Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The dream

At some point in our conversation this evening my friend and I were talking about houses we've lived in, and discovered that we have, at various times, shared a similar dream.

In the dream, you are in a house (or apartment), and it is too crowded and/or small, and you suddenly remember or find a door that leads to another part of the house, usually upstairs, that you had forgotten was there. You cannot understand how you could possibly have forgotten/not known. You go through the door and what you find there amazes and delights you. It is beautiful, and spacious – the perfect room(s) – except usually there is some flaw, large or small. (In my friend's case the flaw was a huge, really mucky fish tank with scary things in it; and in mine, a woman working obsessively on an enormous pile of ironing and insisting that nobody had used the room for so long it was now hers by right.)

This is the outline of the dream. I have had it several times (although not recently), set in several different houses, some of which I've lived in and some I haven't. It is always so real to me that I wake up all excited at remembering the room I'd forgotten was there, and how wonderful! Let's open it up and USE it! Then I wake up properly and the dream collapses, but it leaves me with a feeling of potential surprise and delight. I am disappointed that the dream was not real, but something equally wonderful MIGHT happen.

It was a bit strange to discover that someone else had had my dream, and made me wonder whether this is one of those universal dreams, that everybody has.

Have you ever had this dream?

9 comments:

Paula said...

I dream about houses all the time -- ones I've lived in (can be the same in the dream or different, though not necessarily larger) and new, strange ones. Often there will be a flood or tsunami, and we'll have to climb onto the roof.

Badaunt said...

I don't think I've ever had a flooding or tsunami one, but fire once or twice.

But is there ever the extra room you forgot, in your dream? That's always the magical bit about these particular house dreams. The door that opens to another part of the house you'd forgotten was there. You wake up with such a strong feeling of POTENTIAL.

Anonymous said...

I've never had a dream like that, though I wish I could find a real secret door to a bigger space. Maybe when we start house hunting this spring I'll start having dreams like that.

kenju said...

I have two recurring dreams in which I find other rooms or wings of rooms in a house that I have lived in for a long time. I cannot imagine how I could have not known they were there and I am very pleased to find them, but somewhat disconcerted about not knowing they were there.

Badaunt said...

Carrie: I wonder if the dream happens because I've lived in so many different houses? I never seem to have it about a house I'm actually living in at the moment.

Kenju: That is it EXACTLY. The forgotten rooms!

I wonder why we have this dream.

Kay said...

Whew! Mine is a sort of lost attic that is real complicated to get to and has lots of stuff in it--dim but I am always glad to be there. Wonder what makes the dream come back?

Ms Mac said...

Now this is spooky. I've just been talking about this very dream with a friend. I have it and she has it. Apparently it's very common. The thing is that my friend and I have to encounter obstacles to get to the forgotten rooms. My obstacles is tiny doors and hers was a filthy corridor.

Unknown said...

I have the forgotten rooms, complicated to get to, hidden wings, secret doors, entrances behind tapestries kind of thing, but I don't have obvious obstacles or flaws...

So, have you worked out what it means? Something about the potential being there, we just have to get to it??

Anonymous said...

I have always been told that in dreams, houses represent your psyche. The rooms are aspects of yourself, perhaps your subconscious. (Or unconscious.) It is, supposedly, relevant whether or not there are windows, or how many, how big, etc. Are the rooms full, empty, and who is in them. (All dream people being parts of your own personality.) Your feeling of some kind of untapped potential being newly discovered fits very well with this slant on "house" dreams. You might consider that.