What up, my daydreaming compatriots, and welcome back to Pillow Talk, the one and only column where a random communication major gives loosely qualified interpretations of your most intimate fantasies… (I’d like to thank The Stanford Daily for granting me this platform.)

Today, I want to talk about something dangerous: car crashes. In the past week alone, two of my friends independently told me about dreams they had where they got into car accidents. So, I’ve been wondering: what could the symbol of a car crash possibly mean in our unconscious sleepy imaginations?

Cars frequently pop up in dream images. Being vehicles of motion, they can signify control over the direction of one’s life. In a car, you travel along a certain road, going forward rather than stagnating, which may represent movement in one’s personal journey towards a goal. We have already seen this idea at work in my second article, which detailed Ananya’s dream of driving on a road trip.

So, how should we interpret a dream of a car crash? What happens when the metaphorical road trip doesn’t just go awry but up in flames? Let’s take a look at a dream from my friend London, who recently graduated from Florida State University: 

“I was driving a car down the highway and out of nowhere got into a dramatic car crash that flipped my car multiple times and left me very injured on the side of the road. I then spent the next two years recovering in a hospital after having extensive surgery and attempting to rebuild my whole life from scratch. I lost relationships with friends and family, my academic progress, etc.

All of a sudden, I woke up in a cold-looking room with only a bed and sink. Think: a jail cell but slightly nicer. I called my mom’s phone number and she said, ‘I thought I told them to stop allowing any more calls,’ and it turned out I had been in a mental hospital since the car crash happened and had severe psychosis. I was now 33 (I don’t know why that number specifically) and had gone through the cycle of reliving the fake hospital recovery experience over and over again for 11 years. Then, I woke up.”

If we take driving a car as a symbol of having control over the direction of your life, then London’s car crash might signify a major shift in his life direction. Interestingly enough, the morning after he dreamt this dream, London (who recently graduated from college in December) was accepted into a very reputable law school. To me, the timing makes too much sense to not be connected in some way. 

I think London’s dream symbolizes a period of starting over. He gets in this huge crash — a major shake up — and must recover in not just any hospital, but a mental hospital. Perhaps this is symbolic of fostering a new mind state from scratch. In the dream, London lost all his relationships and academic progress. Additionally, he undergoes psychosis, a process where he abandons what he thought was true and what he previously perceived as reality, creating a new understanding of life. All these symbols point to a clear reset. It is remarkable to me that this dream also coincides with London getting accepted into the next stage of his life: law school.

In the dream, London finds himself in a jail cell. He is isolated, confined and not allowed to call his mom. To me, this symbolizes another part of his growth: becoming a self-sufficient adult. By his mother’s own request, he can’t contact her anymore and is forbidden from asking for her advice or help; rebuilding this new life is his task alone. 

The most amazing part of this dream is his new age: 33. It is an oddly specific number. However, if we recall major symbols in Western mythology (which often permeate dreams regardless of a dreamer’s religion), we might remember that 33 is the exact age Jesus was when he was crucified and later resurrected. How crazy! The number may suggest that London is undergoing his own personal death and resurrection — an internal sort of rebirth. 

To me, the appearance of this number is an example of Carl Jung’s hypothesis that dream images are often analogous to religious rites, myths and symbolism. The imagery in London’s dream suggests that a child version of London’s self is dying, and he is being symbolically reborn as an adult. 

There is another interesting symbolic element at play in London’s dream, too: cycles. In the dream, cycles come up multiple times: his car flips over repeatedly, and he is caught up in a literal vicious cycle of psychosis. Cycles are very often connected to the idea of rebirth, being the final integral step in the circle of life (birth, death and rebirth). So, the repeated prevalence of cycles might further support the hypothesis that London’s dream reflects a sort of personal rebirth — killing off the child and becoming an independent adult. 

London told me that since graduating, he has been reflecting a lot on his newfound independence and anxiety about getting into law school. His dream coinciding directly with his acceptance letter is truly amazing (and perhaps a bit spooky, too.) Regardless of whether you believe in these otherworldly coincidences or not, to me, this dream is a primary example of just how timely and relevant dreams can be to your current state of mind. 

Anyway, that’s all for today’s issue! If you have any weird, quirky dreams and are desperately seeking clarification, feel free to email it to levilebo@stanford.edu. Until next time, good luck with your own personal rebirths, safe driving and sweet dreams.