Responses to the Dreams of the World: Page Four

Response to Sue's dream:

Dear Sue,

Your dream is set in your grandparents' house. This means that the dream is referring to issues involving your "heritage" or "ancestry"...things you have inherited. You are in the process of cleaning them out, moving out the furniture. Your "father" is helping you. This masculine part of us usually represents the authority or establishment values in our life. Does your father represent something else to you? What he represents is helpful to you in clearing this old, ancient part of your psyche. A "nuclear blast" probably represents some tremendous explosion or change that has occurred or will occur as you clean out this part of yourself. You will survive the change! A good dream foretelling momentous, but positive changes!

Response to Leslie's dream:

Dear Leslie,

A recurring dream often has a message that "once you get" will stop recurring.

This dream seems to indicate an unconscious anxiety that you have about being "found out." In what part of your life are you concerned about not really having the background that you need to be where you are? I believe that if you can pinpoint the area of fear/anxiety and consciously work with it that this dream will stop.

Good luck!

Response to Flavio's dream:

Dear Flavio,

What a lovely dream!

The ocean has deep archetypal significance as the place wher life begins, specifically it seems to represent the unconscious in our dreams. The tree, archetypally, is the Tree of Life, the Mother. So the dream indicates that you find a place in the unconscious that is the source of life. Dying in dreams usually means the death of an ego attitude. So you have a lovely place to change a significant ego attitude. The particularly lovely thing about this dream is the supportive structure of your unconscious for this dramatic change.

Response to Caroline's dream:

Dear Caroline,

What a nostalgic and soulful image your dreams evoke! You must use Active Imagination to create something from these memories and dreams. Perhaps you could write some stories about your times in this house....or put together a photographic collage of your times there....or paint the house...What longings and desires might these dream images evoke? How does your feeling about that house enhance or detract from your present day situation? What might the remaining "tree" symbolize to you? If you think of house as "mirror of the soul" as Claire Marcus did in her book by that title, what would these images say about your soul? What if you think of the images as compensating for some emptiness in your current life? You might find our tapes on women's issues helpful: WOMEN IN WOMEN'S DREAMS, FEMALE ADORNMENT, BIRTH AND PREGNANCY.

Response to Alyssa's dream:

Dear Alyssa,

The first step in understanding this dream is to do associations with this "boyfriend." What kind of "man" is he? Do four or five associations (qualities he has or things he reminds you of). This will help you identify the masculine part of yourself that is in a "race." What is going on in your life that is like a race? What do you associate with "dirtbike." This might speak to motivation and energy that is constellated by this image of a "dirtbike." Your life context should illuminate where this is going on.

It crashes. A warning that this part of your life needs some real examination to prevent what the dream shows. A mouth full of blood? Passion/red...in words or somehow inthe mouth? Our teeth allow us to "bite" into life...they usually represent the ability of the ego to bite, chew so that we can digest and integrate. Here the teeth are lost.

Some care should be taken in regards to this "race" that your masculine is engaged in. If this isn't clear in your life, as you fall asleep focus on the issue so that dreams can give you more guidance.

Response to Alexandre's dream:

Dear Alexandre,

Here you are doing a duty...you are "paying your dues." The dream is using a pun to set up the situation. When you do your best to fulfil this "taxing" obligation, you are rewarded far above the exchange rate.

This seems a pretty clear message from your unconscious to attend to some duty...even though it is difficult (taxing). The return to you from a feminine part of yourself or a female in your life will be disproportionately good for you! Wow!!

Response to Aloysuis's dream:

Dear Aloysuis,

Your dreams are addressing the issue of motivation and energy. You want to "get around faster." Your frustration is the "slow pace." Are you experiencing a lack of energy and motivation in real life? Do you have goals or "destinations" that you are moving too slowly towards? Watch your dreams now that you have identified this "motivational" issue to see if there is some guidance to help you. Focus on this issue as you go to sleep. You will receive some help.

Response to Randall Suzuki's dream:

Dear Randall,

The key to understanding dreams is the methodical work of making associations with the elements in the dream. Then, you retell the dream story, substituting your associations for the elements. There seem to be four key elements in this dream: DUI, parents, fiancee, and Michael. DUI is a nice pun. What is "driving" you or "motivating" you? What ever it is seems to be energized by someone other than yourself..i.e. "under the influence" of who or what in your real life. The fact that your motivations and energy are coming from someone else, or from something outside yourself, is causing you to be imprisoned. You are limited or restricted.

