Raw Meat Plague

January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream
Dear Ian
I dreamed last night that there was an awful plague in the world which had been caused by raw meat. I was looking after some people in a hospital who had not been infected as they had not come in contact with the meat but I was forced by some people in authority to go around and wipe all these poor people with some infected meat so they would all have the disease. It was very distressing as there was complete anarchy with looting and rape because everyone knew they were going to die. The streets appeared full of people selling raw meat and people were buying it as they had no hope of getting well and may as well consume the meat.
Yours, Gary

Meaning
Dreaming of raw meat usually suggests that certain circumstances in waking life are compelling us to act immediately. Rather than thinking the situation through and cooking up a plan, you feel the need to make a move straight away. However, the plague indicates that your actions will be driven by festering anger and resentment about a particular issue in your life.

Although this issue has been plaguing you for some time, you feel that you might cause a lot of unnecessary suffering and pain if you act without any further thought. The people who you are looking after in the hospital indicate that you would prefer to take this action in a clean and clinical manner, but you are being forced to act immediately by events that appear to be beyond your control.

You are anxious that you will not be able to control your anger and that this will cause a number of other people to become very angry as well. You feel that this will result in the complete breakdown of some close relationships with no opportunity for reconciliation. Instead of letting your resentment spread out of control, focus your anger on a single issue to ensure a healthy outcome.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , , , ,

Telephone Box Toilet

January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream
Hello Ian,
I have this bizarre recurring dream where I am looking for a public toilet but the only one I can find is a lavatory pan in public telephone box. The door is often missing and the sides are glass so people can see in. Although I am desperate for the toilet, I know I need to phone someone first. Even though I have my mobile on me but I am scared I will drop it down the pan, so I have to use the public phone but I either can’t see the buttons or they are in no regular order or I keep hitting the wrong ones. I get very anxious and frustrated. But I can never get through.
Dianne

Meaning
Dreaming of trying to find a toilet usually indicates that we are trying to find a way of openly expressing our needs and getting rid of behaviours that are no longer healthy for us. Looking for a public toilet shows that you need to tell other people what your needs actually are rather than keeping them privately to yourself.

Although you are desperate to honestly express your needs to others, you are finding it difficult to get your message across. Your requirement to use the public phone shows that is probably a work situation rather than a personal one. You are aware that you can privately communicate your needs but  you are concerned that if you do this in public it might adversely affect your career and send your reputation down the pan.

You know the message that you want to get across but you don’t know how to push the right buttons to make this happen. You also feel that you will be wrongly judged if you do not communicate in the regular manner. Instead of trying to go through the official channels, just try asking for help and be open to all the offers that you will receive.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , ,

Angry Parents

January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream
Hi Ian,
Both my parents died when they were relatively young (47 & 56).I was 14 when my father died and am now 55.  I had an excellent relationship with both of them but whenever I have dreamt about them they are angry with me which is very upsetting.  Also in the dreams they are always suffering from their final illnesses.
Thanks
Mary

Meaning
When we dream that other people are angry with us, we are usually feeling angry with our own behaviour but  are finding it difficult or inappropriate to express this anger in waking life.  The frustrated feelings of anger that you are experiencing are probably a result of the sad loss of your parents at a relatively young age. Even though your parents could not help it, you still feel annoyed that they left you on your own.

The anger in your dream is a direct and honest expression of how you feel as you attempt to come to terms with your feelings of abandonment and the premature loss of their parental love and guidance.  Losing your parents at a young age means that you had to grow up quickly and some of your anger is caused by the loss of your own teenage years.

Dreaming of their final illnesses shows that even after all this time, you are still ill at ease with your own feelings of being abandoned. Although you had an excellent relationship with both your parents, you still need to acknowledge your own angry feelings so that you can finally begin to accept your loss and move on.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , ,

In The Rough

January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dear Ian,
I keep having this dream that I am out playing a game of golf. The funny thing is that the course is only one hole long. Every time I tee off I sliced the ball into the rough and as soon as I stepped into the rough to play my shots the grass suddenly grows above my head and it feels like I am in a deep forest. I get really anxious that I won’t be able to find my way back to  the course and I can hear lots of rustling and scuffling in the undergrowth. I am scared to take my shot  in case any of these creatures hear me and I give the game away.
What does this mean?
Eddie

Dream Meaning
When we dream of playing golf, we are often thinking about some task that we are trying to accomplish in waking life.  You are very focused on this task because your dream golf course is only one hole long.  Whatever this task is, you feel that it is currently the most important thing in your life.  You are aware of the outcome that you desire but you are also terrified of failing.

