Dreams

[surodat]

I had an odd dream last night.

I was taking my little brother out to a Hockey game that was being played on the lake. There were huge grandstands, as if it were a permanent structure, facing the lake, huge blocks of concrete and metal, like you would find in community hockey arenas.

Suddenly everyone was screaming that there was going to be an explosion, knowing that it was going to be a nuclear blast, I grabbed my brother and dove into a stairwell, knowing that the concrete would protect us from the blast - and covered his eyes. The explosion came and went, much less powerful than I had expected.

We came out of the stairwell to find that a giant platform had crashed into the middle of the lake. The water had risen, and huge waves were crashing into the stands. Wanting to know what this platform was, my brother and I started to move towards it.

Luckily there were small self propelled rowboats that were there to carry us to the platform. As we neared it, we realized that it was itself a giant flying city that had fallen out of the sky.

We climbed into it and started wandering around the empty halls. Even though we couldn't see anyone there, the giant city seems to be running properly, and everything seemed to be working - as if it were still completely functional. We eventually came across some small children who explained that this was their city, and they powered it - they apologized for crashing it, and would throw a party once the city was back in the air.

The party started, and while wandering around from room to room, I lost my brother, but found and old friend from high school. He had a huge beard and explained that he had just been released from federal prison, and this was his first big event to celebrate. We got some drinks and started to catch up. We drank, and smoked, and did cocaine.

Then when there was some screaming from another room. Running to the next room, which was a series of catwalks over empty drop below to the ocean, three men were holding a screaming woman. My friend pulled out his gun, I drew my knives, and Steve Martin appeared saying he would help.

My friend shot one, I stuggled with another (after clumsily dropping my knives right off the bat) and Steve Martin started to shock the other like the Emperor from Star Wars.

During the struggle, I got knocked off the platform, and fell to land on a small floating island just below that catwalks, while Steve disposed of the guy I'd been fighting.

After getting pulled back up to the catwalks, the woman who we'd saved demanded that we apologize for getting high on cocaine and ruining the party.

As she stood there arms crossed, I noticed a series of ex-girlfriends sitting in deck chairs behind her, sunbathing, and looking disappointed in me.

Looking around, my friend and Steve had disappeared, and I was the only target of their ire. I apologized profusely.

"You promise it won't happen again?"

Then I woke up.

[waflob]

You probably shouldn't have eaten that cheese you found under the fridge ...

[MrBCorp]

Thanks for sharing. I love dreams. Not only are they adventurous and entertaining, but they are fun to analyse.

It seems you are feeling guilty about something (not necessarily literally what the dream suggests). Looks like a lot of issues.

I like to go to http://www.dreammoods.com/ specifically http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/ for an explanation.

I often have dreams of being chased or pursued as well as naked dreams. I used to have flying dreams. Lately (as in the last few years) I have dreams of public transport, trams, trains and buses.

[surodat]

To see a celebrity in your dream, represents your beliefs and understanding about him or her.

Obviously, I think Steve Martin actually has superpowers, and fights crime by night.

I've always been of the impression that Dreams are the result of your brain solidifying connections that have been made over the course of the day. (Essentially re-wiring your built in Semantic network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_network) based on your experiences between your last sleep cycle and the current one) But because of the way our brains function, we try to make cause and effect narratives out of this random firing.

Things that happened the day before that Dream:
My Brother Won a Silver Medal at OFSAA for the Giant Slalom
I watched Jeopardy where one of the contestants mentioned they knew Steve Martin.
One of the categories on Jeopardy had to do with Star Wars.
I had seen two of my old girlfriends earlier that day, by chance.
I was painfully organizing a party for Saturday night.
I had spoken to my friend just before bed.

But it produced a really funny narrative. :D

[TPMdm]

Steve Martin?

From MrBCorp's Links:
To see a celebrity in your dream, represents your beliefs and understanding about him or her. Something in you waking life has triggered these similar beliefs and feelings. It is not uncommon that your obsession with a certain celebrity may carry over onto your dream world. Celebrities are often seen as heroes and all that is mighty. Also consider any puns within the name.

Or

To see a comedian in your dream, suggests that you need to be more carefree. You are feeling overburdened from your daily problems and need an outlet to release all that tension. You need to learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously.

and

To dream that you are taking cocaine, indicates that you are feeling empty and devoid of emotions. You are looking to get out of your commitments or denying your responsibilities. You lack ambition. On a more positive note, the dream may be telling you that you need to be more lively and energetic.

And this was good too:
To see a city in your dream, signifies a sense of community and your social environment. If you dream of a big city, then it suggests that you need to develop closer ties and relationships. You are feeling alienated and alone. To dream that you are in a deserted city, indicates that you feel rejected by those around you.

To dream of a city in ruins, denotes that you are neglecting your social relationships and allowing them to deteriorate.

To dream of an underground or underwater city, represents your unconscious and how through deeper understanding of yourself, you find commonality and shared experiences with others.


Based on the bolded parts it seems like you need to be more carefree, energetic and social. Steve Martin aslo played a bit of a hero due to his celbrity status. There were some good things about children and innocence and sports and virility.

