luck!

Lately, my dreams have been spiraling a bit out of control 😳

I’ve never experienced emotions this intense while sleeping before. I mean, sure, I’ve had moments where I’d wake up laughing or crying, but I always maintained that internal awareness that it was just a dream. These last two nights were different; they felt disturbingly real. In one, I was gripped by this overwhelming, suffocating anxiety that just wouldn't let up, and in the other, I was caught in this incredibly heated, frustrating argument that left me feeling totally on edge. Honestly, they were pretty terrible. I’d actually take a standard nightmare over this kind of emotional exhaustion any day.

Is it possible that this is just the brain or body performing some kind of "deep clean"—essentially surfacing all those things we suppress or ignore during our waking hours 🤷

Or maybe my conscious and subconscious minds just haven't reached an agreement yet?

Douglas Edwards said:Alright, let me cut to the chase.
In an attempt to make my daily life more manageable, I try to find the "silver lining" in everything,
looking at the bright side and keeping my mindset on a positive frequency and all that.
It honestly makes life easier—I’d even go as far as to say I’ve used the Law of Attraction to land a few lucky breaks.
But sometimes, my mind just drifts during sleep. I get these horrific nightmares about everyday stressors... it's like everything I spend all day trying to suppress just explodes in my dreams. It's all irrational fears, but still... how do you guys deal with this? What have your experiences been, and how do you make it stop?

I can tell you right now: don't try to mask anything with forced positive thinking. That's fine, sure, but there's a catch. Those dreams are pulling things from your subconscious—stuff you actually need to confront so your waking life can run better. No matter how much positive meaning we assign to our surroundings, it doesn't change the fact that we sometimes need to break old behavioral patterns and actually 'work' on becoming the people we want to be. [To those of you speaking out of fear, I'll just say: try it and judge for yourselves.]

The subconscious shapes dreams based on the specific makeup of your mind. Everyone dreams what they uniquely need to see, and the symbols or situations will be whatever is necessary for them. Overthinking is useless. Objective observation is the only way. Also, the main bridge between a dream and reality is the emotion. You have to link the feelings within the dream to real-life situations where you felt that exact same way. (For instance, you felt Emotion A when talking to someone; then in a dream, Emotion A repeats and leads to a catastrophe. That tells you that you need to look at the connection between the dream scenario and your actual life to see what you might have missed.)

But really, it’s all great, because it helps us become better people. 😁

@crimsonfox26: this might be useful for you, too.

So, are you actually buying into that whole theory that dreams are strictly just leftovers from the subconscious, like some psychological junk mail with no other possible origin? I mean, seriously, what about lucid dreaming? Doesn't that flip the whole script on its head?

Elizabeth Castillo87 said:Honestly, I’m having the exact opposite experience. In my dreams, everything is totally dialed in—things go down exactly how I want them to without breaking a sweat—but once I wake up to reality? Man, life requires way too much actual effort. Have you ever messed around with lucid dreaming? It’s actually pretty wild; there’s a whole bunch of stuff you can pick up, and eventually, your subconscious stops hijacking the dream because you finally step up and take the wheel.

I’m completely against that whole idea—honestly, my dreams are the only place where things actually work out. It’s nothing like the mess I deal with in real life. In my sleep, everything just flows, but it's always some bizarre, disconnected world wrapped up in this thick, mystical atmosphere. It's such a massive contrast to my actual daily grind, which is just incredibly dull and monotonous. In reality, nothing ever goes right for me—it’s like there’s some invisible force constantly pulling the strings, just refusing to let me do what I actually want to do. Sometimes it feels like I’m nothing more than a puppet on a string, just being jerked around by whoever is calling the shots behind the scenes. It’s a damn shame I rarely get to dream, because that’s the only time I feel like I’m actually in control.

Elizabeth Castillo87 said:So, are you actually buying into that whole theory that dreams are strictly just leftovers from the subconscious, like some psychological junk mail with no other possible origin? I mean, seriously, what about lucid dreaming? Doesn't that flip the whole script on its head?

Look, I don’t buy that whole "dreams come from the subconscious" line for a second—there’s way more going on than just some psychological leftover. If you haven't actually sat down and read Carlos Castaneda’s *Dreaming*, then you're missing the entire picture. His teacher, Don Juan, makes it pretty clear: some of this stuff is tied directly to the spirit—we're talking actual messages—while other parts might just be pure fantasy or even entirely different realms of existence. Some of these worlds mirror our own, sure, but others? They are completely beyond anything our current reality can even wrap its head around. And let’s be real—you aren't just going to stumble into these other dimensions by accident. To actually perceive them and consciously navigate through different layers of the universe, you need real, foundational knowledge. You need someone to actually guide you through that landscape, and honestly, it takes years of relentless, disciplined practice to get anywhere.

