Back to the village
Last night’s main dream was in a familiar setting. I have these dreams every so often. They are set in the village I grew up in, Southwick, in the south-west of England. In this village there were all these quiet roads and cul-de-sacs where we used to play football, tennis, manhunt, and so on.
In my dream, I was with two friends – I think it was Katie and James – and we were all grown up, just walking around the village. My memories of that village and the houses are very vivid, so everything was there in great detail. It felt good to be back there, and though I don’t think any of us were speaking, each of us was reminiscing about our childhoods.
We got to one house and there was a tall figure, all grown up: It was John Ballantine, but some reason I thought his name was Burbage. I used to know another kid called John Burbage, but he was a lot younger than John Ballantine and I wasn’t really friends with him. I called his (incorrect) name: “Burbage! Burbage!” He was standing at the foot of his drive smiling. I haven’t seen him for more than ten years, so I really don’t know what he’d look like, but in my dream his hair was a lot calmer than it used to be. When I knew him, he had this kind of manic, afro-like hair; in my dream he had it cut short and looked quite respectable.
That was all I can remember about this dream. It was a happy dream, as dreams of my childhood always are, although they are always mixed with melancholy because they are of people I will likely never see again.
So long Batman; farewell
Sometimes I have dreams and am forever perplexed as to what they actually mean and where they come from. I had one such dream around four or five years ago. In this dream, I was the son of none other than Batman. Although I wasn’t sure how, I became aware that Batman had died and I began to cry. I have experienced many dreams in which I am crying before, and they are usually very similar.
When Batman died I cried and I cried and I couldn’t stop. The feeling of crying was a strange sensation, because it was so real. I had no control over it and it took over my entire existence. It was as if I had been enveloped in the feelings of sadness that trigger crying and that are its very essence in the first place. The tears were streaming down my cheeks and they would not stop coming.
I suspect that these dreams of continuous crying must be related. Sometimes you just need a good cry, so maybe if you don’t cry enough in the real world your mind and body can achieve the same vent expulsion of emotion in a dream. The fact that I was Batman’s son only adds to the strangeness.
Jumping down the stairs
I have always had recurring dreams of one form or another, but there was one that I had for years as a child that I came to quite enjoy in a backwards sort of way. It was always the same: there’d be me, stood at the top of a staircase in a house, and I’d wait until the time was right for me to jump. My jumping abilities were always pretty good in these dreams, and I was able to jump the entire staircase, from top to bottom, with one leap. The sensation of falling was very real and I would always wake up when I reached the bottom.
It is this sensation of falling that has always interested me about dreaming, because you can actually feel it in your stomach. It’s amazing that the brain can simulate that sensation. Occasionally if I’m in a dream and I know that I’m dreaming I will try and find something very high to jump off in order to recreate that falling feeling. The staircase dream is one I haven’t had for years, but it was certainly a part of my childhood, ingrained in my mind.
Dreams about losing my teeth
Freud said that there are four typical sets of dreams: There are those of falling, those of flying, those of being embarrassed about being naked in public, and those of teeth falling out. These are all dreams I have had multiple times throughout my life. When I was younger, the dream of falling was most prevalent. I never had dreams of being naked, but as I ended my time in primary school and moved up to secondary school, I most commonly had dreams that I had gone somewhere and forgotten something vital, like my trousers or my shoes. Those dreams were usually quite stressful. Dreams of flying became more prominent in the latter stages of my life (they were highly enjoyable), and most recently, in the past two years or so, I have been having dreams about my teeth.
I had one last week. I was looking at my teeth in a mirror and spotted a defect. Upon further investigation I discovered that the tooth was wobbly, and it became more and more wobbly until the point when it actually fell out, closely followed by the rest of my teeth. All my dreams about teeth are similar to this one. They are not particularly enjoyable dreams.
What a dream about losing teeth means is open to interpretation. Some relate it to stress regarding children, some say it is to do with losing power or a position, others say it is about one’s appearance, while Freud (although I haven’t read enough of Freud myself to really say much here) said the dreams were to do with guilt about masturbating. I don’t feel guilty about masturbation, so I’d like to discredit that one in my case. I have no children, or even any relatives who have/are children, so that one goes out the window. I don’t think the dreams are about my appearance, because when I lose my teeth, I’m concerned about my actual teeth and not how they affect to the rest of me.
My dreams about losing my teeth must relate to some anxiety, and in my case I think they relate to anxiety about my actual teeth, and not to something else indirectly. I haven’t been to a dentist for more than five years, and I’m terrified that when I do go to the dentist I will have all sorts of things wrong with me. There’s also a mark on my front tooth that bothers me sometimes. I’m unsure if my dreams about teeth have another meaning; they may do, but I would relate the feeling in my dreams more to general stress than anything deeper.
I’m actually going to the dentists this month. We’ll see if this plays into my subconscious at night at all.