I wonder what can be the reason of a recurring subject in my (normal) dreams since my childhood.
I am very interested in everything that has to do with phones and computers and the technical side of it (like fixing technical issues, computer crashes, installing operating systems) but I am also very interested in a lot of other things like YouTube, copyright law, emergency numbers and many more.
The last mentioned things are currently more on the foreground than my interest in computer crashes but I still have regularly recurring dreams about my computer crashing.
I am now 22 and I have a MacBook which makes a loud fan noise when a system crash happen (in real life) but it does not happen often (maximum four times a year) but I still have a lot of dreams about it.
When I was about 13 years old I also had a lot of regularly recurring dreams about my computer crashes but then the time I did not had a MacBook so I dreamed about my Windows-PC getting a Blue Screen or stripes and hearts (which also happened sometimes then the time).
So my computer crashing is something that keeps returning in my dreams since my childhood while there are a lot of other things, hobbies and interests which means a lot more to me nowadays (like YouTube, copyright law, emergency numbers, etc) and those things don’t return so much in my dreams, it’s still the computer crashes which are on the foreground in my recurring dreams.
Someone I know also have regularly recurring dreams about her boyfriend breaking up with her.
The situation is happening in different contexts but keeps returning in her dreams.
She is in a stable relationship and is not worrying about her relationship so she wonder why this keeps returning in her dreams.
Sometimes her dreams are lucid and sometimes her dreams are normal.
I understand that when something is on your mind it will return in you dreams because that’s how your subconscious work but in my case my current interests/hobby’s which are much more on the foreground should be the subject and not computer crashes because I care less about it.
In the case of the other person, I also don’t understand because her relationship is stable and she is not worrying about it.
Thank you for asking this question. I’ve been dying to tell someone about a theory I have developed regarding this. I’m also dreaming about my childhood stuff more often than about contemporary things. Games I played when I was 15 appear more often in my dreams than the ones I’m playing now and I dream about my childhood friends I haven’t met in years more often than about my wife who I spend every day together with.
The answer can be put into one word: puberty.
But I think I should explain some more. The revelation came I think when I watched some d video of Simon Sinek explaining what an overdose of smartphone and social media does to adolescents. In our age of 13-16 years old we go through a very profound change. For girls maybe one year younger, as they tend to go through puberty a little earlier. It is at this time that we make the transition from child to adult.
You probably knew this already. But I think few people are actually aware what that means. As Simon Sinek summarized, the critical difference between being a child and an adult is that the former relies psychologically on approval by their parents, whereas the latter seeks the approval and acceptance of their peers. This is a profound change in how your life works. And it comes with a lot of pain, through social pressure never felt before or uncertainty about your own identity, for example.
I’d go even so far as to say that it is at this time in your life that soul is forged which will then inhabit your fleshy shell for the rest of your life. And whatever you throw into the crucible at this point will determine what you’re made out of, for the rest of your life. Everything you’ve been before that point gets crushed down, crunched up and disassembled into pieces, to be put together again. This process leaves an eternal mark on you. From a dreamer’s perspective it seems a reasonable conclusion that you will thus dream about whatever kept you busy during these times of your life, as they literally defined your personality.
I see confirmation of this in my own dreams and your post, but also the mere fact that school and missed homework dreams are a meme in this community.
But I also know that this is not the full picture. It’s probably not as simple. Reality is rarely black and white and when it comes to dreams, the color gradient stretches particularly wide and contains many different shades. I’m curious to learn other people’s insights to broaden or confirm my theory.
Marvin makes some salient points in his theory, almost certainly honing in on what becomes part of something core or fundamentally shaped amidst the transition from childhood to early adulthood through puberty. And, something of that core feature is likely to lend to recurrent dream themes. I’ve certainly experienced the “school daze” meme-motif, mentioned…many, many times…though the tone is changing as time goes by. Anxiety is being replaced by something else, as time goes by…and fear, as well. Replaced by something more observational and detached.
I like the “crucible” motif as well. And am finding that, the more I toss into the mixing bowl, the more interesting things come out amidst conscious experience…seeming to revolve, in magnificent fashion, around certain core predilections…core tendencies. And, looking within to observe this fundamental state, however it might be explained or manifest, lends to this slowly developing wisdom…an overview…which gradually collects itself like a giant picture-mosaic gaining resolution, the more I step back and observe.
Even though the vast array of the inter-looping elements of the mosaic presents as something of an inscrutable matrix (to borrow from another current meme-de-jour)…a theme seems to be gaining ground. I can’t quite tell, yet, what the mosaic is resolving into…it’s not yet quite clear. But, it seems to express something of a wry grin, all in all
LOL! Just had notification pop up that today is Snoopy’s birthday. I think that’s kinda apropos…don’t you? wry grin. Here’s to Joe Cool clink
Was scrolling through this topic and just wanted to say how eloquently put this was.
I would have to ruminate on my own experience to support or contradict this theory, but I will say I’m quite enamored by it in a wistful nostalgic and loving way, as this is the time in my life I first connected to my dreams and had my first LD.
If it is true, I’ve had longstanding dream signs that have been present since that time that could be interpreted in this context.
Snakes in particular as a symbol of growing and shedding their skin, like going through this process that you describe.
But my dreams were what I was foraging in that time. So instead of my dreams featuring content of what I was focusing on, (dreams and therefore dreaming of dreams), the growing process got reflected into my dreams by being translated into the very language (symbolism of snakes) of my dreams instead?
The logic might be a little circular, like ouroboros, but I am hopelessly romantic about that idea.
