Would somebody care to psychoanalyze this childhood dream?

[Rathark]

I had this dream when I was 12 years old.

A boy had just set fire to a forest. Hundreds can be heard screaming as the blazing hills light up the night. The boy has metal hooks for legs, and crawls pathetically on his hands along a dirt track, sobbing and whimpering with abject guilt and self-loathing. On either side of him, the walls grow hideous faces with huge bloodshot eyes, flickering fire, blood and forked tongues from their ragged mouths as they mock him with wordless screetches. At the end of the corridor is a horned demon, oblivious to the chaos around him as he sits playing a large bone-textured horn-like instrument, his long barbed tail coiled in a spiral at his side. The boy crawls into the centre of the demon's tail and curls up, his body racked with sobs. Without so much as shifting his gaze, the demon rises into the air, taking the boy with him as he continues his eerie piping. The demon and damned fly far into the flame-lit night sky, on their way to Hell, Satan and horrible justice.

I repeat, I had this dream when I was twelve years old.

[Dargos]

wow....that almost rivals my dream of cowboys on back of dinosaurs

as to your dream. some information please. were you or are you from a religious family? Did you just go thru Religious ritual i.e. Roman Catholics First Comunion etc.
Did read a strange or fantisy book prior to dreaming this? The Devil you described resembles closely a Devil known as the Bone Devil as represented in the AD&D 2nd Edition Monster Manual.

[Utsanomiko]

The Freudian analysis:

You want to have sex with your mother.

Analysis of Freud's analysis: Freud was a pervert.

[Rathark]

1. My family were very casual about religion. They encouraged it, but none of us were regular churchgoers.

2. I was a Protestant in a Catholic school. Back then I still believed in Hell as a real place.

3. I knew nothing about AD&D back then. My reading was rather diverse and unfocused. While I occassionally read science fiction, I would more often read ABOUT science fiction just as I would read about mythology, ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, astronomy, etc. However, I was reading a handful of horror comics from ages 6 - 10, some with infernal themes. That SF art book "Tommorrow and Beyond" also would have made an impression. One picture had a hideous bloodied face inside a cobra's mouth.

The dream didn't screw me up (apparently). Even back then it was just an amusing curiousity - one of those rare dreams in which I did not partake personally (thankfully). It was quite simply like a movie, and I was aware of that even as the dream unfolded.

[Zaia]

The Freudian analysis:

You want to have sex with your mother.

Analysis of Freud's analysis: Freud was a pervert.

LOL

Seriously, though, Rathark, we (I, anyway, since I don't know you) need to know some information about yourself in order to accurately interpret this dream. Dargos could be right; it could be something to do directly with religion, but was there anything else going on when you were 12? Parents splitting up? Someone close to you dying? The guilt of children isn't necessarily logical.

Are you normally guilt-ridden? Have you had other dreams with the same theme since then? Before then? Was this a reoccurring dream, or did you only have it once?

[Rathark]

BTW, here's a dream I had when I was seven:

A grown man, about forty, with a long moustache, a long dark coat and a cap (like a lighthouse keeper), is standing there sobbing like a child. A turtle the size of a Volkswagen is slowly approaching him. On this turtle crawl hundreds of ladybugs, each the size of a human hand. The man sobs in abject terror as the turtle carries the ladybugs slowly, inexorably toward him.

Make what you will of that one

[Rathark]

was there anything else going on when you were 12? Parents splitting up? Someone close to you dying? The guilt of children isn't necessarily logical.

Are you normally guilt-ridden? Have you had other dreams with the same theme since then? Before then? Was this a reoccurring dream, or did you only have it once?

It's interesting that you should connect my dream imagery to such extreme real-life examples ... but then, given the content ...

My use of the term "psychoanalyze" wasn't entirely serious. It's the apparent chaos of the human imagination that intrigues and amuses me.

If you really want to take the Freudian approach, then there were no obvious real-life "triggers" apart from what was in my own head (see my above post). I believe I was reading the Book of Revelations at the time, though. (Gee, sounds pretty significant, don't you think?) I was also going on scout camps, and the darkness of the forests fired my imagination in ways both positive and negative. Add to that my cyclic moods of superiority and self-doubt that often afflicts like-minded children.

Anyhow, I wonder if a Jungian/archetypal interpretation would be more fun than a Freudian/personal one.

[Larz]

What did you eat?... the dream could be interpreted mearly by phisiological exursions on you subconsciousness...

[Yogi]

It's rather hard to interprete a dream without a very detailed understanding of one's life. Everything you precieve is modified by your world view. That being said, I have no clue. Something you ate?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

BTW, here's a dream I had when I was seven:

A grown man, about forty, with a long moustache, a long dark coat and a cap (like a lighthouse keeper), is standing there sobbing like a child. A turtle the size of a Volkswagen is slowly approaching him. On this turtle crawl hundreds of ladybugs, each the size of a human hand. The man sobs in abject terror as the turtle carries the ladybugs slowly, inexorably toward him.

Make what you will of that one

It means you're a homosexual.

Unless you already are, then it means that you're straight.

