Dream topics run the gamut from benign and boring to wild, bizarre, and outrageous. The dream I am going to refer to falls into the latter catagory.

This is how it goes:

Imagine... walking down a corridor. An empty, silent, corridor in a school or a dorm. You are looking for a bathroom. Finally you recognize the door that indicates you have found what you are looking for. You feel a substantial amount of urgency. When you open the door you see a typical public bathroom with tile halfway up the walls and a line of stalls. You open the door to a stall and wham! you are met with a disgustingly dirty plugged toilet that has overflowed all over the floor. You try to avoid the abundance of human refuse and wet toilet paper that is spread across the floor. Almost finding this impossible you try another stall and are met with the same thing. This scene repeats itself until you find a stall, although still dirty and disgusting, one you can maneuver in on tip toe without touching anything. Luckily you wake up, although a bit distressed, and realize this was just a dream.

Sharing our dreams with our friends is a great way to get some laughter started and some intriguing conversation going. I would have to admit that one of my most disturbing dreams is the one described above. For years I kept this dream to myself, too embarrassed to ever mention it to even my closest friends. Although I had this dream maybe once every two years or less, I believed I was the only person in the world who had it and probably due to some disturbance in my early development.

During a particularly rambunctious family dinner when the subject of bizarre dreams came up I purged myself of my dirty bathroom dream. Believe it or not my sister and my Dad chimed in to admit they have also had this dream. My father bowed out of our post discussion which dissected the gory details. Amazingly, my sister and I shared similar images. We agreed the common feeling state we both shared during this experience was extreme horror and disgust.

What in the world does all this mean? Well, the following research was meant of course for my own use but also for all of you who have had a similar dream. I do believe we can learn about ourselves from our dreams and there are many dream experts out there.

Information from "The Strangest Dream...The Dreamers Dictionary for the 21st Century" by Kelly Sullivan Walden, describes that dreams of bathrooms symbolize releasing and letting go of toxic feelings and thoughts. In addition dreams of human excrement signify a releasing and letting go of what is in the way of your being fully in your power. Ms Walden also writes that dreams of dirt indicate that there is an aspect of your life that needs to be cleaned up and dreams of urine signify that a person is releasing negativity. A common theme here with all of these symbols is a letting go to start anew.

In George Fink's, "Dream Symbols A-Z", Mr. Fink writes that bathrooms are a place for cleaning up, and indicate emotional purification. Dreams which contain a toilet mean that we want to rid ourselves of burdens. He goes on to write that a dream about feces may be related to "financial matters or to evaluating the worth of someone's character." He writes that "it points to the dreamer's sense of order and generousity."

In "Parkers' Complete book of Dreams" by Julia and Derek Parker I read a particularly powerful statement which may be helpful, "Refuse is something that we want to dispose of . It may be something we no longer want or something foisted upon us by others.

In my dream sample the human waste or refuse is already there, left by someone else. I am faced with maneuvering around it. It could be considered a type of assault or just an uncomfortable barrier and represents people or situations which are keeping me from my full potential. It may mean I need to look more closely at those around me who have an important influence on me. The most positive aspect of the dream in my opinion is that I am able to work around all of the refuse.

I really find dreams fascinating and fully realize I am no expert. I'm sure I have only skimmed the surface on this one. (Dr. Freud would have alot to say). But isn't it interesting? At the least a little research into your own dreams will leave you feeling a little more hopeful and you may realize that you are not alone.