Charles Reed2 said:I’m completely against that whole idea—honestly, my dreams are the only place where things actually work out. It’s nothing like the mess I deal with in real life. In my sleep, everything just flows, but it's always some bizarre, disconnected world wrapped up in this thick, mystical atmosphere. It's such a massive contrast to my actual daily grind, which is just incredibly dull and monotonous. In reality, nothing ever goes right for me—it’s like there’s some invisible force constantly pulling the strings, just refusing to let me do what I actually want to do. Sometimes it feels like I’m nothing more than a puppet on a string, just being jerked around by whoever is calling the shots behind the scenes. It’s a damn shame I rarely get to dream, because that’s the only time I feel like I’m actually in control.

Look, I don’t buy that whole "dreams come from the subconscious" line for a second—there’s way more going on than just some psychological leftover. If you haven't actually sat down and read Carlos Castaneda’s *Dreaming*, then you're missing the entire picture. His teacher, Don Juan, makes it pretty clear: some of this stuff is tied directly to the spirit—we're talking actual messages—while other parts might just be pure fantasy or even entirely different realms of existence. Some of these worlds mirror our own, sure, but others? They are completely beyond anything our current reality can even wrap its head around. And let’s be real—you aren't just going to stumble into these other dimensions by accident. To actually perceive them and consciously navigate through different layers of the universe, you need real, foundational knowledge. You need someone to actually guide you through that landscape, and honestly, it takes years of relentless, disciplined practice to get anywhere.

The thing is, once you achieve lucidity in a dream, you suddenly have access to tools that just don't exist in the waking world. We aren't shackled by matter anymore.

I don't buy the whole "dreams come from the subconscious" thing for a second. There's way more to it than that. If you haven't read Carlos Castaneda, do yourself a favor and pick it up. His mentor, Don Juan, argues that certain things are tied to the spirit—they're messages, essentially—while other stuff might just be pure fantasy or even actual alternate dimensions. Some of those worlds are almost like ours, while others are completely beyond anything our human brains can wrap itself around. Of course, if you actually want to be able to perceive these things and consciously travel to other parts of the universe, you need specific knowledge. You need someone to guide you through that realm and years upon years of relentless practice.

I actually started reading Castaneda after I went through some experiences that neither psychoanalysis nor cognitive neuroscience could explain away.
I don't know, though... maybe I just lacked that mentor to walk me through the experience.

Look, as long as you're wrestling with your ego—as long as you’re staring at the words instead of looking through them—you’re going to struggle with reality. The ego will just keep battering away at your perception. But once that ego finally settles down at night alongside your brain? That's when things change.
This isn't some guide to enlightenment. It’s just a guide for you. If you’re still struggling to figure out who you actually are, maybe Mooji can help. ^^

Also, what’s the actual distinction between the spirit and the subconscious? If anyone can clear that up. (Actually, I’m not looking for an explanation—I’m looking for you to answer it for yourselves.)

Elizabeth Castillo87 said:The thing is, once you achieve lucidity in a dream, you suddenly have access to tools that just don't exist in the waking world. We aren't shackled by matter anymore.

I don't buy the whole "dreams come from the subconscious" thing for a second. There's way more to it than that. If you haven't read Carlos Castaneda, do yourself a favor and pick it up. His mentor, Don Juan, argues that certain things are tied to the spirit—they're messages, essentially—while other stuff might just be pure fantasy or even actual alternate dimensions. Some of those worlds are almost like ours, while others are completely beyond anything our human brains can wrap itself around. Of course, if you actually want to be able to perceive these things and consciously travel to other parts of the universe, you need specific knowledge. You need someone to guide you through that realm and years upon years of relentless practice.

I actually started reading Castaneda after I went through some experiences that neither psychoanalysis nor cognitive neuroscience could explain away.
I don't know, though... maybe I just lacked that mentor to walk me through the experience.

Yeah, that’s where the real issue lies. Honestly, maybe if you try astral projection—if you can already pull off lucid dreaming without breaking a sweat, you'll nail it—it might help. Just give it a shot, it doesn't cost you anything. I've had a few pretty incredible experiences myself.

Jacob Sanchez7 said:Look, as long as you're wrestling with your ego—as long as you’re staring at the words instead of looking through them—you’re going to struggle with reality. The ego will just keep battering away at your perception. But once that ego finally settles down at night alongside your brain? That's when things change.
This isn't some guide to enlightenment. It’s just a guide for you. If you’re still struggling to figure out who you actually are, maybe Mooji can help. ^^

Also, what’s the actual distinction between the spirit and the subconscious? If anyone can clear that up. (Actually, I’m not looking for an explanation—I’m looking for you to answer it for yourselves.)

