Sunday, August 29, 2010
Your Weird Dreams: RECURRING DREAMS
Your Weird Dreams: RECURRING DREAMS: "My sister, Cindy, said something very poetic that I would like to relate, 'If dreams are the pathway to the soul, then recurring dreams migh..."
RECURRING DREAMS
My sister, Cindy, said something very poetic that I would like to relate, "If dreams are the pathway to the soul, then recurring dreams might be the speedway to the psyche."
She could be right, because while dreams tell us something about ourselves, recurring dreams are probably screaming out to us for attention. I myself have had them numerous times and, because of their repetitiveness, I have eventually been able to figure out their significance.
Because of my experience with recurring dreams, I think they probably continue until the dreamer figures out why they continue to have the same dream.
Here is an example of a recurring dream related to me recently:
"The dream always begins the same way – I am a little girl, crawling and reaching to find my way out from beneath a tall hardwood chair that has, in addition to its four legs, multiple criss-crossing beams beneath the seat of the chair. I don’t recall having ever being concerned that I might never escape, nor am I particularly afraid of my unusual circumstances, but I am definitely frustratingly challenged by the ordeal. As I endlessly navigate through the chair legs and beams, I feel convinced that there is a right path to take, if I could only identify it. But each time I poke my head through one of the beams, I find another one obstructing my progress.
The dream always ends with me still under the chair, sitting quietly contemplating my next move, and looking forward to waking up. The dream always begins with a recognition of the familiar surroundings and a determination to begin plotting my course once again."
The dreamer relates that the irony of this dream is her lack of concern or fear. "After all, I was trapped under that chair. However, I was never desperate to escape, nor afraid that I would never escape. In fact, the more often I had the dream, the more familiar the predictable dilemma became. It was, at times, almost a welcomed dream. For someone who has spent her entire adult life fearing something or someone or some future unknown, it suggests that, at one time – many years ago, perhaps I was more self-assured about my circumstances, environment and life."
Her introspection is interesting and what happens next was very revealing to the dreamer. She goes on to say that, "Three decades after not having experienced the dream, I was dusting a chair in our bedroom that once belonged to my Great Auntie Alice and Great Auntie Margaret. I had inherited the desk and chair set from my mother after her aunts had passed away. I have been in possession of it for over 30 years. I’m always finding something new about the desk and chair – a chip here, a mar there, or sometimes it’s something that had been tucked inside one of the drawers and forgotten for years.
However, on this particular day, something struck me about the rich cherry-wood of the chair, its tall back with thin slats of wood, and the cross-beams beneath the seat. It dawned on me that this was the chair in my dream. How was it that I hadn’t recognized it earlier?"
My belief is that dreams reveal something about the dreamer. Dreams that bring the dreamer back to an earlier time reveal something about the childhood of the dreamer. Perhaps this dreamer needed to reclaim that part of her childhood that she had been neglecting.
She could be right, because while dreams tell us something about ourselves, recurring dreams are probably screaming out to us for attention. I myself have had them numerous times and, because of their repetitiveness, I have eventually been able to figure out their significance.
Because of my experience with recurring dreams, I think they probably continue until the dreamer figures out why they continue to have the same dream.
Here is an example of a recurring dream related to me recently:
"The dream always begins the same way – I am a little girl, crawling and reaching to find my way out from beneath a tall hardwood chair that has, in addition to its four legs, multiple criss-crossing beams beneath the seat of the chair. I don’t recall having ever being concerned that I might never escape, nor am I particularly afraid of my unusual circumstances, but I am definitely frustratingly challenged by the ordeal. As I endlessly navigate through the chair legs and beams, I feel convinced that there is a right path to take, if I could only identify it. But each time I poke my head through one of the beams, I find another one obstructing my progress.
The dream always ends with me still under the chair, sitting quietly contemplating my next move, and looking forward to waking up. The dream always begins with a recognition of the familiar surroundings and a determination to begin plotting my course once again."
The dreamer relates that the irony of this dream is her lack of concern or fear. "After all, I was trapped under that chair. However, I was never desperate to escape, nor afraid that I would never escape. In fact, the more often I had the dream, the more familiar the predictable dilemma became. It was, at times, almost a welcomed dream. For someone who has spent her entire adult life fearing something or someone or some future unknown, it suggests that, at one time – many years ago, perhaps I was more self-assured about my circumstances, environment and life."
