Guest Dreamer: Some Ups and Downs

Tyler has contributed today's dream that ends with a common fear: a crashing elevator.
The Dream: I remember being in a tall building, like a skyscraper. I don't know where we were though. There were a few people in the room I was in, and I remember having the feeling of being trapped there in that room or being held against my will or something like that. I remember I had an opportunity to leave and I took it, running out of the room towards the elevator. I made it to the elevator and hit L for lobby and was pounding on the Close Doors button and just as they were about to close someone stopped the elevator and came in. It was someone who I had recently met and hung out with a few times in a group and he wanted to go up some floors and he hit the button for a floor a few floors up. The doors closed and the elevator started going up a little, then all the lights turned off and the elevator plummeted towards earth. Usually, I'd wake up during something like this, but this time I didn't and the elevator smashed to the floor with both of us in it. I then remember almost instantly as the elevator smashed, that I was in another room looking at the smashed elevator on what seemed like a TV for security cameras and I may have been in a room with a few more people also watching these security camera feeds and then I woke up. It's been bothering me for a few days now because I thought you weren't supposed to die in your dreams.

Carla's thoughts: The dreamer will have to look at what's going on in his life that might have triggered this dramatic dream, but—to get him started thinking about some possibilities, I'll react to Tyler's dream as if it were my own:

I'm in the process of creating (building) something that I hope will enable me to reach great heights. (The building I'm in is a skyscraper.) I need to try to remember who is in the room with me, because there's something about our relationship that restricts me. I need to figure out what these people represent so I will be able to see what's holding me back. To escape this limiting influence I make a dash for the elevator. An elevator, being something that goes up and down, stands for my moods. At times I feel on an upswing, and at other times I go down into a slump. I was planning to escape by going down, but someone I recently met intervenes and sends me in the opposite direction. What qualities does this person have? Whatever they are, they don't seem to be working for me in this dream. My situation seems to improve a little (we go up) but after a slow start, I'm in the dark and out of control altogether. (We smash to the ground.)

Death in a dream often refers to the end of a stage of life—in other words, it is as much about a new beginning as it is about the end of something. In this dream, as soon as I die I'm in another place and I see things from a different perspective. Taking a hint from my dream, I'm guessing that my new point of view is safer than the one it replaced; after all, I'm seeing things on a “security” camera.

Hit in the I

The Dream: I am rushing out of a building on the way to a dental appointment. There are some odd metal boxes, each with a drawer, in the lobby. I leave the building, picking up one of the boxes on my way out. As I'm going down the front steps, a Mexican girl comes running after me. I understand that she has left a book in the box. She is sitting on one of the steps and stretches out her hand to reach the drawer. As I turn, trying to make it easier for her to open the drawer, the corner of the box strikes her in the forehead. I am very sorry and apologize profusely. Here I was, trying to help, but instead I've hurt her.

We chat for a while and she accepts my apology. Then I realize the corner of the box hit her eye, not her forehead. The eye is red but doesn't appear to be damaged other than superficially. I am upset, but after a while I tire of feeling guilty. I begin to wonder if I had been wrong to apologize: would this open me to a lawsuit? “No,” I think. “The girl's too simple for that. Besides, she doesn't know my name.” I rush off for my dental appointment.

Interpretation: The earthier more basic part of me, as represented by the foreign (Mexican) girl wants an education—there's something she needs to know--(the book), and I (the ego) try to help her. In so doing a blow to the eye (I) occurs. So, as parts of the unconscious become educated, as they come to consciousness, difficulties and complexities are created for the conscious ego. I'm having trouble keeping things “in the box.” (The drawer slides out of its container.) The eye (I) is red (angry). I end up discounting this part of myself: she's too simple; she doesn't know who I am. I rush off for an appointment that never takes place.

A Slice of Head?

The Dream: A young man in a classroom is using a large chef’s knife to slice his head into three layers above his eyebrows. It doesn’t seem to distress him in any way. I am concerned, however, even if he isn’t.

Clark and I are waiting to go into a lecture on dreams in a setting that is part classroom, part theater. An usher seats a lone woman who is in front of us, and we are meant to wait in the lobby for our turn. I, however, decide to sneak in behind them and see how many seats are still available. The room is almost full. I’m excited to see how many people have turned out for a lecture on dreams. At the same time I think Clark and I had better grab a seat because there aren’t too many remaining.

We take our seats, and who should appear but the head slicer. He sits next to me and, again, starts to slice his head into 3 sections. I find this very disturbing, and this time he looks pale, as if about to faint. As he starts the final incision I say, “We must call an ambulance.” The young man doesn’t want us to.

Interpretation: The young man is slicing the part of his head where thought takes place (above the brow) into three sections, reflecting the division of our minds into id, ego and superego (Freud) or conscious, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious (Jung). While the dream character doing the self dissection appears to be unbothered, the dream ego goes from concerned to alarmed. Perhaps my animus (Clark) and I are too eager to go learn from dreams (we are attending a dream lecture). There is no seat (place) for us here, and it is only my pushiness (going out of turn) that gets us in. Once in, the head slicer reappears, and this time he seems to be feeling some ill effects from his work on himself

Living at the Ritz

The Dream: Clark has bought a ski condo at the Ritz building in Manhattan. It is on Central Park South, facing the Park. Our condo is on a top floor and can be accessed only by going up ladders and through openings which look like holes in the ceiling. I find this method of access scary and cumbersome. Once I get up there, I wonder, how frightening will it be to come down?

When we finally get to our condo it’s very large, but dirty—stuffed with old furniture from previous occupants. It’s in need of a paint job, cleaning, clearing out. I’m not sure how this can be done, since there is no elevator and only a small entrance.

I’m in the lobby of the very fancy building, with uniformed doormen scurrying about. At first I feel quite classy for being a resident of such a place, but when I go outside to look at the building I see a marked change between the lower floors and the floor our condo is on. Our floor looks shabby, and it occurs to me that it must have been the servants’ quarters, which explains why it must be accessed with ladders.

I discover, however, that I can take the main staircase up to all but the very top floor. To get to the top I must still use a ladder, made of rope and hanging from the attic. I discover some workmen in the hall who are dealing with the mess upstairs, or attempting to.

Clark is quite pleased with the purchase of this condo, which he made without consulting me. He was uncharacteristically quick to buy it. When I reenter the condo, armed with my insight that it must originally have been the servants' area, I notice that, nevertheless, the ceilings are very high.

Interpretation: In my previous dream I faced my desire for wealth and fame; this dream takes the process forward. The part of me that deals with the world, what Jung calls my animus, is represented by Clark who has bought a ski condo at the top of the Ritz in Manhattan. That’s a pretty clear image of success! But the fly in the ointment soon emerges, as I discover the practical difficulties inherent in this success: it’s difficult to attain (must climb up ropes and go through hoops (holes) to get there, and once I do it’s messy and dirty. And was attaining this sort of success even my idea? The dream hints it isn’t, since my place is crammed with things from the past, put there by others.

To top it off, this success is a sham. My marvelous condo at the top of the Ritz looks shabby when I stand back and look at it, and I discover it once housed servants. But the situation is being worked on. Once my inner workmen clear out the debris left by others and I stop running after a version of success that is not true for me I start to notice the good things about where I am. The ceilings are, after all, impressively high.