Freaky Dreams

CELLAR

If the house represents yourself, then the cellar represents that part of you which is underground, buried, or beneath the surface; that is, your subconscious mind. If the cellar in your dream is dank, untidy, and slightly scary, then you need to pay attention to what’s going on in your subconscious mind and bear in mind that dreams are its way of communicating with you! If, on the other hand, the cellar is pleasant and a place that you’re happy to spend time in, then rest assured that all is well with your subconscious mind. It’s not unlikely that you’re involved in a spiritual practice such as meditation or yoga. The cellar can also represent the past; you might have issues from a previous life that you need to reconcile with your current one.

CHALK

Where is chalk used the most? In a school environment. So if someone is writing something on a chalkboard in your dream, you’re being taught something by this person. If you’re using chalk, then you are learning something. If you can discern that you’re reading or what you’re writing, then you’re fortunate indeed. Don’t forget, though, that dream information is often cleverly encrypted. And that chalk is impermanent…

CHAMBER (See Cave)

CHECKERBOARD (CHESSBOARD)

The black and white squares of a checkerboard represent a balance of opposites. The contrasting colors, shared equally on the board, represent good and bad, light and dark, and the essential contrast between them. It’s for this reason that, for example, Masonic lodges often have black and white checkered floors. It’s likely that you have a clear, black and white decision to make in your own life.

CHEETAH

Animals and dreams signify power that’s available to us. The cheetah is fast and strong. Go for it.

CHERRY

Any kind of fruit tends to be a good omen in a dream, but only if the fruit is fresh and perky. In addition, a cherry has the inevitable sexual connotations. What’s the context of the cherry in your dream? If you’re eating the cherry, then your sex life is healthy and interesting. If you’re seeing someone else eating the cherry, this could indicate you’re frustrated in your sex life. If you see a bowl of cherries, then it is a reminder that life is sweet. However, if you see a bowl of cherry stones, it means that you’re expending too much energy and need to ease up a little.

CHICKEN

Traditionally, we associate chickens with cowardice. Are you being less than courageous in a certain aspect of your life? If so, take heart and know that you can change things for the better.

CHIMPANZEE (See Monkey)

CLOTHING

Any kind of clothing that features in a dream tells us about the way we’d like to appear to the world—and also about the way we’d like the world to see us. What kind of a jacket is it? Is it a formal, tailored jacket? Or is it more casual, even bordering on scruffy? Does it feel comfortable? Or does the cut of the cloth make you feel uneasy? The type of clothes in your dream will illustrate how you want yourself to appear to the people around you.

CLOWN

For all their jolly jests, clowns can have a quite sinister appearance. The most alienating aspect is the strange face paint that is as effective as a mask; the clown is unidentifiable, which in itself sets a tone of danger. The clown in your dream might well represent someone that pretends to be something that they’re not, or that you can’t quite get a grip on. If the clown in your dream is unhappy or sad, then you need to think about if this perhaps applies to you or someone in your life?

COCKEREL

The cockerel is a powerful symbol of masculine aggression and virility. It’s also a symbol of the power of the sun. These are all qualities that, according to your dream, are available to you.

CHEESE DREAMS: DOES FOOD MAKE FREAKY DREAMS…FREAKIER?

Does eating cheese actually make us dream more, or is this just an old wives’ tale? And are there other foods that might do the same thing? It’s actually very hard to tell. However, one of the tips for remembering dreams is to break up your sleep pattern; therefore it makes sense that if certain foods are hard to digest, then this might contribute to a restless night, which in turn could help you to remember your dreams more. In addition to cheese, other foods that are difficult to digest include eels, currants, shellfish, cranberries, bananas, and pretty much all types of red meat.

In 2005, the Cheese Board in the UK carried out a pretty extensive experiment on the effects that cheese has on dreams. Two hundred volunteers took part in the study, in which they each ate .7 oz (20 g) of cheese half an hour before bedtime. According to the statistics, there were no reports of actual nightmares, but there were plenty of dreams recorded. This probably wasn’t terribly surprising, but there were a couple of curveballs thrown into the cheesy equation. It seems that different varieties of cheese had different effects; eating Stilton Blue Cheese caused 85 per cent of the women to experience the freakiest dreams. Subject matter for these stiltonian dreams includes: talking toys; dinner party guests being traded for camels; and a vegetarian crocodile upset because it could not eat children.

Here at Freaky Dreams Central, we decided to conduct our own experiments into the effects of cheese on our dreams. Our experiment may not have been as far-reaching as that of the Cheese Board, but yielded interesting results nevertheless.

We asked six volunteers to eat as much cheese as they liked just before hopping into bed. We also asked six volunteers to deliberately avoid cheese on the same six days of the experiment.

THE RESULT?

Here’s the shocker.

