This question can seem curious.

Before attempting to see how the unconscious reacts, we should first look at how the conscious itself reacts regarding incubation. 

Generally, what do we do, when we discover the natural and beneficial process called dream incubation?

At first, we try it and we are thrilled that it works. 

We rush to ask many questions at the same time and receive several answers during the same night.

This makes the dream interpretation very complicated or almost impossible, because we cannot discern which scenario answers which question. So it’s important to ask only one question per night.

Often, night after night, we start asking systematically our dreams all kind of questions.  

-should I sell my house and move somewhere else?

-for what city should I request my transfer?

-is a certain transaction I’m contemplating advantageous?

-what can I do so that my son will get along with my boyfriend?

All questions are possible.  That is the position of the conscious. 

We imagine the dream as a machine to foresee the future and to serve us.  This harassment of the unconscious reflects our conscious desire to exploit it. This greedy attitude, which characterizes our western culture is completely wrong and the unconscious points it out quickly through a dream.

I had  this attitude myself, when I first started analyzing my dreams alone.

I made an incubation and received a dream which I interpreted. But I had doubts about my work and I wanted to know if it was correct or not.

I asked for another dream, so that I could be sure. The next day, after analyzing this subsequent dream, I doubted again.

And asked for still another dream.

I got one and you will see how the unconscious reacted facing my repetitive incubations.

Here is my dream

I’m a guest at an friend’s place.   She is an old lady. I sleep in a room that has three beds. 

I’m very annoyed because one night I slept in a bed, the next night in another one and the third night in the third bed.

I’ve already soiled two sets of sheets and now a third one.  I feel puzzled at my off-handed behavior.  It’s really not fair, I’ve had no consideration for my hostess whom I’ve given three times the work .  I feel appalled that I took advantage of my old friend’s kindness.  I was negligent, I should have been more attentive.  I woke up feeling so sorry, apologizing to this old lady , wondering how I could have been so casual.

Interpretation

The sheets

They wrap the sleeper and insure a comfortable sleep. For me they represent the dreams.

The 3 beds

A bed can represent the place where one makes love but for me, at that time, in regards to the question asked, the bed is the place where I sleep, the setting in which I abandon myself to the unconscious.

The 3 beds represent the three successive nights and their respective questions, asked in spite of the fact that I had already been answered in the first night’s dream.

My friend, the old lady

Who is this very experienced lady who provides the dreams ?

The old woman is often an image symbolizing the unconscious.(See note 1)  Kindly, yet firmly the old lady made me feel that my repeated incubations were a lack of consideration in regards to her.  She had already provided me with the sheets in the first bed,  the dream on the first night, I had already received the answer I needed.

It was ill-mannered of me to soil three sets of sheets thereby requiring additional work on the part of the lady.

This made me understand that through my dreams I’m given the necessary information and It’s left up to me to decide how I will use it. 

I felt that my friend, the old lady was telling me:

- You have to manage by yourself, you’ve already received more than  your due, you’ll get no additional indication.  Be satisfied with what you were given, you asked for too much.”

When I woke up, I was so confused that I promised myself not to do that again. I never forgot this lesson.

In the next text, we will see how the unconscious, reacting with severity can “tell a dreamer where to go” and refuse to answer.

Note 1

In French people’s dreams, England, being on the map to the left of France, is often a representation of the unconscious world.

The queen represents the ruling activity of the unconscious, which is feminine, in opposition to the conscious masculine world.

