I dreamed that my boss offered me champagne

On the one hand, there is something very pleasant about being offered a sparkling drink – which is how the dreamer felt when he told the dream in a group. In telling the dream, two of the group members immediately heard the words ''sham pain.'' That resonated with the dreamer. His boss was highly exuberant and theatrical. She often claimed she needed work done under difficult deadlines. The dream suggested to him that some of her needs were fakes, sham pain.

How to Work with Puns

A pun offers you two different meanings. In dream work, you take both roads. One path will give you information about the other.

I'm with my girl friend in a building but all the lights go out. There is no electricity anywhere.

If the dreamer asked himself what needed to be done to fix the lights in the building it would probably tell him how to put some ''electricity'' into his relationship.

There was a safe but I couldn't tell if it was really a safe or just a drawing of a safe.

I would ask the dreamer -- how do you tell the difference between a real safe and a drawing of a safe – and then I would take the answer to that question and see how it can be applied to the dreamer's ability to recognize when she felt safe in waking life.

Examples of Puns in Dreams:

I'm on my way to Boulder

Boulder is, of course, a town in Colorado but that statement suggests that the dreamer is feeling ''bolder.''

I had to look after a Gila monster

''Gila'' is pronounced ''healer'' so I'd look for some sort of healing taking place. Many dreams will refer to the heel of the foot and one can see a reference to healing.

I saw my ex-boyfriend. He was sitting at a pine table.

Perhaps he's pining for her, or she wishes he were—or she's pining for him.

I am in a stall. I cannot flush the toilet.

The word ''stall'' can mean a bathroom stall and it can also mean stuck, at a standstill.

My plane had landed on Doolittle Street. I was heading to a brick wall. I need to get off Doolittle Street.

''Doolittle'' when it is spoken sounds exactly like ''Do little.'' The dreamer was doing too little about a problem in her life and was in danger of crashing unless she changed her path.

A man is trying to use his breath to blow a rock uphill. The rock falls back and a voice says "You blew it."

This is a fascinating pun that offers multiple ways to work with the dream. There is the double meaning of blow with your breath and the colloquial meaning of failure. What should the dreamer use to move a rock uphill? What good is blowing on things? What does she want to say to the man who says ''You blew it?'' Can he help or does he want her to fail? A Jungian would go to town on the connection between the breath and the idea of spirit. What would create success (as opposed to blowing it) in this context?

I dreamed I was walking along a bridle path and I saw a man with a horse. We said hello to each other.

Bride and bridle path are closely connected. Has the dreamer met any marriageable men lately? Perhaps she is going to.

I'm at the cross roads of Frenzy and Coronation Streets

The dreamer has a choice of carrying on along Frenzy Street (in a frenzy) or of assuming his own power along Coronation Street.

Does she like the idea of him keeping a lion or does it frighten her? There are more than two possible meanings here. The dreamer should consider the possibility that her boy-friend is a-lying to her but perhaps something between them is now aligned.

Puns and language:

Puns, by definition, are about language.

If English is not your first language, it can pay to tell the dream twice; first in English and then in your native tongue.

A professor of Middle Eastern studies dreamed a pun in which the same word meant one thing in Arabic and something different in Hebrew

In ancient Egypt there was a belief that if you dream of someone's bare buttocks, then your parents will die. At face value, this hardly makes sense. Eventually, Egyptologists realized that the word for buttock and the word for orphan were almost identical in Egyptian.

Personal Puns:

Some dreams utilize meanings that are particular to the dreamer.

I dreamed the teacher complained that I was too sexy and that my hip was sticking out provocatively. I told her it was my Latin side.

Of course everybody's body has a left and a right side and every family tree has a mother's side and the father's side. One side of the dreamer's family was Scandinavian and the other side was Argentinian. The "Latin" side of this dreamer's family was more sensual than the Scandinavian side of her family.

Noticing puns

You might not notice the puns when you simply think about your dream. When you tell the dream to someone else, you are likely to hear the pun yourself, and it's much more likely that your friend will catch it. This is an advantage of sharing dreams and speaking them.

The reward of puns is that, once you have noticed them, the meanings are transparent and the implications often leap right out at you. That makes the dream work very satisfying. Share your dreams and see how many puns you can catch!

Evening Group Class. Are you interested in a deeper exploration of your dream life? The benefits are remarkable as you actually watch your dream life change. This is a small on-going group that currently meets on Tuesdays (Thursday is also possible). Cost is currently $20 per session. Contact me for more information at davidj@dreamreplay.com or leave a message at (510) 644 2369.

Looking for A New Location. David's Saturday a.m. group is moving. If you can suggest any location in the East Bay that is open to the public and has room for 5-10 people, please contact me at davidj@dreamreplay.com.

Best wishes