More Dreams

More from my mailbag: August 16, 2009

There is still some mail to answer: If you send a request, I will always respond to it. If I use your letter in one of my blogs, I will change your name so that your privacy is protected. For some reason, there seems to be an unusually high amount of people wanting the meaning of their dreams explained. I’ve said it quit often and I’ll say it again. If I don’t know much about you, my explanation of your dreams is only a “guess” based on the little I do know. There are other interpretations available. If you want a detailed explanation of your dreams, you will have to provide me with as much information about yourself as you feel you can. I don’t charge anything; I don’t try and gain information to steal your identity…and I don’t “bite”.

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Dear Stephen:

“I dream I am on a big ship that is sinking. The lifeboat is full and as I slide into the water a giant octopus wraps its tentacles around me and starts massaging intimate parts of my body. I try to scream but I can’t because I’m under water. My husband shakes me awake and tells me that I am screaming. If you write about this in your blog, please do not use my real name or mention where I am from. Selma”

Dear Selma:

My first reaction to your dream is that it is a reflection from a previous life. I will make the assumption that your marriage is a good one and that you are not having marital problems and that the tentacles wrapping themselves about you are not your husband moving in his sleep.

It’s very possible that, in a previous life, you were on a ship that sunk. Dreams, most often, are a reflection of a previous life in which your death came unexpectedly or prematurely. I don’t know you, but if you have a fear of deep water when you are awake, this would go along with the dream. i.e. You have an unconscious fear of water because, in a previous life, it is associated with the untimely end of that life. If there are any sounds in your dream associated with the sinking boat, such as other voices in panic, ship whistles blowing, etc., this would only tend to confirm my interpretation. As we live out this life, the fears from a previous life tend to become buried. We still may have an unexplained fear of deep water, but it doesn’t stop us from going swimming in the ocean. But if we go out on a sailboat ride, we may feel inexplicably “uneasy”.

Your dream actually goes significantly further: In your dream you seem to feel that you might have escaped to the surface of the water if some giant fish had not held you under. The fact that the giant fish was messaging the intimate parts of your body is indicative that in your previous life, you may have been aboard a sinking ship with an illicit lover and when that ship went down, you felt a lot of guilt about the relationship and, perhaps, were expecting the wrath of your God to not allow you to escape.

The best way to rid yourself of this dream is to do something with your present husband like go on a cruise with him. The extreme safety you would probably feel on one of today’s luxury liners, would tend to overcome the deeply seated fear in your unconscious mind about the ocean. I know they can be expensive, but there are an awful lot of bargains out there right now.

I hope this helps.

Best, Stephen Ellis

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Dear Stephen:

“My father died when I was only nine. He worked in an automobile factory in Beijing. I have just graduated college here in Illinois and have been accepted to study medicine in Baltimore. I keep dreaming about my father telling me to quit school and become a farmer. Is there some explanation for this? Loni”

Dear Lori:

The dream you describe is quite unusual. If your father had been a farmer, it might be easier to interpret, but the fact is that he was enmeshed in the manufacture of automobiles, in China.
Still, the dream is so unusual that I believe it must contain a message for you:

If you stop to think about it, why would someone on an assembly line want his child to become a farmer? The answer is that your father, in spite of the fact that he may have spent his entire life in an automobile manufacturing plant, was probably extremely unhappy there and wanted his child to have the benefit of living where the air was clean and automobile manufacturing plants were nowhere in sight. You did not mention the age of your father when he died or the cause of his death, but I strongly suspect he was quite young (you were only nine years old) and that his early death was, somehow, related to his occupation.

Inasmuch as the seeking of higher education for women in China is only a somewhat recent innovation (for many years in China, women were only supposed to have babies). It was when the recent rules limiting a couple to have only one child, that women began to make a bigger impact on the white-collar work force. Even today, like you, many Chinese women come to America to seek a higher education.

If your father was alive, I’m certain he would be very proud of his daughter.

Best, Stephen Ellis

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Dear Stephen:

“I get this nightmare almost every night: I am swimming n the ocean and a shark is chasing me. When he bites me, all my teeth start to fall out. Does this have any special meaning? Eric”

Dear Eric:

Without knowing some details about you, it is almost impossible to try and explain an unusual dream like this, but here goes:
It seems to me that in your real life, you may be pretending to be somebody you’re not. Someone a lot tougher and with less moral turpitude than most people believe you to be. Your dream of being chased by a shark is almost always a business dream. You are in a position of some power where you work and someone is after your job…or after you to try and bring you down. Because you are in a position of power, you have teeth strong enough to bite the shark right back…but the fact is that you are not as tough as others believe you to be, and when the shark bites you, instead of biting back, your teeth all fall out and you are powerless to defend yourself…because despite the image you have created for yourself, deep inside, you are not the shark others believe you to be. And so, you face the fear of being exposed for what you really are.

The best suggestion I have to rid yourself of this dream is to, slowly but surely, allow the softer side of yourself to be revealed. Maybe you won’t be your company’s “hatchet-man” any more, but I think you’ll sleep better at night. Besides, the people you work for, seeing a more humane side of you, may decide to elevate your position in the company. Good luck.

Best, Stephen Ellis

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Please feel free to write me. I respond to all e-mails. You can e-mail me at stebrel@aol.com