Illustrations

I thank the artists for their illustrations listed in order of their presentation :

Cloud : ac.reims.fr

Cloud : comitefetes.martillac.fr

Cloud : linternaute.com

Cloud in the sky of Montreal : flickr.com

Femme perplexe : olivierkaestle.blogspot.net

Femme douteuse : pixers.fr

Sheets : cotemaison.fr

Sheets : Anne de Solène :

Sheets : berceaumagique.com

Queen Elisabeth 2 : effetimages.blogspot.com

Queen Elisabeth 2 : news.de.stars.com

Queen Elisabeth 2 :leblogdechoncon.over-blog.com

Queen Elisabeth 2 : mesprincesses.romandie.com

Dream       An old buddy

Lately, life provided me with the opportunity to interpret a very simple dream and I’ll let you discover what came out of it. Some time ago I was invited to my nephew John’s wedding in the South of France.  John works in Hong Kong and that’s where he met his wife, a Chinese girl who had been brought up in Paris. The wedding provided both families the occasion to get together and meet the in-laws and numerous grandchildren.  It was also an opportunity to meet many foreigners as the gathering was quite cosmopolitan.

The cocktail party was held in a superb park and we were all happy to chat with one another.

I went to hear the latest from Paul, an American friend living in France, whom I hadn’t  seen for a long time.  He was speaking with other guests, there was a Chinese man who was the brother of the bride, an Irishman with a pretty French woman and two charming Japanese girls.

Paul greets me nicely:

- Hello Christiane, I saw you last year on the Morning Program on French television.  You did well.

- You were on TV, the Irishman politely asks. And what was the topic ?

- Christiane’s passion is understanding the meaning of dreams, explains Paul, she does dream interpretation.

- Oh ! really ? How interesting, says Miki one of the Japanese girls !

And naturally the conversation starts on the subject of dreams and I am soon bombarded with questions.

- Do you believe that premonitory dreams exist ?

- Can you interpret all the dreams ?

- How do you go about interpreting dreams, asks Miki ?

By now, I am a bit embarrassed, how can I answer such a question ?

- Listen, I said, let us see one of your dreams ! It is the easiest way to explain it to you. Have you had a dream lately ?

- I rarely dream but a few days ago I had a short dream, replied Miki.

- Would you like to tell us, Paul enquires with interest.

- Oh ! it was just one image : I saw an old buddy of mine.

I try to get a bit more detailed information, so I ask : 

 - That’s all ? There was nothing else in the dream

 - No, that’s all. He was just there.

 The little group waits, curious as to what I would do next.

 I think to myself : “This is the ideal dream. I have little time for a full explanation but it will be easy to briefly explain the interview technique”.  So I say :

 - You see, when you have a person in your dream, you must always ask two questions about the person.

 The first question is: “ Who is this person ?”

 - So tell us, who is this old buddy ?

 - It’s a guy I had met but I haven’t seen him in a long time. I don’t know what became of him.

 I continue asking :

 The second question to ask is : “How is this person?” 

 So I ask Miki :

 - What was this friend like, what characterized him when you were in contact with him ?

 - There was one thing that really annoyed me about him, answered the young lady immediately, he was unable to make a decision, he didn’t know what he wanted.

 I go on with my questions :

 - And in the end, how did he make his choices ?

 - He irritated me because he always did the things that would make him look good, even if he didn’t feel like doing them.

Now that I’ve gathered the information, it’s up to me to recapitulate the description and invite the dreamer to think about it.

I don’t know what will come of this but I’m not worried, knowing how helpful dreams can be.

Then I explain to the young woman :

- Miki, most of the time the people in our dreams represent facets of ourselves.

In general, because of his morphology, the man in a dream represents a masculine side, a force of affirmation in the outside world.

So this old friend represents your way of manifesting yourself in the outside world : for example in your job or your day-to-day life, when you are thinking, organizing, creating or building.

How interesting says the irish man ! But excuse me for interrupting you ! Can you tell me,  what does a woman represent  in a dream ?

Oh ! A woman, because of her morphology, corresponds to a receptive attitude, welcoming the inner world, what happens inside of you, what you fell, emotions, sensations, intuitions, dreams and spiritual perceptions.

Now I must go on with my investigations and  establish a link between this inner image and what it corresponds to in Miki’s daily life.

