Example Dream

Now that you’ve had your own experience of dream animation, we’ll work with an an example dream to demonstrate how all of the dream skills (Association, Amplification and Animation) can work together.

This is a 42 year old woman who has been feeling lonely and as though she doesn’t “belong”. She has a history of childhood emotional neglect, especially by her mother. She struggles a bit with social anxiety. She has worked on her “issues” quite a bit in therapy, but isn’t sure where to go from here. She isn’t sure if she should try harder to connect with others through some MeetUps or invite coworkers out after work.

R has come to visit. I am living in a dorm room. He has gone to visit M & E, so I try to find them to see what what they’re doing. I can’t find the door - the woman I’m with says the tile outside their door is “emerald green”. I see the tile and enter M and E’s dorm room. Their room is cozy, CD’s on one wall, comfortable places to sit. R is there, showing them something.

I think I’ll go out with L tonight - we don’t have many nights left here. We can dress in costumes. Maybe I’ll have a beer first. L seems to tolerate me - we’re not friends but she’ll let me tag along.

I think I’ll tell my mother that I’m sad that R doesn’t seem to want to spend time with me, or care about what I’m doing at all. She’s sleeping, though, so I don’t wake her up.

Someone, a man, has dug a trench around a fountain. The trench was carefully built with perfect sides. Another man scoffs and says he has been digging in the wrong place. He grabs the shovel and plunges it closer to the fountain, almost to the base. There is treasure there. I am bound with rope to a man (the man that dug the trench) as a woman goes through the treasure - she owns it. I see a pair of silver hoop earrings, worth $40. I think of stealing them, but I ask her if I can have them - she has so much. She asks me a lot of questions and seems reluctant. I am telling her and the man I’m bound to that I’ve done a lot of treasure digging in my past.

There is a large crowd around the fountain. I know R is in the audience and he doesn’t care about what’s happening to me at the fountain.