Pieces of paper

[shijing]

All of you who are good with dream analysis out there -- which I'm not -- I'm interested in getting your opinion about a dream I had last night. It started in some kind of a communal dining area, where I was with a group of friends from here, and most people were watching something on a TV that was mounted up toward the ceiling -- news or something like that I think. Someone, an authority figure (in the good sense) called from the kitchen -- I don't know or can't remember what exactly -- and one other friend and I responded, getting up and going into the kitchen. The person who called us had a bag full of pieces of paper, and proceeded to hand out several of them to us one at a time. There was a bit of a feeling of seriousness about it, as though the pieces of paper had some kind of important information, maybe for performing some kind of task or something. Then, toward the end of taking these pieces of paper, the friend I was with took my hands and gave me a look of complete reassurance. I woke up completely lucid almost immediately after this, with that feeling still lingering, and it was the middle of the night -- I had to go check the time to make sure it wasn't close to morning, but it wasn't, it was only just after 2:30 am. Since it's been very rare that I remember dreams for some time now, let alone wake up at the end of one (that's a first), it was kind of a unique experience -- any thoughts are welcome.

 

[truth seeker]

I thought it was interesting that only two "heard the call" while everyone else was distracted. Perhaps the paper represents the receiving of knowledge needed to perform a task? Maybe the entire dream represents a desire or willingness to learn and wake up?

edit: I "think" kitchens are usually thought of as the "heart" of the home.

 

[Ollie]

Hi Shijing

Dream action is about the dynamics of your own life (hopes, fears, questions, conflicts, way out of difficulties, possibilities, etc.) The dream action may use images from experiences of the previous day or so before, as well as others. The dream symbols may be both literal and symbolic interpretations – be curious and naïve in your interpretation.

Here are some questions to ask your-self, they may help. Or not.

When you re-experience the experiences in the dream, do they remind you of anything in life?

The setting, what does it feel like there? Does it remind you of anything in current life, any situation in life?

Who is ‘group of friends’ (tell me on the basis that I don’t know ‘group of friends’), what is ‘group of friends’ like? What kind of personality? What does ‘group of friends’ mean to you? What kind of person might you consider ‘group of friends’ to be like?

What is ‘group of friends’ like in your dream? What is ‘group of friends’’ doing in your dream?

What is your working, etc., relationship with ‘group of friends’’ like?

Is there some part of you that is like ‘group of friends’’?

Ask similar questions about ‘an authority figure (in the good sense)’, ‘one other friend’.

Positive characters are about strengths and achievements.
Negative characters represent conflicts in life (personification of attitudes, beliefs, habits, etc)

What does the ‘TV’ mean to you? How does it ‘work’? What is it used for? (ask on the basis that I know nothing about it)

What is the TV’ like in your dream? How do you feel about it?

Does ‘TV’ in your dream remind you of anything, any part of you, or anyone in your life? How?

Ask similar questions about ‘bag full of pieces of paper’, ‘pieces of paper’.

Imagery is often idiosyncratic yet culturally moulded, for example Victorian houses suggest attitudes held are Victorian, and might be those of the dreamer.

Rooms suggest areas of concern.

The action, events in the dream, what do they remind you of in your waking life?

Think about the dream as you go through the day, and test insights and ideas gained. Understand obvious metaphors. Keep using language and images of dream whenever possible. Interpretations may spring to light. String descriptions together to bridge dream experience to any situation in life. (Ref: adapted from Living Your Dreams by Gayle Delaney)

This may help, or not.

 

[Laura]

I had a dream, years ago, about pieces of paper coming to my house and everything changing as a result. That was just prior to Ark coming and, indeed, everything changed.

What do pieces of paper represent? Communication of some sort. They can contain knowledge; paper can represent money and therefore energy.

 

[shijing]

Thanks everyone for your replies to this, and I've gotten a lot of good feedback.

I thought it was interesting that only two "heard the call" while everyone else was distracted. Perhaps the paper represents the receiving of knowledge needed to perform a task? Maybe the entire dream represents a desire or willingness to learn and wake up?

I think there might be something to that final thought. As far as "who heard the call", the feeling that I got wasn't so much that everyone else was distracted per se, as much as maybe the call didn't apply to everyone, and if not they just stayed where they were -- kind of like "if your favorite color is green, come to the kitchen" (silly example, but something along those lines). That part is a little hazy, but it's what I kind of remember.

edit: I "think" kitchens are usually thought of as the "heart" of the home.

Rooms suggest areas of concern.

This is interesting, in part because this dream had the same kind of "feel" to it that another dream had that I posted about awhile ago which also involved the kitchen:

[This dream] happened when I received my FOTCM packet in the mail last fall -- the night it came, I dreamed that my parents and I were visiting the chateau in France. I remember that it was very green and sunny outside, and when Laura (and maybe others?) greeted us, I had a feeling like, "it's really nice to finally meet you." My parents were taken on a tour of the grounds or something like that, but I went inside and found my way to the kitchen, where I ended up meeting a younger (mid- to late twenties) woman and having a conversation that seemed to last quite a long time.

Trevrizent, I was hoping that you'd show up here :) Thanks for all of the suggestions, and I have been and will be considering all of them in turn (there's a lot!). For now, there are just a couple of things I can mention:

Who is ‘group of friends’ (tell me on the basis that I don’t know ‘group of friends’), what is ‘group of friends’ like?

