Ever since a very particular dream I had some years ago I've been haunted by dreams of a similar nature. The content always changes but the theme and the feeling stay the same. I experience them semi-regularly, separated by a few weeks or so.

I don't want to go into the details of them, but each dream deals with the topic of other realities. These realities are (unsurprisingly) very strange, and the essence of the experience could never really be communicate in a satisfactory way. What remains the same are the act of crossing the border into them, the sense of displacement and the confusion that comes with that. But the strongest feeling that comes from them all is a sense of relief. The relief comes from no longer being a part of this world here. It feels like a successful prison escape. Even though the realities change, and the method of crosing changes, the characters in them change, and the persepctive (sometimes myself sometimes someone else) changes, that feeling of relief always resonates strongly throughout.

When I wake up from these dreams I always feel a mix of serenity, detachment and sadness. The ratio of this mixture varies greatly on each waking. But each time, I experience an absolute but fleeting belief that the world we live in is not the only one. There are other, happier realities out there, where death and decay and disappointment have no influence, and where the spirit is not trapped in flesh. This is why I feel detached. These dreams are so vivid, and the feelings they impart are so strong, it's hard to say that they are not real in some way, maybe even more real than this one.

So particular and strange are all of these experiences, I wonder if anyone else has ever went through the same. Probably. But I have no way of ever really knowing. Such experiences are ineffable.