Bridge Encounter

I just wanted to post this short dream because I think dreams can be so obvious sometimes:

I am pushing my children in a stroller-type car across a peaceful, old, wooden one-lane bridge. I am more than half-way across when a guy I know come barrelling onto the bridge driving a bus. He sees me and comes at me so I have to back off the bridge. As I do I say, "It's so nice to be reminded of what an asshole you are. I'll be sure to stay away from you." I cross with my children after he leaves and they play.

This alludes to an interaction I had yesterday. What are your thoughts about the bridge as a symbol/metaphor?

I'm going to follow my own advice.

Recurring Marine Life

Dreamer: katherine

Dream: Lately I keep dreaming about marine life. I’ve been having dreams that include carp for many years, but recently I’ve had dreams about other kinds of fish, as well as tiny lobsters and squid. Last night I dreamed that I noticed some large dust bunnies- my dog has been shedding- near the front door and I was about to get the vacuum cleaner to sweep them up when I noticed that there was an octopus lying on the front door mat. He was grey and lying there like a beached whale. He looked rather forlorn. I began to wonder how best to vacuum the dust bunnies without accidentally vacuuming up the octopus. It then occurred to me that it was an odd thing to have an octopus lying on one’s front door mat, so I decided to interview everyone I knew to solicit his or her opinion on the situation, and the feasibility of vacuuming. Fortunately everyone I know was actually present.

Associations: The front door mat is invariably the place that the cats bring anything they've caught and brought indoors, which sometimes includes snakes and lizards.

Jumping Dog

I am watching someone's cute little white dog. We go to the top of a tall building, maybe the Empire State Building (as if the dog wanted to go up there). The dog runs on the railing. I'm shouting to get down. He does, then runs to jump back up and he flies over the railing. I lean over to see him falling. The dog speaks to me, saying something that indicates that he knows he is going to die (something like "good-bye" or "I guess this is it"). I am so worried about telling the dog's owners.

Associations:
~A neighborhood girl just got a dog that looked like the dog in my dream. My kids called me outside to see it. They were very excited about it. In my mind, I question this ten year old's ability to care for this dog.

~my family bugs me to get a dog, but I know that I'll be the one taking care of it. With all that I have on my plate at this time, I can't imagine taking care of one more thing. I often tell my kids that we can get a dog when they can dress themselves in the morning. Right now the answer is no.
~my children and my husband come home telling me about this person's dog and the dogs they saw at the dog store, which ones they held. They send me photo messages of themselves holding cute little white dogs.
~I really don't want a dog, but if we got one, it would look like the dog in the dream.
~I've been thinking about the limits of my nurturance. As a psychotherapist and a mother. I feel compelled to mother everyone, which isn't always what I actually want to do. I'm working on this in my own psychoanalysis. Where do I draw the line?

So what do you think?

Flying?

Dreamer: Michèle

Situation: I was working at my desk all day, late into the night, and into the early morning. I was tired but too wound up to sleep, and so I surfed on over to YouTube to watch a few videos before going to bed. Before I knew it, it was 3 a.m. and I was drifting into sleep. I attempted to get up from my chair but realized I was too far gone. I couldn’t lift myself. Or could I?

When I was finally able to get up out of my desk chair, I was very much aware that I was not only sleeping but quickly approaching REM sleep. Whenever I’m aware of this state, I become a little startled. This time, however, I used my awareness to explore this realm.

Dream?: As I try walking over to my bed, my body begins floating. At first I’m afraid, but then I remember that I won’t actually float away. The ceiling will stop me. So, as I approach the ceiling, I put my hands up, allow the rest of my body to drift flat across the ceiling, and then I use my legs to push off of the ceiling and drift back down to the floor headfirst in a handstand. Then I slowly somersault and continue toward the bed as if swimming. I remember thinking that this only ever happens in dreams, but here I am floating in real life!

When I reach the bed, I float under the covers and I feel the weight of my body return. I feel very heavy and relaxed. Just as I drift into the next phase of sleep, I suffer a hint of disappointment at the likelihood of this having been simply a dream . . .

Comment: . . . but when I realize that I can’t remember how else I could have gotten from my desk chair on one side of the room to my bed on the other side of room, I decide that I really did, in fact, fly. And I fall asleep happily.

The only explanation I have for this dream or event is that I was experiencing an impossibly simultaneous combination of sleep-paralysis and sleep walking. Sleep-paralysis because I had been unable to physically move myself from the chair I was sitting in, even though I was still (somewhat) consciously awake. Sleep walking because I was, most likely, in some sort of sleep state and yet clearly I was able to get myself from one location to the next.

I had this dream a few days ago and I still haven’t completely convinced myself that I did not actually fly across the room. Perhaps real physical flight is possible for humans when they’re in a certain phase of sleep? A question that plagues me: If I did fall asleep in my chair, how did I ever get to bed?

