Thursday, October 17, 2013

Dreams and Morality

Morality
Morality (Photo credit: dietmut)
       Do our dreams share the same standards of morality as we have in waking life?

        This question recently came to my mind after a couple of dream sessions on two different nights

        On occasion I will have dreams of sex and infidelity.  Usually when the sex dreams have occurred I do not seem to be married in the dream or I am married to someone other than my wife in waking life so there is no sense of my being unfaithful to a spouse, although the very fact that I am married and still having this sort of dream might indicate a certain subconscious unfaithfulness.  Since I will plead innocence in these cases because of a probable lack of ability to control my subconscious activity in these dreams, I do not consider these dreams a breach of my moral beliefs other than possibly sex outside of marriage.

        However in my dreams of the morning of October 6, 2013, throughout the night I had dreams in which I found myself in tempting situations that involved sex.  I was being enticed by different women and felt some desire to become involved.  Yet my moral sense made me avoid becoming involved.  I still felt a sense of longing and felt guilty as I woke from my final dream in the sequence.

        On a different morning I dreamed that my wife and I were going to be managing a show tour for my former boss...

        We are making preparations gathering new cast members and getting the show equipment together.  At one point I am made aware that some gold jewelry is going to be delivered to me.  This jewelry is intended for the members of some women's Olympic team and I am to accept delivery when it arrives in order to give it to my boss when I see him.  
       Instead of setting the jewelry delivery aside for my boss to pick up from me, I give it to my wife to hide so we can keep it.   When our boss arrives, my wife is hiding the jewelry behind her back while I am raiding our boss's refrigerator filled with bottles of alcoholic beverages that I am trying to take for ourselves.
       Our boss plainly sees that my wife is trying to hide the boxes of jewelry.  He seems upset.  She refuses to turn them over to him saying that she doesn't have them.  I walk towards them trying to think up some kind of story (lie) about the jewelry and that's when I wake up.

        Though the sex dreams are not uncommon, I can't remember other dreams where I am obviously stealing or lying.   There have been a few dreams dealing with killing, but usually I think the act has been committed in self defense.  In these dreams about killing the morality of the situation has sometimes been a matter of concern for me.

        It seems logical that our dream morality would usually reflect our waking life morality since that morality should be so deeply imbued within our being.  There could be instances where the breaching of that morality might reflect inner desires.  Or on a deeper level the immoral acts could symbolize a feeling we might have toward the party we are acting against.  Perhaps we hold them responsible for something that has happened to us or we feel that the person limits us in some way.

        Does your dream morality ever conflict with what you would normally believe or do?   Have you ever felt sorry or guilty in regard to your dream actions?    Why do you think we might act wrongly in a dream?



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7 comments:

  1. It is strange what we dream about, I usually dream about what is happening within my family not wanting me in their lives. In life I can honestly say hand on heart I don't know what I have done or not done. I awaken during the night beads of persperation on my body then find it hard to return to sleep. My son and daughter flatly refuses to meet up to discus the situation which to me is the adult solution. not acting like children by not answering the phone or letters I write. One strange dream I did have 3 nights ago was Daniel said at a concert he was cutting down on the length of his shows. The next day I read that his Father -in-law had passed away and he has cancelled all his UK TOUR. I am wondering about Branson now as he starts that on Nov 1st.

    Very interesting dream pattern you have Lee, enjoyed the read.
    Yvonne.

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  2. Interesting concept - dreams and morality. If we consider Freud, perhaps it's a matter of repression, disconnect with a parent or something like that. I know dreams often help us sort out and deal with reality, helping us make sense of past events, or warning us of future ones. Might not be a matter of morality at all - could be a type of reverse psychology or something. Hmmm...hard to say, really.

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  3. Very interesting topic! I don't think I've woken up from a dream feeling guilty for something I've done in a dream. Then again, I haven't had many moral issues come up, except killing people, but it's always in self-defense and typically the monsters just won't die no matter how many times I stab them and run.

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  4. I stick to the code in my dreams. BUT sometimes the person in the dream is someone else (like watching a movie) and then...Oh man.

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  5. This is an interesting concept. Perhaps it's an inner desire to spice things up a bit.

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  6. I used to have dreams about my fiance' from the 80s, when I was married and I always woke up with really strong feelings for the ex and a burning desire to find out where he was and/or make contact. I haven't dreamt about him in years and now when I do have a sex dream, it only involves my current husband. The only dreams I've had where I'm taking things are the beachcombing dreams where I'm stuffing all my treasures in a bag, oblivious to people around me.

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  7. Don't recall dreams of stealing or sex but I've had a few with where I'm kissing someone other than the hubby. Love a good kiss - hate it when I wake up too soon! LOL



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