[Zaia]

BTW, here's a dream I had when I was seven:

A grown man, about forty, with a long moustache, a long dark coat and a cap (like a lighthouse keeper), is standing there sobbing like a child. A turtle the size of a Volkswagen is slowly approaching him. On this turtle crawl hundreds of ladybugs, each the size of a human hand. The man sobs in abject terror as the turtle carries the ladybugs slowly, inexorably toward him.

Make what you will of that one

It means you're a homosexual.

Unless you already are, then it means that you're straight.

LOL I thought that's what those ladybugs meant......

[Lord_Xerxes]

I had this dream when I was 12 years old.

The boy has metal hooks for legs, and crawls pathetically on his hands along a dirt track, sobbing and whimpering with abject guilt and self-loathing.

I've learned in my English classes that I've taken in school and college on way to becoming a writer that any time a character has no feet, or something wrong with their feet, it could be symbolisim for a lack of freedom. In this particular case, you are reducing to crawling, so perhaps the meaning behind it is some sort of opression that you still have freedom, but it is entirely limited.

[Utsanomiko]

BTW, here's a dream I had when I was seven:

A grown man, about forty, with a long moustache, a long dark coat and a cap (like a lighthouse keeper), is standing there sobbing like a child. A turtle the size of a Volkswagen is slowly approaching him. On this turtle crawl hundreds of ladybugs, each the size of a human hand. The man sobs in abject terror as the turtle carries the ladybugs slowly, inexorably toward him.

Make what you will of that one

Most likely, at the time you (or asumed other people) were very terrified of ladybugs and/or turtles.

Dreams serriously aren't that hard to interpret; they're not 'sixth-sense windows into the spirit realm' like those damn Victorians pretended they were. You come across stuff during your day, think certain thoughts repeatedly, and when you're in REM sleep and your brain's running on low-gear some of that stuff pops back up. It's rather simple. No spirit worlds, no divine answers, no subconsious higher intellect, no sex with your mothers. It's just a mish-mash of your thinking habits and liberal use of creativity.

EDIT: Rathark: You ought to get a job writing blurbs on the back of novels and movies. Your descritpion of your wierd dream in the first post sounded like poetry.

[Utsanomiko]

I had this dream when I was 12 years old.

The boy has metal hooks for legs, and crawls pathetically on his hands along a dirt track, sobbing and whimpering with abject guilt and self-loathing.

I've learned in my English classes that I've taken in school and college on way to becoming a writer that any time a character has no feet, or something wrong with their feet, it could be symbolisim for a lack of freedom. In this particular case, you are reducing to crawling, so perhaps the meaning behind it is some sort of opression that you still have freedom, but it is entirely limited.

No kidding, talk about subtlety. Why not just hang a big heavy sign 'round their neck that reads 'no freedom'?
Most likely, it was just a straight-forward attribute of suffering or a painful existence. He thought up the idea of a kid in a miserable state, and hooks is what came out of the grabbag.
Either that kind of symbolism is within the grasp of a 12-year-old, or its alot simpler 9albiet less obvious) than that.

[Dargos]

ok...explain my cowboys on dinosaurs dream...I was 30 when I had that and it was one of the most strangest dreams I ever had...

[Utsanomiko]

ok...explain my cowboys on dinosaurs dream...I was 30 when I had that and it was one of the most strangest dreams I ever had...

1) You know about cowboys
2) You know about dinosaurs
3)You can put the two together while dreaming.

Basically, while dreaming, we're all a bunch of crazy idiots.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I can analyze all your dreams. It means you're asleep. What, you want your $500 back?

[Shinova]

I once had a dream that some tumor or growth of some kind was growing slowly on my leg. Pretty strange.

[haas mark]

I can analyze all your dreams. It means you're asleep. What, you want your $500 back?

ROFLMAO!!!

[Sienthal]

On the subject of dreams:
Isn't it interesting that we completely and utterly understand any emotion that a person shows or is experiencing in a dream? Though it would seem obvious, being that it's our own mind, but we don't apply any of our conscious experiences of such to the dream. There is no identification, just "know". It makes me wonder if the subconscious either is incredibly accurate and swift at identifying the human psyche, or that psychic ability really does exist. On a related note, I've noticed, at least in all my dreams, no one, and I mean NO ONE deceives, or attempts to deceive. Only once has it occurred in my mind, and I saw right through it in that dream.

My strangest dream? I was the leader of a resistance in a near-future type setting. I was flying, though I don't know how or why, my clothes flaring about in a dramatic fashion. I met with the enemy leader who, oddly enough, was flying as well. We exchanged melee combat for awhile, before I got this weird feeling, and struck the commander with a black bolt of lightning. I watched him fall to his death, but as soon as he hit the ground, the dream ended and I woke up, sweating like a bastard.

Scary part is, when I went to grab my alarm clock, it made a weird buzzing sound, and (I shit you not) when I looked at it, it flashed random numbers before turning off. But, I was half-asleep at the time, so I'm pretty sure my mind was just fuckin' with me, .

