Dreams: "Window"

(Boris - man, age 46)

Dream:

"I am in the living room in my parents house (I moved out a long time ago) and I am watching TV. There is a film about a man sleeping on a bench, he looks like a homeless man. Then it gets weird, there are two monsters that look a little funny and scary at the same time.

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King

They're furry and remind me of the Muppet's show. But when they show up there is a creepy vibe and everything is quiet and I can only hear some suspense music in the background. They quietly fold the man as if he was a doll, and he doesn't even wake up when they take him away. Then I realise that I am in my parents house and that I am sitting in front of the TV. At this point, my aunt comes into the room, she is drunk and starts dancing. This seems to be very embarrassing. My aunt is swaying on her feet and I look at her, not quite sure what to do. Suddenly, my aunt loses her balance and falls out of the open window in a split second. It was as if the window had sucked her out."

Dream interpretation:

The dream is divided between two parts, whilst the first is a movie that Boris watches on the TV, the second is when his aunt enters the room. Both consist of the same motive: a person that is forced to leave. The film shows a homeless man being taken away by monsters. What the dreamer sees on the TV screen is the projection of his own intention; to clear something out of his mind. Monsters appear as a mixture of funny and terrifying at the same time. They represent a childlike projection of anger that attacks an unwanted part of his personality. The second part of the dream takes place in the room, while the drunk aunt comes in. Her embarrassing dance reveals a sense of shame that is subconsciously suppressed and may as well resonate with a family complex. The sudden twist in the dream, when she loses balance and falls out the window, symbolically reveals a strong sense of repressing the emotions that the aunt character embodies. Both parts of the dream reveal a mechanism of suppression related to certain and perhaps the same emotions. In the first part, when the man is asleep, the projection is sophisticated in its own way as the homeless man symbolises something that no longer has its place in the dreamer's personality. In the second part his aunt ostentatiously enters the room, and she is pushed out in a manner directly proportional to her obtrusiveness. What is in fact hidden under the characters of the homeless man and his aunt, is down to the dreamer’s contemplation. In order to unveil something repressed that might otherwise be never discovered and may affect the dreamers well being.

Dreams: "Bull"

(Dannika - woman, age 25)

Dream:

"I hear some noise coming from the basement. I am going downstairs and I am scared. There is a huge black bull walking freely around the room and there is something like an animal pen. It looks like the bull has escaped through a slightly ajar gate.

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." - Carl Jung

Despite that i I am terrified, I feel like I need to put him back inside the pen. I am trying to herd him back there and eventually I managed to close the gate behind him. I notice that something is wrong with his hoof and that he has a small circle underneath (like from an office chair) and he limps when he walks. I feel sorry for him because he looks unhappy being closed and the wheel makes him look disabled."

Dream Interpretation:

The basement seen in a dream uncovers what one wants to hide from the world. What we find in the basement in our dreams, may as well reflect what we are hiding behind the mask of our Persona. The rackets coming to the dreamer’s attention, and eventually the bull’s escape, unveil the source of her own strength which is being suppressed. Resembling that in the dream, she faces what lies dormant within her and though she is petrified, a sense of obedience prompts her to get the animal back to the pen. This illustrates the mechanism of suppressing something within her that she believes is inappropriate. As a result, this hides it underneath the image of her Persona while emotions are steaming inside. She manages to herd the bull back to its pen and notices a wheel attached to the animal's leg. That arouses a feeling of pity towards the animal, the feeling that in fact Dannika subconsciously experiences towards her own self. The wheel attached to the animal’s leg is a manifestation of her intellect interfering with the essence of her nature. The useless wheel is there to steer a wild animal and as result implies a sense of disability in its natural instincts. What is it that has been embodied as the huge bull in her dream, and why does she keep it deeply hidden?

Dreams: "Garden"

(David - man, age 33)

Dream:

"I'm in my grandmother's garden. She lived in the countryside, and behind her house was a huge garden, at least it seemed huge to me when I was a child. In a dream, I was trying to get somebody out of the garden.

"Black hole sun Won't you come And wash away the rain? Black hole sun" - Soundgarden

It was as if some child was trapped in there, but it felt more like saving a wild cat that didn't want to be caught. Eventually I managed to save a little boy and I can't remember who it was or how he looked but it felt good, as if I had done some good deed. I took him inside the house. That same night, something strange happened and I don't remember exactly, but it was as if he suddenly became mad and I had to take him back because I was afraid he would hurt himself. He wanted to go back there even though the house was nice and cosy and the garden seemed scary. I took him back to the garden, but on the way back we were flying together, and when we were almost there, he started screaming with a wild sound like he was possessed. At that moment, I woke up screaming and was terrified."

Dream interpretation:

Traumas keep objects from the past alive in one’s mind even after many years.

David in his dream is taken back to his grandmother’s garden, in order to get in touch

with repressed emotions personified as a child lost in the garden. His mind `protects ' him from unveiling something unbearable. A defence mechanism shields the dreamer and wakes him up with the little boy's scream in his mouth.

The boy personifies his younger Self and the garden, where he used to play as a child symbolises a place in his mind, where his repressed emotions are hidden. Taking the boy inside the house seemed like a good deed (as he recalls while remembering the dream). This association reflects his willingness (of the adult Self) to work through some difficult childhood memories. Metaphorically, he brings the repressed (little boy) back to consciousness (house).

He recalls that it felt as if he was trying to catch a stray cat. Just as he came close to something rejected that even saved will remain its wild side. In other words, the dream reveals the complex which comes to life when the dreamer encounters something that resonates with emotions suppressed at the depth of his mind. For example when he meets someone who unconsciously sets off suppressed memories, these echoes through his consciousness with a sudden irrational sense of anxiety that takes over his mind.

The memories that we can recall to consciousness are not reality, in the conscious mind one's past fades over time, thus when we come back to certain memories as an adults, it may seem reasonable to see certain matters as closed chapters. What we fail to realise is that between rational acceptance and true forgiveness there is a wall. And when we try to understand our emotions on a rational level, it may seem as we bang our heads through a wall. As a result, painfully getting nowhere.

The fear that wakes the dreamer up has nothing to do with what he thinks of himself on a conscious level. While his Ego captures the memories and analyses them as if they were postcards from the past, there is a small child still alive in his subconscious. This little boy is a part of his personality, a part that, devoid of emotions which the dreamer does not want to accept as an adult man, would have to die. Death on psychic terms is never just the end. It also allows us to grow, it makes space for something new to arise. However, the dream shows that David is not yet ready, to let go of something hidden deep within his personality.