You are afraid that when you commit to this decision you will find yourself negotiating a rough patch in waking life and you doubt your own ability to navigate it successfully.  Forests represents the unknown and you are anxious that you will get out of your depth if you make this commitment. The rustling and scuffling that you hear are your own anxieties starting to overwhelm you at the thought of making this decision.

All these doubts are making you feel like a bit of an impostor and that you will let yourself down by giving the game away. In any sport, successful competitors keep their drive focused on the rewards of success rather than be anxieties of potential failure, so be bold and confident in your decisions and actions.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , , ,

Lost Purse

January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream
Dear Ian, I keep dreaming that I’ve lost my purse and my house and car keys. I am sure that they are somewhere close but even though I hunt high and low I cannot find them anywhere. I am usually out shopping or walking through the town. I sometimes think that someone has stolen them and I think of the places that I have been and attempt to retrace my steps.  I keep thinking that if I only had my car keys I could drive home because I have lots of money there. Yours sincerely, Jean

Meaning
When we dream about a purse or a wallet, we are considering how much we value ourselves and how much we are valued by others in waking life. Dreaming that you have lost your purse suggests that you are feeling less valued than you normally do. This often happens when people experience a change in lifestyle such as retiring, losing a partner, or moving away from a familiar place.

You know deep inside that you are valuable  person but you are frustrated in your struggle to express your value to other people and have them fully recognise it. Although you might  think that other people are responsible for your loss of status, it is up to you to recognise and be fully aware of your own worth.  By retracing your steps in your dream you are reflecting on what used to make you feel worthwhile in waking life.

Your car keys symbolise your unconscious drive and motivation and you know that you could easily rediscover the sense of self worth that you used to have.. The best way to start to feel invaluable again is just to be yourself. So rather than trying to impress anyone else, just concentrate on pleasing yourself.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , ,

Abandoned Baby

January 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

Hi Dr Wallace, I wake up sometimes thinking I’ve left a baby I was looking after in the park by mistake or even worse sometimes I seem to remember a baby I’ve left by mistake in an attic days/weeks even years before….it is terrifying till I realise its not real.
I have a grown up family who are all away and I don’t look after anyone’s babies, never have, except my own and I was very careful and would never have left them anywhere!!
What on earth does it mean? ….Thank you…Babs  :o )

Dream Meaning
When we dream about a baby, we are often dreaming about something that is very close to us. The baby symbolises a precious part of yourself and represents a unique passion or talent that you possess. The attic symbolises some of your most valuable ideas for expressing this talent. However, you have been ignoring them and now these thoughts are trying to get your waking attention.

The abandoned baby in your dream represents something unique that you wanted to create through a process of love and labour. Due to circumstances at the time, you had to abandon this love but now you have the opportunity to rediscover and explore these ambitions from the past. This can seem terrifying to you because you realise that you that you have abandoned a part of yourself that was very close to your heart and an expression of your true identity.

It is never too late to explore your forgotten potential by rediscovering this love or passion from the past. When you laid these passions aside, for whatever reasons,  you did it in the hope that you would one day return to them and use them to fully express your talents and individuality.  That time is now.

Filed Under: In Your Dreams Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lost In Translation

January 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A friend texted me this morning to congratulate me on my dream analysis that was featured in this morning’s Daily Express.I had to admit to being slightly mystified as I couldn’t actually remember doing any work for that particular newspaper. After finding the Daily Express article and reading it, it all started to make a bit more sense. I had done an interview and a dream interpretation for a freelance journalist, Flic Everett, nearly six months ago at the start of August 2009. Flic had got in touch after hearing me on the Chris Evans show but I heard nothing more after replying to her. As I read through my interpretation in today’s Daily Express, it didn’t ssem to match with what I had sent to her. After checking my original email, I realised that my already succinct interpretation had been quite heavily edited. Here is our initial correspondence with Flic’s request and dream…

Dear Ian,
Thanks very much indeed for agreeing to be part of the feature on dream analysis. If you need any more details, let me know.

Here’s the dream:
In my dream, I was looking through old magazines that I’d been writing for at the start of my career. I suddenly decided that I was going to make biscuits. I spent ages getting the mixture perfect, and mixing the dough; but then I couldn’t find biscuit cutters or baking trays. I went to look in the drawer under the stove, when my grandparents (now deceased) appeared and said, “But you didn’t finish the last biscuits- you didn’t even eat them”. I opened the drawer and there were trays of of old, crumbling biscuits, all in different shapes like animals and witches.I was very surprised to find them, and realised I’d have to clean all the trays to make my new biscuits. I was about to do it, and I woke up.
Flic Everett

…and my reply and interpretation…

Hi Flic
Thanks for getting in touch with your dream. Here is my interpretation of it.

