Dream Galaxy

Research case · Falling & stuck

The scene I had to write

England · before 1911

Thus I imagined I was sitting at a window, at the top of a house, writing. As I looked up from my table I saw… a woman in her nightdress appear at a lofty window some distance off, and throw herself down. I went on writing, however, and found that… the very next thing I had to do was to describe exactly such a scene as I had just witnessed. I was extremely puzzled at such an extraordinary coincidence…

Original text — The World of Dreams, Havelock Ellis

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Source
The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. Ch. II
Rights
Public domain (US)
Record type
Research case
Place
England · British
Date
before 1911
Uncertainty
Moderate — Contains a depiction of a fall from a window.
Imagery
Writing · Falling · Heights · House · A stranger
Feelings
Confusion · Horror

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Sensations of falling or being unable to move are often reported near the edges of sleep. Ellis described them in terms of the body’s signals reaching the dreaming mind; sleep researchers today discuss related experiences such as hypnic jerks and sleep paralysis.

Ellis (1911), ch. V

Mythological

Falls mark thresholds in many myths — the fall from paradise, Phaethon tumbling from the sun chariot, descents into the underworld — moments when one order of things gives way to another.

Comparative mythology

Chinese traditions

Classical dream books such as the tradition attributed to the Duke of Zhou catalogued falling and climbing among common dream images; their readings were folk conventions rather than fixed meanings.

Folk dream-book traditions

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images