Mortal Mist
Workshops and Projects => Workshop Archive => Engaging With Dreams Workshop -- Feb. 2010 => : Burned up January 31, 2010, 04:30:23 PM
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Everyone can start one of these, as a "New Topic"
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Current beliefs
- Dreams arise from unconscious processes, with access to memory but devoid of information from the senses.
- Dreams carry meanings but such meanings are not codes or clever messages. Rather they're driven from some of the most basic aspects of our ways of making sense of information.
- Freud is on the right track with his model of the mind (unconscious, ego etc)
- Jung is even more correct (archetypes)
- DCs are projections of our own creation, even if they are of people we know well.
I do not believe that...
- Dreams carry prophesies or anything clairvoyant.
- Dreams are only about sex (Freud)
- Dream dictionaries tell us how to decode dreams (but they have their uses)
- We can meet each other in dreams
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Wife buys a coal mine
My wife has bought a coal mine. It's a small affair, just a shaft really, in a field where other people also have their own shafts. Like a load of smallholdings. It comes with a couple of old broken wagons which descend the shaft my means of a rope. There's a pile of coal next to the shaft which has already been extracted.
I'm lowering her down now, wagon attached to rope, but I see the rope is really just string. And although it seems to be holding I know I wouldn't want to be the one whose life depends on it. It occurs to me that I didn't say anything to her about how dangerous I believe this is for her.
Meantime, a family from another plot has started eating our food which was laid out on a table outside. They look like a bunch of chancers (or, more stereotypically, gypsies) and I ask them what the hell they're doing and the child says something about the "other lady allowing them to have some" (meaning my wife). I'm having none of this and tell them to clear off until such time as we choose to really invite them round, which I say kindly.
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- We can meet each other in dreams
Does this mean I can try to visit you? :teeth:
(I didn't resist asking...)
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- We can meet each other in dreams
Does this mean I can try to visit you? :teeth:
(I didn't resist asking...)
Trouble is, I won't believe it's you!
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- We can meet each other in dreams
Does this mean I can try to visit you? :teeth:
(I didn't resist asking...)
Maybe we should all try to meet with bu in his dreams this month. :teeth::chuckle:
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Wife buys a coal mine
My wife has bought a coal mine.
I'm lowering her down now, wagon attached to rope, but I see the rope is really just string.
It occurs to me that I didn't say anything to her about how dangerous I believe this is for her.
Guess I'll try interpreting some of your dreams bu since you're so good at interpreting mine.
Dream may indicate how you feel about some of your wife's ventures.
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Images
I found myself unable to not insert your famous donkey into this dream, pulling the carts and such. I'm also picturing you and your wife as being dressed differently than you normally are (even though I have no idea what normal is, I feel it's different somehow.) The coal mines seem bleak, dark, and dirty, and of course treacherous. I sense you have many small belongings with you, a lot of metal for some reason, that makes clanging sounds and offers obscure usages.
Sensations
I get the sense that the lowering of your wife must have seemed strange to you at the time, even if you were not lucid. I have no doubt of a strong sense of motion here that seemed almost abstracted from the events themselves.
In the second part, I got the impression that you did not want anyone to be able to have what you have, even though you don't really have it yourself. As if them wanting other things makes you worry that they want a particular thing, though you don't know what the particular thing is. Threatened.
Emotions
Narrow focus and disregard for the strange nature of what is apparently happening. A false sense of understanding the situation.
I'm drawn to say
A very interesting dream, Bu. I hope you don't think I'm criticizing you in any way here; this is just my impression of how SC was behaving, and that's really out of your control. It sounds like SC needs to hoard or hold on to something, for its own sake. While still searching for it.
Mood
The donkey cheers me up. Otherwise, I'd be reluctant to disturb you in your excavation.
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Is it strange that I imagine a shaft-city like you would a pack of shanties? Except, instead of it being in a depressing place, it's in a field of green... which really juxtaposes the feelings of dilapidation and poverty the broken wagon and string for rope gives me.
At first I felt it was just a sort of dream where you're doing something you're not emotionally attached to, but when I read the part of the string, I began to feel the same worry you seemed to, and then frustration that, while your wife is risking it all for some coal, you have a bunch of gypsies trying to steal your food! Overall I feel like it was just a roller coaster, at first you feel like things are in control, but then it's not... and you're trying to reclaim that control.
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In your dream, the images of fear and anxiety for your wife contrast with the mundane, peaceful nature of the gypsies eating your food.
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Wife buys a coal mine
My wife has bought a coal mine.
