The first few lines of the dream journal entry read like a list:
- A park in summer with a bandstand.
- The Beach Boys song “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” playing in the background (The bandstand was empty. Neither the Beach Boys nor any other band was playing in the bandstand. The song played in the air).
- Friends and family gathered around.
- Hugging someone (Who? A generic person.)
- (A certain judgmental person) looks on.
You can’t expect to make sense out of a dream when you’re having it. The subconscious doesn’t make judgements. When you’re dreaming (or soon afterwards) you’re in your subconscious, the back room of your mind. Making sense means deciding. Deciding means making judgements.
There’s no sense in trying to figure the meaning of any dream out when you’re in your hypnopompic mind, the mental stage you’re in right before you wake up. A lot of people make that mistake. That’s surely what’s behind some opinions that dreams are silly, don’t make sense, or aren’t worth paying attention to.
As per the steps of the Dream Recovery System, I had asked my subconscious to help me remember the dreams I had when I went to bed. That’s what it was doing.
Having written about the dream on a scrap of paper as a reminder, I went back to sleep.
It’s probably a new kind of dream category, a brainstorm dream, I thought as I drifted away.
Brainstorming is when people come together to suggest ideas to solve an issue.
Maybe that’s what my subconscious was doing: trying to solve what the dream for the sleeping session would be.
But no. When I woke up, it all made perfect sense.
Understanding the dream’s insight
The bandstand spoke of tradition. My family appearing in the dream did too, but with an additional element of support.
The song spoke of wanting to live up to the ideals I had when I was a child. I was aware things change, that I might not be able to keep all of those ideals.
I was reaching out to the generic person, affirming them, supporting them. I was able to do that because my family was/does support me.
Then the judgmental person I know was watching, learning from the way I hugged the other person. He was unaware of the love our family (and I) had for him because he was so focused on himself, so competitive with everyone.
It was a scene my subconscious contrived to communicate an insight.
It wasn’t a brainstorm in any way, shape, or form.
I’ve never experienced a dream that was a brainstorm. The concepts and characters that occur at the same time are always interrelated. I’ve never heard of anyone else having a dream that was a true list, a brainstorming for ideas to dream.
Yet my first idea about the dream still doesn’t seem too wild. Why couldn’t I or anyone else have a brainstorm for a dream?
Also on the blog:
James Cobb RN, MSN, is the founder of the Dream Recovery System, a top sleep blog. He believes dreams hold a lot of insight into life. They’re worth paying attention to, remembering, and understanding.
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