Nightmares

[ironphoenix]

Nightmares seem to be epidemic in Ottawa over the past few days. Several friends have mentioned them to me.

This may or may not have something to do with the recent kidnapping and murder, but for those of you who are experiencing them, be aware that external factors may be contributing to or even causing them. Some of you may be consciously or unconsciously affected by the news of the event; others may be responding to the stadtgeist's disturbed state. ("Stadtgeist": like "zeitgeist", "spirit of the times", but "spirit of the city"; my neologism.) It could even be that the victim's spirit caused what I'll call a psychic shock to people who are susceptible to that in their dreamstate.

Side note: as some of you know, my dreams are largely inaccessible to my conscious self. I'm thus not writing from my own personal experience on this, although I have noticed an edginess (hardly surprisingly) in the city over the past couple of weeks as this story has unfolded.

Comments

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

Nada.. I generally avoid the news for obvious reasons since 9/11.

Mine have causes that are both internal and predictable. *shrug*

[ziggy-b.livejournal.com]

I don't have nightmares but recent events have lead me to be more careful. Then again that just means that I walk on the street instead of right next to the bushes when I'm out at night. I don't mind being more careful but there's no way I'm stopping my life.

The following is unrelated to Ottawa, but at least there's closure of a sort on one more case:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/09/21/alicia_ross_abducted20050921.html

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

I did have a ... well bad dream you would call it, recently. Interesting.

[soul-diaspora.livejournal.com]

Interesting theory. The news story has had very little effect on me personally (I don't know if I'm callous or what, but such things rarely get to me), but I'm open to the idea that I've unconsciously picked up some of the shockwaves going through the population. And it's awfully reassuring to be able to write off some of the nastiness I went through last night.

But I prefer your original term, "urban gestalt" :-)

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Personally haven't had any, but I don't unless I'm under stress.