I'm lowering her down now, wagon attached to rope, but I see the rope is really just string.
It occurs to me that I didn't say anything to her about how dangerous I believe this is for her.
Guess I'll try interpreting some of your dreams bu since you're so good at interpreting mine.
Dream may indicate how you feel about some of your wife's ventures.
Yes, that's pretty much what I think it's about too. :goodjob:
If dreams have meanings that aren't immediately apparent, I would think that this definitely could be one. I doubt your wife is really into buying coal mines, so it can't be taken literally.
True.
So--when I read this, I wonder: does it have meaning? What from IRL did your mind translate into this dream? Some small or specific incident, something that defines your relationship? I wonder if the answer is immediately apparent to you, or if you have to think about it and then it comes to you, or if it is completely mysterious to you.
I'm not sure it's triggered by any one event. More like how I perceive her actions in RL. Probably something reminded me of this, but it's a recurring theme.
If the last, it may not mean anything at all. If the first, well, then the dream only presented in an obscured, limited way what you already know, which isn't useful. It's only the middle option that is potentially useful.
Interesting piece of deductive reasoning there!
That's what I wonder about when I read this dream. It's not obvious to me. You don't care about how much the mine costs, that doesn't seem to be the issue. It's old and junky, not something you would have bought obviously, but there are potential rewards too (coal already extracted) along with real risk (flimsy rope). You don't say anything--why? Right there may be an interesting interpretation that only you would know (she doesn't take criticism well, secretly you want her to fail, etc.) The gypsies? I have no idea, but I wonder if you do.
I think you've found the critical point - as often you do (how?). I think the rope is the key to the dream. I think I do want the venture to fail as if to say "told you so". The fact that she'll get hurt in the process seems to me to just hammer the point home even more. OK, IRL I wouldn't want her to fall down a mine shaft, but I think I do tend to "give her enough rope" as it were.
Is it strange that I imagine a shaft-city like you would a pack of shanties? Except, instead of it being in a depressing place, it's in a field of green... which really juxtaposes the feelings of dilapidation and poverty the broken wagon and string for rope gives me.
Yes, that's how it looked. A lush green field pock-marked by dirty mine shafts.
At first I felt it was just a sort of dream where you're doing something you're not emotionally attached to, but when I read the part of the string, I began to feel the same worry you seemed to, and then frustration that, while your wife is risking it all for some coal, you have a bunch of gypsies trying to steal your food! Overall I feel like it was just a roller coaster, at first you feel like things are in control, but then it's not... and you're trying to reclaim that control.
I didn't think of that. Yes, I'm distracted by this coal mine thing so much I can't keep an eye on the food. I'm a cautious person IRL and hate to have my attention divided like that.
Images
I found myself unable to not insert your famous donkey into this dream, pulling the carts and such. I'm also picturing you and your wife as being dressed differently than you normally are (even though I have no idea what normal is, I feel it's different somehow.) The coal mines seem bleak, dark, and dirty, and of course treacherous. I sense you have many small belongings with you, a lot of metal for some reason, that makes clanging sounds and offers obscure usages.
The donkey wouldn't be out of place. (Trying to remember the donkey...) Oddly my memory of the dream is a sunny green place with food on an outside table. But your comment is useful because clearly I wasn't looking at the dark, dirty end of the dream.
Sensations
I get the sense that the lowering of your wife must have seemed strange to you at the time, even if you were not lucid. I have no doubt of a strong sense of motion here that seemed almost abstracted from the events themselves.
Yes it was strange. Now I think about it, I reckon I felt a bit embarrassed.
In the second part, I got the impression that you did not want anyone to be able to have what you have, even though you don't really have it yourself. As if them wanting other things makes you worry that they want a particular thing, though you don't know what the particular thing is. Threatened.
Yes, threatened. I like that. Like my territory was being invaded.
Emotions
Narrow focus and disregard for the strange nature of what is apparently happening. A false sense of understanding the situation.
Not following you here.
I'm drawn to say
A very interesting dream, Bu. I hope you don't think I'm criticizing you in any way here; this is just my impression of how SC was behaving, and that's really out of your control. It sounds like SC needs to hoard or hold on to something, for its own sake. While still searching for it.
I see. Like I'm hoarding the food whilst my wife searches for coal? Well, I'm the cautious one and she's the risk-taker IRL.
Mood
The donkey cheers me up. Otherwise, I'd be reluctant to disturb you in your excavation.
Donkey :hrm:
In your dream, the images of fear and anxiety for your wife contrast with the mundane, peaceful nature of the gypsies eating your food.
