A couple of my friends were over at my place.

I was very annoyed becuase I hadn't seen them in a very long time but they were too busy arguing to pay any attention to me.

I went outside where I couldn't hear them. Outside was this gorgeous cherry tree (apparently it hadn't been there before) it was surrounded by thousands of flowers.

I went back outside and told my friends about it. They side and grudgingly came out to see it.

They just looked at me like I was insane and 'seeing things" because they werent flowers-just a dead maple tree and dried leaves on the ground.

I kept insisting that they were blind if the couldn't see the flowers.

One of them reached down and picked up one of the flowers. When showed it me it was a dry, dead leaf and the tree was wilted with bare branches.

I just stared in disbelief and they went back inside to continue bickering.

I picked up the dead leves and crushed it in my hand. The pieces turned into flower petals and when I looked back at the tree it was covered in flowers again.
I sat down under the tree and fell asleep.

I woke up, sitting under a Cherry tree in my 'real' dreamworld' ( It's always the same place)wondering I was dreaming about two people I'd never met in my life.

Someone came up to me and told me to get up because there was an enemy they could handle and needed me to take care of it.

I clutched a flower that landed in my handed, grabbed the sword lying next me and grudgingly got up to leave, letting go of the flower with a sad sigh
and left.

I thought it was pretty strange, and amazing how clearly the lines between my 'dream' and 'reality' were drawn in a dream.

I think I read that 'dreams within dreams' are a means of hiding something even deeper in your subconscious but, this is the most mellow, uneventful dream that I remember. I have no idea what there could to hide?
Or, is there is an entirely different explanation.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 26 seattle

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Kaze,
I sense the theme of the dream is focusing on some aspect about yourself that you thought, or others had persuaded you to think, was dead, dried up, and not something that is beautiful and blooming. You are emotionally conflicted about this aspect {friends bickering}. You are having fight off {enemy} these conflicting emotions and probably more often than not let the negative aspects prevail in your waking life {letting go of the flower with a sad sigh}.

The dream seems to be addressing something about the outer self, either ego personality or perhaps appearances {how you look or act}, that you perceived as being negative when in truth they are the beautiful self waiting to bloom. Or it could be something in your life that is thought my others as a negative when in reality it as a positive.

As for a dream within a dream. It can represent deeper unconscious forces that are protecting you from issues that the waking self doesn't want to express. The unconscious often must force the conscious mind to 'see' what is really there. The ego has a 'mind' of its own when it comes to submitting to the true self. What it is protecting is ego centered attitudes that are convenient on the surface but are often damaging in the long run {giving in to eating one sweet chocolate knowing you will not be able to resist eating more}. The body want one thing and the true self another.

But dreams in a dream can also b of the lucid nature, but, controlling the dream sequence. For most this too would be a mechanism for protecting oneself from emotional issues that the ego doesn't wish to confront. Of course some have learned to control lucid dreams and when this occurs I see the dream as losing its influence and its therapeutic value {dreams are therapeutic in they help you sort through emotional issues}.

Back to your dream. What issues of outer value is there in your life that you have repressed, possibly see as a negative when in fact it is a strength? I think this is the main focus of your dream.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

I wasn't going to ask about this dream because I thought it was insignificant but now I'm very glad I did. Everything you described has been a major issue.

For the past few years I've been really...unhappy with myself. I'm constantly thinking " I hate myself because this is not myself.

I specifically ( I think unconsciously) changed because my friends were always telling me how terrible I was.
I thought they were wrong, but after a while I started to see it as terrible too( Me seeing the dead leafthey when showed it me?) but after a while I realized that they were the terrible
ones and stopped speaking to them all together.
Now that they're gone, I see how wrong they were (The flowers coming back when they went inside?)

The confusion is defiantly there as well because I constantly wrack my mind trying to figure out how to get back to the way I used to be-I can't, for the life of me.

This brings me to another question I was thinking of asking, but is very relevant here.
I often tell people " I'm so awesome in my dreams; like I used to be."
If I am just as, in fact for more 'awesome' in my dreams, than my subconscious must know hot to 'get back to the way I was' so it's very frustrating when I just stay the same in the waking world.
Is there a way that I can...'tap' into that subconscious knowledge?
I often think " My subconscious is very wise when I'm asleep but when I'm conscious it's best solution is something like ' oh I dunno...jingle keys'??"

