noflyingfan, I need your dream analysis expertise :)

[JLBuch34]

I had the strangest dream last night, involving flying, and I wanted to get everyone's opinion on it.

I dreamed (dreamt?) that I was taking a flight up to Portland to see my parents. For some strange reason, I had waited until the morning of the flight to pack - I remember the flight being at 9:30 AM - so I was rushing around trying to get everything in my suitcase. I was staying at a hotel or something and was trying to remember everything I had brought and pack it quickly but my stuff was inexplicably mixed in with other people's clothes and belongings, making it was extra-hard for me to pack. While I'm packing, my mom calls me and says she'll meet me at the airport. I take this as her saying that she's flying with me, so I try to increase the speed of my packing. As I fumble around the room, I look at my watch and notice it's already 9:00. So I rush out of the house/hotel and make my way to the BART (which is the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, an underground train/subway). Once I get there, I look at my watch again and notice it's 9:15. I also notice that there are four different train tracks, with little platforms that pedestrians can go over if they need to get to another track. At that moment, trains on all four tracks come roaring into the station and I'm attempting to see if one of the trains are going to the airport. One of them says "ARPT" so I rush over the platforms (very Mario Brothers) but the train takes off right as I get there. This continues for awhile, with me rushing back and forth, attempting to catch a train that goes to the airport while panicking that I'm going to miss my flight. Then, all of the sudden, I'm at the airport and rushing to check in and meet my mom. I can tell that I've missed my flight, but I'm still attempting to get to the gate. I look down at my watch and see that it's 9:30 and I feel this sense of hopelessness that I'm never going to be able to go home. And then I wake up :confused:

A side note - every time I dream about flying, it's at the same airport, but it must be a fictional one, because I've never been to this airport in "real life." It's interesting to note that when I dream about hospitals, it looks like this fictional airport as well.

[Barb-SAN]

I'm sure Erika will have a good symbolic interpretation of your dream.

A more literal interpretation would be that you are having stress and anxiety thinking about the rush to get to the airport at the last minute, and things going wrong that make you miss your flight. Do you tend to do that in real life? (leave everything to the last minute?). Packing your clothes a few days ahead of time might relieve some of that anxiety. It also might help to make a commitment to yourself that you will get to the airport with PLENTY of extra time, just in case anything unexpected comes up to delay you. If the dream causes you to wake up in a cold sweat, crying, or whatever, I find it sometimes helps to go back into a semi-sleep and try to consciously finish the dream with a solution or better ending.

This rushing around with a deadline is something that I find stressful, so I try to be near the airport the night before (if I'm not flying out of San Diego, anyway), so I don't have a long drive before a flight. There's less chance of things going wrong if you don't have a long commute first.

I did have a "nightmare" real life experience in Mexico City many years ago...starting with taking the Metro during rush hour wearing a backpack. After being pushed and shoved and crowded on the train, I got off half-way to my destination, thinking I'd just take a cab. Found one O.K., but it ran out of gas about a mile from the airport. The cab driver flagged down a truck for me, and I remember at the airport, as I was checking in at the gate, the agent took my pack, and then told me to RUN for the plane, it was ready to leave. I got there just as they were preparing to close the door. I made the flight, but my heart didn't slow down for a good while after that. I was down to my last $20, and didn't have a credit card...so really HAD to make that flight. Experiences like that can make a lasting impression of how stressful the whole flying experience can be. LOTS of lessons were learned, though!;)

[noflyingfan]

Do you have a flight coming up? If you do, I think Barb is right on target with her interpretation. It's just worry. It happens to me all the time when I have something big coming up.

If you don't have a flight coming up, I still think that Barb is right, except of course that you're stressing over something besides a flight. Do you have something else big coming up that you're worried about? Since you said that your dream airport always looks the same but doesn't look like an airport you've seen in real life, I think that maybe when you dream about that airport, it's always a stressful situation. Is that right?

It's like the classic dream where you go to high school naked and you find out that you missed your algebra test. Obviously, if you're years out of high school, you are not literally worried about missing an algebra test and going to school naked. But you might be stressed about a project, or about being "exposed" in some way. People might have that dream when they're worried about a big work project going well, for example, and thinking that if they don't do well, they might be "exposed" as an irresponsible employee and maybe not as "mature" as you should be, since you're dreaming about high school.

I also think Barb is right about finding a way to end the dream better. I do that sometimes. Even if I'm just thinking it and not dreaming it, I don't let myself get out of bed until I have resolved the situation.