Her introspection is interesting and what happens next was very revealing to the dreamer. She goes on to say that, "Three decades after not having experienced the dream, I was dusting a chair in our bedroom that once belonged to my Great Auntie Alice and Great Auntie Margaret. I had inherited the desk and chair set from my mother after her aunts had passed away. I have been in possession of it for over 30 years. I’m always finding something new about the desk and chair – a chip here, a mar there, or sometimes it’s something that had been tucked inside one of the drawers and forgotten for years.
However, on this particular day, something struck me about the rich cherry-wood of the chair, its tall back with thin slats of wood, and the cross-beams beneath the seat. It dawned on me that this was the chair in my dream. How was it that I hadn’t recognized it earlier?"
My belief is that dreams reveal something about the dreamer. Dreams that bring the dreamer back to an earlier time reveal something about the childhood of the dreamer. Perhaps this dreamer needed to reclaim that part of her childhood that she had been neglecting.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
A Lucid Dream With Adam Goldberg or Greg Giraldo – I'm Not Sure
Lucid dreams, by their very nature, fall into weird dream status. Lucid dreams occur when the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming.
Discovering that you are aware of your dream WHILE you are dreaming is one of the most magical kinds of dreams you can have. While each lucid dream in itself might not be magical, the experience itself is. Here is one lucid dream:
I was dreaming that I was in a giant mall-type place when all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming. Usually when I have a lucid dream, I fly, but this time I thought it might be nice, since I knew I could do whatever I wanted to do, to find out who my soul mate was.
So as I was flying down a large hall, I entered a room where somebody was sleeping beneath the covers of a giant round bed.
The excitement of knowing that once I removed the covers, I would know who my soul mate was, was so exhilarating, I wanted to throw back the covers immediately to see who he was.
But as I was standing there (though I don't remember my feet ever touching the ground), ready to remove the blanket, I thought, What if what I'm doing is morally or ethically wrong? Wouldn't I need his permission first to find out who he was? What if he didn't want me to know who he was? What if he didn't want to know me at all? What if meeting him was supposed to happen in real life and be a surprise? What if I wasn't supposed to know him in this lifetime?
As I was arguing with myself, I reminded myself that if I didn't hurry up and just do it, I would wake up and never know who my soul mate was. Then I reasoned with myself that on some deeply spiritual level he probably agreed to allow me to see him, so I hurriedly pulled back the covers and saw the nerdy character I remembered seeing on the television series, "Friends." I didn't even know what his name was, only that he played Chandler's roommate.
That's when it hit me – that just because you have a lucid dream, you don't necessarily have a dream come true. I had that dream years ago, and I still haven't met Adam Goldberg. Then again, maybe it was comic Greg Giraldo. They kind of look alike.
Contribute YOUR Weird Dreams to:
WeirdDreams@mail.com
photos were "borrowed" from Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Weird Dreams, Success, and Prophecy
Novelists, such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Stephen King have written books based on dreams. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and King's Misery were conceived in dreams.
Musicians too, become inspired by dreams. Paul McCartney, for instance, awoke from a dream after hearing, Yesterday. I remember reading years ago, or perhaps I heard him say in an interview, that he had asked everybody he knew if they had heard the tune. He couldn't believe he had written it, because it had appeared to him in a dream.
Even presidents have weird dreams, though the most famous one of all was more a nightmare than a dream. President Abraham Lincoln's prophetic dream, that he related to his wife shortly before he died, told him he was going to be assassinated.
Inventors, such as Elias Howe, dream of answers that solve problems. Without the aid of a dream, it may have taken Mr. Howe a long time to come up with this simple solution that allowed thread to enter cloth through a needle – by incorporating an eye.
And when Madame C.J. Walker (cited by the Guinness Book of Records as being, through her own achievements, the first American female millionaire) created an African American cosmetic company, she admitted that the idea for her successful hair product came from a dream.
So what about your weird dreams? Have they solved any of your problems? Have you come up with story ideas based on dreams you've had? Or are your dreams so outrageous, you don't know why you dream them?
Maybe friends or relatives have related weird dreams to you.
If so, please contribute YOUR Weird Dreams to
WeirdDreams@mail.com
(photo of Paul McCartney is from wikimedia commons)
SEE BELOW for more of Your Weird Dreams.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Dr. Phil Dream of Divorce
Normally, a dream like the following wouldn't make it into Your Weird Dreams, especially after being compared to the last dream posted, but this one is slightly weird for two reasons:
1) the dreamer doesn't know Dr. Phil and
2) it is highly unlikely that Dr. Phil would ever get divorced.
