When Our Dreams Bring Humor
“The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.”
Our dreams are astoundingly creative in finding ways to reach us and evoke the aliveness of our feelings, such as fear, awe, love, joy, and pain. At times our dreams can also make us laugh, and this invites our attention. Humor and playfulness can help us feel truths of the soul in a fresh way. For example, our funny dream moments can soften our ego’s point of view and help us meet our stuck places of conditioning with compassion. Many of us are familiar with the conditioned story that it is not okay to feel our own desires, that which calls to our soul, and to live this in the world. It may be we’ve forgotten what our desires are, so caught are we in old habits that have formed around our wounds. But our dreams offer many paths to help recover this place of aliveness in us.The teen boy in this dream woke me up with his humor and boldness:
I’m in a room with a teen boy. I feel love for him and he seems to love me and want to be with me. I feel amazed and joyful. A woman is here too. They’re planning his birthday party. I see the list with him and my name is on it. I feel so excited. Then the boy writes something rapidly and it’s long. I feel amazed he could write so quickly. He’s also speaking it. He says, “This party is for ME. There are some people I don’t want to invite.” I see what he’s written and it’s funny. It’s like this (but longer) and spoken aloud:I n case you forgot this party is for me, Yes ME, I get to say what I want Oh yeah, ME, did I mention: ME?
Our soul often comes embodied in our dreams as the girl or boy, imagoes of soul. This boy’s wacky and passionate declaration makes me laugh and feel something opening. This is the healing medicine I need, the freedom to follow desire and also to say no when I don’t feel it. Both are vital to our wholeness. When he hugs me later in the dream I can feel his vibrant energy as a felt sense.In another dream I’m awakened from sleep by a large man, a healing imago who asks me to make copies for him on a machine. I feel great fear of him as I do this task. When I’m done he surprises me by smiling and calling out “Yes! Whoa!” and doing a funny little dance. But my heart can’t yet open fully to this. Soon I’m in another place telling a woman about what happened. I leave out his dance and his joy and make it into a gloomy tale about how afraid I was, a story that flattens my feelings and my connection to him. Our stories tend to repeat, like copiers. But as our healing imagoes so often do, the man reappears to interrupt and disrupt the story and open the door to soul:
I hear him outside the door, calling loudly to me. I feel worried he heard me. I open the door and he’s in the hallway up near the ceiling gazing at me from behind a beam. He’s clowning around, making puppets out of his hands, making faces and speaking in silly voices. I feel so surprised and amazed.
The man calls my name. He doesn’t judge me or explain how I can improve myself. This is not the intention of our dreams, who meet our conditioning and the wounds underneath with imagination and generosity. They model this for us.Instead, he becomes a puppeteer who brings imagination alive. This sacred encounter with him helps me move from reaction to feeling and connection. As I look up at him, the room seems to expand. He is showing me a more creative and compassionate way to be in the world, as our dreams often do. Now I have a path to practice. With his humor, he brings to life an essential truth -- that we are beloved. Humor may be rare in our dreams. When it comes, why not take a moment and feel the gift of this, its felt sense for you. Humor has a particular flavor for each of us, a language that is ours, a unique intention — and a shared humanness. These moments can be a special invitation to let our hearts open a little more to what is longing to come to life in us.
Marian Enochs Gay is a Natural Dreamwork practitioner offering a contemplative approach to dreams as a path to soul. She offers individual sessions in person or via phone or Skype.