#514: Infinite Dreams

ESCHER

Do you ever have recurring dreams?

I sure do, like they’re going out of style – always have.  I used to, and still have, a number of the classic Freudian recurring dreams:  Teeth falling out, being unable to speak, or even see.  They were usually quite upsetting.  Freud believed that many of these recurring dreams are expressions of neurosis and compulsive behaviour and I think when it came to me, he was right!  Anxiety is suspected as a major cause of recurring dreams.  When I finally graduated school and had seen the last of essays, homework, exams and marks, I continued having anxious school dreams in a big way.  They would usually involve an exam that I had forgotten was occurring, or an essay due that day that I hadn’t started yet.  These dreams happened for years after graduation.

I thought I had “outgrown” recurring dreams, but they started again not long after quitting the Record Store.  Usually they would involve me starting there again, except as a part time employee without the responsibilities I had before.  In the dreams, I would show up at the store, except it wasn’t my old store.  In fact it wasn’t a store that existed in real life at all.  The most common dream featured a store in the mall, much larger than any I’d actually worked in.  I wouldn’t know any of the people I worked with in the dream, and they didn’t know me.

In some of the dreams, the Boss man would pop into the store, and in some, the office bully would show up, but be nice as pie, as if nothing ever happened.

If Freud was right and that all dreams are rooted in some kind of wish fulfillment, it’s clear that I missed working at the Record Store, but in an idealized way of not having responsibility or an office bully.  However, Freud also stated that in adults, dreams are self-censored and distorted and impossible to interpret alone.  Carl Jung believed that dreams were symbolic scenes and much more complex.

It’s interesting to look at these recurring dreams and try to remember the details, but ultimately it’s impossible to “figure them out” looking for some deep truth or hidden meaning.  Within these dreams, I had never forgotten how to do the job.  I jumped behind the dream-counter, helming the dream-computer and bought dream-CDs from dream-sellers.  It was exactly like the old days, with all the problems and excitement that happen when you buy used music from the public: the anticipation of seeing something so rare that the store just had to acquire it, and then the tension of buying it from the customer who wanted more for it.  It was all there, clearly remembered.

It is very interesting that these recurring dreams all but ceased after writing Record Store Tales.  Perhaps Freud’s wish fulfillment has something to do with this.  By re-living all the memories in print form, perhaps my unconscious mind realized that what my dream wishes were not at all what I wanted?

Never had a dream where I showed up at work wearing no pants, though!

44 comments

  1. Ah, Freud. I have no issues with my smother, I mean Mother! Hahaha Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!

    My super ego wears a cape.

    Dude, the only dreams to have are sexy dreams. Sexy sexy dreams.

    Myself, I rarely remember dreams, if I have them. I have two small children and very, VERY busy days. When I lie down, that’s frickin’ IT, man. Next thing I know, it’s morning. That you can remember dreams at all is impressive.

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      1. Grass on a highway? I thought it was a rolling stone gather’s no moss. Keef just can’t bothered gathering moss, man…

        Don’t most people’s brains never stop working, even in sleep? I just don’t remember dreams, I guess. I could leave a notebook beside the bed to capture what happened in my dreams as soon as I wake up, but it’d stay blank.

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        3. I wish I could remember. It’s entirely possible, but more likely I listened to Steve Vai’s concept album about lucid dreaming, Passion & Warfare! However it took several days to write, so who knows? (I didn’t buy any Dream Theater until after graduation).

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  2. I remember my dreams…and have had recurring ones.

    I have a math disability, so when I was in school, I would dream of doing math equations and getting tripped up. This usually occured before the morning of a big test.

    I dream that I enter a familiar room, but when I flick the light switch, there is no light – totally dark! I think, “I changed the lightblub, why isn’t the light working??” Those dreams are very uncomfortable.

