Strange Nightmare

[TempletonEsquire]

In this one the most prevalent theme was that of refuse, of the disposed. Firstly I had gone quasi-lucid in playing the keys, I knew there was no way I was playing what I was hearing. I was in some kind of room when this happened, and as I learned of my predicament I experimented with the keyboard, seeing what is instinctual to keyboard in a dream. I found the music just needed minimal feedback and that it really wanted to go faster. Then there was a scene change and I was outside. I was on what looked like some type of water filled rooftop, only all around me were objects. I would say it was garbage, but most of these objects were not perishable but instead they were hard junk some things rusted, with both dead and alive king crabs living on top. Since I was already walking, I hoped to venture to the edge of this ledge pool. Instead I kept sinking within the depths of this garbage mix, and I crawled grasping to pieces junk as made my way. The crabs then became alerted to me, and came over, with obvious intention. I was not going to make it to the ledge and the dread of being pinched and waking up was putting me in a untenable situation. At that point I just decided not to care and stood up watching the sky beyond. It was very lovely, blues and purples with bright lines waving across. There was a scene change and I found myself playing an old organ in some very badly lit, very dusty parlor. I stood up and noticed a woman in a ancient ballroom dress, she was by a makeup vanity, only the ingredients were suspicious. I can't remember exactly what they were, but it all seemed like she was preparing for a voodoo ritual instead of putting on makeup. Her hair was much like coarse auburn horse hair, and there were bent metal spokes jutting from out in places on her dress. I looked to my own body and notice there old rusted metal bars like those you find on an old lamp were impedded in my ruddy skin. I gave tug to one and found it was part of my arm, attached to the bone. I think at that point I went back to playing the organ, improvised something in my new found abilities of playing such music.

[Liz]

I am assuming that you are on top of your roof to avoid the flood of YOUR garbage. Garbage is something unpleasant/shameful/something that was wasted/something not used to its full potential. You are about to sink in garbage issues. Your subconscious is giving you a **garbage symbol** which means that your garbage needs to be “taken out” (dealt with consciously by you to get rid of it). This “garbage” has to do with something in your past/ something that was not used to its full potential/something that was previously useful(rusted garbage). What this is I don‘t know, but you do. Crabs are with your garbage. Crabs pick apart things to eat them. The crabs represent something that is “eating at you”/picking at you.? They are something/someone that is nagging you off and on (live and dead crabs).? At the point where the “eating at you” gets scary, you go lucid and change channels to avoid “dealing with your garbage” and whatever is “eating at you”. You travel to some happy place with lovely colors and wavy lines. Then your subconscious grabbed back the channel changer and sent you from “Lovely-Colored-Escape-From-Dealing-With-My-Issues-channel” back to “TempletonEsquire’s Subconscious Workshop”. Dusty room with antiques= something old/previously used that has not been used much lately.? This could be a skill/emotion/something that you haven’t used lately and it has to do with something pleasurable to you (music?). The woman in the ancient dress=an old covering/old excuse/old lie about something pleasurable to you.? Your old excuse/old lie/old emotion is associated with a voodoo ritual. I have no idea about how you feel about voodoo rituals. If you believe that voodoo rituals are ridiculous then.....your old excuse/old covering (lie) is ridiculous.? Your old excuse/old lie is referenced with a horse AND she has damaged transportation parts (the bent spokes)..... Your old excuse is ridiculous AND could hinder/isn’t effective at reaching your destination/achieving something.? You pulled on the rusty metal bar=you pulled on something that was once useful/or in better condition/more skilled. This is A PART OF YOU. You have something that was once useful or once in better condition. You are using an ridiculous excuse to let it get “rusty” or you are not using it frequently. I will guess that you are having guilt about not using something/some ability that you possess.? You are using lame (voodoo) excuses for this and the “crab” (someone or your own guilt) is eating at you, off and on, about this issue. Because of the frequent references to music, I wonder if you are wasting your musical talent and feeling guilty about this or being nagged about it (by your conscious or others)? OR This entire dream occurred because your subconscious scrambled a replay of the Deadliest Catch tv show, Dirty Jobs tv show and some old piano music.? hehe Hope this helped. Liz _______________________________________________ You must consciously “take out your mental/emotional garbage” or it will rot and negatively affect your real life. Consciously work through issues to understand them so you can learn: not to repeat negative situations; forgive others;forgive yourself; release pain and etc... If you don’t work through your internal issues, they can begin to manifest as physical issues (bulemia/facial tics/OCD/depression and etc...). Unresolved garbage also infects every other relationship in your life.

[TempletonEsquire]

That's amazing that you can infer all that from a series of seemingly unrelated symbols. I do feel somewhat guilty of not persuing the arts as much as I'd like to, yet I do not think that is uncommon to most people. Your premise is that dreams are a reflection of ourselves, is it possible that they are emanations of everything including ourselves? The assumption that dreams are a reflection of ourselves though does fit better against the commonly held belief that our dreams are our own and belong to no other. Do you think it's possible to dream someone else's dream?

[Liz]

Its not my premise that dreams are reflections of the dreamer....this is the theory of almost all psychotherapists. Many dreams operate like free association therapy (analytical approach by Freud). No, I do not believe that we can dream others' dreams. Even holy starets cannot dream others' dreams. They can only see into souls. Individuals that are closely intertwined with multiple aspects of their friends’/families’ lives frequently have similar dreams but they don’t dream each others’ dreams. OK, if someone IS a dream stalker here, I beg for forgiveness and please don’t feel a need to prove me wrong.

[TempletonEsquire]

I see, but do psychotherapists even need dreams to interpret things about a person? Could they not say, take the Cat and the Hat and use it to create an allegorical representation of someone's mental state? Although an added advantage of using dreams, is that the dreamer is often the subject, so the parallels will be closer to the person's familiarity, than that of The Cat and the Hat.

[Liz]

No, a psychoanalyst does not need to hear a patient's dreams to provide assistance.

[TempletonEsquire]

Ok, but they do need some sort of personal statement from a patient. My question is, could a psychoanalyst relate a non-connected body of knowledge, like a story, to a patient they have no knowledge of, and still be able to provide insight?

[Liz]

There are many forms of analysis. If you find this subject interesting, don’t just stop at Freud. You would probably like this book: http://www.appi.org/book.cfm?id=62152 It is expensive. Look around for a while and you can find a used one. Check college book stores. You may find it fascinating.