Hi,
I'm a new member - never posted before so I'm not sure what to do or expect. I'm age 64, retired and have been interested in Jung since the age of 20 when I read Memories Dreams and Reflections. I found it an amazing and enlightening book. I'm on the creative side of the gene pool and love to play traditional Irish and English music on the violin, I also play guitar. Painting is another of my pastimes and I like being outdoors.
Last night my wife woke me from a deep sleep at about 2am in the morning - she said she thought I was having a stroke because I was twitching and moving. I was just about to go back to sleep when I remembered my dream 'I was playing football' I said and then added a moment later ,' with the Beatles.'
I happen to be a big fan of the Beatles and play a lot of their music on guitar. In the dream I was playing football with the Beatles. They were young lads in about their late teens they were all pretty poor players, as was I , but we were having great time as you might expect of a gang of lads chasing a football around. In real life I am not a good football player.
My question for anyone who is listening is - Does anyone have any thoughts on the significance of famous characters in dreams.
Peter
Replies
What if these guys are part of your youth ambition to become like them as they are some ten years your elder and therefore as a boy you saw them to be what you wanted but now in maturity they too play a poor game - that is they are human and like yourself just having a go.. except they became popular.. I too am retired and exactly one year to the day younger than Paul ...sure! just a thought anyway I too am new to this site and well.. Hi!
Peter, hi:
Sounds like a fun dream. My experience has always been that, whatever their potential meaning, just taking the time to pay attention to dreams can have a calming, healing affect one a person. Of course, dreams are usually best understood in a series, and in the context of an individual’s life situation, developmental phase, etc.
In general, I agree with Evan. My understanding has been that encountering famous people in dreams often suggests that the dream is a little closer to the collective unconscious than perhaps is typical. Jung identified a main characteristic of archetypes as being that they are charged with a certain amount of energy or ‘numinosity.’ Famous people are often understood to have charisma, which is another type of energy charge. For a numinous person or persons to appear in your dreams may suggest a certain type of previously unconscious energy charge is now becoming available to you. The fact that your unconscious chose the Beatles (four young men) suggests the ‘fourness’ that Jung felt characterized the archetypal Self is still developing in you. That you are all playing a game, and not very good at the game, may indicate that you are just beginning to try out a new sense of your own ability to contain he numinous energies of the unconscious. The dream may be suggesting that you will want to keep ‘practicing’ and ‘playing’ with these new energies until you become more and more competent at playing the ‘game’ of accessing these potentially powerful (and also potentially destabilizing) energies. The more stable and solid your individual sense of self and your own social identity, the more capable you will be of bringing these new, numinous energies online in life affirming ways.
Of course, these are all very tentative musings on possible interpretations. You yourself will no doubt have the best sense of the dream’s meaning for you. As I’ve mentioned, for me, just paying attention to dreams and taking them seriously, whatever they may mean, can be a very rewarding experience. In any case, it’s always fun to hear someone else’s dream, thanks for sharing yours.
All the best,
James
Just a thought: Jung suggested that famous people, being collective figures, may represent collective qualities, as well as compensations for a lack of recognition of them. I've had dreams about football, basketball, tennis, etc., which I felt characterized a process of exchange with the unconscious -- a back and forth reciprocation -- once even with Ray Charles -- a very impressive dream in which we were tossing a shoe back and forth. I felt compelled to examine the deep emotions I feel in his music -- like you and the Beatles. My later experience seemed to bear out these feelings. Stay with it.
Thanks for the reply Evans . I've just joined the website and I was beginning to think that no one was at home. I think other peoples contributions or ideas are interesting as they do open a channel that I haven't thought of before. Your idea is a possiblity, as I do have a fair amount of music ability that I am only just becoming aware of, and the dream could be a compensation, as I think I have often undersold myself in the musical field by being too aware of what I wasn't good at rather than what I was good at.
Another fairly frequent motive in my dreams is a sensation of gliding just above the ground or being able to stand at impossible angles and not fall over. Or maybe just hovering above the ground, defying gravity. These dreams are always pleasant sensations; a bit like when you are taking a supermarket trolley back to the holding bay and you take a ride on it.
I am particularly interested in these re - occuring patterns as I think they indicate a particular personality trait that isn't quite understood or developed.
Your dream about the shoe reminds me of the significance of throwing the shoe in Arab countries - where it is meant as a huge insult.
Peter kennedy