I drifted off to sleep on my stomach last night and had a really odd dream. I was going to wait until tomorrow to type it out, but I keep thinking about it, so I'll just do it now.
I dreamed that I was at this huge party at a big mansion with ice sculptures and stuff. Everyone was wearing formal clothes and it was pretty lavish. I don't really know how long I was there, but some people that were my friends (in the dream, as these people don't exist in real life,) said we were leaving, so I walked toward the street.
This is where things get really weird.
Once in the street, I noticed that it was a really shitty neighborhood. I remember seeing old storefronts and boarded windows. There was a group of 3 ghetto looking black dudes a little up the road, and when I started getting close, they ducked back into an entryway. As they were moving, I noticed that they were reaching for their belts, and assumed that they had guns. I stopped walking and said, "Hey, hey. It's all good guys. Everybody here is cool."
They didn't seem to care, because two of them stepped out with their guns drawn. In that oh-so-random dream fashion, somehow next I was lying on the sidewalk on my stomach, and I heard one of them say, "Yeah. Everyone here IS cool."
I knew that I was going to get shot, so I turned my head to the side. I can distinctly remember seeing the cracked pavement, complete with the yellow-painted curb. For some reason, I remember weeds growing from the cracks. I squeezed my eyes shut, and it seemed like a minute went by.
Not having any idea that this was a dream, I started coming to grips with the fact that my life was about to end. I thought about my family, and hoped that they would be ok. Next I wondered what dying would be like, and as I was thinking that, I heard the gunshot.
I've shot firearms before, and if you never have, the report is much louder than they make it seem on TV. The shot was so loud, and I can still hear it if I stop to think about it. Then I remember feeling like I couldn't think straight, but still realized that this was probably because I've just been shot in the head. I tried to say something, but all I could do was mouth the word, "Help."
After that, I woke up, in the exact position that I was in when I died in the dream.
This isn't the first time that I've died in dreams before. Actually, I've had dreams of dying in all sorts of ways. One that I can remember the most was that I was in a car with my friend Amanda driving, and the car flipped over and my head got dragged off. In all of these instances, I clearly can remember completely accepting death, only to find that after I had died, it was all a dream.
I guess when people say you can't die in dreams, I prove that they're full of shit.
Anyway, has anyone had anything like this happen? Where you actually died in a dream? What was your reaction to knowing you were going to die? Did you think about it a lot afterward? Do you think that something like this can have some sort of long-time psychological effect on a person?