by Richard Wilkerson, Dream Educator

It is very frustrating when things don't work, and even more so in dreams. But you are not alone! While the specific meaning of your dream can only be known by you, there are some common elements many of us experience.

Mechanical things just don't work very well in dreams. The same is true of technology dreams.

This is so well known that the Lucidity Institute which teaches people conscious dream control use this fact to help people recognize they are dreaming. They have a mask that flashes a red light when we are in dream (REM) sleep. This light can also be controlled by pushing a button on the mask.

In this lab, if you are not sure if you are dreaming, you just push the button and if you are dreaming, the button is unlikely to work. For those learning lucid dream control in such labs, this is a great signal, but how about the rest of us, does this hold any meaning?

Have you noticed that most technology, from the horse-drawn wagon to the computer, represents a very recent set of developments in the history of humankind? For millions of years we inhabited a world that was full of life, soul, and spirit. Even early technology, like arrowheads and baskets, were seen as having spirits and souls and interactive personalities.

While we may have evolved from a world of spirits to technology in our waking lives, our dreaming minds haven't necessarily kept pace, and that may not be a bad thing....

In dreams, inanimate objects can easily take on personalities and other forms of animation. Technology is stupid in the sense that it is an extension of our will and does what we want it to, or ends up in a junk yard. As the direct result of humankind's poor planning, some cities are drowning in their own waste.

In dreamland, the pushy use of will and domination is less likely to work the same way as in the material world. Thus inventions and technologies like our toaster, our cars and our phones are less likely to be extensions of our will and more likely to be representations of our relationship to will and willpower.

If I had a dream where mechanical things weren't working, I would see this as an opportunity to come into relationship with my own will (and by extension, technologies) in a different way.

For example, I might consider the possibility that I am pushing way too hard and using technology to extend my brute will. I might look for other alternatives for dealing with my world, shifting my focus to cooperation and away from domination.

The key to finding out more about ourselves through such dreams is learning just how, when, and where our technologies are and aren't working for us. For example, why is the toaster broken and not the light switch?

Another aspect of this dream is equally fascinating. If this were my dream, I would be curious about dialing an emergency number and getting someone else. I find it interesting that it is not a single connection, but a multiple one -- again reinforcing the idea that my single-minded will may need some wider spectral approach.

Is this misdirected telephone connection telling me that my dreaming mind doesn't see the emergency the way I do? Am I being led to hear something beyond the emergency?

If I could not stop my car, my metaphorical vehicle in life, then perhaps this dream is slowing me down, letting me hear something new, allowing me to drive a different vehicle?

About the Author:

Richard Wilkerson is general editor for The Internet Dream E-zine, Electric Dreams, and director of DreamGate, the Internet Communications and Dream Education Center. He writes the Cyberphile column for the Association for the Study of Dreams Newsletter.