Thursday, June 27, 2013

Would You Like to Have Your Dream Interpreted?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
          I sometimes have dabbled in some dream interpretation on this blog, but as I have indicated in previous posts I think this is a very subjective realm that can be difficult for an outside observer to do effectively.  Recently I ran across a dream interpretation blog that seems to do a pretty credible job of this.  I've invited Amaranthe from Sculpted Dreams to share a bit about what she has to offer at her site.  Be sure to visit her blog and send her a dream if you'd like to get her take on it.


     I’ve been having strange and vivid dreams for as long as I can remember, which is to say since I was five or six years old. One of my earliest dreams involved Captain Kirk lying dead on a black slab with lasers set up around his body to keep anyone from bothering it. (I really liked Wrath of Khan as a kid.) Another that I had when I was ten or eleven was about a dog-eating sunflower. Sounds funny now, sure, but at the time it was terrifying—I had a dog, after all, and awoke concerned for its welfare.

     I got in the habit of writing down these dreams in a diary someone had given me, at first only in passing with one or two lines, but eventually I began logging the dreams in careful detail. Some were easy to shrug off as a kind of “data dump” in which my mind was simply discarding old information or making bizarre connections between otherwise unrelated things. But some dreams felt weighty and somehow important. These I would puzzle over, trying to understand them. I would read this and that dream dictionary and attempt to cobble together the meaning behind these nightly teleplays.

     After a while, I got pretty good at it. Taking what I’d learned, I began to apply a certain amount of intuition to interpreting dreams, until eventually it became second nature. And before long others began to ask me what their dreams meant, too. My cousins, my friends. Until one day a friend suggested I do it more widely. So I recently started a website titled Sculpted Dreams (http://sculpted-dreams.blogspot.com) where I do dream interpretation for free. Because I enjoy it, and why not?

     As I’ve noted, I’ve only just started the site, but I’ll talk about some of the most common dream questions I receive from friends and neighbors. Places, for one. Usually some kind of distorted location along the lines of: “It was like the house I lived in as a kid, except . . .” Houses often (but not always; there is no “always” in dreams) represent the dreamer, and the rooms represent various aspects of that person. A childhood home, then, may be a way of showing an “old” or “outdated” or even “immature” aspect. The fact that it is distorted makes sense—the dream house has been manipulated to reflect the dreamer, not the actual location.

     Airplanes are another big one, or really any form of travel. This generally symbolizes the dreamer’s life journey. How difficult or easy the travel may be indicative of how difficult or easy the person is finding life to be. If in a dream you find yourself stuck at the airport, you may be feeling stuck in a kind of limbo in your waking life as well, as if you’re not getting anywhere. Travel can also represent transitions in life, moving from one stage to another. After all, when you travel you leave something (and sometimes someone) behind.

     So what good does knowing a dream’s meaning do you? It can be therapeutic to some degree, allowing you to understand yourself, be in touch with your own inner workings. It’s self-therapy. Dreams, when not a simple data dump, are your subconscious trying to get your attention. When you open those lines of communication, you begin to feel more balanced. The flow of information from subconscious to conscious and back gets easier, and the more you do that, the more you’ll dream because it becomes an ongoing conversation with yourself.

     Still, sometimes you need someone to translate the strange language of dreamspeak. Or maybe you just want a second opinion. If so, send me your dreams, and I’ll post them (anonymously) along with my take on them on my site. Be aware that I do edit for grammar and punctuation. (I’m a writer in my day job, so I can’t let these things go by untouched.) The e-mail link is on the site, or you can reach me at methos [at] gmail (dot) com.

      Thanks, Lee, for having me. And happy dreaming!



Enhanced by Zemanta

6 comments:

  1. Thanks! Interesting stuff. dreams. I like the "data dump" idea for some dreams but then there are those dreams that startle me or seem to linger in my mind. Now those are worth pondering. I sent you a couple. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm pretty good at figuring out my dreams when I can remember them. Lately I've been having weird/dark dreams about my old life in Washington and my now deceased ex husband. I had a real bad one last night and woke up very unsettled at 7 today. I know why I'm dreaming them b/c exactly 2 years ago, I was on my way moving back to the east coast with my new love. We started the trip on 6/26. I'm still processing everything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Wrath of Khan picture really got me. It continues to be my favorite Star Trek movie and Khan my favorite villain. I just saw Into Darkness yesterday and was very impressed by it. Spock yelling "Khannnn!!!!" was a little over the top, but still....
    I firmly believe that dreams have something to them. How can they not? They are a result of our brains trying to make sense out of things. But, I really have a problem whenever I have one of those "sexy" dreams (good golly, I hope I'm not the only one who has them). I never get "release" (I hope you know what I mean. I really don't want to explain it). Of course, on the other hand, it might make quite a mess. On the other OTHER hand, the fact that I don't might be a statement of something in my life. Yeah, Freud would have a field day with me.
    If he wasn't dead.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Enjoyed the post Lee, I don't think I'd like to have my dreams looked into.all the same.

    Yvonne.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Graciewilde: I look forward to reading about your dreams!

    JoJo: psychologically (my minor at uni), the grieving process takes approximately two years, give or take. So it makes perfect sense to be revisiting this in your dreams at this milestone. Though of course you'll most likely continue to at different points throughout your life.

    Al: the lack of "release" may be a literal reflection of your waking life (only you know, and I don't need to), but if you actually have a very satisfactory sex life, it probably points to lack of satisfaction in some other part of your world, i.e., not being as successful at work as you would like. Or it may point to something else that is "incomplete," like an unfinished project.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wonderful post. I'm a vivid dreamer myself. Lots and lots of dreams about big old haunted houses. I wonder what that says about me!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear your comments or to just know that you were here. Please let me know what you think. And if you'd be so kind, please click on the Friend Connect button. It's nice to be joined on my dream journey with others who want to explore the mysterious world of the subconscious mind.
Sorry, due to too much spam I no longer allow anonymous comments on this site. If you want to comment and aren't registered yet then please sign up. It's not all that difficult and I'd really like to hear what you have to say. Comment away!

The Dreamer