The fact is, I woke up in bed the next morning, but how did I get there since I was in a state of sleep-paralysis while at my desk? If I did simply walk in my sleep while only dreaming of flying, then how come I had such keen awareness of what I was doing on the computer (evidence of which remained on screen for my confirmation upon waking) and of what time it was and of tucking myself under the covers? It blows my mind . . .

In any case, this is one of the best dreams (or whatever it was) that I ever had!

Dark Dream

Dreamer: Michèle

Dream: I am in complete darkness, yet I know I am in church. I’m standing in the back of the church and carefully walk up to the back pew. When I reach the pew, I gaze down and see a faint glimmer of light. I recognize an item on the seat as being my ex-husband’s keychain. I pick up the keychain, carefully and quickly wrapping my hands around the keys so that they don’t jangle. I feel a sense of humor in myself for worrying about making any sound given that I’m alone in the church.

In the darkness, I walk up the side aisle to the tabernacle. I begin to wonder where the shimmer of light on the keychain came from. There is no light coming through the stain glassed windows and there are no lit candles or any other light source. I feel a sense of awe. Then I become aware of the fact that I don’t know why I’m in church. I don’t remember how I got there. I don’t even know what day it is or what time it is. A feeling of panic fills me as it occurs to me that I don’t even know what month of the year it is or even which season it is.

I turn toward the back of the church and I hear the back doors opening. Rather than people entering the church in a random fashion, as usual, they enter silently in two straight lines and file into the pews. I can’t see any of this but somehow sense the movement. It’s like black shadows against a black background. I feel out of place for standing in front of the tabernacle when I remember that I’m in complete darkness and it’s unlikely anybody sees me, especially if I’m careful not to move. I still feel apprehensive, though.

People are quietly sitting in the pews, and I’m still standing at the tabernacle. I sense my ex-husband entering the church. I can feel a negative force from him and wonder if others in the church can feel it too and I’m concerned for them.

I’m trying to decide whether I should walk up to my ex and give him his keys or wait and drop them in the mail later. I hear him bumping into the pews and feeling around for his keys. He’s mumbling under his breath, and I wonder if he’s aware that the church is now filled with people.

I’m scared of what my ex may do if he realizes I’m in the church and holding his keys. I’m also worried what he will do if he realizes there are people just an arm’s length away from him. I want my ex to leave before there is any praying because I know he will be embarrassed if he realizes people might be aware of his presence.

My ex finally finds his way to the doors and leaves. I decide to stay in the church a while longer so that I won’t run into him outside. I also am trying to remember whether or not my truck is in the parking lot, if I walked here, or if somebody brought me here.

I wake up in this state of confusion.

Comment: I’m sure this dream is loaded with symbolism which is going to help me sort out my feelings about last year’s divorce. I just don’t have it figured out yet . . .

Missing the Service

Dreamer: Laura

Dream: I am in a church before some kind of special ceremony (a wedding, Christmas, or Easter) and lots of people are there, dressed up. Usher is there. The church is enormous, extending way back. I walk across the the front of the church in a pretty, floaty dress. I exit through a door on the other side of the front of the church into a room full of the children of the people attending the adult ceremony. I care for them until the service is over. I am with one of my five year old twins. She won't leave my side. The other twin runs far far away to the other end of this large hall and turns to look at me, as if she is challenging me to catch her. She is unreachable, and I have to let her go because I am tied to the other one. A children's service will begin soon, but I figure I have enough time to run to a new vitamin shop before it begins to get some vitamins for the children. There, I run into two old daycare workers, who chat too much, and now I am late for the children's service (it's half over), and I'm upset that perhaps I've missed all of the cute songs the kids will do.

>Church has figured prominently in my life.
>Sometimes I usher at church.
>Usher (the person) is someone I respect from what little I know of him: beautiful, black, classy, good in business, and I think he has a good relationship with his mother.
>this vitamin shop doesn't exist, and in my mind it's where a Children's Educational Warehouse is located.

>most of this dream has a pleasant feeling until the end when I'm pissed that I'm missing out on the good part.

ADDED 1/28/08-- this dream came true to a limited extent the next day at church in that the one twin was crying and wouldn't leave my side while the other one ran out of sight.

A Simple, Common Dream

Stalling

I am driving a car with my children in back, returning home from an event of some sort. I am lost, but to find my way home I decide to drive the bus line (as if following a line on a map). As I am driving, my car stalls and overheats. I take it to a friendly mechanic who doesn't have time to look at it today. I ask him if he as any suggestions as to how I am supposed to get home when it keeps stalling and overheating. He suggests that when I need to stop at a light or such, that I continue to drive in slow random patterns until I can drive again. This seems to make sense to me and I leave.

