Honestly, I had never heard of the “where’s my penis?” dream before reading the above posts. And yes, I’m male.
I wasn’t familiar with the one about forgetting the locker combination either. Then again, 29 years after graduation, I still remember mine.
On the other hand, I have had the one about suddenly remembering I’m in a class that I haven’t attended all semester many, many times. In particular I dream that I am still in night law school, taking three classes a semester. One I am well prepared in. One needs some intensive study. And the third I have to learn overnight. Interestingly, I never seem to recall what the classes were later. More interesting still, I never seem to have had this dream until after I graduated law school.
I interpret it as being about anxieties about whether I am attending to my future properly; it seems to say that I am confident that I am handling my life well in some aspects, but fear that I am unprepared in other respects.
My most recurrent dream is one I haven’t noticed mentioned. I had it starting in childhood and recall having it until about ten years ago (I’m 47). Each time the dream was different in terms of setting, duration, etc., yet each time the pattern was the same: I would realize I was dreaming, then wake up. Then I would realize I was dreaming, and wake up, then I would expend a great deal of effort, feeling all more anxious all the while, as I tried to reason whether I was asleep or awake. Sometimes I would wake in my childhood home, encounter members of my family as they appeared when I was a child, and try to explain to them my dilemma. Usually they’d just laugh. It seems that sometimes I would “wake up” two or three times, and sometimes more than a dozen.
Eventually I developed a technique for dealing with this. Sometimes I would recall the technique and it would spare me any further anxiety. Other times I was incapable of remembering it and would stay locked in a cycle of recurrent awakenings.
The technique consisted of trying to float; I would tip forward until I would have to fall flat on my face, yet instead the tips of my toes would lift gently off of the ground and rise, until I was hovering over the ground at a height of about three or four feet. I could then fly, but usually only very slowly, like a gliding blimp.
Once I did this I would feel reassured that I was only dreaming, and even seem to be able to take control of events. I have found this technique to be a great comfort in other types of dreams as well when I have been rational enough to remember and use it.
