Friends and Family (Elements of Dreams) #AtoZChallenge

        Logically our cast of dream characters will consist of recognizable friends and family members.  These can be those who are in our daily lives, people we might not have seen for quite some time, or even persons who have passed away.  Some readers here have indicated that they don't recognize anyone in their dreams.  I would think this would be unusual, but not out of the question.

        For the most part I think that the majority dream about people they know.  This would make more sense from the standpoint of dream meaning and interpretation since specific people in our lives represent particular emotions or circumstances in our daily life.  For example we might dream about a boss who might evoke feelings of incompetence or nervousness within us.  Or dreaming about a parent or grandparent might instill a sense of security of comfort.

         Different people can represent different things in our dreams.  Strangers more likely serve the capacity of threats to our well being or merely "extras" in a dream movie.  People we know have meaning to us and would be the natural characters to accompany us in the dream stories that are extensions or interpretations of our waking life stories.

          Do you usually recognize the characters in your dreams?   Are your dreams populated mostly by friends or family?    Do the people you know who are in your dreams typically evoke the same emotions each time you see them in your dreams?

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Unexpected Dream Visitors

"Mugu Rock" formed when a cut through the ocean side mountain for the Pacific Coast Highway at Point Mugu, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       An array of dream characters fill our dreams like actors in a weekly television show.  There are regulars who can appear in nearly every dream episode or at least with great frequency.  Then there are those special guests who appear with enough frequency that we are not surprised when they show up in our dreams.   Also there is that myriad of extras--dream actors who are like the everyday unknown people that we pass in the stores and on the streets.  Some of these may seem familiar, some are strangers, while others might be people we recognize but don't actually know in waking life.

       The real surprise comes when a totally unexpected dream visitor appears on the scene.  This might be a person from our past, someone who is no longer living, or someone whom we encounter on a regular basis but wouldn't expect to see in our dreams.  These are the cameo dream roles, the walk-on performances, or simply unexpected dream visitors.

        In a recent dream I had such a dream encounter...

       The dream memory begins with a work-life scenario from my past as I am on my way with my touring show company to a venue where we are scheduled to work.   We are apparently looking for a high school, but we are out in a barren hilly area that is very muddy and bleak.  From the appearance of the landscape there may have been recent storms.  In the distance I see a complex of large buildings that I know to be the place of our destination, but there seems to be no way to get near to it with our truck.  I am concerned as to how we will get our equipment into the facility with such a far distance to carry it.  I walk to the school to check things out.

         Once I am inside the school I am no longer with my show crew, but on my own looking for someone.  In retrospect I don't remember who that someone is.  The setting seems to be different now.   There is something like a convention going on or actually more like some sort of church conference.  Since many young people are present I understand this to be a Christian youth conference.

          Being older than everyone present at this event I feel uncomfortable and out of place.  I happen to see a younger man whom I recognize as someone I used to know from our church but who left years ago under some unpleasant circumstances.  He turns away as though pretending he doesn't recognize me.  I wander around the building observing all of the activity going on.   At one point I come to a cafeteria where food is being served.  The food does not look very appetizing, but still I somewhat want some of it.  However my greatest desire is to leave this place and go back home.

       Leaving the building I want to go home but I have no transportation.  I began walking on the road through the vast barren muddy landscape.  Ahead I see a familiar person. It is Bill, a man that I know from a study group that I attend during the week.   He is waiting at the bottom of the hill that I am walking down at a place where the road intersects with a larger road.  He seems happy to see me and is apparently aware that I am in need of a ride.  As I approach him a large older car, something like a 90's model Cadillac or Lincoln, pulls up and I realize that Bill has been waiting on a ride.  Bill invites me to get in the car so they can take me home.

         I climb into the front seat and Bill gets in the back.  A man about our age whom I don't know is driving.  He is friendly and says he will be glad to take me home.  We enter a larger highway that reminds me of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.   Bill hands me some booklets and I peruse them as we drive.  I feel very relieved that I have a ride home...

         When I awaken I feel happy about having seen this man in my dream.  His presence gives me a sense of comfort probably because of the circumstance surrounding his appearance in my dream.  As a side note I should mention that this man is someone whom I see on a weekly basis at a Bible study.  He does not have a car and lives far from the church where we meet so that someone needs to take him home after the study or he must take a bus ride involving several transfers which means it would take him a long time to get home.  Usually there is another man at the study who drives in Bill's direction so he is able to take Bill home.

        On a few occasions that other man was not at the study and I volunteered to take Bill home even though it is considerably out of my way meaning that it takes an extra 45 minutes for me to do this.  After I related my dream to my wife she suggested that maybe my dream is telling me that I should continue to take Bill home when the other ride is not available because one day I might need to count on Bill to help me in some way.

        What do you think of my wife's interpretation?  Are there people for whom you have done favors who appear in your dreams to help you?    Do you sometimes have unexpected dream visitors?

Tonight's Dream Starring You!

dream... (Photo credit: Norma Desmond)

        In my previous post we discussed the topic of celebrity appearances in dreams as well as recurring characters and other guest appearances.  Who are these people and why are they entering our dream space?

         In this current post I want to look at the role that we the dreamers play in our dreams.  Do we play ourselves, others, or both?

          On my previous post Leigh at Em-musing commented:  A psychologist once told me all characters in dreams are really us and that we put faces and personas on them to deal with our own issues. 


           Stephen T McCarthy from Ferret-Faced Facist Friends countered:  I think that's often true, but I also believe that sometimes the characters stand for concepts or situations or things that somehow apply to us, but do not necessarily represent US as individuals.