Also I believe that celebrities sometimes serve as archetypes in dreams and because Dr. Phil is a man who is able to look at a problem and see clearly the steps it takes to fix the problem, when Dr. Phil enters a dream and can't fix a problem (especially when the problem is his own), the dream has made its way into weird status. Here is the dream:
I dreamed I was working in Dr. Phil's office, though it looked nothing like the offices I'd seen in backstage images of the Dr. Phil show. A new employee joined the staff and asked if he could put his desk by the door. I remember wanting to suggest that he place his desk in the area between the inside doors and the outside doors (like an entryway into a mall) if he wanted to be so far away from everybody, but I refrained myself, thinking he might not understand my sense of humor.
The next thing I see, as I grab my cell phone, is that all of the games on my phone are nothing like the ones I had on my phone previously. Some kids appeared out of nowhere, and when they saw the games, they asked if they could play on my phone, but I was so confused by what I was seeing that I couldn't pay attention to them.
I realized the phone must belong to the new guy because I had seen him carry the same type of phone, but when I went to exchange the phone, I found he was in Dr. Phil's office. I could concentrate on nothing but my phone, though, so, knowing I was being rude and knowing I should be working, but being unable to stop myself, I interrupted Dr. Phil to tell him I'd lost my phone. Nobody had seen it, but the new guy admitted that the phone in my hands was his.
I enlisted the help of everyone else in the office to tear the office apart in a frantic search for my phone. While everybody was searching for my phone, an announcement came on the television – or loudspeaker, I can't remember which – stating that Dr. Phil and Robin were getting a divorce.
While everybody else acted surprised by the announcement, I became enraged. How dare Dr. Phil and Robin get divorced! Why doesn't he read his own book, the one he wrote about marriage, Relationship Rescue?
He had to be testing us. This had to be a joke, right? He wanted to see how many people would believe that he and Robin would get divorced and I was probably part of some sick scheme to see how gullible I was.
Somehow I ended up in their home, watching their every move, waiting for evidence to prove I was right. I knew Dr. Phil was testing me, but I kept looking for proof that he was joking, and yet he and Robin kept the game going, maybe even for my benefit.
_______________________________________
My nonprofessional interpretation: Phones represent communication. Marriage is all about communication. If anybody knows how to fix communication in a marriage, it's Dr. Phil.
The dreamer appears to be an outsider in this scenario, concerned about the marriage, but unable to do anything about it, disbelieving that a divorce will actually occur.
The dreamer also seems to be more concerned about the marriage of Dr. Phil than his or her own means of communication, so the dream appears to be about loss (cell phone), deception (Dr. Phil lying about the divorce), and indignation (that Dr. Phil would have the audacity to think people would believe his lie).
In this dream, the kids act as a distraction, but not enough of a distraction to take the dreamer's focus off the phone. The marriage of Dr. Phil and Robin probably represent a marriage of somebody in the dreamer's personal life who have what the dreamer believes is a solid marriage, but who are considering divorce as an option when the marriage could be rescued through other means.
One more thing: Shoving into Dr. Phil's office because of concern over a cell phone shows a lack of respect for personal boundaries.
Email Your Weird Dreams to:
WeirdDreams@mail.com
1) the dreamer doesn't know Dr. Phil and
2) it is highly unlikely that Dr. Phil would ever get divorced.
Also I believe that celebrities sometimes serve as archetypes in dreams and because Dr. Phil is a man who is able to look at a problem and see clearly the steps it takes to fix the problem, when Dr. Phil enters a dream and can't fix a problem (especially when the problem is his own), the dream has made its way into weird status. Here is the dream:
I dreamed I was working in Dr. Phil's office, though it looked nothing like the offices I'd seen in backstage images of the Dr. Phil show. A new employee joined the staff and asked if he could put his desk by the door. I remember wanting to suggest that he place his desk in the area between the inside doors and the outside doors (like an entryway into a mall) if he wanted to be so far away from everybody, but I refrained myself, thinking he might not understand my sense of humor.
The next thing I see, as I grab my cell phone, is that all of the games on my phone are nothing like the ones I had on my phone previously. Some kids appeared out of nowhere, and when they saw the games, they asked if they could play on my phone, but I was so confused by what I was seeing that I couldn't pay attention to them.
