Psychology of Dreams

[Rin Daemoko]

For quite some time now, I've been interested in the psychology of my dreams. Interpretting dream symbols is pretty much useless, from what I've come to understand since the most important thing about dreams is what it means to the dreamer. I've had four major themes of dreams in my lifetime, and while I think I may have some idea as to what they refer to, I'm largely clueless about them.

If anyone can offer any insights, or even point me in the right direction, I would be grateful.

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The first major theme is power. These are the most common kind of dream I have (I have at least one a week), and I've had them almost as long as the second theme. This usually mean I have some sort of power over reality itself - over matter, essence, and the minds of others. The degree to which I can wield this power varies.

In some dreams, I can influence reality. In others, I can bend it to my will completely. In either case, I can use my influence or bending to do any number of things from protect myself from harm, transmute enemies into allies, slaughter millions of people at once, turn deserts into rainforest, et cetera.

I think this theme is telling me that I know I have power over the world I create for myself, out of my experiences and perceptions. That everything I endure is ultimately up to me (I don't mean external happenings, but rather internal interpretations which are just as potent).

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The second theme is journeys. This involves not just travel in itself, but important or mystical travel. Diving into water, then emerging in another place. Opening doors that lead to other worlds. Flying beyond this plane to other realities. Journeying down into the lands of the dead. I can go anywhere, anytime, and the passage is marked by something auspicious.

I've been having these dreams for as long as I can remember, and the earliest kind of these dreams I've had involve being among thousands of criss-crossing train tracks. There are so many that you have to stand on one, and so you have to be vigilant to move off one set of tracks before a train hits you, and then to move off again before a train comes down those set of tracks.

I'm not really sure what this says about my psychology.

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The third theme isn't much of a theme as it is a kind of dream that happens often. It happens that I know upon waking with absolute certainty that I've had a very interesting and very vivid dream, but I can never remember what happened in the dream. I have not the slightest clue as to its content, and no amount of reflection (active or passive) will help me to recall what it was about. Yet I know that it was very meaningful.

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The fourth major theme has been happening with greater and greater frequency. These are dreams of a purely sexual nature, and they involve anyone from attractive celebrities, to friends (whom I consider to be just friends). The strange thing is that it never really matters what face is on the person with whom I'm engaged, what matters is their essence; their nature or archetypal theme. This is always strong masculinism.

I've stuggled with my sexuality for some time, curious as to why I like men, but not man parts. I never fit in with most gays since, sexually, they're all about the man parts. I don't really care about actual sex, or sexual organs. It's simply this essential nature that I'm strongly attracted to - which explains my affinity for the Sun.

What this says about my psychology is quite obvious.
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[Ðanisty]

That's very interesting Rin. I have a lot of these dreams myself.

The dreams of power aren't so common for me which I guess is kind of strange if you think about it. I'm a fan of comics, manga, anime, video games, sci-fi and fantasy. I've been roleplaying for over a decade. You'd think I would have these dreams more often.

The journey dreams...I have those dreams all the time. They are not always physical journeys though. A lot of mine are mental journeys. These are some of my most satisfying dreams even though they don't always make sense. For me (and I don't know if this helps you Rin or not) these dreams tend to mean that I'm learning something new. Learning isn't really something that only happens with effort...sometimes it's just an experience that opens a new door, etc. Usually my journey dreams coincide with that.

I really hate it when I can't remember my dreams. Most of the time I have this overwhelming feeling that they were great dreams too. I get distracted all day trying to remember something about them.

The sexual dreams are probably my most common dreams. I have them at least 3 times a week. I don't really have dreams about celebrities. Sometimes I'll have dreams about the characters on a TV show (did that last night...lol...Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds...yup, the geeky genius). Sometimes I'll have a dream where the original characters in my dream are played by certain actors. I don't ever just dream about the actors though. A lot of my sexual dreams involve people I know, but they don't always look the same in my dream. There will be someone in my dream and I know in the dream that they are supposed to be a particular friend of mine even though they look nothing like that person. These are not people that I feel sexually attracted to (although my mind makes them sexually attractive in my dream when it changes their appearance). I'm honestly not sure what this says about me, but I'd really like to know. Sometimes I wake up a little embarassed that I'm having such raunchy dreams about my friends when in reality I don't find them the least bit sexually attractive.

