fairly long dream-want to try an interpretation?

brianthebard

Ok so this is a dream I had two nights ago, its fairly long and probably made up of lots of different parts. Because it was fairly weird and different (for me) I decided to write it down and see what people think. I have a few thoughts myself but I'd also like to hear other peoples perspective.

so first I was up in the hills driving. It was a really good day,everything was bright. the car ran out of diesel and ended up coasting up and down the hills for a while. At some point I got out of the car and then couldn't find it again. Started walking and saw sheep in the fields, normal farm stuff, etc. Two tractors came along the narrow lane I had to walk down and nearly blocked me in. The drivers were fairly nice to me but I had to force my way through and they nearly crushed me at one point!

After that I remember watching TV, and burning sticks of chalk (under the impression they were crack or something else??) in an attempt to get high and at times throwing the sticks down. There were a lot of small fires. This dream moved between the sitting room and lying in bed.

Then I was holding my two year old cousin and she hurt her head and started crying. I went outside to find her mother I think. We moved from our house (in the countryside) to a street here in Sligo. I walked towards Dunnes, but saw my Ma waiting outside the church at the bus stop. She seemed to be waiting for Mass, so I turned around and went back. It started to rain and my cousin got wet. We went to a toy shop (which isn't there irl) and lots of browsing of the shop happened here, with her brother and father. A bit fuzzy here but it was nearly christmas and there were lots of bargains(?) we stayed there til the shop closed. By this time I seemed to have been up all day. That morning before dawn we were going to climb up the road outside our hours to the garden shed (dunno why it was there). It turned into a much bigger hill and there were lots of obstacles along the way, including at one point some sort of Sonic weapon like army checkpoint that was firing at me, then fell apart. Some crane like thing grazed me when it fell but it didn't hurt. Later we had to crawl around the wreckage. Eventually we got to the shed and my cousin took the tools and stuff and disappeared. I walk down the hill. In the middle of it a barbed wire fence has fallen down and a truck approaches, slows down and drives over it. I have to walk around it and not get cut.

I get back to the house and I think my cousin is working away. I am watching tv and reading a friends blog (which I don't think she has) on the screen. Its full of fairly surreal stuff that I don't really remember but my mother keeps telling me to turn it off. Then it is snowing and dark and I have to go out and give my cousin a body warmer to wear.

Then there are more blank spots and I am with a friend (who I've never actually met-the one with the blog) and she is cross with me. I don't remember why though.

also at some stage, I think between the toy shop and going home, there is a fancy dinner with lots of buns and cakes that me and my cousin go around putting on top of each other to eat. Some fall into each other (they are quite complex creations??) and one is made of swiss chocolate and I get given out to for destroying. Tasted nice though apparently.



*Ahem* now I know why I don't dream more often. There's a lot of crap there but I think the main point is the relationship between me and my cousin. I think that my cousin might represent the friend (who is sick in real life) that I want to protect, even though there isn't anything I can do to help really. Alternatively (and more selfishly) it could be myself? If this is true then all the obstacles would represent her sickness and stuff like that, metaphorical obstacles made literal I guess.

Anyways what do you think boardsies? Am I to be committed?

karynp

so first I was up in the hills driving. It was a really good day,everything was bright. the car ran out of diesel and ended up coasting up and down the hills for a while. At some point I got out of the car and then couldn't find it again. Started walking and saw sheep in the fields, normal farm stuff, etc. Two tractors came along the narrow lane I had to walk down and nearly blocked me in. The drivers were fairly nice to me but I had to force my way through and they nearly crushed me at one point!

OK,I WILL GIVE THIS A SHOT FOR YOU!FIRSTLY I WOULD SEE THE DRIVING AS CONTROL FOR YOU AND FREEDOM MATTERING TO YOU QUITE A BIT,THERE IS A SENSE OF LOSS OF CONTROL WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF DIESEL AND THE LANE REPRESENTING A SITUATION OUT OF YOUR CONTROL,PEOPLE BEING TWO FACED TO YOU AND HIDING THE TRUTH.HOWEVER YOU GOT PAST THE BLOCKS PUT IN YOUR WAY,THUS REGAINING YOUR CONTROL. A GOOD THING I WOULD SAY,SIMPLY PUT, YOU STEER YOUR OWN DESTINY.

