I Reveal a Guilty Pleasure...
Although, I'm an atheist and a person that abhors superstition & spiritual nonsense, I have one hobby (for lack of a better word) that was ingrained in me in childhood, by my religious mother and other superstitious female relatives. I can't shake it....Dream interpretation. GAAAAH!My mother, Grandmother & aunts were sincere in their dream interpreting, believing that dreams could be messages from the spirit realm, dreams could foretell the future & reveal omens & signs, if you just knew how the interpret the symbols. Their dreams were often the subject of conversation & they were more then happy to pass on their knowledge to impressionable young children, such as myself.
Dreams are fascinating, & mysterious, even to us unbelievers & when I remember a particularly vivid one, or a friend tells me about a dream that made an impression on them, I can't seem to help falling into a dream interpreting mode. Because, I want to believe that dreams subconsciously reflect our feelings, emotions, & thoughts & really can show us things about ourselves.
My slant when it comes to dream interpretation, is more of the dream as a subconscious interpretation of the waking self, a Freudian approach(with out all the sexual references), as apposed to a superstitious or spiritual interpretation.
For instance, houses predominant in dreams refer to the state of the Self. This is actually a pretty standard interpretation, BTW. When analyzing the house in a dream, consider the condition of the house & the emotions associated with it. For instance, the other night I dreamed there was a terrible storm & in my dream I awoke to find my house an empty shell of bare boards, swept clean & even the furniture was gone. The light from the outside was shining through the gaps in the thin walls. Emotionally, there was no anxiety, or sense of worry associated with it. I simply decided to erect a tent inside the house to keep the elements out. Taking certain recent personal history into consideration & how I feel about being unfettered & my general optimism about life, I could see how that dream would conclude the way it did.Last night though, I dreamed about going to a friends house, someone I had been romantically involved with, while they weren't home, finding a key, letting myself in, messing with their stuff, having them come home & find me, getting a cold reception from them, & basically being sent away. Not a good dream, with lots of negative emotions attached to it...Hmmm...
posted by Rita @ 6:14 AM
28 Comments
28 Comments:
My attempt: Maybe it's just because that's because you had a divorce when you were initially romantically involved and married with somebody previous. Each person is unique though, history is not gauranteed to repeat itself, sometimes the subconscious is wrong, and certainly sometimes the interpretation of the subconscious is wrong too.
Why, I wonder, would the object of your dream give you a cold reception?
Had you damaged things?
It seems if you are romantically involved with a person, you should be able to go to their house...unless you were just being too darned nosy ;-)
Last night though, I dreamed about going to a friends house, someone I had been romantically involved with, while they weren't home, finding a key, letting myself in, messing with their stuff,
Interesting. If a house refers to the state of the self, could this particular dream be interpreted as messing with your friend's self?
qf I think the first dream had to do with my present situation & my contentment in having very few possessions, which I had very happily left behind when i got divorced. Who knows? It's easy to read things into dreams & that is one reason why it's easy to interpret them for other people, too.
Give me one of yours someday, & I'll give it a shot. Make sure it's a real dream though. :)
Mac In that dream I remember feeling guilty that I was extending my boundaries, you know it's not nice to go in someones house when they are not home & mess with their stuff. I'm sure my own guilty conscience got me banished. :(
I'll interpret one of your dreams too...
infidel That is exactly what I thought too! It is possible to do that...
I haven't remembered my dreams very much lately. It's a sign I am too physically or intellectually inactive. I have found that on nights after I have done some rigorous thinking, or equally rigorous physical activity, I tend to recall my dreams better.
slippery PTrue. I think that is because when a lot of activity is going on, the brain uses its down time to process everything. They say that if a person is not allowed to dream they go crazy. Of course this is the kind of thinking my crazy relatives would reinforce.
How do you prohibit someone from dreaming? I suppose if you compel them to stay awake perpetually, but how do you do that?
Phil
I dunno? I thought I read that once...maybe it was just something I heard from on of my crazy aunts. :) An old wives tale.
