Very rarely are other people's dreams interesting...except when they're about sex. So we've enlisted the help of dream analyst Laurie Loewenberg to get to the bottom of your nocturnal imagination (send us yours!). But we gotta admit, for the sake of full disclosure, we've never been big fans of pat Freudian analysis; then again, deep down we don't really believe in astrology and yet we write and read horoscopes religiously! It's all good clean (or dirty) fun...we hope. Hence, our first dream on the DBP couch below, with Laurie's analysis after the jump, and a few devil's advocate questions from us after that (we couldn't resist):

Laurie Loewenberg: Wow! You know a lot of women wonder what it feels like to be the man in bed, or in the tub, or on the kitchen table. So I wouldn't be so bummed about it! Plus, these dreams tell us a lot about your personality. Male genitalia--to the dreaming mind--is actually about male energy: assertiveness, decisiveness and your ability to bring home the bacon. Are you the more dominant one in your relationships and friendships? Do you have a harsh edge? Do you get a five o'clock shadow? ;-) Let's take a good look at these recent dreams where you're going at it with your friend. Very often sex dreams are about a psychological union rather than a physical union. Have you and your friend recently "come together"--ahem--on some level? Did you two have a heart to heart? Did you take charge and help her out with some issue that wound up bringing the two of you closer? Bottom line, having all this male, assertive energy aint bad! It helps you get what you want in life.

Em & Lo: Playing devil's advocate for a second, what if Annie doesn't necessarily think of things like assertiveness, decisiveness, and bringing home the bacon as particularly "male" qualities or being "male energy"? Would that affect how you would interpret her dream? Or do you think that these associations are things we can't escape in our dream lives, no matter how much we might disagree with them in the daylight hours? In other words, are these cultural stereotypes so entrenched that they seep into our dreams no matter what kind of feminist we may be in the daylight hours? Or would male genitalia in a dream perhaps mean something different if a woman had different associations with male energy?

 

LL: Our dreams often force us to look at things we deny or avoid or dismiss or even don't realize in our waking life. Sure, it is possible that male genitalia may have a different meaning to Annie. I don't know her background, but there are archetypes within the human psyche that mean pretty much the same thing across the board since the beginning of mankind.  

No matter how big a feminist you may be, male genitalia or even an unknown male will very likely represent your own male energy: your inner warrior, the part of you that can stand up for yourself, fight your battles, etc.

We all have male and female energy within us, yin and yang. One cannot exist without the other. Female energy is the ability to nurture, be sensitive, creative, etc. The key is to have the right balance of both. Be caring and nurturing to yourself and those around you when you need to be and still be able to be assertive and fight your battles when you need to.   

As much as a feminist may try to denounce stereotypes in waking life, the plain truth is that SOME of those stereo types do exist simply because we are different creatures, the male and the female. Men have always been the warriors, they have testosterone. Women have always been the nurturers, we have estrogen. What's ironic is that the more assertive a feminist becomes, the more likely she is to have dreams sporting male genitalia or even dreams of having sex with unknown men! Our dreams have a cool way of showing us the different parts of our personality in the form of a person or even in the form of a person's part, hence the lovely male genitalia.

A man, on the other hand may dream (and believe me, I've heard this sort of dream a million times) that he has a vagina! And this is because he is telling himself, through the dream, it's time to be a bit more sensitive or nurturing to someone around him. 

That's why it's an excellent idea to pay attention to your dreams because they are helping you, guiding you to become the balanced individual with the balanced psyche that we all are meant to have.

 

LL:  Assertive energy forces you to be a go getter and not take shit. That's the best way to get anything you want...it's that warrior/predator energy or mindset. "I know what I want and nuthin's gonna get in my way!!"   

If you have a particularly empowering dream, hang on to that inspiration, that emotion your dream left you with in the morning, because it is coming from a very real place within you. It is the way your inner dreaming mind is telling you: You can do this! This determination, this ability exists, now let's get crackin!

Your dreams are your very best friend, your built-in advisor, the part of you that knows what's best and this part of you speaks to you every night, tells you stories about your self and shows you how you are performing in your life... but from a different perspective, a deeper perspective. Look into your dreams and you'll look deeper into your self than you ever thought possible!