[Barb-SAN]

"Barb is trying to steal my title"

Not to worry, Erika! I like how you find the symbolic meaning in dreams, and you notice things that don't occur to me! I tend to look at dreams more literally...as unfinished business from the "waking state", or some bizarre twist on ideas and visual images I'd seen earlier in the day. ;)

[noflyingfan]

Not to worry, Erika! I like how you find the symbolic meaning in dreams, and you notice things that don't occur to me! I tend to look at dreams more literally...as unfinished business from the "waking state", or some bizarre twist on ideas and visual images I'd seen earlier in the day. ;)

Many times, that's all dreams are. It's those really goofy ones that make no sense at first blush that I like to dig into. It's fun, in a dorky sort of way.

[JLBuch34]

The only thing I can really think of is my flight over Thanksgiving. I happen to be flying ON Thanksgiving, so that initially gave me a little bit of anxiety. I'm not feeling overly stressed about flying this time, though, given my last experience and that I'll be flying with someone this time around.

I'm actually really good about getting things taken care of well in advance. I always give myself 2 hours at the airport, pack a day or two in advance (with a list of things I need printed out on an Excel spreadsheet...dork, I know), and try to prepare myself mentally. I think if I were in a situation where everything was rushed - like your experience in Mexico, Barb-SAN - I would probably break down entirely. My life is definitely all about order and control, so most of my dreams tend to center around lack of control and chaos. I've been having a lot of dreams lately about getting caught in a tsunami :mg:

I do think there are a lot of aspects in my life that are kind of up in the air at the moment, which I guess could explain all of the strange dreams I'm having - there's a lot of change in the air. But I thought the flying in particular was weird, because I usually don't have those dreams unless I have a flight in a few days. In this case, it's nearly two months!

[noflyingfan]

Maybe flying is on your mind more because you're posting here now. I have a lot of flying dreams because of this site.

[Barb-SAN]

I think if I were in a situation where everything was rushed - like your experience in Mexico, Barb-SAN - I would probably break down entirely. My life is definitely all about order and control, so most of my dreams tend to center around lack of control and chaos. I've been having a lot of dreams lately about getting caught in a tsunami :mg:

Interesting...I've had a couple tsunami dreams too, though not recently, and a memorable A-bomb one some years ago....shiver....maybe it is an indication of getting overwhelmed by daily life...

The Mexico experience...well, "living it" was different from imagining it...I was just sort of in "hyper-overdrive" and really focused on getting to the airport, no matter what it took to get there. I began to have my doubts that I would make it when the cab ran out of gas though...and there were no gas stations in the vicinity. Lucky that the hitch-hiking worked out O.K...that's not something I would do except in an extreme emergency. That experience really drive home the importance of having a credit card, and plenty of spare cash to cover unanticipated events, like missing a flight and having to stay an extra day at the destination. Of course it's all more complicated when traveling outside the country too...then you have to worry about tourist cards expiring, etc.

[WillFlyToDisney]

Flying on Thanksgiving is great - especially later in the day. You will never see the airports and planes that empty!

[cshollingsworth]

Girl, do I ever have a dream for you...last night it was so weird, and awful...

I think that because I'm on here, I too, have many more flying dreams than I used to have.

I will just PM you mine and let you take a peek at it. I'm still hoping mine are not symbolic and prothetic (spelling???).

[JLBuch34]

That's a definite possibility. It could also be due in part to the fact that I was watching "Amazing Race" last night :D

[JLBuch34]

Flying on Thanksgiving is great - especially later in the day. You will never see the airports and planes that empty!

Yep, I think it'll be fine. I just had that fleeting thought of, "How tragic would it be if my plane crashed on THANKSGIVING of all days?!"

[noflyingfan]

Yep, I think it'll be fine. I just had that fleeting thought of, "How tragic would it be if my plane crashed on THANKSGIVING of all days?!"

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. The FAA doesn't let planes crash on Thanksgiving. First, because everyone is too busy with family and food to watch the news on Thanksgiving, and second, because they'd have to interrupt the football games to bring us the story, and we couldn't have that, could we? :tongue:

[JLBuch34]

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. The FAA doesn't let planes crash on Thanksgiving. First, because everyone is too busy with family and food to watch the news on Thanksgiving, and second, because they'd have to interrupt the football games to bring us the story, and we couldn't have that, could we? :tongue:

Well, it's a very interesting theory! I like it. I like it a lot ;)