Dinosaurs! My first dream since my introductory post! Let's dive in...
So, I'm not sure what the beginning of the dream was but from what I remember I was in a rectangular room with high ceilings and I was on a balcony maybe three quarters of the way up the wall. Across from me was another balcony but not accessible from where I was. A girl was in the room with me folding paper and wedging it into the ledge saying she was making steps to get to the other side. I remember thinking paper wasn't going to be strong enough but I let it go and said nothing. I stayed a few more minutes then I walked out of room. There was a gap that I don't remember what happened and then I was having a strange encounter being chased by a T-Rex. I was near the bottom of a valley in a large pond with a friend swimming when there was something that alerted me to a screen. It was similar to an old school Mario map where it shows you little picture icons of levels but this one showed a T-Rex jumping into our level and above me was a huge reddish T-Rex jumping the span of the pond and landing at the top of the valley. I yelled at the others to look out then my friend and I swam to a corner of the pond to try to hide behind a large piece of wooden debris. We could hear yelling and two more people ran around the path below the hill towards us then jumped into the pond. When they emerged above the surface, they spotted us and began to swim towards us but unfortunately they weren't fast enough and gave away our hiding spot when the T-Rex jumped down beside the edge of the pond. It looked directly at each of us and we started to try to swim away but I had the sense I was a goner. Somehow I made it to the side with the others and we started running. We could hear the T-Rex's heavy footsteps and roars behind us then something came over me and I stopped. Something interesting happened in my dream then because the perspective changed and instead of me seeing what was happening from my own person it spanned out to a third person perspective and I had undergone a transformation where I had become a raptor. As the T-Rex charged towards me I met it face on, then slid under him and jumped on his back up to his neck and began biting him until he fell over. I don't remember any other details other than I felt safe.
What does all this means, you might ask. Well, I will try to walk through my cognitive interpretation of dream work. Starting in the rectangular room with papers. The shape and size of the room was similar to a jail cell and combined with paper steps that were lined horizontally instead of vertically (which would suggest progress or growth) I had the sense of being stuck. Jung would often associate ascending or descending stairs to represent changes in an individuals level of consciousness and in this dream, there was no way for me to jump into the unconscious or climb to a higher level of consciousness. I cannot say for certain this dream is continued into my dinosaur dream or a separate REM cycle but I believe both dreams hold similarities.
A new way to describe my dream which may make it easier to interpret symbolically is being chased by a deadly predator, seeking refugee in murky water, having others compromise my safety, then achieving transformation in order to stop running and face my fears. Jung, as well as most dream analysts, indicate that running from dream subjects or objects is reflecting your defense mechanism of avoidance. In other words, you're not wanting to deal with some problem. This is a common theme many people experience. Another important aspect of this dream is the water. Nearly all analysts also agree that water in dreams represent the unconscious. The size, clarity, activity and depth of the water can all represent different things so sprinklers, pools, lakes, and oceans can all significantly change the meaning of a dream. In my case, I had sought refuge in my unconscious to keep me safe. The pond was large in size but still superficial in regards to large bodies of water, the depth was maybe 10 feet or so with still, but murky water. The clarity, or lack of same, can represent emotional resolve in the unconscious and in this case it would suggest I have little motivation to change my avoidant ways. But my dream progresses and shows me that if I am able to achieve some sense of transformation I would be able to face my fear or problem successfully.
While there were others in my dream I did not wake up with a sense of who they were or their gender, only that together there were four of us. While other people in dreams can be extremely important, in this case I believe the amount of people was more important to recognize. Now Jung completed an inordinate amount of research on the importance of numbers as an archetype in dreams but for now I shall focus on 4. There are a few possible interpretations which may be relevant to this dream. The first would be the stages of life being birth, childhood, adulthood then death. Another possible interpretation is more religious in natural signifying a whole with the father, the son, the Holy Ghost, and the self. Subjects in dreams are not necessarily interpreted as separate others but rather different aspects of the self. There, again, is a lot to be said but for brevity sake I believe this dream is suggesting there are parts of me that do not wish to change and motivate me to continue running and avoiding my problems.
Lastly you may be saying, dinosaurs? What could that possibly mean! To which I have to say I'm not convinced it means much. You see my sons birthday was this past weekend and you guessed it! It is dinosaur themed. Some people take the stance that dreams are meaningless because it's just convoluted memories from what we experience everyday but instead Jung believed that our unconscious mind attempts to take our everyday experiences and knowledge and use these objects and images for people to communicate metaphorically and symbolically to the unconscious. Even Freud has been known to say that sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar and in this case I think the dinosaur was just a readily available object in my dream to represent a danger.
Until next time, happy napping!