The Mystery of the Suspended Faucet
When I was a kid my mom and I lived in Colorado for awhile and she’d take me to the mountains. The Colorado Rockies are chock-full of interesting mountain towns, yet she always took me to one mountain town over and over again — Estes Park. It was a bustling little place just under five thousand people at the time and had so many interesting little shops. We’d walk through the saltwater taffy shop, loads of souvenir shops, and even a little stream to catch a trout or two. By far, my favorite place to go was Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. It was a place of strangeness and disbelief and it fascinated me. The franchise was started by a guy by the name of Robert Ripley and dealt with such bizarre things as the Winchester Mystery House — a giant mansion built for ghosts.
Anyway, The Ripley Museum was the highlight for me. They had this giant faucet suspended about eight feet in the air that wasn’t attached to anything, yet gallons and gallons of water flowed out of it. I was fascinated by the fact that all that water came out of thin air. I was completely baffled and stopped to stare at it. It took my mom all of five seconds to realize that I was no longer following behind her. When she found me looking up at the amazing faucet in wonder, she said something like “Oh yeah, that’s the clear plastic tube running through the middle of the water trick.” I never saw that faucet the same again. The mystery was solved.
In a way, dreams are like that for me. I’m immediately taken in by the dream and completely fascinated by the imagery and dream story.When the dream mystery is solved it makes total sense. However, unlike the mystery of the suspended faucet, I’m still amazed by how a dream was used to communicate a certain message. One of things that fascinates me about dreams is just how unique dreams are from person to person.
One night a person might have a dream that presents its mystery in a single short scene with fuzzy details. The next night that same person might have a dream consisting of five or six long scenes packed with abundant and precise detail. Another night after that they might find themselves making their way through throngs of people in streets of New York City. A few nights later they may have a dream where they’re in a secluded cabin in the woods interacting with different animals. As the person works through these very different dreams, they notice many of the same themes surfacing.
A different dream could have a series of dreams that appear very similar on the surface, but they’re communicating different themes using similar dream language. When working with dreams it’s very easy to assume things that will lead to a misinterpretation. Dreams that appear to be different in theme and setting can have links between them, and dreams that appear similar can be saying completely different things. There are no limits to the possibilities.
One of the most essential things you can do when you have a baffling dream laid out in front of you is to apply the principle of compare and contrast. This principle can greatly help define the setting of where the dream takes place.
Why as the dreamer walking through crowds of people in New York City and not Los Angeles, for example. Why did the dreamer find themselves in a secluded cabin in the woods and not in the home they grew up in? The answer to these questions is a clue to solving the first mystery of your dream: Why did this dream place me in this setting?
Next, it’s helpful to apply the same principle of compare and contrast to the symbols of the dream. Why were you driving a car instead of a truck? Why were you in your childhood home instead of the condo you currently live in? Why was your grandma in the dream but not your grandpa?
Profound truth often cloaks itself in simplicity.
When an experienced chef makes a reduction he is partially evaporating the liquid in a substance such as red wine, in order to concentrate the juices and the flavor. In other words, the chef is desiring to use the full strength of a thing in their recipe instead of a less diluted substance.
When you’re dealing with dreams and their meaning, it seems as if everything runs together —the setting, the images, the feelings, the colors. And if they’re not running together, one or two particular images jump out and grab the dreamer and its difficult to see anything else. Reducing the elements of a dream down to their most basic meanings helps separate them, and once separated, the same elements that confused you moments earlier begin to give up their meaning.
Back in Estes Park when my mom took a few seconds to “separate the elements” of the faucet and the water with a clear plastic tube, it suddenly made perfect sense how water could be running from thin air. At first, I liked the idea of knowing how the trick was done. After a few minutes, though, my awe and fascination evaporated. The mystery was solved. I never saw a suspended faucet running water the same again. I did, however, enjoy the fishing!
EB