Dreams

I always feel a little uncomfortable talking about this subject because it can get kinda "hocus pocus" and people think I've got tarot cards in my back pocket when I do. But, what the heck.

Since I was a kid... for as long as I can remember, I've been able to do a pretty good job interpreting dreams. Dreams can yield some pretty amazing stuff. Your subconscious is an awesomely powerful thing and your dreams can really do a number on you if you are prone to worry or anxiety. When I was a kid and up into the teenager years, I was plagued with horrible dreams. I know now (from a recent and thorough psych evaluation,) that I have general anxiety disorder, among other things. In a nutshell, I am prone to catastrophic thoughts.

And since I was a lad, I have always had horrible fears and phobias. Most of the fears were about people that I love dying or that I was going to die - suffering the most recent disease that I learned about. I still have a problem watching shows like House or Grey's Anatomy because of all the emotional catastrophic things that happen to people. (Not to mention wiping the Velveeta off the screen after Grey's.) My hands start to sweat somewhere in the first five minutes of the episode and it usually takes a couple of hours to get over the show. Weird, huh?

Anyways, when people tell me their dreams or post their dreams, I usually know immediately or close to immediately what the dream means. I'm not sure if it is a gift or whatever, I'm not sure I even like it. But the fact remains, I'm usually pretty accurate. The thing is, most people know what their dreams mean anyways, but they have built a subconscious or conscious wall so as not to see what the dreams are trying to say. That's why the dream expresses your fear or whatever in such a weird way. They usually use symbols or some other random thing you saw or heard during the day to express the emotions. Essentially, the mind is using code to express what you won't say. Pretty natural as most times people do not really want to whine about their feelings.

The whole subject of dreams is pretty interesting to me as many disturbing dreams have common motifs. Running around in the buck and trying to find clothes is the most common. What surprises me is how much bunk their is posted on the subject. It is as if these "experts" have never read a sentence of Jung or Freud, though to Freud everything is always about momma and sex. Jungian psychology is the most prevalent school of thought in most psychology circles these days. The oddest thing about the whole thing to me is that when I have strange dreams, I really have a hard time interpreting them.

I had a composition professor once who was subbing adjunct for a professor who was on sabbatical. This subbing professor was also a very successful and licensed psychologist. Our professor/grad-assistant sessions usually turned into some kind of therapy session and in that particular semester, (the semester I was studying for my comps, teaching a huge load of private students, teaching two ear training classes at Rice, making a record and working 30 hours a week at the church) some things were made known to me about myself that I hadn't been able to see. Fear, mostly. Stuff I was afraid of and what I was doing to cover the fear. The COOLEST thing was that he showed me most of this stuff through interpreting a whole series of odd dreams.

Dreams are strange and powerful things because you really aren't in control of them. However, I believe that you can even pray about your dreams and ask the Good Lord to reveal stuff to you or even to help you make decisions for the future. You can also pray, and should pray, for protection in your dreams as they can bring things to the forefront that should not be, or that aren't really there, but take the form of "the real" because of some fear you have.

That's all I'll say about the subject at this point. What do you guys think? Any strange dreams lately? Think there is anything to the whole dream-subconscious thing?