Crashing for the Night

For three of the past four nights, I've had variations on the same dream just prior to awakening. We're in the back yard of my old childhood home, visiting Dad and my sister Kim, when I see a very low-flying passenger plane--a propellor plane, not a jet-- coming in very low. Just as I am about to call it to everyone's attention, the plan abruptly veers towards the ground and crashes at the end of the streeet, just a couple of houses away. It's a vivid dream--I can notice with great clarity the variations in reflections off the surface of the sheet metal as the plane nears the ground, I can see the terrified faces of the pilots and of some of the passengers as they look out the window, I can see the twisted blades of the propellor as they become flying shrapnel, and I see in extreme slow motion the crumpling, the compression, and the disintegration of the plane as it bores into the ground. In every dream thus far, I've somehow had time to begin pushing Susan and Dad and Kim out of the way when I see pieces of the plane skidding and tumbling towards us... and just as we're about to be struck by the wreckage, I awaken.

Last night, though, the dream took a turn towards the lucid. As I saw the plane about to hit the ground, I remember remarking to the others, "I'm having that dream again." And while I couldn't alter what was happening, I was lucid enough to realize that in my dream, I was able to slow everything down in order to take in even more details, to see even more minutia. I could almost recognize the faces of some of the passengers in the window. The intricacy of the details amazed me.

When I do wake up, by the way, I'm not disturbed or frightened or agitated; it's not as if I'm awakening from a nightmare. Now I'm almost curious; will I have the dream again, with even more detail? And why am I having this dream over and over? It's an unusual experience, and it intrigues me...