Did you ever have a "monster" in your childhood?

[DreadnoughtDT]

By that I mean, did you ever have a monster or some other kind of being that just plagued your dreams relentlessly? I've had two in my life, one I've named Zavi and the other I've named The Gray Man, who replaced Zavi when I had managed to banish him...

Zavi was a black, bipedal dragon much taller than me, with long white hair, two white horns, and HORRIBLE black eyes with tiny, piercing red pupils. His eyes also constantly bled, and his teeth were a nasty yellow color, not to mention his grin was impossibly wide. Now this might not sound all that scary but please remember I started dreaming about this asshole when I was five.

The environment was always the same when a "Zavi Dream" (as I came to call them) would begin. A city street in the dead of night, with no light but the street lamps to light my way, and I could see his red eyes watching me in the shadows. He would chase after me, grinning maniacally, but never catch me. The night I banished him from my mind, he didn't look crazed or even angry. He just looked upset. Sorrowful. Like he'd miss me. I sometimes feel bad for him just for that... To the point where a few nights ago, after discussing him with a friend, I "invited" him back into my head. And he seems to have mellowed out. Still looks creepy as hell, but at least he and I are on good terms. He has a habit of protecting me from the next guy I'm going to talk about... The Gray Man.

The Gray Man gets NO sympathy from me. He looks normal at first glance. Wearing a gray fedora and a gray trench coat. He, too, has an impossibly wide grin and needle-sharp teeth, but he has no eyes. Usually when he appears, my dreams started out normal and then I'd see him out of the corner of my eye, and everything would go batshit crazy shortly afterward. He has a habit of torturing/killing my characters too, and making me watch. Zavi sometimes shows up and kills him, but he always comes back a few nights later. Granted I don't dream as often as I used to, so I haven't seen either TGM or Zavi lately.

Anyway, yeah. Those are my "dream demons." Has anyone else has recurring monsters in their dreams, like I have? Or am I insane?

They don't even have to be from dreams. Are there any monsters you believed in as a kid, for example?

 

[LeoXCV]

The only thing I could really call a monster to me was when I was young I had an extreme fear of blank TV screens. Sounds strange but I always though there was something on the other side watching me, like it was waiting to strike, but it could only do that whilst the screen was blank. For a while I literally couldn't handle being in a room on my own with a blank TV. I didn't actually have nightmares about it strangely enough, I did have a very wild imagination and I saw this thing on the other side as being some kind of white chrome looking entity that vaguely resembled a face.

I think at about the age of 6 I dropped the fear, I actually remember I stood in front of a blank TV when no one was around, and stood there staring at it as in to say "I'm not scared of you any more, I know your not real". After that the fear completely vanished. It actually didn't last long as far as fears go, only about a year, kinda just a phase of my imagination spiking.

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

The only thing I could really call a monster to me was when I was young I had an extreme fear of blank TV screens. Sounds strange but I always though there was something on the other side watching me, like it was waiting to strike, but it could only do that whilst the screen was blank. For a while I literally couldn't handle being in a room on my own with a blank TV. I didn't actually have nightmares about it strangely enough, I did have a very wild imagination and I saw this thing on the other side as being some kind of white chrome looking entity that vaguely resembled a face.

I think at about the age of 6 I dropped the fear, I actually remember I stood in front of a blank TV when no one was around, and stood there staring at it as in to say "I'm not scared of you any more, I know your not real". After that the fear completely vanished. It actually didn't last long as far as fears go, only about a year, kinda just a phase of my imagination spiking.

Interesting... I guess you kinda had a fear of the unknown as a kid?

My nightmares were all the product of an addled mind thanks to my parents thinking it would be funny to have me watch a few horror movies. And that somehow spawned a black dragon with bleeding eyes and a horrific man in a gray trench coat...

Man my head is ****ed up.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Don't worry, pretty much had the exact same thing as you mate so you're not crazy. I use to have dreams all the time where 'Ghostface' from the Scream films would haunt me and stalk me and try to kill me (Being successful at catching me a couple of times). I'd like to note that I like horror films though and am not even afraid of Ghostface or whatever, but for some reason he always wanted to show up in my dreams. And much like you said, it seemed like he enjoyed being there to torment me.

Similar to your Grey Man, Ghostface enjoys killing and torturing my friends and family in my dreams. He also likes to become my friends and family (In the sense that one minute I'm speaking to my friend, the next second they are becoming 'him'). It plagued my dreams from a very early age also, I think about 8 years old. And I had those dreams for like, absolute years and years. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped remembering a majority of my dreams.

