It’s been a pretty lazy Sunday for me today. I went out for some dim sum, took a random wander through the dollar store, and then came home to watch football for the next three hours. With the slow pace of the day, it almost slipped my mind to put up a blog post on Beyond the Rhetoric. For shame!
Anyways, I had a rather strange dream last night and it got me thinking about dreams in general. As a Psychology graduate from UBC, I had the opportunity to explore the concept of dream analysis in some depth. The net result was a lot of self-diagnosis, most of which was probably incorrect.
As you may already know, there are typically two layers to any given dream. The manifest content is the actual story that you envision in your mind. This is you walking through the mall, running away from a rabid animal, performing superhuman feats, etc. The latent content, however, is where the really interesting stuff lies, because this describes the actual meaning behind the dream. Symbolism plays a rather major role, but contrary to what Sigmund Freud may have said, it’s not all sexual (sorry Leo).
For example, if you dream about all your teeth falling out, some have said that this represents a loss of power. For many older men, it may represent impotence. Many people have caged animal dreams. The dream interpretation could be that you feel restricted in some way or, alternatively, that you are seeking safety from a threat. If you dream about falling from a tall building, it could be that you feel out of control in some way. If you envision a homeless person, it could be saying that there is something missing in your life that you trying desperately to attain. Financial independence, perhaps?
I must have a fairly active imagination, because I dream quite often about many different things. Last night, however, it seemed like my mind wasn’t trying to explore a particular issue or solve some sort of problem. Instead, it seemed to be trying to summarize my life these past few years.
In my dream, I explored my obsession with poker, spoke with an old colleague from when I worked at a car rental company, and bumped into a classmate from my UBC days. It was all very strange, but it seemed to compact the last five years or so into a neat 30-second package. Interestingly, the dream made no mention of the panda killer, my hockey blog buddy, or my business as a freelance writer.
I’d love to hear if any of you have interesting dreams that you’d like to share. Do you have any recurring dreams? Do you dream in color? The root of all evil probably dreams about making money online killing pandas…
Since you mentioned strange dreams, and because you asked, I will tell you about a strange dream I had a few months back — one that stuck with me for some reason.
A few months back I went to bed with one of my terrible headaches. The headache where your vision is blurry, your head pounds, you feel nauseous, your sensitive to light and etc… defined by doctors as a Migraine. Anyway, when the pain finally allowed me to drift off to sleep, I dreamt that a concrete brick came falling from a skyscraper, and it was headed right for my head! As the brick was falling (in slow motion), I could see my husband running toward me to push me out of the way (also in slow motion). I don’t know what happened from this point on, because when the brick was right there, I woke up. It all felt so real!
After I woke up — thankful it was only a dream — my headache didn’t seem as bad, but it was still present. My mom told me I must have dreamt it because I went to sleep with a headache, and in the dream the falling brick was headed for my head.
As for recurring dreams, I can honestly say that I don’t recall ever having a recurring dream.
I just dream about sex and food . . . sometimes together.
I’m reminded of an episode of Seinfeld… the one where George tried to the exact same thing (in “real” life, not in a dream).
I dream about becoming a famous dot-com-mogul. I also dream about taking pictures of food and posting it on my website, along with me and my Dot-Com Billionaire friends.
It’s amazing how bitter you can be toward someone who you have never met in person.
This reminds me of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure when someone asked him what his dreams were.
Something about a snake in a cowboy hat.
I took a course in college about dream analysis and it was one of the most interesting classes that I took through my four years.
Something we did in the class that I should try again is to keep a dream journal next to the bed as I am usually terrible at remembering a dream.