The group of friends are some people I spent time with a couple weeks ago -- good people, and I recognized some faces, although others were blurry.

What does the ‘TV’ mean to you? How does it ‘work’? What is it used for? (ask on the basis that I know nothing about it)

What is the TV’ like in your dream? How do you feel about it?

Normally I hate TV for the most part (although I occasionally have a favorite show I'll watch once a week -- not the case right now). However, in my dream the TV didn't seem to have an overtly negative quality -- I kind of feel like the news everyone was watching was the TV equivalent of SOTT; in other words, not the regular fluffy crap you expect to be on TV, but meaningful news about current events. That part is hazy too, and I'm reconstructing that more on my remembered feelings than on specific details that I'm able to recall.

I had a dream, years ago, about pieces of paper coming to my house and everything changing as a result. That was just prior to Ark coming and, indeed, everything changed.

Huh. That kind of floored me when I read it earlier this morning, partly because right after I posted about this dream before I went to bed last night, I posted this song, which was kind of representative of various things that have been on my mind.

What do pieces of paper represent? Communication of some sort. They can contain knowledge; paper can represent money and therefore energy.

That's really kind of interesting -- lots to think about. Dream journal officially started

 

[Voyageur]

[quote author=Shijing]
... Dream journal officially started
[/quote]

Thanks for unpacking your dream Shijing and for the interpretations offered by others.

Between EE and Melatonin there have been a few of late centered around the Forum; communicative, positive feeling, but not able to log them for lack of piecing together in a form that writing them down would be coherent. Strangely, these have felt like the screen interface between us was not really there. Felt like talking face to face with friends in a room.

Shijing, your dream seemed to be amongst your friends, personal, being given, receiving, being aware and being reassured.

Sometimes it seems dreams can take you into that zone as described by Lethbridge; don't have his book at hand, but it seems that the consciousness of the dream is somewhat personal, yet it feels like you've entered midstream, into something you can't define as being associated with your consciousness pictures; some other consciousness merging? Pictures you've never encountered.

Lately dreams have seemed so real that to awake, momentarily, reality as known feels like a separate reality; the dream world - kind of scary in a unfamiliar way. Momentarily you kind of feel left on a bridge between realms not knowing which is which. This feeling may be familiar to many, yet for some reason it seems more pronounced these days.

Anyway, keep logging your dreams Shijing.

(L) Dream work is when... and I guess you'll have to read some of Ark's journal entries. What you'll need to do is read some of his journal entries and see how he approached a problem of the self. Then when you see how he wrote it down, how he looked at it, saw it, looked at it from different directions. Once you see how to identify the problems, how to think about them, then what you do is you do the meditation. Then when that's over, or even while you're doing it, you think about the problem. You come at it in the same way as if you were writing about it. Maybe even take memories and you examine them and you think about them. You think about everything you can remember. And then you have it in your mind as you go to sleep. Then, if you wake up during the night with a dream, or in the morning with some insight, you write it down. This is where stuff comes from really deep areas. It may be something that's not so much current life dissociation as it is something even deeper. That might be a question you might want to ask.

This was helpful when I read it before.

 

[shijing]

Hi Parallax --

Between EE and Melatonin there have been a few of late centered around the Forum; communicative, positive feeling, but not able to log them for lack of piecing together in a form that writing them down would be coherent. Strangely, these have felt like the screen interface between us was not really there. Felt like talking face to face with friends in a room.

Shijing, your dream seemed to be amongst your friends, personal, being given, receiving, being aware and being reassured.

Yeah, that actually describes the general flavor -- there have been some of these kinds of dreams mentioned recently, and it would be interesting to collect the specific examples. The large number of recently-reported dreams have been more ominous, and it was kind of weird having this cryptic but ultimately happy dream in the midst of all of these others, but there might be some cross-currents at work.

Sometimes it seems dreams can take you into that zone as described by Lethbridge; don't have his book at hand, but it seems that the consciousness of the dream is somewhat personal, yet it feels like you've entered midstream, into something you can't define as being associated with your consciousness pictures; some other consciousness merging? Pictures you've never encountered.

That is certainly true about the general environment -- the people in the dream all were or seemed familiar, but the situation was certainly something I'd never encountered.

(L) Dream work is when... and I guess you'll have to read some of Ark's journal entries. What you'll need to do is read some of his journal entries and see how he approached a problem of the self. Then when you see how he wrote it down, how he looked at it, saw it, looked at it from different directions. Once you see how to identify the problems, how to think about them, then what you do is you do the meditation. Then when that's over, or even while you're doing it, you think about the problem. You come at it in the same way as if you were writing about it. Maybe even take memories and you examine them and you think about them. You think about everything you can remember. And then you have it in your mind as you go to sleep. Then, if you wake up during the night with a dream, or in the morning with some insight, you write it down. This is where stuff comes from really deep areas. It may be something that's not so much current life dissociation as it is something even deeper. That might be a question you might want to ask.

This was helpful when I read it before.

I appreciate you re-posting it -- it is helpful to read that again now. I kind of felt that the dream was forward-looking as opposed to backward-looking (i.e. about past lives), but something deeper than current life dissociation nonetheless? Maybe...

Anyway, keep logging your dreams Shijing.

I just need to be able to remember more of them now :D But I've got the journal ready for whenever it happens.