I Need Some Help About A Certain Dream

[smithmiller6]

Well, I am an older teenager now, and I had this dream when I was younger. It was very strange and very random and I have no idea if it has any special meaning, but I would love to hear anybodies opinion or analysis.

My dream went like this - Its night-time, and I'm outside on my back porch. I can feel the warm air and even hear the crickets (I assumed it was summer since it felt like it). Suddenly, I start to feel myself being pulled towards the front of my house, so I start walking. When i get to the front, I look towards the sky in this big opening between two trees. I can see this star in the sky, and even though its dark out, its the only star I can see. Suddenly, the star starts to pulsate and get very very large. There's a flash, and the star is now this huge glowing sphere. It has all these colors pulsating through it, and almost like a sliver outline. I can also see these strange markings on the surface. Amazingly, nobody has walked out of their homes. There's another flash, and my whole neighborhood is gone. All that's around me is endless land and green fields. I can feel a warm breeze. The sphere is just floating there and I just stand there looking at it. I feel the breeze again, and there's another flash, I am now back to my normal neighborhood. I look at the sphere and I see hundreds of shooting stars. The sphere begins to shrink and than it returns back to the normal star. All around it is the very bright and beautiful glow, almost like a nebula. Than the dream ends.

I don’t know why I had this dream, and I hadn’t watched any movies at the time to have caused this dream. It was very realistic looking and even felt very real.

[Keri]

Hi there!  Welcome to Useless Science.

You don’t give many associations to work with, but I’m happy to try to comment on your dream.  Maybe something will ring true for you.  I’m curious as to why you are writing about this dream now.  Is it just something that you’ve always remembered and wondered about, or is there something going on now that brings it back to your attention?  No need to provide details if you don’t want to; it’s just a question that occurred to me.

First, it seemed that this was a rather pleasant dream.  You don’t specifically say this, but it doesn’t seem as though your dream-ego was frightened or uncomfortable.  The two main things I noticed were 1.) that there was a “pull” from the back of your house to the front of your house, and 2.) that the star was very numinous and meaningful and seemed to effect this change in orientation.

The star seemed to me to perhaps be somewhat of a Self symbol, like a mandala.  It seemed to me like your dream-ego was open to the “pull” or gravity of this Self symbol, allowing your perspective or point-of-reference to be changed (which seems to me to be a very encouraging or positive trait).  Perhaps the temporary change from the “neighborhood” to the “endless land and green fields” was a glimpse of the more instinctive or “natural” environment of the Self as opposed to the more culturally-bound neighborhood. 

Your house may represent something like your egoic-psychic space - where you "spend most of your time" as it were.  Maybe you needed a little reorientation at the time of the dream, or something like this?

Thanks for bringing your dream here.  Hope this gives you a little to work with.

Yours,
Keri

[Matt Koeske]

Hi smithmiller,

Welcome to Useless Science.  I would like to echo Keri's excellent comments on your dream.  The only thing I would add (very generally on on the theory side of things) is that dreams (and at times even visions) of the numinous Self are extremely common during adolescence (roughly 12-25).  What we Jungians commonly call the Self, is perhaps better understood as an organizing principle in the psyche that is innate and personal, even perhaps genetic . . . as opposed to the organizing principles of socialization.  Adolescence is the threshold age during which the fissure between the Self's organizing principle and the ordering principle of socialization are in extreme conflict.  Who are we in terms of the "Tribe"?  More often than not, the Self's organizing principle loses this battle . . . maybe because it has few advocates in the modern world and its "messages" are too arcane or affective/non-verbal/"irrational".

Jungian psychology has made its living off of this tendency to "fail the Self" in adolescence.  That is, it defines itself as a specifically "mid-life psychology".  But the psychic issues (e.g., individuation) most dear to Jungian thought are very much the same ones that may have come to the fore in adolescence.  Namely, the relationship of the ego to both the tribe (outer world) and to the Self (inner world) . . . and the tension between the two.  This is the existential problem of the individuant: who or what am I in relation to others?  Who or what am I "innately"?

It is well worth arguing (as many social constructionists have) that we are not defined apart from our relationship to the "tribe".  I don't completely reject that view . . . but I feel it requires more subtlety in its definition.  But the Jungian mindset is one that is fundamentally in conflict with the social constructionist view of personality.  It holds that we do have innate personality structure.  This issue is rendered both more complex and a bit clearer by modern evolutionary biology and neuroscience.  The contributions of these fields do not resolve the ongoing "nature vs. nurture" debates, but they demonstrate that there are inherited personality traits potential (though not rigidly defined) in the human psyche/brain . . . while also clarifying that these inherited potentials must combine or imprint with social models to develop functionally.

