Effects of disturbing imagery on the subconscious..

[Neil Templar]

last night,sitting alone at home,i decided to watch a vampire movie.
I very rarely feel like watching horror movies,it's not that i find them too much,i'm just hardly ever in the mood.
i started watching it (30 days of night), got about 20 mins in,and turned it off.
i had a feeling that it would affect my dreams, and since my dreams in the past 6 months or so have all been enjoyable, i didn't want to spoil that.
i used to have very dark dreams frequently, and while i've often thought the nightmares were the most vivid of my dreams, and therefore some of the most enjoyable, i don't really want to return to such regular nightly frights.

anyhoo, sure enough, i awoke in the early hours from a game of hide'n'seek with some demonic forces.

my question is, did i plant that in my own subconscious by thinking ":this'll give me nightmares" ?
or do people think that simply by viewing the imagery, we're making these experiences more likely to happen?
i guess it's a bit of both, but i'm interested to hear any opinions on this..

is there a place for such shocking, dark imagery in our world, if we want to get away from such violent times as we are living in today?

[CFTraveler]

my question is, did i plant that in my own subconscious by thinking ":this'll give me nightmares" ?
or do people think that simply by viewing the imagery, we're making these experiences more likely to happen?

A little of both, but I think #1 more. The reason I think is that we don't 'notice' regular commonplace stuff, so when we dream it we don't even realize we're dreaming it. But when we dream something disturbing, well, it makes an impression. But experiment one day: Get up really early, try to stay in bed and look at the time. See how many mini-dreams you have in five minutes. You'll notice that if they're inconsequential (bits and pieces of conversations, etc.) you don't even notice you're doing it if you don't pay attention. But one shocking scene perks you right up.
That's what I think about that.
Of course, like you said, it's 'out there' for a reason.

[sleeper]

it's interesting how mentally avoiding something - actually makes us do the thing we're trying to avoid. ciest la vie

[Neil Templar]

it's interesting how mentally avoiding something - actually makes us do the thing we're trying to avoid. ciest la vie

exactly!
Law of Attraction at work...