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strange dream; what does it mean? [message #363396] Sat, 06 December 2008 13:42 Go to next message
Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9077
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
Senior Member
Every now and then I have a strange dream and am able to remember most of it clearly, especially if I get awakened in the middle of it and sit and think about it. Sometimes it is clear what prompted the dream because it is either related to current life or past memories or something I just saw on television or some such thing and sometimes it is not as clear. I like to try to analyze such things and enjoy sharing and hearing other people's analysis. I thought I would share a recent one here while it is fresh in my mind, especially since a small piece was related to computer terminals. In my dreams, some things, places, and people are vague and some are very clear. Sometimes I recognize specific people, sometimes they are faceless, sometimes there is a general feeling that someone is a friend, but nobody specific. Some places I recognize as pieces of other places I have seen. In many of my dreams my thoughts are particularly clear. In the following I will comment on these things as I describe the dream. I would be interested in hearing what anybody thinks.

In the first part of the dream that I can remember, I am with what I seem to vaguely know is a small group of friends (4-6), although I cannot identify anybody in particular, and we are planning to go on a one-day excursion to someplace to have fun, although the destination and exact plans are not clear at that point. It kind of reminds me of when a large group of co-workers all planned to go to Universal Studios and by the time we actually went, there were only four of us, but we had a good time. In the dream, we are in an office where the employee side of the counter reminds me of a local car rental agency where I have rented a car while my own car was being repaired. The customer side that we are on reminds me of some sort of cross between the word processing terminals at a local library and the xerox and fax area at Staples and the self check-out at Lowe's home improvement store.

In the dream it becomes clear that we are there for the purpose of renting bicycles in order to ride to our fun destination. The process, like gas stations and many other places, has become mostly self-serve. Instead of walking up to a counter, giving your information to someone who fills out a form, then signing and paying, we are expected to fill out the forms on computer terminals, print them, sign them, then take the forms to the counter to pay. This is sort of like going through the self check-out at Lowe's or using the fax machine at Staples, printing out the confirmation, then taking it to the counter to pay. Bear in mind that one of my first jobs was as a grocery checker, before scanners and such and one of the last things I did was programming. As such, I tend to be rather critical of the programming, user-friendliness, defaults, or lack thereof and so forth behind such things. One of my pet peeves is when you go to a gas station and purchase a car wash, it tells you that your car wash code is on the receipt, then asks you if you want the receipt. That one is minor and amusing. It is more frustrating when the xerox and fax machines don't work. When I was a grocery checker I worked the express lane a lot because I was fast and accurate, but I don't move as quickly anymore. It is downright annoying when the self checkout at Lowe's keeps prompting you to do something faster than you can do it or terminates the process because you were too slow trying to get a large heavy item lifted and turned around so that it can be scanned. I tend to respond by yelling at the machine to wait a darn minute, that I'm moving as fast as I can. That usually causes some employee to come running over to help the grumpy old lady.

So, in this dream, I have no problem filling out the form, but can't get the darn thing to print, and spend a lot of time trying to get somebody to help me, eventually find somebody, and get the thing printed. I have had other dreams where a computer terminal grows arms and hands and throws half-eaten glazed doughnuts at me. Yes, the dream is that specific that they are clearly half-eaten glazed doughnuts.

So, continuing with this dream, I sign the form, take it to the counter to pay, and write a check for two hundred something dollars. This is apparently supposed to cover the bicycle rental and all of the activities for the day, which are still unclear, but I am thinking the price is excessive.

In the next segment of the dream, we are all on bicycles and peddling uphill on some street. They are one-speed bicycles like I had when I was a little kid, not a ten-speed. Nobody is wearing helmets. This is all very strange, since I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was a kid and I don't think bicycle helmets had been invented yet the last time that I rode a bicycle. I notice that my front tire is half-flat, but I don't have a bicycle pump or repair kit with me, so I decide to just keep peddling uphill with a half-flat tire. I tend to be one of those everything that can go wrong does go wrong kind of people.

We reach our destination and it is a tall slender building. We go inside and the building consists of one small empty room ontop of another, with the only means of getting from one floor to the next being to climb a ladder from the floor of one room to the ceiling and go through a small rectangular hole to the next floor, kind of like climbing into an attic. There are no elevators or stairs. In the dream, it is clear that we want to get to the top floor, but the purpose or what awaits at the top floor is still unclear. With each successive floor, the little rectangular hole gets smaller. It finally gets to a point where I declare that I am not going to try to squeeze through the next hole and am going to go out a window and climb up the outside of the building. The closest thing that I can relate this to is a building that I went to one day many years ago that was used for learning rappelling. We climbed to the top, then rappelled down from there, after first practicing on a small slope, instead of a tall straight-sided building.

