Little Brother Driving

Hi!

I was wondering if you could help me figure out this dream that I had the other night. Actually, I'm really interested in this, 'cause this is a topic that I myself am trying to tackle in a school experiment. How dreams are linked to personality, that is.

Anyway, I tried to figure it out myself, but I'm not very skilled in the subject and I wasn't really able to understand much.

Alright, here it goes.

In my dream, it started off by me driving in a big, silver truck with my little brother. It was a sunny day outside, and we were driving on a new-looking road, with green grass next to us and a metal bar surrounding the whole place. All of a sudden, my brother, who is only 11, took the wheel and I was yelling at him to stop it. The sky got gray and it began to rain. I remember being really scared, but my brother was laughing. I climbed out of my window and sat on top of the car. My brother was driving crazily. The car was curving and spinning out of control. Then, kind of in slow motion, the car hit the metal pole and we went flying downwards, off the edge of a cliff. We landed in an ocean, and I expected to drown because of the hard impact, but instead I came up from the surface to find my brother swimming behind me, still laughing. I was mad at him as we continued to make our way back to the shore. It was still raining out, and it seemed to get much darker. There were a lot of other people on the beach. They all looked rather sad. There was this 1 boy with silver hair who came up to us. Then I started laughing. And then me and my brother climbed back up the side of the cliff. I woke up after that.

I'd appreciate if you could help. Thanks a lot!!

-Anna

Good morning, Anna.

I'd encourage anyone with a real interest to look into dreams and dreaming, because there's so much yet to be discovered.

In your dream, the important thing to look at is your brother. He is a symbol - as is any person or object in a dream. The symbol can actually represent your brother, but maybe not. This is your younger brother we're talking about - someone who is now, the child you used to be. Someone without your responsibilities. So the symbol could actually represent your own inner child.

And from the other clues in this dream, it's apparently an inner child with whom you feel you've lost touch. When he takes over the wheel of the car and starts driving, it scares you - you (your rational, mature self) are not in control anymore.

In your dream, it makes you angry that your brother behaves so irresponsibly. And it likely does when you're awake, too. This anger usually comes from jealousy - you're older and can't behave like a child anymore.

He ends up crashing the car (or is it still a silver truck?), confirming the idea that disaster will ensue if we act like children all the time. But the both of you survive. You end up laughing, too, and I think this laughter comes from the realization that it actually was a fun ride. You've successfully found your inner child.

Now, I'm not saying that crash a car just to have fun. Obviously, abandoning all responsibility is not a wise thing to do. However, it's possible that you've been feeling the pressure of being the older one a bit too much lately. Surely there's some way you can blow off some steam safely - kick back and act like a kid once in a while.

Pleasant dreams,

Peregrin