TBH I think dream interpretation is a bit of crap anyway (Like horoscopes) but if you have fun with it go for it!

[MrBCorp]

TBH I think dream interpretation is a bit of crap anyway (Like horoscopes) but if you have fun with it go for it!

Ok I'll take the bait.

I think dream interpretation is actually pretty accurate. Especially that site. I find that using it helps me to understand my dream better. The only problem is you really need to link everything up so you can interpret the whole dream and not just parts.

(Horoscopes based on broad brush strokes can hardly be accurate. You can have a specific interpretation done for your birthchart which will be much more accurate)

[TPMdm]

I'll take the reverse bait then. How can you take

Condom

To see a wrapped condom in your dream, represents your one-sided viewpoints and not allowing others to voice their opinions. It also symbolizes sexual possibilities.

Seriously?

I'm sure some folks would acknowledge the possibility that a wrapped condom might just be a part of the "narrative" of your dream and it seems easier to see how dreams about breasts might signify a desire to be nourished, but a wrapped condom represents my one sided views? Since there is also an interpretation of what an unwrapped condom means which is totally disconnected from what a wrapped condom means I'm not sure how there can be any interpretation at all. If the entire "story" of my dream is that I find a wrapped condom and open it then I'm some how expressing my one sided views AND I'm frustrated sexually? There is the alternate that I'm dreaming about sexual possibilities and have some anxiety about a pregnancy. Thirdly by combining the two I could be expressing my one sided views and have some anxiety about a pregnancy. Of course there is the more general entry listed for dreaming about contraceptives which has yet more possibilities for interpretation (admittedly it does also share anxiety about pregnancy). What about if we are to take my hypothetical dream in a different direction.....what if that condom opening dream is really about me opening a package?

Are there no standards? I can see where it can be fun to try and infuse some deep psychological meaning to dreams, but how can any of those "right answers" apply and still call interpretation "pretty accurate"?

Anybody who has seen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward or his TV show recognizes the pattern....."There's somebody in the audience who has a deceased male relative who's name begins with a J or a K.....wait, he's telling me his given name might have started with a B..."

[surodat]

Check out the Semantic Network link in my second post.

Generally, our brains wired this way. We have groups of metaphors that have a proximity to each other in virtual space. When we sleep, our brains reinforce the connections that were recently made in that virtual space.

So, what we are doing is attaching things that we saw/did/heard/felt/etc over the course of that day, to things that are already in our heads.

Now, what sites like dreammoods does, is take a relatively average semantic map, and uses it to explain what dreams mean. It is by no means universal, but there are some pretty common semantic relations held by most healthy adult humans.

The more specific items will vary. (ie. The condom example can be attached strongly to sickness and disease in one person's mind and babies and love in another person's mind - both of these are normal, health semantic maps, but on opposite sides of the emotional universe.)

Yet there are those that can, generally, be mapped - Mother-Family, Darkness-Cold - these are two sets that can be mapped relatively accurately in most people as being in close proximity.

So if we add another to those sets -

Mother-Family-Dave
Darkness-Cold-Dave

All of a sudden, Dave is associated in the first with love, compassion... and so on.
And in the second, with fear, discomfort...and so on.

Really simple mapping generally stands up relatively well when examining dreams.

And don't knock Astrology :D


"I know that astrology isn't a science,' said Gail. "Of course it isn't. It's just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis or, what's that strange thing you British play?'

"Er, cricket? Self-loathing?"

"Parliamentary democracy. The rules just kind of got there. They don't make any kind of sense except in terms of themselves. But when you start to exercise those rules, all sorts of processes start to happen and you start to find out all sorts of stuff about people.

"In astrology the rules happen to be about stars and planets, but they could be about ducks and drakes for all the difference it would make. It's just a way of thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin to emerge. The more rules, the tinier the rules, the more arbitrary they are, the better.

"It's like throwing a handful of fine graphite dust on a piece of paper to see where the hidden indentations are. It lets you see the words that were written on the piece of paper above it that's now been taken away and hidden. The graphite's not important. It's just the means of revealing their indentations. So you see, astrology's nothing to do with astronomy. It's just to do with people thinking about people."

[MrBCorp]

Cold
The dream may also occur as a result of your immediate environment in which you are really feeling cold.


This one was a short dream. I was at an outdoor concert thingie with a relatively small and moderately uninterested crowd (heaps of room), at night and as I was walking to sit of the grass I nearly fell when some piglets rushed passed me (I guess the farmer was behind me, but I can't remember, I think I passed him as I was walking). When I sat down I was with my friends (or it was my friend and his sister) but I don't know who they are (not a clue, weird). He was wearing shorts and a jumper and he was very cold and shivering. I was wearing a jacket and pants, but still cold. I commented to him that I was smart, remembering that it gets colder at night.

Then I woke up and realised I had left the fan on. Although I am still trying to figure out what the piglets nearly knocking me over could mean. Or who the male and female could be.
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So I'll agree that we use things we are already familiar with, twisting and distorting them sometimes. But I like to think it's our way of dealing with things that the conscious mind can't deal or cope with. We supposedly have many dreams over the course of just one night yet we remember very few, often none. Dreams let us do or think what we can't when we are awake.