Or this dream deprivation experiment
You only dream about objects ? and not people ?
I suppose if you compel them to stay awake perpetually, but how do you do that?
Sleep deprivation is used as a substitute for torture during interrogations, in some countries (North Korea is an example). It's not difficult to keep a person perpetually awake if you have guards standing over them at all times to prevent them from sleeping. After about a week with no sleep, human will-power declines steeply, and the person becomes much less able to withhold information.
I've heard that in cases of people who were subjected to this, after a few days they actually started dreaming while awake (that must be rather like hallucinating). So dreaming seems to be very important to the human system, even though nobody knows why.
Well .... this certainly was an interesting read/ post. I dont have answer's, but I reckon it wouldnt mean much to you about them one way or the other being an atheist. I was never an atheist myself, so dont know much how they feel, I am a practicing spiritualist, who tries to forget most of my dream's. I loved the piece of art as well!
Take Care Ms.Rita!
I think the first dream had to do with my present situation & my contentment in having very few possessions, which I had very happily left behind when i got divorced. Who knows?
Efficiency is the act of doing more with less, and more quickly too.
It's easy to read things into dreams & that is one reason why it's easy to interpret them for other people, too.
Indeed so. I actually have a dream interpretation guidebook (1000 dreams interpreted) my brother gave me a while back that I refer to on occasion, particularly if it's a bizzare dream. Although it is quite vague, at least it has some grounding in historical psychological studies and thereby can't be disregarded as completely bogus speculation. At least when I use it, it gives some sort of perspective, now it could just be my own mind making patterns where none exist but it has given me some insights before.
Anyhow, I looked up the terms for key (unlocking old memories) and breaking stuff (breaking off a relationship). So, anyhow, from those two entirely vague things I interpreted it the way I did, but like I said, it's vague stuff and my mind might just be making connections where none exist.
prash Of course I dream about people, but that's not what I puzzle over. It's the subconscious stuff, the symbolism. The idea behind interpreting a dream, is to uncover a secret, a key, whether it is to know ones self better, or to navigate in the world better.
Do you think maybe this is where religion got it's start? I always thought it was human kinds extrospection that created our fascination with the metaphysical, I mean, looking out into space and pondering the unknown universe, but maybe religion developed more from introspection & the mystery of dreams...
infidel Dreams, another new frontier. Can robots dream, I wonder.
Ranchchimp Well, maybe you are taking the easy way out?
qf When we bother to try to interpret our dreams, it at least means we care enough to put out the effort, because the dream has made an emotional impact on us. Sometimes it is the vagueness that is so compelling. I have been in dreams where I would have liked to stayed, because they make me forget real life. Maybe that is where the Christians concept of Heaven comes from?
As far as the "easy way out" .... perhap's your right there Ms.Rita, but I dont intentionally look for a "way out", in other word's ... I am not looking to escape, or see them as right/ wrong, bad/ good. There are a schlew of opinion's and studies out there on your subconcious and such ... the dream state of mind, a number of other related topic's. I concluded long ago I reckon to abandon them all, and accept that this is simply part of my being and instead of rejecting it, I accepted it and learned to nurture it and become a part of it is all. If something is somewhat .... let's not say a "bad" dream ... let's just say "unpleasant" .... it doesnt do any good to ponder on it all day in my concious existence, since that is another world of the psyche I have to deal with, and at the same time .... I am using them bit's and piece's since they are part of my being when I interact in daily life, communicate and make decision's .... and even though some may be unpleasant, I look at the beneficial flip- side of it from the "awareness" angle, like say being prepared for unexpected event's, and mentally ready for them. But I feel it healthy to seperate the world's, the same way I do with my spiritual conscious, but they all co-exist and nourish each other also. So it's not so much a "way out" .... it's kind of more like a seperation of church and state, if that make's any sense. However at the same time, since this is part of my being and accepting that, instead of trying to reject it or convert to an alternative consciousness, and welcoming it .... it become's a part unconsciously of my daily life in decision's, conversation's/ interaction's, what I write, my spiritual psyche, etc. It's all part of the same being, just different dimension's is all.
