Have you dreamed in the other gender?

[PurpleGoddess]

always a woman

hi
ive always been a woman. but lately i've been having alot of men in my dream lately. all in a sexual/sensual way. i don't remember the details at all except one where i've taken my friend Paul's p*** because it's detachable...to the song "my detachable p***". really! there is a song out there...

i need to mention this to my doctor tomorrow because i'm coming to realzie that i'm not happy cause i'm depressed. i need help to get to the other side of it and i have woman friends who are being so supportive. i can't really talk about it to anyone w/o crying cause it upsets me. my dreams might be pointing to a direction of integrating the primal side of me? male/female together?

i just wanted to share that. going to call a therapist, doc and i are going the supplementation way right now because i'm functioning. and a friend said that even the med's will only be temporary but doc said that they're hard to get off of...i don't want to become dependent on them...i want to learn how to deal w/the toughness of the world w/o it affecting me so deeply.

thanks for listening
pg

 

[MCsea]

Yes

Often when I am re-living one of my past life memories in a dream to work through current issues I am a man...

Marina

 

[Sophie-David]

Integration vs. Sexual Preferance

Hello TenOfSwords

Sorry to take so long to get back to your reply!

I think that the speculation about the effect of the higher bilateral integration of the female brain (you don't happen to know what the variation within each gender is? I'm curious about that) is pretty interesting in that relation because it would make sense in a way that a more "wide" consciousness allowed for more movement of the identity feeling than the more "narrow" male consciousness.

In his book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, Leonard Shlain states the variation in women as follows:

Researchers have discovered that women have between 10 percent and 33 percent more neuronal fibers in the forward part of their coprus callosum than to men. The higher the number of connecting neurons, the greater must be the integration between the two sides.

If you include the male tendency to be less integrated bilaterally as a genetic trait and view homosexuality as also having some genetic component, along with the dream-gender issue, then it suddenly becomes interesting to link the probability of identity change in dreams to the "solidity" of sexual preference in males and it makes perfect sense that I don't change identity at all in my dreams and that I'm a heterosexual male...

I do not see a link between integration and sexual preference. Since they appear to be discrete entities - to be Other - the connection and identification with contrasexual elements in the unconscious would not typically affect the perceived sexuality of the ego.

I'm not sure that I know any highly integrated men personally since they are a pretty rare phenomenon, but I do know several well integrated women, and I haven't observed any correlation with sexual preference. I do think that well integrated people are more self-aware, and thus more likely to identify whatever their personal sexual preferences may be even if they have been obscured by layers of enculturation.

In my own case, my experience of integration so far has been that my sexuality has been heightened and my sexual preference has become more clearly heterosexually focused. It would difficult for this not to be the case when the image of the internal feminine Beloved - the source of sexual "chemical attraction" - is so clearly in consciousness.

As I mentioned above, a higher potential for bilateral processing may correlate with the experience of dreaming in the other gender, but that is speculative. I personally know at least one woman who is highly integrated but who does not dream in the other gender.

Cheers - David

 

[Sophie-David]

iam a woman, i have dreamed i was a man, a policeman shooting the bad guys.fighting and kicking there butts. lynn

Hi Lynn

That sounds like fun! I wonder if women dreamed this way more often in the days when there was less female empowerment. For example if a woman living in Victorian times wanted to dream of being a soldier, perhaps she would always have to project herself into a masculine role.

Namaste - David

 

[Sophie-David]

I am a (hetero) woman. I have dreamed I was male at two specific times in my life.

When I was young, I always dreamed I was a boy. I also identified more with boys in children's literature. I think I was avoiding gender/sex issues and was identifying myself as a "generic" kid . . .

Hi Rachelcat

Yes, that makes sense to me about your dreaming as a boy, it would allow you more freedom in your dreams, especially when the dominant culture was even more patriarchal than it is now.

When I was first married (first having lots of sex), I often dreamed I was a man having sex with a woman (very graphic). I thought it was really interesting and cool, but when I told him about it, my husband was kind of turned off by it . . .

I was a bit saddened when I read that you might have suppressed these dreams because of your husband's discomfort.

BTW, I like your avatar of the Hanged Cat! I also have The Tarot for Cats - I use it when I want to lighten things up a bit.

Blessings - David

 

[Sophie-David]

Reliving Past Lives

Often when I am re-living one of my past life memories in a dream to work through current issues I am a man...

Marina

Hi Marina

I was just curious how you recognize that you are working with past life memories. Is there an obvious tipoff, is it something you connect to your conscious experiences, or a strong emotional response: you just know? When I dream of - or as - the Inner Beloveds I don't always recognize them within the dream, but when I wake up there's that strong emotional response - I just know. It has also crossed my mind that internal entities who are subsidiary in this incarnation may have been primary in previous lives, i.e. the centre of the ego self.

Sat Sri Akaal - Truth is Eternal

 

[Luminessence]

I'm usually a woman in my dreams, but occasionally I'm a man. It's never an important issue in my dreams, though.

 

[Sophie-David]

I'm usually a woman in my dreams, but occasionally I'm a man. It's never an important issue in my dreams, though.

Hi Luminessence

Thank you for responding. When you say its not an important issue, do you mean it just seems very natural to you to dream in the other gender, not a big deal? In contrast to my experience where I have a strong positive emotional response to being in the other consciousness?

Blessings - David

 

[blackroseivy]

I have dreamed that I am male.

 

[MCsea]

Appologies for the delayed response - you ask
"I was just curious how you recognize that you are working with past life memories. Is there an obvious tipoff, is it something you connect to your conscious experiences, or a strong emotional response: you just know? When I dream of - or as - the Inner Beloveds I don't always recognize them within the dream, but when I wake up there's that strong emotional response - I just know. It has also crossed my mind that internal entities who are subsidiary in this incarnation may have been primary in previous lives, i.e. the centre of the ego self. Sat Sri Akaal - Truth is Eternal"

Two ways, one is I have a purpose - a misson to delve into a past life, I meditate and 'work' on opening up a memory, it takes anything from a day to a month, I have a 'dream' like state, a very real dream and on waking as you said the feelings are more than intense, its confusing and very very emotional, I have learnt not to judge that probably was the big thing - anyway the other is a dream that on waking I realise there was more to the dream than a dream and usually then delve into my past life memory ritual..



I always feel like me, even in a differnt body, like I know everything is in Divine order or something - no worries - till I wake up!

thanks for asking

Marina