Jungian psychology has long concerned itself with what we might call "dysfunctional instinctual imprinting".  That is, when we do not have adequate access to social models that foster our healthy innate and social development (and we pretty much never do), we are left with "complexes" that house archetypal or instinctual traits that are yet somehow muddled and distorted.  The Jungian psychotherapeutic method is generally concerned with helping these muddled archetypal complexes find healthy sources to imprint with.  Therefore, the Jungian interest not only in childhood personality development, but also in myth, fairytale, spirituality, and symbolism is a matter of delving into a long history of functional instinctual imprinting sources.

Of course, this "re-imprinting" process is enormously complex, and many Jungians struggle mightily to get even a small grasp on it.  There are innumerable debates regarding which interpretations of archetypal texts are viable and how best to "treat" the reconstruction of personality that becomes the major issue of healing or individuation.


As for a numinous symbol like that in your dream, I would say (very generally) that it's speaking a language that has not (or had not at the time) found a verbal language to express itself.  That language is something only the ego can provide . . . and only if it dedicates itself to trying to come to terms with and relate to the numinous Self over many years.  It is always a source for amazement and awe when we find that an initial force of gravity or powerful affect seems to increasingly give birth to complex and sophisticated ideas and values.

So, you can see the progression in the dream from 1.) a compelling gravity that pulls you to the front of the house to 2.) a distant star framed between two trees (the center of a triad and a new point of focus for the ego) to 3.) an increasing and increasingly colorful orb (it is your attention to this object that catalyzes its increase and transformation . . . and it begins to show you its largeness and complexity/multiplicity) to 4.) an almost text-like or "readable" object that no one else has noticed (demonstrating its potential access to a kind of intellectual, egoic, or linguistic intelligence . . . as well as a sense that it is specifically for you) to 5.) a prediction or suggestion that it could transport you to another (as Keri said, more natural or instinctive) place, one that is not part of the socialization of the "psychic neighborhood you grew up in".

Since this presence fades back to a distant star, we might guess that this is a kind of vision into a potential psychic future . . . which is why I digressed about Jungianism and mid-life above.  In other words, there is something to this numinous source available to you.  It is alien, yet accessed through a perspective from your house and neighborhood.  It could be today or in 30 years that you find a way back to this glimpse of the Self . . . and perhaps get some more time to try to decipher the "glyphs" on its surface.

Your dream is certainly one to remember and hold on to.  It is a variation of a very common, very archetypal dream.  Other common variations would be a (generally non-hostile) alien visitation from outer space (as in the classic film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind . . . rather than, say, Independence Day) . . . or, somewhat less dramatically, finding a fascinating new room or passageway in your house that you never noticed before and which leads you to a space where fascinating things are stored.

I am curious (if you would like to share) why you revisit this dream now and have decided to post it on the forum here.  Do you feel a strong pull to return to that glowing source and its alien language?  That kind of journey is long and difficult . . . especially for someone in his or her late teens (if I understood you correctly).  I speak from experience on this point, as I began my journey at that age . . . and it was very intense and often terrifying.  There is something to be said for the more common Jungian paradigm of devoting ones 20s and 30s primarily to the "outer world" before paying closer attention to the Self.  But if you are Called, you must go.

Please feel welcome to share whatever you'd like here.  If you want to do further dream work, we can move this over to the dream work forum.

Yours,
Matt

[mossrisjhons]

I work with people about these events, people who have seen these things, had dreams or memories about this, it is a message which I usually go to extraordinary lengths to avoid speaking of in a public setting.

I will not give names for obvious reasons, but not long ago I had known some one who had spoken with me about a dream where a light such as one you had explained had been interacting with her. Unfortunately, the lights vary extremely in how they interact with those who come in contact with them and because you have been given sight over a specific portion of land I would assume that it is both a benevolent force which ties into something you've been a part of in the past, people have spoken of anything from needing to defend themselves and others from these lights to receiving extraordinary kindness from them. With out concern to why you have seen it how ever, I want you to meditate on the dream, the light, the land, your past, as much as you can because if I am correct this is something you would hate to miss out on delving into.

I apologize for not going into detail how ever I have done my best to completely avoid speaking about this kind of matter over the internet, my wish to do this kindness seems to out way that entirely. I would like to hear more of what is to come from your dreams because you deserve to know what is going on even though I would not usually speak of this because there are certain things I still don't like to be the one to give word to and feel still do not need to be opened to public knowledge whether it is believed or dismissed.