Useful dream data

The name NEMO has been used throughout history by many famous authors to describe events and people who find themselves on the border between fantasy and reality. In Latin nemo means ‘no one’ and indicates a world between fantasy and reality. Visitors to NEMO science centre can become a scientist, technologist or technician for a day. Suddenly dreams are real.
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      How useful is data delivered in dreams?   Some believe that information delivered in dreams is for the most part nonsense--inanities dredged from the subconscious mind that are mostly absurd re-imagings of things garnered from our waking life.  Others believe that through interpretations dreams provide valuable information regarding our mental state or circumstances concerning our waking life that have not been recognized previously.

        There are certainly other theories regarding the usefulness or not in respect to dreams.   If you remember your dreams, you probably have your own thought about how useful they are to you.  And those of you who do not remember dreams could possibly be blocking out important information your subconscious is trying to wake you up to understand.

        Stories have been told of dreams solving real life problems such as the location of lost items, exposing problematic relationships, or even solving complicated scientific formulas.  If we are to believe these stories then this seems to indicate that dreams can provide reliable information that can be put to good use in waking life.   Perhaps you have had such an experience of a dream helping to solve a problem that has vexed you.

       Dream research has suggested that dreams are often the subconscious sorting of data and at times might include overt interpretation of data that in waking life has not been understood.    These types of dreams can provide tangible solutions that can later be highly useful to the dreamer.  In other cases the dream may contain hidden solutions to problems, but the dream must be comprehended and decoded in order to put the data to use in waking life.

        The usefulness of dream data might be up for debate, but for some their experience says an emphatic "yes" to applying dreams to solve problems or understand aspects of life.   Since the dreams come from the inner recesses of the mind, uninhibited by the norms that hinder us in waking life, my inclination would be to believe that dreams don't actually lie.  Dreams might be misinterpreted or misunderstood in such a way that we may dismiss them as folly, but the truth is there whether it be disguised or overtly stated.  It's up to the dreamer to understand what the truth is in the dream and what message the dream is conveying.

         Have you had any experiences where a dream has provided information that helped you in some way?    Why do you think a dream might reveal information that one might not recognize in waking life?    Do you believe dreams can provide useful information or do you think they are primarily nonsense?

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A to Z Theme Reveal: Elements of Dreams

         Dreams are about so many things.  Everything and anything that we see, hear, experience or think of on a daily basis can enter our dreams.  The dream world is the realm of the subconscious where things and occurrences can be symbols for something else just as much as just be whatever they are in our waking lives.

        In this blog A Faraway View I explore many topics about dreams or anything that is dreamlike.  For the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge of 2015 we will be getting to some of the basics of the substance of dreams as we explore "The Elements of Dreams".   What are some of the themes and objects experienced in our sleep visions?     We'll be looking at some of the common subject matter of dreams as well as some of the general themes that pop up in most of our dreams.

        In April we'll explore the archetypes of the dream world.   Whether they be universal symbols of a common collective consciousness or the personal iconology of our inner selves, what we dream about typically has a pattern that once translated can help us to understand what our dreams are telling us.

        The "Elements" theme will be one that will be shared on all of my blogs in April, examining the elements of blogging, memoir, and spirituality.  These other blogs are:

• Tossing It Out

• Wrote By Rote

• A Few Words

      I look forward to hearing your thoughts about these posts.   To visit other blogs that are revealing their themes at this time please visit The Theme Reveal Blogfest Linky List.  My post has gone up a bit early to stay in keeping with my normal blogging schedule for this blog.  Most of the links should take you to the Theme Reveal post on Monday March 23rd.

        Do you like to analyze your dreams?   Do you have trouble remembering your dreams?   Have you ever attempted to keep a dream journal?

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Dream Iconography

Rudolph the mug deer (Photo credit: Renato Pequito)

         The imagery of dreams is frequently considered in terms of symbolism.  However it may be that certain recurring images symbolize different things from dream to dream depending on the context of the dream story or the circumstances in which the dreamer finds themself.   Could certain flexible images be considered iconography that covers a broad spectrum of meanings?

