Two Dreams about Driving on a Highway

[caithiggs]

So in the last couple weeks I have had two dreams where I was a passenger in a car on a highway, so I imagine they are somewhat related. Tell me what you can gather from these.

Dream 1 (a week or two ago):

I dreamed I was with a group of friends around a business park. We were all heading to the car to leave, but first went into a corner store. I picked up a pack of gum because everyone was buying something, and I didn't want to feel like I was in there for nothing. While we were looking through the isles, there was a guy mid to late twenties with dark hair. I had a sense that I knew him, and we were talking. None of my friends knew him, so I had to start half ignoring him so that he would go away, though I had no problem with him.

As I was waiting in line he walked outside--I think he was with a girl. I felt like he'd felt abandoned by me. And he walked away. I felt like I should follow him and go find him. So I did. I went to a restaurant just a little ways down the parking lot, but he was not in there. I think the restaurant was closing down for good soon. It was some kind of Thai or other Asian cuisine with oriental wall hangings. So I left the restaurant and my friends had already driven off without me. Then I was just lost in this parking lot, not knowing where I was.

My mom came to pick me up though, so then I was in California somewhere. But she was going to drive me to see an old friend who lives in Colorado, because even though the beginning of the dream was my friends at home in Canada, it had shifted so that I was meant to be hanging out with this girl in Colorado. But I did not know the directions to her house. My mother was a little bit impatient I think.

We were driving through streets made of water. I could see behind us, probably through a rear view mirror, that a car just fell down from the sky, nose first, into the water. It stuck up straight in the water/ground like that and stayed there. I think the car was yellow. It really scared me because it had fallen from very high in the sky, and I didn't think anyone could survive that. I also didn't know where the car had come from. I expressed my concern to my mother.

Then we saw, sticking out of the water, parts of dragons. They were the long serpent kind of dragon without wings. But it was just part of their backs sticking out like arches. And they had colorful scales sticking off their backs--like those kind of triangular spike things some dinosaurs have. But I knew the water dragons were really dangerous, and my mother told me they had probably thrown the car into the sky.

She was driving up closer and closer to them, seeming unconcerned about driving behind them, like they weren't going to come lunge out at us and throw our car in the air. I thought there was something wrong with her! It was so scary. But I guess we eventually drove to where we were trying to go, although I'm not sure if we went to Colorado or California, because we couldn't figure out where we were going.

I remember later being in a classroom and someone had asked "did you hear about the water dragons in the news?" And I started ranting about what had happened to me and how concerned I was. Then the professor got mad that we were speaking out in class. I heard more people saying the news was showing kids at beaches, and their parents not warning them properly about the water dragons or their danger. So the water dragons were attacking a lot of children.

Dream 2 (last night):

I dreamed I was in a car with someone I knew. I believe I was in the passenger's seat. We were on a highway, passing another car. The driver in that car was a man, and I saw in the corner of my eye that he had a gun. Either I had a memory in the dream, or else earlier in the dream this same thing happened--the man had a gun and held it up like he was going to shoot himself, but we drove off and I just assumed he did not shoot himself. But this time I saw the man put the gun in his mouth and shoot. We kept driving until we were no longer near him anymore.

I felt really confused and I remember trying to phone 911. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to. I think I kept messing up on dialing the number. Then I couldn't remember what the streets were that the man shot himself on. I kept asking the person I was with, and every time they repeated the location I instantly forgot--I could not repeat it (it felt like trying to learn words from another language). So the attempts at informing the police about the incident completely failed, and I just had to imagine that someone would find out the incident happened. But I was worried that I had ruined any chance of saving his life, although I had no idea if he was a good person or not (he didn't seem to be), of if there was any chance he wouldn't have died instantly, so I was confused whether my failure was wrong, or if it was acceptable. I basically couldn't make up my mind about my guilt, and whether or not there was anything in my power to influence the situation. I don't think there was.

[solisill]

To me a dream can reveal a lot about a person as to their life and thinking, and i believe it can be used to rise to a higher level of consciousness.  I don't have much experience in interpreting dreams but i will try and give this a shot.  If i am wrong in any way then i apologize, but here is what i think.  Firstly, the friends you have are not that close to you.  It would seem to me that this is a very superficial relationship, and that your friends aren't really there for you when you need them, and you sense this.  They maybe are superficial in their behavior, your friends are lost but they do not search for a path, while you search for a path.  I also get a sense that you have a close relationship with your mother and she pushes you to do things but you are hesitant to try her ideas because you think she is wrong or not working in your best interest or something of the sort.  Your mother may also not like the current friends you have.  My advice here would be to search for friends who are more like you, who actually have a concern for you, and share your interests, and are perhaps more mature.  Again this probably seems like crazy advice especially from someone on the internet, but that is what i see, sorry if i am wrong or am insulting your friends.  