Cheese or no cheese seemed to make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Some of the cheese-eaters had strange dreams; so, however, did the cheese-free volunteers. Here’s one of the most coherent dream diaries that we received back from the volunteers. It’s from Dan. He ate the cheese.

Night one: No dreams

Night two: Had a dream that I ate an enormous carton of fries, but the fries were in a big foil tray that was somehow floating in water inside a cardboard box, like a water bath, with Christmas gift wrap on. It looked a little bit like a Bain Marie or something.

Night three: I dreamt that I was in a London pub for New Year’s Eve. Noel Gallagher was in there, and although he would talk to me he wouldn’t let me have my picture taken with him. He kept moving around the table to prevent having his picture taken. His wife/girlfriend kept showing her stomach to people. I eventually had to leave in a hurry as I had spilt gravy all down my gray jumper.

Night four: No dreams

Night five: Had a dream I was at a vacation park on a lads’ holiday for the weekend and got locked in the swimming pool overnight. It was quite lucid and I was quite anxious that I couldn’t get out.

Night six: No dreams

Wow. Fries? Gravy? The Pub? Being locked in a swimming pool? Only Dan could analyze this dream with any certainty, but we’d say that it shows a level of fretfulness about his personal appearance while in the presence of a celebrity. This is quite understandable, but the slightly elusive nature of that celebrity might mean that Dan is frustrated about something. Anxiety about being locked in a swimming pool, and the fries floating in the water bath, might imply a certain reluctance to integrate his feminine side, especially in such a masculine environment. That Dan is scarfing down large amounts of food tells us that he has a strong spiritual side that needs nurturing. And the lady showing her stomach to everyone is just plain freaky.

Another dream diary from a volunteer non-cheese eater came from Laura. Her journal shows some intriguing examples of dreams that involve her childhood and days gone by.

Night One: I’m riding a bike through my family vacation home, but the seat is far too high and I can’t quite reach the peddles properly, wobbling all over the place. I think I’m leaving. I’ve got loads of bags that I’m struggling to carry, I keep dropping things and I can feel myself getting really frustrated and upset.

Night Two: My mum and I are searching around thrift stores looking for a skirt to wear for a fancy dress party, I’m going as a school girl. My surroundings change and I’m in another store, where I find hats which I begin to try on.

Night Three: No dreams

Night Four: I’m with family and my old dog, wandering around the garden where I grew up.

The river is in flood. We walk through some woods where there’s a bees nest in the trunk of a big old tree. Next, we walk out of the woods and it’s just me and my mum, we get in my car and start driving around a rotary, but I can’t turn off, I don’t know where I’m going.

Night Five: There are lots of people around, I’m in my underwear, but no-one seems to notice. I’m trying to find my apartment which is in a mall. I’m going up and down the escalators. There’s also a spiral staircase. When I finally find my front door it’s next to the amusements, I can see fruit machines and flashing lights. I realise that I’ve left my keys in the car, which is back down on the first floor parked among the stores. So I start going up and down the escalators again. Once again I can feel myself getting really frustrated and upset.

Night Six: No dreams.

Laura’s dreams also involve some anxiety. She has the classic “underwear in public” aspect to a part of her dream, too—(see the section on nudity in dreams THE AWARD FOR “MOST POPULAR DREAM” GOES TO…). There’s also a large degree of going back to her past; the old family home, the bicycle that’s too big, and the time she spends in the dream with her mother might suggest that Laura is longing for a return to simpler days with fewer responsibilities.

Here are segments from more of the dreams that were reported back. We defy you to decide whether they were cheese-fuelled or not…here are some of the more coherent extracts.

I can’t get into my house because the porch is covered with rabbits disguised as pineapples. They’re wriggling all over the place and I don’t want to step on them

I am standing inside a hamster wheel, having fun, then I realize it’s not a hamster wheel but a gigantic roll of adhesive tape. Or am I just really tiny?

Aliens are going to invade the planet. They get here by climbing though radios that are set to a certain frequency. I am trying to stop people fiddling with their dials.

I look into my friend’s pram to admire her new-born baby. There’s no baby there, only a plate of dressed crab. But my friend seems pleased enough and I just can’t tell her the truth.

I have a job interview and am hurrying to get ready. The only stuff in my wardrobe is full-sized animal skins, all evidently very recently skinned from the animals they belonged to because blood is dripping everywhere.

ANSWER; The first two dreams are cheese-fuelled. The last two are “normal.”

“I was having a very deep and meaningful conversation with my cat, Mr. Bootsypuss, and then suddenly we were on the bed making out. I knew it was wrong, but it was fabulous sex. When I woke up and went to feed him in the morning, it was really weird. We’ve exchanged some meaningful stares since that night, and I wonder if he had the same dream.”