So, in this dream I climb the outside of the building and enter a window on the top floor, about the same time as the others reach the top floor from the inside. Finally, I see what we have come for. There are a bunch of jacuzzis at various temperatures. Nothing fancy. No hot tubs. No landscaping. Just rectangular concrete in-ground pools, like swimming pools, but with warmer bubbling water. It reminds me of a place I went many years ago that was somewhere near Palm Springs, except that place was outdoors, not inside the top floor of a building. It was advertised as having some sort of mineral hot springs with beneficial water. I expected more natural surroundings and attractive environment and was disappointed that it was just a bunch of concrete pools where this alleged mineral water was pumped in. I couldn't tell any difference between the water there and my own bath water.

At this point in the dream I realize that I don't have a bathing suit with me. I don't know whether this is because I forgot it or whether it is because I didn't know what awaited on the top floor of this building. I don't want to climb back down, ride the bicycle with the half-flat tire back, get a bathing suit, ride the bicycle back, then climb back up, so I am trying to figure out what to do and pondering whether skinny-dipping would be an option. It was about then that something woke me up.

In trying to analyze this dream and others, I see a recurring pattern of everything that can go wrong does go wrong, as with my daily life, frustration with modern technology not being programmed the way I would do it, and some sort of issues about not being able to do and enjoy the things that I used to do before I developed recurring back and knee and foot problems and such and found myself trying to get by living on a retirement income with rising prices and not being able to afford the things that I used to or look as good as I used to with or without a swimsuit.

Thoughts anybody?

[EDITED by LF: removed superfluous empty lines at the bottom of the message]

[Updated on: Sat, 06 December 2008 16:50] by Moderator

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Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #363402 is a reply to message #363396] Sat, 06 December 2008 16:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Littlefoot
Messages: 21806
Registered: June 2005
Location: Croatia, Europe
Senior Member
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I wish I was a Gipsy or, at least, a fortune teller; then, perhaps I could explain what your dream means. Why wouldn't I want to be a psychiatrist? Because, in that case, your dreams were most probably related to sex, and that's where the story ends.

Now, I do have a little book which is supposed to explain dreams. If you believe in such things, here you are:

  • you are with a group of friends; you are feeling just as your friends are (i.e. good friends, feeling good)
  • a bicycle: success and recognition of your work and intercession. This makes sense; mind your story about that nasty boss who told you not to communicate with each other, but finally acknowledged your skills.

    Dreaming of a bicycle also means that you should take responsibility for your life, while bicycle's condition tells about your body condition (flat tire!)
  • you were climbing to the top of the building through empty rooms; "climbing" means success, while "empty rooms" mean displeasure. What does success have to do with inconvenience, I couldn't tell.
  • water is, probably, clean; if so, it means happiness. Taking bath in a warm water means illness; however, as you don't have a bathing suit, you are reluctant to get into the water. Bathing suit itself means illness, but not "bad" one (more like an ordinary cold, flu).

    So, no bathing suit (and you don't want to go and get it), no swimming in a warm water - you are taking care of yourself, subliminally.

I have no idea whether dreams really mean something or not; some people believe it, some not. Personally, I'm not superstitious because it brings bad luck /forum/fa/1587/0/

What I know for sure is that your dream is probably the longest text written in English I've read since reading Stephen King's "It".
Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364432 is a reply to message #363396] Mon, 08 December 2008 07:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dr.s.raghunathan
Messages: 540
Registered: February 2008
Senior Member
hi,

a very old man (92 years old) who use to treat patients in village and he is not a qualified doctor but very many patients relieved of their pain. He talks lot about various subjects interesting personality knows only tamil language. I happened to see that he asks the patients what sort of the dream they had in the recent past while enquiring about their illness and sometimes he understands their mental ability / health through their versions offered about many things. He makes the people to talk lot about various topics including their dream or illusion they have or the expectancy fear on certain things. He is not describing / explaining the events to others but offers lots of solution. i had curiosity of narating the barbara's dream as if mine. He said that this dream could not have come to you since you are sorrounded with lots of family members. It is someone's story. He also added that in general, these type of dream will occur to the lonely personalities and who has pain on upper and fore arm. further he said that the person who dreamed should have missed their dinner or half filled stomach were existing.
He continued and talked lot about the person who dreamt this situation. ofcourse my wrong translation also lead him some part of his understandings.
what i am concluding and trying to communicate is nothing. I am just telling the happenings made at the road side corner since i am not the stranuch believer of his acts and enjoy the fun on his talks that's all.
yours
dr.s.raghuanthan
Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364463 is a reply to message #363402] Mon, 08 December 2008 12:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9077
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
Senior Member
Littlefoot,

Thanks for responding. I have heard that the famous psychiatrist Dr. Sigmund Freud seemed to think everything was related to sex. I tend to think we are more complex creatures. I do tend to believe that dreams can be the subconscious thinking about things while asleep sort of like we think about things consciously while awake and that some benefit may be derived from analyzing what prompted the dreams and I may alter my plans based on that analysis. I also believe that there are some things that are common and have common meanings. Classic examples are things like dreams of being able to fly or your teeth falling out.

