Do you think dreams mean anything?

[Tobin S.]

I alternate between thinking they do and don't. Or maybe some do and some don't. I just woke up from a vivid one.

I'm standing on a little ledge on the face of a cliff. I'm attached to one of those rock climber ropes that's attached to the cliff and I have a parachute on. But I'm still very afraid and I'm clinging to the cliff as if there is nothing to keep me from falling. In my waking world I have a terrible fear of heights as well.

There is a man standing next to me. He has no rope and no parachute. He tells me that we are 16,000 feet up in the air. I take a glance down and then back up and cling even tighter to the cliff face. The man appears to be my father's age and he starts telling me about how he lost his son. I can't remember how. I only have a vague memory that he told me about it. He is very mournful and I know he is going to jump.

After making some kind of shrine to his son with pictures on the face of the cliff, the man jumps. But he doesn't plunge directly down. He hovers in the air for a few seconds and then asks for my permission to continue. I can stop him, but I see that something has already died inside this man and sorrowfully I tell him to go on. And he does.

I stand there for a few minutes and realize that the only way I can get down to the ground is to jump. I undo the rope, muster all the courage I can, and jump.

Then I woke up with my heart beating so hard in my chest that I could hear it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Tobin...

Sounds to me as though you're working on something pretty significant here, in your dream...

I think this because the imagery means so much to you.

I generally don't think my dreams mean much. I rarely see anyone I know in them, and what happens in them is obscure.

But....once in a while, I will dream of something that I'm preoccupied by. It has to be really important because I so rarely do it.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that it depends on the context.

How was your Christmas?

:hug:

[Tobin S.]

3. Christmas was good

I got a small safe to put my coin collection in, some shirts, and some gift certificates. I really needed some nice shirts. Since I lost all of that weight I gave all of my old clothes that were three sizes to big to charity. So all I've been wearing is jeans a t-shirts. :)

I bought my entire family a gift certificate to Red Lobster, and a few other things for mom and dad. We had a good time.

[Lucian]

2. I used to think they meant something, but now I don't.

[Odin2005]

4. Not really. They are just hallucinations from your brain consolidating new memories.

Your brain is essentially trying to make a coherent narrative out of random noise mixed in with information from memory traces in the hippocampus and amygdala. The memory aspect is why survivors of traumatic experiences tend to have nightmares of the traumatic experience as part of the PTSD. My friend with cerebral palsy still has trouble sleeping sometimes because of nightmares involving her rape.

[Tobin S.]

5. So the dream I just had

could have it's roots in a frightening memory I have of being terrified when I was 4 years old on an amusement park ride that involved heights. Or something like that.

[Odin2005]

6. Maybe, who knows?

IMO trying to exact meaning out of your dreams is like finding a needle in a haystack, it's futile exercise.

Strangely, my dreams are mostly very realistic simulations of daily life, nit much of the crazy fanciful stuff the seem to fill most people's dreams. Apparently many experts on the subject say that is very common among people on the autism spectrum.

[Tobin S.]

7. I usually don't remember mine at all

and if I do it's only for a few minutes after I wake up. The ones I do remember are never mundane, but I take head meds for psychosis and that might have something to do with that.

[Odin2005]

10. It's perfectly normal to forget most of your dreams.

The balance of brain chemicals during REM sleep is significantly different then in wakefulness and NREM sleep in a way that discourages remembering the dreams.

[denbot]

8. Dreams were the only thing that kept me from being atheistic.

I had dreams that clearly represented impending occurrences, and were so powerful I knew that they signified something that I only understood later..

Some dreams are just that, dreams. Some will come to you that tap in to the mystery, and are for your benefit.

Learn if you can, don't make too many assumptions. Like they say, more will be revealed.

[Quantess]

9. Wow. That's a heavy dream.

Maybe...you are afraid of a loss, and see someone else's loss or suffering, but deep down you know you have a support system and you won't crash. You know that the other person, however, is in a worse situation, and he will fall to the bottom.

Obviously I don't know you, but you posted it here, and I'm just offering an interpretation. :)

[Tobin S.]

11. Interpretations are welcome

I am dealing with some heavy personal issues right now. You can read the latest on that in the mental health support group over in Health and Disability if you are inclined to do so.

[Quantess]

12. Thanks, I didn't even know about that forum.

I actually do think dreams are often meaningful, but I don't always know what they mean, and I think some of our subconsciousness is so deeply buried, we can never know what our dreams mean.

For a few years after I got my Masters Degree, I had recurrent dreams about having to finish High School, even though in those dreams, I knew I was 30 something and I had a Masters Degree.
Maybe that's why I love the show "Strangers With Candy" so much, LOL.

[Sanity Claws]

13. Yes

Its language is symbolic and it's your unconscious at work.
With that heavy dream, I'm not surprised that you are working through some heavy issues right now.

The guy who jumped is a part of you that no longer exists. You mentioned that you lost weight; I imagine your own self-image has changed quite a bit as a result.

As for yourself jumping, it looks like you see even more drastic changes going on in yourself. Are you thinking of taking a big step? Like moving? Changing jobs?
And are you fearful of that big step?

Those are my thoughts on your dream

[raccoon]

14. Definitely yes! I've posted about dreams in the Lounge lots of times.

Some cultures, such as some Native Americans, place a lot of importance on dreams.

Most Americans think they're no more important than yesterday's papers.

I think our dreams can tell us things sometimes our conscious minds don't pick up. And what a dream means is specific to the individual. For instance, I think in my dreams big cats represent the disease of alcoholism. In someone else's dreams big cats could mean something else entirely.

Figure out what this dream means TO YOU. and thanks for sharing that.

[la_chupa]

15. sometimes yes and sometimes no

I think it's your subconscious brain working things out. The downside is that I really think you are the only one who can figure out what your dream means because imagery is personal.

Case in point. I once had a dream that I was with all of my friends from work eating lunch at one of those big food courts in an airport. We were talking and having a good time then we all got up and headed to different gates. I waved everyone else off and got on a small plane and woke up right when it was taking off.

I knew exactly what it meant. This was during a big layoff at a public accounting firm. I ended up going into industry. Others went to other firms, into industry like I did, or totally changed careers.

Everyone knows how that goes. You spend just about every waking minute with a group of people and no matter how close you are when things like that happen you end up drifting apart. Oh maybe you send each other Christmas cards or get together once in a while, but it is never the same as it was when you all had lunch together and worked on the same projects every day.

My dream wasn't even very subtle. We were all going different directions and it would never be the same again.

I'm off on a tangent, your dream is more interesting than this one.

I never remember my dreams either though or if I do they don't make enough sense to even verbalize. Then as the day goes on they become more and more faded - strange that.

[nuxvomica]

16. I think they do

I always try to analyze the vivid ones like the kind you experienced. There are certain assumptions I usually begin the analysis with: every person in a dream is actually an aspect of the dreamer's personality; dreams about driving a vehicle have to do with the direction your life is taking; dreams about your home have to do with your physical body. But the symbolism isn't hard and fast and only the dreamer can judge whether it has any significance.

Here's my offhand analysis of your dream: the man is you and the son he mourns is you when you were younger. It is a dream about abandoning some aspect of your past, maybe even just a perspective or worldview you once held. You are loath to do it because it seems so dangerous and reckless but you feel you have no choice. The most interesting part is that he asks your permission to continue falling.