What have you been dreaming?

[dauer]

I've created this thread for posting your dreams. They could be from the previous night, a few nights ago, but try to stick to recent dreams in general. If you would like other people to give a go at interpreting your dreams please say so. Please do not try to interpret someone's dream unless they request it. I will go first.




Last night I had a very peculiar dream and I don't really remember all of it. I think this thread will be good for me because I have a hard time remembering my dreams sometimes, but when I make an effort to record them I remember them. In my dream last night I went off into space. I don't remember what organization sent me but I don't think it was NASA. While I was out there I saw a rocket which I realized my sister was in. She was heading straight for a black hole not too far beyond earth. I didn't understand why she was doing it but I saw her enter and her ship tear into millions of brilliantly bright sparks of light, spreading themselves across galaxies. I almost shed a tear. Somehow I was able to hold onto a video transmission that she left behind. It was very peculiar. It didn't take place in her ship, but back on earth, at least most of it. She was in a few different places in a neighborhood somewhere just talking. She said something about Mrs. Reagan and I wondered if traveling through the black hole had caused some irregularity in space-time that caused her present to also be back in the 80's. At the end of the video I could see her bracing on the side of the ship and, given her heading, it seemed like her entry into the black hole might have been willful.

Her ship looked like one of those nasa rockets. Mine looked a little more like a lander but different, more clunky and sci-fi. There was some sort of satellite that I had to land on. There was a reason I'd been sent into space, a mission. When I landed I saw these odd high-tech-looking spiders crawling about the base. I zapped some of them to clear them away but I saw something that confirmed to me they were birthing themselves out of man-made toxin, it seemed possibly when it came into contact with different types of material. I had some type of light gun or ray gun that I used to clean them off, then I adjusted something on the satellite and returned to earth. I wanted to get that video of my sister to my parents but first I had to inform the organization I was working with about my discovery, and my sister's death.

I landed in a parking lot of a suburban 1-floor office building. There was a wooden fence around the parking lot. The front of the office was glass and there was a meeting room inside. I went in and told them what I saw, showed them my sister's video. They started to discuss it but didn't include me much in that process. So I went to visit my parents and told them about my sister. I remember thinking in my dream about how I would tell my parents. I acknowledged to myself that it might not be good to say it to them right away, that maybe there was a good way to tell them and a bad way, but I felt a need to inform them about her death. I'm not sure if I ever met with my parents. That's about as much of my dream as I remember.


I am puzzling over what this dream might mean. I'm going off into space, into the great unknown, and I see my sister out already and further out than me. She dies. willingly it seems, and that could suggest drastic change. She is graduating from college in a couple of weeks. But it could also suggest a part of myself, a little under the surface, throwing itself into change. Given that I often seem to associate spirituality with women (my mother when I was growing up was more spiritual, my father not) she may represent that given the fact that lately I've been very much wanting to return to the spiritual practices that I've been neglecting. At the same time, myself in the dream, which could represent my ego or that part that I am consciously aware of and would most readily identify as me, is clearing away some sort of toxic creature that is the product of the planet's waste. The planet could represent a totality or Self in which case these are some sort of inner demon, if you will, some stumbling block of my own creation that I am consciously working to clear away. One of the reasons meditation imparticular is something I'd like to return to is because my multitasking abilities and awareness have become so poor. Part of that I think is due to the noise in my apartment from my neighbor. I think that by focusing on holding more in my awareness at a time it will help me, meditating on all of the sensory input at once. My AS diagnosis actually seems to help me understand an experience I had on retreat doing a similar meditation where I had a sudden realization that all of the sensations coming in were in some way the same. I experienced them all as something happening within me, in response to some external stimuli but the experience of those stimuli contained within me. Maybe it was my mind's attempt to simplify the experience and make it less overwhelming.

When I return to earth I go to a meeting and I inform the people at the meeting about what's going on. If those people at the meeting are other parts of myself, they seem to busy themselves to discuss the issue without me as if I'm neglecting the value of my own conscious redirection in my life and relying too heavily on other sources for change.

I don't know what to make of the video. My reaction to my sister's death was to almost shed a tear. Change is not easy. The content of the video itself was so peculiar. I wish I could remember it more clearly. I just realized, if the anima is functioning as a psychopomp and my sister is an image of the anima, myself an image of the ego, then that message is a communication from my unconscious to consciousness. I can't remember what it is though and there seems to be enough "message" without remembering the actual video. If it is important it will, I'm sure, come up again in another dream in different wrappings. I do remember that it seemed like she was in different times at once, like linear time had no application. That may well be a reference to some deeply unconscious part of my Self. There was a really wonderful video I saw on youtube with Buckminster Fuller. One of the things he talked about is replacing "up" and "down" with "out" and "in" since up and down suggest a line whereas out and in suggest a relative change in location from a point of origin. If my consciousness it that point of origin then heading out (i.e. into space) is probably more to do with heading deeper into myself.

I wonder if the toxic spiders were those things more to the surface, more observable. I think if I focus on redirecting certain behavior that may have a more powerful effect overall. When I was reading Reb Kalonymous Kalmish Shapira I was doing that more as it's something he suggests quite frequently, even in indirect ways e.g. if you're about to take a piece of food from a platter, don't pick the one that first catches your eye. Pick a different one.


Feel free to give your own interpretation of my dream if you would like. I think I may use this as a semi-script for my next youtube video.

-- Dauer

[Dream]

My guess, for entertainment purposes only:

If the theme is sensory stimuli, then the spiders and the toxic waste are another representation of those stimuli. Incidentally, a lot of the imagery from your dream sounds similar to the Lost in Space movie with Gary Oldman. Maybe you should watch it? You are Will Robinson of the Robinson family who is having trouble getting along with his sister. The almost-tear is some sort of frustration or barrier between you, and your neighbor is your Dr. Smith. The black 'Whole' could represent all of your problems put together. Humor aside, you've got a very cryptic and interesting dream.

