Re: colorless green ideas

By the way,  I would very much like to know the origin
of the english word: "a nightmare". I find it very
strange and evocative.

(Well, I thought so because I was thinking of the
female of a horse, but I just found in my etymological
dictionnary that the part "mar" in the french word
"cauchemar" comes from a germanic word meaning "night
ghost" or something like that, so it's probably the
same. Actually, I preferred the horse, much more
mysterious).

One of the worst experiences I know is when, yet half
sleeping, you feel suffocating, or oppressed, and in
the same time completely paralyzed. A part of your
brain seems to work, and another one is just like
disconnected. This is awful. Life is full of terrible
things.

--- Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> wrote:
> On Apr 9, 2004, at 10:55 AM, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> > It's impossible to toss and turn and mumble
> (angrily
> > or otherwise) while having a nightmare (or any
> other
> > dream). You become paralysed. (As far as your
> brain
> > knows, the dream is real life, so if you weren't
> > paralysed, you'd be running away from the monsters
> in
> > your dream etc. etc. etc.) On the other hand,
> night
> > terrors would make you look like what people would
> > think you look like when you're having nightmares,
> > except that you aren't dreaming while having them.
> > (It's possible to have sleep paralysis while
> awake,
> > though, and based on some accounts, I seem to have
> > experienced just that last week. It was
> terrifying: I
> > thought there was someone in my room trying to
> > suffocate me.)
> > Tristan.
>
> Did you feel a pressure on your chest, as if a Black
> Cat (tm) or Evil
> Witch (tm) were sitting on it trying to suffocate
> you and steal your
> breath?  I think it used to be called (maybe still
> is?) a "night hag"
> experience for that reason.
> Unless what you had was similar but not exactly the
> same.

=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)

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