Dreams and relevant interpretation I suggest

(Dreams No. 126-to-150)

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Dream No.126

I found a room that was still painted with the same paint my father had spread. I was very happpy to discover this original paint and wanted to purchase some more of it to give another coat. I managed to trace the telephone number of the paint manufacturer but I doubted whether, in the meantime, the number had changed or the company moved out. Anyway I rung, I spoke to the company and they said that they still had that paint.
At that point I doubted whether, although the serial number was always the same, the component parts of the paint had been altered during the several years that had elapsed. I also thought that anyway the outer color should have remained unchanged so I decided to buy it but, while I was awakening, the instantaneous thought that that paint belonged to my father not to me crossed my mind!

The number of adverse criticism to analysis includes also the accusation that in the end in his reasoning a patient would share the same ideas as the analyst’s (symbol of the father). In other words, a sort of moral subjugation.
This dream proves that such an accusation is absolutely groundless. At the beginning, in fact, the dream shows an even obsessive desire of treading in the father’s footsteps but, in the end, the dreamer becomes suddenly aware of his own personality which is different and separate from his father’s. This is the first step to get free from values that were simply "transmitted" to him.
It is possible that now the patient decides to make still use of the same paint as his father used, but in this case he would do so only because "he likes" that paint not because it was the one that his father used.
To develop one’s own independent personality it is necessary to distinguish oneself, separate oneself, differ. It should be clarified, however, that this process does not necessarily mean a refusal of every thing that was transmitted to us. It implies being able to critically review the values that were transmitted to us in order to check which one of them we can share or not. Moral relativism, then? No, because some basic values are always accepted and shared when a personality develops in a well-balanced manner.

Dream No.127

I cannot remember much of my dream. I can only remember that, on two occasions, somebody that seemed to be the dirtiest one (in moral sense) in the end showed to be the best or, at the least, the usable one.

Here is the turning point of an analysis: at last it is found out that the dirt we felt we had inside is not such actually, on the contrary it is the best part or, at least, something that can be used, therefore not to be refused and discarded.
From now onwards, a gradual decrease of resistances is going to be met during the analysis. In fact, it is no longer believed that one’s hands are to be driven in a dust-bin, on the contrary, one starts to feel that one’s hands can be thrust into a coffer filled with riches and resources!

Dream No.128

I could see a long ladder, a metal ladder I think. Anyway it was stout. It was set vertically along a smooth wall. I noticed that climbing was fatiguing. Fatigue derived from the straight vertical position of the ladder. In fact, the weight of the body being out of balance backwards only the force of one’s arms could be used. I woud say that I feared I would fail. An inclined ladder would have been better. In this case the weight of the body would rest on the ladder rather than on the outside: consequently, the additional strength of the arms would not be needed.

Climbing a ladder symbolizes elevating oneself, growing, ripening, hence the process occurring during an analysis. This process is a bit of a tall order and sometimes the fear of failing may appear.
Sometimes there is an explicit refusal to grow. Once a female patient plainly and clearly told me at the beginning of her analysis: "Do whatever you like, but do not make me grow, I do not want to grow!"
Apart from the naive belief that an analyist can do everything, there was the idea that healing and growth might be separated, as if they were not the two faces of the same medal!

Coming back to this dream, the positive side to be noticed is that, anyway, the patient feels that the ladder is stout. He would have preferred it to be somewhat more comfortable. Can we blame him?

Dream No.129

A woman was asking me If I had started riding a horse again. I answered that I had not but I would do so maybe shortly. As a matter of fact, I wondered why I did not ride, why I had not started riding again. If I didn’t, I seemed to deceive myself.

A horse represents vital energy, the energy of emotions, a flowing and carrying energy.
The patient feels that this energy has come back and he wishes to make use of it. He also believes that if he didn’t he would deceive himself.

After a hard and long work in the wineyard, the harvesting time has come. It would be foolish and deceitful not to enjoy the benefits.

Dream No.130

I thought I was losing some teeth… I felt them moving in my mouth, so I went to look at me in the mirror under which a small wash basin was installed. Terrified, I immediately thought: "I will have to call at my dentist to have them fixed".
The odd thing was that I could not see my face in the mirror but the face of an unknown person. I picked up my teeth wrapping them in a piece of paper and placed them in the wash basin that was clogged, so my teeth were floating in blood-stained water. Afterwards, as some other teeth in my mouth were moving I tried to fix two of them that were longer than and different from the others (by fixing I mean making their length equal to the others’ again).
In my dream I felt that I would lose these teeth but, in actual fact, they were only moving. While all this was going on, I saw an unknown girl passing by without stopping to help me.

I got up very upset and stiffly scared because I know that according to an Italian popular belief dreaming of losing one’s teeth means a loss of relatives.

This dream was sent to me by a woman that visited my site and I am glad to publish it as it is a typical and quite frequent dream. I have many other dreams having the same content but I prefer to report this one because it is very clear and concise.