          My dreams will often feature certain people who appear in various dreams playing a variety of roles that influence my thinking in different ways.   Some primary dream figures that I think of in this context would be my old friend Fred who passed away in 1995, my father who passed away in 1990, and my former employer and his son both whom I would consider to have been my bosses when I worked for them and both still living.

         These iconic characters reappear in different dreams that are often very dissimilar in content.  Their appearances can evoke a variety of emotions and thoughts in my mind.   While the characters themselves don't appear to symbolize anything in particular their presences may be symbolic in accordance to the circumstances of the dreams in which they appear.

          To use another example, let's say I frequently dreamed about a favorite coffee mug.   In one dream I am enjoying a beverage from the mug, in another the mug gets broken, in another I see someone else drinking from the mug, and in another I am looking for the mug because it has been misplaced.   Each dream might cause me to have different reactions and emotions.   Maybe the mug symbolizes something or maybe it is a dream icon that becomes an inherent part of my emotional being and my personal history.

        Perhaps the iconic people or things are merely actors and props necessary to tell the dream story.  They do not mean anything symbolically in and of themselves, but they are important to give the dream story meaning and to evoke emotion from me the dreamer.

          The concept of dream iconography is not clearly established in my mind and may be too involved to discuss in a short blog post, but it's an idea that had crossed my mind after a recent dream.  I thought it might be worth airing in a post.

            Do you have repetitive images--people or things--that seem to have different meanings and roles in different dreams?    What do think would be good examples of dream iconography if there were such a thing?    How many dream characters appear repeatedly in your dreams and who are they?


         

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Dreams with Dual Interpretations

Cast a giant shadow (Photo credit: StefZ)

       A dream can mean different things to different people.  The dreamer might tell a dream to others who will give very different interpretations as to the dream meaning.  The objectivity from one hearing a dream can often shed new light on an interpretation  that has been skewed by the dreamer's own wishful thinking or irrational fears about what a dream means.

       Here is a dream that I told my wife:

In my dream I am involved with people putting together a stage performance of an opera.  While I am not directly involved with the production,  I am there because people I know are involved--possibly one of my daughters.

I am at the debut performance which is taking place in a beautiful modern theater.  A full audience is present for the premier.    When the opera begins I realize that intense sunlight from the front entrance is flooding into the rear seats of the audience and I realize that this will become very distracting and annoying to them.   There is a  lot of empty carpeted floor space at the back of the auditorium.  As I stand in the light I realize that my shadow will block the light from shining onto audience members and allow them to view the stage production without distraction.  I position myself so as to prevent the light from disturbing anyone in the audience.

       One possible interpretation suggested by my wife turned out to be very different that the one that originally came to my mind.   Both interpretations seem to have equal validity.

       My thought was that in the dream I am sheltering the people and providing comfort to them.   My actions contribute to the greater success of the performance.   My shadow is a protective influence that will help others.  My waking life application is that I can exert a sense of power and influence that will allow others to focus on the main event of life without being adversely affected by external influences.  From the dream I see myself as a comforter and one who wants others to be successful.

      My wife suggested that the bright sunlight can represent a positive force--perhaps akin to a radiance from God.  My influence and shadow is preventing the light from touching others and keeping them in the darkness for them to be distracted instead with worldly things.  I am more concerned with the stage procession of trivial life matters and trying to shut out more important spiritual issues.   I should be welcoming the light and allowing it to illuminate everyone so they can see what is truly most important in their lives.

      Either interpretation works for me.  There may be some alternative interpretations that others might come up with.  Perhaps I should look more deeply into the symbolism of the modern theater, the opera, the large empty carpeted space at the back of the theater, or the poor design of a theater with open entrance doors that allow outdoor light to filter through.

       What do you think this dream means?   Do you think I am not giving certain symbolism enough relevance?    Have you ever made comparisons on interpretations by others versus your own of your dreams?   

