The Dream: John, we discover when we visit, has a new girlfriend. They stand above us as if on a higher level. John is beaming, a wide smile on his face. I've never seen him so happy. He doesn't look like himself, but rather like a young boy.
Interpretation: In waking life John is a failed old man. His wife is about to divorce him. He has no discernible purpose in life and has alienated most people. In the dream his salvation comes from a new love. And, since he and his girlfriend are looking down on us, this new love is on a higher level.
It's always tempting, when recounting a dream, to think the dream is about the person dreamt about. But experience has taught me that the characters in my dreams represent parts of myself, usually parts that I'm out of touch with. The dream is telling me that the old embittered John part of myself can be saved by a new “passion” in life, perhaps a spiritual passion (something on a higher level). Once I find it, I'll be energized and rejuvenated.
I believe that dreams can tell us about people in our lives. Not all dreams, of course, but it's not wrong to look at a dream on a level of the dream speaking about persons in our lives. If I had a dream like this about people I knew, I would say it is a compensatory dream. My dream is portraying my wish for John to have a purpose and to have love in his life. It would be playing on my guilt for having so much and so many others I know having so little. Such an interesting short dream!
ReplyDeleteI would like to add, too, that sharing a dream you've (in general) had about someone could be very healing to that person whom you dreamt about. Who knows, telling John that you had such a positive dream about him could help lift his spirits and give him hope about his apparent purposeless life thus far. I believe that sometimes we dream about others for others.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emily, for this different way of looking at the dream.
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