Teeth are the first part of the digestion system. They have two key roles: DETACH a mouthful (it is not the case of referring to good manners here as these appeared at a much later stage during the evolution of species) and CHEW IT.

The action of DETACHING - CHEWING a mouthful consists of taking something from the outside environment and put it in one’s own body in order to get the ENERGY required to live.

For this reason teeth are very well suited to symbolize the capacity for getting energy in general, therefore the psychic one too.

Consequently, anyone dreaming that he/she is losing his/her teeth is somebody experiencing a decrease in his/her capacity for getting the essential energizing and propelling incentives from life. We can also say, somebody feeling that he/she is facing life with an inadequate pluck.

The face seen in the mirror belongs to un unknown woman because the dreamer is not aware of her problem yet. Sometimes it happens that these persons try to reassure themselves through a high hyperactivity degree. In such cases, the visible conduct seems to deny the real inside situation.

At any rate, the situation in this case is not as serious as it might appear. In fact, the dreamer is afraid of losing ALL her teeth but, actually, the teeth still in her mouth are only moving. Moreover, she knows that the situation can be solved by her dentist, so not everything is lost, there is still hope.

As I do not know the dreamer, I cannot understand the meaning of the unknown girl passing by without giving a help. Some associations would be required.

After saying this, dreaming of losing one’s teeth may also have another meaning. A loss of vital energy is always involved but this time for a precise and specific reason, i.e. masturbation.
As everbody knows, educationalists used to (and somebody still does) utter such a threat in order to try and dissuade youngsters from self-abuse: "You will have a breakdown", "You will become stupid", etc.
Apart from this menace, in our society many people believe that the energy displayed during a sexual orgasm is taken away from other scopes. For example, athletes refrain from having sexual intercourses in the days preceeding their sport performance to prevent their "weakening" and their "plunk" decrease.

There is an image in this dream that does not belong to this typical kind of dreams, namely the teeth placed in a clogged wash basin and floating in bood-stained water.

Here again I repeat that no interpretation can be suggested without knowing the dreamer. I can only remark that teeth are also phallic symbols and a wash basin is a feminine symbol (container).
Taking into account that usually DIRTY water is poured into a wash-basin and that in this case the wash basin is even clogged and blood-stained, it could be assumed that sexual intercourses (or the prospect of having sexual intercourses) are experienced by the dreamer in rather an unpleasant manner.

Dream No.131

I saw myself shooting with a big automatic rifle. I regretted killing snipes and wondered if something different could be done but it was not possible, that’s what hunting was like, there was no other way, shooting was the only way to catch, touch and get them.

The person that had this dream is persuaded (at deep level) that aggressiveness is the only way to get in contact with other people. He dislikes this method, it does not conform to his deep nature but he knows no alternate way, at least for the time being.

Dream No.132

…. at a certain moment, unwillingly, I happen to be a spectator of a check . A woman (a nun, perhaps) opens the door of a bathrorm in an authoritative manner (perhaps it is a nursery school). There are boys and girls inside and they are having a lot of fun…they quietly and shamelessly take their dresses off but no sexual implications are involved.
I like looking at them, it makes me feel glad and happy but the woman that had just opened the door to check what was going on thinks that they are doing wrong. In my opinion she is a nun as she is perturbed at the sight of these young girls and boys staying together in a bathroom. The major too comes to make a check and he is angry too and he says that he will take appropriate measures.
I am distressed for the heavy hand used for something so innocent and naive.
The major goes away and I…I decide to reach him…I decide to go down the ladder to confront him and lock him. I am a little worried because, after all, he is the major and what I will tell him might turn against me, however, after overcoming the first uncertainty stage, I start telling him a series of reproofs openly in order to uphold the children’s freedom of having fun. There are completely different reasons for a major to get angry!

His reaction is not as catastrophical as I expected, no pushiment, on the contrary he is disconcerted and pensive. In the meantime his wife arrives (this woman does exist in real life and sells special microfiber dusters featuring the possibility of removing deep dirt by using water only. I like this woman very much because joy of life and sympathy ooze from her in spite of the fact that she suffers from a serious desease, I admire the way she copes with her illness seeking for the appropriate remedies and without opposing rebellion, without "a priori" refusing the possibility of her becoming ill).
While the major embraces her lovingly, I tell him that the woman next to him is wonderful and he should hold her tight. While I am telling him these words…the three of us break down and tenderly hug each other.
I feel as happy as when looking at a performance where noble persons and feelings are involved.

The major and nun symbolize the parents, the authority, the Super-Ego, the inner judge (a nun is also called MOTHER).
Their reaction to what happens in the bathroom clearly shows how they have brought up her daughter (the dreamer), with extreme rigour, seeing evil (sex) even where it is not, that is where mere innocence and fun and no malice are.
The dreamer, however, is no longer ready to passively accept this too strict moral need that her parents transmitted to her and resolutely objects to it, even if she is still somewhat afraid.