I'll add a theme to this list as well. I have a tendency to dream that I'm being chased. Often, I am being "chased" by tornados. I have a phobia of tornados and I'm not sure which came first...the phobia or the nightmares. The tornado dreams are unrealistic in that there could be six or seven tornados in one town and obviously tornados don't actually "chase" people. Other than that though, they are extremely vivid and terrifying. The tornados always do catch up to me, but I naturally always survive. When I was little a had a recurring dream about being chased by a green glowing orb. I was usually running down hallways of a large building. There were certain places I could go where I'd be safe, but they were always really far away. In these dreams, I always made it to the safe place because it was obvious in the dream that once the orb catches up to you, there is no way you can survive. Occasionally my dreams of being chased are dreams where I'm actually being hunted down by other people, but this is pretty uncommon.

[Rin Daemoko]

The journey dreams...I have those dreams all the time. They are not always physical journeys though. A lot of mine are mental journeys. These are some of my most satisfying dreams even though they don't always make sense. For me (and I don't know if this helps you Rin or not) these dreams tend to mean that I'm learning something new. Learning isn't really something that only happens with effort...sometimes it's just an experience that opens a new door, etc. Usually my journey dreams coincide with that.
That is very insightful, and very helpful, thank you! I never considered this aspect of these dreams before, but now that you mention it, it does make perfect sense. Journeying in dreams involves discovery and exploration, and this is perfectly mirrored in the waking experiences of learning.

It's very interesting that you and I have these dreams frequently. Does anyone else you know have dreams like this? You're the first person I've encountered who has. No one else that I know in person has ever spoken of having these kinds of dreams. (Though, a lot of my friends don't remember their dreams usually - I always found it odd that it's uncommon for me not to remember a dream.)

The sexual dreams are probably my most common dreams. I have them at least 3 times a week. I don't really have dreams about celebrities. Sometimes I'll have dreams about the characters on a TV show (did that last night...lol...Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds...yup, the geeky genius). Sometimes I'll have a dream where the original characters in my dream are played by certain actors. I don't ever just dream about the actors though. A lot of my sexual dreams involve people I know, but they don't always look the same in my dream. There will be someone in my dream and I know in the dream that they are supposed to be a particular friend of mine even though they look nothing like that person. These are not people that I feel sexually attracted to (although my mind makes them sexually attractive in my dream when it changes their appearance). I'm honestly not sure what this says about me, but I'd really like to know. Sometimes I wake up a little embarassed that I'm having such raunchy dreams about my friends when in reality I don't find them the least bit sexually attractive.
It's great that you'd bring up how someone in a sex dream will not attractive in the waking world, but in the dreamscape they are attractive enough to warrant engaging in sexual activity with. This happens to me as well.

I also experienced the embarassment. I don't feel embarassed as much as I used to, considering what personal insights I've had into my particular sex dreams.

Though, someone once told me that in sex dreams, the person with whom you are engaged is someone you want to (consciously or otherwise) have a deeper relationship with (not necessarily romantic or sexual; it can be just a more meaningful friendship). I'm sure that's not true in every case, and this insight isn't particularly helpful when the identity of the person in the sex dream doesn't really matter (or changes frequently).

I'll add a theme to this list as well. I have a tendency to dream that I'm being chased. Often, I am being "chased" by tornados. I have a phobia of tornados and I'm not sure which came first...the phobia or the nightmares. The tornado dreams are unrealistic in that there could be six or seven tornados in one town and obviously tornados don't actually "chase" people. Other than that though, they are extremely vivid and terrifying. The tornados always do catch up to me, but I naturally always survive. When I was little a had a recurring dream about being chased by a green glowing orb. I was usually running down hallways of a large building. There were certain places I could go where I'd be safe, but they were always really far away. In these dreams, I always made it to the safe place because it was obvious in the dream that once the orb catches up to you, there is no way you can survive. Occasionally my dreams of being chased are dreams where I'm actually being hunted down by other people, but this is pretty uncommon.
I've had tornado dreams as well, when I was much younger. I live on the prairies, and always have, so thunderstorms and tornadoes are a fact of life. I've also experienced the multiple tornado thing.

I no longer have these kinds of dreams because my Power dreams have bled into all the others. The last time I had a Tornado dream, I simply stopped the tornadoes, dissipated the clouds, and enjoyed the scenery.

The same goes for all of my chase dreams, which I also used to have with frequency. The last one I had involved several friends and I being in a very old house. We were told that there was a demon who stalked the halls sometimes. We heard it approaching, so we locked ourselves in one of the bedrooms, and we could hear its rumbling, thunderous footsteps and its deep bellowing voice. It was truly frightening.

