Ritualized Dream Production

I think all of us attending this class have been experiencing more vivid and randomly bizarre dreams since arriving. I always dream, and sometimes very vividly, but here it has been a nightly occurrence. At lunch today, I was having a quick chat with one of the other students, and he brought up a very valid point, we have all been taken from our everyday environments and thrust into a totally new situation. In that new situation, we have schedules, rituals, and new routines forming. We all eat meals at the same time, we are all being bombarded by information overload, but the point he brought up was this: We are all being somewhat sensory deprived and in our dreams, our wants and needs manifest themselves. I thought about it for a minute and realized that he had a very valid point. Our behavior patterns are following a strict model, and we are in a routine where we see the same people, same buildings, and same scenery all day, every day. Unless we break out of that routine and feed our senses, then self consciously we are let loose in dreams. Of course, most of what I have been dreaming about makes no or little sense, but it does make me pause when I awake to think about what was just going on inside my head.

If we were to take the Freudian translation of dreams, my dreams are centered on the Id and the Ego. Dreams of the primal urges or of rationality seem to be the pattern, with elements of displacement and symbolization. Lets say last night, at first I had a dream regarding teamwork and everyday life, but in the dream, I was having images of nets dividing myself and others from our peers. Later, the dream slipped to simply myself alone, driving an old Ford pickup through the high desert, seemingly driving without any goal or destination. One interpretation of "nets" is being caught in a complex life situation. As we progress, driving can have numerous interpretations. Mainly, it is seen as ones journey through life, and how or what you are driving can have meanings as well. The fact that I had no set destination , and in my dream knew it, was an interesting point. It can represent a reflection on progress or self discovery, but then the interpretation is vague about ones surroundings or the destination. Maybe it means I'm on the right path in life, but might have a few speed bumps and difficult situations along the way. It is just interesting to try and narrow down the reasoning for such random dreaming.