Anybody care to interpret this dream?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve had this dream a few times now. It’s identical every time, and I have my own ideas (in fact a fair certainty) as to what it means, but I get interesting responses (and sometimes really strange looks) every time I explain it to another person. Here goes:

The setting is the beach, most likely the Jersey shore, but there are no signs or markings that would make that certain. The time is indiscernable, but it is day, and the sky is overcast. The beach is completely empty. Everyone I know - in fact, everyone I have ever met in my life - is in the ocean. The people with whom I have the strongest bonds (immediate family, fiancee, etc) are situated closest to me, and those people more socially/emotionally distant in their relationships with me are correspondingly farther away down the stretch of ocean. We are not in a straight line, but are instead a staggered line just offshore, everyone approximately (give or take twenty feet or so) the same distance from the sand - maybe 40-50 yards, and well past the break point. Assuming that we are on the east coast, I am almost at the southernmost end of the line of people, with only two persons, my fiancee and an unknown (I can’t see his/her face) individual standing to my left. The line of people to the north (my right) extends beyond the visible horizon.

The water is up to our necks. All of us. Constantly. When the waves swell, we all must tread water to keep from submerging. When the waves ebb, we can touch the sand beneath us, but only just enough to stand at neck-depth until the next swell comes in. The water never comes higher than our necks, and it never goes any lower. And in this way we bob, over and over. We are calm, not panicking, perfectly serene. And as we bob, we say nothing. There is no conversation at all. All we do is stare at the one and only significant object on the dunes: a worn, weathered white wooden sign, facing the water, on which is written in red paint the simple instruction, “NO WADING PAST HIP DEPTH.”

That’s the whole dream. We bob forever, always at neck depth, as we stare at the sign that tells us we shouldn’t be in past our hips. The dream goes on for what seems like twenty minutes or so, and then it ends without change or resolution.

As I said before, I’m fairly certain what this dream means, but I’d like a few opinions before I taint anyone else’s interpretation with my own.

2

That would put you at the northernmost end. :wink:

You have a sense of security and are comfortable doing something that is clearly forbidden. Or maybe you feel like you’re somewhere that was deserted, and it used to be dangerous butis now serene. Does the dream have any emotion to it? The empty overcast beach sounds rather desolate IMO. That might indicate the latter.

3

One interpretation - you are all dead, symbolised by the idea of going past hip level and drowning. The person to your left is either God or the devil. You are frightened of dying soon, since you were the first to go, of all the people you know. If it’s Jersey, more likely to be hell, but the serenity of the whole thing kinda implies heaven.

Alternatively, you are very worried about the planet and want to escape with yer mates. The coastline is actually Santa Monica and you are a big fan of the song that goes “We could swim out past the breakers, watch the world die”.

4

Water signifies sexual feelings, or very strong emotion. You have issues with trust and openness, even though you care deeply for those close to you, you tend to hide your feelings, not necessarily for the reasons others hide theirs. The people you love should, and in your mind do know exactly what you feel toward them. If you speak it, you might lose it.
You know too, that the stong feeling you have are not the norm, and outsiders would be critical of your “weakness.” So you stand up to your neck, with everyone you love, not telling them and not hearing them tell you.

Naw, you probably just had to pee.

5

Re-read my OP. We’re on the East coast, facing the shore. That makes south my left, and north my right. I’m at the southernmost end.

6

Oops… missed that the first time. :smack: :o

7

It symbolizes your realization that you have doomed everybody you know. You have taken these people with you, out past safe depth. They can tread water for a while, but in time they will all tire and drown.

All this will become clear when your fiance leaves you for that strange man, who takes her to safety.

When that day comes, you will drive out to the beach, walk into the sea and drown yourself.

Seek professional help.

8

You’re gay.
/kidding

But seriously, I wouldn’t even try to interprate that dream. It’s just that I vaguely remember something about reading while you dream. I can’t remember what it was though, something about left side right side brain usage? I also remember it’s damn near impossible to read while dreaming. Although I have done this myself.

Anyway I the jist of what I’m trying to say is figure out what it means to be able to read while you dream might produce clues as to what your dream means.

Also remember even Freud himself said “Sometimes a duck is just a duck…”

9

Well, FreakyDreams.com says this about your dream:
Words like beach: Where conscious and unconscious meet.

Words like ocean: A great expanse or amount. Vast, limitless feelings. Your feeling overwhelmed with emotions.

Words like down: Overturned. Confusion. Great disorder. You want to straighten something out.

Words like or: Restricted vision. Cloud. Screen Looking to hide certain feelings

Words like feet: socks signify clothing problems

Hmmmm. It appears that you need to buy some new clothes and reorganize that closet. :smiley:

10

I don’t buy the explanations given heretofore.

Except one: Whenever I dream about water in great quantities, it invariably means I have to take a big piss.

But that’s just me. I think the dream is transcendental; it’s deep, no pun intended, and if it’s a recurring dream then I believe it’s conveying an important message. Such dreams come from deep within the psyche, the inner core.

As it is a transcendental dream (i.e., conveys a message that transcends ordinary concepts) no easy interpretation can be given. But I have some ideas. The dream is telling you about your relationship to the world and the people in it. The theme is one of freedom, limits, and control. The sign is the focus of all, the water is what controls all, and you are the second focus of the elipse: all are arrayed according to their relationship to you.

“No one past his depth.” A command. But the water itself, the controlling force, guarantees that no one is fatally past his depth.

Do not dive past your depth into the spirit–you may drown. Yet one should not go back to the shore, where no understanding is available. The people are obeying yet controlled by their own psyches, the water. In a way, this is a disappointment. You could lead them otherwise, were you not controlled yourself.

Ultimately, you won’t obey the sign. You’ll go deeper into the water, and you won’t drown. The others will have to take responsiblity for their own spiritual progress.

11

So far, Aeschines, your interpretation is closest to my own. A minor correction, though: the sign reads “No wading past HIP depth.” Either way, however, we’re breaking the rules. The significance of the infraction is what irks me.

I have always believed that waders in the dream suffer from a universal delusion of personal freedom and autonomy. They calmly, defiantly and securely stand out past the allowed depth and stare nonchalantly back at the sign, confident that their infraction, while certainly conspicuous, has left them no worse for the wear. In that way, they live their lives, always in safe, quiet, self-assured defiance of society’s relatively minor rules, as we’d all so often like to see ourselves. But who cares? In truth, they are ignorant to the reality of the situation: the ocean controls their every move. The sign is unimportant. It’s nothing more than a minor constraint that, when broken, has no real consequences.

If you couldn’t tell, I don’t like this dream very much. I wake up feeling frustrated afterward. I’m not a determinist, and really think this dream is just a manifestation of stress I experience when I’ve got too much on my plate in the waking world. Of course, the overriding personal importance of control, autonomy, and personal freedom tend to color my interpretation. If someone else were to have a similar dream, it may mean to them something entirely different.

12

I say it’s a memory of birth dream.

The ocean is a mother symbol. The fact that your head is above water is your head poking through and the ground touching your feet is the memory of the contractions that pushed you out.

13

Re Symbols

I find it ridiculous to state that things in Guy_Incognito’s dream would have the same meanings they have in my dream’s or, Odinoneeye’s, or Aeschines’

In my dreams rhinoceros are signs of madness, the destruction of self, false messiahs, the loss of hope and a few other things. This is based on a personal experience and won’t be found in any Jungian list or website.