Yes, that's another contrast in the dream. I see you're identifying with the gypsies here! They might be peaceful but I wasn't!
I'm not sure I was anxious for my wife's safety as much as I was for the pointlessness of the venture. I could only see things going wrong and nothing good could come of it.
Thanks to all for the feedback. This wasn't a dream I'd normally spend much time on - indeed I had a much more interesting, space-age type dream the same night. But the message here seemed to suggest something rather basic and it's been useful to bounce it off you all.
I don't think I was resistant to any feedback. Sometimes I can be, but I guess my vulnerabilities stay hidden for now!
Useful feedback - I can think of two types that I suppose are most meaningful to me personally
(i) When people empathise with the dream and I really feel they're sharing the same scene. Lucidbulbs' comment
At first I felt it was just a sort of dream where you're doing something you're not emotionally attached to, but when I read the part of the string, I began to feel the same worry you seemed to, and then frustration that, while your wife is risking it all for some coal, you have a bunch of gypsies trying to steal your food!
seemed to illustrate that.
I don't think this helps me interpret a dream, however, which I suppose it's not meant to. But it does remind me of how the dream felt like a lived experience at the time. Brings it to life I suppose. Also I feel I know the person better for offering this type of feedback, which is the "tuned in" stuff I was wanting us to explore in the instructions.
(ii) When people seem to instinctively find the critical point(s) in the dream. For me these seem to be the thin rope (which I picked up quickly - well done MB) and the dilemma of supporting my wife (literally) whilst keeping the food on the table. I didn't spot that one although LB and in a different sense (the threat) Mu saw it.
Finally:
Does this change the way I write my DJ? I think this depends on who's going to read it. Seems like if it's for others to engage with then I perhaps don't need the emotional language as it comes through with the narrative anyway. But for my own benefit I probably need to keep emotional content in there.
Probably need to remember to use descriptive language more frequently. Light/dark, colour, dampness, clean/dirty etc.
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A dream dictionary approach to understanding the dream.
Mine
To?dream that you are in a mine, signifies that you are getting to the depth or core of an issue or condition. Alternatively, it suggests that something from your unconscious is coming to the surface. The dream may also be a metaphor to claim what is "mine".
To dream that you own a mine, signifies future riches.
Wagon
To see a? wagon in your dream, is symbolic of difficulties. It also signifies your thrifty nature and your unwillingness to take risks.?
To see an empty and abandoned wagon, signifies loss and dissatisfaction.
Wife
To see your wife in your dream, signifies discord and unresolved issues. Pay attention to how you feel in the dream as it may highlight feelings that you are not expressing in your waking life.?Alternatively, the dream symbolizes the feminine aspects of yourself.
Ropes
To see a rope in your dream, represents your connection and attachment to others. It is also an indication of what is holding your relationship together.
To dream that you are walking on a rope, denotes that you will engage in a doubtful, but successful investments
To dream that you are climbing up a rope, represents your determination to succeed and overcome adversity. It may also denote your climb to the top. If you are climbing down a rope, then it indicates that you are experiencing disappointments and decline in some business affair.
To dream that you are tied up in ropes, suggests that you are letting your heart guide you, despite your better judgment.
Gypsy
To see a gypsy in your dream, signifies your desire to roam freely without responsibility and obligation. Alternatively, this symbol may suggest your need to look toward the future.
Food
To see food in your dream, represents physical and emotional nourishment and energies. The different types of food can symbolize a wide range of things. Generally, fruit is symbolic of sensuality. Frozen foods may imply your cold emotions and frigid ways.
To dream that you are hording or storing food, indicates a fear of deprivation. You do not trust what you already have.
OK, here goes.
Well it wasn't me in the mine, so it's not me getting to the core of any issue. More like something from my unconscious is being mined (by my wife). The wagon shows my thrifty nature, unwilling to take risks (figures). There was indeed an empty wagon "loss and dissatisfaction". My wife in the dream points to issues or indeed my own feminine side. (Probably not the latter, I have another DC for that). So so far we have something coming up from my unconscious / thrift / loss and dissatisfaction / wife issues.
The rope - what is holding my relationship together. Right, starting to formulate something here. The rope getting thinner seems to me that I'm thinking my relationship is getting more strained. She's taking the risks but I'm not. She's digging the coal but I'm watching the wagon (later the food).
But it's not really her, just whatever I'm projecting. My risk-taking, relationship-threatening side which is not how I normally am.