You turn to "your parents." What do you associate with your parents? There is no help here. In fact, whatever it is they stand for (maybe old, estabishment values?? I can't tell because I don't know them) is hostile to you. You turn to your "fiance." She represents some part of the feminine in yourself. What kind of woman is she? These qualities in yourself are not helpful in removing your limitations.

It is your friend who is helpful. What qualities does he have? Particularly, what qualities does he have that you don't think of in yourself? It is the development of these qualities that the dream directs you to do in order to get out of the prison in which you find yourself. Our video MEN IN MEN'S DREAMS has an excellent discussion and illustration of how such a positive shadow can help you.

Response to Briggid's dream:

Dear Briggid,

It is as if the "female mass killer" chases you right into contact with the unconscious. In what way is there a mass murder of the feminine in yourself? How might your fear of being poisoned by the feminine push you into the "zoo", the "tropical greenhouse", such rich places of nature and instinct? See our tape on WOMEN IN WOMEN'S DREAMS.

Response to Clara's dream:

Dear Clara,

This dream is a kind of slap-stick version of Beauty and the Beast, isn't it? What do you associate with the "strange house"? What is going on in your life right now? Who is there when you unmask the "lizard-monster"? In what way do your fears seem as if in a movie? Dio you dissociate from them with "Cut"? Are you in the movies, facing a lizrd monster and need to remember that it is a fantasy? See our tape on MEN IN WOMEN'S DREAMS and Tapes I and II on how to work with your dreams.

Response to Elizabeth Drouault's dream:

Dear Elizabeth,

In what way might you have let someone, the people in the "Jeep Cherokee"...the religious ones..steal your "baby" from you...your real, true self? What if you imagine the baby in the dream to be an image of your own Self? How did you let some force trade your own nature in for some "baby" you don't understand and think to be "ugly"? How might you reclaim your baby Self? Use your associations to the figures in the dream to understand how this "kidnapping" has occurred. And then use your imagination to get your "baby" self back. See our tapes I and II for instruction and guidance..

Response to p d burket's dream:

Dear p d,

Remember that old line from a song: "I've got you under my skin"? Your dream seems to say that yuou have quite a lot of Life under your skin! Your feeling so alarmed in the dream atests to how much affect is in you about these unconscious contents. .....they "itch" when you bedcome upset! What a metaphor! You would do well to notice these things from the sea...fish, starfish, other fish..and even a snake....cold-blooded but primordial energetic life forces which are just under your skin...Perhaps you could do a drawing of your body with these creatures from the deep showing just under the skin...This wonderful source of energy has been ignored until you become upset...so you would do well to pay attention to your feelings and to your dreams more regularly...How is the very stuff of the Ocean in you? How are you related to the source of Life? See our tapes for help with allowing a more regular and deep relationship with the Unconscious.

Response to Ray McAllister's dream:

Dear Ray,

This is a dream in which your consciousness grows in the dream. You attend caringly and compassionately to the "knifed" 6 year old girl child..and she responds by healing. What does six years old mean to you? What happened in your life when you were six? What is six years old in your present life; what got started six years ago? "Knife in the chest" is such a powerful metaphor for wounding; we often use it to express feeling wounded by criticism. How did such a wounding happen to your feminine side? Your ego's response to the wounded child is a good sign that you will now be able to take up whatever that little girl means to you and integrate it into your life. Imagine talking to her and listening to her. Write down the dialogue. Imagine taking the "knife" or cutting remark of criticism out of the chest of your own precious feminine side and letting her heal. See our tape on WOMEN IN MEN'S DREAMS. This child is an extrememly important part of your psyche and needs you to protect her and relate to her.

Response to Lanette Ware's dream:

Dear Lannette:

How did the MTV awards stir up such a troubling dream? If the TV show was the context for such a dream, you might want to pay attention to how you feel during such a show? Do you feel like you are "overdosing"? In what way does it "infect" you? The dream might warn you that the music is dangerous and "killing" to your psyche. How have you dealt with your mother's death? It is very hard to lose your mother when you are such a young woman. Write an imaginary letter to her and tell her how you feel: what you are angry with her about, what you miss about her, what you feel about her and about yourself. Then perhaps you could have her write back to you in an imaginal way...just let your hand write as if it is her. Find a good-enough-mother in yourself by listening to your dreams and ayour imagination.. The police take away the "body" of the "overdosed" mother...which might symbolize that you have within you good "police", sense of right and wrong, or of limits...that can protect you when you need it. On the other hand, hte part of you that is like a boyfriend with HIV has no resistance to "infection"...so you need to be careful what you expose yourself to.

