unconscious

Images of earth’s perpetual restlessness waves gently rock us, lift us up for an exhilarating ride – or inundate us in the terrifying phenomenon of a tsunami. Surfers surrender to the rhythm of waves, an embodied metaphor of attuning to the rising and falling of unconscious forces. Poseidon, Greek god of the ocean, was also the deity of destructive tidal waves, which can sweep us away and show up often in dreams. In physics, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and matter, transferring energy from one place to another and, therefore, part of the fabric of the subatomic universe. From playful white caps on a summer’s day to waves that pound the shore as they break, waves are a potent image of energy and reflect inner psychic processes.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I am paddleboarding with my ex-boyfriend and several other people, mostly older adults. We are in a mountain lake, with an evergreen, tree-covered mountain rising from the lake behind us. The sun is out, and the water is calm. It feels pleasant. After some time passes, I notice several people quickly swimming to shore. The sky has suddenly drastically darkened, and I think it’s either about to rain or the sun is setting, so it’s time to leave. The water gets rougher now, too. My ex and I swim to shore, and I am surprised by how quickly and easily I am able to swim. When I get to shore, I notice that the older adults are struggling in the water. I want to help them, but my ex stops me. It is now that I notice that the dark sky is actually due to the fact that the mountain is completely on fire, and the fire is rushing down toward the water. I have to stand and watch, hoping all the older adults make it. The fire reaches the water, and the last of the older adults are thrust to shore. It is very dark now, and there is something beautiful about the fire. I want to get a closer look but am wary of getting near the water, which I know will be scalding. I get closer and try to take a picture, but at the moment I go to capture the image, the smoke obscures my view.”

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In the first half of life, we strive to develop ego strength and achieve our dreams. To want, will, and work is worthwhile and adaptive--until a life dream, relationship, or identity fades or fails. Should we hang in and hang on - or let go? When does perseverance become pointless, or hope turn rancid in refusal to accept disappointment, defeat, or depression?

In letting go, we relinquish our hard-won, heroic “I” and yield to an encounter with the unconscious. Jung says that although “I was afraid of losing command of myself…I let myself drop.” He came to realize that “This identity and my heroic idealism had to be abandoned, for there are higher things than the ego’s will, and to these one must bow.” Jung discovered, as may we, that in letting go something greater can meet and sustain us. 

HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:

“I’m in a dining room. It’s in an older house with rooms like boxes for different purposes. There is the requisite brown wood dining room table. I’m not sure I should be in there. It feels old and used, and the air feels stale. I look up at there is a plain dark four-blade fan. It’s motionless. But I’m awe-struck by the ancient golden raven perched on the fan blade closest to me. I immediately knew it was the ancient raven. It was looking at me. It was large and had multiple layers of ancient golden feathers. Some big. Some small. Its many golden feathered tail hung down from the fan like a peacock. We just stared at each other. I knew deep inside this ancient raven was connected to me.” 

 REFERENCES

C.G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Randolphe M. Nesse, M.D. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

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The root of create, “to bring something into being out of nothing,” echoes divine creation. Ideas arise from mysterious sources, yet creativity is such an intrinsically human function that Jung considered it one of five human instincts, together with hunger, sexuality, activity, and reflection (a function of consciousness).

Positive circumstances foster creativity: the ability to engage imagination, seek novelty, hone competency, and pursue autonomous, intrinsically rewarding activities. Stress inhibits new possibilities, and rigid societies and personalities fear creators, as new ideas and images challenge the status quo. Creativity can also be quashed from within, and one’s internal cynic, doubter, and deflator often shows up disguised as reason. It takes confidence and courage to surmount uncertainty, obstacles, and potential disappointment.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” What wants to come into the world through you?

 

Dream

I dreamt last night that my agent (and very good friend) had died, but while she was dead, she was still conscious! She was walking around and we were chatting, but she knew she was dead, too. Over what seemed like a few days she was decaying and there was a smell, but we were still in this one room, chatting. I remember feeling slightly scared, and would hold my breath around her.

She knew she would have to be buried soon. And there was a sense of us getting ready for that. But the burial never happened. There was no goodbye or funeral - or perhaps I just woke up.

 

References

Rollo May. The Courage to Create (Amazon).

Linda Leonard. The Call to Create (Amazon).

Marie Louise von Franz. Creation Myths (Amazon).

Allan B. Chinen. Various books on fairytales (Amazon). 

 

Listen as Sebene helps you cut through patterns of self-judgement and prejudice toward others with the simple tools of curiosity & kindness. If you enjoyed this meditation, check our our new, free collection of meditations called Relating to Race in the Ten Percent Happier app: https://10percenthappier.app.link/RelatingToRace You can also directly access this meditation in the app through this link: https://10percenthappier.app.link/SeeThroughUnconsciousBiasPod About Sebene Selassie: Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in Washington, D.C, Seb has been drawn to explore the intersection of different cultures. She was a self-professed "really bad dharma student," until she was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer at age 34. Then she says she became "a really good dharma student." Selassie has now survived breast cancer three times and is a meditation teacher, transformational coach, and community advocate in New York City. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jung was particularly interested in the second half of life, perhaps because after his own midlife crisis he found himself so surprisingly generative. We tend to spend the first half of life oriented to familial values and cultural norms for success. 

