Dream Psychology

[GZA]

What are your opinions on Dream Psychology? Can any of you analyze dreams and their meaning?

For example, what does it mean if you have a dream where you are on top of a building, laying down, and you are afraid of heights, and the top of the building becomes smaller and smaller untill you fall off because you are too big to lay on it? Cause... I had that dream recently :hi:

 

[Athenian200]

What are your opinions on Dream Psychology? Can any of you analyze dreams and their meaning?

For example, what does it mean if you have a dream where you are on top of a building, laying down, and you are afraid of heights, and the top of the building becomes smaller and smaller untill you fall off because you are too big to lay on it? Cause... I had that dream recently :hi:

I think it means that you feel insecure about your situation, you feel like you're in a precarious position that could be compromised easily.

Of course, I don't know how your mind works, so that's just my interpretation.

 

[GZA]

I think it means that you feel insecure about your situation, you feel like you're in a precarious position that could be compromised easily.

Of course, I don't know how your mind works, so that's just my interpretation.

Hmmm, you might be on to something. I don't know how to explain it, but I am kind of worried about some aspects of my situation. Not my physical situation (as in, my home, and the safetly of my neighborhood) but the mental situation, particularly pertaining to other people directing me and influencing me. I'm worried that what I am told to do will end up being totally different from what I should do. I don't know, I'm just worried, because I know I'll end up doing what I'm told... that sucks

 

[Athenian200]

Hmmm, you might be on to something. I don't know how to explain it, but I am kind of worried about some aspects of my situation. Not my physical situation (as in, my home, and the safetly of my neighborhood) but the mental situation.

That's why I didn't specify. Even if it's not related to a physical situation, the idea of a problem in a physical situation could be a metaphor for worry over a mental situation by the subconscious.

, particularly pertaining to other people directing me and influencing me. I'm worried that what I am told to do will end up being totally different from what I should do. I don't know, I'm just worried, because I know I'll end up doing what I'm told... that sucks

So...

The height of the building represents anxiety about a situation turning out a certain way. The roof shrinking represents your options for making it turn out positively being constrained. The point where you're too big, and presumably fall off, is the point where everything finally goes negatively, because you were finally constrained to possibilities/choices that couldn't possibly turn out as well as the ones you had before, so you "fall" in terms of what you can do.

Does that make sense? Or am I way off?

 

[Zergling]

It doesn't really sound like a useful interpretation though, since just about everyone has some issue or fear they are dealing with t some degree, so there aren't really any situations where someone could have this dream and not be worried about something. (Which would be needed to test out whether this type of interpretation works or the dream is just random output from some part of the brain thinking about buildings.)

 

[The_Liquid_Laser]

I think it's best to discuss dream meanings with someone who knows you well. I don't think there is an objective way to interpret dreams, but it is a good way to be introspective and discover things about yourself that you might not be aware of.

 

[scantilyclad]

i have a dream dictionary, which is sometimes helpful, but i'm too lazy to go get it and look up things from your dream. i apologize.

 

[Recluse]

i have a dream dictionary, which is sometimes helpful, but i'm too lazy to go get it and look up things from your dream. i apologize.

Tease!

 

[prplchknz]

I keep having dreams where I go crazy.

One was where I wrote 125 love letters to my room mate's boyfriend confessing my love and saying how we'd be perfect together and how he should break up with her. The dream ended with him telling me that I was crazy and never wanted to see me again. (I would never do this in real life. He's a cool person but I'm certaintly not in Love with him.)

Then one where I get caught with some drugs and I start making death threats. and threatening to kill the person if they turn me in. I remember getting graphic about it.

I think dreams have meanings but they're more personal then universal. Two people having similar dreams, can, or I believe, have a different meaning to them.

 

[Totenkindly]

Dream dictionaries are useful, but only (in my opinion) in the sense they provide the cultural lexicon that your brain might be working under.