Then, out of the blue, the Power crept in. I walked to the door, swung it open to see the towering, horrifying beast there, and I lovingly embraced it and told it that I wish it would have happiness and its causes, be free from suffering and its causes, and to abide in equanimity free from attachment, aversion, and ignorance (how very Buddhist of me). The demon then became a good friend in the dream before it ended, and I haven't had any chase dreams since.

[Ðanisty]

It's very interesting that you and I have these dreams frequently. Does anyone else you know have dreams like this? You're the first person I've encountered who has. No one else that I know in person has ever spoken of having these kinds of dreams. (Though, a lot of my friends don't remember their dreams usually - I always found it odd that it's uncommon for me not to remember a dream.)Hmm...it never really occurred to me that these dreams would be uncommon. Maybe they are. I know I have a greater love of learning than most people I've met. Maybe my thirst for knowledge presents it's self in my dreaming too.


It's great that you'd bring up how someone in a sex dream will not attractive in the waking world, but in the dreamscape they are attractive enough to warrant engaging in sexual activity with. This happens to me as well.

I also experienced the embarassment. I don't feel embarassed as much as I used to, considering what personal insights I've had into my particular sex dreams.I don't really have any personal insights into mine.

Though, someone once told me that in sex dreams, the person with whom you are engaged is someone you want to (consciously or otherwise) have a deeper relationship with (not necessarily romantic or sexual; it can be just a more meaningful friendship). I'm sure that's not true in every case, and this insight isn't particularly helpful when the identity of the person in the sex dream doesn't really matter (or changes frequently).It makes me feel simultaneously better and worse that my husband doesn't exist in these dreams. It's not as if in the dream i'm cheating on him because he's nowhere in the story. It does feel a little bad though that he's never the object of affection in my dreams. When he is in my dreams, they are more like adventure dreams and we act more like partners or friends. Perhaps this is a sign that my marriage is already satisfying and I don't need sexual or romantic dreams about him? The weirdest ones for me are when I have sexual dreams about internet friends that I've never met in person. Has that ever happened to you?


I've had tornado dreams as well, when I was much younger. I live on the prairies, and always have, so thunderstorms and tornadoes are a fact of life. I've also experienced the multiple tornado thing.Well, at least you've got a good excuse. I live in Georgia. I ought to be having nightmares about hurricanes or something (of course I'm well aware that hurricanes spawn tornados...)

I no longer have these kinds of dreams because my Power dreams have bled into all the others. The last time I had a Tornado dream, I simply stopped the tornadoes, dissipated the clouds, and enjoyed the scenery.

The same goes for all of my chase dreams, which I also used to have with frequency. The last one I had involved several friends and I being in a very old house. We were told that there was a demon who stalked the halls sometimes. We heard it approaching, so we locked ourselves in one of the bedrooms, and we could hear its rumbling, thunderous footsteps and its deep bellowing voice. It was truly frightening.

Then, out of the blue, the Power crept in. I walked to the door, swung it open to see the towering, horrifying beast there, and I lovingly embraced it and told it that I wish it would have happiness and its causes, be free from suffering and its causes, and to abide in equanimity free from attachment, aversion, and ignorance (how very Buddhist of me). The demon then became a good friend in the dream before it ended, and I haven't had any chase dreams since.I've never quite got the hang of this sort of thing. My husband started lucid dreaming when he was 12. He's tried to give me tips, but I've never been able to pull it off. Maybe it's because my dreams are so vivid and real. I've been told that most people don't dream in color, but I do more often than not. I've also been told it's impossible to actually read in a dream...that you just see gibberish and know what it means, but I've done that too.

[Rin Daemoko]

It makes me feel simultaneously better and worse that my husband doesn't exist in these dreams. It's not as if in the dream i'm cheating on him because he's nowhere in the story. It does feel a little bad though that he's never the object of affection in my dreams. When he is in my dreams, they are more like adventure dreams and we act more like partners or friends. Perhaps this is a sign that my marriage is already satisfying and I don't need sexual or romantic dreams about him? The weirdest ones for me are when I have sexual dreams about internet friends that I've never met in person. Has that ever happened to you?
I think that is an enviable sign of a healthy marriage, when your dreams of your husband are as a partner or good friend on adventures. At least, that's my opinion.

I can't say I've ever had dreams about internet friends, though. I think it may be because I don't really know anyone that well online.