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Dreams and 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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I Dreamed of a Macaque

Placid Celebes macaque (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
     Recently I've had a series of dreams that seem to be radically different in content, but somehow related. I may be fabricating the relationship of these dreams, but each of the dreams has lead me to think about the same aspect of my life and connected my dream to a previous one.   My suspicion about the fabrication may be directly linked to an upcoming event about which I am extremely apprehensive.  My discomfiture about this event could be the cause of the dreams or because the dreams created a sense of discomfort for me I may be relating the dream scenarios to the real event that I am anticipating.

       The dream that I consider to be the first of the series is mostly forgotten since I did not focus upon it after I woke up.   The dream had to do with a house in a foreign place.   My wife and I had seemingly taken possession of the house from my wife's former sister-in-law or perhaps we were just visiting there.  The dream setting had an uncomfortable odd feel to me and I was anxious to forget it.

       The following night I dreamed that I was travelling somewhere in the Chicago area.  I have stopped at a service station with a convenience store and a McDonald's restaurant.  The establishment is old and in somewhat of a disarray.  An old friend of mine is there--perhaps as an employee.  I get some french fries and  a drink in a clear cup from the restaurant and am talking to my friend when I notice a macaque sitting in my van.  I'm not sure why there is a macaque or why I would have even dream-thought this animal since I am not very familiar with these monkeys.

       At some point I am distracted by something and the macaque grabs my french fries and drink. I see the creature casually eating the fries and downing the drink.  I am mildly annoyed but fascinated at the same time.  Upon a closer look I see that the drink has some sort of particles floating in it and realize the drink was not very clean.  I feel relieved that the macaque has stolen my drink.

      The day following that dream my wife gave me some news about an event that will be happening in the near future.  I felt uncomfortable about the news and was not happy about it.  However, I felt like I need to support her decision and be part of something I don't want to do.  I remembered the house dream and the macaque dream and realized that there seems to be a significant relationship between the dreams and the news  that my wife has delivered to me.  I am torn and distraught.

        That night I had a third dream.  I am in a peculiar wooded mountainous area.  Is it Pennsylvania?  It seems to be somewhat touristy with rustic cabins and scenic roads.  I go to a campground where I meet up with some old friends.  Eventually we are walking along a road that is going to a town.   There seems to be a foreign invasion underway or a war perhaps.  We are being shot at.   After we get to the town I encounter an enemy soldier.  I manage to wrest his pistol from him and knock him to the ground.  I begin beating him under his chin with the pistol.  I beat him and beat him until his head comes off.  I am disgusted at what I have done.  I look up and beyond the edge of town to see a road that disappears into a vast unpopulated area that is very inviting to me.

         I woke up not afraid, but somewhat horrified at my final actions in the dream.  I am resolved to tell my wife that I don't want to do what she wants to do.  As the day wore on I realized that it would be best to go along with what my wife wants to do.  That night I gave her the news.  She seemed very pleased.   I kept thinking about that macaque.

         Have you ever had a series of ongoing dreams that seemed very different but somehow connected?   Do you sometimes have difficult life decisions that cause you to have bad dreams?   From the clues in my dreams, what do you think my wife wants to do that I'm not excited about doing?


       

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Knowledge

knowledge (Photo credit: the|G|™)

        Dream memory is a topic that has been discussed on this blog a number of times in the past.   What I refer to is having a knowledge of something or intuitively knowing something in a dream.   In other words it would be like being aware of a preexisting history of something in the dream or knowing the backstory of the dream without dreaming it (or at least remembering having dreamed it).

       This phenomena might not be symbolic as much as it might be a function of the dream process, a sort of mind trick or creative mental revelation that could be related to other real life knowledge or experience.  The existence of a dream backstory might evolve much in the same way a story comes to a writer quickly and then is filled out more completely as the story is written.  There are sometimes things that just seem to come to us without too much thought being involved.

