Soaps and Fire

Hello,

Before I start I want to apologize for the seemingly scattered nature of this dream...While it was happening it seemed to make sense, but afterwards the more I think about it, the more random it gets.

The first thing I remember is being in a mall, trying to buy something for a trip. And than, the scene changed entirely.

I was planning on running away with Nikolas, from "General Hospital" with some kind of treasure. Only at this point I am no longer myself exactly, I have my own mind, but I am a character called Emily, also from this same show. And we are driving away and we are on some kind of expressway and a car turns off on an exit and I notice a flame ignite by the cars tail pipe, and before you know it, the entire bridge structure is on fire and a cloud of fire and smoke is coming down the expressway burning up all the cars in it's path. I turn to Nikolas and I say, 'We are going to be burned alive.' I then faced forward to watch it coming toward us, but as it reached us all I saw was a flash of white and I remember touching my neck and thinking that my pearl necklace as going to melt into my skin.

The next thing that happens is that the fire is over and we are alive. We are burned and have scars from it, but mostly we are intact. I remember thinking that we recovered in that car. It was sunny, a beautiful day, and we got out to walk home.

Suddenly, I am in a hotel lobby, surrounded by elevators and I am watching another character from the show be reunited with her children, as if she was the one burned in the fire. And I am myself again. I walk over to my family and my father hands me a note, something about always loving me, and than I woke up.

Can you make any sense of this? And can you shed some light on why I take on other personas in the dream? This happens quite frequently, I will "be" another person, a character from TV, a movie, or just another real life person and I've always wondered why!

Thanks so much!

Jenn

Good morning, Jenn.

I suspect that a great many people take on other personas during their dreams. There are lots of reasons for this, but the two main ones are:

1. A great deal of entertainment material is available in recent history. Nearly all of us have grown up with television, and I doubt anyone alive today remembers a time without films.
2. A strong imagination and the ability to understand other points of view.

However, most dreams are more than just an exercise of this ability. Since you put yourself in the soap star's position in the dream, I would think it is because some element of that plot line strikes a chord within your own life.

Driving anywhere with someone else is generally about a relationship. In your drive, you go down in flames - making me think that a relationship is going poorly in your waking life. The soap angle could also play into this another way - the dream could be saying that the reason the relationship is failing is because both of you are playing a role, rather than being yourselves. When you wake up later, unharmed, this could be an indicator that the entire incident seems much worse than it actually is.

The concern over the pearl necklace is intriguing. One would think that their last thought in a situation like this would be of something other than worry over jewelry, or appearances. This causes me to wonder whether you're more concerned about the other person, or with how it will look to others if the relationship fails.

The hotel lobby sequence could be related, or it could be a separate dream. Elevators take people to different levels, which could mean beginnings and/or endings. It can refer to take a relationship to a "whole new level." It can refer to different levels of consciousness.

However, you're in the lobby, with your family, which may mean a return to basic values - remembering that your family loves you (the note from your father being a direct message there), no matter what, could get you through your problems. You've externalized the character from before, so you're no longer playing a part - which you wouldn't, if you're returning to the ground floor of yourself.

Pleasant dreams,

Peregrin