THE DREAM GAME

 

"Get out of my life forever" is what self says to topdogin Ann Faraday's second book, The Dream Game. Topdog is that parental-authoritarian figure attempting to dominate our lives by "you should" or "you'd better not!" Underdog is the child in us who is always seeking recognition, and, if thwarted, will resort to sabotage to get attention. Faraday suggests underdog can be satiated by confrontation and acknowledgement, while topdog must be defeated and thrown out. This TD vs. UD conflict (recognized by Fredrick Peris) sheds new light on my own dream images. Unsuccessfully, I had been working on interpreting a dream in which five horses threw their riders. (There must be 100 different interpretations suggested for horses!)

By applying the TD vs. UD idea, I came to see how my innate, earthy nature resented the unyielding domination of the riders. I was reminded of my riding lessons in which I was exhorted to maintain rigid control over the animal. Further, I saw the number five (the number of man) representing the human/humanity expressing God as man.

Then I took the horses out of the dream, as Faraday suggests, and conversed with them. It went something like this:

Me: Why are you running wild through my dreams and upsetting me?

Horses: The disturbance is temporary. You must learn to trust us. We are God expressing Himself in the earth. We need no restraints. You fear that releasing us may cause chaos. This is not so. Learn to be natural and spontaneous like the lilies— this is grace. Natural urges will not lead you astray, but only increase and expand your understanding and appreciation of life itself.

In this case, mutiny was not necessary. By recognizing that TD's desire for domination arose from fear and UD's sabotage