Getting back to the image of the friend, I recapitulate briefly its description :

- Miki, from what you’ve been saying, this old friend has a problem making choices.

Now, tell us : when you had this dream a few days ago, does this attitude remind you of a same situation in your daily life ?

At that time did you have difficulties in knowing what you wanted ?  Were you in a state of hesitation ? Did you have a decision to take that you could not reach ?

Miki is startled and looks at me.  She is pale.

- But how do you know…?

The young Japanese woman looks thunderstruck. She mumbles:

- That’s exactly it !

Intrigued we wait for her explanations.

- I work in a bank and lately I’ve been sent to another department under a different boss.  I’m having problems with this new boss, and I don’t like my new position, I’d like to do something else.  My boss doesn’t understand my desire to change and I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m unable to decide.

I comment :

- Oh! You are going through quite a common experience : the difficulty of choosing.  It is even a universal, crucial experience.  But look at what you’ve said about your old friend, look at your feelings : : what annoys you is that he bases his choices on what people are going to say about him, he wants to look good. He doesn’t do what he wants, he gives priority to other people’s judgment. He’s not true to himself.

- He’s not free says the Irishman.

- Exactly.

- So what does the dream mean, asks the other Japanese girl with a lovely smile ?

 I try to be as clear as possible:

- Miki, if your old friend appears in your dream at this time, it is because you are adopting the same behavior, you’re hesitating and you are tempted to act like him, to choose a solution based on other people’s viewpoint.

According to your description your friend appears negative.  He annoys you, what he does doesn’t please you. Through this your dream is showing you that it is not in your interest to adopt the same behavior. You are being told to be true to yourself, to make your choices for yourself, to do what pleases you, even if the people in your life have a different point of view.

- But it’s very difficult says the pretty French girl !

- You’re right ! You don’t conquer this overnight.

Miki looks at me, she seems quite moved.

- Christiane, I’m deeply touched by what you have said. Thanks to this dream, thanks to your explanations, I’ve just realized something : with this new job, this new boss, isn’t life putting me in this situation simply so that I can become aware that this job is not what I want to do?  So the question is : what do I really want to do?

That’s what I have to think about now.

Miki, looking at me, takes my hand between hers and adds :

- You know, Christiane, I will remember our conversation.  I would have never thought a dream could have such a dimension, I never imagined that a dream could be so precious. Now I know what I have to do when I get back.  Thank you, thank you very much. 

I felt very happy, I had just seen that my way of interpreting dreams made it possible for me to understand the dream of a woman about whom I knew nothing. And more than that, this method of working with the dream appears obviously to be an universal one, since it has been easily understood by several people of different continents : Japanese women, French women, an Irish man, an American man, and a Chinese man.

And once again I realized how helpful dreams are for anybody under any circumstances.

Night was falling, it was beginning to feel chilly, the head waiter invited us to go in and take our place at the table.

 You will find the French essay on the French blog :

Click on the link  : le blog des rêves de Christiane Riedel

In Archives click on «  toutes les archives » and on the date 2009 07.

Illustrations

I thank all the artists whose works permit me to illustrate my blog.

Cocktail : http://château-aventuriers.com

Champagne : cocktail à la  La Tour Vaucros

Banquet : http://www.mariage-wallonie.be

Paul Newman

Young Chinese man :http://photo-media.hanmail-net

Japanese buddy : Hayami Mocomichi, crunchyroll.com

Young man : http:/ :img15.imageshack.us

Young man : vera26.livejournal.com

A man : Pierce Brosman as James Bond

A woman : asiandramas.comblog.fr

Irish man : Acteur John Lucas : sondage-mecs.skyrock.com

Smiling Japanese woman : www. pbase.com

Chinese bank : http:/ :www.beijingdaily.com

Chinese banker : htp://www.blomberg.com

Japanese woman : lesmomotos.fr

Surprised : http://29img.v4.skyrock.net