Having started my dream diary allowed me to realise how many dreams resemble one another or share recurring themes. Even long before starting this experiment I noticed such recurring themes: running down being chased in staircases, going up in elevators, or visiting super complex and architecturally advanced cities. These city dreams (maybe one or two in a year) seemed to have a particular importance to me as I usually remembered them well and when a new one occurred I would add it to the growing mental collection.
Keeping a diary made me confirm that, in general, dreams repeat themes much more often than I had realised and this exercise revealed what patterns there were to them.
I would second what J. Bzoma says that as a population we have a rather limited repertoire of dreams (given the rather varied lifestyles and problems of daily life). I would also agree with him that the dreams do not reflect our very recent reality but that the recent reality serves as the canvass to paint the reflection of widely understood consciousness that is common to us all. What needs to be noted is that very often the dreams I have have absolutely nothing to do with what happened in my daily life, what I watched or read about recently. Often before sleep I cast an intention for a dream and ask for it to be clear to interpret and if I remember one after waking it is usually achievable to read from it.
Soon after starting the dream log I was able to confirm a few patterns which are listed below with no particular order:
Cars: driving them or being driven. Just like in daily life cars are used for transport, in the dream reality they serve as vessels for transporting the consciousness we are an individuation of. I have experienced a whole array of possibilities: me being the driver, me being the only passenger right next to the driver, me being driven with another being in the back seat of the car, me being a driver in one car but steering another! I have had difficulties finding my parked car or I saw it submerge in icy pool of water in a parking lot. Cars did seem a huge theme in my dreams even though I never really associated myself with one!
Bzoma says a car is a typical symbol of personal identity that needs to be shed before entering a higher level of consciousness. Another example of such a symbol, especially in case of women, are handbags which have the annoying habit of disappearing or being stolen in our dreams. One more example of a transportation tool are shoes. Shoes feature in a lot of dreams I have. They might be my shoes or other people`s shoes. Often they go missing, get damaged or undergo transformations.
Lifts are another thing that reappears in my dreams regularly. I hardly ever take them to go down, mostly it is waiting for them to go up. Sometimes I see people who come down to my level in a lift. I have had dreams of lifts going vertical and horizontal during one ride. Often they go beyond the level of the highest floor!
To go down in levels I usually take a staircase, quite often some entities chase me at a crazy speed but I am usually able to escape by skipping whole segments of stairs. Even in dreams this ability never ceases to amaze me how I have mastered the skill of speedy descent.
Another recurring themes is public transport: buses, trams, trains, subway. Another feature used to be a ticket collector or the action of buying/holding/losing tickets! After a while the collector stopped appearing and somehow I just board the means of transport without any worry. Apparently, the public transport vehicle is a long-range consciousness line and one must become mature enough to board one. I conclude that with time I got the authorisation to ride some of the routes.
For the longest time I was lost at airports in my dreams. I used to be allocated a guide of sorts but inevitably I would be left on my own and missing the plane. There was always a problem with my luggage: it was either too much of it, or I had to repack it, or the cases got lost etc. Only one time did I have a dream about landing at an airport but on this occasion I wasn’t allowed out of it because I refused to have my luggage scanned! J. Bzoma says that air travel takes us to the Brahmanic level and the landing is on the Brahmanic side. From my dreams it is clear I have not achieved this level yet. 🙂
Another (huge!) theme are bathrooms and toilets. They are always too crowded, have faulty locks or are simply dirty. Usually these are big rooms with lots of cubicles and huge traffic. God knows how long I waste in my dreams looking for, navigating or sitting in toilets.
Clothes haunt me in many, many dreams. Closets full of clothing, getting changed or clothes morphing on me are something I experience quite regularly. In a few dreams I was either completely naked in a public place or missed a crucial piece of wardrobe but somehow it never bothered anyone but me. If I notice my clothes they are usually long, wavy and rather heavy garments.
Going on group trips happen frequently; what`s more I usually do not know anybody in the group. I usually find myself following a person or two but a large group typically tails behind us.
Initially there was lots of water reservoirs in my dreams, lots of rivers, lakes, large seas. Heavy precipitation is another feature. In my dreams water used to spill over banks or suddenly fill up streets. Water is supposed to be a sign of the soul seeping through the levels. Quite often in spite of being submerged in water I came out of it completely dry.
Another thing that became very clear was the location of my dreams; they would often happen in only a few places where I grew up. In one dream I was changing seats in the car at the Reneissance (Rebirth) Street! This is a location where a lot of my dreams occur.
Recently I have noticed more and more “androgynous” dreams: someone in the dream morphs from one gender into another, or I myself morph! Sometimes I meet someone who clearly is one gender but has a very strong connection to someone of opposite sex and eventually they both seem as one even though in separate bodies…
Canteens feature abundantly too; either they are still closed or run out of food, or there is no place to sit down. Generally there is a seating problem as I am new to the place and know nobody around. The feeling of isolation is common in my dreams but that can be easily linked to who I am outside of dreams.
School is another recurrence; but here it might be me either as a teacher or as a student (more often).
Once or twice I remember going to sleep or falling asleep in a dream and, obviously, nothing from the deeper level could be gleaned.
So, yes, even though there are all sorts of variations in my dreams, they certainly fall into a few categories that I believe many people share. To prove this is an uneasy task though as it takes a lot of self-discipline and effort not to let dreams disappear back to where they came from before they are logged.