Haunted House Tour

The Dream:
I'm walking down a busy street intersection with my friends when we bump into a long line of people pushing black baby carriages on the sidewalk. One of the carriage pushers is a young man in a white T-shirt. He starts cracking jokes and I snark to my friends about how terrible his punchlines will likely be. Surprisingly, his jokes are actually good and we start laughing along.

The carriage pushers and my friends decide to sign up for a haunted house tour. When we reach the haunted house, the tour guide shows us how to listen for strange sounds by wrapping aluminum foil around a cat (?). We hear a few strange sounds and after the tour is over, we are all gathered in a living room talking and laughing about the tour.

WhiteShirt had been spooked the most, much to our amusement. A redhead girl teases him about it and they flirt back and forth. As I watch them, I realize that it's time for one relationship (between WhiteShirt and his current girlfriend) to end and for another relationship (between WhiteShirt and Redhead) to begin. WhiteShirt's current girlfriend is sitting beside me. She has dull blonde hair and is older and quieter. As she watches Redhead and WhiteShirt flirting, she smiles gently and seems to agree with me.

About Me:
I've recently graduated and I'm currently attempting a career change.
I have a cat in real life and she frequently appears in my dreams, however briefly. I notice that characters in dreams who wear white shirts tend to be very friendly and warm, but characters who wear black shirts tend to be frightening and intimidating. Any insights into this dream would be lovely :D

Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some additional general background information about you (and a description of events just before the dream), a few ideas can be tried out to see if they might fit your personal situation in some way.

For example, the location outside on a busy street might point to certain habits etc. related to how you usually interact with others but this likely also includes feelings and attitudes etc. that you have towards yourself.

Your friends, apparently all female, probably symbolize various generally conscious parts of your personality that are typically involved in relationships with other people and yourself.

An unusual long line of black baby carriages then appears on the scene, maybe announcing the arrival of potential new insights or actions etc. (the babies) related to aspects of yourself that are currently mostly unseen and unacknowledged.

These realizations apparently might tend to be a little upsetting or disruptive because the color black is emphasized, and as you mentioned, this has some negative connotations for you.

The unknown young man in the white T-shirt could be an important clue about what’s possibly going on without you normally being aware of it.

For instance, he starts telling jokes and the dream-ego figure makes some snappish and sarcastic remarks about the coming punchlines which it turns out are pretty good after all and everybody laughs.

To help understand what he symbolizes, it’s good to know that in the dreams of a girl, a guy usually represents her so-called masculine side which is connected to, for example, thinking, words, opinions, focus and assertiveness.

So it’s possible that this inner figure could be the source of some clever jokes and sarcastic, amusing comments which unfortunately might be hiding some feelings of hurt and bitterness underneath.

If so, this situation might underlie the appearance of the black carriages and, probably more importantly, the visit to the haunted house.

Of course, a haunted house implies the presence of ghosts, and the latter tend to represent “dead” parts of ourselves that are no longer conscious, growing and changing.

Because of this fact, it’s as if they “haunt” a person until they’re paid attention to, in your case by maybe occasionally appearing on the scene through sharp comments that can hurt others although they’re “jokes”.

In your dream, the tour guide has you wrap some aluminum foil around a cat apparently in order to amplify any “strange sounds” that may be heard (that is, communications from any “ghosts” deep in your unconscious mind).

Especially for women, a cat often stands for a kind of “real essence” of the dreamer.

The idea that a cat could represent the basic reality of a woman may sound unusual, but for instance, the Egyptians treated cats with veneration and they were linked to various goddesses, that is, to inner feminine energies, and this ancient traditional attitude toward cats often appears in the dreams of modern women.

(You might like analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen’s book “Goddesses in Everywoman” to find out which psychological energies are most naturally part of your own personality.)

Cats are also strongly linked to the moon which often symbolizes the core intuitive, feminine part of a woman and therefore the place of her true nature and vocation.

It’s possible that the cat also symbolizes overall the more feminine traits related to allure, enchantment and the ability to beguile through visual contact.

Additionally, many cats often get what they want with a certain ruthlessness and relentless determination, so perhaps these qualities have sometimes been put aside in your own nature or not as the case may be.