Gypsy - my desire to roam freely. I like that. Yes, I did feel jealous of the gypsies. They just wander in and take the food without worrying about it. And I'm here holding that stupid rope. The food seems like it could represent anything but the hoarding seems more in kilter with the dream.
Right, so put it all together, and I'm feeling like my relationship with my wife/=my own risk-taking side is hanging by a thread. Meantime I'd rather be like the gypsies, free and easy, rather than a thrifty hoarder of (food).
:goodjob:
Frankly not a lot different to what I had earlier, apart from the bits about the gypsies and perhaps the wagons.
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Actually I was a little surprised that the DD came up with some of the things that people's feedback had also come up with. I wasn't expecting that.
That said, I think my "interpretation" was affected by what I already knew about the dream. I looked to the DD to reinforce the message rather than to provide a fresh interpretation. Leaves me thinking that a DD alone is pretty useless. We also need the human touch to connect the symbols together.
I still think that DDs are a really boring way to engage with dreams.
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I'll break my own rules here and give two dreams. They seem related and came one after the other.
Road/river crossing
I am walking back from somewhere with my friend GM. We've reached a busy road which we need to cross.
Next thing, the road has become a river. Quite a fast flowing one, but not too deep. I try to wade across but get stuck after a couple of steps and have to back-track. GM meanwhile is further along the riverbank watching me.
Another road crossing
This time I'm with some people one of whom is a female friend (possibly BM) who is visiting. It was one of those dreams where I know people are about but I don't really see them.
I say to my friend "This is where we go walking sometimes", as we have parked at the side of a road and started walking across a field to a busy road. We approach the busy road and I say "and in that lay-by we sometimes park". I look around and the scenery is really dull. Flat, wet grassland with the occasional road and house as well as this very busy road (which was like the Stafford Road near where I used to live). We come to a crossing point with a footbridge. This takes us to the central reservation and we need to use pedestrian lights to get us over the next carriageway. We wait for the lights to show green for us.
(later, we're in a cafe or something like that)
I see this has been quite a short walk yet we started early in the morning. We'd not usually start a short walk like this till later. I'm particularly bothered because my son will miss football training because we've come out here and I told the coach he'd be there.
Remark - I was in touch with both the above friends, separately, by email last night. My female friend is in town next month and we'll meet up.
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I think it makes sense that you posted both dreams. There is some obvious synergy between the two.
I found it interesting that both dreams contained old friends. In my mind, I think there are two other important elements worth noting.
1) Each centered around crossing a road, or path of some kind. This seems symbolic with making a life transition of some kind.
2) In each case, the transition was hampered or created a problem of some kind. In the first you found yourself stuck while your friend was able to make it across. In the second, it was a short walk but significant time had passed. Then the concern over missing your sons practice. Your sons practice could be symbolic of something else you missed as a result of some life transition which was not handled well (at least as you reflect on it).
In summary, I get the sense of reflection on past decisions, relations and perhaps some trepidation on how that all worked out.
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Next thing, the road has become a river. Quite a fast flowing one, but not too deep. I try to wade across but get stuck after a couple of steps and have to back-track.
A busy path is not a path, but an obstacle.
Another road crossing
I really don't know what to think of this one- but the meaning seems different from the previous one.
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I think it makes sense that you posted both dreams. There is some obvious synergy between the two.
I found it interesting that both dreams contained old friends. In my mind, I think there are two other important elements worth noting.
1) Each centered around crossing a road, or path of some kind. This seems symbolic with making a life transition of some kind.
Yes, isn't there a saying "crossing over the road"? Maybe it's about changing sexual orientation, I don't know. I was thinking about barriers but transitions is also good.
2) In each case, the transition was hampered or created a problem of some kind. In the first you found yourself stuck while your friend was able to make it across. In the second, it was a short walk but significant time had passed. Then the concern over missing your sons practice. Your sons practice could be symbolic of something else you missed as a result of some life transition which was not handled well (at least as you reflect on it).
I know I spend a lot of RL energy on his practice, hoping he'll do well etc. I think it's because I was never competitive but he is, and I'm living my (supressed) competitive desires through him. Or something like that.
In summary, I get the sense of reflection on past decisions, relations and perhaps some trepidation on how that all worked out.
Yes, definitely something about relations there, as these are two friends I want to keep in touch with. Trepidation - yes - probably more about how it's going to work out that how it has. Especially in the case of BM (who featured once in a significant dream).
Thanks for the feedback, Dr T. I'm now thinking about the barriers are/transitions required in order to develop this/these friendships.
