Waaaay back in college, I watched Oprah.  And one day she had a guest on her show, Gayle Delaney, who was a dream interpreter.  Having always had vivid dreams, my interest was piqued.  Her theory, in general, is that your dreams are little movies that your unconscious mind produces especially for you.  Throw out those “dream dictionaries,” she advised; forget Freud.  For example, you dream about a horse.  Freud would say it’s sexually connected.  Delaney would ask you, “What’s a horse?  Pretend I am an alien and don’t know what one is.  Describe it to me.”  And if you answer, “a horse is a large animal, one that my family held in a stable when I was a child.  As a matter of fact, I once was thrown from a horse and was never so scared!” then your horse means something very different from someone whose only experience with a horse is the nag they’ve ridden at the zoo.

And so it’s all about YOU and what those dream images mean to you.

I REALLY dug her theory.  So I bought a couple of her books to help me keep a dream journal and interpret my dreams.  And it was cooool!

For example, she claims that your mind tries to pick things that are often things you are struggling with when wide awake.  Your brain uses other parts of itself to get a message to you that you otherwise can’t see wide awake.  And if that message is really important, it will repeat in your dreams and get more obvious.  And more obvious and more obvious as days pass and the message is not coming through.

So, that summer I needed to break up with my boyfriend and I struggled to cut loose a good man but not my ideal, my dreams got more and more blunt.  It started with one pool of water.  Contained emotions that needed to be released.  Before I accepted the message, I was dreaming of a house with 5 pools that was on a lake.  Yeah.  Lotsa water.  All contained.  All un-utilized and scary to me.  How does this connect to a boyfriend? Well, there were other elements to the dream that tied him in.  But what still stays with me were those growing number of pools.

Once I got into law, my dreams quieted down.  They got a lot more literal and didn’t need journaling to get.  Maybe my mind knew I had no time to deal with symbolism.

So now my dreams are just those things I see at night and forget after a few minutes of the morning have passed.

Except lately they are more.

Last week I dreamed I met Bob Dylan.  He was the man, not the legend, in my dream.  And it was so nice.  I woke up disappointed that I’d not really made that connection.

Then I dreamed about seeing something I shouldn’t have that was committed by a serial killer.  And as a result he was then after me.  And a co-worker came to save me.  And so did Brad Pitt. It felt so real. I woke up scared and shaken up.  And weirdly, I knew in the dream that my co-worker was really trying to help and that Brad was really there as an actor. I mean, I knew as I was dreaming part was a dream.

Delaney also gives guidance on dreaming about what issue you want resolved, and about returning to a dream once you’ve woken up.  I’m able to do both now.

In that serial killer dream, I woke up and against my will returned to that dream.  But at least when I returned I was more aware that I would not be killed.

I have NO idea what that dream is about!  Or the Bob Dylan dream.  And why am I dreaming about famous men I really like?

Maybe after all these years my unconscious has something good to tell me again.  Maybe I’ll dust off my dream journal.

Do you believe in your dreams?  Do you keep a dream journal?  Or do you just think I have repressed sexual energy to burn?