Response to elisabeth's dream:

Dear Elisabeth,

The dark stranger trying to break in is a common theme in women's dreams...It is terrifying! Work with the dream using our method, presented in Tape I and you will find a lot of connections to your past as well as your present...What do you associate withthat house, your family home? Ants are nature's composters...they clean up garbage...but you kill them with a chemical...so whatever is left-over in that house can not be naturally integrated. What do you associate with your boyfriend? With Disneyland? (fantasyland, happiness, escape?) At first, the stranger turns out to be a cardboard rabbit. What qualities do you associate with Rabbit? Does that image evoke any personal memories? It looks as if this image symbolizes either the way you have trivialized the threatening masculine or a way you could see it as not any more threatening than a "carboard rabbit". Eventually you must confront the sinister man. Have it out with him in active imagination: Ask him what he wants from you,. Tell him how he makes you feel. Dialogue with him. Write down the imaginary conversation. Try to make friends with this split-off side of yourself. See our tapes I and II.

Response to Andrea's dream:

Dear Andrea,

What a lovely dream!

Even totally exposed and vulnerable you enjoy a harmony with nature that is strikingly beautiful.

These are the kinds of dreams that give us great comfort. Can you draw a picture or find a picture that captures the spirit of this dream? Making it a concrete part of your life in this manner will enable you to keep the comfort of the image close at hand.

Response to Maureen's dream:

Dear Maureen,

Each of you should do personal associations with teeth. Do at least five; then substitute the associations in the particular dream to start analying its meaning. Although the personal associations MUST control, it is helpful to look at cultural and archetypal meanings. Sometimes, they are right on!

In the Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and dreams, this is what is said about teeth: (bad teeth) illness, (falling out) death of a friend or relative or the inability to grasp something or to engage (to get your teeth in). The inability to eat or to digest. The transitory, wisdom.

Such a broad potential of meaning...this is why your own personal associations are the ones you should listen to.

Response to Dorothy Campos's dream:

Dear Dorothy,

In your real waking life, how are you holding a baby and trying to protect her? A project? A part of yourself that is just beginning to grow?

She needs protection against a masculine that is masquerading like the male guard establishment. These are the values or force or energy that is threatening. However, you do have the assistance of a "boyfriend," a genuinely helpful friendly masculine part.

I believe the dream warns you about a problem involving a "baby," points to where the problem comes from, and indicates a source of help for you. A really helpful dream!

Response to Jamie's dream:

Dear Jamie,

Your father should look for an area in his life where he is inflated...or feeling super-human. This dream is like a dream of flying...he goes too far "up" and over! He is probably unconscious of this inflation or he would not be dreaming about it!

Response to kell's dream:

Dear Kell,

When we dream of being naked (whether anyone else notices or even whether or not we are embarrasseed), it usually refers to some area of our life where we feel exposed or vulnerable. Perhaps we are not willing to acknowledge our vulnerability...or perhaps we deny it to the point of being unconscious of it. Then we have a dream in which we are "naked," exposed.

This type of dream gives you an image of a problem you need to identify. By being conscious of it, you can do what you need to do to protect yourself. The danger in this type of life situation is our lack of consciousness.

A clue to the nature of the vulnerability is the fact that you are in a "bus station," where a large number of people are coming and going. This is a place where collective values, not individual values govern. Where is your vulnerability or exposure in this type of life situation?

Response to Robert Breton's dream:

This is a classic dream.

Your inner feminine opens the door to you and shos you all that is lost.

This dream shows you the power of this inner feminine. She has no face in your dream. This indicates that she is not integrated enough for you"to put a face on her." The dream points out a situation...and your potential to reclaim what you believe is lost. The solution lies in a better integration of your masculine and feminine.

The pattern is dealt with in some detail in our videotape WOMEN IN MEN'S DREAMS. It would be extremely helpful to you.

Response to Elizabeth's dream:

Dear Elizabeth,

The key element in this dream is the 8 year old girl. The associations are probably either a problem that developed when you were eight years old...or something that happened to your feminine self eight years ago. the dream says there is a problem that relates in some way to "an asian boy"...a problem which you and your "mother' (either your real mother or the more mature mother part of yourself) need to attend to.

Do the associations so that you can consciously look at the problem. Your dream is warning you that this situation needs attending to.