It should be noticed that the dreamer GOES DOWN a ladder to reach the major. This indicates that the inner judge is no longer in a HIGH position, hence he is no longer overhanging, impending, oppressing.
The way the major reacts is indicative of several similar discoveries made during the course of an analysis: facts always belie the expected catastrophical reaction to an action we imagine to do, what really happens is always less dreadful than we imagined.

The meaning of the major’s wife can be easily understood when one knows that the dreamer, until short before, refused anything in herself that was not perfect. As a consequence, she refused her neurosis not only because it caused to her much suffering but mainly because it was a SPOT spoiling her self-image, a perfect, ideal image.

Furthermore, like all sick people she refused illness but she expected to recover as a result of the mere fact that she was coming to her sittings, without her personal contribution and direct committment. In her opinion, recovery was a burden weighing only on her psychotherapist’s shoulders.

On the contrary, her dream shows her which is the correct attitude to be taken with regard to illness, namely the attitude of the major’s wife.

The dream adds that deep dirt (the one to be found in the unconscious) can be removed by using WATER only, that is EMOTIONS (see the special microfiber dusters sold by the major’s wife).

This dream came up during the stage of the analysis when the patient started to understand that her expecting to recover without her personal commitment was more appropriate for a girl than for an adult, in other words it was like wanting a belly-acke to disappear without taking a purge.

The major’s wife, instead, acts as an adult person, she takes care of her desease and at the same time she keeps her joy of living because she knows that the risk of becoming ill belongs to life. She does not refuse illness "a priori", she does not regard it as a wrong, an injustice, a spot to be ashmed of, a narcissistic wound.

When our attitude to the events of our life is wrong, very often our unconscious conveys us a dream like this depicting-indicating the correct attitude to take, thus offering us the possibility of becoming aware of our mistake and correct it.

As a therapist, I too could have called the patient’s attention to her unproper attitude to her neurosis but I would never have had the same convincing power as this dream. As a matter of fact, a dream is not a voice coming from the outside, from another person, it comes from our own inside, it is "our own work".

Dream No.133

..... I meet with two women and a newborn baby. They are a mother and a daughter and they are taking their stroller amongst many other strollers before going away. They speak Neapolitan dialect. As I hear this dialect I feel repugnance to them as I consider Neapolitan people, at least the majority of them, to be rough, quarrelsome, cheating, lazy-bones and dishonest. Their stroller is the filthiest one and is in the poorest conditions, as one should expect!
While I am lingering to look at them I start listening at what they say and I understand that they are not so bad. Actually one cannot lump everything tegether, every situation should be individually considered and, above all, after knowing all aspects thereof.

Here again we meet a positive stage of the analysis, namely when in his own reasoning one starts to be able to reject any bias and takes into consideration real facts only.
It does not fall from heaven this new attitude that starts to be enacted in the outer world (with regard to the two Neapolitan women), featuring balance and objectiveness. It is the result of a growth process urging us to relinquish the simplistic (yet reassuring) Manichaean view of the inside world: all GOOD emotions on one side, all BAD emotions on the other side.
The neurotic splitting of personality disappears, the parties start speaking one another, and all the energy that was first spent to keep away the supposed inner EVIL becomes available for the pleasant side of life and for the execution of new projects. In other words: at this point PEACE BREAKS OUT!

The following dream sets another example of this overcoming the drastically opposed GOOD-EVIL pair.

Dream No.134

..... I am chasing my husband who is running after some crooks. I go down hundreds steps breathlessly with the firm intent of preventing the useless bloodshed which is about to occur…then I find myself sitting at a cafe with my husband. A gipsy family approaches us begging. I am afraid that my husband might do something wrong. On the contrary, although unwillingly, he gives them some halms. I am afraid that gipsies may not be satisfied with our offering and would do harm to us, instead they go off and sit at a table a little farther.
In spite of the scorn I think of them, I understand that they are mild people and MY FEAR DISAPPEARS.

See previous dream for interpretation.

Dream No.135

I am strolling along a wide sea-front. The sea-front wall has a leak from which the stormy sea rushes on the road. The odd thing is that the sea is stormy only around the leak.

The difference between this dream and other similar dreams is in the fact that in this case the psychologic situation is not so dramatic. First of all because defences (the wall) are holding on the whole (there is only a leak), then because the sea is stormy only in the area around the leak.

In such a situation it can be forecast that this analysis will not meet insurmountable difficulties.

Dream No.136

I dreamt of a gipsy child that was dirty with shit. He needed a cleaning but I didn’t feel like doing it. Then I screwed up my courage and cleaned him. At that point I took a liking to him, he was beautiful, I even grew fond of him.

In dreams gipsies are often the symbol of our parts that do not stick to the rules established by the community, our parts that are considered dirty under the moral profile.
In this case dirt is even double because a GIPSY is involved who is dirty with SHIT.

Things being like that, the dreamer’s reluctance to put her hands in there can be easily understood!
Fortunately she succeeds in overcoming her first impulse so she can discover that there are nice and pleasant aspects also in these parts. In this specific case, a child is involved that is a part owning energy, vitality, bound to grow.
The child could also symbolize the dreamer’s childhood that she considered "dirty" so far due to some prohibited drives that appeared at that time.

