Does any one know of a good site or book about dream interpretation. I used to have a recurring dream (not a nightmare, but kind of odd just the same) a few years back. At one point I was having this dream (or variations on it) about once a week for 2 or 3 months. Then it just stopped, two nights ago it came back.
“In this life you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” -Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey”
Gazoo, I’ve had recurring nightmares myself, and have read several books about dream interpretation, but I found none of them really satisfactory.
You wanna tell us a bit about your dream, and let us have a go at it?
Hmmm…not so sure. What if supposedly means something really odd/scary? I’m going to search around on the net for a little bit now that I’m on lunch.
Well, I can understand that feeling. I’d feel pretty vulnerable if I were to type out some of my dreams here, too.
The thing is, [bold]dreams are merely you talking to yourself in a cryptic manner. [/bold] That’s why any outside source, be it a book or a site or a person, is of limited help in interpreting dreams.
For example, dreaming of falling, it’s been said, shows a fear of death—some folks say that if you dream of falling and you hit bottom, you’ll die. But that’s a generalization and not concretely accurate. (It’s also not true that you’ll die if you hit bottom). A dream of falling could also be anxiety about “falling” in love or “falling” in social status, or even concern about “falling” off the pedestal your girlfriend/boyfriend has set you upon. (Through dreams, we often speak to ourselves in metaphors).
So odds are pretty slim that your dreams will show you to be an evil, horrible or stupid person, but rather they are hints to yourself that you may have an issue to figure out or deal with—something you have difficulty facing consciously.
Further—sorry, you’ve hit a topic that really interests me here—any interpretation that a book, site, or therapist gives you is only a rough guess, based on common themes of common dreams. But dreams and dream interpretation is highly personalized stuff, and only YOU can decipher the true meaning of your dreams.
Still, here’s a few links for some help with dream interpretation: http://library.thinkquest.org/11130/ http://www.telalink.net/~brandee/index.html
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the links. I found a few others while I was killing time during lunch hour. The dictionaries of symbolism in dreams seem very general. (And, in my case I don’t know how accurate they are - they don’t seem right).
It’s kind of funny that you mention the falling dream. Anytime I dream that I’m falling I seem to immediately realize that I’m dreaming and that puts an end to it. Same thing with the “trying to run but can’t” one. I used to have both of these all the time when I was a kid, but sometime in my teens or early twenties my mind caught on to these ones.
Fascinating topic, Gazoo! I don’t know what I can add, except that dream interpretation has to be very personal. Think about what was on your mind as you drifted of to sleep those times. Any recurring themes there? Or, do you have a major decision of some kind to make? Have you recently had contact with someone from your past, or that you haven’t seen in a long while? All of these kinds of things could be clues.
And, I can understand your reticence at sharing your dream, but I can assure you, my experience on this board has been people here really care about one another, and we’ll all try to help you, if we can.
You can e-mail too, if you’d rather. I’d love to talk to you about this further.
Don’t make me come down there.
God
Well, after reading some of these interpretations, it doesn’t sound like the dream is telling me to go shoot up the local post office or anything…
Without too much detail, the dreams always include several (from around ten to probably over 50) very dark (charcoal grey to black) tornados that just pop up everywhere. They never bother me or even frighten me (others in the dream usually run for cover - but there have been exceptions to that as well).
In the scenarios I read on a couple of sites, the dreamer was frightened and ran from the storms. In mine, I stand there and watch them, so I’m not sure the interpretations would be the same. (I do actually enjoy watching a good thunderstorm, though I’ve never seen a tornado “live”). The dream itself has never firghtened me. I just find it odd that I used to have it so often and then it went away and now cam back.
Okay, Gazoo, here’s my take on what you’ve told us (FWIW):
Storms or storm symbols could commonly represent problems or troubles. Many very dark tornadoes, then, could be interpreted to be many notable troubles/problems.