 

Education, work, partnering and child rearing are some of the mile markers for speed and distance on the road of life—until midlife strikes. We may then discover that worldly successes feel flat, or blame discontent on bad breaks. 

 

Although dramatic lifestyle changes at midlife are the stuff of story, malaise at the midpoint is psyche’s signal to attend to unlived inner life. It is time for meaningful encounter between ego and unconscious, worldly rewards and true fulfillment, obligation and freedom. Midlife crisis is a call to deepened feeling and the unique meaning of your life.  

 

 

Dream

 

I am walking with a group of my "clients" (developmentally disabled people). I have to work to keep the group together as some straggle here and there. I'm responsible for their well being so onward we go. I look on the ground/sidewalk and see a small round brown object which looks like a tree nut. I pick it up and upon closer inspection realize that it is of animal nature rather than plant - and alive. As I hold it in the palm of my hand, it morphs into a tiny creature, tinier than my pinky finger. I can't just leave it there so I slip it into my pocket and keep walking, trying to keep my rag-tag group together. 

 

After a while I look into my pocket to check on it and it has grown some and looks a bit like a fetal kitten. It looks unwell and I think it might not live. We continue to walk. The third time I look into my pocket, the creature has turned into a baby bird with black, red, and white feathers. The bird is in tremendous suffering with its stomach cut open and a look of horror, pain and grief on it's face. I feel these emotions too and think, "Oh no! It's going to die.” I keep it in my pocket and try to soothe it, but still we keep on walking. 

 

Toward the end of our escapade, I look into my pocket a fourth time. This time the bird is fully grown and leaps out, startling me. Now the bird is pure white, luminous with three round feathers on slim stalks atop its head. Among its body feathers are multicolored zinnia flowers sprouting along with the feathers. It hops into a landscape planter along the sidewalk and establishes itself amid the vegetation. 

 

I back away in shock, completely amazed. I pull out my cell phone to try to take a picture of it but can't because a survey keeps popping up on the screen of my phone, preventing me from using the camera. I curse and search my bag for another phone and finally do manage to snap a pic, but I still don't know what to make of it. 

Polyamory, a current phenomenon, endorses open relationships with multiple lovers. The term means many loves, and polyamory strives to legitimize the benefits of non-monogamous romance and sexuality among adults.

Jung engaged in an open, extramarital relationship with Toni Wolff. Does polyamory represent an overthrow of outdated cultural mores in an age when sex can be safe? Or is committed, often sanctified bonding a deeply rooted part of human nature and development? There are parallels in the development of a relationship between two people and the relationship of ego to the unconscious.

Jung discovered that the alchemical images in The Rosarium Philosophorum, depicting stages of relationship for a couple, illustrated the individuation process. Is polyamory a way of rationalizing ego gratification and avoiding monogamous commitment? Or is polyamory a call to forgo outmoded cultural restrictions and experience connections with others that can facilitate inner growth?

Dream

"I am walking alongside the man that I am currently dating. He is on my right side. Suddenly on my left side, the man I am still in love with appears with the woman he has a child with (in waking life, he has a child with a woman he did not marry and co-parents. I am still not over him and wish we were together). In the dream, he has had another child with her. I’m surprised he’s had another child with her. It makes me think he has had even more intimacy and “work to do” with her in his life path. I am stuck in the middle... the man I am dating is on my right side, but I am not really interested in him (even though he treats me wonderfully in real life, he doesn’t feel like “the one”). The man I desire is on my left, with a woman and two kids, a life and world he’s been focusing on. He sees me, and I feel this strong and pleasant attraction and connection between us - like a youthful friendship mixed with love - I realize/know that he continues to be interested in me too, even though we are apart. I wake up, confused but happy to have a positive dream about his feelings towards me (In waking life, I continue to regret our breakup and he has ignored attempts I have made to rekindle a friendship and begin communication again)."

Listeners contributed examples of precognitive dreams for this episode. Lisa, Joseph, and Deb discuss theoretical concepts and listener dreams from various vantage points: the intuitive capacity of the unconscious, the synchronous intersection of matter and psyche, and activation of an archetype. These and other ways of knowing are beyond the scope of ego and call us to the realization that the ego, as Jung said, is a part of and connected to something larger that is ultimately mysterious. Jung compared this process to the plants called rhizomes. Their horizontal underground stems which put out lateral shoots and flowers that pop up, as into consciousness, at various intervals. Jung also likened precognition to weather forecasting, likely possibilities subject to a variety of manifestations.