Those dreams use to scare me and torment me and made me want to keep from going to sleep at night. But sleep was inevitable, and the dream would always set in. I got to the point where I no longer wished to sleep with having those dreams, so I kind of self taught myself how to lucid dream just by my own sheer willpower and need. And eventually I began to fight back this dream demon from my mind until a point where I would say these exact words before I closed my eyes at night "I don't want to remember any dreams". For some reason from then onwards I have 'rejected' and partially blocked myself from remembering a huge majority of the dreams I have. I only recall brief snippets of dreams, and nothing as vague as I once use to.

So no man, you're not the only one. And you're definitely NOT insane!

 

[Dark Drakan]

Dont know why but I always had dreams that ET was chasing me, screaming at me & trying to eat me. Weird thing is I really liked the movie as a kid & didnt find it scary at all I thought he was cute but the one in my dreams was evil. Even had one of those dreams where you think your awake but your still dreaming. I woke (or so I thought) & turned to face my clock & he was staring right in my face doing that scream he does in the movie when he runs away from things & chewing my toy cars. For ages I was convinced I was awake when it happened as I was to young to understand the concept of those type of dreams where you can feel like its real & your awake but actually in a deep sleep still.

 

[Laurence Barnes]

yes he was called carvore and i saw traces of him wherever i went like i looked into a dark space and saw his eyes quickly move leaving a line of yellow that slowly faded he was a creepy mother ****er like a slouched black pantha like creature with darker spots massive claws, walked upright and had horrible fangs and glowing yellow eyes there was also another one with no name which was the same but bigger and he was white disguising himself in the snow while carvore disguised himself in the dark for some reason they still stalk me but i think carvore fights the other one so perhaps one is good and the other is evil you would think carvore was the evil one but i think he's the good one :|

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Don't worry, pretty much had the exact same thing as you mate so you're not crazy. I use to have dreams all the time where 'Ghostface' from the Scream films would haunt me and stalk me and try to kill me (Being successful at catching me a couple of times). I'd like to note that I like horror films though and am not even afraid of Ghostface or whatever, but for some reason he always wanted to show up in my dreams. And much like you said, it seemed like he enjoyed being there to torment me.

Similar to your Grey Man, Ghostface enjoys killing and torturing my friends and family in my dreams. He also likes to become my friends and family (In the sense that one minute I'm speaking to my friend, the next second they are becoming 'him'). It plagued my dreams from a very early age also, I think about 8 years old. And I had those dreams for like, absolute years and years. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped remembering a majority of my dreams.

Those dreams use to scare me and torment me and made me want to keep from going to sleep at night. But sleep was inevitable, and the dream would always set in. I got to the point where I no longer wished to sleep with having those dreams, so I kind of self taught myself how to lucid dream just by my own sheer willpower and need. And eventually I began to fight back this dream demon from my mind until a point where I would say these exact words before I closed my eyes at night "I don't want to remember any dreams". For some reason from then onwards I have 'rejected' and partially blocked myself from remembering a huge majority of the dreams I have. I only recall brief snippets of dreams, and nothing as vague as I once use to.

So no man, you're not the only one. And you're definitely NOT insane!

Oh god, I think I'd prefer Ghostface to the Gray Man... But I guess I have Zavi to keep him away from me now.

It's hard to believe that he would be on my side after so long, but I guess forgiveness goes a long way.

 

[Kammosjuttu]

Bad dreams seem to be more common than people think. I myself don't have one returning enemy in my dreams, but I see nightmares pretty much every night. It's horrible, especially those nightmares where you think you're awake but are not. It's not nice to be chased, hurt or killed while asleep, but there's nothing I can do about it. I've had this problem ever since I was a little kiddie and instead of toning down with time it's just gotten worse and I don't have the balls to talk about it with anyone.

 

[V]

No... just abstract horrible things like dreaming I was trapped in a train tunnel and a train was coming, or that my pillow had little moving or wriggling lumps in it. Or just whiteness with invisible things in it somewhere. No personification of dread, just... abstract dread and horror.

 

[Gorbashou]

Yes, I did. It was a cartoonish black wolf. Being a little anthro but I wouldn't really call it that, like how I wouldn't call som disney animals anthro. Either way, it had a tendency to either chase me or stab me while sleeping in my dreams, this happened several times a week for a few years.

I think Vsauce had a video saying that it's a possibility that we dream to experience feelings to be able to handle it in real life (amongst other theories).

