I would assume you would define esoteric/strange as "wild" dreams that are comprised mainly of things that could not occur in reality. "Normal" dreams I suppose would be things that could occur in reality, even if they are "out there" such as the dream I will describe later in this post ...
Okay, seriously... my dreams tend to only include me; and I'm usually either running from something, being killed, or suddenly back in high school standing in front of the class in just my underwear.
I almost always have me and one other person, a sidekick, not always a real person in real life, and the antagonist, never a real person. Over the past few years, the majority of the dreams I can remember center around some suspenseful story where I am being chased, there is a lot of literal hiding from the "bad guys" and lots of trying to outsmart them in simple things. I've occassionally had dreams about being back in high school (which for me is only 3 years ago) but never in my underwear. Or if they start that way they end up some crazy action movie thing.
These dreams for me are never unpleasant. I certainly feel "tension" or "fear" or "anticipation" while dreaming, but I always think it's fun, exciting. In fact, one time I had a dream that I cried (sad) in, and when I woke up and found *real* tears on my face I was *so* excited because I didn't know that could happen! (Dork.)
Anyways, I'll describe the perfect example of one of my dreams ... from last night, coincidentally.
I don't have much time, though, so it'll be short.
Very sci-fi/action/suspense genre-d dream. (I dream in story ideas, apparently. They always have genre.)
Basically, my "sidekick" had been experiencing strange symptoms - when going certain places she felt a bit ill, etc. I knew what was going on, that she was being "stalked" by this ... person. (Oh, we were apparently children, too.) She didn't totally believe me.
So one day we were outside and she was sitting in the grass when she felt something in the grass with her foot. She told me to come over and see what it was. I dug this little "transponder" thing out of the dirt, and I knew what it was. It was whatever was causing her strange symptoms ... when she got out of range/in range of it it caused her to feel sick.
So I knew we had to get rid of it. But of course moving it would show up on the "stalkers'" equipment, so they would be waiting for us when we tried to dispose of it. I also knew that this was the first, but would not be the only technology employed against my sidekick girl.
So anyways we're in Detroit (?) and we go to this lake (one of the great lakes in name only, as I've never even been to Michigan) ... and plan to throw the thing in the water. As it's electronic, water should destroy it or at least it would sink and not be able to be found. Sooo ... there's like this tower thing near the lake and friend decides rather than throw it in the water we should drop it from like 10 floors high (the height of the tower) and break it. Sounds good, so I agree ...
We are in the tower thing and it is enclosed from the water ... so once inside we can't just throw it out the window ... so we climb all the way up to the top, I know the bad guys are there, I can tell, but we keep going ... then at the top is the "stalker" a girl wearing all pink with poofy curly hair and glasses. She looks about ten due to her short stature, but she is clearly an adult ... her appearance is all to throw you off. She doesn't look bad but she is very dangerous.
Anyways, she sees us there and I have the device in my right pocket, she can tell because I (accidentally) instinctively put my right hand in my pocket to protect it. I know she's got "agents" downstairs behind us, so if I try to toss it down the middle of the stairs (you know, they sort of spiral, but with a landing at each half floor ...) one of them will catch it and they'll have it back in their possession. The only way to play this is to act like we have nothing, we're just visiting the tower. Well, that failed ...
So as I was waking up but not fully awake, I decided to run through what would have happened if we just ditched it in the water like originally planned. (Does this count as lucid dreaming? I was 100% aware that it was a dream, and was controlling the outcome.) Basically, it worked, but wasn't as exciting, so I tried throwing in various loops and different things to make it more interesting. Don't remember what they all were.
Wow. That's pretty much a usual dream for me.
