My Dreams are Uncommonly Interesting by Stu
November 27th, 2007 9:23 AMI get some really, really wacky dreams. I don't think much of them, and I don't generally get too worked up over them. That said, this sounded like fun, especially since I get those wacky, wacky dreams. Also, tasks with nothing having hit praxis for them make me sad, and completing one makes me happy.
I decided to combine the dreams of two nights and post the amalgamation to Craigslist, since that's certainly "such strangers" and helps me keep track of who said what. (My memory is so bad that asking a passerby would probably result in a lot of "some dude told me something about Freud and my hamster" without much detail. Craigslist gives me text to post here.)
Here's what I posted:
Some dreams I've had 11/27 08:11:24
Last night, there was this dream where a friend of mine, Lucas, had a broken microwave. I was heating up some soup, and my finger got caught in an opening in the plastic door, which led to about 5 seconds of my finger being microwaved. Instead of it getting warm or burning, my finger got a little mushy, curved a little to the left, looked purple on the underside, and dripped water.
I drove to the hospital, all the while bending my finger in ways I didn't think it could bend. It all seemed fascinating at the time.
Later in the dream, my finger was healed (or, at least, no longer the focus of the dream). I was in a large room, sitting at a kiddie table talking to a tub of Stonyfield Farms plain yogurt (which was complaining about blueberries). We were sitting on large Lego-looking chairs, when all of a sudden, the yogurt got very mad and started to chase me around the room. I ran quickly, and it kept yelling as if it were in pain. I told it I was sorry and I tried to offer it some painkillers, but it didn't seem to care.
The dream shifted: the world had to be saved by this guy a lot of people don't like very much. We had to bring him equipment, including a fire extinguisher and some goggles. He died in what the news reported to be a "gasplosion." I saw his body, but it was only a rubber mask stretched to be him-sized.
Then I started to see dots in my vision and I was distracted by a cat who told me to come see "if the mint was ripe." I looked at the mint, and the cat curled up on my lap and suddenly I was watching a horse race and drinking some sort of red bean drink. A friend was watching with me, and he told me he was very sorry the drink was poisoned. He said he could put me out of my misery faster. He pulled a knife and pushed me off the couch, which sent me plummeting down a cliff-face. I woke up gasping right before I hit the bottom.
So--who wants to interpret this? Why on earth was the dream so long and convoluted? Why did I remember so much of it? And why the hell was my drink poisoned?
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/forums/?ID=77431940
The response:
A funny assessment. I replied that I hadn't even had caffeine yesterday, nevermind meth, but that I'd keep the advice in mind.
That particular posting didn't seem to draw much more attention, so I decided to pick a potentially more interested target audience: the psychology forum on Craigslist.
The only response there so far:
don't look too much into dreams〈the1SThuckabee〉11/27 08:47:37
dreams are often OVER interpreted, and as sad as it makes some people, its just random firing of neurons during the theta (the deepest) stage of sleep.
The randoming firing of neurons can bring up different memories and stressors that you can relate to which seem to put meaning to otherwise meaningless thoughts.
as random as some of that dream was, and as vividly as you remember it, I wonder if you are taking any prescription drugs or herbs right now...one side effect of some drugs and herbal remedies can be very vivid dreams and nightmares.
EDIT: I did respond, saying that I felt basically the same way and was asking more to see how people responded to my asking. The poster responded with:
Usually when I wake up, I just want to hold my girlfriend and go right back to sleep. Maybe I'll try writing something down, or something. Not much of a painter, but I may be able to turn this into something useful.
END OF EDIT.
Yeah, that assessment seemed about right to me. I'm pretty sure most of my responses in this setting are going to be of either type one ("stop smoking crack") or two ("don't read too much into it"), due to my being on a college campus most of the time.
MORE EDIT:
Another response:
And more:
(sort of how I feel about life)
MY FIRST REAL INTERPRETATION! And it says my life is falling apart:
Now that I've said all that, anyone want to have a crack at an interpretation? *innocent smile*
16 vote(s)
Spidere
5
Magpie
5
Dr. Subtle
5
Ian Kizu-Blair
5
Flitworth
5
Jackie H
5
Jellybean of Thark
5
Charlie Fish
5
Cthulhu Kitty
5
Lank
5
Bex.
5
Burn Unit
5
Lincøln
5
Torsten the dissenter
5
EarthMaiden
5
Tricia Tanaka
Terms
(none yet)8 comment(s)
It's pretty awesome. I wasn't expecting it to get so large. It turned into a fight about whether Jung had any idea what was going on in people's brains, and that stuff wasn't worth posting, really, but I was amused by what I did put up here. Yay bmw_grrl.
Nice use of craigslist!
Flit: Thanks! I'd never actually used it before. (I had to create a new account and everything.)
Heh, Froyd...
Charlie: Yeah... and later on (I don't think I posted it), someone corrected someone else's spelling of Carl Jung's name, getting all pissy about it actually being "Young."
Dr. Madam Bex sez:
Its interesting how in the melty finger part you aren't upset so much as fascinated. Maybe there are areas of supposed disaster in your life to which you are having a similar reaction? Very Buddha-like. And the finger could be a symbol of your ability to take action and have control and agency...
Am I far off?
My understanding of dream interpretation is that you are the only one who is going to be able to do it really well. My house may symbolize something different than yours, so my interpretation tells you more about me than you. If you ask yourself what you felt like during different parts of the dream and in what other areas of your life you feel like that, you'll find that the first thing that comes to mind may be enlightening for you. What does ripe mint mean to you? Also some parts of dreams are just random scraps of your daily experience reinterpreted. As Froyd would say, sometimes yogurt is just yogurt.
No?
I approach dreams like I approach tarot: the cards are thought-provoking and will help me figure out what I want them to mean or what I want to work out.
I think I had a moment of being a little scared, but it was more interesting than anything else. Interesting observation--I do sometimes just look at disasters with a detached fascination. Not always, though, but maybe? In the past two years or so, I've gone from being easy to upset to being easy to provoke-into-thought. Sometimes things push my buttons, but they do so way less than they used to.
Part of it may be that I spent the majority of my childhood learning to cope with chronic head pain (trigeminal neuralgia's a bitch), and so I distanced myself from what hurt and turned a lot of it into detached interest. I would occupy myself with the biology rather than think about how it hurt. I think I've learned to apply that to more than just physical pain.
Mint takes over. It's a weed. A tasty weed, but a weed nonetheless. I also associate mint and horse racing because of mint juleps, which explains that transition. I've only ever watched races because it interested other people. I like yogurt. It might just be yogurt.
Also, I've realized that cats are the animal most likely to talk to me in my dreams.
This discussion is great!
I really like "bmw_grrl: you are the only one who can give them meaning."