Four Experts Try to Get Inside Readers' Heads

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A couple of weeks back, we asked readers to submit their dreams and steeled ourselves for Weirdfest 2006. Here is a sampling of the unusual and the conventional, followed by riffs from four experts with diverse backgrounds. But remember: Only a dreamer can interpret his or her dream, and the best mode for dreamwork is an in-person exchange. Use this subjective feedback as a guide, as pure entertainment or as anything in between.

When Nature Calls

I have this dream about once a week. In it, I have an urgent need to use the bathroom. The setting varies, but when I find the bathroom, it's always the worst toilet in the world (a la Ewan McGregor in "Trainspotting"). It could be a toilet or urinal, but it always overflows and is completely gross. If I try to flush, water and feces fill the room. I'm completely embarrassed and try to flee the scene. At this point, I wake up. This happens like clockwork at around 5:15 a.m. When I have the dream, I say to myself, "Oh, it's 5:15, I must need to go."

-- Mark Wheeler, Fairfax

Barrett: Dreams about looking for the bathroom are common and often related to the most literal thing you've identified -- a full bladder. But the details of this "Trainspotting" toilet suggest it may be somewhat literal. All of us have a certain amount of shame associated with toilet training; this is worse for some, and the urge to go may trigger a negative scenario. Or it may be more metaphoric -- as with the term "full of [expletive]." You might ask if anything in waking life seems "gross" in that way, or if anything has embarrassed you recently.

Jenkins: The key question is who is responsible for this. You should have a sense of whether or not this is your own mess. Perhaps outrage rather than embarrassment is more appropriate.

Welt: Freud used dreams of excretion to demonstrate that the loftiest ideas still have their foundation in the unconscious mind's account of the processes of the human body. Here you make your own "contribution" to an already horrible situation, and it makes matters worse. An attempt to deal with a terrible situation may always create anxiety, even when it represents a breakthrough that brings whatever is most feared to the surface.

Old College Re-Try?

I keep having dreams about going back to college. They started out as not being prepared for classes, projects or tests. Now, this may be commonplace for most people, but I didn't start having these dreams until I was 40. Now the dreams are about the college life, moving into dorms and living with people much younger than me. They're really disturbing, and I have them about 10 times a year.

-- Alison Good, Columbia

Barrett: Dreams about being unprepared for class or tests are common for many people decades after leaving school. It's no mystery why taking a test is the concretization of anxieties about being evaluated in our society. You might ask yourself, "What in my waking life feels 'really disturbing' in the same way?"

Shanor: How did you feel about turning 40? These are usually dreams about feeling unprepared. What was the most difficult thing about college life, and what did you learn about yourself and life during that time? How do these lessons apply each time you have the dream?

Submerging the Self

I'm observing myself from a hundred yards away, and there's a very shallow area in a river and a stone crossing. The water is two to three inches deep, with large stones that one can step on to get from one side to the other. The water is sparkling, a very delightful picture, light and bright.

I observe myself from a distance, stepping stone by stone across the river. Rather than reach the other shore, I walk toward myself. The water is getting deeper, first covering my feet, then ankles. I am no longer observing myself but am actually in the water, which is very still. I continue stepping on the stone path, water rising, until I am deep in the water. It is no longer bright but kind of like dusk. I wake up.

I've experienced variations on this from time to time, but it always includes getting from one place to another, going through deepening water on stones. It's not unpleasant, but it is puzzling, maybe unnerving.

-- Andrea Cooper, Ashburn

Jenkins: Describe the dream from the other Andrea's perspective, as though she was watching you. She will have clear advice for you.

Shanor: Children younger than 7 years generally observe themselves in their dreams because they are still developing a sense of "self." Could you be developing your identity of who you are at a certain stage -- "stepping" from shallow to deep as you get older and have more experiences? What parts of yourself are you connecting and making more "whole" as you walk toward yourself?

Welt: I would guess almost everyone will see this dream the same way, following Jung: Water represents the possibility of rebirth through immersion in the material of the unconscious mind. As one progresses deeper, things may seem less clear, as at dusk, and perspectives shift; it is harder to hold on to the stance of the objective observer. But it is very good to know that there is still a solid stone path under one's feet. In this case, I'd ask what is like the stone path in your life.

Trapped at Work

I have been a printer in the Washington area for most of my 39-year career. At least once a week I will dream I am in a very large manufacturing or warehouse facility trying to find my way out the door. Sometimes I am either working or climbing very large machines. This environment is usually quite dirty, and I can never make my way out. The funny part is that I will be with many of the guys I worked with 25 years ago. One time I was even in Hawaii! Nothing bad ever happens, but it always seems very frustrating and complicated. Where the heck am I going?

-- Dave Dixon, Columbia

Shanor: Are your trying to decide what you want to do in your next stage of life? Do you want to get out of printing but don't know how or what to do next -- and don't want to lose the camaraderie you've enjoyed at work over the years? Do you want to get out and travel? Any fears about doing so?