I've never quite got the hang of this sort of thing. My husband started lucid dreaming when he was 12. He's tried to give me tips, but I've never been able to pull it off. Maybe it's because my dreams are so vivid and real. I've been told that most people don't dream in color, but I do more often than not. I've also been told it's impossible to actually read in a dream...that you just see gibberish and know what it means, but I've done that too.
It completely shocked me to learn that most people do not dream in colour. I've only ever had one non-colour dream, and it was the sort of monochromatic dream that fit the theme of the dream - it was like an old sci-fi movie-dream out of the early twentieth-century.

It's not uncommon for me to have dreams so incredibly crisp and clear and vivid that, upon waking, I think that the waking world is the mistake. Everything seems much more dull and blunted in the world after I have those kinds of dreams.

The whole lucid dreaming thing I stumbled upon by accident. For a very long time, before I fell asleep, I would have day-dreams. I would play out fantasies and scenarios as I drifted off into slumber. I guess it makes sense that my ability to control my day-dreaming would leak into my night-dreaming as a result. I don't know if that's an actual technique or tip that other lucid dreamers use or give to others, though, as I've never looked into the subject itself. I can just do it (most of the time).

[Ðanisty]

Okay, I just took a nap and had the funniest dream. Are you guys familiar with magnetic poetry? Here's a link if you're not:
http://www.magneticpoetry.com/

I had a dream that I was coming home from work and I had to stop at the gas station. When I was there, someone spotted a huge dragon coming. I managed to fill up in time, but it was following me. I managed to lose it. I'm not sure what that part of the dream was supposed to be about. Here's the funny part though. When I got home, I called m1thr0s and he came over (pretty amazing since were' on opposite sides of the country). We were hanging out and playing with occult-related magnetic poetry...it was so strange...especially since I don't even know what m1thr0s looks like...lol.

[m1thr0s]

I'm always having so much fun in other people's dreams!
geez...I need to pay more attention I think...lol

http://abrahadabra.com/images/dreambug.gif
believe it or not, I get this same report from others from time to time.
I really don't have any idea what it means exactly...but I apparently do show up in people's dreams.
Curiously enough, I have never appeared as a common salesman...so it's not all bad at least...

m1thr0s

[Nuhad418]

For quite some time now, I've been interested in the psychology of my dreams. Interpretting dream symbols is pretty much useless, from what I've come to understand since the most important thing about dreams is what it means to the dreamer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/Rin_Daemoko/Animated%20Gifs/Blue-Ray-1d.gif (http://rin_daemoko.livejournal.com)


Hello Rin,

I'm curious why you consider interpretation useless? Literalising metaphoric images is useless but even the act of remembering themes or aspects of them is interpreting them. What about interpretation distasteful?

[Rin Daemoko]

I find it distasteful that books and professionals like to tell me what, for example, demons mean in my dreams. They try to impress upon me their ideas of what demons in dreams are, when in fact my mind does not think about them in the same manner.

So, going on such psychological asssumptions, a false dream interpretation is usually what I get.

[Nuhad418]

I find it distasteful that books and professionals like to tell me what, for example, demons mean in my dreams. They try to impress upon me their ideas of what demons in dreams are, when in fact my mind does not think about them in the same manner.

So, going on such psychological asssumptions, a false dream interpretation is usually what I get.

Hi Rin, (Please note that the definitions I provide below are not meant to be insulting. I simply include them for the benifit of clarity [yeah sure :laugh: ] and those who may not know the technical application of the terms)

Interesting. And I agree with you. Though there are some forms of psychotherapy, such as most analytical psychologists who use dreams in their practice, that will begin with the personal interpretation. In other words, what do they mean to you. The analyst is not interested in finding concrete meaning to impose. They may have an some ideas but will general keep them from the analysand. Following that, and if the personal interpretation does not lead any where then there is the possibility of amplification* or some form of comparitive method. Or, should that fail or should the analysis require it something like active imagination** could be used.

As for your mind not thinking that way, this is true. However, and again there is no reason why you would "buy into" this perspective but I offer it all the same, what an analyst would be looking at is not what your conscious ego-complex thinks of the images but what the unconscious is trying to communicate through those specific images. After thousands of case studies (and yes yet again there are arguments against this ssumption of a teleological unconscious) you can see that there are indeed some common applications of symbols such as, for example, insects and animals and even occult beings. Most people will feel fear and terror when being chased by a grizzly bear (or demon for that matter) therefor in most people the impinging of the unconscious on consciousness is terrifying and the symbols in a dream will carry a similar feel. However, one's personal read on these things should not be omitted. It should be the first stop.