I hadn't really thought about things in the terms that you mentioned. Perhaps combining them, the peddling of the bicycle uphill with half-flat tire and climbing the building but with the small hole obstacle, but ultimately reaching my destination, is indicative of eventual success despite displeasure, inconvenience, and adversity along the way, with an apparent uncertainty at the end.

I also hadn't thought about the condition of the bicycle being symbolic as to my condition, but with my various back and knee and foot problems and such, that fits.

I do tend to get rather verbose sometimes and I have plenty of strange dreams and real-life situations I could write about and plenty of imagination as well. Perhaps I should try writing short stories for Readers' Digest or some such thing. I may add that to the bottom of my list of things to do if I ever have time to get around to them.


Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364464 is a reply to message #364432] Mon, 08 December 2008 12:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9077
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
Senior Member
dr.s.raghuanthan,

Thanks for replying. I am curious why you did not just say it was my dream instead of representing it as your own, but it is interesting that he was able to figure that out.

He said that this sort of dream only comes to a lonely personality. I have noted that since retiring and such I don't have as much personal conversation as I used to. I don't go to work or school or other places where I would see co-workers or fellow students and such. Frequently, the only non-internet conversations that I have are brief ones while running errands, either with fellow customers or employees. In such cases, people are busy and there usually isn't much time to talk. Every now and then I bump into another old woman in the grocery store or some such thing and we have some brief conversation about whatever food choices we are contemplating. I really don't have friends that I keep in touch with or do things with anymore. I recall that when last I did, I was beginning to have difficulty keeping up. I couldn't walk as fast and was sensitive to the sun. I would ask that they slow down or that we move to the shade. It seemed like they weren't paying attention and would walk away or stand in the sun, then later complain that I wasn't very sociable because I was sitting on a bench in the shade by myself. I gave up trying to be part of a group. It is more enjoyable to sit at home with my cats.

My forearms don't bother me, but I have shoulder pains from time to time and have been having that problem with my right shoulder again lately.

I would be interested in hearing what else he had to say and if he had any suggestions based on that analysis.
Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364466 is a reply to message #364463] Mon, 08 December 2008 12:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
joy_division
Messages: 4963
Registered: February 2005
Location: East Coast USA
Senior Member
Barbara Boehmer wrote on Mon, 08 December 2008 13:23

Thanks for responding. I have heard that the famous psychiatrist Dr. Sigmund Freud seemed to think everything was related to sex.



I was going to respond with this, but thought people might think I was just making a joke, so I chose not to.

I actually took a course called 'Psychology of Sleeping and Dreaming' in college and it was by far my favorite class. I seemed to be the only person able to remember their dreams daily. The professor loved me.

We would hand in our dreams and he would read them to the class. He would not identify the person, but would ask, "Would the person who had this dream mind if I asked you some questions?" I never minded. Some of the dreams were unusual, as most dreams are, but there was never anything embarrassing to me. But then again, there isn't any situation I have some across in my life that would embarrass me.
Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364472 is a reply to message #364466] Mon, 08 December 2008 13:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9077
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
Senior Member
joy_division,

Quote:

I was going to respond with this, but thought people might think I was just making a joke, so I chose not to.



If there is anything you or anybody else doesn't want to post to the group, you can always send a PM or email.

That sounds like it was a really interesting class. The closest thing I took was a sociology class. I signed up for it to fulfill a general education requirement, not because of any particular interest, but was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, in the middle of the course, my father died, and I took some time off both work and school to take care of final arrangements and cleaning out his apartment and stuff, then on top of that, three days after he died, my car was stolen with my school books in the trunk, so I had to rent a car and buy new books, and so on. By the time I got back to school, I had missed a lot, was behind on the reading, and really wasn't able to concentrate on much for a while. It was too late to withdraw from the class, so I barely scraped through.


Re: strange dream; what does it mean? [message #364815 is a reply to message #364464] Wed, 10 December 2008 02:50 Go to previous message
dr.s.raghunathan
Messages: 540
Registered: February 2008
Senior Member
barbara,

in general, he is the person do not answer for others problem,hence i lied.

Further he insist the reply for the below quotes.

Quote:

that the person who dreamed should have missed their dinner or half filled stomach were existing.



even if i would have answered something to his pertinent question, he would not have replied or comment on my answers. he may keep silence prolong as if i have not replied.there was no explanation for his behaviour. Hence i did not try to answer the question asked on the quotes. Sometimes he explains detailed manner his actions and many times he keeps mum.
it sounds crazy isn't it.

yours
dr.s.raghunathan




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