Sunday, January 13, 2008

Is Your Dream About Being Lost The Same As My Dream About Being Lost?

Tiffany's Dream. Tall, slim and friendly Tiffany had a busy life with her charities and community work. She had good friends and was involved with helping her neighbors. She was in the third quarter of her life which seemed to be going well. There was nothing particular she wanted to do, no special ambition or dream to fulfill. Regrets were few and far between. She was puzzled that she would dream over and over again about being lost. In her dream she would set out on foot and then all of a sudden feel completely lost. She could hear the traffic on the freeway and see roads around her, but she didn't have a clue where she was or where she was supposed to be going. There was no resolution in the dreams, and she woke up feeling confused.

Marsha's Dream. An articulate and forceful personality Marsha, also in her golden years knew exactly where she wanted to go, and made every effort to get there in life. Her constant and frustrating dream involved trying to get to a specific place in the city at night. The darkness was countered by street lights. Each time Marsha saw a door or a corner of the street that appeared to be a sign post for the pathway towards her destination, she would rush to get there, feeling energized that she was on the right road. But as soon as she reached the corner she would realize that it was not the right one, and feel lost.

Both ladies were on journeys and both experienced a sense of being lost. What do these dreams want to tell the dreamers?

Tiffany's focus on other people is fulfilling to some extent. Enough to make her life reasonably comfortable. But she has not asked herself what her purpose in life is. She has not discovered where her journey is to take her, and what path she should follow to get there. As her life is coming into it's final phase, Tiffany's dream is begging her to search inside herself for something to complete her as a person. It is inviting her to stop focusing all her energies on other people as that is merely an avoidance of herself. That is why in her dream she doesn't know where she is going, and feels lost. She has LOST herself. She is being given a big hint to find herself and take one of the roads towards her life's purpose to bring true meaning into it. Whether it is a freeway to fast track her journey, or get back on the right road while on foot, she needs to find out what she is here on earth to be and do before it is too late.


Marsha on the other hand knows exactly what she wants and knows precisely where to get it. Or she thinks she does!! The darkness of night in her dream suggests she is not looking at the objects of her desire with a clear lens. She gets false signals and she gets her hopes up, only to find them dashed. Marsha idealizes the things she wants. They become much grander in her mind than they really are, and she is badly let down when the promise isn't delivered. Her dream is telling her to see more clearly, to use the daylight of reason, rather than the darkness of her ideals which skew the reality.

Marsha's frustration that her expectations are not met is due to her wanting something unreal, something perfect. Her patient and returning dream reminds her to balance her ideals with reality so that she will not be so disappointed and actually feel like she is getting something useful. Marsha has LOST her earth wire, the one that grounds the energy when you put on the switch. She will either explode with anger and disappointment or keep being frustrated if she doesn't begin to see things the way they really are and enjoy them accordingly.

So two dreams about being lost have two very different meanings for the dreamers. Yet both women are 'lost'. Tiffany is lost because she has never examined herself and discovered the purpose of her life. Marsha is lost because she she is trying to find something that doesn't exist.

COPYRIGHT JEANETTE RAYMOND, Ph.D.