Dream No.137

Foreword: in real life, when I try to charge the battery of my cordless by using the socket in my house, often the battery fails to charge. On the contrary, when I use the socket in my office, the battery charges regularly.
Here is my dream.

I was trying to charge the battery of my cordless by using the plug of a colleague of mine. This time everything worked properly. Obviously the trouble was in my plug.

We can consider several symbols here: a house, a cordless, a battery, a plug, a socket, a colleague.

First of all it should be noticed that the dream ends with an explanation which is conflict with the dreamer’s experience in her real life.

Let’s see why. In her real life she knows that the battery fails to charge because of the SOCKET (when I use the SOCKET in my office … the battery charges), while in her dream she believes that the PLUG is causing the trouble (obviously the trouble was in my PLUG).

Why this discrepancy? It seems a contradiction but everything becomes clear when one takes into account that some women consider (at deep level) their clitoris to be an imperfect-wrongly done penis, that is a not properly working penis. That’s why in her dream the plug-penis of her colleague-man, on the contrary, works properly.

I specified " at deep level" because almost always, at conscious level, these women think and vehemently claim: "I am pride of being a woman!".
Unfortunately for them, things are different as such dreams show in rather an incontrovertible manner.

When I remarked to my patient that ENERGY is in the SOCKET not in the PLUG, she looked at me with surprise, as if only that moment she realized this quite obvious thing.

These women start to appreciate their genitals and their femininity only when they make this discovery: energy is in the SOCKET!

Message conveyed by the dream: "At unconsciousness level you believe that the cause of your depression is originated by your having an imperfect plug-penis. Compare this unconscious belief of yours with the evidence coming out of real life, that is the SOCKET needs a repair, not the plug!"
A SOCKET: this is how the dreamer has been experiencing her femininity so far.

Dream No.138

I often happen to dream of present situations and environments, but roles are played by old friends and school mates of mine I haven’t seen for many years and whom I am no longer in contact with.
For example, now I am a university student and I dream of attending my university lessons together with my mates at the time I attended secondary or even primary school. I never dream of my today’s mates in spite of the fact that I meet them every day and, out of my old mates, those I have fewer contacts with appear in my dreams more frequently.
In my opinion it is not a matter of nostalgia as I entertain better relationships with my today’s mates.

This dream was sent to me by one of the visitors of my site. As I know nothing about his life, I can only dare to make some very general hypotheses.
He seems to retain something that keeps drawing him to the past, to his childhood, something that was not experimented at that time and that, for this reason, repeatedly asks (this type of dream being recurrent) to be experienced in order to allow passing over to subsequent maturity stages.

The fact that more frequently he dreams of the mates with whom he keeps fewer contacts induces me to think that the childhood contents needing to be retrieved are the farthest ones from his consciousness.

Dream No.139

I went to my bank to cash a cheque but, two hours later, they had not given me the money yet. I complained with the bank manager, also because I knew that funds were available.

Analysis lasts long. On the contrary, this patient would like to enjoy its benefits as easily and quickly as cheques are cashed in a bank. So she complains (and she does it with me too) with the typical childish attitude of a person DEMANDING from life with no self-commitment and no personal work.
It is not by chance that this dream starts just when it is time to CASH, and no reference is made to "how" that cheque came into her hands.
It would make the difference if the dream said: "My salary was paid with a cheque".

A great lot of patience is needed with this type of patients as they are inclined to continuously "stop" to complain that the end never arrives and do not understand that the result of every stop is just a further delay in arriving at the end: one of the many different defences.

Usually this attitude is joined to the belief that going to sittings and paying for them is sufficient to recover. It is the "medical" idea of psychotherapy: "I give him money and he has to heal me". Unfortunately things do not work this way, the patient too is to make his contribution, in addition to time and money!
It could be objected that a two-hour wait to cash a cheque is actually too long but the mistake is just in the belief that a psychotherapy can be as simple an operation as cashing a cheque.
The only positive side of this dream is her confidence in analysis: funds are available. Only her expectations with regard to the way funds can be cashed need to be modified.

The next dream confirms that the dreamer expects that "others" will take care of pulling the chestnusts out of the fire for her and solving her problems.

Dream No.140

I am going down a ladder lacking a few steps at its end, however knowing that I am back from an accident, somebody extracts the steps by making them rotate out of the bottom of the ladder.

See previous dream for interpretation.

Here is the advantage of working through dreams: if you are on the right way, subsequent dreams will confirm it; if you are on the wrong way, subsequent dreams will belie any previous wrong interpretation.

Dream No.141

I am going down a ladder in the open air and from there I can catch a sight of my garden. I think: "When I come back I want to have an overall view of my garden as I am sure that it must be very beautiful with so many roses in flower".
When I am back I go to my garden and I see some pieces of wood that can be useful. I am afraid they might get damaged but later on I notice that they are protected by a shelter.

