May 2, 2013

My Dreams


Full Moon 2
Full Moon 2 (Photo credit: ecotist)
I was officially 48 year-old by last month. Somehow I felt an urge to write an auto-bio, but my instinct told me to wait a little longer, in case I get really famous so my bio could make me lots of money. Plus, my English isn't quite "there" yet. Nonetheless, I decided to satisfy my vanity vicariously: instead of writing a bio - an experience that mostly related to what I did during daytime, I would write my dreams - an experience about what I did during my sleep. I believe dreams are more or less reflections of our daytime life experience.

Below were some quite interesting dreams during the first half of my life (if I could live until 96) , in chronological order:

Escape dream: these type of dreams occurred in my earlier life, from my childhood to my early teen years. In these dreams, I always carried my (older) sister on my back, running away from some dangers. The typical scenario was during WWII China (obviously adapted from some movies I watched), I was running away from Japanese soldiers who were chasing us. The dream was extremely intense, like some suspense thrillers, and always ended up with my waking up with despair in the last moment before I got really captured.
My interpretation of these dreams is very simple, in early years of my life I was burdened by my family, there were times that this burden was too heavy for me to endure. Poor me!

Flying dream: my happiest dream ever! Inside I would literally fly, high or low, I had that wonderful view of earth. Sometime I seemed to descend unwillingly, but with a little effort I ascended again, soaring through mountains, cities, forests, and oceans!
This dream is the dream of freedom - while flying high, I had a tasted that ultimate freedom I yearned for. I don't know when I started having these dreams but I know I started when I was very young, and during my early middle age they seemed to vanished. Maybe that means I felt trapped during my years of middle age hazard. But now I do feel free again, and I hope they come back soon!

Supernatural dream: these dreams are quite unexplainable. Here is the latest example which I would call "phone dream", it was about my phone. In reality, I have this normal telephone set, if someone call me, the light in screen of my phone would turned on first, also the red light signals on answering machine would flash a couple of seconds before the phone rings. One day (about one year ago) I was taking a nap, I dreamt my telephone handset started flashing some signals, then it rang. I know this is no miracle at all, but what really happened was, my phone in reality rang at the same time as in my dream, EXACTLY the same moment! This means, somehow, even if I was sleeping, I foresaw the upcoming event in perfect precision.
Here is another example which took place much earlier in my life, about 20 years ago: in a dream I was sitting inside a room. The room had a window that was on the same side of the door, which means, if someone come to my door, I usually would see him/her passing through the window first. Then in my dream I saw a person walking pass the window, as if she (I believe it was a girl) was walking toward my door, then I heard the sound of knocking door. And just like my "phone dream", the sound of knocking occurred at the exactly same time in my dream and in reality - someone was outside my door. Of course I woke up, startled, opened the door, and there stood my friend!
This type of dreams happened several times in my life, for what I can remember, at least 4, or 5 times. I found they are quite unexplainable.


First-lady dream: another unexplainable dream! In this dream I was a first lady of the country (China) during Nationalist regime (before Communist). This is a big deal, because it means, as a lesbian, somehow I managed to be the wife of Jiang Kai Shek! The "scenario" was simple, I was standing beside my President husband, posed idly for press conference photo taking after some important meeting regarding some important international matters.
I have absolutely no slightest idea about how I had this dream, but one thing I do understand is the choice of scenario - after the "important meeting", because even in my dream I deliberately avoided the situation that would expose my completely ignorance about those "important international matters". However, I have to admit, the choice of Jiang Kai Shek was extremely unsound, consider I had total freedom to choose any president I wanted.

1986, I walked through a plank road on Hua
mountain in China, the most precipitous
mountain in China. Underneath about
one foot wide wooden plank which I
stepped on was thousand feet high cliff
 (over 80 degree steep).
P.S. this photo was not taken in my 
dream:-) and I indeed reached the top
of cliff - see next picture.
Climbing Dream: I had this dream a few times in different phases of my life: I was climbing a very steep cliff, either by hands or by driving (a car). The cliff was so steep that it almost passed the 90 degree and I was at the edge of falling off. A few times I woke up in panic condition, a few other times, I don't remember how I ended the "story", but I do remember couple of times I did reach the top of cliff.
I had these dreams usually when I had some "goals" to achieve. Indeed, sometime my goals were just too high. I am glad I do not have any "goals" anymore.