So, using the storm=troubles interpretation, then you could be telling yourself that you are not afraid of dealing with your problems; or perhaps warning yourself that maybe you SHOULD be a bit more concerned than you are; or maybe you’re patting yourself on the back that you are able to face your problems competently while others avoid them.
Ahhhh…but it could go further. The many dark storms could represent people who make your life difficult. And then your lack of fear could be your way of telling yourself that “there’s nothing to be afraid of”.
The possibilities are endless. You may want to consider the feeling you’re left with following this dream. Do you feel strong and competent? Do you feel anxious?
The sheer repetition would prove that you are definitely trying to tell yourself something. Whatever it is, if you can figure it out and pay attention, then your “tornado” dreams would probably stop.
WAG:
At the point in your life when you used to have the dream consistently, perhaps was there a lot of stress in your daily life? And have there been any recent stresses? To me, your dream
sounds as though you’re dealing with quite a lot of things that are beyond your control. However, instead of running from your stresses or fears, you may be confronting them (perhaps trying to analyze problems and solutions) or you may be so overwhelmed by them that you just feel helpless to do anything more than stand in the middle, waiting for things to either die down or carry you away.
“I like toast.” 
The dream itself has never bothered me, I don’t feel anxious, frightened, etc. The only two things I can think of on how I DID feel is usually thinking (a) that was kind of cool; and (b) why do I keep having these tornado dreams.
This thread reminded me of a recurring dream I had during childhood.
I would repeatedly dream that my family was “forced” by outside forces to sacrifice one family member, and somehow we all voted on my little brother for the position of “departed”.
It was a heartbreaking dream, as we’d go through all the preparations of packing up his things and heading for the door, and I’d wake up crying.
It wasn’t until I became an adult and began to study psychology that I figured out this was a disguised sibling rivalry—something I could not allow myself to feel then.
By getting rid of the little demon, I’d be back in my place as “favored baby”, but recognizing the evil selfish intent there, it was more acceptable to dream of a sad, heartbreaking scene instead. Either way, he got the boot.
The dreams stopped as I grew older.
Geez, and he turned out to be a real nice guy, too. 
What do you think it means if I’m having extremely erotic dreams about Donny Osmond? Other than I must be really pathetic. For some reason, I’m having really hot monkey sex with Donny Osmond in my dreams.
You know I think it’s about my bedtime soon.
Work is fine for killin’ time, but it’s a shaky way to make a living.
Sounds almost as though you were pointing out something to yourself there. Like, maybe having a look at your own “coolness” while storms spin around you. So then, the question would be, are you questioning the genuineness of your “staying cool” or are you merely reminding yourself that this is one of your strengths?
Hey, ChrisCTP, that was an impressive interpretation.
As for the Donny Osmond dreams…well now, that’s just plain twisted.
I’ve always been pretty good at interpreting people’s dreams, assuming that I know anything at all about them. Sounds to me like the people here have made some good suggestions.
Another interpretation is that it’s not you, personally, that has the problems that the tornadoes represent, but that there are people or situations surrounding you that have a lot of turmoil going on. For instance, are there any shake-ups going on at work? Things that you aren’t necessarily a part of but that you are witness to? Have more than a couple of friends come to you recently to “dump” their problems on you and ask for advice? If so, you may be seeing yourself as the calm at the center of the storms that are going on with others around you.
My ex-boyfriend once had a dream that completely freaked him out, but couldn’t figure out what it meant. He was in his car (but he didn’t own a car, nor did he drive [suspended license]), but it was his car in the dream. He was in the passenger seat though, not behind the wheel. When he turned to see who was driving, it wasn’t a person at all, but a giant, mean grizzly bear. I knew right away what it meant and should have seen it as a warning sign for what was to come in our relationship (he turned out to be a major control-freak!). Basically, the car represented his life and the fact that he wasn’t the one driving, but a mean grizzly bear was, indicated that he felt out of control driving through his life and it scared the crap out of him.
I’m glad to know that your dream wasn’t as frightening as that one.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
What does it mean that I have a recurring dream about having sex with buxom girls?
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.