Dreamscapes - The Limits of our Dreams

© Leeloomultipass | Dreamstime.com

Our exploration of the dreamscape has come to an end, which is not to say that I won't revisit it at some time. After all these posts, it should be pretty obvious that I believe our dreams are a form of communication with our unconscious minds, which are willing to offer up information if we take the time to divine the meaning.

I used to regard this information as sacrosanct. Then, as sometimes happens, I came across something that challenged that idea. You might remember the Heaven's Gate cult - in 1997, a group of 39 people committed suicide over the course of three days, believing that they were ascending to "the level above human" and that their souls would be taken away in a spaceship. Director Sergio Myers made a film about this event, Heaven's Gate: The Day After. The entire film used to be up on YouTube; now, just the trailer is there. In the film, he interviews a surviving cult member, who says he was convinced to join the group because of a dream he had.

It's hard to think that someone's own unconscious mind would sell him out like that. How would he even know? Of course, this individual did survive the mass suicide, but still, if we can't trust information from our own dreams, where does that leave us?

I believe it leaves us in a place where we need to decide how much weight to give that deep part of ourselves. In a society where the influence of the unconscious is largely discounted, to discover that aspect of ourselves can be exciting and illuminating. But at the same time, those waves can be overwhelming, and it always comes back to finding the balance between the unconscious and conscious, contemplation and action, yin and yang.

Insufficient attention to the unconscious can keep us enslaved to old patterns we're not even aware of. Too much attention and we can find it hard to move forward. Our dreams may guide us, but in the end, our lives are ours to live.

Dreamscapes - Bridge

© Kris Vandereycken | Dreamstime.com
Image processed in Adobe Photoshop

Building bridges, burning bridges, crossing bridges - bridges provide not just a common metaphor for life, but for dreams as well. Bridges can hold positive connotations, such as uniting people and places, but they also have darker aspects, including gephyrophobia, or the fear of traveling over a bridge.

In dreams, a bridge will often represent some transition for the dreamer. How secure the dream bridge appears may indicate whether the path the dreamer is taking seems safe or fraught with peril. A dream bridge over water might mean the dreamer is dealing with emotions or the unconscious.

I've had more bridge dreams than I can count. They are all similar - I'm driving a car that is going up a very steep bridge, the kind you see near harbors that are built as high arches to allow ships to pass under them. The apex of the arch is so high, there are clouds at the top. In a related dream, I'm on a raised highway and need to take a ramp onto another highway, but the ramp is impossibly high, suspended in midair by nothing.

All of these dreams were scary, although I wouldn't call them nightmares. What was going on for so long in my waking life that I kept dreaming of driving into the clouds? The answer came when, after years of fairly heavy-duty spiritual questing, I walked away from my spiritual practice. I had concluded that it simply wasn't helping me. Shortly after, I had a dream that I drove down off a high bridge, back to solid ground. I ended up in a construction zone, but the feeling in the dream was one of relief. Time to come back to earth. Some type of work still needed to be done, but it wasn't going to happen up on the bridge to the sky.

I retain an interest in the spiritual, but no longer feel the need to beat myself up with ill-advised spiritual techniques. It's not very often that a construction zone looks so good.

Dreamscapes - Lucid Dreaming

© Leeloomultipass Dreamstime.com

As a child, I had a series of dreams in which I worked in a shop. I can't remember now what was being sold, but whatever the merchandise was, it was displayed in glass cases. My job was to keep the cases clean.

The boss, unfortunately, was a mean man. I didn't want to work in the shop anymore. Then a solution presented itself. There was a lantern, and if I held it up, I would awaken from the dream. Somehow I knew I was dreaming, and I knew what to do to come out of the dream.

Lucid dreaming, or the awareness that one is dreaming and can even control the dream, is pretty much the exact opposite of a nightmare. In fact, a 2006 study showed that people who suffer from nightmares benefit from lucid dreaming techniques.

Which implies, of course, that lucid dreaming can be learned. That sounds pretty cool, until you start to look at some of the methods. One procedure is to go to sleep normally, wake up six hours later, think very hard about lucid dreaming for an hour, then going back to sleep. It seems like a lot of work if you just want to experiment. Those with nightmares may find it worth their while, though.

Also interesting is the idea of reality testing. What if you think you might be dreaming, but aren't sure? According to the Wikipedia article on lucid dreaming, you could:

• Pinch your nose and see if you can breath without using your mouth.
• Stick your finger through the palm of your hand.
• Flip on a light switch (the light level shouldn't be affected).
• Look in a mirror. "(In) dreams, reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred, distorted, incorrect or frightening."
  

Well, if the reality test is scary, what good is that? I've had dreams where I looked in a mirror; the results were mixed. In one, my eyes changed color (nice!). In another, my one eye appeared to be corroding away (not so nice).

But of course, if that last dream had been lucid, I suppose I could have done something about my health issue. It does seem that, for whatever ability we have to control our dreams, even lucid dreaming has its strange aspects. It may yield more vivid imagery and a feeling of giddiness, but it's still part of the noctural dreamscape, a strange reality that will always contain mysterious aspects.

