What Do You Think About Dreams?

I think the subject of dreams is a fascinating one. Having had quite a few strange ones myself, makes me wonder, at times, what they are all about. Is a dream just our subconcious reminding us of things that we did, or thought about, that particular day, or week? Is it a way of showing us our deep-seated fears which we are afraid to confront during our waking hours? I've read that our dreams are full of symbolism, some of which are universal, and some which can only be applied to ourselves, personally. For instance, I've read that to dream of eating, or of food, is in some way spiritual, and that when we dream of a house, or a building, that they represent ourselves.

Another thing that I've read, is that when we dream of a mode of transportation, such as a car, or airplane, etc,, it symbolises our own journey through life, somehow. If we dream that we are driving a car, traveling very fast, and the brakes suddenly give out, that is supposed to be telling us that we feel that our lives are out of control. How we deal with the runaway car in the dream, is supposed to tell us something about ourselves. I know that we've all had the dream about having to take a test, or meet some kind of deadline, and every obstacle in the world seems to be thrown into our paths to prevent that--you try to get dressed, and there's something wrong with every article of clothing. When you finally do get dressed, and on your way, you suddenly realize that, actually, you have no clothes on at all. You run into a phone-booth and try to call someone, and when you dial, the dial keeps spinning, and won't stop, or you push the buttons, and they won't budge.

I've had those dreams, in some version or another, many times. And then, there are the "monster" dreams. My husband has one, which, he says, he has had, on and off, for years. He dreams that he is being chased by a white dinosaur. He says that it never catches him, but he wakes himself up, moaning and groaning, with his heart pounding. About that particular kind of dream, I've read that you can simply tell yourself before falling asleep, that if you dream of the monster, or whatever is chasing you, that you will stop running, and turn around and confront it. Doing this is supposed to somehow help you to confront, or face your fears. Hmmm...who knows? But what about those dreams where some strange event occurs, and it actually comes to pass in real life? I've had those dreams, too. Some of them were significant, and some were just mundane. Some of them were really crazy at the time, but then when the event happened, it was evident what the dream meant, crazy as it seemed at the time.

For instance, before the horrible September 11 tragedy, for two or three nights, I had really strange dreams, filled with idiotic things, waking me up in a total state of agitation. It was shortly after my mother's death, and I was spending a week with one of my aunts. One night, she actually woke me up because of the way I was carrying on--this was two nights before the tragedy. The next morning, when I got up, she told me to look at myself. I had a scratch on my cheek, and one on my eyelid, and there was a burn on my arm, near my elbow, almost like a cigarette burn.

In the dreams that I was having, I was at an amusement park, like Disney World. As I walked around in the crowds of people, some were crying, and it was a chaotic scene, but the thing that caught my attention was one of the rides. It was one of those rides, with airplanes attached to cables, and go around in circles. There seemed to be only three or four planes, and in those planes, were maniacal looking men, trying to steer the planes into other objects, or people--utterly chaotic and demonic appearing. In the next "scene" I was trying to find a place to stay, a hotel, or motel, and everywhere I went, when I would go into the room, it would be filled with sick, injured, and dying people. In another of these dreams, I was standing, looking up, and I saw two tall buildings falling, and a third one, which hadn't fallen, but looked as if something was wrong with it. I was standing there, with a horrible, awful feeling, looking around, and as I looked in one directiion, I saw the Statue of Liberty, swaying from side to side. Other things in the dreams I just can't remember, or had forgotten when I woke up.

The day before the tragedy, my husband came to spend the night before our trip back home the next day. All that day, and evening, I had a terrible feeling which is hard to describe. The only way that I can think of to describe it, is that it just felt like something terrible was about to happen, but I had no dreams that night. The next morning my aunt was up before we were, and when I walked into the kitchen she was on the phone. She told me to quickly turn on the television, that an airplane had just flown into a building in New York. We turned it on, just in time to see the second one get hit. As you all know, it took awhile to realize what was happening, and as we sat glued to the tv, I said to my husband, "Just wait-- somehow, Florida will play into this." Later on, it was discovered that Florida was where the terrorists took their flying lessons. I think that the dreams that I had were certainly saying something about what was about to happen, and it is my personal belief that they had a lot more planned than what they were actually able to carry out. Now, I don't know what you think about dreams...I wish you would tell me.