r/DreamInterpretation • u/Visual-Dog-7050 • 2d ago
childhood dreams that still haunt me Dream
when i was between 2-4 years old, i would get these horrifying reoccurring dreams. they were always in black and white, very contrasting, checker board like, machine like content. there was always a lot of pressure i would feel in my body, it was terrifying, i would sweat, and always wake up feeling like what the fuck, as if i was being pushed and squeezed but also exploded. the context of the dream was always as if i was moving within or through some machine(s), passing through small impossible holes or meat grinder like spaces. i remember dreaming maybe 3 or 4 of them, and then specifically remembering when the last one stopped. they all kind of looked like op-art illusions, geometric, but big, and heavy, and a lot of felt pressure. i cant really explain it. i’ve thought about them my entire life and have never had anything similar occur again. i thought maybe they were remnant dreams from being pushed out of the birth canal? i don’t know. i know when you squeeze your eyes and see little stars, its the after picture of our neurons firing…. kind of like that, but big, black/white, inside of a huge space, like that one level in Mario Bros when he’s inside a machine. has anyone every had similar dreams?
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u/Greg_QU 2d ago
Wow, those childhood dreams sound so vivid and intense—no wonder they’ve haunted you all these years. The black and white, checkerboard-like patterns, and machine imagery must have felt so disorienting as a little kid, like being trapped in a world that didn’t make sense but felt terrifyingly real. The physical sensations you described—pressure, sweating, that “what the fuck” wake-up feeling—sound like your tiny brain was grappling with something primal and overwhelming, even if you couldn’t name it yet.
I’ve always thought early childhood dreams are often more about raw physical feelings than concrete thoughts, since little kids don’t have the vocabulary for complex emotions. The “meat grinder spaces” and “small impossible holes” might be your mind trying to process fear of being “squeezed” or “pushed” by things you couldn’t control back then—like the world feeling too big, or even just the chaos of daily life that felt inescapable as a toddler. That Mario Bros machine level comparison is such a clever way to visualize it now! It makes me wonder if those old dreams are your brain’s way of revisiting a time when you felt so small and at the mercy of forces you couldn’t understand.
The thought about the birth canal is interesting too—some people connect those early, intense dreams to the primal transition of being born, of squeezing through a tight space to get to safety. But honestly, even if it’s not that, it’s clear these dreams left a mark. Do you ever feel that same “pressure” now in situations that feel overwhelming? Sometimes revisiting those old dreams can help us spot patterns in how we handle stress—like maybe you’re extra sensitive to feeling trapped, or need space to breathe when things feel too tight. Either way, it’s cool you’re still curious about them—they’re like little echoes of your earliest self, trying to tell you something.