(IOW, symbols do not have universal meanings; they only mean what the individual has come to SEE them to mean, which is a product of life and thus cultural assimilation.)

So a bear in one culture showing up in a dream could mean a very different thing than a bear showing up in a dream in another culture.

And the overriding lexicon is the "personal" one: A "bear" is whatever your brain has decided it means.

So when we interpret dreams, I think it is important to look at the dream and its symbols in specific terms of our individual life. And thus strangers are not really good at this. You or someone who knows you well is more apt to properly interpret what your brain was thinking when you had a dream.

What I really see dreams as are the fears/desires of the individual, using whatever building blocks (i.e., symbols) happened to be accessible even if the symbol itself is irrelevant to the value. It just gets "hijacked" to represent the fear/desire in question.

Thus, your college instructor Mr. Wiggles might have no relevance to your fear/desire, but he might show up in your dream that night if you had a class with him that day, one of the "extras" your brain is using to help you process your fear/desire. The events of the day (things we experienced, things we thought about) are like puzzle pieces the brain dumps on the table, then saying to itself, "Okay, how can I put these all together to express my underlying emotions?")

Did this make sense?

 

[prplchknz]

yes, that did.I also agree with that, I sometimes use dream dictionaries but I don't rely heavily on them to figure out my dreams.

I'm sure my dreams have to do with the fact that I've done something reacently to fail a class I need to graduate, and I'm freaked out cuz I have to talk to the teacher about it. And both dreams have to do with me screwing up big time. I didn't need a dictionary to tell me that.

 

[cascadeco]

I think dreams have meanings but they're more personal then universal. Two people having similar dreams, can, or I believe, have a different meaning to them.

Yes, this makes sense, I tend to agree.

My dreams vary - most of the time they are very real-world, with people I know, other times there's a lot of imagery and 'color' and it's like I'm in fantasy-land.

The only dream I've pinpointed as tying to a specific psychological state is dreams where I'm running away from a 'bad guy' who is out to get me, or who is trying to kill me. I think I've always escaped (although one time I don't think I did?), and I tend to get the dreams when I'm stressed out, or having an interpersonal dilemna/conflict with someone. Maybe more specifically, when I feel like I'm losing control of things.

My favorite dreams are when I fly and hover over the landscape.

And it hasn't happened for a while, but occasionally I have narration dreams, where I'm narrating what's going on - like more of a stream-of-consciousness type thing, like I'm writing a story.

My most vivid dream - and the only of its kind - was when I was a kid, and it was a narration-type thing, with an outside voice (like a voiceover in movies or tv shows) but I was also high above, looking down at a scene unfolding..and it was of the Earth having been destroyed - like a futuristic scene or something. But it wasn't live-action, it was more a camera panning in on things, taking a snapshot of an instant in the future. Very bizarre, but I remember waking up feeling chilled to the bone. Because it was kind of an apocalypse-now type thing -- and I remember everything was in black and white. The only living things were ravens..or crows...I'd have to look back at my diary from way back then to remember the specifics, because it struck me so much that I actually wrote about it - and I didn't journal much at all back then.

 

[Rohsiph]

My most vivid dream - and the only of its kind - was when I was a kid, and it was a narration-type thing, with an outside voice (like a voiceover in movies or tv shows) but I was also high above, looking down at a scene unfolding..and it was of the Earth having been destroyed - like a futuristic scene or something. But it wasn't live-action, it was more a camera panning in on things, taking a snapshot of an instant in the future. Very bizarre, but I remember waking up feeling chilled to the bone. Because it was kind of an apocalypse-now type thing -- and I remember everything was in black and white. The only living things were ravens..or crows...I'd have to look back at my diary from way back then to remember the specifics, because it struck me so much that I actually wrote about it - and I didn't journal much at all back then.