After that I remember watching TV, and burning sticks of chalk (under the impression they were crack or something else??) in an attempt to get high and at times throwing the sticks down. There were a lot of small fires. This dream moved between the sitting room and lying in bed.

Then I was holding my two year old cousin and she hurt her head and started crying. I went outside to find her mother I think. We moved from our house (in the countryside) to a street here in Sligo. I walked towards Dunnes, but saw my Ma waiting outside the church at the bus stop. She seemed to be waiting for Mass, so I turned around and went back. It started to rain and my cousin got wet. We went to a toy shop (which isn't there irl) and lots of browsing of the shop happened here, with her brother and father. A bit fuzzy here but it was nearly christmas and there were lots of bargains(?) we stayed there til the shop closed. By this time I seemed to have been up all day. That morning before dawn we were going to climb up the road outside our hours to the garden shed (dunno why it was there). It turned into a much bigger hill and there were lots of obstacles along the way, including at one point some sort of Sonic weapon like army checkpoint that was firing at me, then fell apart. Some crane like thing grazed me when it fell but it didn't hurt. Later we had to crawl around the wreckage. Eventually we got to the shed and my cousin took the tools and stuff and disappeared. I walk down the hill. In the middle of it a barbed wire fence has fallen down and a truck approaches, slows down and drives over it. I have to walk around it and not get cut.

I get back to the house and I think my cousin is working away. I am watching tv and reading a friends blog (which I don't think she has) on the screen. Its full of fairly surreal stuff that I don't really remember but my mother keeps telling me to turn it off. Then it is snowing and dark and I have to go out and give my cousin a body warmer to wear.

Then there are more blank spots and I am with a friend (who I've never actually met-the one with the blog) and she is cross with me. I don't remember why though.

also at some stage, I think between the toy shop and going home, there is a fancy dinner with lots of buns and cakes that me and my cousin go around putting on top of each other to eat. Some fall into each other (they are quite complex creations??) and one is made of swiss chocolate and I get given out to for destroying. Tasted nice though apparently.



*Ahem* now I know why I don't dream more often. There's a lot of crap there but I think the main point is the relationship between me and my cousin. I think that my cousin might represent the friend (who is sick in real life) that I want to protect, even though there isn't anything I can do to help really. Alternatively (and more selfishly) it could be myself? If this is true then all the obstacles would represent her sickness and stuff like that, metaphorical obstacles made literal I guess.

Anyways what do you think boardsies? Am I to be committed?[/QUOTE]

karynp

SORRY,GOTA GO OUT AND COLLECT MY CAR WILL FINISH THS LATER.;)

brianthebard

LOLZ OK!!! Seriously though thanks, the first comment was on the money I think, would like to hear what else you have to say.

Black Swan

Anything that begins to approach a literal interpretation based upon the substance of your dream is pure speculation, better placed in a fictional context than in an interpretive one.

brianthebard

care to elaborate?

Black Swan

brianthebard wrote: »

care to elaborate?

Well, unless there is a conscious attempt to control the content of your dream (day dreaming, active dreaming, etc.), the most that you can derive from dreams, at best, are perhaps emotions that arise and their connections to persons, places, and things? For example, if in real life you are falling in love with a girl, and you have a passionate dream about her, there is probably a relationship between the emotions expressed in the dream and the object of those emotions?

But to attempt to interpret your farm tractor incident is pure speculation, better left to fiction than reality.

brianthebard

emotions are large part of it sure,but context is important too.for example two people have dreams in which they are anxious or scared.the emotions are the same but the cause different.in order to understand them more fully,we need to look at rl events and how they may be manifested subconsiously.in this manner,the events of the dream are as important or moreso to a full understanding.

Black Swan

I might agree that the general context of the dream (e.g., romance as a general context in my earlier example), per se, may have some merit, but to interpret dreams using specific details, such as tractors almost crushing you, when in fact there was no actual tractor crushing incident in your real life, is pure speculation, and in some cases lending better to a fantasy interpretation than reality.

brianthebard

ha if it seemed like i was suggesting i was anxious of a real tractor crushing then apologies.i think the tractors may be illustrative of my fears,their size and force indicating the size of my worry?the question is not where are the tractors and how do i avoid them,but what could they represent,and why them and not something else?the latter question is easily answered-i was driving a tractor at the wkend.

