I have been reading a book "Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life". It is a suprisingly good read. The irony being, that I was at the library looking at something else and the book fell off the shelf to me. Serendipity?
The chapter I read last night spoke about giving space to our dreams. Not interpreting them according to other's methods, but in relation to our own life. The author notes "dreaming is about waking up. The unconscious often knows things we don't, things that in the broad daylight of consciousness remain invisible to us, just as the stars play to an empty house during the day when the sun is shining. They are meaning machines and never lie."
The point of the chapter was to delve beyond the seeming ridiculous in our dreams (last night I was rushing topless through the library at the University in search of somewhere...) and find what the unconscious is struggling with. Am I feeling exposed? Part of me that I am both proud of and yet self-conscious of and not quite acceptable to the social norms is exposed in its entirety?
This chapter really struck me. As someone who had night terrors as a child, nightmares as an adult and very vivid dreams on a regular basis-- I think there is a validity of tuning in. For example, I dream regularly of my wallet being emptied: me being left with the shell, whereas all that has importance is gone. True, I fear losing myself, having the essence of who I am stripped of me. Another regular recurrence is having an essay of major proportions due to which I have no research done and have not attended class. I think this is rooted in being afraid of failure, or being set into a situation where others expect failure. The irony being that in the conscious world I never missed class, never left essays to the last minute. I see how our unconscious takes familiar situations and twists them to express our own inner fears or concerns.
What do you dream??
