DREAMCATCHER : Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey interpret your dreams

Today’s Dream from Aaron:

This is a familiar dream that I’ve been having for several years.

I was sitting upstairs on a moving double decker bus with some people. I was sitting separately. There was another group of people behind me that were being quite rowdy.

The people I was with decided it was our stop and started to make their way downstairs. As I got up to go I dropped something that rolled under the seat in front.

I got on my knees and retrieved it. It was a square piece of chocolate, I put it in my pocket. The noise continued as I left the bus.

As I got off the bus I was alone. My friends had gone and I didn’t know my way home. I decided to ask a man standing by who seemed quite friendly. He told me to go down the hill, turn to the left, then take a first right.

I thanked him and set off on the given directions. However on turning right I came to a full stop and didn’t know where to go next. I felt lost.

Dream Analysis and Basis for Interpretation:

The dreamer refers to this dream as ‘familiar’ and explains that it has been occurring for several years. This suggests that he may have a longstanding unresolved issue or that the dream occurs at times when he is experiencing particular and possibly similar difficulties in his life.

The bus represents movement or travelling. This can be literal ie: taking a journey, or it may be a psychological representation about movement or change in his life.

He begins by separating himself from people. There is a lot of interference and distractions around him at this point.

In this dream the bus stops but at the suggestion of others. The dreamer does not make the decision to stop, he is motivated by others.

There appears to be some loss although the subject of the loss ie: a piece of chocolate does not represent anything significant or important. It may represent comfort through food. However, he still ‘retrieves’ and keeps whatever he has lost close to him, ie: he puts the chocolate in his pocket.

He feels disconnected from the distractions around him and lost in terms of his future direction and doesn’t know how to return to a former safe place.

The dreamer is seeking assistance and trying to follow advice but is finding the return to the safe place complicated as he continues to find that he carries on losing direction.

As this is a recurring dream, it suggests that the dreamer needs to proactively contemplate changes to reach fulfilment and establish direction in his life, rather than wait for prompts to do so.

This also applies if the re-occurrence of the dream represents a cross road at particular times in the dreamers life. The dream is telling the dreamer to take action and not just stop in his life which appears unfulfilling.

If the dreamer would like to provide feedback about the interpretation, please send it to ACDreamcatchers@mail.com.

Interestingly, we have found it is not always possible to interpret your own dream, probably because it often represents the sublimation of feelings or thoughts that we are trying to avoid in our waking lives. However, with a little assistance from the dream interpreter, the symbols and themes can start to make sense and help us to move forward.

If you are interested in having a particular dream analysed, please send us an account of your dream to the following email address: ACDreamcatchers@mail.com We only have space to interpret one dream a week which will be selected from those received. Please refer to the guidance provided to describe your dream as this will enable us to provide a full interpretation.

Guidance for the Dreamer:

• Record your dream in writing as soon as you wake up with as much detail as possible.

• First of all ask yourself who is in the dream.

• Where are you, what is happening to you and what is happening around you?

• Record how you are feeling about what you and/or others are doing.

• Are there particular symbols or objects in the dream that are unusual?

• Are there any sounds and is the dream in colour or black and white?

• Are you watching yourself in the dream or are you experiencing it first-hand ie: through your own eyes.

Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey are Public Service professionals with years of experience as practitioners and managers in the Criminal Justice System.