Unpacking the closet
Sometimes the most profound revelations emerge from the simplest gestures. “I’ve never had so many colourful clothes”, Petra laughed, hands waving about expansively as she met my gaze over Zoom, “in real life or in dreams!” “How did you feel about that in the dream?” I asked. “Complete. Fulfilled. Excited. Like I had everything I would ever need. What does that say about me? That I’m superficial and shallow? That it’s all about how I
Elias Howe and the sewing machine
In 1846, Elias Howe had a problem. He was trying to design a sewing machine to handle mass manufacture. But he was stuck. These were – of course – the days when all sewing was done by hand using a sewing needle: sharp pointy bit at one end, hole for the thread at the other. Howe tried to incorporate the sewing needle into his design, but it wasn’t really working. Then he had a dream.
People in your dreams
“You say that everything and everyone in a dream represents a part of the dreamer. I can see how the unicorn in my dream represents my magical thinking, and how the dark, brooding thundercloud portrays my pent-up anger. But I’m having difficulty seeing my partner, Neil, who is also in this dream, as a part of myself. I didn’t realise how angry I was with Neil until I had this dream. I’m thundercloud-angry with him,
The answer is blowing in the wind
It’s a common dream. You’re trying to walk but you’re held back by a strong wind. Or by air that feels as thick and sticky as honey. Or perhaps your legs are too heavy to lift, or the surface you’re walking on has turned to glue. Your first quest, when interpreting a dream, is to relate the feeling in the dream to a situation in your life. Where are you feeling held back? What seems
AI and dream therapy
I heard someone recently talking about their clever phone. I wasn’t sure if they meant to say smart phone and got the word wrong, or whether they were joking. Smart, clever, what’s the difference? A quick Google gives one definition of smart as “Having or showing a quick-witted intelligence”, whereas clever is defined as “Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas”. I can’t think of a single example of my phone demonstrating quick-witted
Spoken clues
What is the difference between a thief and a robber? A client dreamed there was an intruder in his house. He couldn’t see him, but he could sense him. “What can you sense about him?” I asked. He closed his eyes, searched for the feeling. “He’s a robber.” At the time, the word ‘robber’ struck me as odd. I was in dream therapist mode, unable to look up the difference between a robber and a
The break in
I was terrified, heart pounding, bones frozen, as my front door creaked open, and the intruder’s face came into view. “You can’t come in! Go away! Help!” I shouted, each word so hard to squeeze through my tight throat that it came out as a slow ghostly drawl: “Go-awaaaay! Heeeelp!” I may have been shouting in my dream, but it was a woeful, high-pitched, strangled wail that woke me up. I lay quite still. Partly
Big fish
“I don’t remember my dreams,” Bella said, “except a snippet last night about some fish being too big for a fish tank.” “Well, that’s a start,” I said. “Those few words alone raise some interesting questions, like what are you trying to squeeze into your life and why doesn’t it fit comfortably? And where do you need more space to be fully alive?” Bella (not her real name), a journalist, was interviewing me for a
A sense of balance
An eternity ago, when I was in my late teens, I had a recurring dream where I struggled to walk through the university campus. It wasn’t one of those glue feet dreams, the ones where your feet are heavy or stuck to the road, or you feel like you’re walking through treacle. I had that recurring dream too. The reason walking was such a struggle in my late-teens dream was because I wore a flat
How long is a piece of string?
How long is a piece of string? Or how long is a roll of toilet paper in a dream? And why couldn’t I break off a single sheet? I used to have a recurring dream where I tried to detach a single piece of TP from a roll. It held fast. I’d roll out a few more sheets, try to gently tear along a different perforation line. No give. I’d pull harder. The soft paper