Welt: I think everyone who's had a job has a dream that draws on their work setting. A factory or mechanical environment in particular represents the body for many dreamers. What is being made in this factory? What keeps you from getting out?

Whale of a Tale

A series of dreams involving Shamu the killer whale:

1) I am at a Sea World-type water park and we are looking over the edge of the tank. Suddenly, Shamu hoists himself up on cricketlike legs and lunges out of the tank toward me. I am terrified because he will suck the fluid out of my kneecaps if he reaches me.

2) I am sitting on a dock on a lake behind my old middle school with my parents. Shamu is swimming in the lake, and we are all terrified. My mother turns to me and says, "You better run, because if he catches you, he will suck the fluid from your kneecaps."

3) I am back at Sea World and deliberately avoiding the Shamu show, but Shamu hoists himself out of the tank and comes toward me. This time tourists are running around me, shrieking that Shamu will suck the fluid out of our kneecaps if he catches us.

These three dreams cover a span of 20 years. I had the first one in high school, the second one in college and the third one in my mid-20s.

-- Mia Dell, Washington

Barrett: I love this dream! Some dreams -- like being unprepared for a test -- remind us how similar we are. Others sound like they couldn't have originated in any other psyche on the planet. I'd like to know how you feel about killer whales in general or Shamu in particular. Is the term "killer" dominant? Are they evil, frightening creatures? Or do you think of the whale as intelligent, mysterious or something else? Is anything in your waking life out to get you? Knees may have metaphoric meaning, but I'd also want to make sure you didn't have some vague pain in your real knees you've been ignoring.

Jenkins: Think of the dream as a movie script with you in the role of the heroine. Which actress would play you? Who would play your mother? Are you rescued by a hero? If so, who would play the hero and how would he/she protect you from this threat? The "fluid in your kneecaps" is a remarkably specific reference. Perhaps your dreams know something you don't.

Good Fish, Bad Fish

In my recurring dream, I walk a long path down to a fishing spot that I don't know in real life but know fairly well from prior dreams. I primarily fish freshwater, but the dream site is actually a saltwater site connected to a bay.

I'm always alone as I fish from the shore. I throw my line out, and what I get back is almost always a large fish, but the type is a mystery until I land it. Sometimes it's a beautiful fish, obviously edible, and all is well. Sometimes it's a dangerous-looking fish with snapping jaws and big teeth, but I still feel like it's a good catch.

Once in a while, it will be one of those fish you might see in a book on deep-sea or extinct creatures: Strange-looking fish with giant teeth, dark in color, with bulging eyes or strange tentacles. This is the most scary scenario for me. They're usually not very active once landed, but I especially hate it when I catch these.

-- Tom Belcher, Ellicott City

Barrett: You should think what "fishing" means in your own life. Whatever the general metaphor, it is important to note what happened during the days when you fish out a beautiful, edible fish at night vs. those days when you land an extinct monster.

Shanor: I wonder if "fishing" provides a good metaphor for your adventures and life events. I would encourage you to program yourself to ask questions of the characters in your next "fishing" dream.

Welt: Sea water is "older" than fresh water, and the monsters that come out of it are more primitive and harder to recognize. If Freud is right -- and I don't know that he is -- we go to some lengths to disguise the most disturbing content that dreams dredge up. In your dream journal, talk to the fish. Ask what it is, what it wants, what it has to offer.

Flying . . . With Denis Leary?

A movie is being made. For some reason it requires a full-scale, functional glider to be used, so Denis Leary and I are asked to be test pilots. The gliders look like oversize cockatoos and are flown by lying across the back and holding on to the neck.

Denis goes first, without incident. I'm next, and when I'm released in midair, a robotic monarch butterfly is also released for me to chase. The butterfly circles around for a while before settling in a woman's back yard. There are other dead monarchs in the muck against the house, so it takes me a while to find the one I was following.

Along the way I also find a huge turtle in a heavy glass jar and a puppy sleeping on a paper bag containing a gold-plated astrolabe and a coin (of uncertain denomination) from "Palookaville."

-- Sam Young, McLean

Barrett: Most people find flying dreams happy and free, but you don't say what the mood is. What does this gliding feel like? Palooka actually originated in 1928 with Ham Fisher's comic strip about Joe Palooka, a slow-witted and inarticulate boxer. "Palookaville" usually means "nowheresville," but you may have your own associations to the word, or have seen the 1995 movie by that name.

Shanor: Could making a movie include a certain amount of detachment as well as exposure? Themes that seem to stand out are "flying," "freedom," "death." It'd be fun to work with you to find out more about the turtle, puppy and the contents of the bag!

Welt: Freud says some dreams throw bizarre elements around as if to insist upon the absurdity of the situation and thus ridicule the underlying wish and rob it of its intensity. This dream contains many strange details that distract from some unifying themes. The test-pilot situation, gliding, "dead monarchs," astrolabe and Palookaville all suggest anxieties and insecurities, possibilities of failure, clinging to the past -- especially when you consider that "Denis Leary" may be a pun, as I find names in dreams often are. "Cockatoo" and "astrolabe" are puns, too, but perhaps we won't go into that right now.