Black Swan

brianthebard wrote: »

ha if it seemed like i was suggesting i was anxious of a real tractor crushing then apologies.

No, there was no misunderstanding on my part. The tractors were literal dream content (i.e., the specific details of the dream), and not a suggestion that such content may have been informed by an actual tractor-fear producing incident occurring in real life; and if there was, your clarification ruled that out.

brianthebard wrote:

i think the tractors may be illustrative of my fears,their size and force indicating the size of my worry?

This is where we differ when it comes to interpretation. To suggest that being potentially crushed by tractors is symbolic of some fear unrelated to tractors in real life is pure speculation on your part, and on the part of the other poster to this thread. There is no way to substantiate such a connection between the dream and real life, only speculation and conjecture not based on connecting facts. Oh, it makes for interesting reading, but so does fiction.

brianthebard wrote:

the latter question is easily answered-i was driving a tractor at the wkend.

Which may explain why tractors appeared in your dream, but not the link to some non-tractor-related symbolization?

brianthebard

well i believe the emotions felt in real life and the dream state is the connecting factor,but i doubt you will agree.but if we are to discount all dreams that don't have a direct correlation to real life then we dismiss a huge percentage of dreams as nonsense,and by extension the subconscious element of the human mind?very interested to hear your views on this.

Black Swan

brianthebard wrote: »

well i believe the emotions felt in real life and the dream state is the connecting factor,but i doubt you will agree.

As before stated, in a general but not specific context, I would agree with this notion.

brianthebard wrote:

but if we are to discount all dreams that don't have a direct correlation to real life then we dismiss a huge percentage of dreams as nonsense,

No, that was not my point. It was the premise and method of interpretation where we differ. Where you may wish to establish a connection between dreamed about tractors as being symbolic of fear producing threats in actual life is speculation when making specific interpretive connections to persons, places, or things. You may want to believe something, because it is consistent with other beliefs that you may have (which may be acting in a self-fulfilling prophesy way?). But how do you know? Cohen has written about this in his work about "on knowing." From a different perspective, William James has addressed the problem of interpretation of real events, much less dream ones, in his metaphor "The Bear in the Woods."

The same can be said about good fiction, where the suspension of disbelief must be established before a reader can experience the story as if it was really occurring? The reader must identify with the story in some ways before (s)he can suspend their disbelief, just like you may suspend your disbelief in order to experience a dream while it is occurring (perhaps not after, given how weird some dreams can be).

brianthebard wrote:

and by extension the subconscious element of the human mind? very interested to hear your views on this.

Given earlier arguments we have shared, I would suspect that, by mentioning the subconscious, you are coming from a Freudian or neo-Freudian dream interpretation? As you know, beyond the historical significance of Freud, I do not accept his theoretical, empirical, or practical interpretations of life in general; so we could not agree to proceed with this discussion in Freudian terms, because I cannot agree on a Freudian premise of interpretation.

brianthebard

yes i was wary of the self fulfilling prophecy,which is why i didn't suggest an interpretation to begin with.however an interpretation is just that-one persons take.i'm not sure you can introduce empirical fact into dream interpretation.as for freudian interpretation, right again.how do you intend to deal with that,or do you feel we are too opposed to find common ground?

Black Swan

brianthebard wrote: »

yes i was wary of the self fulfilling prophecy,which is why i didn't suggest an interpretation to begin with.

Which we must all be cautious about when attempting to interpret dreams... you, the earlier poster, I, everyone!

brianthebard wrote:

however an interpretation is just that-one persons take.i'm not sure you can introduce empirical fact into dream interpretation.

My point exactly; dreams being subjective experiences with extraordinary limitations when applied to real life.

brainthebard wrote:

as for freudian interpretation, right again.how do you intend to deal with that,or do you feel we are too opposed to find common ground?

As before stated, I cannot accept a Freudian, or neo-Freudian dream interpretation (e.g., Anne Freud, Helene Deutsch, or other neo-Freudians).

brianthebard

how far then do you think these limitations go?(i think this is the crux of the matter no?)do you feel anything that cannot be directly connected to rl events should be discounted?although subjective i feel there is real value to be found in the majority of most dreams,if one is willing to explore and if the dream memory is good.another question i would like to ask is where you personally think dream details which cannot be explained come from,if not the subconscious?what name would you give it?