Floating Skull

[LeBombette]

In my early childhood, I had a fairly rough time of it - lots of stressful situations and such. I was an only child, super imaginative and throughout my early childhood I had a difficult time distinguishing between dreams and reality. I say this as I think it's important to the next bit. I'm pretty sure my dreams, which were often terrifying and very vivid were (I think) part of a coping mechanism to deal with the stress and trauma of my young life. On more than one occasion, when I slept in the guest room (usually when a friend or cousin was over) I would wake in the night and see a skull floating above the bedroom closet. It was an almost cartoonish sight, even to my little kid mind and even at 4 and 5 years old I don't remember being really scared of it or thinking of it as a ghost. However, I didn't like that room and would only sleep in there if there was someone else with me. So anyways, I'm not really seeking answers as to what it was, but I feel like I've come across the image of a floating skull as some sort of cultural meme...as in there is a specific meaning to seeing one (whether its interpreted as a ghost or a dream or vision). I haven't dug around much, as this is just something that sort of popped back into my thoughts again, but I can't seem to find reference to this imagery and its possible meaning. Of course, the skull is a powerful symbol found in most cultures...but, I'm specifically interested in visions/dreams/encounters with floating skulls...anyone heard of this? By the way, google floating skulls and you'll find page after page of World of Warcraft cheats. Thanks

 

[Burnt State]

As someone who entirely identifies with family stress, vivid imagination and terrifying dreams I'll share with you what had to be the most unreal of all my childhood nightmares. Skeletons frequently appeared in my dreams as the ultimate threatening ghoul who was coming to kill me. Sometimes the nightmares repeated where the same character would chase me each night and I would wake up screaming and my mother would come in and I would try to convince her to let me watch the Carol Burnette show with her downstairs for as long as she would allow. The one dream that was unique and recurrent was riding my bike home from school in the sunny afternoon and I am being chased by a skeleton who is riding like a demon to catch up with me. And he does. There is no one else around on the street which is eerie in of itself. I had been screaming while being chased on my bike but no one was coming out to help. When he catches up with me he is on top of me and I can feel his cold bony hands strangling my neck. I am screaming hysterically and I wake up in the dark but he is still there choking me and I'm howling and I can see it on top of me in the dark and then my mother throws on the lighs but it is still there, stony hands clutching my throat. My mother is yelling at me to breathe as i am sitting half up in bed gasping for breath. Then it's gone and I can breathe again. That night I watched the whole Carol Burnette Show. The skeleton, the skull, whether it rides a two wheeler or is a disembodied floating skull, it always means the same thing - DEATH!

 

[Wade]

As a kid I had several reoccurring dreams, one series did involve not only a skeleton but also dracula. frankenstein's monster and the wolf man and probably a host of other monsters I forgot.

I would dream of waking up in order to go to the bathroom downstairs, I could hear my mom and dad through the register in the floor and i would walk a few steps when my legs stopped working or I would get frozen in place then the closet door would open and out came all these monsters and they would approach upon me.

I tried to yell out to my parents but my voice wouldn't work and I was paralyzed in place but just before the monsters would get to me I would tear myself free, make the two-three steps to the edge of the stairs and i would throw myself down and land on the kitchen floor and I would look back up the stairs and the monsters would retreat as now I got the attention of my folks. I would often wake up at this point but not always.

While I don't remember at what age I was at when I stopped having this dream I do remember the last time it happened. The same scenario played out but after I launched myself down the stairs and i looked back up the monsters were holding up a sign that said "Goodbye Wade. We will never bother you again"...or something close to that...and I never had that series of dreams again, but I still wasn't off the hook when it came to scary stressful dreams.

 

[LeBombette]

Burnt State - your dream was terrifying - it reminded me a bit of the kid in It who has his fear embodied by being chased by a man with leprosy. Wade - your monsters were really polite - were they the classical representations of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster?
I had other reoccurring dreams as well that I clearly understood were dreams. This incidence was less clear as to whether I was dreaming or not. It really had no narrative. I would basically be sleeping in a large bed usually with one of my friends over or my cousin and I would wake up and see the skull floating above the closet across the room. The skull would move its jaw up and down almost like laughing, but there would be no sound. I wouldn't really be scared, but more of a "well, that's odd" kind of attitude and then I'd close my eyes and go back to sleep. I remember one time that I tried to wake up my friend to show her the skull and maybe to find out if she could see it too, but I don't remember if she did or not. Anyways, I'm not as concerned whether it was a dream or more of a paranormal experience or just my overactive imagination, but I feel I've come across the symbolism of a floating skull before. I'm sure it does have something connected to death because the symbol of the skeleton usually does - either physical death, spiritual death or a the lingering fear of our own mortality.

 

[Wade]

Wade - your monsters were really polite - were they the classical representations of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster?

Hard to say I mean it wasn't Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi per say, but certainly close enough to make the distinction. To be honest I want to say that a few times they took the form of the Groovy Goolies but can't say for sure.

 

[LeBombette]

Groovy Ghoulies...that's awesome

 

[Sue]

To me, the phrase 'floating skull' conjures most powerfully the notion of Dia de los Muertos, a very big festival in my area in which all kinds of skull art and skull shrines predominate. The reason I say this is that when I encounter a strange element in my dreams I usually set out to learn more about the different places it might have come from. One time I ran into a Santeria dude, which was really outside of my cultural frame of reference. By the end of the next day I had two books ordered from interlibrary loan on Santeria. I never did figure out what that dude in my dream was about, but I did end up knowing a lot more about Santeria than I had before, which did turn out to be helpful in other dreams.

 

[Mr. Fibuli]

Groovy Ghoulies...that's awesome