Zombies

[Mistreena]

For the past year, ever since watching Resident Evil with my family, I have been having zombie dreams. They actually aren't really recurring dreams, since they are different every time. I'm running down the street to warn my fiance; I am hiding in the attic to avoid them; I'm in the military fighting them; I'm in a field driving as fast as I can away from them; sometimes it looks like they are going to kill me, sometimes I kill them, sometimes it looks like they are going to talk to me, or are slightly intelligent, but most of the time they are rotting flesh desiring to eat me. I always wake up in a sweat, and am unable to sleep due to fear.
Occasionally I get a different dream, where it is a ghost instead of zombies, but most often zombies. I am a paranoid person by nature, but zombies are unreasonable! ... aren't they?

Does anyone else fear zombies, think that there will be a zombie plague at some point (I know for a fact there are people who believe it), or can think why I may be having these dreams/fear? Any help to get rid of them?  

[Underworld Priestess]

There are so many different variations of zombies in fiction. Sometimes I do think what if, however for the most part zombies are not something that will happen. Could there be a plague that takes out most of the world's population, yes. Will those infested by the plague want to eat people, probably not.
Now, there are other types of real zombies, that are sortof like people in a trance. This can be found in places such as Haiti, I forgot how it happens, I think it comes from a certain mixture of plants or such. But they are more like in a trance and not themselves.  

[J. Dragonhater]

I've heard that certant sexually transmitted diseases (it might have been Syphilis) can cause brain lesions that damage their prefrontal cortex and thusly takes away a person's cognative/conscious control. Since I can't cite my source for this and I think I might have heard it here in the science subforum, I am really unsure about it.

I don't know about that example but Haitains and other people who use voodoo do make the "living dead" through the use of various paralyzing substances such as the toxin found in puffer fish, these make a person look dead so they get burried and if the burried person is lucky they survive and dig themselves out. I don't know about the loosing of control that shadowflameguardian mentioned, this was stuff I heard a couple of days ago on the history channel.

I don't believe in Resident Evil zombies though and I think it would take a lot to make something quite like that. The zombies from I am Legend are slightly more realstic in their behaviors but I am still very doubtful.

edit/ to say "weird dreams" in your poll is redudent. Dreams are weird, they don't follow physics or any of the rules of this reality. I sometimes have dreams that are werid compared to my normal dreams but they are all weird. 3nodding  

[Underworld Priestess]

I never said lose control I said that they were in some sort of trance. Although it is possible that all it is is a sort of paralysis. I thought that there might be more to it, but I don't quite remember and I don't feel like finding my book at the moment that mentions it.  

[Viscerim]

I am a huge fan of Carl Jung, so I would suggest zombies for you symbolize the parts of you that you are afraid of. From the zombies, and as my theory suggests, from your subconscious selves, you are: running, hiding, fighting, killing, dying from, and almost conversing with. What about love? Can you love a zombie? Even beyond the initial 'no way,' can you understand them enough to find love? This terrible monster that brings you such fear in the night is not unlike all the people you hold dear.  

[Mistreena]

Viscerim

I am a huge fan of Carl Jung, so I would suggest zombies for you symbolize the parts of you that you are afraid of. From the zombies, and as my theory suggests, from your subconscious selves, you are: running, hiding, fighting, killing, dying from, and almost conversing with. What about love? Can you love a zombie? Even beyond the initial 'no way,' can you understand them enough to find love? This terrible monster that brings you such fear in the night is not unlike all the people you hold dear.

Love? They're freaking leaking gore everywhere! gonk Ewwwww.... And that might be one problem. This is why I refused to take biology, and why I could never be a doctor/nurse. Every time I see those movies and games it's just so gross!

The scary thing is that the zombies are like those I love - in one of my dreams quite a while ago, I killed my grandmother who had turned into a zombie and was attacking me. That right there is traumatizing. But it wasn't the beginning of the dreams.
Zombies are scary because they look gross, being half-dead and all, reason says they should not exist, and they are the people you love coming to eat you (sometimes).
At the same time, when I think of zombies I think: mindless, not feeling not caring indiscriminately killing monsters. They neither have intelligence nor emotion. (Then why was that one trying to talk to me? It has only happened once, right before I woke up. I know not.) If zombies don't feel emotion, one cannot love them nor be loved by them.

Do you mean to say I am running away from love? Or running from something else? (Hard to imagine myself running away from love when I'm happily engaged, but that theory could work if the 'love' was an ex whom I hate....another one of those things that keeps popping up when I don't want it to...)
confused  

[Viscerim]

I'd just like to say again that I could be totally off before I start digging deeper.

Mistreena

(...)when I think of zombies I think: mindless, not feeling not caring indiscriminately killing monsters. They neither have intelligence nor emotion. (...) If zombies don't feel emotion, one cannot love them nor be loved by them. (...)

Do you mean to say I am running away from love? (...)

I mean you are running away from the things you choose not to be. Granted, we are not mindless, but more often than not, a person chooses to be less mindful. People have the capacity to be an emotionless, careless, undiscriminating killing monster. (even those who are now saying, "not me.") And as for the zombie who attempted to talk to you, I imagine the concept that you acted solely on appearance is more upsetting to you than the actual zombie encounter.

Love isn't necessarily a mutual state of compassion and appreciation, for all you really need is a great depth of understanding to find love for anything - even a zombie.

