(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Here is a recent dream that may have occurred over a period of an hour or two before waking. As I dreamed this I woke up a number of times and then returned to sleep and back to the continuation of the dream.
In my dream I am at my cousin's house. It is a very large convoluted place beside what appears to be a lake. There seem to be many people present. In the house I have my own room which seems to have one wall missing and opened onto a deck area overlooking the lake.
I have to leave for some reason and find myself in a vast shopping mall-like place. After I've gone to do whatever it was I needed to do I start looking for my room. At first I find it readily, but then go back and make repeated attempts to find my room. Each time it gets more difficult to find it. The shopping mall begins to seem more like an indoor city as there are more than just stores.
Eventually I am back in my room and realize I have to get ready to go to school. I have the understanding in the dream that somehow some of my high school credits were invalid and I have to return to high school to get my degree. My wife helps me get dressed in some clothes that seem very strange for me. They are in garish colors and have a mod sort of design. I have problems putting my belt on because of the way the belt loops are made and my wife helps me put the belt on.
Then my "room" becomes the classroom. It is very large with no back wall and the lake in the background. There are numerous tables that are like picnic tables made of a plastic-like substance and well over a hundred students are sitting at the tables or milling about the classroom. No classroom study activities seem to be occurring, but there is much socializing. I see no teacher presence and the students seem to be running this environment.
A couple of well dressed young men that I know to be drug dealers are circulating the tables selling their merchandise. They are very clean-cut looking young men. One has a natty suit and a smart fedora and a bright toothy smile that makes him look very friendly. His associate not as well dressed but still dressed very fashionably and he has the same exact smile so that the two almost look like brothers though I know that they're not. I'm curious about the drugs they are selling and hope they will approach me.
Beside me a very cute petite teenage girl is flirting with me. I become very interested in her. I briefly think that she is far too young for me. But then I realize that all the students are accepting me as one of them. They see me as cool and having authority, but I feel more their age than my waking life age and start to believe that I too am a teenager. I am having very positive feelings about being back in school and I feel young.
There are a number of themes present in the dream that have a commonality with other dreams that I've had, including the big house, the large shopping center, and the meandering city that seems to be enclosed. Then there is the back to school scenario. I have often dreamed that I was back in school again as a student. Sometimes it is college while other times it is high school. Frequently the dreams have to do with being unprepared for a test, being lost in the school, or a situation where other students look up to me. Anxiety is usually short-lived in these dreams and everything usually becomes very positive.
Do you ever dream of being back in school? Are they anxiety ridden dreams or are they pleasant dreams? How do your school dreams compare with how your actual school experience was? Are there rooms in your dreams that have a wall missing?
I once dreamed of my elementary school. I no sooner arrived when I had to take cover and there was a huge tornado heading my way. I went into a bunker...and that's all I remember. I was left with a feeling of dread.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall the details of any "back to school" dreams off the top of my head. (Except the one I previously mentioned in which a friend who had committed suicide met me at the door to our Spanish class. But I was still attending high school in real life at the time I dreamed that.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do vaguely recall having had dreams in the past, similar to yours, where I was preparing to take an important test and felt utterly incapable of passing it. That might be a fairly universal "nightmare".
Boidman, there was plenty of detail begging to be analyzed in this dream of yours.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Oh , hell, yes! I dream about school ALL THE TIME. The other night I was at the school where I attended 7th and 8th grades - but I was the teacher. I am frequently back at my high school - sometimes a teacher, sometimes a student. I have been in colleges - both colleges that I have attended and an unknown place that I knew in the dream was a college. Ditto with schools - I am on school grounds all the time - whether or not they are "real" schools - including the school where I am currently employed.
ReplyDeleteI also have children in my dreams all the time - mostly young children - babies up to about 5 years old. I have middle school kids too from time to time (I work in a CA public middle school as a guidance counselor).
Most of the time, my school and kid related dreams are comfortable. About two weeks ago, I was exiting the corridor of the high school I attended and was assailed by a man with a stocking pulled over his face and a stocking around his genitalia - otherwise naked. He was scary and I screamed - I mean really screamed - loud enough to wake my bedmate.
I wish I had a better understanding but I am working with James Hillman's idea to let the dreams be and to be curious but not to analyze up the wahzoo - what do you think?
Em -- Have you seen the film A Serious Man? Your dream reminds me of that movie. The dream must refer to some element of uncertainty in your life and a threat that looms in your life.
ReplyDeleteStMc -- I think the not being ready for a test dream is an archetypal sort of dream that nearly everybody has. In most cases I would interpret it as representing something in our lives that we feel unprepared for--which is probably stating the obvious--but that thing can differ for all of us. And yes, I think my dream has a well of symbolism in it.
Gracie -- The schools in my dreams are usually not like the schools I actually attended. They are just places I know in the dream to be school. I rarely delve very deep into my dreams, and usually let them be. I guess under normal circumstances most of us don't need to dissect our dreams. Detailed analyzing is probably only necessary when we are dealing with emotional or psychological problems that are interfering with normal existence.
Lee
Interesting, dreaming about 'back to school'. I'm literally ALWAYS going back to school and yet I never dream about this.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting dream! :)
ReplyDeleteI was on a school bus in my dream last night and the bus driver caught me cheating. Then I was in Saudi Arabia and I was going to jump into this ice cold water but it disappeared and turned into a rug.
That was weird.
My dreams usually have some sort of swimming pool and I'm usually in Brazil.
Not many back to school dreams. This was an awesome post! I love hearing about other people's dreams. Especially the randomness like your wife helping you put on your belt and your room turning into the classroom. I don't think I've ever dreamed of a missing wall...
I dream almost every night of being back at school where I am teaching in an impossible situation! So tiring. However last night, I dreamed of being in Austria during the Black Plague. I think the teaching dreams are better.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have had dreams on several occasions about taking a test and it generally has happened when I am attempting to learn something new.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a dream about a missing wall in a room, but I have walked down a hall with many doors.
Faraway eyes-- Surprising you wouldn't dream about school especially if you are always back to school. Maybe it's a place your subconscious wants to avoid.
ReplyDeleteZero -- Glad you enjoyed the dream. The Saudi Arabia one you had sounds strange. I wonder what the significance of water is in your life?
Susan -- Since teaching was your job it makes sense that your dreams about school would reflect this. The Black Plague dream sounds interesting from a time travel perspective. Did it give you any story ideas?
Paula -- I think that the taking a test and the hallway with many doors are among the most common dream images.
Lee
I don't think I've ever had a back to school dream...when I got to the part in your dream when you said that the students were accepting you as one of them...I thought you were gonna say that you looked down at your hands...and they were smooth teenage hands..you were accepted because you were one of them again. lol! Two many movies maybe?
ReplyDeleteI had another one with water last night! I was on a study abroad to Brazil and we were traveling by boat. Twice a day high tide would flood the entire boat and we would be completely underwater. I had been warned but no one told me how to breathe under water so I freaked out and had to go ask someone. Somehow, I could say "air?" underwater and they knew what I needed and poured me water in a cup, which I drank and could somehow breathe until the water receded. Water must mean something in my dreams. I never thought of that before until you pointed it out!
ReplyDeleteEnjoying your dreams, Lee! :)
Militaryzerowaste