Thoughts and associations:
>this is not my current car, it is my previous minivan. The problems in the dream never really happened in real life, although it was always a concern as the car had 130,000 miles on it.
>a new client called me yesterday and said that she'd be taking the bus from home to see me. I wonder how that's going to work for her (and us) with scheduling.
>the mechanic is white with a dark beard and mustache, middle-aged. He doesn't remind me of anyone. I feel good feelings about him--when I think about him I feel fond feelings like he just made me laugh. He is dirty, oily, unshowered.
>In reality, how would this ever work? Continuing to move at a stop light? Note the bizarre nature of this suggestion.

My invitation to you:
I would love to hear your thoughts and associations on this dream. I think there is a universal quality to it. Thanks!

Laura

The Lucid Library, store within a store

Dreamer: Zataod

Dream: I entered a Borders bookstore and saw a sign for Albert Chen's, which I knew was a store within Borders. That gave me an idea that I could open my own bookstore within Borders. It was going to be a store that specialized in books on lucid dreaming and related topics -- tentative name, The Lucid Library. I wandered around the store, looking to see where there lucid dreaming books were. I saw a couple copies of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, which were on the main floor, and out of place, in the wrong section. I knew that if I opened my store, I couldn't have any books like that in other sections of Borders.

I thought there was a lucid dreaming section upstairs, but when I got to where I thought it was, there were long racks of large, oversized books, which weren't at all related to lucid dreaming, more like travel books. In the middle of the 2nd floor was a section that was somewhat dark. Some lights had either burned out or had been turned off. Someone found a way to turn the lights on. There was a guy getting a cash register back online, now that the power was back.

Comment: Ironically, at no point in this dream did I consider the fact that I was dreaming. If I recall correctly, the one of the last lucid dreams I remember took place inside a Borders.

Associations:
... -- ...

Interpretation:
No interpretation yet.

Up the Tower to the Other World

Dreamer: Katherine

Dream: It was evening and I was in a store that sold food, a delicatessen or perhaps a cafeteria. I was leaving in a bit of a hurry and pushed past the tensabarrier holding the velvet ropes when one of the stanchions toppled over, scratching the leg of a young boy waiting in line with his parents. I quickly knelt down by his side to examine the scratches and I saw that they weren’t too bad, although I wanted to clean them up and I felt responsible. His parents were pulling him away because they had to go home. The boy indicated that I should follow them. I did follow, although at a slight distance, since I didn’t know them.

We went up a very steep hill. We had to run a little to gain traction. I watched how they were proceeding and did the same. Then we went through large double doors that looked like cathedral doors with high arches. Then we ascended somehow straight up the inside of a tower structure that may have been a church steeple with a bell tower. When I reached the top I found that the family had already gone through. There was a pull down ladder and a trap door which I had trouble finding and I had the impression that the bells of the clock were about to chime and that the vibration might make me fall. This thought made me feel anxious. I could see the engineer of the system through the decorative wood architecture and he made a grim face and pulled a lever. Then I managed to get up the ladder and squeeze through one of the openings and be in the other world.

There was a woman there, perhaps the mother of the young boy. It was warmer here and she wore a short, sleeveless, draped tunic. She was impressive in some way, tall and both youthful and ageless at the same time. And, I might add, she had a great suntan. She showed me the panoramic view all around and the ways it differed than where I had been. Here it was daytime and sunny and there was a warm breeze. The weather was perfect. I felt at ease there and I was happy to be there and also that I had been there to visit many times before.

Rinsing out the tub while pondering John Elway

Dreamer: Zataod

Dream: I was rinsing out a large retanglar, plastic tub. It was almost the shape of a litter box. I was rinsing it in a very large sink, which was nearly full of water, so the water kept spilling over the edge of the sink. The tub was very soapy, and it was tough to rinse all the suds off. I kept dipping the soapy tub in the sink of water and bringing it back up, trying to get the suds off. While I was doing this, I kept thinking about how John Elway was vastly over-rated.

Comment: It's a short dream, but a lot more coherent and whole than what I've been remembering lately.

Associations:
... -- ...

Interpretation:
No interpretation yet.

Section 135, fish out of water, the Von Trapp Family

Dreamer: katherine

Dream: I had a jumble of dreams but all were connected-I moved from one to another like going from room to room.

I was visiting my sister in Kentucky and there was a man, very attractive, but with a very intense energy. He was somehow attached to my cousin, maybe married, but I didn’t feel she was aware of it. He wanted my help. He told me he was a drug addict and wanted me to get him arrested so he could get help. I had doubts about whether it would do him any good, but I agreed to his plan anyway. He said I should call the police and tell them his whereabouts and also tell them he was a section 135. I told my sister about this plan and we were trying to decide when would be the best time to implement it. The police were called and they didn’t seem like they were going to help, instead asking a lot of questions about how I knew this man and why I thought he was a section 135.