Response to Rachel's dream:

People in our dreams represent parts of ourself. Try to picture some of the people in this reocurring dream and do associations with htem: Qualities this person has are 1)________ 2)________ 3)________ 4)________ 5)________ Or, this person reminds me of ________________ Or, when I think of this person, I think of _______________.

These parts of yourself are unfriendly or betraying you in some way. The secret of solving this problem is to make it conscious. Really focus on the parts of yourself which the deam is expressing symbolically, and think about how that part of yourself is in real life. This will allow you to understand something that is now unconscious.

Good luck!

Response to Christine Macfarlane's dream:

Whatever it is that you associate with the cat scares you. Do at least five associations: five qualities of a cat are 1)________ 2)________ 3)________ 4)________ 5)________ Think of these associations as describing one of your own basic instinctual parts. Are you consciously aware of the fear you feel about this part of yourself?

You are not afraid of the "dog" (do the same method of associating). It is when you open the door to throw out the cat that this part of yourself appears.

Try an active imagination in which you talk to this cat and dog. Tell the cat why you fear it and get it to talk back to you explaining why it is inyour bdroom. Ask it what it wants. Then dialogue with the dog to figure out why it holds no fear for you in contrast to the cat.

The water that has seeped in represents the emotions that are involved in this problem. Understanding and relating to your "cat" energy is the solution.

Response to Jessica Osburn's dream:

Dear Jessica,

This dream really focusses on a problem...and since it is a dream you have had before, it is a real problem for you.

The problem is that the masculine parts of yourself (and maybe also in your waking life) are in real conflict.

Marriage symbolizes a union with our masculine side...a wholeness and completeness, an integration of these opposite parts of ourself.

In your dream, the father and brother oppose this and give you quite a chase! The father and brother represent the values in the masculine part of society. What are the "father's" values in your world? Your brother joins his values...making them strong with the continuity of the younger masculine. What are these values that are in such opposition to your becoming whole and complete?

This needs to be made conscious; otherwise, the dream would not have repeated.

Response to Tracy M.'s dream:

This dream seems to have more to do with your relationship to your "boyfriend," than it does to anything else. Your boyfriend can be interpreted objectively or subjectively. Read the article presently posted in the Circle part of our website so that you understand this distinction.

Briefly, objectively, the boyfriend is your real life boyfriend and this dream says something about your relationship with him. Subjectively, this person is a part of yourself, your animus...the male part of us that appears to be approximately our own age. It is our inner male companion and friend.

In this dream, the male part is unconscious of what is going on spiritually. He doesn't know what we are afraid of, about the "spirits" (thoughts, etc.) that visit us in the night.

The dream gives a solution to this problem that it depicts: you have to wake him up enough for him to see what is happening. In real life, you need to talk, communicate, let your boyfriend know what is going on with you...your fears, the things that visit you in the night. If this refers to your inner male, you need to "know" about him, understand that you have an inner male who can help you and give you inner companionship to help you deal with the fears and visitations of the night. You would really benefit from watching our videotape, MEN IN WOMEN'S DREAMS.

Response to Renee's dream:

Usually when you and a friend of the same sex and approximately the same age are together in a dream, this means you and your "shadow" are together in the activity. This is good when the activity is comfortable, positive one rather than one involving hostility. It expresses a wholeness or completeness, a lack of division in yourself as you pursue this activity.

Here, this "complete" part of yourself is "fishing." Usually fishing means that you are looking into, exploring your unconscious (water means the unconscious, unconscious life, the source of life, intense feelings, etc). Here you pull out a hippopotamus! So...as you explore the unconscious, you pull out something big and powerful!

Could this refer to your work with dreams? If so, the dream says it is big and important for you!

Response to Phaivanh's dream:

This pattern is dealt with in depth in our videotape MEN IN WOMEN'S DREAMS. It might surprise you to know how many women dream this type of dream. The chaser is usually masculine. Is that so in your dreams? If so, this dream is an indication that something about the masculine needs to be made conscious! The threatening, chasing man should be viewed symbolically. It represents some aspect of the masculine. You should do your personal associations with such a man (either the type that is chasing you or with the particular man if he is known to you). This man makes me think of___________. List at least five qualities, feelings, etc. Then substitute those associations in the dream story. What masculine qualities want you to recognize them or focus on them so desperately? Are you split off from your masculine side? Do you recognize and express the masculine qualities within yourself, or do you suppress and deny them? THE INNER OTHER is another tape that directly addresses this problem.

It is my experience that focusing on these dreams and doing the associations and then thinking about the questions above will result in the dreams changing. Let us know!