I realized the phone must belong to the new guy because I had seen him carry the same type of phone, but when I went to exchange the phone, I found he was in Dr. Phil's office. I could concentrate on nothing but my phone, though, so, knowing I was being rude and knowing I should be working, but being unable to stop myself, I interrupted Dr. Phil to tell him I'd lost my phone. Nobody had seen it, but the new guy admitted that the phone in my hands was his.
I enlisted the help of everyone else in the office to tear the office apart in a frantic search for my phone. While everybody was searching for my phone, an announcement came on the television – or loudspeaker, I can't remember which – stating that Dr. Phil and Robin were getting a divorce.
While everybody else acted surprised by the announcement, I became enraged. How dare Dr. Phil and Robin get divorced! Why doesn't he read his own book, the one he wrote about marriage, Relationship Rescue?
He had to be testing us. This had to be a joke, right? He wanted to see how many people would believe that he and Robin would get divorced and I was probably part of some sick scheme to see how gullible I was.
Somehow I ended up in their home, watching their every move, waiting for evidence to prove I was right. I knew Dr. Phil was testing me, but I kept looking for proof that he was joking, and yet he and Robin kept the game going, maybe even for my benefit.
_______________________________________
My nonprofessional interpretation: Phones represent communication. Marriage is all about communication. If anybody knows how to fix communication in a marriage, it's Dr. Phil.
The dreamer appears to be an outsider in this scenario, concerned about the marriage, but unable to do anything about it, disbelieving that a divorce will actually occur.
The dreamer also seems to be more concerned about the marriage of Dr. Phil than his or her own means of communication, so the dream appears to be about loss (cell phone), deception (Dr. Phil lying about the divorce), and indignation (that Dr. Phil would have the audacity to think people would believe his lie).
In this dream, the kids act as a distraction, but not enough of a distraction to take the dreamer's focus off the phone. The marriage of Dr. Phil and Robin probably represent a marriage of somebody in the dreamer's personal life who have what the dreamer believes is a solid marriage, but who are considering divorce as an option when the marriage could be rescued through other means.
One more thing: Shoving into Dr. Phil's office because of concern over a cell phone shows a lack of respect for personal boundaries.
Email Your Weird Dreams to:
WeirdDreams@mail.com
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Penis Nose – The Weirdest of ALL Weird Dreams (So Far)
I wish I were giving out prizes for the weirdest of all weird dreams, because if I did, this one would win the prize.
After over five decades of listening to people tell me their dreams, I can honestly say that THIS dream, far above every single other dream I have EVER heard, is the WEIRDEST with a capital "W".
And while I'm tempted to say, "Here is the short but sweet dream," I will refrain from using that terminology.
Here is the dream as related to me by a woman (italicized text located between parentheses is mine):
I was looking in a mirror and everything looked normal. I looked like me. Nothing was unusual.
But the second I looked down, my nose looked like a penis and it had testicles hanging (probably where the nostrils would be?) from it. I was confused so I looked back in the mirror and everything was normal again, but when I looked down again, I had a penis hanging where my nose should be.
So I looked back in the mirror and I was fine again. This kept going on. Every time I looked in the mirror I was me. Every time I looked down, I had a penis hanging on my face.
End of dream.
My interpretation? Oh, I could say sooooo many things here, but I won't. Since the dreamer herself doesn't know the meaning of this dream, I'm not going to presume that I know either.
So I will leave the possibilities to your imagination and your interpretation.
Contribute YOUR Weird Dreams
Email Your Weird Dreams here:
WeirdDreams@mail.com
After over five decades of listening to people tell me their dreams, I can honestly say that THIS dream, far above every single other dream I have EVER heard, is the WEIRDEST with a capital "W".
And while I'm tempted to say, "Here is the short but sweet dream," I will refrain from using that terminology.
Here is the dream as related to me by a woman (italicized text located between parentheses is mine):
I was looking in a mirror and everything looked normal. I looked like me. Nothing was unusual.
But the second I looked down, my nose looked like a penis and it had testicles hanging (probably where the nostrils would be?) from it. I was confused so I looked back in the mirror and everything was normal again, but when I looked down again, I had a penis hanging where my nose should be.
So I looked back in the mirror and I was fine again. This kept going on. Every time I looked in the mirror I was me. Every time I looked down, I had a penis hanging on my face.
End of dream.
My interpretation? Oh, I could say sooooo many things here, but I won't. Since the dreamer herself doesn't know the meaning of this dream, I'm not going to presume that I know either.
So I will leave the possibilities to your imagination and your interpretation.
Contribute YOUR Weird Dreams
Email Your Weird Dreams here:
WeirdDreams@mail.com
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