> >I heard once that if you "die" in your dream, you'll die for real. That twitch-jerk-
> >spasm thing right before you smack the ground in
> >your dream could be a safety mechanism that keeps you from dying IRL.
> >
> > I don't know if that's true, but the person who told me that asked me if I could ever remember
> >dying in a dream or nightmare, and I had to answer no. I *always* wake up before "dying."
> >So maybe it's true. And who knows...maybe some people who die in their sleep dreamed that they
> >died. We have no way of knowing.
> >
>
> Yeah, add me to the list of people who have heard that theory but can knowingly disprove it. In a dream I had once, my then-girlfriend and I were riding in a car that ran head-first into an 18-wheeler. I remember the impact (no pain, though--that's another theory I've heard--you don't feel pain in dreams. Can anyone disprove that?) and then everything going black. Then I woke up. It was more than a little frightening, because I wasn't entirely certain until I woke up that it was a dream at all.
>
> -- Dave

I kinda doubt that dying in a dream would lead to one's real death in one's sleep. Dream sequences appear to be the rehashing -- and reorganization -- of thoughts and feelings from the previous day against any backdrop of a person's longstanding anxieties and concerns. From what I gather, most people jerk awake right before the presumed moment of "dream death". That's probably due to the fight-or-flight survival mechanism kicking in at the moment of realization.

There's been a few times when I 'died' while dreaming and didn't wake up because my death was unexpected. For example, when a bamboo pole passed right through my head and neck; and another time when I got skewered and gutted, painlessly, by a fence post. Like Dave, I don't usually experience pain in my dreams. But I do feel real pain in a BIG WAY if I develop one of those infrequent lower-leg cramps while asleep. (Anyone ever had that? It's excruciating.) Another time I dreamt I got captured by gangsters who slapped this metal cage-like electrical device on my head as a form of torture. This dream "shock device" actually HURT like a mild shock, and it wasn't because I was having a headache.

When I was little I used to have a recurring nightmare of a giant, two foot thick, brown chocolate 'monster' which would chase me all over the house and kill people by 'slurping' them. It would tower over everything, oozing and formless, like some crazy half-melted Hershey's bar. In my dream, it always raised itself up from a boiling chocolate puddle in the exact center of the golden spreadsheets covering my sister's bed. Whenever I saw the puddle forming, I knew the monster was not far behind. I would run for dear life down the stairs with the chocolate flowing like a demon at my heels -- I would stop only to frantically undog and unlock the deadbolt on the backyard side-door, so I could escape the house. Unfortunately, opening the door in the dream always took far too long, and the THING would touch me... and then I'd wake up in a sweat with my heart pounding.

One day -- when I was awake -- I remember hearing someone use the curious phrase "Death by Chocolate." I didn't understand this, but the next time I had the nightmare it did have an immediate effect on my dream, in a very literal fashion. When I got to the point near the dream door where I usually got slurped to death, the thought distinctly crossed my mind, "I wonder what it's REALLY LIKE to die from chocolate?" And then when I turned around, the monster was gone. I never had that particular nightmare again.

But I kind of miss the rush I *used* to get from chocolate. :-)

Wolf "Curiouser and curiouser" spirit