Blind Dream: these dreams were devastating. Inside them I either drove a car with a broken break, or saw the heavy snow or rain covered my windshield, in whatever way, I could not see things in front of me. The worse thing was, the car was always moving, which made me felt complete loss of control.
These dreams happened during first half of my middle age (I suppose I am still in middle age::-)), when I was totally lost, totally don't know where to go. Good thing is, after sky fell, I saw another wider sky. So I don't have this kind of dream any more. Thank God!

Journey Dream: I started having this dream during recently years. In it I usually rode bike, needed to go somewhere that seemed to be too far away to reach. It usually happened in the night, where I could not get any helps - no bus, no train, but only a bike,... During the dreams I was not terribly dreadful, but I did feel tired, and inadequate.
These dreams reflect my chronic physical problem. It lasts so long that sometime I did have doubt that I could ever get recovered completely. I occasionally still have this dream, but hopefully, as my physical condition improve, they would go away.

Above are some dreams I think worth to write down so far in my life. I think they somehow interpreted my life experience. There must be tone of other interesting dreams but unfortunately, I can only remember them on the day when I die. Most of these dreams I remembered happened multiple times during different phases of my life, except "first lady dream", which was a "one time privilege", I suppose.

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10 comments:

  1. I too believe our dreams reveal much about our lives and thoughts! I'm sure most of us have dreams of our inadequacy - our minds must process our hidden fears to help our bodies make sense of them! I too have had amazing dreams - dreams worth recording and speaking and writing about. I'm glad you have the courage, and take the time, to record what your mind struggles with as your body sleeps!

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  2. Thanks Melody for you encouragement! I wrote this piece a while ago, thought it would be interesting to post it. I had fun to write them down, also I feel like I put a "period" mark right here, and start the new life ahead!

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  3. Remembering these in such vivid detail is quite remarkable. & such odd dreams - which dreams mostly are I guess.

    I found the phone story quite eerie, & the lesbian wife of Jiang Kai Shek funny. You may have material for several books there.
    Cheers, ic

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  4. ic, thanks for commenting. yes the phone story is eerie, and first wife dream is indeed funny and it reminds me not to take myself seriously.

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  5. Apart from the "first lady" dream, I can identify with almost all of these. I no longer have flying dreams, but I dream about doing gymnastics all the time, which is about as close to actually flying as we humans ever get.

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  6. np, i am glad you can related most of them. we seems to think in similar way on many aspects of life, no doubt we could have same kind of dreams:-)

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  7. Happy 48th birthday Yun! You have vivid dreams and I think your dream interpretations are very good. Hope your flying dreams return! I had a lot of escape and flying dreams when I was young. I think I’d love to have a flying dream again too.

    I’ve had supernatural dreams as well. Your phone dream sounds precognitive, like your mind knew the phone would ring and sent that message to you in a dream. That it happened in your dream at the same moment it happened in reality is incredible. The “knocking at the door” dream was incredible too. I believe in precognitive dreams; I’ve seen many examples of them in my dreams and dreams of others.

    Your First Lady dream is quite the big deal. Being a lesbian wife of Jiang Kai Shek, now that would be something! :) Interesting about the climbing dreams. Love your climbing photos and congrats on reaching the top! That is quite an accomplishment.

    Glad you don’t have the blind dreams anymore. Reminds me of the getting lost dreams I sometimes have. Yes, I think your journey dreams may be reflective of your chronic physical condition and I hope those dreams diminish for you. Thank you for sharing your interesting dreams.

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  8. Madilyn, thanks for reading my dreams. And I always appreciate you commented in such a detailed fashion. I am sure we may have lots of similar types of dreams, we humans do have same kind of reactions to reality. I hope we all have happy dreams in the rest of our lives. :-)

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  9. Hi Yun Yi,

    Really interesting post and I can relate to the flying dreams, which are undoubtedly the best. I also had a period where I thought they'd left me for good, but they returned occasionally.
    Also the 'not getting to your destination' dreams. I often used to have the exam dream, where I never made it, because the bus didn't come or went the wrong way. You honestly wake up in a panic, as it feels so real.
    Some of your others are really special and thanks for sharing.

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  10. Neil, I am so glad you also had flying dreams and still have them. Thanks for commenting!

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