       In some cases the knowledge we have in the dream is an integral part of the dream story.  For example, I have dreamed that I have knowledge of something very bad that has happened that others in the dream don't seem to be aware of and that knowledge influences the dream action throughout.   In other cases I will meet people or be in places that I seem to know due to my dream knowledge and what I know is completely logical and acceptable to me in the dream.

      If the dream knowledge is to be considered a dream symbol then perhaps it represents an inherent confidence that I recognize within myself that the dream is reinforcing for me.  Since these dreams don't cause me bad feelings I think that this interpretation could be a distinct possibility.

       Another interpretation of knowledge as a symbol could be that it is an awareness of things around me in my waking life and that they are true according to the way my mind sees them.  Perhaps I have been having doubts about something in my life and the knowledge dream is letting me know that any premonitions or suspicions I may have been having may have strong grounds for being true and that I should believe them.

         Whether dream knowledge is a trick of the mind, an illusion of dream time and memory, or a dream symbol, it is a curious element of the dream.

          Have you had dreams where you had specific knowledge of something that did not seem to be part of that dream?   Do you think dream knowledge is a mental process or a symbol or possibly either one depending on the dream?    What is a dream memory that you recall from a dream that you've had?

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Guns

Case O' Guns (Photo credit: Gregory Wild-Smith)

           Since guns are not a big part of my waking life other than seeing them in movies or hearing about them in news reports, I do not dream about them very often.   When I do have dreams that include guns they may appear more in the sense of a prop used within the dream story.  The dreams where guns appear are often cinematic with a contiguous story line involving action and threatening forces.

           The symbolism of the guns is power, but the context of that power depends on whether the guns are being used offensively or defensively.  The dreams about offense usually have the strongest stories and are more cinematic, while the dreams in which the purpose of the guns are for defense are more ambiguous and disconnected and often with an overriding sense of unseen threats.

          When I am wielding a firearm in an aggressive manner, I am usually part of a rebel group or army fighting against some invading or oppressive power.  I may be wearing a uniform and I usually am with a group of others with whom I am allied.  There will sometimes be a romantic interest by my side.

           The aggressive dreams seem to symbolize my desire to "fight back" in waking life or stand up for some cause or situation that I am in.   Perhaps these dreams may be the result of something I had felt on the previous day or something that I anticipate feeling on a future day.  These are dreams of confidence and even epic heroism.  The guns in these dreams represent my power or ability to take charge of a situation.

           The dreams of defense are often more passive and fearsome.   I may be in hiding or trying to elude an unknown pursuant.   The dreams are often shadowier and in more closed surroundings.  I may wake up from these dreams with a sense of fright or apprehension.

           Considering the negative aura of the dreams about defending myself leads me to believe that I am experiencing a dream concern about a problem in waking life that I feel may be threatening my well-being physically, mentally, or emotionally.  The gun represents my potential to address these problems, but I am reluctant to use this force.

            Do you ever dream about guns?   What do guns represent to you in waking life?   What do you think they signify in dreams?

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Buildings

Cuba building (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

         When I refer to "buildings" this does not include houses.  My "H" topic will be houses.  Buildings in my dreams are typically there as scenery or setting.   They are like the empty structures of a movie set and serve no actual function.  I often don't enter the buildings in my dreams, but merely see them.

          Since the buildings often look old and somewhat familiar, I believe that these buildings represent memory or past.  They are in the dreams to create a certain sense of comfort or normalcy, yet they evoke something in my mind that reminds me of other times and places in my life.

         Sometimes seeing these buildings instill me with an eerie feeling that may be related to deja vu or an apprehension of the unknown.   The buildings and surrounding areas are oftentimes unpopulated and desolate which adds to an ambiguous notion of fear.

         If during the dream I do enter a building, it is often very large with hallways that seem endless, many mysterious rooms, and old rickety interiors.    All of this would lead me to believe that the buildings represent the inner recesses of my mind or memory and my past history.

       What kinds of buildings do you see in your dreams?   Do you go inside of buildings in dreams?   What do you find if you do enter a dream building and how do you feel?

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