Slightly off-topic concerning the first post, but I found this interesting--one of my most vivid dreams I've retained since childhood was one in which I witnessed the end of the world. However, it wasn't a "narration" dream--I was older, at some kind of formal party in a dome-structure, and a screen hung on a wall near one of the ends of the dome. A map of the world appeared on the screen, and, one by one, the continents began to disappear. I can't remember what continent I must have been on, but when it disappeared I had a vivid sensation like being on a roller-coaster as it crests a very high drop, and then falling--and then I woke up.



As for the original topic: I agree with Jennifer. I've sought out insight from "dream dictionaries" recently to try and better analyze some of my dreams, but I think my symbol system is fairly disconnected from what the most easily-accessible guides on the 'net suggest--particularly with staircases. Staircases have popped up in many of my dreams, and they have never meant anything as simple as what I've read of any interpretation of climbing, descending, or simply looking at staircases for me.

Dreams are interesting, and important, nonetheless. I really can't remember ever being chased by anything in my dreams, except another vivid childhood dream with talking tornadoes . . . yet, whenever I get to sharing dream experiences with others, I almost always hear about a "being chased" dream.

 

[wildcat]

i have a dream dictionary, which is sometimes helpful, but i'm too lazy to go get it and look up things from your dream. i apologize.

Apology is a good start.

Now read Ave Maria in Latin as many times you need to learn it by heart. When you are ready, go to bed without supper.

Post Scriptum.
Do not forget your evening prayers.

 

[GZA]

That's why I didn't specify. Even if it's not related to a physical situation, the idea of a problem in a physical situation could be a metaphor for worry over a mental situation by the subconscious.



So...

The height of the building represents anxiety about a situation turning out a certain way. The roof shrinking represents your options for making it turn out positively being constrained. The point where you're too big, and presumably fall off, is the point where everything finally goes negatively, because you were finally constrained to possibilities/choices that couldn't possibly turn out as well as the ones you had before, so you "fall" in terms of what you can do.

Does that make sense? Or am I way off?

It makes some sense, yes.

 

[ladypinkington]

Hey this reminds me Of the Secret of The Cube. A friend of mine recently told me and my husband of the secret of the cube and we found it to be fascinating,lol. I believe the book is even called The Secret Of The Cube. I recommend it to anyone who finds these kinds of things interesting like I do.

Oooh- I have another friend who was able to open one eye while dreaming and look at his pillow and be awake while the other eye remained closed with him still in his dream seeing his dream surroundings. It was like he was half conscious and have unconcsious or subconscious. It freaked him out. I thought that that was amazing.

These are all related and not related to this thread,lol. These are just the things that come into my mind that I thought worth sharing.
Sharing is cool,lol.

 

[CzeCze]

I actually believe that you can scrutinize your dreams to help you. It's an interpretive art like Tarot card reading, except your own dreams are much better starting points.

Even though dreams are personal, there are some more 'universal' meanings for things. Rather than universal, let's say 'cultural'.

The most helpful questions I've learned to ask myself when it comes to interpretation are:

1) How did I feel about X in my dream?
2) How do I feel about X in real lief?
3) Who was I in the dream?
4) Any parallels with this situation to my real life?
5) Word association -- sometimes the objects in your dreams are visual homonyms or clues to their real word meaning. This has been the best clue for me in my dreams.

Some people say that dreams are meaningless errata from the day, excess stimuli being dumped out. Or visions of the future. Or your mind/a higher power trying to tell you something. I think they can be a combination.

Anxiety dreams and 'searching' or 'lost' dreams are pretty straightforward on the surface but you have to examine your dream and life to really figure out what it's pointing to -- and how to stop them from recurring!

I've only had the 'naked in public' dream 1x, and I think mostly because I wondered why I had never had it before. Frankly, I'm not really scared of being naked in public.

