QUOTE(Shadowh86 @ Feb 24 2007, 12:07 AM) [snapback]1555810[/snapback]
While I was awake??
I was awake for sure because I closed my eyes and did not remembered nothing after that
I had something similar to your dream with the black creature, must have been about 8 at the time. That was 11 years ago so its a little blurry, but basically I was in my room and there was a small black cat there, which I think had red eyes. I was trying to catch it, it was running around my room, as I recall it went on for quite a while like that til I woke up, after that I was understandably scared to be in the room that night. Howver I know that was a dream since I remember waking up, theres also some pretty good explanations for the idea of a black creature with red eyes linked with childhood dreams. The general concept of something evil or scary in most stories involves a dark creature with glowing red eyes, it is also common for young children to have nightmares and nighterrors, far more than adults. In a dark room its hard to discern what objects actually are, even if you know the room well its easy to let the mind wonder and suddenly the lamp shade becomes a looming creature, with the shadow from the wardrobe adding to its form, the metal cap of the light shade reflects some moonlight or a street lamp and suddenly it has eyes. Even now I have to think twice, in a semi concious state the red led from a plug reflecting many times in glasses and cds can look very sinister.
It is possible to be asleep within a dream, happens to me quite a lot, I have woken up inside dreams, become concious but with my body still asleep and relaxed. I tend to have fairly disrupted sleep patterns, if I go a long time with little sleep I tend to get lucid dreams quite a bit too, which can be amazing, but alternatively can also be disturbing. In the most recent one I got up to go to the bathroom, I stood there swaying slightly, which didn't seem weird to me at first, since I had had a few drinks earlier on. Then it intensified, until it felt like different parts of me were moving at different angles. I looked down to try and steady myself, then suddenly I started rising into the air, it almost felt like my legs were stretching away from the floor, it looked and felt like I was a meter off the ground now at least, my body felt light. At the time I still didn't know I was asleep, my mind was fully concious, I remember saying out loud 'Wow, out of body experience'. Then I sank back down to the ground a bit and suddenly woke up lying in bed, the dream still as vivid as if it has just happened for real.
It hard to explain, but usually when I dream I tend to see things from a third person perspective, like I am watching myself and it all seems 2D, rarely with any real feeling of my body. There doesn't tend to be much consistency either, things change around lots, and if I remember them when I awake the memories tend to fade very fast or be patchy. In this dream however I could feel my body, I felt everything, it seemed real.
Usually when I wake up inside a dream or have a lucid dream I either have full control over what happens, so I can think about something I want and it will happen, the visualisations are amazingly real too, alternatively I have no images only thought. In the latter state my body feels amazingly relaxed, the most comfortable sensation I have ever felt. So relaxed in fact that its hard to know its still there, the more I think about it, the more I realise where I am the faster it fades. In this state the only real sense of weight I have is of my mind, I get this odd sensation of a sort of shutter, the more I think the more it opens. If I think too much then I wake up totally, but of course thinking about not thinking only makes it harder not to, if that makes sense. Sometimes I get this whilst falling asleep, usually I will feel very relaxed for about 5 seconds then wake up, take 5 minutes getting back to sleep, then the same thing, over and over.
Only just noticed how much I wrote... anyway just some thoughts.