A garden may be either in order or out of order, like our mind, like our inner life. In this case, not only it is in order but roses make it even beautiful.
The tree-life is protected so it does not run the risk of being damaged.
The dreamer is at the stage of the analysis when it is discovered that not only senses of dirt and senses of guilt are inside us. At this point the way is sloping down…the understandable refusal to proceed disappears.

It can be added that she "goes down" a ladder: a symbol of entering deep inside ourselves.

Dream No.142

I am on a bleak plane where only high heaps of earth are. I am sitting on a low hill watching the plane laying under me where two twins * are having fun with some fireworks. I am staring at them frightened, I am afraid that sooner or later they might cause a firework to explode over me. However I remain still. After a while, one of the twins approaches me holding in his hand the stick he uses to light the fireworks after soaking the cotton wool pad wrapping its end in gasoline.
He asks me to open my legs and I do so, afterwards he points out to me that my groin is full with bubbles and he makes as if to approach his stick to cure them. I draw back scared, I am afraid that he burns me. He reassures me saying that I will be relieved after that cure and starts disinfecting my bubbles with gasoline. Bubbles do not disappear immediately and I can but notice that he has not burned me as I feared.

* These twins do actually exist. They run a petrol station. I know them and I have full confidence in them as they are very good fellows.

The first part of the dream allows us to understand the feeling of dreariness and loneliness the dreamer is experiencing during this phase of her life.

To explain the symbolic meaning of the two twins I have to report a detail I would have preferred not to mention, yet this is the dream and I have to accept it as it is. If I left this detail unsaid, the whole dream could hardly be understood.
Now, in my consulting room there is a picture of S. Freud and, from time to time, this patient looks at it and keeps saying that we are cast in the same mould (the two twins).
It does not matter if this is true or false. The point of interest to us in this case is that this is what she thinks.

The two twins run a petrol station: as the patient goes through depression periods and depression mainly consists of a lack of ENERGY, the analyst-Freud pair represents for her the "place" were she can get an energy-gasoline refueling.
In the patient’s eyes, however, the two twins do not simply provide gasoline-energy, they also play with fireworks.
As everybody knows, this second activity features two aspects, a pleasant one and a dangerous one: on one side fireworks are beautiful, amusing, pleasant to look at, but on the other side they need to be handled with great care and only by people especially trained to do it.

Incidentally, we can also add that fireworks symbolize a beauty originating from the BOTTOM (unconsciousness) and rising to the TOP (consciousness). Their lifetime is short, it is true, but when a firework ends another one comes to replace it in a unceasing flow.
Fireworks (the nice-pleasant side of life) are lit up by gasoline-ENERGY during the dream. This is the same as saying: only not depressed people can afford them, in this case the two twins (analyst-Freud). She makes no mention to her having even the slightest fun, when she talks about the fireworks she simply says that they amuse the twins, and only them.
She is scared but, fortunately, she does not run away as she did in the past. Now she is confident, fully confident. Now the therapeutic alliance is stout indeed.

At this point, the second and utterly important part of the dream starts, the part showing what a radical change has taken place in the way the dreamer at deep level perceives the "therapeutic" action made by the analyst. Let’s see.

For a correct evaluation of the distance covered by this patient, the "therapeutic" role she ascribes to a phallus in this dream should be compared with the "threat" she sees in a phallus during one of her previous dreams, when while she is making love to her partner she discovers that a pistol bullet is slipped in his urinary meatus and, in additon, the bullet is of "explosive" type!

I seem to hear a charge of "phallocrat" after this interpretation. Sorry, this dream is by a woman. "Subjugated by you!"… prejudices "unnail" hard…!

This dream does justice to the so much nonsense that was talked and written with regard to the psychotherapist’s role during an analysis. Here is one: "We simply help a patient to recover by himself because he is the only one who owns the means to heal".
I have personally heard an American psychotherapist saying: "The patient is a God!".

God forbid! :-)

Dream No.143

I was aware that I had a great problem in facing people I had to ask for the settlement of my bill. I might have even thought that this problem made it difficult for me to be a professional. In my dream, however, there was also the idea that I could do something to actively modify this situation. In fact, I was saying to myself that it should be sufficient to make a good job: this way, my customers would be happy to pay, so much that they would look for me and I wouldn’t have to face them.

Here we can see an improvement in the way of arranging one’s life, this change representing however only 50% of what can be done. This patient, in fact, had two problems. He worked in a poorly effective manner and he lacked pluck, thence he would rather waive the money a customer ought to pay to him so long as he did not have to face him and claim the money owed to him.
He had such a poor self-esteem that in his opinion he should thank any person that, from time to time, was kind enough to pay him. This was so true that often, without being asked, he allowed a rebate on the sum a customer ought to pay to him.

This situation was accepted fatally, taking for granted that nothing could be done to modify it. What’s more, the idea that something could be done under this profile did not even cross his mind !

Now it starts to peep out the idea that there is also another possibility, besides accepting the situation passively. He understands he owns the means to MODIFY IT ACTIVELY: it’s enough to make a good job!