 

[GZA]

Here are some fun dreams I had recently to analyze

Last night:

I was in the Tower of Babel. I don't know much about the Tower of Babel other than through studying Breugal's painting and a little bit from ancient history class. I just kind of "knew" it was the tower of babel. It was very modern though, it had a steel structure with glass windows and it went right up into the clouds. I looked out the window and saw a train fast approaching, and it leaped up and transformed into Megatron. I know Megatron isn't a train in the actual Transformers series, but in this dream I immediately knew it was him anyway. He began attacking the building, and I watch my friend go near the window and nearly get destroyed. I went down the elevator and woke up. I then said "what the fuck was that" and laughed. Awesome dream. What does it mean though?



A few nights ago:

I was in a parking lot and some kid tried to steal my CD's. I beat the shit out of the kid and headed for KFC (I never go to KFC in real life). Inside KFC I noticed it was not a KFC but an Aquarium themed taco store, so I left The scene then morphed into a movie theatre where there was a competition with a guitar-hero like game, except it was more like a shooting game where the control is an electric guitar (like a real guitar plugged into an amp ). I was doing well in the game and the audience enjoyed it, too. The final leg of the level had me shooting at pirates as they ran across the beach at me. The beach then faded into a ghetto neaborhood and the pirates into gangsters, and Nas was playing in the background. The lyrics were about how people in the ghetto are nobodies because there is no opportunity. Its weird because I'm not sure if what was playing is a real song or a song my mind created for the dream, because when I woke up and remembered it I didn't actually recognize the song, just Nas' voice. So I was driving in a car going by all these people bumme dout in the ghetto when I realized I was in Washington D.C. I saw some signs and subway stations I recognized from when I went to D.C. last summer, although the certainly were absolutely nothing like the real subway stations. I eventually stopped at the Foggy Bottom Station and saw that it was above ground but under some kind of hanger. The sky was very overcast and surrealistic. I saw a wicker staircase and proceeded to walk up it, but saw that it was a dead end and went back down. It had nothing supporting it. Then my parents were suddenly there and my dad commented on how te song made it seem like a bad city and I said that a lot of what it was saying was true and that it was a deep song. Then I woke up.


So yah, some of the more bizarre dreams I've had due to their surrealistic qalities (Tower of Babel and Megatron, the way the other dream shifted from phase to phase seamlessly and each was bizarre). I really want to interpret them

 

[Sandy]

Being the prey...

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that a huge tiger walked into my sister's house (my kids were still little, and we weren't really in her real kitchen - I don't recognize this house). Frantically, I got on the clear, glass, dining room table and yelled at my sister to close the doors NOW! As I got into a prone position in the middle of the table, the tiger jumped on top and half laid on me while he was licking the top of my head. I could feel him drag his large, pointed, teeth against my scalp, and I was scared to death that he would eventually taste the blood... and then, of course, kill me. I slowly got away from him and ran into the kitchen. Panicked, I was screaming like a mad woman (again) for everyone to get out of the house, while I was looking for something in the fridge to throw at the tiger. Finally, I found some meat and threw it in the corner. My sister decided to drizzle soy sauce on top of it, : and exasperated, I told her to STOP. I kept ordering everyone to get out of the house NOW and go into the car and wait for me. I was so exasperated because nobody took the situation seriously. I woke up very upset.

What do you think THIS means?

 

[Nocapszy]

Dream dictionaries are useful, but only (in my opinion) in the sense they provide the cultural lexicon that your brain might be working under.

(IOW, symbols do not have universal meanings; they only mean what the individual has come to SEE them to mean, which is a product of life and thus cultural assimilation.)

So a bear in one culture showing up in a dream could mean a very different thing than a bear showing up in a dream in another culture.

Not to split hairs, but that particular example might not even be dependent on a macro-system like culture. That one might be largely individual based, as I imagine with most symbols they are. I think ti's advisable to take the dictionaries as a springboard. They express only a single paradigm -- I grant that with advertising and such, people might make similar judgements for fears/joys etc. in a culture, but I still try to avoid keeping it to what's written down. Most of what they've come up with is, I presume, loose correlations based on conjecture (someone prove me wrong?).