COFFIN

The coffin is an example of a “container” dream (See Bottle or Box). The container, or in this case, coffin, represents you. The more obvious meaning of the coffin—death—can’t be ignored, though. In this case, the coffin in your dream represents an ending of something, death making way for something new.

COLOR

Some people say that they never dream in color—or at least, if they do, then they don’t notice what those colors are; it’s likely that the colors are simply not significant within the dream. Sometimes, however, the colors in your dream cannot be ignored. Here’s a guide to their (very) basic meanings:

Red = life, energy

Green = growth, harmony

Blue = spirituality, calmness

Pink = sexuality

Brown = earthiness

Yellow = childlike qualities

Black = mystery, decay

White = purity, cleanliness

Purple = magic and mystery

COMPASS

The main task of a compass is to indicate direction. In dreams, your subconscious mind communicates with you. Therefore, it’s logical to suppose that dreaming of a compass means that your subconscious mind is trying to tell you something about the direction your life is taking. Perhaps you need to change it.

CONDOM

Condoms are protection. They protect us from STDs and stop women from getting pregnant. What, in your waking life, requires protection?

Your dream of condoms is a reminder that something needs to be looked after.

CONFETTI

It seems odd when you think about it that we like to have tiny scraps of paper flying through the air when we have something to celebrate. Confetti or tickertape in your dream means that you have something joyful to look forward to in real life.

CORRIDOR

A house or a building in a dream, represents you. A corridor is an area of transition, a path that leads us from one place to another—somewhere we don’t generally linger. Perhaps there’s such a transition taking place in your life at the moment, and you’re in a metaphorical corridor between jobs, relationships, or homes.

CROWD

To find that you’re in a crowd can either be upsetting and confusing or joyous and unifying—depending, of course, on the mood of the crowd. If the dream is a confusing crowd scene, then the feeling of trapped frustration might reflect a certain situation in your waking life. If the crowd is unified and joyful, then you might as well enjoy whatever is going on, knowing that you’re one small but important component in a unified whole.

CUP

Any sort of a vessel, such as a cup, chalice, or goblet, represents the female aspect of your psyche. This applies whether you are male or female. If you are the former, this dream is telling you to follow your intuitions and your “feminine” side.

D

DAISY

Daisies stand for freshness, optimism, springtime, and new growth, as well as the innocence of childhood. Sometimes dreams remind us of what’s missing in our lives, so the appearance of a daisy in your dream could be a gentle hint that perhaps things aren’t that bad after all. New growth will come soon.

DANCING

If you were dancing by yourself, this dream implies that you can express yourself best when you’re left alone. You might be feeling bogged down by the responsibilities of everyday waking life, but dancing alone in your dream shows that you’re young inside, and the world is still your oyster. If you were dancing with a partner, this is an expression of harmony, both in your life and in your choice of sexual partner. Again, you might be fortunate in that this perfectly describes your situation, or it could be something you’re craving.

DAUGHTER

If your daughter is a real person and you dream about her, the context of the dream will tell you if you’re expressing your hopes for her or your anxieties about her. If you have no daughter, the girl in the dream represents a part of yourself. This is the case no matter whether you’re male or female.

DEAD

There’s a distinction between “dead” and “death,” and so you’ll find entries for both in this book. If someone that you know to be dead appears to you in a dream, there’s a strong school of thought that would suggest the person is coming to you from the other side of the veil, so to speak, to impart information. There’s an equally strong consideration that says our own subconscious mind will do whatever it can to get information passed to us, including disguising itself as a dead person. Either way, the message is likely to be an important one. Sometimes we dream that people close to us are dead. This is more likely to be a typical anxiety dream rather than a premonition dream.

If you dream of a dead animal, then the part of you that is represented by that animal might be dead for the time being. For example, if you dream of a dead bird, then perhaps you feel grounded, unable to “fly,” metaphorically speaking.

DEAF

To dream that you are deaf, or that you are dealing with deaf people, means that you either can’t get someone to hear what you are saying or that you are not listening to what someone is telling you. Pay attention, either way, and find a new way of communicating if necessary.

DEATH

Death signifies an end. If you dream that someone you know is dead, it’s not necessarily a warning that you’ll need to buy a black suit anytime soon. Rather, it might be that the useful parts of your relationship with this person have come to an end, and that it’s time for you to acknowledge this.

If you dream that you yourself are dying, this is not an omen or an indication that you are near death. It means you’re undergoing a profound series of changes that will see you advance in every way imaginable. It’s not nice seeing your body in a coffin, but if you do, see this as an exciting precursor to a whole new you!

DECAPITATION

What we’re really talking about here is someone losing his or her head. If it’s you, perhaps there is a decision you regret or an ill-advised choice that you’ve made that needs rectifying.

