DREAMS...

My own dreams eventually led me to an intense desire to understand how the mind (my mind) works.  What  were the weird, symbolic images produced by my mind during its sleep state?  What did they mean?  Was my unconscious mind trying to tell me something I needed to know? Analysis was very helpful sorting out these issues.  I had been intrigued by psychology in college, but had only taken the introductory psychology course required for graduation.  But now I was deeply and honestly fascinated in the various schools of psychology, especially in their connection with the spiritual and social realms of life.  I began to observe my own personality, without judgment, with an inner eye, and to recognize within it aspects of my waking state that left me living life mechanically, as if sleep walking.

What follows is an early "big" dream, presented here without comment or analysis.  It has taken several years for me to come to an understanding of the significance and meaning of this dream in my life.  The dream is offered here as a testimony and to encourage those who may have had unusual dreams, but who perhaps have not consciously remembered them or taken them seriously.  The force and magnitude of the dream on me was such (as dreams are experienced within as inner psychic reality) that I could not ignore its reality.  Dreams are real to the dreamer, although they are totally invisible and not experienced by anyone else. But dreams, being a product of nature, speak to us not in words but in symbols. They give us clues about who we are and at what point we are in our psychic development.  Thus discovering their symbolic meaning becomes an important challenge.  We ignore such clues to our detriment.  Finding the meaning of my dream, and others that followed it, became both compelling and urgent for me.  In significant ways, it initiated my own inner quest.  Here is what can be considered an "anima" dream, as I recorded it. [The anima is the inner feminine image within a man]

                                                                                                        May, 1999

The  Dream...

I am in a room with another man whom I know, although his identity is not consciously known to me.  He is friendly and wants me to meet a woman seated in the middle of the room. It is not clear to me who she is, perhaps his wife, sister or mother, but someone for whom he has great affection.  She is sitting in a chair, looking down pensively.  She is facing me indirectly, and the light source for the room is behind me and to my left.  She is dressed in comfortable, flowing clothing that hangs from her beautifully curved and proportioned body.  On her head she wears a veil, with a delicate black laced edge extending out past her face, partially hiding it from view.  Her face and form strongly appeal to me and I am unexpectedly but powerfully attracted to her.  Her fragrantly-scented hair tumbles down over her shoulders.  When her glance first catches mine, she smiles with a sweet, almost coy expression.

Then suddenly, she hears something from behind me, in the direction of the light source.  She turns her head to the left (her right), facing more directly into the light now.  When she does so, the light now hits the other side of her face, which had been mostly shaded until now.  The left side of her face, now exposed by the light, is revealed to be a mass of slimy bright green mucous-like goo hanging from the bony structure of her otherwise perfect face.  The flesh is literally sliding off her scull, nearly exposing the left eye.  The beautiful side of her face betrays her unhappiness and sadness at having been revealed. I am horrified and awaken in a cold sweat.
       Gregory M. Rieke