Mall
July 18, 2008
I dream I work in a fancy mall/office in northern New Jersey where many duplicate pieces of magic apparatus are used for clerical purposes. A ne’er-do-well dressed as a lawyer follows me to my home office through the mall/town, and I can’t shake him. He follows me inside and tries to look at all my papers and sit at my desk. I insist that he show me his lawyer ID, and he reaches into his crotch and pulls out a pair of socks.
June 21, 2008
I dream I am at a shopping mall looking for a birthday present for my mother, and I wander into a performing area with jugglers, stilt walkers, and tumblers. My wife, Gail, is walking around naked in the same area. Two performers choose me and Gail at random and drag us into a hallway. One performer acts menacing. He wants to strap Gail into a prop electric chair and perform a version of Milgram’s obedience experiment. He doesn’t realize that A) I know Gail and B) I know the experiment, so I am cavalier. As profanely as possible I tell him how much I am going to enjoy torturing Gail. After a minute or two of cursing it dawns on me that this situation might be real.
October 4, 1995
I dream I am at a shopping mall and two of my teeth fall out. I hurry to the Strand bookstore in New York, in the back of which there is a dentist. By the time I arrive, several teeth have fallen out in a big clump and the dentist tells me it’ll cost $2,500 to sew them back into my head. There are several gangsters in the office, and instead of the usual anesthesia I drink a glass of clear liquid. The dentist gets me on a table and sticks his finger down my throat while a buxom nurse stands nearby to divert me.
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I’m not sure about the ne’er-do-well in the first dream. Is he a con man? A vagrant? Whatever he is, I think your dream may show you have a certain animosity toward lawyers. Socks in the crotch, to me, says you think lawyers are phony and full of themselves. Curious, since your brother is an attorney. Hmmmmm…..
I’m sure you’re aware that teeth falling out is another classic anxiety dream–I have dreamt this many times.
In the third dream, does the clear liquid the dentist gives you help? Does the buxom nurse divert you? I would like to think that the liquid, the nurse, or both relieve the pain. It would mean a resolution to the anxiety of losing the teeth.
I find your dreams very entertaining, Fred.
Lastly, here’s an anxiety dream of my own. It’s a recurring one:
I am required to return to high school after many years because somehow all my records have been lost or destroyed. I must take several classes again to prove I graduated. While there are many variations of this dream, often I must uncomfortably squeeze myself back into my old (catholic school) uniform. Usually I can’t find my locker or the combination and therefore miss class. Sometimes I’ve left my shoes at home and am at school in my socks—wet socks, because it has rained. I am miserable.
–Tina
Hi, Tina. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
Well, I have lots of ne’er-do-wells in my dreams, many of whom encroach on my privacy. It’s a major theme for me. My brother is a lawyer, as you say, but to my knowledge he never puts socks in his pants.
I have a teeth-falling-out dream every few years. I looked it up in a dream book once and it said it had something to do with loss of power.
I don’t know about the clear liquid, but buxom nurses always divert me.
I frequently have dreams that are similar to your “having to go back to school” dream. The missing shoes (or pants or socks or, heck, all clothing) is also familiar. Supposedly, it has to do with fear of being unprepared.
Finally, Tina, I have also logged some dreams about girls/women in Catholic school uniforms. Here’s a favorite from October 1, 1998:
I dream a pubescent version of myself is playing basketball and dating a Catholic school girl. I can’t meet the girl anywhere because her mother doesn’t approve. The best we can do is meet at a cross between McDonald’s and the visiting room at the penitentiary where I watch her eat fried cherry pies through a piece of glass. She complains that the cherry pies will make her fat, but I like to watch her eat them because I find it sexy.
So ne’er-do-wells in your dreams encroach on your privacy. I’d say that probably means you are a very private person. However, since you are posting dreams weekly on the internet, that kind of blows that theory.
Why do you think these shady characters show up in your dreams? If it’s a major theme for you it must mean something.
And as for the Catholic school girl eating the cherry pie behind the penitentiary screen, all I can say is it’s good I wasn’t sipping my coffee when I read that post–it would have been sprayed all over my keyboard. Gee, you voyeuristically watch a girl in a Catholic School uniform eat a cherry pie. Think there’s any symbolism in that?
But I want to know: why does the girl’s mother disapprove of you?
Finally, since we’re sharing dreams, here’s another recurring one of mine. I think you previously posted some of a similar theme:
I have a secret power that I must hide from the rest of the world. Usually it is that I can fly. I must only do it at night so that no one sees my power. I fly very high over the trees and can land on skyscrapers. I laugh to myself that no one knows how special I am; it’s my secret. I use this flying power to do good–catching vague “bad guys” and otherwise helping the general population. But I always get home before dawn so I am never found out.
–Tina
Hi, Tina. Good to hear from you again. I’m only sorry that you were not drinking coffee.
You ask me why the shady characters show up and why the mother disapproves and what the cherry pie might mean. I rarely try to figure out what my dreams mean; I prefer to just enjoy them. To me, they are short, subconscious sitcoms starring a funnier, more frustrated, version of me.
I love your flying dream. The best flying dream I ever had was a few months after my mother passed away. I dreamed that she and I flew around, just enjoying the sky.