Dreams

Dreams are funny things. They are created by our brains while we are sleeping and can be completely ridiculous, completely profound, or somewhere in between. But why do we dream? Do all dreams have meaning?  There are dreams that I’ve had during my life that I can still remember. Some of them are so silly but at the time they really messed with me. Some are profound and mysterious, and I still think about them and what they could mean.

I must share one of my childhood nightmares with you. This was a recurring nightmare that I had many, many nights over the course of about a year. I can’t remember how old I was when I had this nightmare, but I was school aged. It involved a snack item and circus elephants. That’s right – one of the scariest dreams I’ve had involved snacks!

As a kid, I used to accompany my mom on her weekly grocery shopping trips, and I got to pick out the bag of chips and the cereal for the upcoming week. Back then, almost all kids’ cereal had a prize in the box. I would make my choice based on what the toy was. Sure, there would be times that I would have to suffer a week of gross cereal, but the toy was always worth it. Chip choice, however, was made purely on taste. One week, I spotted a new chip called, Pizzarias. It was, as I’m sure you guessed, a pizza flavored chip. Two of my favorite things, pizza and chips, combined into one item? Of course I picked them for the week. When I got home I showed my brother, who is two years older than me and was my best friend, the new chips. He was so excited! We opened them up and tasted them. They. Tasted. Horrible! I was the only one who thought so, however. My brother loved them! He immediately became addicted to them. Every week he would ask me to pick Pizzarias for the chips. I, wanting to please him, would pick them. I even pretended to like them, but I hated them. Shortly after purchasing these chips for the first time, the nightmares began.

The nightmare was always the same:  Two creepy circus elephants dressed in red circus jackets and hats were in front of me holding a bag of Pizzarias. They would stuff their mouths with the chips telling me how delicious they were. They had angry looks on their faces and these weird, hairy black eyebrows that were furrowed with anger. I’m sure the elephants and their outfits were from the move Dumbo. The elephants looked like the elephants below, but with eyebrows, and their outfits were like the outfit the mouse wore.

That dream would freak me out so much I would wake up screaming. My dad would come running in to see what was wrong and I would tell him I had a nightmare, but when he asked me what it was about, I would claim that I couldn’t remember. How could I tell him the truth? It’s a dream about chips that I hate being eaten by creepy elephants who freaking love them! It was far too embarrassing to share with anyone. Night after night, I would have this nightmare, waking up screaming.

One time, I dreamt that I went to a friend’s house to spend the night and her parents looked exactly like my parents. Her house looked just like my house. Her bedroom looked just like my bedroom. We played and ate dinner and then it was time to go to bed. I went to sleep and ended up having the elephants eating Pizzarias dream. I had the nightmare inside of another dream! I woke up screaming and my dad came running in to my room. I thought I was still in my original dream and I cried, “I want my dad!” My dad said, “I am your dad!” To which I replied, “No, my real dad!”  Very confused, my dad said, “I am your real dad!” That really messed with my mind! It took me awhile to realize it had all been a dream.

Do I think this dream had deep meaning? No. I think my hate for those chips and the pressure I felt to get them week after week caused that dream. That and my dislike for the movie Dumbo. That movie really blows. The whole scene when Dumbo gets drunk? Of course circus elephants would be the boogey men of my dreams!

But then there are the dreams I’ve had that I’m sure have a deeper meaning. One involved Christ’s return to the earth. Now, as you may know, I was raised Mormon, and, in my dream, everyone at my church was buzzing about Christ returning and coming to our church. (I know, I know.) Anyway, where he was visiting was not important. I was sitting in the congregation and when Christ entered the building, we all stood up. I was immediately struck by the powerful feeling his presence gave off. I could feel it throughout my entire body. It was like currents of electricity!  As he made his way through the church towards the podium at the front, people would get on their knees and bow their heads as he passed them. As he approached me, I realized it was the energy from him that was causing people to fall to their knees and bow their heads. I was trembling from the pure force of the power radiating from him. The power caused me to fall to my knees and bow my head. I so wanted to look up at him, but his power made it impossible for me to even lift my head and I just watched his sandaled feet walk past me.  I felt so unworthy to even be in the same building as him. He addressed the crowd from the podium. I don’t recall what he said, but I’ll never forget what I felt from being in his presence. I can still feel it today. Pure, perfect, powerful love!

I think this dream had a few different meanings for me. Throughout the dream I was afraid of meeting Christ because of my unworthiness. I remember having an intense fear in my dream that I would be asked to leave by Christ because I was such a bad person. I think this is because I never, ever felt like a good person when I was a Mormon. I was always failing at something. I was always sinning in some way. I was never doing all that I should be doing and was a terrible person as a result. I know now that this is not correct. In my dream, Christ didn’t ask me to leave. I was worthy and I am worthy of his love. While I think of Christ differently now that I no longer have my Mormon beliefs, I still do believe the reason he came to earth was to be an example to us all. I believe he came here to help us see what we can be. I was worthy of Christ’s love then and I am now. I also believe the power that I felt radiating off him holds meaning. Being powerful does not mean having wealth or being the leader of a corporation or even a country. Christ was powerful because of his love. Also, I think it is important to note that we were not told to bow to Christ. The church leaders didn’t tell us to bow to him. Christ, himself, didn’t demand that we bow to him. It was because of the powerful love that he radiated that we fell to our knees and bowed our heads. He was powerful without forcing that power.

So do our dreams have deeper meanings? I think they do sometimes, but definitely not all of the time. I also think it is often up to us to interpret the meaning of our dreams. Wouldn’t things be communicated to us in a way we can figure out for ourselves? I think so, at least most of the time. It’s our brains, our guides, and/or our ancestors communicating to us. Wouldn’t they want us to be able to understand it?

What do you think? What are some of your crazy dreams?