[Rathark]

ok...explain my cowboys on dinosaurs dream...I was 30 when I had that and it was one of the most strangest dreams I ever had...

[psychobabble mode]

If you dreamt about riding an apatosaurus or similar long-necked herbivorous sauropod, then you desire to have a larger penis. Seeing that mighty beam of pure muscle jutting out from between your legs must be a thrilling, empowering experience. The apatosaurus represents the phallus, and the phallus represents your desire for dominance within patriarchal Western society.

If you dreamt about a tyrannosaurus, then you are living in abject terror of the power of female sexuality. The vast, toothed, open mouth of the tyrannosaurus represents the all-engulfing female vagina. If the tyrannosaurus is seen attacking the apatosaurus, then you are harbouring deep-rooted fears of castration by a female power, possibly for some unknown/consciously forgotten transgression; or, equally plausible, you fear the act of female engulfment/dominance of the phallus that accompanies sexual intercourse. If the tyrannosaurus is seen eating a smaller dinosaur, then you are fearing punishment from your mother; or, quite possibly, desire to return to the comfort and safety of the womb.

If you dream of a triceratops fighting the tyrannosaurus, then you desire some form of masculine uprising against the percieved threat of feminism and female dominance. The horns of the triceratops are not only phallic and penetrative in nature, but the fact that there are three of them proves that they represent the Holy Trinity of the Christian Godhead. Thus the triceratops is not only a masculine/phallic symbol, but also a symbol of divinity and moral purity, or perhaps the Judeo-Christian masculinist meme that dominates modern Western society. By penetrating the belly (ie womb) of the tyrannosaurus, the triceratops is effectively taming the wild, chaotic, pagan femininity that the tyrannosaurus represents, and thereby freeing you of your mother's dominance.

If, however, your sympathies lie more closely with the tyrannosaurus than the triceratops, then the tyrannosaurus represents your own inner feminine (homosexual?) nature, and the triceratops represents your repressed fears of being penetrated (either literally or metaphorically) by a male individual or masculinity itself. Your fears, thus, are having your true inner self exposed, and being punished for your transgression by the dominant /pseudo-oppressed morality.

[/psychobabble mode]


*Ducks and covers for the backlash*

[Darth Wong]

What about people like me, who never remember our dreams? Any recollection of a dream seems to vanish into the mist as I wake up, with nothing but fleeting images that are, themselves, gone after 30 seconds.

[Darth Wong]

PS: Rathark, the sad thing about that psychobabble analysis is that there are people out there who will say that stuff with a straight face.

[Dargos]

ok...explain my cowboys on dinosaurs dream...I was 30 when I had that and it was one of the most strangest dreams I ever had...

[psychobabble mode]

If you dreamt about riding an apatosaurus or similar long-necked herbivorous sauropod, then you desire to have a larger penis. Seeing that mighty beam of pure muscle jutting out from between your legs must be a thrilling, empowering experience. The apatosaurus represents the phallus, and the phallus represents your desire for dominance within patriarchal Western society.

If you dreamt about a tyrannosaurus, then you are living in abject terror of the power of female sexuality. The vast, toothed, open mouth of the tyrannosaurus represents the all-engulfing female vagina. If the tyrannosaurus is seen attacking the apatosaurus, then you are harbouring deep-rooted fears of castration by a female power, possibly for some unknown/consciously forgotten transgression; or, equally plausible, you fear the act of female engulfment/dominance of the phallus that accompanies sexual intercourse. If the tyrannosaurus is seen eating a smaller dinosaur, then you are fearing punishment from your mother; or, quite possibly, desire to return to the comfort and safety of the womb.

If you dream of a triceratops fighting the tyrannosaurus, then you desire some form of masculine uprising against the percieved threat of feminism and female dominance. The horns of the triceratops are not only phallic and penetrative in nature, but the fact that there are three of them proves that they represent the Holy Trinity of the Christian Godhead. Thus the triceratops is not only a masculine/phallic symbol, but also a symbol of divinity and moral purity, or perhaps the Judeo-Christian masculinist meme that dominates modern Western society. By penetrating the belly (ie womb) of the tyrannosaurus, the triceratops is effectively taming the wild, chaotic, pagan femininity that the tyrannosaurus represents, and thereby freeing you of your mother's dominance.

If, however, your sympathies lie more closely with the tyrannosaurus than the triceratops, then the tyrannosaurus represents your own inner feminine (homosexual?) nature, and the triceratops represents your repressed fears of being penetrated (either literally or metaphorically) by a male individual or masculinity itself. Your fears, thus, are having your true inner self exposed, and being punished for your transgression by the dominant /pseudo-oppressed morality.

[/psychobabble mode]


*Ducks and covers for the backlash*

Wow....I thought it was because I ate a bad bit of tunafish. Will the wonders of psyco/social science ever cease?

[Dargos]

What about people like me, who never remember our dreams? Any recollection of a dream seems to vanish into the mist as I wake up, with nothing but fleeting images that are, themselves, gone after 30 seconds.

I had that problem as well....keep a notepad by your bed and jot down any memories you have when you awaken....that is if your interested in what your dreaming about.