Well, good thing you brought that up. In my view, there isn't any difference. "Subconscious" is just a scientific label for everything recorded—even the stuff we aren't aware of and things the conscious mind could never possibly grasp. You see that most clearly when someone is under hypnosis. So, the subconscious is essentially the spirit possessing a personality; it can access all information and knowledge. I'm sure someone's going to ask why we don't just use that info for the good of humanity, but I think that comes down to the very nature of the spirit.

Jacob Sanchez7 said:I can tell you right now: don't try to mask anything with forced positive thinking. That's fine, sure, but there's a catch. Those dreams are pulling things from your subconscious—stuff you actually need to confront so your waking life can run better. No matter how much positive meaning we assign to our surroundings, it doesn't change the fact that we sometimes need to break old behavioral patterns and actually 'work' on becoming the people we want to be. [To those of you speaking out of fear, I'll just say: try it and judge for yourselves.]

The subconscious shapes dreams based on the specific makeup of your mind. Everyone dreams what they uniquely need to see, and the symbols or situations will be whatever is necessary for them. Overthinking is useless. Objective observation is the only way. Also, the main bridge between a dream and reality is the emotion. You have to link the feelings within the dream to real-life situations where you felt that exact same way. (For instance, you felt Emotion A when talking to someone; then in a dream, Emotion A repeats and leads to a catastrophe. That tells you that you need to look at the connection between the dream scenario and your actual life to see what you might have missed.)

But really, it’s all great, because it helps us become better people. 😁

@crimsonfox26: this might be useful for you, too.

So, you're saying the mind sits above the subconscious? What even *is* the subconscious to you? Define it.

Personally, I think the spirit sends us messages through dreams depending on how we're living our lives—whether we're on the right track or not. But then again, some dreams are just products of the mind and have nothing to do with the spirit, like lucid dreaming.

Charles Reed2 said:Yeah, that’s where the real issue lies. Honestly, maybe if you try astral projection—if you can already pull off lucid dreaming without breaking a sweat, you'll nail it—it might help. Just give it a shot, it doesn't cost you anything. I've had a few pretty incredible experiences myself.

Well, good thing you brought that up. In my view, there isn't any difference. "Subconscious" is just a scientific label for everything recorded—even the stuff we aren't aware of and things the conscious mind could never possibly grasp. You see that most clearly when someone is under hypnosis. So, the subconscious is essentially the spirit possessing a personality; it can access all information and knowledge. I'm sure someone's going to ask why we don't just use that info for the good of humanity, but I think that comes down to the very nature of the spirit.

So, you're saying the mind sits above the subconscious? What even *is* the subconscious to you? Define it.

Personally, I think the spirit sends us messages through dreams depending on how we're living our lives—whether we're on the right track or not. But then again, some dreams are just products of the mind and have nothing to do with the spirit, like lucid dreaming.

It isn't "above." You put it that way perfectly:

Charles Reed2 said:Yeah, that’s where the real issue lies. Honestly, maybe if you try astral projection—if you can already pull off lucid dreaming without breaking a sweat, you'll nail it—it might help. Just give it a shot, it doesn't cost you anything. I've had a few pretty incredible experiences myself.

Well, good thing you brought that up. In my view, there isn't any difference. "Subconscious" is just a scientific label for everything recorded—even the stuff we aren't aware of and things the conscious mind could never possibly grasp. You see that most clearly when someone is under hypnosis. So, the subconscious is essentially the spirit possessing a personality; it can access all information and knowledge. I'm sure someone's going to ask why we don't just use that info for the good of humanity, but I think that comes down to the very nature of the spirit.

So, you're saying the mind sits above the subconscious? What even *is* the subconscious to you? Define it.

Personally, I think the spirit sends us messages through dreams depending on how we're living our lives—whether we're on the right track or not. But then again, some dreams are just products of the mind and have nothing to do with the spirit, like lucid dreaming.

Quote:Exactly. That is why I said the subconscious shapes dreams based on the nature of your mind (essentially, it uses information available to it in its own language). The mind requires enlightenment. And you? You are already the light.

Charles Reed2 says: I think the spirit sends us messages through dreams based on how we live our lives—whether we are on the right path or not. But some dreams are just products of the mind and have nothing to do with the spirit, like lucid dreaming.

😉

The moment you actually commit to personal growth, all those old fears and subconscious patterns start surfacing, demanding your attention. You have to face them head-on, deconstruct them, and figure out what purpose they were serving in your life back then.
If I were in your shoes, my advice would be to stop fighting the current. Don't resist; just let it happen. Resisting is a waste of energy when your entire objective is to achieve total clarity regarding these emotions.
Remember, you are not your feelings. Think of emotions as tools in a toolbox—they are meant to be mastered and utilized, not allowed to run the show.