This is the positive side of the dream. The negative side is that making a good job is not regarded as something useful in itself, and as such to be pursued anyway, but only as a way to shirk the unpleasant duty of facing customers.

In conclusion: the change from a PASSIVE to an ACTIVE attitude has been made but PLUCK is to come up yet.
At any rate, the key point is that the customer has now become aware that he can modify any attitude to life he no longer likes.

Dream No.144

I am in a building and I want or I must take a lift. I am a little worried because I wonder whether the lift frame is strong enough, iron made. If not, in case of a wooden frame, it might happen that the steel rope pulls the floor from above thus causing the walls to collapse and crushing anybody inside the lift against the lift ceiling. I am inclined to think that there is an iron frame.
Anyway, I take the lift and reach the top floor above the buildings. I remember that I immediately noticed a very bright light. I am a little afraid of getting off only due to the sense of novelty I can feel, or something alike. There is something unknown in this very bright light. It is pleasant in the whole or, rather, it can be guessed that something pleasant is behind it, perhaps after getting accustomed to it.

We are already familiar with the fears associated to a lift in the dreams of a person undergoing an analysis and we have also stated that this depends on the fact that a lift symbolizes the "connection" between below and above, unconsciousness and consciousness.

To tell the truth, the mechanism of the possible accident described in this dream is not in agreement with the rules of physics but it is not our intention to examine this dream through the eyes of a teacher of rational mechanics. It is enough for us to take note that the patient doubts that the lift structure may not be strong enough, thus exposing occupants to certain death.
Afterwards he takes heart and gets up. Up to where ? Up to getting "above the buildings" that is above the floors where one usually goes to and lives. In other words, he reaches a place which is UNKNOWN to him, and he emphasizes this twice.

The first thing he notices is the very bright LIGHT-AWARENESS. In fact he is gettig rid of all automatisms making our mind dark. Like every NEW thing, also this awareness is ambivalent at the beginning: from one side it arouses some uncertainties as we do not know what is going to happen next, from the other side it is pleasant as it excites our curiosity and stimulates us.
Pleasantness is not present yet but he feels that it is coming shortly, as soon as he gets accustomed to this new floor-level of consciousness.

It is to be noticed that, as always, the seat of an increased awareness is imagined to be placed HIGH, above the usual life level. In this case, the attained target is located in a building. In other cases, the desire of elevation is even greater and dreams involve climbing up mountains, flying, etc.

I want to stress that this type of dreams represents the final scope of an analysis. For a long part of the analysis, patients believe that the work to be done is similar to having to put one’s hands in a "drain"!!! And who is eager to do so?

Dream No.145

I was wearing a nice wedding dress that unfortunately did not fit my size, in fact it was far too large. However, I felt very beautiful and appealing all the same as I was aware that a nice and clean inside would made the outside beautiful too…

.… a little later I was laying on a double bed. A very youg girl came into the room offering me to buy some trousers. They were very nice but I could immedately see that they were not my size and the girl confirmed that they were size 30 so I told her that I could not buy them. Surely I would not have disliked being a little slimmer but I could accept myself even as I was.

The WEDDING dress and the DOUBLE BED allow us to understand that the dream is about the dreamer’s married status, the way she is experiencing it at that time.

Before the analysis and for a long part thereof, this patient expected her to be absolutely perfect in everything, therefore also in the way she played her bride-wife role. Now, on the contrary, she starts to distinguish appearance from substance, to understand that substance is more important than appearance, that the essential point is what’s inside us… not a few more or less kilos on the scale.

In the second part of the dream the newly acquired maturity is more evident: she is now able to give up a pattern of unreal ideal beauty which is typical of today’s teen-agers subjugated by the looks of top-models, she gives up the size 30 that a VERY YOUNG girl offered her and she does it with no painful "laceration". Yes, she still wishes to be a little slimmer but this thought stays at the bottom, it no longer troubles her real, concrete life. Now she accepts her body as it is and she prefers to focus her energies and efforts at improving her inside world.

After much work and perseverance, also this patient has come to the harvesting season…!

Dream No.146

Recurrent nightmare

While I am strolling along a road I can see a bus suddenly arriving near me and I try to set me apart. All of a sudden another bus, that I had not seen before, quickly comes near me and stops forming a very narrow angle (I seem to choke) with the previous vehicle. While the buses are moving and parking I try my best, but in vain, to attract their attention in order to avoid being squeezed by them. When the vehicles stop at last, I start looking around in distress to size up the situation. I notice that I can slip out from the rear part but I have some difficulty in moving quickly. I am always worried that should the buses start moving again before I can manage to escape I might be resucked by an air movement or pushed about in between the walls of the buses. At this point I wake up.

During the last nightmare, all vehicles stop forming a rhomb wherein I am imprisoned. All my attempts to draw attention to myself fail. When all vehicles are still, I try to concentrate my attention on what is to be done to avoid being harmed or squeezed by the buses when they start moving again. With the belief that I will manage to find my way out, I wake up.