As far as 'enemies' that is a constant in my dreams. My dream world is rather militant.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 26 seattle

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Kaze,
The best way to return happiness is to be who you really are. Dreams try to communicate just that, a self that feels comfortable in the human body you inhabit, and which is too often neglected because of emotional conflict. There are probably deeper issues that led you away from that true self, beyond just how others wanted you to be. The unconscious, whether by dream or other means {Freud and the couch}, attempts to show through its language of symbol and metaphor {the gorgeous tree in the dream would be you} that true self beyond the conflicting person of the waking ego. The conflicts in your life are usually the story in your dreams.

Trying to adapt to what others expect is not the true self. Trying to include those things in life that provide real balance and wholeness to living is the true self. It is not always an easy task to that discovery. You are still early in life age wise and establishing identity, the outward person as well as the inner sanctuary, are what this stage of life is all about. Jung, and Joseph Campbell, proposed the creative aspect of the psyche is what really fills that void, and not the social realm of the waking life. Campbell's dictate was to 'follow your bliss'. Following someone else expectations never fulfills the soul.

“My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there would’t be a door for anyone else.... Joseph Campbell

Who is the real person underneath the personality that tried so hard to fulfill what others wanted? That is where you need to go, within and discover who that person is.
To do that requires time and effort. But the general issue is what it is that makes life worth living.

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it…the meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be…the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about”.... Joseph Campbell

As for that unconscious knowledge. That is something I study all the time, working with dreams and utilizing those intuitive qualities I possess. Tapping into that realm is an adventure that requires a great deal of 'seeking', not only of yourself but of the so called mysteries of the psyche. This is the stuff my website is about. But there is a whole lot of stuff that needs to be looked at and if there is a real interest, it will capture you and not let go. Otherwise the interest will fade and you may end up doing the same old bad habits you wish to avoid.

I've been at this 'secret knowledge' thing going on 16 years. I have learned much about that knowledge, secrets within the psyche and use in when I interpret dreams. An intuitive aspect that lends itself to understanding the dream language and the metaphors. You can judge that by how did in working with your dream?

Campbell often talked about what it took to discover such inner truths. His answer was, do you have 10-15 years to give to it? A passing interest will never lead to any secrets within. It takes time and effort. But it is worth it. And if it does capture you it will never let go. You will not want it to.

Jerry meditate]

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

Kaze,
We need to determine what it is that has made you unhappy, besides what other people have wanted to make you to be. Hating yourself because you feel this is not your true self may be saying something about earlier life experiences that were 'traumatic' and left an impression on you. If they were strong enough experiences and negative in nature you mat have repressed them or just ignored them.

In this dream you are at your grandfather's house. That usually would say something about the relationship with your grandfather {one of the few times you can look at dream symbols literally} or some experience in his actual house {early life experiences since it involves the past - grandfather would be the old experiences}.

The 'tiny, creepy ghost thing' may be saying something about an experiences that was tiny {a tiny experience, frightful but not traumatic}. The ghost thing would represent ghosts in the unconscious. The man your age could be saying something about the present, present emotions about something from the past that was suspicious.

The flower is probably you. Some aspect of you may be dead. And it may involve experiences having to do with your grandfather or events in his house. Something taht was pretty has died.

You want to kill this aspect of yourself {cut away/remove the experience?}. I sense this thing is something from your past that needs to be cut away. That cutting would be the unconscious dream trying to get you to focus on this experience/event so to realize what it was and to work through the pain associated with it. Healing only begins when you confront the 'ghost thing' and put it in its proper place. Whatever the experience it does seem to be related to your grandfather or an experience involving him or his house.

"When I looked at it again, it wasn't a defeated little monster, just a shredded flower." This is probably a statement about you. You state in your dreams you are always 'awesome'. This experience hasn't defeated you but has caused a 'withering' of who you could/should be. Negative childhood experiences often cause a withering, can delay or deny proper personal growth. I had such experiences, developed late because of such childhood experiences. This may be addressing the same issues for you and may be the cause for why you feel you are not your true self.

The taunting would not only be from the past experience but also from the unconscious. The dream wants you to realize, remember these experiences. Dreams are therapeutic, they want to help heal what needs healing. You 'can not exist' in this state of limbo, not being your true self. And there is always a reason for not being that person and it usually involves past experiences.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male