I Know What It's like to Be Dead, at Least in My Dreams

Every family has little stories like this that take on a life of their own. My sister Christine told us this one at the dinner table one night. Our family, being the close-knit, loving unit that we are, immediately mocked her with all our might and held nothing back. For weeks, it was a guaranteed laugh by including the last part of her statement on any outrageous claim.

Martians are invading our country! I know it's true because I read it in Connie's mother's magazine.

As the youngest one in the family, I especially enjoyed this running joke because it was one in which I could participate. It's disheartening having your older relatives all laughing at a joke that you don't quite get.

Recently, I was reminded of Connie, her mother and her choice in magazines after I had a dream where I died.

For the most part, I don't remember my dreams. Generally, I think that's a good thing. I don't know what the ratio of good dreams to bad dreams is, but it seems like most people have more bad ones. For every dream about flying there's got to be three or four about disasters.

And I have enough hardship and disappointment in my life when awake; I really don't need my subconscious adding to my misery.

Yet, dreams fascinate me. Perhaps it's because I don't remember very many. When I do recall one, I immediately get my "The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Dream Symbols" down from the shelf. This is a reference book which gives interpretations to different events and symbols that are present in your dream.

This book will give its takes on various themes, often times crediting the meanings to well-known analysts like Freud or Jung. My favorite is the entry on trains, which according to Freud was a symbol of death. The book adds, "However, Freud suffered from a phobia about trains."

The entry on death is quick and to the point.

"If it is the dreamer dying, it never has any connection to a real impending physical death. Rather it is a reference to the need to change one's passage in life and allow old attitudes to die. Death usually means that radical change is necessary."

The book then goes on to list eight different interpretations of the dream. Who knew death had such ambiguity? Me, I'm going with the first possibility, which states:

"An indication that a necessary end has come to a certain phase. It is a transition to something new."

I had this dream a couple of nights ago and I was waiting to see if I had any kind of follow-up that seemed connected, but I did not. Of course, I haven't remembered any dreams either, so that doesn't help very much.

Ideally, you are supposed to keep pen and paper near where you sleep so you can write down your dream as soon as it happens. Every second counts and the further you are away from your dream, the more you forget.

However, my ultimate goal with dreams is not to keep track of them all and have some kind of revelation. Instead, I want to reach the stage of lucid dreaming.

That stage happens when you are dreaming and you are aware that you are. In this state, you can control your dreams by making yourself an active participant. You go from actor/player to director. For instance, if you are having a dream that someone is chasing you for no reason, you could then make yourself stop running and ask the person why they were chasing you.

I want to have that Bugs Bunny moment, where Elmer is chasing him with the gun and Bugs stops running and asks, "What's up Doc?"

And I've decided when I do have that moment, I'm going to sit down and write to Connie's mother's magazine. I hear it is open to publishing stuff about dreams and I can always use another freelance paycheck.