Next thing, the road has become a river. Quite a fast flowing one, but not too deep. I try to wade across but get stuck after a couple of steps and have to back-track.
A busy path is not a path, but an obstacle.
Yes, I said barrier but obstacle is probably better as barrier makes it sound like I can't get across.
Another road crossing
I really don't know what to think of this one- but the meaning seems different from the previous one.
Do you think so? Wondering what you're picking up that I'm missing. I suspect you're right as I wouldn't normally expect to have effectively the same dream twice.
Except for the road becoming a river, it seems like PDP. The part where you think the area is dull--is that because your friend is there looking at it with you? Sometimes familiar things suddenly seem very different when you see them thru somebody else's eyes.
Wow, that's a different slant on the dream. I hadn't developed the meaning of the flat land.
Taking your thinking further, I'm now thinking that our relationship can never be exciting. This is interesting because IRL I'm excited about meeting her again. (She's the one I told once about an intimate dream of me and her). Maybe the dream is a reality check.
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Another road crossing
I really don't know what to think of this one- but the meaning seems different from the previous one.
Do you think so? Wondering what you're picking up that I'm missing. I suspect you're right as I wouldn't normally expect to have effectively the same dream twice.
I mean that while in one, you get stuck and have to retreat, in the second, there is no such impediment. You only have to wait for the lights to turn green. Generally speaking, they are similar, but those details make all the difference to me.
Another thing that hit me: could the transformation in river have anything to do with strong inner stress?
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Another road crossing
I really don't know what to think of this one- but the meaning seems different from the previous one.
Do you think so? Wondering what you're picking up that I'm missing. I suspect you're right as I wouldn't normally expect to have effectively the same dream twice.
I mean that while in one, you get stuck and have to retreat, in the second, there is no such impediment. You only have to wait for the lights to turn green. Generally speaking, they are similar, but those details make all the difference to me.
Fair point. So perhaps I'm trying harder with BM than with GM? (Which is probably true IRL because GM tends to be more organised).
Another thing that hit me: could the transformation in river have anything to do with strong inner stress?
Well, I often relate water to emotions. And water in my dreams is usually still, yet this river was unusually fast. Inner stress? Not sure. I don't get a positive or a negeative reaction to your suggestion.
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Fair point. So perhaps I'm trying harder with BM than with GM? (Which is probably true IRL because GM tends to be more organised).
I wouldn't say trying harder. What is harder? Cross a fast-flowing river or use a footbridge?
If we go that way, it could be that you are trying harder with GM, but BM is giving better results, more easily.
Another thing that hit me: could the transformation in river have anything to do with strong inner stress?
Well, I often relate water to emotions. And water in my dreams is usually still, yet this river was unusually fast. Inner stress? Not sure. I don't get a positive or a negeative reaction to your suggestion.
I meant confused emotions.
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Fair point. So perhaps I'm trying harder with BM than with GM? (Which is probably true IRL because GM tends to be more organised).
I wouldn't say trying harder. What is harder? Cross a fast-flowing river or use a footbridge?
If we go that way, it could be that you are trying harder with GM, but BM is giving better results, more easily.
I was assuming that the dream revealed the results of my efforts - it gave me a footbridge. But now I'm not sure!!!
Another thing that hit me: could the transformation in river have anything to do with strong inner stress?
Well, I often relate water to emotions. And water in my dreams is usually still, yet this river was unusually fast. Inner stress? Not sure. I don't get a positive or a negeative reaction to your suggestion.
I meant confused emotions.
Yes, but probably "lots of other emotions" might be more like how I feel. I really don't think much about my friendship with GM, I kind of take him for granted. The river might represent the fact that I'm not giving enough to the friendship because I'm too busy with other stuff.
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Yes, but probably "lots of other emotions" might be more like how I feel. I really don't think much about my friendship with GM, I kind of take him for granted. The river might represent the fact that I'm not giving enough to the friendship because I'm too busy with other stuff.
Hence the fact he is already on the other side, and you have to struggle to get to him. And if you give up (like you did on the dream), you'll stay on the opposite side of the river.
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Yes, but probably "lots of other emotions" might be more like how I feel. I really don't think much about my friendship with GM, I kind of take him for granted. The river might represent the fact that I'm not giving enough to the friendship because I'm too busy with other stuff.
Hence the fact he is already on the other side, and you have to struggle to get to him. And if you give up (like you did on the dream), you'll stay on the opposite side of the river.
Indeed I did give up. OK I'll give you this one - that is the key difference between the dreams :)