I got on a bus and went to the ocean. I saw a goldfish in a bowl at a seaside shop jump out of its bowl. I caught it so that a car on the PCH wouldn’t hit it. I couldn’t decide where to put it and being very slippery it jumped out of my hand and back toward the road. There were many trucks coming and I didn’t want to see what happened to the fish, so I ran to the other side of a large truck parked on the side of the road. I asked someone else to tell me what happened to the fish, to see if it was all right. They told me it was and not to bother too much with it.

I decided to go back to where I was, maybe to see what happened with the arrest. I had to head north to the valley, which was uphill. I was suddenly in my car cresting over a rocky outcrop on a desert mountain when I realized I was not on a road anymore. The car was heading sharply downhill over very rocky terrain when I realized that I ought to change the scenario. I ran back down the stairs and was back near the ocean again when I noticed that some people had noticed me coming and going. Somehow they made me think of the Von Trapp family from the Sound of Music and they also knew everything, about the drug addict and the fish. The oldest woman among them told me it would be best to walk up the steps to get back home and that this is what they were doing.

Note: I didn't know what "section 135" was referring to so I googled it and the first reference that came up seems to fit.

Dress Try On

Dreamer: Katherine

Dream: I am in a big outdoor area and there are many other women. We are shopping, although that isn’t immediately apparent. I don’t see aisles and shelves of merchandise, but suitable items just seem to appear nearby. Everyone is very happy and we chat while we shop and I say I am looking for shoes. A box containing a pair of black, strappy sandals appears before me. The shoes are unique in the way the straps lace up over the foot. The heel height is perfect, not too low and not too high. I realize that I will need a chair to sit on while I try on the shoes. A group of people who work in retail arrive with chairs and line them up. I take the shoes out of the box and put them on. I’m very happy with the way they look and the way they fit. I say out loud that they are dress shoes and if I am going to wear them that I will need a dress to go with them. I go into a luxurious room and see a stunningly beautiful gown that is made of two layers of silk charmeuse. It has a reddish gold under layer, long, in fact it has a small train. There is a top layer of a small-scale geometric print of tiny dots enclosed by circles connected by short dashes; a repeating chain pattern. It is a red and gold pattern in a thinner silk that complements the under layer. I think that the dress and shoes must come from the store Anthropologie. I am ready to try it on, but I am instructed to wait for assistants to come and help. In the meantime people come and go, occasionally asking if I’ve tried the dress on yet and I begin to feel a sense of urgency. I learn that my mother has been summoned as well because she knows the correct way to put on a dress. At last, with some help, I put on the dress and it fits perfectly and feels wonderful. I decide to buy it when I learn that the price is $26,000.00 and the shoes are expensive too. I wonder if I should spend that much and then how I will arrange financing, and whether the shoes really go with the dress, while I reluctantly take the dress off and put on my regular clothes.

Running through the moutainous woods near the ocean

Dreamer: Zataod

Dream: A_ and I were staying at my parents house and were napping in one of the upstairs bedrooms when my brother arrived for a visit as well. He got upstairs, and tried to turn on the lights, but none of them were working. We thought maybe a circuit had blown. I found that a space heater had been left on in the room A_ and I were in, and we turned that off, and then turned off another large space heater in another room. At that point the lights worked.

My brother wanted to take a trip in the mountainous area near the ocean. We wondered how we would keep watch on the little guy while we were hiking.

Later, I'm with two guys at the beginning of a trail, and they take off their shoes and start running. I try to keep up with them in my LL Bean moccasins. I want to watch their running form. I keep debating with myself whether or not to take off my shoes and socks and run barefoot as well.

For some reason, I need to head back to the beginning of the trail. There is a leader there who is blocking the path and shooting something in my direction. He is the leader of all the runners in the area. It turns out that there won't be any races in my neighborhood in the next month, because this leader has taken all the runners on a retreat in this mountainous, woodsy area.

Later, I'm headed back inland, and I want to go back to the college campus. There is a community motorbike, which I hop on and start to ride. Initially, it's going at a moderate pace, and I ride on the sidewalk. It picks up speed, and I take it on the road. When I get to where the dorms are, I leave the motor bike, wondering if anyone is going to take it.

Comment: This dream feels like a real mess, and I'm not sure how any of the pieces really connect. It feels like there are a few key details I can't recall.

Associations:
parent's house -- Place of origin, original home.
space heaters -- Huge drain of electricity, wasteful.
mountainous, woods area -- A return to nature
barefoot runner -- Free of shoes, more natural runners.
motorbike -- quick, light transportation, fun way to get around.

Interpretation:
No interpretation yet.