I'm by no means suggesting you should try and unlock the potential serial killer in you, although it's not without useful qualities. I'm just suggesting that zombie is symbol for your brain to communicate "the self you hate" to you.

The recurrence, if your path so believes, could indicate something inside trying to open you up to greater compassion, which seems to be highly valued by you. Maybe it's a reflection that you dislike things you have been doing lately. It could also mean you've been feeling passive and need to find your fire. Or maybe you've been faulting people who are not compassionate without understanding their apathy is like a dog who scratches for fleas; instinctual, involuntary, and meant for self preservation.  

[CemeteryPirate]

I yearn for the day when zombies walk the Earth so I can bust out my shotgun and shoot some in the head!! twisted
Maybe even keep one as a pet... but not before we won the war against them...  

[Just Tsuki]

repetitive nightmares usually means that there is an ongoing problem that you haven't put to rights.

pehaps the zombies represent your current situation or environment. you describe them as being emotionless and mindless so maybe you are finding the life that you are living in at the moment to be rather sterile and a bit zombie like (minus the killing etc of course) and you want to try and get out of it hense you fighting and running away from the zombies in your dreams.

each time you have it the dream changes which may reflect your emotions and situation at that time.

only guesses though, but i hope it helps smile  

[Mistreena]

Thanks for all the ideas.

Viscerim, you could be right about running away from the me I don't like, though then it's just decided what exactly about myself I don't like.

Tsuki, the idea of runnign away from a stagnant life may be right - it started in the middle of last term last year, when school is all 'blah' and then over the summer I basically worked and did little else. And then school again. It does get to be a boring cycle, if there is no change and excitement. That is a posibility.

Maybe the thihnk I don't like about myself is that I don't do anything fun and exciting, which makes my life boring. I thin kI will take that view, thank you both, and start to do exciting things like write short stories about fairies and read tarot cards! And go out to bars and dance! Dance!  

[A B Up Start]

i suppose the untrue zombies like 28 days later are possible. cuz they were still alive, just "rage infected".

but legit zombies would never happen. once the organs shut down its over.

without the brain-body cant take commands
without a heartbeat- oxygen cant get to muscles, allowing movement
without lungs- well, same as above

also the fact that they are rapidly decomposing, they shouldnt be around for long.  

[flauterfli]

Um. "Zombies" are real but not like the movies.
Not mass quantities of bloodthirsty gory beasts.
It's not real. It's not going to happen. It's impossible.
More likely a supercharged rabies virus will spread through the population, causing violence and havoc and such.
I do believe Hollywood has already utilized that more likely theory to scare the wits out of viewers and make us all paranoid about it, which is silly.
Normal, living breathing people are much more frightening than zombies. They aren't identifiable -- they may seem normal, kind and friendly, yet they could secretly be intent on eating your guts just the same as a zombie. Not to freak you out, but if there's anything to be afraid of, it's not a Resident Evil esque undead invasion.  

[Taigamma]

Sometimes the cause of zombies is possible but most times they're completely impossible. Unless we are all infected by a mutated version of the zombie parasite (A strange parasite or virus that literally takes control of insects such as snails and ants, making them get eaten by larger predators so the parasite may pass on to the next host. Discovery Channel, go figure.), there's no chance we'll return from the dead without being conscious and in full control. Before we can come back, we would need a healing factor and to be a zombie-like thing, we would need a healing factor and a zombie parasite.

To be as close as we can to a zombie, we would need the zombie parasite, healing factor, lack of food, and large blood lust.

They are possible to happen at once but the chances of an outbreak are kind of rare.  

[Mistreena]

Well, just to update: a deamon told me the other day that zombies are real and in 2012 they will attack. I don't know if I even believe he's a real deamon, so maybe I'll prepare myself and hope that the Swine Flue virus shot I took in December doesn't turn me into a zombie like everyone seems to believe.

Now onto important things: As mentioned earlier, it could be staleness in life. I am making my life more exciting (and busy, with no time to sit around and chat on computers all day long anymore), and I haven't had those nightmares for a few months now. I think we'll just go with I was scared to 'death' that my life was becoming boring and 'dead' and caused nightmares for myself. That and zombies are gory, which I don't like, and you know, Real Zombies were never like that to begin with. I would like to say, Case Closed on this one. Thanks for all the help guys!  

[Lovely-Avarice]

Mistreena

For the past year, ever since watching Resident Evil with my family, I have been having zombie dreams. They actually aren't really recurring dreams, since they are different every time. I'm running down the street to warn my fiance; I am hiding in the attic to avoid them; I'm in the military fighting them; I'm in a field driving as fast as I can away from them; sometimes it looks like they are going to kill me, sometimes I kill them, sometimes it looks like they are going to talk to me, or are slightly intelligent, but most of the time they are rotting flesh desiring to eat me. I always wake up in a sweat, and am unable to sleep due to fear.
Occasionally I get a different dream, where it is a ghost instead of zombies, but most often zombies. I am a paranoid person by nature, but zombies are unreasonable! ... aren't they?

Does anyone else fear zombies, think that there will be a zombie plague at some point (I know for a fact there are people who believe it), or can think why I may be having these dreams/fear? Any help to get rid of them?

I just think you need to watch Shaun of the Dead. Laugh about it.

If there is going to be a zombie plague it's going be the 'rapture' when the zombie Jesus lord comes and takes his followers back to zombie land.