August 30, 2005
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Dreamscapes
I seems like I have been dreaming a lot, recently. Big, vivid, surreal, epic technicolor dreams. I wake up, my head awash with images.
Of course everybody dreams– even those who say “I never dream.” Researchers at dream labs use the term “non-recallers” to describe those who don’t remember their dreams, and evidently there’s a whole psychological landscape that surrounds whether or not someone recalls their dreams, often centered around a reluctance to examine and face the more subjective aspects of life. If you’re “switched off” to your feelings and inner landscapes in waking life, there’s a good chance your dream recall “mechanism” is also set to off.
Whereas I rarely visit the same “physical setting” in dreams, there are people whom I spend a lot of time with. What’s odd is that some of them I have never even met. Mostly, though, there are themes that recur, over and over….
I am forever “back in school” (usually a representation of my boarding school years in England, but not always), because my “proof of graduation” has been recalled, because I “forgot” to take some class, or finish a piece of homework. And I find my present-day self back in class, sticking out like a sore thumb, among a bunch of 16-year olds.
And I am often “packing to leave,” but can’t find my suitcase, and can’t get all my stuff into it, and find myself running late for planes. Lots of airports in my dreams. And then I get on planes that start down the runway, when I realize something is terribly wrong– and we barely get 100 feet off the ground before crashing into the trees, a few 100 yards after takeoff. It’s an old theme, predating my current moving efforts by many years.
I also seem to spend a lot of time helping people in dreams, sometimes rescuing animals– overcoming epic and impossible obstacles to guide these beings to some destination they must find, or to some person they must meet, or get help from. Often there is water– vast oceans, almost always with glassy still surfaces, sometimes shallow, sometimes bottomless. Others seem to drown, but I seem able to breathe equally above and below the surface.
I have had more than a few prophetic dreams. I go on to meet people, and participate in events I have been through in dreams. I know it’s not deja-vu, as I have kept dream journals for years– and can find a 7-year old (or 7-day old) written description of something that just happened. Although the Law of Large Numbers dictates the amazing coincidences will happen, I am not so sure. Then again, maybe I am just imagining it, “filling” in blanks to create connections that don’t exist.
Comments (12)
Lovely, your heraldic, heroic, widely-ranging night life…
Those school & airport/airplane dreams, though, I wonder if there isn’t something that you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t quite get there… perhaps a book, something meaningful, with teachings, uplifting, …?
Whatever it is, your dreams want you to fly with it, I’m absolutely positive. xo
Dreams fascinate me! There are so many theories on them that they’re hard to decipher. I’ve heard it said that we can manipulate our on dreams if we try. That would be FUN!
ryc: The 80′s are always on my car stereo much to the chagrin of my children, especially my 10 yr old who is more into the “today” music, you know rap and other noises. But I did turn him on to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.. now there is a good rapper lol There is no music like the 80′s! I lost all my vinyls in a house flood back in ’96 I was so heart broken. Maybe one day I’ll go on Ebay and re-recollect them all. Now that would be fun!
I’ve had dreams where I could breathe underwater. And fly! Just by flapping my arms. But I’d always go too high and was terrified –I wasn’t so good at landing. I always did land safely before waking, but it was never pretty. Seems to parallel how I get myself into messes but manage to get out of them one way or another.
I do the same thing. I’ll dream something then, I end up living it at some point. Not all my dreams but I’ve done that. I think its kind of cool but spooky too giggle. I also have the dream of having to go back to school as my present day self because I didn’t finish a class and they revoked my diploma. :0) PS: per your note yes I do believe its a fetish.
Ah, I’m fascinated by dreams too. Particularly my own. I am also always back in school in my dreams. I do wonder what that means. I have haunted houses and playing the heroine. That’s my superhero complex though!
Excellent post. Your dreams are very similar to mine at times. Although mine usually involve me trying to overcome impossible things, so it goes to show my phsycological state of mind!
I think dream analysis is such an interesting subject.
I’m going to sub to you, I find you a very interesting writer.
One dream that has stuck with me for a long time , I was having a conversation with a stranger in a foreign language. In the dream it seemed perfectly natural , like it was my language from birth. I don’t know what the language was but the stranger I was speaking to was a Native American.
Interesting. I’m mostly a non-recaller myself, and I was told years ago that it was because I wasn’t ready to deal with what my dreams were trying to tell me; made sense to me at the time. But I hadn’t made the connection that it’s because I’m switched off when awake as well.
Nice that you are going places in the dreams. Even if you dont seem to be getting there? I am always searching, discovering or walking quickly away from someone. I dream of homes and buildings, all familiar, just not my own that I can recall. Nice and interesting.
I wish someone could analyze my dreams, but honestly. I think sometimes we have glimpses, we just choose not to see. Or something like that. 
Namaste.
recurring themes eh? something and someone’s telling you something definitely ^_^
my themes range into mundane, meeting with other people in school stuff – and adventure themes! like I’m always either chasing something or being chased by something…I do recall scenes that I have to fight off beings or people with weapons and hand-to-hand….
goes to show I’m watching too much anime ^^;;;
This is the time to help.
I’ve read that airports in dreams often signify the readiness to move on to another phase of life, although if one keeps dreaming of obstacles, obviously there’s some reluctance!
Law of Large Numbers notwithstanding, I don’t really believe coincidences are meaningless random events.
ryc: Happy Belated Birthday to you too! I knew but had forgotten that you’re a Virgo as well.