Your Dream
When we dream of magazines we are thinking about the transient information that we absorb in waking life. This information may be colourful and exciting and is regularly replaced by new information. Looking through your magazines symbolises that you are thinking about your writing career in waking life and what you have achieved so far with it. The sudden decision to make biscuits represents a sudden opportunity or realisation in your waking life.

When we dream of food we are often reflecting on how we can fulfil ourselves in waking life. Food nourishes and energises us in the same way that having a definite purpose does in waking life. Biscuits don’t often give us a huge amount of nourishment, they are more of an incidental food that helps to lift us up and keep us going. They are also a food that we share readily with others like the information we share in a magazine article.

The biscuits in your dream represent some of the journalistic pieces that you write. You spend ages on these pieces, trying to get the balance of what you are saying to be just right. You also sometimes find it challenging to find the best places to publish your pieces, as they sometimes don’t fit in with a cookie-cutter approach or the in-trays of conventional publications.

When we dream of grandparents, we are reflecting on our own accumulated wisdom and a drawer usually symbolises stored memories and information. The animals and witches represent your deeper and darker perceptiveness. Darkness is not bad or evil; it often contains a tremendously powerful energy that illuminates our true purpose. Your older and wiser self is realising that you have the talent to create more powerful and profound pieces of writing but you are neglecting this talent, just letting it crumble away. You are surprised by the realisation that you possess this powerful and profound talent.

This dream is encouraging you to make a new, fresh start by acknowledging your deeper talents to create more powerful and profound writing. You can start this transformation by letting go of old ways of thinking that no longer nourish you. This will give you the energy to step into a shiny new future that you can share with your readers to feed their minds and nourish their dreams.

If you need any more information or would like to discuss anything else, please just let me know.

Ian

…and here’s what appeared in the Daily Express…

“You start off dreaming about magazines you’ve written for, and then it changes to biscuits – but these still represent the articles you write. Biscuits are enjoyable and meant for sharing; they’re often brightly coloured but they’re not essential, just like a magazine article. You work hard at your pieces, trying to get the balance just right, and it’s not always easy to find the right places to publish them, as they don’t always fit in with a cookie-cutter approach.
When we dream of grandparents, we are reflecting on our own accumulated wisdom, and a drawer usually symbolises stored memories and information. The animals and witches represent your deeper and darker perceptions. Darkness is not bad or evil: it often contains a tremendously powerful energy that illuminates our true purpose. This dream is encouraging you to make a fresh start by acknowledging your deeper talents to create powerful and profound work. You can start this transformation by letting go of old ways of thinking that no longer nourish you.”

…quite a different interpretation due to the editing involved and makes much less sense. I used to think that one of the most important skills in dream interpretation was articulating the meaning of the dream to the dreamer. However, after analysing over 100,000 dreams, I now realise that it is even more important to ensure that the meaning has actually been received and not lost in translation, especially when working with the media.

From the perspective of a practicing psychologist, I also feel it is unprofessional to provide any material for general publication that may be too intimate or uncomfortable for the dreamer. For example, I may have hypothetically identified issues from this dream that indicate tensions in self worth and intimate relationships, but from an ethical viewpoint, I would prefer to discuss these confidentially with the dreamer.

Filed Under: Dream Diary

Avatar Blues

January 6, 2010 By

A number of my clients have been reporting a feeling of melancholy and loss after experiencing the dream like cinematic splendour of James Cameron’s brilliant Avatar. Although they feel uplifted and inspired by the film, it can seem a bit dpressing to step back into the normal world on planet Earth. Anyone who experiences Avatar will be immersed in an intensely beautiful world where they are utterly absorbed in a profound story but as they leave the cinema, they find themselves inhabiting a world that appears dull, grey and normal.

The world of Pandora actually came to Cameron in a dream and the whole movie is very dream like. The hero of Avatar, Jake Scully steps into the world of Pandora by entering a bed like incubation chamber termed the Link. After he fall asleep he wakens up as his dream character of the Avatar. When he wakes as a human, his dream character on Pandora loses consciousness and collapses. In the same way, we all enter an amazing world when we dream and that fades away as we we wake in the light of a new morning.

The remedy for the Avatar Blues is to realise that we all have the ability to lie down in our own personal Links every time we sleep. We don’t need cinema tickets or a multi-millian dollar production budget; all we need to do is dream. The more we explore our own dream worlds, the more vivid and profound our waking realities become.

Filed Under: Dream Diary Tagged With: , , , ,
You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for January 2010