Friday 6th October at Swansea University

The British Psychological Society  funded an all day symposium at Swansea University to include DreamsID group sessions and discussions on the assessment of the presence of metaphors in dreams. The dreams were discussed as part of group sessions, thanks to Michelle Carr for writing summaries of the dreams. 

The Chicken Run Dream

Dream of a husband and wife criminal team that steal chickens. To do so, the husband drives their car along the highway, and the wife hangs underneath the car stealing chickens (and cows?) as they drive by. But the husband is planning to double-cross the wife, he will put two abrasive rectangles under the car which will peel the skin of the back off her knees. In the next scene the husband and wife are at the house of an old woman, pretending to visit a grave on her property (but are really there for a different concealed reason). The husband goes to the bathroom and a little boy who looks sickly is there. The husband tries to carry the boy on his back but his legs are dragging along behind him.
Next scene: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and his partner are hanging on the outside of a car which a priest is driving. They are forcing the priest to marry them, and The Rock’s partner is hanging onto him by sticking his finger through his neck. The dreamer (as a viewer) is frustrated because she can’t see what happened in the Chicken Run, she rewinds the scene to look for clues, and hears a gun shot off in the distance, signalling that something went wrong with the Chicken Run.



Dream of a giftshop, cafe and male Amazonians in the jungle 

Dreamer is entering the forest of the Wizard of Oz, which she had previously told some colleagues that she planned to do, because she ‘really likes trees’. When she reaches the forest, the trees bow down their branches and form a bridge so that she can enter. She reaches a clearing where a tacky tourist gift shop appears, three Amazonian men try to sell her souvenirs, but she declines. She realizes that these men are in cahoots with the forest, and if she doesn’t buy something, the forest may become more dangerous. Nevertheless, she continues on. She comes abruptly to a second clearing, which has a cafeteria filled with people. She realizes they are playing a game and wants to score some points while she’s there. She has a hockey stick now and is smacking fruit out of everyone’s hands for points, including a nice girl from college. The dreamer feels a bit bad, but competitive.

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Dream of children and questioning reality

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Dreamer was in a messy bedsit with milk cartons on the floor, she was there with her daughter. She notices a toy dog on the floor, which comes to life and jumps up on the bed playfully. She wonders if anyone else can see it or if she is hallucinating, so she takes out her phone to take a video for evidence. When she looks back at the video, there is a scene with a different dog playing on the grass. She is questioning her sanity. In the next scene she is in the car with a friend and they are driving on a very bumpy road. At some point a cheerful friend of hers appears outside the window of the car. At another point there is a group of poverty-stricken children. She finds herself judging these children but then decides it’s not right to be judgmental.