The second dream seems to imply to me that there is something you feel like you should do, but are hesitant to do it.  You know deep down that you should take some decision but are afraid to take it because you are not a 100% sure if it is the correct one.  Perhaps you are afraid to let go of your old ideas and patterns of life and move on to new ones that might be more challenging but might also be more rewarding.  Those were some of the things i saw from those dreams, i would appreciate feedback if you think i am right or wrong.  However, if you don't want to share such information i understand.

[caithiggs]

Now that I've had some time away from these dreams, and upon reading your interpretation I got to thinking much more.

I think the mysterious guy I was following would have represented an idea outside of what I currently follow, though it is "familiar" I seem to be ignoring it for the more conventional things I would do with my friends, who do not seem conscious of this idea, and I seem to fear they also would not have respect for this idea (as I suspected they would not particularly take to this man).

In real life, it is not that my friends don't listen to me--at least not the ones I let in my close circle (as I have a lot of "associations" but care little about what they think of me), but I do certainly feel isolated from them in that I do definitely have ideas outside the realm of what we share together in our friendships. They maybe driving on forward while I prefer to stop and take the time to think, maybe get carried away by an idea. But this does leave me lost and confused as I was in this parkinglot.

I still have no clue what the second half of that dream meant with my mother. I'm not actually close with her, but there's no way for you to know that from this dream. But I do feel you could be onto something, that even not being close to my mother she is inevitably a model for me and how I lead my life right? So maybe I do have a hard time living up to her ideas in a way, although she never directs them at me. My mother isn't really concerned about my friends, I assume she sees me as a pretty independent individual.

But definitely there is something in searching new friends who are more like me. I mean, I wouldn't get rid of my close friends for anything in the world. But the ones who I no longer really feel any connection with, sure! I definitely have a lot of new ideas that I have not found new friends to share them with.

Perhaps you are afraid to let go of your old ideas and patterns of life and move on to new ones that might be more challenging but might also be more rewarding.

I think there is something in this probably. I'm not sure of this second dream either, but I'm starting to relate it to possibly school because I recently had a breakdown I could easily relate to this man killing himself and the confusion I'm feeling about possibly failing school! I may not graduate and it's causing me a lot of doubts. I've kind of been attached to the idea of graduation, but of course when it comes down to it, I don't actually have a reason for needing to graduate in the end as my degree wasn't leading anywhere. I definitely am currently going through something where I'm questioning whether my potential failure at school is really a disaster or if it is unavoidable. And I should probably let go of a lot of those things I've been attached to.

I wonder too, now if the dragon has anything to do with the catastrophe I recently felt was occurring. Maybe my problem is that authority figures in general (not specifically my mother) are leading children down this agonizing path towards something potentially dangerous. I'm starting to view university as a highly dangerous place, in fact, considering how terribly stressed out students get, some even comitting suicide. Maybe I'm worried in a way that it's something I'm watching and not stopping. I can't "call the authority" because there's not actually in reality anything I can do about it. I don't know, I didn't make this correlation before, but it's interesting to think about.

I appreciate your interpretation and it made me really think deeper about it, though some details were off, they could very well have been accurate to another person having this dream. I think some of it made a lot of sense.

[solisill]

from hearing what you had to say, i would definitely advice you to stay in school and finish the degree.  I didn't have that easy a time finishing my college degree, and a lot of my friends and people i know really struggled also.  They too started to make justifications such as i don't really need the degree and so on and so forth but its important to push through that period of doubt and not give up.  If everyone gave up when tough times rolled around, well the world would be in trouble if that was the case.  Maybe changing your patterns and study habits would help you to do better; i never used to go to the library but going there to study really helped make a difference in my studies, picking subjects i enjoyed also allowed me to find my classes more enjoyable, and trying to find studious individuals in class, simply talking to them, getting their help, maybe forming study groups.  Basically taking my education more seriously as opposed to a part time gig all helped me do better.  So that would be my advice, i don't know your situation exactly, but giving up on anything never feels good.  Sometimes however an individual has no other choice as there is too much stacked against them.  

I do agree with you that education is going down the wrong path, with competition being stressed and mechanic teaching techniques and approaches.  Students really don't have a genuine interest in subjects, they are simply studying because of wanting to fulfill materialistic demands through them someday, not because they have a genuine interest in the subject, this is a huge problem and it is very sad to see.  Most individuals don't have any interest in learning nowadays, and those that do only have an interest in making money of it, like the doctors and lawyers of today.  The concern of the modern man is how will i make money, finding a partner and that about covers everything.  Materialism and hedonism have descended onto the world in a hurry with our pop culture, and have resulted in a heap of problems.  But i believe spirituality can help solve and cure a lot of these problems.