Rampaging Elephants and Epiphanies

I have been thinking more about my dreams lately. The kind I have when I sleep; not to be mistaken with my other dreams (also known as aspirations), like to run off with the circus and finally experience life as a carny. No, I have been thinking about all the crazy movies that play in my head while I am deep in REM sleep.

What if it all means something?

Despite often feeling sleep deprived, most of us will spend about one-third of our lives curled up in our beds. I have begun to ask myself some serious dream-related questions. Why do I often dream of grinding my teeth, and then spiting them out into the sink? Should I be concerned about my dead baby dreams? What was the significance of that rampaging elephant with its head of fire? If this is my subconscious speaking to me, then perhaps I need more help then I thought.

The process of attributing meaning to dreams has been around for thousands of years. In the ancient cultures of Egypt and Greece, for example, dreams were considered prophetic and those with special powers unraveled the messages. Anthropologists will attest to most cultures having some sort of explanation to why we dream.

In current western cultures, dream analysis was made famous by Dr. Sigmund Freud. Everyone’s favourite psychoanalytical zealot took dream analysis to a whole new level with his book “The Interpretation of Dreams”. Freud believed that dreams were the royal road to the unconscious. Ladders, trains, tulips, and even fluffy kittens become symbols of frustrated desires, essentially indicating how badly you need to get laid. Anecdotally, I wonder what old Sigs would have to say about rampaging, flaming elephants.

Since September, I have been taking a six-credit course on Counseling Skills and Theories, which has given me insight into the process of the counseling relationship. The fieldwork for this course is to get counseling; it has been much appreciated as I enjoy the process of self-exploration. In fact, in September, my boyfriend said that I was self-centered. I became slightly confused, I turned and questioned, “You say that like it’s a bad thing?” (And incidentally we are not together anymore). The point is that I am a fan of self-analysis.

But I digress.

Last week in my counseling class, we had dream analyst Layne Dalfen facilitate a workshop on dream analysis. After having studied Freudian, Adlerian, and Gestalt theory, Dalfen has become a bit of a McDreamy celebrity with analytical appearances on various morning TV shows with FOX, NBC, and Global to name a few. She runs a dream interpretation center in Montreal and has penned her own book entitled Dreams Do Come True: Decoding Your Dreams to Discover Your Full Potential. I thought for sure that Dalfen could provide me with all the answers I desired.

But as I sat through the lecture, the light bulbs that I had hoped would go off in my head, sat dormant. “Tell me what it all means!” I wanted to yell, “Spoon feed me my epiphany!” I began to realize that ultimately the only person with the answers would be me. If I wanted to find meaning in my dreams, it would be up to me to place it there. That elephant could mean whatever I wanted it to… I put it there and god dammit I will do with it what I choose!

I think that, in analyzing dreams, there are no wrong answers; it is an individualized process. So I won’t fear becoming a bit self-centered, to think about those messed up dreams and find a bit of meaning within the carnival of REM sleep.

And in reference to Dalfen’s book title, maybe dreams do come true, but thankfully, not all of them. As much as I do enjoy a good rampage, I prefer to keep the flaming elephants in my dreams.

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If you are looking for some dream diagnosis, you can check out Layne Dalfen’s website at: www.dreamsdocometrue.ca. She is available for private consultation.