The Synergy of Dreams

Dreams have synergy. The interaction of the individual elements of the dream, which when combined produce a total effect, or understanding that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, or contributions.

My Dream:

I was driving my car up a steep hill. I was to short to touch the pedals—so I was wondering what is making the car go fast? Because the hill is so steep and I am so short, I could barely see over the hood of the car at was up the road. There was person sitting on the passenger side. We were driving through a neighborhood. She (the passenger) yelled Slow down—Stop! The neighbors were yelling at me Slow down—Stop! I yelled my feet don’t touch the pedals. The people looked daggers at me—in their minds they were saying so why do you have a car? Why are you driving so fast?

The person next to me yelled don’t you see the family in the street and the Santa Claus talking to the children? I strained to be taller. I saw them. I tried to reach the break pedal and then I could not see what was in front of me. I thought I would have to swerve the car into something to stop the car. I swerved toward a light pole and a bunch of trash cans and come to a stop. My passenger and I got out of the car to speak to the family. I thought now they will call the police. I woke up.

When I woke up I felt frustrated. I know that cars represent my physical body moving through my physical life. I have many dreams about driving cars and I am really irritated that I have had another dream where I am feeling like my life is not under my own control. And I am angry because the next logical step in the dream would be to apologize to the family and explain my actions to the police. I am relieved I woke up before the apologies and explanations because I am tried of justifying my actions and myself to others. It is a disgusting feeling to wake up and say to myself I feel as if I am totally inadequate even in my dreams. And then I wonder why I cannot just have a restful sleep—why does the world (my society) judge me harshly even in my dreams?

I decided not to write the dream down and go back to sleep.

However when I woke up the memory of the dream was still there. That tells me I need to write it down and work with it. I wrote the dream down but I was too frustrated to analyze the dream images. So what to do in a case like this?

I relaxed into a meditative state, put myself into the dream, step back and let the dream continue. I like this process of working with dreams because when I am frustrated it puts me back into a productive focus. Our dreams always work to the service of our own good but the ego mind tends to forget this truth. I write the images and actions down as they present themselves and I make no effort to analyze or be introspective. I simply scribe what I see.

The Dream revisited:

I am driving my car. I make myself larger. Now I can see. I put on the brakes and I park the car. I greet the family. I greet Santa. Santa pulls a package from his bag and hands it to me. The package is wrapped in gold paper with a pink ribbon. I open the package—inside is a diamond heart.

I decide to look the images up in a dream symbol dictionary because I am not ready to accept the gift—it seemed too wonderful. Just that statement tells me to remember every element of the dream represents pieces of myself.

Now as I write this I say Yes, I am the driver. But I am also the critical passenger—I am the critical neighbor—I am the children—I am the parents—and I am Santa Claus. The road is obviously my life path. When they look daggers at me---they are not criticizing—they are saying see the point, look sharply. Slow down and stop, notice the life around you.

The actual life context is that I have just made a complete stop and 90 degree turn in my career life. My decision might be judged by others/my society as representing laziness or a lack of professionalism. Truthfully I worry about the opinions of others more than I should—this is a life long lesson.

My feet do not touch the pedals—I feel like I do not have control of my own life. When I strain to make myself taller, I am straining to make myself different from what I am. I cannot touch the pedals and see the road ahead at the same time. Swerving the car and stopping represents an action I have just taken in my life. The choice of running into a light pole or of running into trashcans says I can view my choice as being enlightened action or trash (something wasted.)

By revisiting the dream and accepting the present from Santa, I am giving my self a gift. The diamond quality represents that I have gained information, insight, and an idea of great value, something hard, stable and indestructible. The heart quality represents love, stamina, feelings, desire, energy, and the place of ones emotions.

The synergy of the dream tells me that what I thought I wanted was not my life path.  I should slow down and stop, notice the life around me, look sharply and see the point. There is nothing inherently wrong with making a 90-degree turn to a different choice. The value of the choice lies in my point of view. Do I see this as an enlightened action? Do I view what I was doing before as time wasted, or something of value? The gift from Santa (the gift from me to me) is that I am valuable and what I do is valuable and that the strength of what I do lies in he quality of love that I bring to the situations in which I choose to participate.

8/9/2012, I attended a spiritual gathering at the Soul Esteem Center today. The presentation was on getting beyond feelings of guilt, which was very synergistic with the message in my dream. One of the speakers was discussing the symbolism of Santa Claus (St. Nicholas)--inherent to this symbol is the idea of unconditional love. Santa is a figure who leaves you a gift with no expectation of receiving anything in return. In the context of my dream, Santa (my inner spirit) views me as worthy of nonjudgmental, unconditional love--an honoring of all that I am with no need for feelings of guilt or unworthiness on my part.

Dreams do work for our own good but sometimes we are resistant to them because of our ingrained habits and thoughts. I find the choice to revisit a dream is an effective technique for circumventing my individual resistance. It is important to realize that the dream has levels of meaning that will continue to reveal themselves over time. One of the best reasons to write dreams down is that one can revisit them at any time.

http://www.soul-esteem.com