DEFORMITY

Essentially, a deformity is something that’s wrong, something that’s amiss. To dream of such a thing (be it a physical, emotional, or mental deformity) would imply that there’s something similarly “wrong” with a situation in your life. A deformity doesn’t necessarily have to be fixed; rather, we need to find ways to work with it or around it.

DÉJÀ VU

If you experience déjà vu during the course of your dream, this is a good indicator that your dream is about to go “lucid.” (See Lucid Dreaming in LUCID DREAMING: THE ART OF CONTROLLING YOUR DREAMS).

DEMONS

Carl Jung, one of the greatest influences on dream analysis, said that we each have a shadow side—a side that remains hidden. Devils, demons, and the like represent that shadow side, the aspects of ourselves that we might be ashamed of and that we prefer not to disclose to the world. It’s also worth bearing in mind that we need to face our demons in order to understand them. Perhaps it’s time to consider a little more integration and a little less distraction?

DENTIST

There’s usually a degree of anxiety about seeing a dentist, even if we have a perfect set of gnashers. One of the most common anxiety dreams is about teeth falling out (see THE AWARD FOR “MOST POPULAR DREAM” GOES TO…), and a dentist dream also falls into the anxiety category.

DEVILS (See Demons)

DIAMONDS

Lovely! Generally speaking, it’s good to dream of anything so beautiful and valuable. The diamond symbolizes strength, integrity, and clarity. So again, the context of the diamond is all. If you find a rough diamond, then there might be aspects of your character—or skills—that you feel are not being exploited. If you lose diamonds, then you’re anxious about losing something of value in your waking life. Diamonds are, of course, given as a symbol of marriage, too, so this could also be a desire dream.

DINOSAUR

Possibly the most powerful symbol we have of outmoded ideas. Is there something you need to let go of?

DISGUISE

If in your dream you find yourself in a disguise, then you might not want people to know it’s you. Try to remember your disguise as this could help you figure out what you’re trying to hide, if anything. You have all these answers within you.

DISNEYLAND

Disneyland is something akin to a freaky dream itself. You may enjoy finding yourself in a fantasy full of pastel-colored castles and ten-foot high mice, or you may find the whole thing a surreal nightmare. Either way, the dream is an indication that it’s time for you to embrace a new way of looking at things, to unexpect the expected, and to let your inner child come out to play.

DOCTOR

This is a guidance dream. As with any dream featuring a figure of authority, the doctor signifies the need for expert, trusted advice. It’s most likely that your subconscious mind throws you in to visit a medical doctor, but it could be another kind. The issue you’re facing need not be medical at all, but it does indicate that you need advice in an area of your life. The context of the dream will help you determine the type of advice needed.

DOG

Man’s best friend packs a very powerful symbolic punch when he appears in a dream. We’ve always imposed important significance on these creatures; for example, in many societies they’re considered to be “psycho—pomps,” that is, animals that escort human souls to the next world. A black dog is thought to be a symbol of depression. Your dream doggie could also represent faithfulness, generosity, loyalty, and protection. It’s important to recognize the context in which the dog appears in your dream. It might be barking at you as though it wants to tell you something. It might bite you, which would suggest that you need to pay attention to something. You might find that the dog appears to be guiding you somewhere; this is a strong signal for you to follow your intuition.

DONKEY

What’s the word you most associate with this animal? Stubborn, perhaps? If you feel the animal is an aspect of yourself, then maybe you’re being a bit stuck in your ways. The donkey could also represent a situation that’s been frustrating you. If, however, you’re leading the donkey in the dream, then you’ve got a tricky situation under control.

DONUTS

Tasty, delicious, and fattening donuts speak of illicit desires—in particular, sexual ones.

DOVE

The world over, this little bird is symbolic of peace, harmony, contentment, gentility, and fertility. The white dove signifies spirituality.

DRESS (See Clothing)

DROWNING

Drowning dreams frequently end as the sleeper wakes suddenly; the feeling of panic unbearable. Being submerged in water and unable to breathe is a horrible feeling, and to dream of this is a powerful way for your subconscious mind to rap sharply against the door of your conscious mind, telling you to express your fears and anxieties in your everyday life. One dream might be enough for you, but if you dream repeatedly that you’re drowning, then it might be worth seeking professional advice about confronting your fears.

DRUMMING

If you’re drumming in the dream, then you’re in control of your life. If you have to follow someone else’s rhythm, however, then the opposite is true. You might be happy with this state of affairs, or you may not. What you do about it is up to you.

DYNAMITE

A good friend and a devastating enemy, dynamite represents very powerful aspects of yourself that you feel might endanger you in some way. The most powerful tool we have as human beings is that of speech. Words can be used like dynamite, equally explosive. Is there something you’d like to say that you’ve been sitting on for a while? Are you afraid of the consequences? Sometimes an explosion can clear the air, so long as you take care not to get hit by shrapnel.