Listeners’ Precognitive Dreams Discussed (not necessarily in order)

1. I was at a Subway (sandwich shop) and I was buying a $5 Footlong (sandwich). When I was checking out the person at the register said my total was $11.20. I ended up not buying the sandwich and left the restaurant. That was the end of the dream. The very next day my friends and I were playing a game called “What do you Meme” and this was my first time ever playing the game. There are 250 pictures and 250 random captions and the point of the game is to give a picture a caption. I chose 5 caption cards at random and the very first card I chose was captioned: When your $5 Footlong Subway sandwich turns out to be $11.29. Mind you, there were 250 cards for me to choose from and that’s the very fist one I picked!
2. Approximately 30 years ago I had a dream (that) haunts me to this day…I was 21 or so and my brother 19. He left for active duty in the army. For a week or so, I had very odd vivid dreams regarding him. The most prevailing theme of the dreams was death. The final dream of that time period was me opening my apartment door, the person knocking fell through my doorway, holding their face, writhing in pain, and having short dark hair. Moments later, more knocking began, I called through the closed door, requesting to know who it was…it was my brother trying to enter with a gun…I held the door closed…while looking over my shoulder at the individual squirming in pain on the floor, asking if he/she was OK. This dream occurred in March of that year. Later in that same year in August, we planned a trip out of town so I thought I would make contact with a friend in that area, to possibly meet at some point to catch up on things. I called her number, her husband answered…I asked to speak with MJ and he remained silent for a moment. He then stated MJ had died in March of a suicide. MJ had short dark hair, as the person did in my dream. A gun was involved in both her suicide as well as my dream. And the dream occurred in March, the month she killed herself.
3. In the dreams I suddenly realize that I am about to give birth. I casually find an available place to lie down—a table, a couch, or a picnic blanket. I give birth quickly without any effort or pain, and two toddlers, a boy and a girl, run around the table, couch, or picnic blanket joyfully yelling, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy”! I had twins, a boy and a girl. I had the first of these dreams before pregnancy was even confirmed, and did not know I was carrying twins until my 7th month; their sex was known only at birth.
4. I am an Indigenous Australian woman. I was taken away from my birth mother at the age of 4 months. Fostered, then adopted by Scandinavian parents at 4 years old. I left home at 18 and pursued a career as a community advocate, married and have 2 children. The laws changed in Australia when I was 30 so that I was able to gain my original birth certificate and some small bits of information about my birth mother. The dream commenced my journey to find my birth family. I dreamt of 7 women in the desert, red earth country, in line next to each other with digging sticks. They were all singing a song in language I did not understand. They were digging in unison searching for yams. I was feeling so serene and full of joy. Then I dreamt of all these older men and women smiling and speaking to me in language I did not understand. They at the end of the dream conveyed a sense of urgency, a job I must do. Through my phone calls that day I found my birth mother and my eldest sister. My mum lives 2 streets from me. Since that day 27 years ago I have found all my family. I am at peace.
5. I have had tons of precognitive dreams throughout my life, The past 5 years they have been happening more. The most recent two was after I had had my first pregnancy. I miscarried the baby at 12 weeks and was really torn up about it. My partner and I were separating and I was just overall confused with my entire life at that point and very suicidal. One night I had a dream of a little boy, maybe 8 or so, and he told me, “Wait until December.” Asked him why but he would just keep telling me to wait. That it was important and he promised everything would be okay. I had that dream in September. And it left me with such a feeling that I can’t describe. It was very powerful, so I waited for December. Nothing happened. By then I had somewhat healed from the miscarriage and was doing well living on my own. My partner and I were separated but still seeing each other but agreed a relationship wasn’t right at the moment. Fast forward to February and my period is late. So I take a pregnancy test and it comes up negative. I save it for whatever reason and continue on. A few weeks later I still don’t have my period, which isn’t out of the ordinary for me, but I feel weird. I look at the pregnancy test I took a few weeks prior and see the faintest second line. Of course I cried. I couldn’t believe it. When I went in to get my first ultrasound they told me I conceived sometime in December. It made me smile. I believe that is what the little boy was telling me to wait for. While I was pregnant I would have dreams of the same little boy. But as I got farther in my pregnancy he got younger in my dreams. I could see his face and I knew his name and everything. I knew I was having a boy but asked the ultrasound techs not to tell me because I wanted a gender reveal party. When I was 8 months pregnant we did the reveal and just like I had guessed, it was a boy! And when I finally gave birth, he had the same face of the little boy I always saw in my dreams. The same boy who told me to wait until December.

The Dream:

I was standing in front of a house - my house (although it did not resemble my actual house). It was the first time I had been round the front of the house, as usually, I would enter via the back door. I had run out of space in my back garden for more plants, and so I was excited to discover all this space at the front of the house, for planting. However, all of the available planting space was in the shade or under cover of some sort. There was a nice area right in front of the house, but it sloped downwards towards the house so it would be tricky to plant there. In addition, I thought that area was too close to the house to plant a tree, in case it interfered with the foundations. Just next to this sloping ground I noticed that at the point where the sunshine did actually reach the ground, some beautiful bluebells were growing.