Dreamscapes Bonus Post - Mulholland Drive

Well, I couldn't go completely reductionist on you when it comes to nightmares. So here's a scene from David Lynch's extraordinary film, Mulholland Drive. A man tells his friend about a nightmare he had, and suddenly he's in the dream, living it out. If you haven't seen this film, let me tell you, this is scary. Seriously. Proceed at your own risk. Because it's so scary. Maybe watch it during the day. That'd probably be best. Okay, I'll stop now.

(It's scary!)

Dreamscapes - Nightmares

Nightmares, the darkest manifestations that our psyches have to offer, seem to provide a kind of perfect storm for the experience of fear, even terror. Common themes include being chased or attacked, drowning and falling. Some nightmares tend toward the apocalyptic, featuring natural disasters, warfare or fire. They have been fodder for literature, paintings and film.

One in two adults suffers from an occasional nightmare. There seems to be some debate about whether nightmares have any value for the dreamer, as far as addressing some problem in waking life. Common causes for nightmares include anxiety, trauma or some sudden change, like the death of the loved one.

But there are other causes that might lead us to take a more reductionist view of nightmares. Some medications actually cause nightmares as a side effect; withdrawal from some substances (such as alcohol) can also trigger difficult dreams. And sleep disorders and sleep deprivation can make nightmares more frequent.

So where does this leave us? Perhaps at a point where we come up against the limits of the help we can receive from the unconscious mind. One of the tricks to introspection is knowing when to come up for air. If nightmares persist, despite an effort to understand them, determine their meaning and incorporate that meaning into daily life, it may be time to see a doctor for an evaluation.

Which is not to say that their imagery can't be useful for creative endeavors. It's just about getting a decent night's sleep on a regular basis.

For myself, I will sometimes have dreams from which I wake up frightened, but they don't generally rise to the level of a nightmare. The one dream I had like that was a long time ago. I finally got the interpretation, about 20 years later. The complexity of the situation prevents me from getting into it here. Was it worth the wait? Well, it was an explanation for an event I would not have otherwise understood. That's about it, though. I've gotten a lot more information from my regular dreams, so that's where I tend to focus. It sounds strange to say, given that we're talking about dream interpretation, but it's really about applying a little common sense.

Dreamscapes - Animals

Three Wolves, © D. Loren Champlin

It's not surprising that many people dream of animals. Humans have co-existed with animals for millenia, as both predator and prey, so it's only natural that they would make their way into the human dreamscape.

When an animal appears in a dream, its meaning depends on the dreamer and its association with that particular animal. Pet owners often dream of their pets; there might not be much more to such a dream, unless there is some anxiety about the pet's behavior or health.

A wild animal, on the other hand, can symbolize the dreamer's latent emotions that are too powerful to be dealt with by the conscious mind. How the dreamer interacts with the beast can be revealing. Is the dreamer chased by the animal? Some aspect of the dreamer's self is threatening. Or can the dreamer subdue or control the animal? This more positive outcome may indicate a willingness to deal with whatever is rattling around in the unconscious mind.

Not long ago I dreamt I was living in the upstairs flat of a home (there's that house theme again). I had a dog, which I don't in waking life. At first, I was worried that I wasn't taking good care of the dog - when was the last time I fed it? But it seemed perfectly happy.

Then I looked outside, down into the backyard, where I saw a shocking sight: the two dogs that belonged to the downstairs neighbors were lying in the yard, dead, having been severed in two. The neighbors knew about this, but didn't seem especially concerned.

This extraordinary image occupied me for quite a while the next morning. When I considered the idea of a dog representing loyalty ("man's best friend"), it began to make more sense. I had shared some positive information with an individual just the day before, then received an unwarranted and surprisingly negative response. It occurred to me that I might be better off taking that person out of the loop. Whatever hesitation I may have had was dispelled by the dream, which seemed to indicate that my loyalty to that person (and his loyalty to me) had been severed.

I don't want to come across as petty or as someone who demands unquestioning loyalty. Obviously there was some additional history there. Still, why such an extreme image? Dreams often exaggerate to make a point, which, in this case, seemed to be that enough is enough.

The animals that make their way into our dreams are there for our consideration, whether they are playful, baring their teeth or lying dead in the yard. Like the other dream symbols, they can offer both guidance for daily living and the opportunity to delve ever deeper into the pool of the unconscious.

Dreamscapes - House

Van Gogh, The Parsonage at Nuenen by Moonlight

When I first started recording my dreams, the first pattern that emerged was the setting of a house. I found myself in a friend's house or a stranger's house, a childhood home or a boarding house, dormitory, condo or hotel. The action varied - there were people I knew or didn't know, various activities and conflicts. But the theme was undeniable.

The most common interpretation for this dream symbol is that the house represents ourselves. Different rooms in the house are different aspects of the dreamer. The basement is the unconscious, the most hidden part of a person, where we shove things to get them out of the way, then forget about them. Cleaning out the basement in a dream could indicate a time to sort through the past and its effects on the present. The upstairs may represent the rational mind, while persistent dreams about the bathroom might indicate a need for emotional cleansing.

