Author

Subject: White light

Tingting*

00:11 27/06/2002 

I was supposedly in the hallways at university. I went to press a button to wait for the elevator. The button was replaced with a rotating book, some classic story like Jane Austen.

I entered the elevator and it started to speed up really fast. The faster it went, the brighter the lift became. The entire lift started to shake and was filled with an extremely bright light that hurt my eyes to look at. And when I looked to my right, there was an old lady and the light was also streaming from her face and I could not see her face. It was very scary. As I was still dreaming I started screaming to try and wake myself up.

The dreams I had prior to and following this particular scene were equally emotionally exhausting, including fear, embarrassment, anger, hurt, loneliness and feeling unloved. I woke up crying from having a heated argument with a very close friend.

And these negative feelings don't logically reflect my current emotional state. I've been stressed the past week over assignments, however I just finished everything yesterday and went to sleep in a very good mood.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

2004

Jane Teresa's View

Jane Teresa Anderson

Overview Interpretation & Dream Alchemy Practice suggestion

OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION

Hi Tingting,

So, the ‘bright side’ was too hard to take after all that stress, hey? Just joking – half.

As you say, the week leading up to this dream was very stressed with assignments. When you’re under stress, working to deadlines, you devote little time, if any, to dealing with everyday personal issues. If your assignments required you to evaluate emotional situations and conflicts, these may resonate in your unconscious mind with any similar personal issues and require dream processing in the usual way. I wonder, as your dream featured a Jane Austen book, whether you’re studying literature. If so, any dilemmas experienced by the characters in these novels that resonate with your own issues will stir up your experiences and stimulate new insight – all excellent dream material.

My guess is that the fear, embarrassment, anger, hurt, loneliness and feelings of being unloved that featured in your dream were all feelings ignited by your week of stress and by the topics of your study. Your dreams would also have been addressing stress itself: questions such as why do you submit yourself to stress, are you a perfectionist, do you leave things to the last moment and so on.

You were surprised to dream of these emotions after going to bed in a very good mood, but you had only just finished “everything” before sleeping. Dreams tend to process the last 24-48 hours, and when there’s a lot to process, this can spread out over several more nights.

Why did you find the light frightening in your dream? What did the white light threaten?

The white light part of your dream started at university and you took a lift up to a higher level. This suggests your dream may have been about higher learning, or where you’re heading with your studies. Going higher in a dream can reflect your higher potential. Going higher in a building can reflect accessing the higher levels of your mind: intellectual or spiritual, perhaps.

A lift may also be a dream pun on an emotional lift – something to give you a lift. Throughout the stress you were probably looking forward to the highs of the relief.

The lift button was a rotating book. It reminded you of a classic story like Jane Austin. Which book is springing to mind as you read this? Name it. Now ask yourself which issues the book presents and how these relate to your own issues. Your fear in the lift is likely to be related to these. Is there an old woman in the book, or could she represent ancient wisdom?

My feeling is that your dream concerns your fears of going higher, of success. The speed suggests the speed of the changes around you and the shakiness of the lift suggest your fear of losing touch with the ground. Can I really go this high? Will I be safe?

We need light to see clearly, but bright light can be blinding. Bright may be a dream pun on intelligence. Are you afraid of being seen to be too bright?

Bright, blinding lights in dreams usually relate to a sudden insight about oneself (a sudden enlightenment) where the insight is too hard to take. Sometimes we prefer to learn the truth in stages, in dimly lit glimpses first then in increasing light until we have built up enough strength to take the full blow.

Plenty of food for thought for you here, Tingting. Higher thought.

You might find it helpful to read ‘Lifts and crazy stairs’ in Dream Alchemy, pages 56-60.

DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE

Writing Exercise

Imagine you are entering that lift again, only this time you are wearing sunglasses and you have 100% ability to slow the lift to a comfortable speed. Now, set a timer for 15 minutes and start writing or typing as fast as you can – with no room for thought – a story starting with you putting on the sunglasses and entering that lift. Just let the words flow – a kind of stream of consciousness. Stop when the timer sounds. Read over your story at leisure. You will be surprised how much you learn from this.

How does this work?

By working with dream elements and symbols in writing form you are communicating with your unconscious mind in its own language to create change, to explore your feelings and to resolve and heal past issues.

More details on various writing exercises as Dream Alchemy Practices in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 337-338.

Jane Teresa Anderson

ORIGINAL THREAD

Below is the original forum discussion on this dream, contributed before Jane Teresa's 2004 interpretation.

Star

22:24 30/06/2002 

Hi tingting I'm a bit too tired to get into all this right now but the first thing that popped into my head which actually brought a smile to my face when I read your very last line here was "Are you needing a "lift" in life?"

I'm sure others will comment further and I would also but just not right now. If I have time I'll come back and add some more later.

G'nite - Star.

Lena

08:22 01/07/2002 

Hi Tingting,

White light for me always represents my higher power/energy and I use white light in visualisations to boost my energy levels.

White is also the blending of all the colours of the chakras.

I didn't see your dream as scary or threatening at all. It was like you were being presented the opportunity to progress to a higher level in self awareness.

I wondered whether the book could have been one of Jane Teresa's books about dream work, and in fact this month's newsletter is about the power of dream work in resolving problems arising from outdated beliefs.

Maybe the dream was just a record of past thoughts, anyway, not current ones.

Lena

tingting

20:15 04/07/2002 

Thank you for your comments. Usually I interpret white light as a source of peacefullness. I find imagining it calming and relaxing, however, the context it appeared in was frightening. The shaking lift and me screaming. I am also still puzzled about the old woman.

Could I have been scared because I am not ready for this next level?

Lena

15:22 05/07/2002 

Hi Tingting,

How about this? Maybe the old woman represents your internal wisdom, but you can't see her face because it (your wisdom) is a mystery to you.

Maybe you ARE scared because you think that you're not ready for this level, but perhaps Jane's book/s will help you to get there.

Perhaps the white light is an indication that you just have to have faith in the process, and trust that you will have the resources when you need them.

The Uni indicates that the theme of the dream is all about learning, so this may be what you're supposed to be working on right now.

Lena

Tingting*

00:29 08/07/2002 

Thanks Lena, that all sheds some interesting perspective onto everything.

Tingting