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Bad dreams seem to be more common than people think. I myself don't have one returning enemy in my dreams, but I see nightmares pretty much every night. It's horrible, especially those nightmares where you think you're awake but are not. It's not nice to be chased, hurt or killed while asleep, but there's nothing I can do about it. I've had this problem ever since I was a little kiddie and instead of toning down with time it's just gotten worse and I don't have the balls to talk about it with anyone.

That sounds just like me, honestly... I had to summon up a lot of courage to talk about these two childhood monsters, one of which now protects me, and one of which is my dream-world's archnemesis... And I didn't even list any specific examples of what either of them did. It's too... Horrible to go into.

 

[Loopy]

I used to dream about death a lot, or more like this unseen thing killing friends and family and then chased me, but never caught me. It got to the point where I was scared to sleep. But it stopped when I was a teenager. I guess it's because I was afraid of losing people I was close to. It's a rational fear to have, right.
Now I have different nightmares where I frequently visit the Playboy mansion. I'm not kidding every other dream is about going there and I have no idea why.:lol: I don't even want to be there in real life, let alone a dream.

 

[LeoXCV]

Interesting... I guess you kinda had a fear of the unknown as a kid?

Not sure really, if it was a fear of the unknown it would have probably spread further than just blank TV screens.

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Not sure really, if it was a fear of the unknown it would have probably spread further than just blank TV screens.

Still, it is rather odd.

I'm curious as to what you think of Zavi and the Gray Man... lol

 

[LeoXCV]

I'm curious as to what you think of Zavi and the Gray Man... lol

Well I think it is somewhat strange that Zavi becomes like an ally to you eventually. Using a kind of dream reader approach Zavi could signify you accepting something in life, whilst Gray Man could be the problems arising from that acceptance. It's likely that both came in the form of nightmarish beings due to those horror movies shown to you at a young age (btw awesome parenting right there) and their form is merely your own creativity and imagination at work. These are just explanations I can think of right now so their not completely sound, but a decent enough shot at least

Also as said by others don't think yourself to be crazy, I know of people that have similar issues but in different forms and their definitely not crazy. Hell I know people that think I'm crazy because I don't actually dream often, I go into more of a meditation state where I can hear everything around me and choose to wake up at any point, yet I still wake up completely fine as though I was in a deep sleep. When I do dream I also seem to have more control than what others explain their dreams to be like, I just always thought it was pretty normal to have that kind of control lol

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Well I think it is somewhat strange that Zavi becomes like an ally to you eventually. Using a kind of dream reader approach Zavi could signify you accepting something in life, whilst Gray Man could be the problems arising from that acceptance. It's likely that both came in the form of nightmarish beings due to those horror movies shown to you at a young age (btw awesome parenting right there) and their form is merely your own creativity and imagination at work. These are just explanations I can think of right now so their not completely sound, but a decent enough shot at least

Also as said by others don't think yourself to be crazy, I know of people that have similar issues but in different forms and their definitely not crazy. Hell I know people that think I'm crazy because I don't actually dream often, I go into more of a meditation state where I can hear everything around me and choose to wake up at any point, yet I still wake up completely fine as though I was in a deep sleep. When I do dream I also seem to have more control than what others explain their dreams to be like, I just always thought it was pretty normal to have that kind of control lol

I tend to have that same kind of sleeping. They call it lucid dreaming.

As for your explanation of Zavi and the Gray Man... I think you might be right. Zavi could've been something I was running away from, unwilling to accept. But once I got over the fear, he became my friend. And then the Gray Man showed up, representing the problems my acceptance had caused, and Zavi now represents my conviction to hold fast to my beliefs...

 

[Angel General]

A list of my nightmare monsters:
~The first is a white bull with red eyes that is possibly the earliest dream I remember, it ran through the sky just over my head, charging at me and I was trying to run away from it.
~I used to have vivid nightmares of big cats surrounding my house and trying to break in D:
~I had one dream where a huge black wolf came out of the forest (Which is metres from my house,) and growled at me, then morphed into a giant crow. It was disturbing.
~An old woman who used to help me read morphed into a flesh eating insane monster
~Men in black suits who squeezed my stomach and caused real pain that woke me up.

Most of the dreams I had with monsters occur at my house, during a deep red sunset. The creatures came from places that were dark, such as the forest, that I feared or wanted to explore. I don't think I've had many recurring nightmares, and I have only had a handful of nightmares in my life.

 

[Vergil'sBitch]

Note really... Just having bullies in school was my nightmare/monster