A Japanese story from the 1600’s, “The Swordsman and the Cat”, also illustrates the central role of the cat in a person’s psychology.

In the story, a group of cats returns from a busy day of rat-catching and later respectfully ask the great Cat if she will divulge her secrets to them for their benefit to which she replies:

“Teaching is not difficult, listening is not difficult either, but what is truly difficult is to become conscious of what you have in yourself and be able to use it as your own”.

So the idea could be that you have to trust more often your own quiet, feminine intuition and natural reactions in order to hear if some aspects of your personality are tending to be left in the dark too much.

But various influences in our society discourage doing this and maybe the dream is hinting about that by showing you and the other girls laughing about the trip to the haunted house and not taking it seriously.

Everyone even laughs at the one person who was spooked by the experience, the guy in the white T-shirt.

As partly representing your ability to reflect and make decisions based on what’s really best for you personally (instead of, say, just tending to go along with what everybody else believes is the “right thing to do”), his reaction is probably the correct one in the circumstances because there are apparently parts of yourself that are “making a few strange sounds” that should be paid attention to.

Just as most of us prefer to not pay much attention to some nagging physical symptoms, hoping they will go away and not become more serious, so too we often tend to avoid annoying psychological symptoms.

The dream could be showing this in the scheming to separate WhiteShirt from his girlfriend and have him hook up with Redhead.

The flirty Redhead could possibly symbolize your skills of putting on a very effective face which sometimes could hide, for example, your true feelings both from others and yourself.

In contrast, WhiteShirt’s older and quieter girlfriend could represent a more mature you who is willing to take on responsibility (e.g. she apparently had a baby by him, probably symbolizing that some new and precious insights about yourself could potentially appear on the scene and grow clearer over time).

So the dream could be showing that you might potentially want to induce an increase in your usual methods of maybe putting on a bit of a show regarding your true feelings in order to quiet down any doubts or questions etc. that could sometimes be appearing in a subtle way.

The gentle smile of WhiteShirt’s current girlfriend might not be about her agreeing per se but instead might be saying something like “OK, go ahead and see what happens even though it might not what you think will happen”.

Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this way of looking at your dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well if at all, but I hope these ideas aren’t too confusing and that they can be helpful in some way.

Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this particular way of looking at your dream.

Wow! Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful reply! :)

I think your analysis of the haunted house aspect is spot on as I realize my usual method of problem-solving involves ignoring the problem and hoping it magically goes away. Perhaps not the best course of action :oops:

Also, thanks for the insight into the cat symbol because I was very confused by that part of the dream.

What did you mean by this line?

Quote:

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Because of this fact, it’s as if they “haunt” a person until they’re paid attention to, in your case by maybe occasionally appearing on the scene through sharp comments that can hurt others although they’re “jokes”.

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That WhiteShirt uses jokes and humour to mask some hurt underneath? And it's his hidden hurt that manifests itself as ghosts because I'm not taking him seriously?

If I had to take a wild guess, WhiteShirt might be the animus. I had a dream a few nights back about a similar dream figure. His face looked different but he was unmistakably wearing a white t-shirt and personality wise, the figures were very very similar. He was also holding my cat. We usually have opposing natures in the dream, .ie. I was entertained, he was spooked; I was nervous, he was confident; I was cold and rational, he was warm and emotive. On numerous occasions, the dream itself or other dream characters have referred to me as "the professor". So perhaps this is just reflecting back my need to stop intellectualizing everything and get more in touch with my emotions. Then again, I could just be reading into things :P

Redhead and Blondie are still an enigma to me. Perhaps since Blondie and I seemed to have similar natures (and she was sitting beside me on the couch), perhaps it was another way for the dream to tell me to be more like the expressive Redhead since her and WhiteShirt seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Man, symbolism is hard. :boggle:

Thanks again! :D

From what you’ve said, as with most people, there could be something that you understandably prefer not to look at and so it doesn’t really get taken care of.

This problem etc., whatever it may be, then kind of sinks into the “darkness” of the unconscious like a “ghost” but it won’t really disappear no matter how much we may want it to.

