Wednesday 22 February 2012

Dream Interpretation 30

DREAM 30

17 February 2012

NOTE: I had taken a break from updating my Blog in recent times due to a demanding academic schedule which prohibited me from properly engaging with my lucid dream research. As I had not been able to find time to practice my experimental techniques properly, I found that my dream recall ability diminished considerably. However, on this particular night I experienced a very long, vivid dream which meant I was able to continue with updating my dream records.

Lucid dreaming experiments/techniques 
  • Mental/training – MILD technique before bed – simple practice of meditating on my phrase ‘ACR’ (‘dream intentions’ of Awareness, Control and Recall) for several minutes before drifting off to sleep
  • LDS – high strength Cod Liver Oil enriched with Omega 3, 6 & 9 (3,600 mg); Multivitamins A – Z with evening meal; Sea Kelp (90 mg); CoEnzyme Q-10 (150 mg); Fenugreek (3000 g); Gingko Biloba (120 mg); and Vitamin B Complex with additional Vitamin B6 (10 mg). No 5-HTP (experimenting without to test improvement in dream recall) 
  • No use of binaural beats

Potential triggers/'day residue'   
  • I was crying in the toilet at my university and a stranger handed me a tissue (cream with a baroque-style gold and black floral motif) which I later found in the pocket my handbag, where I had placed it
  • There is a (professionally taken) photograph of myself and my cousin HM (on PC’s living-room wall) at the ages we appeared in the dream (approx. 6 and 3 years, respectively) – HM is wearing the same sky-blue dress as in the photograph and you can see that she had been crying just before the photograph was taken
  • There had been a rainbow seen across many parts of the UK around the time of this dream – people had been posting images on Facebook
  • For my academic studies I had been reading about the protection of children from harm (secondary victimisation – children not concerned in criminal proceedings involving their parents at risk of subsequent reprisal as a result of parental conviction)
  • I told my male friends the night prior to this dream that if reincarnation was possible, I would wish to return to life as a male to escape the burdens of femininity and gendered prejudice

Main dream environment(s) 
  • (Scene 1):
A brightly lit interior with a platform which could have been a low stage
  • (Scene 2):
My bedroom in London (as it appears in real-life)
  •  (Scene 3):
A window of a house (not known to me in real-life) looking out at green rolling fields. I could see a little wooden shack and many multi-coloured dustbins (trash cans), lying scattered around, some upright, others on their sides. It was a sunny day
  • (Scene 4):
A dark, rubbish-filled alleyway in an urban environment at night. I was seated at the end of the alleyway and could down to the other end which led out onto a busy city street
  • (Scene 5):
A well-lit supermarket aisle which then transitioned into a bedroom (unknown to me in real-life) with a huge bed (bigger than king-size)


Characters
(Present in all scenes):
  • Myself (I did not see myself as adult me, but was able to view my childhood self – which appeared as I really used to look at the age depicted – 6 years old – in the third person, with my adult perspective)
 (Scene 1):
  • My cousin HM as her 3 year old  self
 (Scene 2):
  • A white female with a petite build and shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing a pale blue jumper
(Scene 3):
  • A male with dark hair – I felt as though he was known to me in real-life, but in the dream he did not appear to be any one specific person, however he did resemble myself in male form (he was a similar height and build with thick black hair and olive skin). I felt very secure and happy in his company. On waking I had the impression this male character represented not only masculine elements of myself, but also a composite of particular male figures known to me in real-life. I will refer to him using the fabricated initials SPPD, for ease of reference
  • A white female – as she was seen in the distance I could not make out any of her physical characteristics and in the dream she was unknown to both me and the male character, SPPD
  • Lots of babies, seen in the distance
(Scene 4):
  • SPPD
  • A homeless man (unknown in dream and real-life)
(Scene 5):
  • SPPD

Dream narrative
  • (Scene 1):
I was standing in the interior, looking at the stage. I could see myself and my cousin HM as we were when we were very young children. HM was wearing a sky-blue dress. I was wearing a black waistcoat and trousers with a blouse patterned identically to the tissue I had been given in real-life (this would have been an excellent lucid dream trigger). I had my long hair in two pigtails (in the photograph, I think my hair is in a similar style, although I’m pretty sure it is styled in bunches as opposed to plaits) and I could see I had the huge gap between my front teeth (the gap in my teeth, now naturally closed, was very visible in the photograph). We were performing a dance routine. My adult self (in third person, looking on) realised that we had been asked to rehearse the dance for a performance organised by our family. My adult self was passive.
  • (Scene 2):
I was lying in bed at my home in London. I lifted my head off the pillow and turned to look at the shelving unit behind me. The white female character was searching through the clothes on the shelves. I felt as if I had just woken to find her there unexpectedly and I was annoyed and startled by her presence. Nothing was said.
  •  (Scene 3):
SPPD and I were standing at a first or second-storey window, looking out onto grassy fields. There was a small wooden hut in the middle distance, surrounded by the multicoloured dustbins scattered across the grass. In amongst the dustbins, there were dozens of babies, all dressed in white nappies. A woman was seated on a small wooden stool in front of the shack. She was holding one baby on her knee. I felt slightly uneasy. I said to SPPD: “someone needs to do something to help those babies”.
  • (Scene 4):
SPPD and I were then in the dark urban alleyway. We were crouched on the floor with a homeless man, dressed in rags. In the middle of the ground, there was a small table which also looked like an oil drum. I could see the city street at the end of the alleyway. The roads were busy with traffic. The sky was a deep blue and the environment felt cold. The homeless man was fortune-telling or suchlike (this part of the dream was confusing – it appeared that SPPD and I had sought out this man for his wisdom, it felt as if we were there with a purpose). The homeless man said: “your future will be beautiful”. I looked down the alley towards the street end and saw the sky was sparkling with millions of stars and was now a rich purple-indigo colour. I felt incredibly happy. I said to SPPD: “are you happy?” but I cannot recall how he answered.
  • (Scene 5):
SPPD and I were in a supermarket, walking down the aisle. I was pushing a trolley. Suddenly I felt the weight of another person’s body behind me and something hard press into my lower back. I am not sure if it was SPPD as I could not see the person. I knew it was an erect penis which was poking into my back. I was then lying in the huge bed, facing away from the other person sharing the space. I thought it was SPPD. I felt hands touching my breasts and the erect penis against my spine once more. Then I was seated with SPPD at a table alongside the bed. There was a window, out of which I could see it was a sunny day. SPPD said: “this can’t/won’t last” and I felt helpless or recalled memories of the same feeling (I’m unsure how to explain this emotional feeling in the dream – it felt like I was reminiscing over a past emotional state, triggered by SPPD’s words, but as he appeared as a ‘composite’ character I am unable to link such feelings to a specific time/event in my life).

Interpretation/analysis
I will interpret some of the dream symbolism at a later stage, but you will find some of the symbolism analysed elsewhere.