Thank You Ms.Rita ......
Can robots dream, I wonder.
Maybe, according to Blade Runner.
We'll soon know.
That was a tongue in cheek comment of mine but you answered it well:
"It's all part of the same being, just different dimension's is all."
I suppose that is part of the fascination with dreams. They are our own scenarios manufactured in our own heads. Bits & pieces of our own consciousness thoughts & feelings filtered through our subconscious.
infidel
I can see where it would be useful in interrogations to deprive a person of sleep to the point whether they could not tell the conscious from the subconscious. I remember listening to a guy at a Winter Soldier conference in Portland talk about working at Guantanamo Bay for two years & how they did just that to the prisoners. He said it not only affected the prisoners but took a toll on the guards as well. The prison was designed to disorient & disrupt any kind of restfulness, from music blaring 24/7 to the color of paint & patterns on the wall. He said if you did not learn to completely divorce yourself from your surroundings you would go crazy, like the prisoners. Apparently, it was recommended that a soldier not do more then a years duty there. He did two. His concern was, after he came back home, he had not been able to get back to being himself & of course there were nightmares associated with all that he had endured. I also recently read a book titled A Long way Gone written by a former child soldier in Sierra Leone. The children were forced to commit horrible atrocities by day, & they soon learned to divorce themselves from what they were forced to do, but it created terrible & vivid nightmares. The author said a common sight at rehabilitation centers for rescued child soldiers was sleepwalking and inability to sleep soundly. Children would be put to bed at night, but in the morning they would be found curled up in all kinds of places not knowing how they got there. I believe a persons subconscious is hidden in part because it needs to be protected from outside influences. from that I would concur in my second dream I somehow realized this.
This of course takes me back to my reform school days in the 1970's and our(meaning us inmates)unwilling subjection to the "70's" brand of pop physiology.
I've had a few dreams about stupid Christians and angry Muslims dropping atomic weapons on each other and then I have to run away before the shock wave overtakes me. Sometimes I escape that situation by flying away from the blast zone like Superman, but other times I just hide underneath a desk or sink cabinet and then wait for the debris to settle, then I take off flying like Superman.
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I long ago gave up attempting to make sense of my dreams. I don't believe there's anything really significant to be learned, though I wish I could do that hover-gliding in the waking world.
Put me on skates, skis, skateboards, whatever, and sooner or later something very painful, and involving gravity, will occur. In dreams, I often can swoop around, as if I'm wearing hover-skates, or Marty McFly's hoverboard on my feet. I never fall.
Once, or maybe several times, I'm not sure, I was in a pedalled flying machine, passing steam-driven dirigibles, watching steam-hauled road-trains chuffing across the landscape below. And that was before steampunk.
So I don't waste time on trying to analyse dreams. Instead, I just know that in my head there are myriad worlds, which I can only visit whilst asleep. good thing too, with some of them. Like when I was in charge of that big ship? The captain said "Just hold the course steady, and call me if anything changes" And there we were, heading toward the dock, and everybody else had left the bridge, and I kept ringing the engine room telegraph for full astern, but nothing was happening, and even at full helm we weren't going to turn in time, and my foot was hard on the brake, people on shore were screaming and running...
Must have been a Toyota.
Sou
I also don't take the analizing of dreams too seriously.
They are in the realm of things that are nebulous. Too much room for error.
The scientific research is interesting though.
I do enjoy the dreams in which I can fly.
Oops! A Freudian slip...
"analizing" of course I meant analyzing.
Ususaaly, something spectacular happens in my dreams. Either to me or by me, but it's mostly nice :-)
The last one was sexual on nature. I wonder what that means?
The last one was sexual on nature. I wonder what that means?
Just so long as you didn't get analized:-)
I had an interesting dream last night about being in the back of a city bus and there was a Rhinoceros on the TV screen with a song about going back to Africa....It made perfect sense at the time, lol. All I know is that it was a good dream, a very peaceful dream, it felt like that feeling when you do something successful such as winning an award or tournament, but it didn't make any kind of logical sense whatsoever.