A bus represents our life of relationship with the others, the way we can move while our fellow creatures are near us. The conditions of our public transportation means allow us to add that a bus often represents the fellow creatures that are "too" close to us, almost on our feet, in a word a bothersome proximity.

The person that had this dream cultivates aspirations having a spiritual and mystical nature, therefore she feels that lay-profane life is imprisoning, compressing, squeezing her and preventing her from cultivating her ideals. Her work engagements, her social relationships seem excessive to her. To understand "to which extent", it is sufficient to compare the size of a human body with the dimensions of two BUSES put together.
In spite of these premises, the conclusion is positive being inspired by the belief that she will be able to get through.

All this will become clearer after reading the following dream.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

After this interpretation, the dreamer sent me the following message:

I am very glad to inform you that my recurrent nightmare has disappeared.
In my daily life, I am trying to fix some border-lines whenever I feel that I am forced to commit myself beyond the limits that I feel I can handle easily and quietly.
Incredible enough, I have even cut something out and…..without feeling remorse.

Here is the "Golden mine of dream"…. interpreted… !!!

Dream No.147

It is daylight. I am walking along a suburb street together with another unidentified person. The countryside is on my left. I am aware that an elitistic group of well off people dwells on my right. They have a special organization structure that I do not know and that excites my curiosity.
Together with my companion we manage to get inside this sort of world apart. I am very surprised to notice that, actually, people are keeping them as busy as small ants at building houses having an oppressive dark green or dark red color, made of the same spongy material as used by florists.
I start asking myself what is the point of all this much ado about nothing.
I keep exploring this strange landscape where I always meet people, lost in themselves, running about anxiously and attaching great importance to things of no value to me.
The person accompanying me does not share my feeling of a steadily increasing disappointment and distress. I start wishing to come out and I am amazed to find out that apparently there is no exit. I seem to be imprisoned in a labyrinth.
Being very tired, alone and worried to be unable to be in the fresh air again, I resolutely address myself to the heaven for help. At this point, an arm, not an arm in the flesh, winds my waist firmly and takes me to the edge of the road putting me down on the small boundary wall.
I am exhausted, I see a small unusual engraved ivory object near me that I relate to yoga. I am thinking whether to take and keep it as a souvenir of this peculiar adventure, but I haven’t even the strength of stretching my hand. The object slips on the ground. I too am in unstable balance on the wall and run the risk of falling back but here again another providential help comes and pushes me from my back helping me to fall forward, on the free road at last. It is sunset.

In respect of the previous dream, the inner conflict troubling the dreamer appears more clearly here. She is attracted by a spiritual-mystic life but, at the same time, she is not completely free from the seduction that wealth and world still exert on her. In fact, that world excites her curiosity and pushes her to try and get inside it.

Once she is in it, though, she notices that those persons that she formerly considered priviledged ("elitistic group"), in actual facts are busy in building oppressive houses that, furthermore, are made of a flimsy material as the porous material used by florists to slip in and hold flower stems. This material recalls the idea of something ARTIFICIAL and LIFELESS, being quite natural to compare it with the true earth feeding live flowers.

The dreamer's disappointment-becoming aware is very strong, so much that she repeats the same concepts many times:

At this point everything would seem very simple: she feels disappointed by the "ordinary" world so she diverts from it with neither regret nor difficulty. Too easy… !!!

In actual facts, all is more complicated and difficult: " apparently there is no exit "…. " I seem to be imprisoned in a labyrinth"…." Being very tired, alone and worried to be unable to be in the fresh air again"

The dreamer’s is not an enviable situation as she no longer likes the "ordinary" world but, at the same time, she is unable to get out.
Luckily enough, the moment she feels she is unable to get away with her own resources, she asks for and obtains a heavenly help (an arm not in the flesh).

A "lay" psychotherapist may consider not positive the fact that the dreamer’s problem is solved thanks to a double "outside" help, that is not as a result of her maturity-growth as a person but it should be borne in mind that the problem in this case does not seem to have a neurotic nature. Unless all mystics are regarded as neurotic. Somebody did it but I do not feel like following this track, although "some" aspects of a mystic personality have some implications deserving a deeper psycological examination.


The small ivory object that the dreamer relates to yoga and that she has no strength to pick up can be connected to an experience she has made lately. She attended a catholic seminary where the possibility of using yoga techniques was considered, in addition to the traditional catholic means: prayer, sacraments, meditation, charity actions, etc.
It is evident that these techniques are not appropriate to her, perhaps she considers them out of her mind and culture.

The person accompanying the dreamer is not easy to be interpreted, on the other hand it does not seem to play an important role in the dream.

More interesting is the picture of the sunset at the end of the dream. Sun has many meanings but in this case it could represent the decreasing PHYSICAL-MATERIAL light moving over for the light of a MYSTICAL knowledge according to the dreamer’s aspirations.

Dream No.148

After reading some pages of your site, I thought of submitting to you one of my dreams that has become recurrent in the last few months.