           There is probably truth in both of these viewpoints since dreams can portray a diversity of ideas.  However, it also may possible that the dream actors are not us at all but something akin to characters in a movie that we are watching as our subconscious mind improvises the script.  


          Sometimes I feel disassociated from my dream as though I am witnessing the events rather than participating in them.  In a sense, in these cases I seem to be at a vantage point observing a far away view which occasionally I may even manipulate as though I am the scriptwriter.  This is probably why a story inspiration will often come from my dreams.  My mind has been "writing" as I sleep and dream.


           Other times I am involved in all or most of the dream action.  In these cases I will often be aware of a scene set-up either through an actual narration or back story presented in a dream memory--things I somehow know through memories which I don't necessarily relate to anything in waking life.


           An example of this type of situation comes from a dream I had when I was in high school:

                         I am watching the story of a benevolent young outlaw known as "The Kid".  The time is probably the 1880s and the place is an unspecific locale in the West.  "The Kid" is a hero of the common people because of his good actions, but he is apparently wanted by the law authorities.  I hear some of the story narrated, but other parts I know perhaps from earlier in the film that I don't recall seeing in the dream.  I see "The Kid" riding across the terrain on horseback.  His face is covered by white cloth or gauze because he has face cancer.  I don't recall what happens in the ongoing story, but at various times I become either "The Kid",  one of his gang, a boy who is a character in the story, a town person, or a viewer in the audience.  Perhaps I am all of these but only capable of comprehension from one point of view.

           This tends to prove the theory that Leigh mentioned.  The story in its entirety may somehow represent me and whatever my real life situation was at the time of the dream.  Perhaps this is me presented as a story.  On the other hand, perhaps I am placing myself in the relevant roles as they occur in the story much like a writer might identify with whichever character he is writing about at any one particular time.  


           In other dreams I may become whichever character is in the most favorable position.  It becomes almost a case that I don't like the idea of being a particular character and decide I want to be someone else.  In these dreams the story line will also change to the extent that there is no actual story continuity, but more like a collection of images and disassociated vignettes where characters and settings will appear and disappear.  These dreams seem related to stream-of-consciousness thinking where incongruous ideas blend together into an olio of imagery.  


          When I think I see myself in my dreams it is not the actual physical representation of me.  Those people are physically different than what I look like but I accept them as me.  The dream eyes through which I see my dreams seem to be mine and yet they don't always feel like my vision.  The confusion of dream states makes everything questionable and sometimes appear to have multiple layers of meaning.


            I am not sure how to interpret the dream character that I typically accept as me.  Nor do I know why it might appear that I might be multiple characters in a dream.  I don't even really know for sure that I am in my dreams at all.   It's very possible, as I have mentioned above, that my dreams are stories and my mind is merely the author of those stories.  Perhaps my mind is identifying with these mysterious dream characters.


           Do you actually see yourself or know for certain that it is a portrayal of you in your dreams?  Have you experienced the character shift phenomena?    Do you control your dreams or just watch them happen?






  

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Appearing in Tonight's Dream--

Publicity photo of Ron Penfound as "Captain Penny" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         Since dreams are in some ways like movies, it makes sense that there would be casts of characters and occasionally guest appearances.  My dreams typically will have a recurring cast that includes family members and friends.  There are also a number of unrecognizable players filling important roles in dreams.  These characters either rarely reappear or their identities don't register with me so that I don't realize they've returned.

         On some occasions there will be appearances by people who are actual celebrities or famous people.  At other times there will be characters whom I know as being famous in the dream but not known to me in waking life.

          My blog buddy Stephen T. McCarthy related a dream guest appearance in a recent comment left on one of my A Faraway View posts.  You can click on the link for the full account, but to lift Stephen's description the man in his dream is "some famous old character actor (not a real person, but an old actor known to all of us in the dream)".  


          I've likewise had several dreams where a person will appear who is known in the dream to be a person of note, but someone of whom I have no knowledge in my actual life.  Perhaps these people have characteristics that relate to another person actually known to my conscious mind.  In the dream they may represent some archetypal personage that symbolizes something in the dream.


         Usually I find these symbolic figures are played by what would normally be considered to be character actors or personalities who have some unique traits.  Some of the real life figures who have appeared in my dreams are William Demarest (Uncle Charlie from the television show My Three Sons), Andy Devine, and Walter Brennan.  


         One dream that I remember having when I was about 5 or 6 years old starred local Cleveland, Ohio TV personality Captain Penny.   In the dream I was watching Captain Penny on television.  He was interacting with a frog puppet, though the frog seemed very real to me.  At some point Captain Penny accidentally steps on the frog and kills it.  Everyone one on the television show seems distraught.  I am upset and wake up crying and feeling very sad.


         I don't recall if the frog character was an actual part of the television show or not, but it was a character that seemed very familiar to me in the dream.  Since I watched Captain Penny nearly everyday he was a familiar face and an important figure in my young life.  Beyond that I have no idea what the meaning of this dream would have been, if there had been any meaning at all.


         I don't know what the dreams with famous people represent other than the aforementioned concept of archetypes.  I don't think there is usually any direct meaning to the person dreamed about.  


         Have you had dreams about famous people?   Does your dream theater have a cast of standard characters who make repeated appearances in your dreams?   If so, who are they?    Are there people you recognize in your dreams or see in your dreams that you don't recall ever having seen in waking life?

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