Events and occasions
Weddings, funerals, exams, arrivals. Every one has a script, which makes them legible in a dream and easy to over-read, because dreams break scripts far better than they complete them.
26 records
- EventWeddingWedding dreams are dominated by things going wrong: the wrong dress, the wrong person, nobody arriving. The commitment is rarely the anxiety; the ceremony is.
- EventFuneralA funeral in a dream does not predict a death. It is one of the most reliable images the mind has for an ending, and it appears far more often around change than around bereavement.
- EventBirthBirth dreams are extremely common during pregnancy and are usually anxious. Outside pregnancy they more often accompany beginnings: projects, changes, new phases.
- EventAccidentAccident dreams are common and, for anyone who has been in a real accident, may be trauma-related rather than symbolic, which is a different thing needing different handling.
- EventWarWar dreams in people with no combat experience track news exposure closely. In veterans and those who have lived through conflict they are frequently trauma-related and need different handling.
- EventNatural disasterDisaster dreams are among the most vivid people report and rise measurably with news coverage. The recurring feature is scale: a threat the dreamer cannot affect, only survive.
- EventExaminationThe exam dream is the most reported anxiety dream there is, it persists for decades after leaving education, and there is some evidence that having it before a real exam is associated with doing better.
- EventArrestArrest dreams centre on being caught rather than on having done anything: dreamers frequently report not knowing what they are accused of, and feeling guilty anyway.
- EventReunionReunion dreams are among the most emotionally intense people report, particularly where the person is dead or estranged. The waking is usually harder than the dream.
- EventBetrayalDreaming that a partner is unfaithful is common and is not evidence of anything. It reflects the dreamer's own insecurity or processing, not the partner's behaviour, and acting on it damages real relationships.
- EventJob interviewThe adult examination dream with a person in front of you instead of a paper. The characteristic report is being asked something answerable and finding nothing comes, which has a physiological explanation rather than a psychological one.
- EventFirst dayThe dream of not knowing the rules. Dreamers describe being somewhere everybody else understands and they do not, and it recurs decades after any real first day.
- EventGraduationAlmost never a dream about finishing. The characteristic report is discovering, at the ceremony, that something was never completed, and it is one of the more specific anxiety dreams there is.
- EventPartyParty dreams divide on one thing: whether the dreamer belongs there. The same room produces warmth or exclusion depending on that, and nothing else in the report changes much.
- EventDivorceA dream of separation is not a diagnosis of a relationship, and that needs saying first because it is what people arrive here worried about. These dreams follow a fear, and the fear is usually not about the relationship at all.
- EventSaying goodbyeOne of the most emotionally significant dreams people report and one of the least written about. A goodbye dream involving somebody who has died is a recognised part of bereavement and is usually described as a gift.
- EventSurgerySurgery dreams are control dreams, and the reported content is almost always awareness rather than pain: being conscious when one should not be, and being unable to say so.
- EventCourtThe judgement dream in its most formal setting, and it shares the structure of the police and prison entries: a proceeding against the dreamer with the charge left unstated.
- EventRobberyTwo quite different dreams share this name. Being robbed in the street is a threat dream; discovering a home has been entered is an intrusion dream, and the second is far more disturbing to most dreamers.
- EventCompetitionCompetition dreams are effort dreams with a result attached, and the result almost never arrives. Dreamers describe racing without finishing far more than they describe winning or losing.
- ActionBeing earlyThe counterpart to being late, and it is reported a fraction as often, which is the finding. Dreams are far better at generating a deadline missed than a deadline met, and the imbalance is enormous.
- ActionWaitingA large share of dreams contain waiting and almost none contain the arrival. It is the most common unresolved structure in the database and it runs through the station, doctor, bank, queue and anticipation reports alike.
- ActionGoing back somewhereReturn dreams are the most reported form of nostalgia in the database, and the characteristic detail is that the place is smaller, or wrong, or already occupied by somebody else.
- ActionA gameGames in dreams have rules the dreamer does not know and cannot ask about, and everybody else appears to know them. That structure is the clearest statement of something the first-day, examination and competition entries each describe in part.
- SymbolInstructionsInstructions in dreams cannot be followed, and the reason is mechanical rather than symbolic: a set of steps has to persist while being carried out, and dream content does not persist.
- SymbolAn announcementA voice with authority saying something the dreamer cannot make out. It combines the two things dreams do worst with language: they cannot generate content, and they barely generate sound at all.