I am chased by a killer (wearing a black hood or faceless) that wants to kill me and that I am escaping and hiding from all the time.

Usually this dream is accompanied by other strictly related dreams where I am urged to face the enemy because, I am told, I can do it.
I made some attempts to do it, even during dreams where I am aware of being in the oneiric dimension, but whenever I am on the point of facing him a deep feeling of distress (a true death-distress) always turns me away: I think that my fear is the major obstacle.

Lately, "magic" objects and many arms are shown to me in dreams where, contrarily to my belief, my "power" is highlighted.

I would be very glad to have your opinion as I appreciate your well-balanced way of dealing with this subject. As for myself, I am deeply interested in dreams (I have been keeping an oneiric diary for years) and I have tried to read serious books in order to work somewhat at my oneiric content alone: this resulted in the development of a sort of "cooperation" between my consciousness and unconsciousness, as shown by advices and suggestions of the same type as I described earlier.

Before ending I would briefly add some personal details: I am a … year old woman, I have been married since… and have .. children. I have gone through great difficulties in the past, mainly connected to my own family, and I had to seek for psychotherapic assistance to overcome them.
I am confident these few details might be of help to you. I thank you beforehand and send you my best wishes for the forthcoming 1999! I hope to read your answer shortly.

Many assumptions can be made with regard to a killer but I have no sufficient data to support one rather than the other one. As you managed to develop a valuable cooperation between your consciousness and unconsciousness, the best thing to do is to await that the capacity for facing the situation comes naturally about by itself. This should happen soon due to the magic objects, arms and strength you have available, although you are not persuaded yet that you own them.
In these cases, danger and fear usually disappear the very moment we stop escaping. If you haven’t already done so, read dream No.33. Its conclusion, in particular.

Kindly let me know the end of the story: it will be of help to somebody else.

Dream No.149

I am in a very bright house (I am my same age). From the ground floor it is possible to see the upper floor where my wife is. In between the two floors there is a ladder whose construction was never completed, I mean the ladder starts from the ground floor but does not reach the upper floor. Furthermore, its top seems also to be blocked. Anyway you look at it, it is not possible to reach the upper floor.
I do not wish to reach my wife. There is no communication at all. I am amazed at the brightness of the light in the room.

Here is a perfect photograph of a marriage featuring an absolute lack of communication between husband and wife with a supremacy of the wife versus the husband (she is ABOVE, he is BELOW).
The dream says that at the beginning he tried to establish a contact (the ladder starts from the bottom, where he is) but his attempt was unsuccessful (the ladder is not completed, it is blocked and the two of them do not talk each other even at a distance). Now he no longer wishes to make additional attempts ("I do not wish to reach my wife").
The dream says nothing though about the causes that brought about this situation. It will be necessary to wait for additional dreams to clarify these causes.
The brightness of the light indicates that he is fully aware (at deep level) of the type of relationship linking  (???) him to his wife.

It is interesting to notice that at consciousness level he is persuaded to be one wearing the breeches at home. It is actually so, but from his considerations, stirred by the dream, it results that the following phenomenon took place during his life: to avoid endless discussions with his wife, since a long time he has let free hand to her and this fact induced her to occupy the void space left by her husband.
Therefore the field was abandoned not due to weakness or fear rather following a desire of peace. Unfortunately, the final result is the same: the wife is ABOVE and he is BELOW.

Let me take the opportunity this dream is offering me to emphasize the unequalled advantage deriving from working through dreams in psychotherapy.
Without this dream, my patient would have continued to believe that his behaviour at his wife was good because it allowed him to get the little bit of peace he needed to live. What a price he had to pay to get this peace would never become clear to him.

This dream (as well as the other ones) proves that very often the unconscious part of our mind can see-understand what, on the contrary, fully escapes our conscious part.
That’s why using this "additional gear" we own would always be to our own advantage.
It would be beneficial to patients to recover, to psychotherapists to work with their patients and also to "healthy" people to keep their proper balance.

In a word, "The golden mine of dreams"!!!  Am I repeating myself? I apologize but I think it is worthwhile.... :-)

Dream No.150

I am getting ready for a karate match or something similar. It will be a real fight. I will have to fight with somebody in the road but I can feel neither a great danger nor a threat.

The involved patient is the same that had Dream No. 143. He has always had problems in facing the others, especially at physical level. So long as he could avoid a direct match, he would rather give up what he was entitled to have.

Now, on the contrary, an opposite attitude starts to appear at deep level. On top of this, the prospect of an imminent fight (and "real", as he wants to stress) leaves him without worries and fear. In addition, the match will take place in the road that is in the typical place where the others are met. In a word, pluck starts to appear.

In the event this dream represents only the satisfaction of a desire and not an advance notice of a change in his real life, even in this case it would anyway express a positive change versus his previous reasoning that was marked by SURRENDER and fatalistic SUBMISSION, at deep level too: once he dreamt of being in prison and his only worry was how to stay there as less uncomfortably as possible.

 

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