[dauer]

I saw that movie a very long time ago. The spiders actually reminded me of two things:

1.) The replicators from Stargate: SG-1.

2.) The song Spiders by SOAD.

If I were Freudian I'd probably call my sister's rocket ship a phallic symbol and the black hole a vagina.

[Alex P]

I think, we think too much.

Oh thought I'd share this, the guy I always used to wish I could be apprentice to...

YouTube - Derren Brown Controlling Dreams

[Tao_Equus]

Wow dauer,
I'm jealous...I want your dreams!!

Tao

[dauer]

Alex,

according to Jung dreams are an attempt by the Unconscious to communicate with the ego, with that part of us which we are consciously aware of, in a language of symbols. I disagree with Jung that it is an attempt to communicate. I think that what's actually happening is we're watching our unconscious process the data of the past day and days prior, watching it file the information, catalog it and digest it. By coming to understand our dreams I don't think we're tapping into an intentional communication so much as observing our mind's own attempt to assimilate and understand our experiences. I don't think one interpretation of a dream that fits is going to necessarily be "the" correct interpretation of the dream. What feels right is imo the best way to interpret it and at the same time not necessarily some sort of direct and simple communication. It's to me more like a co-creative process of the unconscious and consciousness. A few things Jung does suggest that I agree with:

1. Unlike Freud, Jung said that dreams speak in terms of symbols which can have very personal meanings that are unique to the individual. Another way of putting this is that the dream belongs to the dreamer. A horse could be a very positive symbol for an equestrian and a very negative symbol to someone who was once trampled near to death by a horse.

2. In interpreting the dream it's better to follow what causes one to feel than to follow what sounds good. The stronger the feeling, the more you're on the right track.

By applying this method to a friend's dream I was able to help him recognize that the difficulties in a relationship with his current partner was really a dynamic that began between he and his mother that he was reliving. This gave him better insight into his feelings about his partner's actions. It actually required I abandon Jung so that I could see anima projected onto a man as Jung was very much a man of his day in his understanding of gender and sexual preference.

Jung's focus is teleological. Freud wanted to know where you came from. Jung wanted to know where you are going. I think both are equally important.

There is a peculiar paradigm which suggests that thinking isn't such a good thing, but it is by the intellectual faculties that we're able to redirect our emotive and imaginative faculties to better serve us and the people around us. An example of this paradigm can be seen in some members of the early Jewish Renewal movement who suggested that the worlds of yetzirah (associated with feeling) and beriyah (associated with thinking) be switched so that yetzirah was higher up on the hierarchical totem pole. The argument that shut this down is that feeling isn't really more important than intellect and overly focusing on it is hardly a good thing. If there's something that's higher up than beriyah then it's already present in the current hierarchy: atzilut is associated with intuition. There are of course more associations with those worlds but those are the ones that are most relevant. Using Jung's method of following what feels right rather than what sounds good I think is tapping much more into intuition by holarchically including both thinking and feeling. If you let an untrained dog loose in a junkyard it may find something of value but it's also quite possible it comes up with nothing. However, if the dog is trained to search for specific items and is in the hands of its trainer then it is more likely to bring back up something of value. I think the same is true for the emotive and imaginative faculties be they unbridled or guided along. In either case with the intellectual faculties alone one wouldn't be as effective, but without them one would also be less effective.

______

Tao,

I don't always dream like that, though I find that when I journal my dreams they become much more vivid and I can recall them better.

I think the best way to dream better is to go to bed with the intention to remember one's dreams and to record them immediately upon waking. Now my girlfriend, she is a natural lucid dreamer. I think my dreams tend to be a bit more fantastical than hers. Hers tend to be more realistic. But hers are very involved and she's often at least partially lucid in them. I have never had a lucid dream that I can recall though I'd certainly like to learn to dream lucidly.

-- Dauer

[Alex P]

I agree with your view that the dream state is our minds processing information from the previous day perhaps it is like a HDD defrag where files are organised and sorted to optimise the potential and ablity of the mind.

Such as that link I posted from the youtube site shows that the subject unaware of a certain trigger had his dreams manipulated to images had only recently seen and quite short period of time too... Then again, the tune may not of even mattered and the dreams he had were what he would have had.

I'd love to join in on your game but to give details I'd be lying as I have no idea what I dream about.. My mind is blank.

[dauer]

Alex,

I think it's probable that the tune did have an effect on his dreams but I'm not certain the change in context is going to equal a change in content i.e. if he'd had a different dream it may well have been dealing with a lot of similar data from his day and previous days. The scenery would have just been different.

It used to be that I couldn't remember dreams at all. It didn't improve until I started dream journaling. The mind has an uncanny ability to forget dreams very quickly upon waking unless there is a conscious attempt to remember them.

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by dauer

Tao,

I don't always dream like that, though I find that when I journal my dreams they become much more vivid and I can recall them better.

I think the best way to dream better is to go to bed with the intention to remember one's dreams and to record them immediately upon waking. Now my girlfriend, she is a natural lucid dreamer. I think my dreams tend to be a bit more fantastical than hers. Hers tend to be more realistic. But hers are very involved and she's often at least partially lucid in them. I have never had a lucid dream that I can recall though I'd certainly like to learn to dream lucidly.

-- Dauer

Yeh i know about preparation to remember and cataloguing on awakening. I have played with it in the past. Most of my dreams I used to fly like a bird, they were wonderful.

If your girlfriend is lucid dreaming you can actually interact with her if you catch her in one. I once suggested to an ex gf that I was tired and weak and she should cook me breakfast when she got up. She did. You should give it a try

Tao