A Story of a Dream Quest

Sandi Roberts

Atlantic University

(Note: A personal dream quest is an experience required of all Atlantic University students. Here is an account of such a quest.*)

I am driving a car on a race track, going around and around. I decide I need to get to another part of the track and come to a merge area with cars coming out of one track getting on to the other. There is a line of cars and my lane is stopped just before the merge point. There is an opening that may accommodate my vehicle but I am reluctant to go through. However, if I don’t go now, it will be difficult to make the crossover with the other cars coming out. I creep up to the merge point and eventually get through and then there is a clear and open track.

My first dream during this quest finds me “opening to change”. I am contemplating and looking at alternatives to what I am presently doing. I am looking for something more challenging and where I can be helpful to others. I feel a change is in the works for me. From this dream, I think I am being reluctant in my life about moving forward, but when I get there, I feel there will be a clear pathway that will quickly take me to my destination.

The theme I came up with for another dream was that taking on a challenge without support brings me to panic. I perform well when others are watching and going along too, but I sometimes panic when I am all alone and feel I have no support. All I want is someone to be there for me and then I feel like I can do anything.

When I had a conversation with myself, I asked myself how I could be more comfortable expressing myself to others and not always looking for their approval. I was told to drop the barriers. Be confident inside first in what you think and believe. Offer your information but don’t act superior or better than others. From this week of dreaming, I found that I would like to discuss things with others without giving the impression of a know it all. I would like to let down some barriers so others can see I am not always confident and able to handle anything that comes my way, and that I need to be open to change. My best guess solution will be to be open to change by telling people about the things I am learning and being open to others’ ideas too. I found an opportunity to tell someone about some of the Edgar Cayce health remedies and was surprised at her interest and wanted to know more. She then told me about an alternative healer one of her friends had been using.

For the second week of dreaming, the action plots for my dreams are:

Something is where it does not belong and is causing a dangerous situation.

Someone is evaluating others.

Someone is looking for something.

Someone is seeking attention, but is not noticed.

When things are out of place, they could cause something dangerous to happen. Things out of place do not always bother me, but I am getting better at recognizing dangerous situations and try to avoid them. I put things out of place and can’t find them when I go looking and this is frustrating. I have a tendency to evaluate others and criticize more than compliment. I like finding difficulties in things and working on solutions. With people, I just prefer to find fault. I use this evaluation to make myself feel better about who I am. I am looking for something – probably lots of something. I want to find what I will be doing with my life. It seems as if I am looking and looking, but not finding. Perhaps, I should not look so hard as I may over look the snake that is right under my nose. I like attention and getting noticed for what I do. That gives me validation and I feel good about who I am and what I can do. If I am ignored, I wonder why I am not getting proper recognition. What could I do to get it? Maybe I need to do something other that what I am to get proper recognition. What I am doing may seem like I should get noticed but it is too much “in your face” kind of deal. Perhaps, I need to reevaluate this approach to get the recognition I want to have.

I found the word substitution very helpful in coming up with a possible interpretation of a dream. After substituting the words in one of my dreams, here is what I get:

There is an important beginning taking place and I want to get the energy source for this beginning. I transfer something from one container to another and I take in the contents from the container, making sure I get every little bit of it in me. When I go looking for the energy source, I get sidetracked and am told all will be good for me. I look at the clock and realize I missed getting the energy source I went for but got other food for thought.

My focus concerns finding what I am to do in life. I am working on a new beginning of myself and am trying to pour as much information as I can into myself. When I go looking for something specific, it may not really be what I want or need. Perhaps, what I need is not something tangible, but something I can get from associating with other people and learning from them.

I still want to share my ideas with others, but I need to rethink how to attract the attention of others to what may be important. I can’t be too “in your face” as one of my dreams indicated or I will be ignored. I need to look at ways to express my ideas so they will get attention. This needs to be in a way that people can relate to so they will notice. I need to look to other people as a source of energy for my new beginning. This week I carry around this message, “If I take the time to spend with other people and listen to their ideas and insights, but don’t find them to be a source of energy for my new beginning, then dreams, please show me a better way.”

During this week, I spent more time with people, shared my ideas and listened to what they had to say and tried not to just dismiss things, but be genuinely interested in what they had to say. I did not feel I gained any insights from anyone, but felt I opened up more to people and realized everyone has value of their own in what they say. It may seem trivial to me, but it probably is not to them.

Dream: Craig and I are in bed and a truck drives up. I think at first it is a UPS truck, but it is way too early in the morning for this. I look out and see a big brown truck and it has a front end loader on it. It turns around and heads back down the driveway. Craig wants to know what he is doing so we get into our truck to go down the drive. Before we get to the bottom of the drive, we see construction going on and our driveway is all torn up. There is a bulldozer that has piled earth high in the drive and no way to pass through. There is construction going on off to my left, building a development. I knew the development was going to be built, but I did not know it was going to be so soon. I holler to one of the guys working and tell him they have our drive blocked and that is our only way out. He seems unconcerned and ignores me.

A dialogue with the truck:

After this conversation with the truck, I think about other ways to get out of the road or possibly enjoy the solitude of my home. Perhaps, I need to use the resources within instead of panicking about the new development. Or I need to look inside to see the new developments going on within. I think this means I should make a more consistent effort to meditate daily and continue working with my dreams.

During this week, I took time to meditate daily and had quiet time to just relax and not have the mind always filled with something. I find it easier not to fill the empty, quiet time with something. Some morning I leave the radio off and just let the car be quiet on the journey to work. I have been having more dreams and I keep a record of these.

This dream seemed to offer me a lot of food for thought:

I am a teenager at a camp. I was doing something and broke my arm. Then I was put in a retail area to work and in charge of another worker. He was just starting and was to follow me to the section we were response for. However, when I look behind me, he is gone. He has cut out and can’t be found. I go to some kind of meeting and find out I have worn certain types of clothing all week and can’t wear these again this week and need to wear something that is from a movie or TV character. I explain I have no clothes of this type and would not know what a TV person wears. Also, one day a week we have to get our own food somewhere else and need cash for that. I have spent most of my cash and do not have enough to eat out. I don’t think my mom will want to shell out more money as she had the medical bills for my broken arm.

A group of people from the camp are out walking on the beach. I am walking along and notice a quarter in the sand. I pick it up and then notice more change; penny, dimes, another quarter. These are in some ashes and I have to dig through muck to get to them but I get a handful. I note I need to wash my hands before doing anything because I don’t know what all I put my hands in to get the money. This camp also tracks everything you eat and then tells you, you can’t eat certain things. We were supposed to have one day a week free and I was going to use it to study. However, I do not get any days off and am kept busy every day.

In this dream, I do not like being constantly kept tabs on and told what to do and how to do things. I was totally controlled by others and they were making decisions for me instead of allowing me to make my own choices. Others wanted me to follow a certain code of conduct that everyone else was doing, but I didn’t feel comfortable about it. I thought the camp was going to be one thing and it turned out to be something else. However, I was able to locate resources in an unexpected place.

Originally, I wanted to learn about what I should be doing with my life. I feel I should be making a change and being home more, working for myself and not for someone else. I have become more comfortable expressing my views and talking with people about the things I am currently learning. When I meditate on writing something, I find the words sometimes will just come tumbling out on the paper I felt calmer and more confident about finding new directions and using inner guidance. I think the dreams are helping me realize that I have a lot of resources within that I can use to guide me in new directions. I should not panic or be concerned by normal pathways getting blocked. There are good things ahead if I just become more confident in listening to and following my inner voice.

HAIKU

*For more information about the Dream Quest program, see www.dream-guidance.com