Interesting post ---and comments.
I only seem to remember my dreams if I have gotten up, maybe to go to the bathroom, an hour or two before intending to get up for the day. When I go back to sleep, I remember my dreams when I wake up.
I've always been curious about people who dream in black and white. Until the early 1800's when photography was developed No pun intended), only some art work (etchings, engravings, ink drawings) were black and white. We see the world in color. Why would anyone not dream in color?
I often wonder where my dreams come from. Some are obvious, like dreaming I forgot to take an important item with me to work, for example, when a big project is due. But sometimes I dream the most bizarre things. Usually if I have an erotic dream, I am with someone I have never consciously thought of in a romantic way. I often dream about people who died years ago, but in my dream I find nothing odd about their being alive and well. In my dreams I can speak a language I haven't been able to speak fluently for decades. You mention dreaming of houses. I can't remember ever dreaming about looking at a house from the outside. I am often in a house or building ---usually one I don't recognize. And, if I had to find a recurring scenario, it would be that I often dream I am in a college dorm ---maybe attending a workshop or a short course. In my dreams, I am always young, attractive, flirtatious, and thin ---which must mean the last 35 years didn't happen, right?
^^^Rods and Cones. The brain processes color separately than it processes light intensity.
I will "give in" here, this once, of a dream segment/ vision that I had, not erotic, or scary, but this has happened on too many occassion's on too many thing's, so .... for me, it IS a lil uncomfortable at time's .... which is also the reason why I dont talk much about dream's or care to remember them .... okay? Because they alway's dont involve just building's or object's or such .... and 99% of my dream's as well are not very romantic, or erotic, or humorous at all, this is just one, that happened, or I became aware of a week ago, so it's "fresh".
A week ago .... on a sunday night (so about 1.5 week ago let's say) I had to go down to Collins Av. in a suburb called Arlington to a small business .... hadnt been to this part of Arlington (Arlington is a good size suburb, almost 400,000 population and large in land) in probably about two year's, and during that time, Collins was clogged up anywayz because of construction of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium there (a domed stadium) which is complete and just opened this year. It was early evening, dark .... and the front entrance to the stadium is there on Collins, I pulled into a parking lot across the street and looked at it .... it was all glass exterior, lit up inside, transparent ...a beautiful and awesome site .... it's 20 stories high ... and a quarter a mile in diameter, so you can imagine what that may have looked like, with a all glass transparent shell. What was a lil weird though for me .... was that, that exact view, and location I seen probably a dozen time's over 10 year's ago in dream's, exact in every detail of the view. I recall when I had the dream (maybe close to even 15 year's since) wondering why I was dreaming of a stadium so much, and one that was entirely glass, thinking to myself jokingly that they must call it the "glass house", but was a beautiful sight, I even thought at the time, it would be nice to have a stadium like that in downtown Dallas. The thing is .... back then ... no one was even talking about a new stadium, period anywhere's in Dallas, I had no reason to keep having dream's/ vision's of a stadium. Now .... I dont expect you to believe this, because if someone told me this ... I frankly wouldnt believe it. But ....yep ... I have had quite a few dream's let's say .... like that for many year's, many of the dream's have been very beneficial to me over the year's as well, which is a different story. I actually never even mentioned this to anyone for instance on this particular dream .... so it is "first" on your blog. That's about it.
Thank You Ms.Rita ......
Consciousness - what we are sensing within the last 7 seconds.
Experiences - what we have have taken in since we have awakened.
Memories - what we know and understand.
The purpose of sleep is to organize our experiences and link them to other experiences and memories in order to give them meaning so that we can use them to learn function.
Our consciousness is only subdued during sleep and as this linking process progresses during slumber, some of it "leaks" back into our consciousness giving us a bizarre show consisting of all the things our minds are are trying to associate as it creates understanding.
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