So any “ghost” will then use the easiest way to make itself felt in your conscious awareness instead of just fading away.

For example, like most young women, you’re probably an expert in handling outer relationships very well but perhaps less able to have a handle on words, thoughts, conclusions and opinions as related to the so-called “rational” side of things. These aren’t really sexist comments per se because most men have equivalent problems, only in reverse.

In general terms, spontaneous thoughts and ideas sort of probably come and go inside your mind on their own without much “order” to them and they likely aren’t examined very closely to see if they’re actually “true” in your own personal circumstances.

This is in contrast with your feelings where you likely know exactly to the tiniest degree what something is worth to you and so manage your feelings in a very precise way, e.g. by turning on the charm with a nice hunk very artfully but turning it off equally skillfully with someone less attractive.

The “ghost” therefore chooses WhiteShirt as a way into awareness because your feeling side is strong and effective where the “thought” side can often be breached much more easily.

Jokes probably come to mind quickly and are blurted out, but maybe their words have a barbed edge at times which no one might say anything about but which nonetheless might affect their view of you to some degree.

So at last, the answer to your first question is that, because you probably don’t pay a lot of attention to the thinking side of yourself, it’s open to disruptions from your unconscious mind, in this case, by hurt or bitter resentments for instance which have been ignored too much (therefore becoming “ghosts”).

Therefore, these take the route of least resistance and come out via the unexpected wording of sharp jokes (WhiteShirt) as opposed, say, to controlled statements of hurt emotions with those actually involved with them.

With many women, an overall goal is to preserve a pleasant feeling atmosphere at all costs but this is usually harmful because a woman’s own true feelings can be deeply hidden too much of the time.

And while it’s best to keep psychological concepts loose and fluid instead of trying to “define” them too much, it’s true that WhiteShirt can be called the animus.

But the animus, like all inner figures, is multifaceted and is on a kind of continuum which has a positive and a negative side.

It might be a little dry, but the following definition as found in analyst Jane Wheelwright’s book “Death of a Woman” provides a sense of what the animus encompasses:

“Animus: The archetype in the female psyche that is the inherited pattern of potential experience of the male instinct.

This archetype underlies and is basic to a complex which is affected by the individual’s early experiences of men, primarily her father, male siblings, and the collective images of men provided by her cultural experience.

The images and affects [emotions] that attach to the complex express what is other than her female body-ego identity, such as her own unconscious maleness, the unconscious, the inferior function [for example, if a woman tends to move through life chiefly using emotions and values, then her inferior function, i.e. a less developed way of dealing with certain situations, would often tend to relate to the use of thinking and the intellect].

The animus assumes a generalized image of the individual’s male ideal, which strongly influences her selection of a mate.

Consciously related to, the animus – presented in dreams as a single figure or a group – functions as inspirator or bridge to the unconscious as source of creative, mental, or spiritual initiative and well-spring of potentiality for development. The animus functions as guide to and expedites the pursuit of impersonal endeavours.

When not consciously related to, the animus causes a woman to be opinionated, argumentative, rigid, controlling, and excessively critical of herself or others”

The current dream about WhiteShirt was probably meant to clarify the nature of the similar character who appeared in a recent dream. Dreams often try to show a given subject from a different angle in order to help the ego to figure out what’s going on.

Holding your cat could symbolize the idea that the animus figure should be kept conscious so that it can play a supportive role and not an antagonistic one in your overall self-development.

This implies the whole role of balance and interplay between your feminine and masculine nature which also seems to be illustrated in “I was entertained, he was spooked; I was nervous, he was confident; I was cold and rational, he was warm and emotive”.

You can try focusing on one occasion when a dream character called you “The Professor” and then write down every spontaneous memory, thought and feeling that comes to mind.

Sifting through what appears should hopefully provide a clue as to whether you do tend to overly intellectualize things at times or whether something else is involved.

As far as Blondie and Redhead go, I still tend to think that having Redhead get together with WhiteShirt could be an attempt to “seduce” and “weaken his judgment” through pleasant, outgoing persona activities, for instance, which may be designed to “make him forget” being ill at ease with the “ghosts” within.

But as you say “Symbolism is hard”.

If you have any further questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to let me know.