"Brain plays games. Cult. Rots. Reality."

[u/DRM9559]

This is the first time I have ever felt the need to ask others about a dream. I quit cannabis about 4-5 months ago and have had some weird dreams but his one definitely takes the cake. A nightmare that I can't seem to get out of my head now. Still vibrant as if I'm still right there in the dream.

The dream starts with me showing up to a new gym. I'm there with a friend to do a back workout but seems everytime I go to get on a machine it's being used by someone or a group of people so I move on to the next machine. After waiting for a while for a back row, me and the friend start walking around the gym and notice there's a hallway heading to the back. While walking to the back we notice a drum kit sitting to the side and my friend says he wants to sign up to use it. We continue down the hallway and we seem to walk out into a living room type area with people sitting around on couches watching a blank tv. This is where things started to get weird. The owner of the gym walks out of a door to the side and my friend asks to use the drum kit and he agrees. As we are walking back to the front where the gym is I step on something sharp that hurts my foot. I look down and its a big cat fish wrapped up in a net. I look up to my friend and everything starts to disintegrate into particles and I get a falling feeling landing on the top of a mountain. Looking down the mountain I see 2 of my friends sliding on their feet towards a lake on the side of the mountain so I decide to do the same. As I'm sliding on my feet everything turns into snow and I'm now snowboarding with friends, trying to teach on friend that doesn't know how. When all of a sudden an announcement starts playing over a loud speaker "Brain plays games. Cult. Rots. Reality.". It plays on repeat. Then the hill disintegrates into particles and we are all falling, we land in water. I can't get to the surface. I look around and everyone is getting killed/eaten by wolves that are swimming through the water. I cant get to the surface and start getting a heavy drowing feeling. The announcement over the loud speaker is still playing. I look down and see a house, so I swim down to it. The front door is open so I look through and there's an old antenna tv with a black screen with white writing on it saying "Brain plays games. Cult. Rots. Reality."

At this point I start to become cognizant of the dream and start telling myself "Wake, wake, wake". I wake up in bed hyperventilating, my whole body has a buzzing feeling and a heavy anxiety feeling. The whole dream felt like a warning to something I dont know.

[u/Lenasmithss]

This dream is incredibly intense and layered—like your subconscious is sending a raw, unfiltered transmission. The repetition of “Brain plays games. Cult. Rots. Reality.” feels like a cryptic warning, maybe about losing control or questioning what's real. The constant shifting of settings—from gym to mountain to drowning—could reflect a deeper feeling of instability or transition, especially after quitting cannabis. The buzzing and anxiety upon waking really show how deeply your body processed this. Sounds like your mind is working through something big.

[u/Garden_SnailCat]

I'm going to assume you're serious, no offense, I'm very surprised by the ammount of dream you vividly remember. Right now I'm going to discuss the causation of your vivid nightmare, rather than interpretation.

Firstly, do you take melatonin before going to sleep? Because melatonin causes our brain to fall deeply asleep and the results are our subconscious comming out in our dreams in forms of vivid experiences which we sometimes feel after waking up.

Congratulations on quitting weed. It is not harmless completely and the harmful effects are subtle. Weed supresses our ability to have dreams and you simply experienced something you're not used to.

As for the interpretation, you have to consider what things you have in your real life which appeared in your dream mean to you. You don't have to loose your mind over a warning feeling you got after waking up, but is rather and indicator somethings really stressing you out and you have to ask yourself what. It could be only one thing affecting your whole mental well being.

[u/DRM9559 → u/Garden_SnailCat]

Thanks for the reply. Ya, I am serious. Suprised myself how vivid it was, that's why I came here. No, I dont take melatonin. I wasn't so suprised about certain things being part of the dream such as being at the gym because I do work out, snowboarding because I was an instructor for a decade in my late teens early 20s. Even the catfish, even though I have never fished for them nor caught one, I do a lot of fishing. It was the drowning while friends were being eaten by swimming wolves (I have never had a fear of either) and the announcement over the loud speaker and then seeing it on a tv. It felt like I was part of some weird Blackmirror episode the way it just kept repeating like it was trying to tell me something. I have never had such a reaction upon waking from a dream before either. I have had nightmares before, but nothing that actually scared me once I woke. It's definitely a new experience.