    Another recurring dream I have was before I went back to school in 2007. I would dream quite frequently I went back to my old high school to pick up a couple of extra credits. I was an adult, in my 30s, going back to HS. The day was disasterous: I forgot my locker combo, and was late to class, and lost my schedule, so I didn’t know what classroom I was supposed to go to. I kept thinking to myself in dream that I was way too old to put up with this, and why didn’t I just go back when I was younger. I think it was some sort of inner anxiety thinking I had unfinished business with my education, even though I graduated HS, h and at the time, have an BA Hons, and post-grad certificate. I still dream this once in a blue moon, and remind myself I have GRADUATED HS, and done it. I don’t have to go back. I can look forward now. That helps. :)

    I have also dreamt I am a marathon runner. Those are fun. I have a runner’s high, and listen to good music my mind has produced. I run through long and winding roads. I don’t run much in real life…maybe I should start training?

    I can also manipulate my dreams. I have controlled what happens in them. I can also say “this is boring” and force myself to wake up so I can dream about something else.

    I dream in colour and semi b/w, where everything is b/w, but my focus areas are in colour.

    I do suffer from anxiety, so surely most of my dreams are a release of my anxiety.

    Gee, I guess I have a lot to say about dreams!!

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    1. Wow Sarca, I sure could identify with a lot of this! Your lightbulb dream is one I’ve had. More frequently though, I just can’t see! As if I’m trying to open my eyes but they refuse to open more than just a slit, so all I can see is a blur! Those are scary too.

      No control over my dreams though. However I’ll share one embarrassing recurring dream that must have started from watching too much TV.

      I used to have terrifying nightmares about plants! Crawling and growing to get in the house! In the dream I had to make sure every door and window was sealed tight. But inevitably I’d have to go outside for something, or something would open a door, and the plants would get inside and get me.

      This probably came from, or was just exacerbated by, the movie Creepshow. If you have seen it, you know!

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      1. Twilight Zone too!
        I also have had dream paralysis where I can hear someone call me, or walking around in the house (but I am alone), and I’m scared, and I open my eyes, but I can’t get my body to move. It’s like my body is asleep, but my conscience mind is awake, if that makes any sense. All of it is a trick, of course. No one calling me, or walking around. But, scary AF! I haven’t had them in a long while, but would often happen if I woke up in the morning, and then went back to bed. Wayyy back 15 years ago, I’d get up with K before he left for work, see him off then go back to bed. And I’d have that sort of dream happen.

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        3. How about the one where the guy tosses a coin and it lands on its edge?

          I have the first two seasons on DVD, which is nice because the first one came with a GIANT episode guide book for the entire series. I would like the rest of the sets, but you know. $$$$

          Actually Jen and I are purging DVDs and blu-rays right now. I have a big blue bin full and we’re only 1/4 done.

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  3. I often have dreams where I go back to high school and have to finish classes to graduate, which is really weird because I still have my Associates degree in these dreams.

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  5. I often remember my dreams for only a few minutes after I wake up. Then they’re gone. I remember bits and bobs, but never quite what it was about. Odd.

    The dreams I do remember tend to be the craziest. Zombies and apocalyptic shenanigans. Of course, there’s the music related ones – hearing songs or buying albums that don’t exist and I’m disappointed I don’t have when I wake up.

    Some I remember drifting back into after being disturbed for a bit.

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    1. I had a very vivid dream where Gene Simmons was in Quiet Riot. I’m going to write about it one day!

      In another dream, I was being chased and drugged by a gang but rescued by Arthur Fonzarelli.

      I’m like you though…bits and bobs! Most of the time anyway.

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  7. Infinite Dreams is probably my favorite tune on Seventh Son… My recurring dream regards my college guitar recitals. Classical music. And that I go to my lesson and my teacher says, “Really you haven’t picked any of your music yet?” So I am facing a hellacious semester of practicing,..which of course is how all three of my recitals went down in real life. My version of the test anxiety dream so many others seem to have.

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