Christmas Dreams

English: Picture of the Space Needle and the modern Christmas decoration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     
           I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is continuing to enjoy the holiday season.

          When I was a child, Christmas used to factor into my dream life to a greater extent than it has in my adult life.  I can't actually recall having any Christmas related dreams as an adult.  It's probably due to the busy times of the season--the travel, the gatherings, and out of the ordinary activity.  This is a season where I usually don't remember my dreams.

          Though I can't recall any specific childhood dreams at Christmastime, I do remember having holiday related dreams.  They were usually the wish dreams of what I fantasized about getting for Christmas or dreams of receiving special unexpected bounties of gifts.   The dreams were always happy and hopeful.

         During this season I hope you are having those happy dreams and most of all I hope you are having happy times in your waking life.   I wish you all the best in the year to come.

          Can you remember having special dreams related to Christmas when you were a child?   Does the activity of the holidays interfere with your current dream life or does it enhance your dreaming?   What types of dreams do you associate with Christmas?

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People You Long to See

Christmas 2010, Maryville (Photo credit: kmoliver)

   
         Do you have dreams where you see or are looking for people from your past, dead or living, that you long to see or had forgotten about?   This is a common theme in my dreams.  The following is a dream that I recorded from September 29th of 2013:

       In this dream I am in my old hometown in Tennessee:   There has supposedly been a snowstorm of epic proportions, although by appearance it doesn't seem too major.  It isn't very deep, but I see snow over a vast landscape panorama all around me.  The power is out and people have been warned not to drive.
      I go to a house or structure not far from my mother's house.  An old friend and  his band are supposed to be playing at a gathering to which many of our friends have been invited.
     Then I find myself in a car with my mother driving.  We are at Buddy's Market, a store that has been gone for many years.  She is trying to find a parking space.  She almost drives into a vast rocky chasm in the middle of the parking lot.  It was obstructed by snow.
      We go to a house where one of my sisters lives.   I am aware that many of my relatives will be there.  A niece answers door.  I see many of my family members there.  One of my sisters is mounting a 36" flat screen TV near the ceiling by easily screwing it onto a bracket.  The TV looks unusual and modernistic.  There is a picture but she can't get the sound working.
      Some older people are outside and I speak with them briefly.  Returning back inside I find that everyone seems to have disappeared into back rooms.   One of my dear old friends comes into the house.  He has something in a bag which at first I think is marijuana.  He asks if anyone wants some oranges.  I look more closely and realize what he has is more of a pod like fruit surrounded by leaves.   At first I decline but then he peels one and I try it.  The fruit tastes more like mango.
     Soon Vernon is gone.  I go to look for others but I'm afraid to enter any rooms.  I want to smoke some pot.   I go to wash my hands at a sink in the hallway.  A friendly stranger comes and we discuss the oranges and other things.   Somebody comes out from the back and says they've been in the pool.
     I want to go back to find my friends but I don't know where they are.

     Throughout this seemingly very long and involved dream I am with people who are dear to me or I am looking for such people.  The dream is very comforting and when I awaken I feel very hopeful as I long to see old friends and family.

       Do you often dream about people you haven't seen in a while?   How do these kinds of dreams make you feel?    What do you think a dream of this sort means?

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Quirky Behavior and Gestures

Eiwe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   
      A recent dream reminded me of peculiar images that sometimes occur in my sleep life.  These images involve odd mannerisms that certain dream characters may display during the sequences in which I am involved with them.   This can include various ways of walking or moving, facial expressions, or other outward physical manifestations.

       In the specific example that I am thinking of, I have been having a very long complex dream that involves many situations and characters.  I don't remember anything about the dream except for one particular image...

      At one point my wife is talking to me in a very animated fashion.  She seems very happy and is smiling as she is talking.  While she speaks, she has her open hands in front of her face, palms toward her face and backs of hands toward me.  Her hands are moving together in a rapid circular motion as though tracing the the circumference of her facial circle.  She continues to move her hands in such fashion while cheerfully speaking in an ebullient manner...

     Thinking back I can recall having other dreams where characters will make gestures or move in such ways that seem out of character with how they are in waking life or, if they are dream strangers, the movements are comical, puzzling, or just plain weird.  Unfortunately I cannot offhand recall any specific examples from my own dreams, but the dreams are not uncommon for me to have.

        I remember when I was a very young child, my younger sister told me of a dream that she had that in a sense fits in this category...

        There were funny looking men dressed in Scottish-looking outfits.  They have apples on their heads.  One of them is holding another by his arms and spinning around.  Another says, "Don't swing me around, swing me around"...

         My sister says she woke up laughing and was laughing when she told me about the dream.  We were probably about six and five years old at the time.  The oddness of the dream and the way my sister related it to me has caused me to remember the dream to this day.

        I've heard other people relate this type of a dream as well so I think it's probably a fairly common archetypal image.

        Have you ever had a dream where characters act in unusual and unexpected ways?     What quirky dream behavior can you remember?   Did you find the behavior to be funny or frightening?

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Dark Dreams that Seem So Real

The Tenth Doctor (Photo credit: Rooners Toy Photography)

         Sometimes I have a peculiar dream phenomena in which the dream takes place in the same setting in which I sleep.

          In a recent example of this sleep setting dream...

I am asleep and dreaming something that I don't now recollect.  I awaken to go to the bathroom.  There is a certain aura of strangeness in the house, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is.  I hear muffled sounds of voices outside.  When I get to the bathroom I feel around in the darkness to push the light switch.  I think I push the switch but no light turns on.  Thinking that I have not actually pushed the switch I try a few more times with a greater intensity of awareness of what I am doing.  I start to feel somewhat panicked and afraid realizing that the power might be off.  I return to my bedroom to see if the power is off there as well.  Since there is no light on my alarm clock my fear of a power outage is confirmed.  Feeling very afraid I notice my wife is sitting up in bed.  In a quivering voice I say, "The power is off!"   My wife says, "We should pray."

       At this point in the dream I laid down in bed and  I closed my eyes.  Then I opened my eyes and rolled over to look at the clock again.  The red numbers were glowing and not blinking like they would be if the power had really gone off.  The time is 11:28--I have been in bed for about twenty minutes.  My wife is asleep.  I realize that the sequence about getting up had been a very realistic dream--almost a lucid dream in a sense.

        Some of my most realistic dreams have been dreams of this nature; dreams within dreams in which I might be dreaming and wake up to experience something unusual and yet seemingly real since I have had the sensation of awakening.  Usually these sorts of dreams occur at night when the room is dark, but on a few occasions they have happened during afternoon naps or when I'm asleep while riding in the car while someone else is driving.

         Do you ever have "dark dreams" where you believe you have awakened from sleep but only are dreaming that you have?   What do you suppose is the significance of dreams such as I have described here?  Do you believe that there are parallel dimensions or threads of time that we cross into during sleep time?



     

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