Falling Awake

rows and kiss him on both cheeks. “You had a question, sir?”
    “I was just wondering,” he said in a low, resonant voice, “why we don’t remember many of our dreams?”
    “Theories vary but one that sounds reasonable to many researchers is that we simply aren’t paying much attention while we sleep. We don’t focus on a dream unless it happens to be particularly vivid or unless it contains a strong emotional element.” She held up a notepad. “Which brings me to the first step in the process of tapping into the creative potential of your dreams.”She paused for effect, as she had learned in her instructors’ classes. “Take notes. Keep a pen and a pad of paper beside your bed. Or try a recorder. Whenever you wake up in the middle of the night, write down whatever you can recall of your dreams. Your goal is to create a dream log.”
    She waved the pointer with a flourish, trying to regain the attention of some people in the back row who were chatting among themselves. The tip of the wand moved across the top of the podium, sweeping her carefully arranged notes to the floor.
    For a moment everyone in the room, including her, stared at the fallen note cards.
    “Excuse me.” She crouched and frantically gathered up the cards.
    The murmur of conversation in the back row got louder.
    She staggered erect and put the cards back on top of the podium. Gripping the edges of the stand she looked out at her audience, half of which was now engaged in low-voiced conversations. Someone’s cell phone rang. Just to make matters worse, the person took the call.
    I don’t believe this, she thought. It’s just a really bad dream. Okay, maybe not as bad as a crime scene dream, but darn close.
    With an effort of will she gathered herself. Thirty minutes to go.
    “Step two,” she said through gritted teeth, “is to look through your dream log at the end of each week. You will be searching for recurring themes and ideas, but my advice is not to waste time on the more traditional interpretive approach, which relies on symbols. In the old days of dream research it was felt that everyelement in a dream actually meant something other than what it appeared to be. If you dreamed about a closed door you were experiencing a fear of change. If you dreamed about a mirror in which you cannot see your reflection you were worried about how others see you, and so forth.”
    The man with the neatly trimmed beard raised his hand. “What’s wrong with taking that approach? I’ve always heard symbols are important in dreams.”
    In the back row, Tamsyn gave a tiny, negative wave of her hand and shook her head. Not hard to interpret those symbols, Isabel thought. Tamsyn wanted her to leave the topic and get back to the discussion of dream logs.
    But she couldn’t ignore the one person in the class who was actually paying attention, she told herself. She smiled at the bearded man.
    “The idea that our dreams contain critical symbols that must be interpreted is extremely ancient and comes down to us from a variety of cultures,” she said quickly, trying to rush through the explanation. “It was strongly reinforced in the twentieth century by Jung and Freud and others who took a psychological approach to dream research.”
    Another hand went up. She pretended not to notice.
    “It is extremely risky to put too much emphasis on symbols in dreams for the simple reason that there are as many interpretations of various symbols as there are people who try to interpret dreams,” she continued. “While some analysts would see that closed door I just mentioned as a symbol of fear of change,others would interpret it as the rational barrier that stands between our civilized nature and our deepest, most primitive thoughts and repressed desires.”
    The woman who had just raised her hand spoke up loudly.
    “But the door must mean something,” she insisted.
    Isabel spread her hands. “It could be just a door with no particular significance at all. Maybe one you noticed out of the corner of your eye earlier in the day when you walked down the street. That’s the problem with dream symbols. If you attempt to use them to interpret the meaning of your dreams, I suggest that you do not rely on a dream encyclopedia or theories of universal archetypes. Instead, think of the objects and events in your dreams in terms of personal context.”
    In the back row, Tamsyn sagged in her chair, apparently resigned to disaster.
    “What’s context?” the