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*Amplification. A method of association based on the comparative study of mythology, religion and fairy tales, used in the interpretation of images in dreams and drawings.

**Active imagination. A method of assimilating unconscious contents (dreams, fantasies, etc.) through some form of self-expression. (See also transcendent function.)


The object of active imagination is to give a voice to sides of the personality (particularly the anima/animus and the shadow) that are normally not heard, thereby establishing a line of communication between consciousness and the unconscious. Even when the end products-drawing, painting, writing, sculpture, dance, music, etc.-are not interpreted, something goes on between creator and creation that contributes to a transformation of consciousness.
The first stage of active imagination is like dreaming with open eyes. It can take place spontaneously or be artificially induced. In the latter case you choose a dream, or some other fantasy-image, and concentrate on it by simply catching hold of it and looking at it. You can also use a bad mood as a starting-point, and then try to find out what sort of fantasy-image it will produce, or what image expresses this mood. You then fix this image in the mind by concentrating your attention. Usually it will alter, as the mere fact of contemplating it animates it. The alterations must be carefully noted down all the time, for they reflect the psychic processes in the unconscious background, which appear in the form of images consisting of conscious memory material. In this way conscious and unconscious are united, just as a waterfall connects above and below.[The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 706.]The second stage, beyond simply observing the images, involves a conscious participation in them, the honest evaluation of what they mean about oneself, and a morally and intellectually binding commitment to act on the insights. This is a transition from a merely perceptive or aesthetic attitude to one of judgment.
Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important advance. So long as he simply looks at the pictures he is like the foolish Parsifal, who forgot to ask the vital question because he was not aware of his own participation in the action.[An allusion to the medieval Grail legend. The question Parsifal failed to ask was, "Whom does the Grail serve?" ]. . . But if you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real.["The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 753.] The judging attitude implies a voluntary involvement in those fantasy-processes which compensate the individual and-in particular-the collective situation of consciousness. The avowed purpose of this involvement is to integrate the statements of the unconscious, to assimilate their compensatory content, and thereby produce a whole meaning which alone makes life worth living and, for not a few people, possible at all. [ Ibid., par. 756.]

[feranaja]

I find it distasteful that books and professionals like to tell me what, for example, demons mean in my dreams. They try to impress upon me their ideas of what demons in dreams are, when in fact my mind does not think about them in the same manner.

So, going on such psychological asssumptions, a false dream interpretation is usually what I get.


Here's my thing with the psychology of dreams, fwiw(and I know Nuhad is composing a far more scholarly answer as I write, but this is my experience)...

For years I studied Jungian symbolism because for me, it encompassed the broadest landscapoe of symbolism and was far less puerile than Freud's fixated vision...and when Iembarked on an actual analysis, I began to have dreams that incorporated all of the symbols so transparently it caused my analyst to remark I didn't need him, all my dreams were an open book. And I foudn that language highly effective as a tool for personal insight and development, although I never understood it as some sort of Ultimate Reality. It was alwasy interesting to me to explore other possible interpretation fo dreams, although my analyst thought this was fruitless and possibly slowed down my progress in the analysis, I did it anyway. When I wrote up my dreams I'd takc on a Qabalistic interpretation at the end which he would just ignore (and then after a while when I continued to do it, he took this as me challenging him, when - at least consciously, what I was doing was hoping to get him interested).

The idea, to use an example from my personal dreamscape, that dogs represent faithjfulness, loyalty, safety and courage while cats stand for instinctuality and eros, has both uses and limitations. I dreamed all the time about animals while in analysis and the model was VERY useful - but not necessarily more than that. Dogs "became" safety and devotion, cats (mine were often lions and panthers) were sexuality, bears were the Devouring mother, horses the inner drive to achievement. All of that "worked" insofar as the dreams and how we interp[reted them very nicely reflectd the reality I was dealing with on a conscious level. JD (my analyst) used to laughingly call this "my inner zoo".

BUt - looked at from another perspective, why WOULDNT a veterinarian's daughter who works with animals and feels closer to them than to humans, have such imagery informing her dreams?

For me, using a psychological model is a pragmatic issue. In my periods of most intense, disciplined dreamwork, I was dealing with longstanding patterns that obviously had deep roots in the unconscious, and as well, my occultist self was very curious about how an analysis would affect and influence my development. So while in Jungian analysis I immersed myself in that symbolism - always with a small bit of detachment, as if one self was watching the other be analyzed. I think these models of interpretation are all valid, it's a matter of deciding what you want from dreamwork and finding a model you respect and can work with.

Did that make sense?
fera