To dream often of a childhood home may mean that there are unresolved issues, as is the case with other homes from the dreamer's more recent past.

For a long time, my dreams took me to so many different types of houses, it was hard to get a handle on what was going on. Sometimes I would be in a place, then realize that, for some reason, I could no longer live there. Then I would remember I had another home to go to. In the final dream like this, I was actually able to recall, in the dream, my current address (although not without some difficulty). I also had one dream where I found myself in a home that I clearly understood to be my own.

I still travel to different dream houses; but it's nice when the unconscious gives us a nod that we're headed in the right direction - slowly, gradually, eventually finding our way home.

Dreamscapes - Water

If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water.
~ Loren Eisley

Most people who remember their dreams, even if only occasionally, will have a memory of a water dream. The symbolic power of water, that essential element, is immense. It flows into our dreams to reveal the symbiosis between our conscious minds and our emotions, or even the contents of the unconscious mind, the unexplored terrain that houses either repressed traumas, the wisdom of humanity, or both (depending on who you read).

As it related to emotions, water in a dream can evoke calm and relaxation (a babbling brook, a fountain, a beautiful waterfall) or, perhaps more commonly, anxiety and fear (flooding, drowning, a tidal wave, a raging river). Turbulent waters can mean that the dreamer feels out of control in waking life. A tidal wave (a dream I used to have with some regularity) can signal a time of emotional upheaval or unusual stress. I'm happy to report having made it through that time, and that the tidal waves have since subsided.

But within my own dreams, water has also played a role in places that I visit again and again. There is a tree-lined brook I frequent. There isn't any strong emotion associated with it - it's just a lovely place to go. There is also a waterway lined with carved stone that looks like something from a medieval city. No one goes swimming in it because of strong currents. There is an implication that people have drowned there.

These dreams about specific places are harder to interpret, in that they don't seem to directly relate to anything going on in my life at the time of the dreams. So they remain mysterious destinations of my dreaming self, scenes for me to puzzle over, then accept as part of the dream landscape that offers clarity one night and enigma the next.

Dreamscapes - The Midnight Sun

David Scott, Puck Fleeing from the Dawn, 1837
(National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh)

This week marks the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. Given that I live in a northern latitude and blog about the night, it's probably pretty obvious that I've never been a big fan of these long days, when the light lingers as late as 10 o'clock in clear weather. I don't have a good explanation for it - just a vague sense that the day should somehow not last so long, that no good can come of it.

Which perhaps explains why the midnight sun has, from time to time, made an appearance in my dreams. I've never seen the midnight sun - I don't live that far north, and never have. But in this recurring dream, I am standing in a familiar place, a room, and I look out the window. The sun is in the western sky, but nowhere close to setting. I observe it calmly, but then remember that it's three in the morning, and the sun should not be shining. The dream ends; the overall effect is unsettling.

What is the interpretation of the dream? That something related to that room (my associations with it) requires illumination of an uncommon sort; otherwise, I might not accept what is revealed. Has that actually happened in real life - has some insight has been given? Yes, but there may be more to come. It's hard to tell for certain. Such is the elusive nature of dreams, especially ones that call into question established patterns of thinking.

Dreams serve as bellweathers, challenging us to change course or give up beliefs that no longer serve us. Clarity can be hard-earned, and we might not like what we come to see, but our dreams can point the way through and forward, the path to new frontiers.

Finally, a note about the image: Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, flees the coming dawn. In the final scene of the play, he says:

And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic.

Dreamscapes - An Introduction

© Mel Gama | Dreamstime.com

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
~ Carl Jung

The Epic of Gilgamesh, possibly the oldest written story in existence, tells the tale of the warrior-king Gilgamesh and his exploits. Believed to be as much as 4,000 years old, the epic includes several of Gilgamesh's dreams, which are interpreted first by his mother and then by his friend, Enkidu, who tell him that the dreams, while disturbing, are favorable omens.

Our dreams may portend the future, serve as messages from God or reveal the workings of our unconscious mind. They might fuel creative endeavors or evaporate with the first light of day. They may mystify, terrorize or amuse us. They are a fundamental part of who we are, as individuals and as part of humanity. To learn the language of dreams is to enter an alien land, a far country, where, in some strange way, there is information that we have hidden from ourselves waiting to be discovered and deciphered and integrated into our conscious lives.

Dreams speak to us in symbols that have specific meaning to the individual and broader meaning related to universal themes. As we delve into these symbols, I'll be drawing on the work of Carl Jung and others to provide some insight into their meaning. Jung's view of the unconscious mind, as revealed by dreams, was complex and fascinating. The idea of the collective unconscious was his, what he called "a reservoir of the experiences of our species." Consequently, we all draw on dream symbols that are common to humanity, while at the same time assigning personal meaning to aspects of our dreams.

To get things started, consider some dreams of famous people and the impact they had. Well, I guess the new golf swing Jack Nicklaus dreamed mostly just affected him. Our unconscious mind can help us solve problems, but let's not limit ourselves. There's a lot more going on in those depths. I'll meet you there.