Lately I've been having a series of recurring dreams. Well, not exactly recurring, since the details vary. But the essence of the dreams remains the same. The latest one, which was one of the most vivid, can serve as a good example.
In this dream I found myself in a large airliner, like a 747, with many other passengers. The plane landed in a peculiar way. It descended to a very low altitude, barely above street level, and whisked down residential streets. In some dreams, I've found this alarming; in the latest one, I found it kind of exhilarating. The other passengers never seem to be very disturbed.
After landing, I disembarked with the rest of the passengers and found myself in a very large luxury hotel. In other dreams, the environment has varied somewhat. Sometimes it's a large complex in the midst of an absolutely flat, treeless plain stretching in all directions, with the tall futuristic spires of a city in the far distance. At other times, the complex seems to be located on an island. In this case, it was in a tropical setting, which was variously identified (by people I talked to) as Hawaii, someplace called "MacArthur, California,"* and the Aleutian Islands.
The hotel was very nice, but I didn't have a room and was unable to check in. No one else seemed to be having any difficulties. I found this frustrating and disturbing.
At a certain point, I must have become at least somewhat aware that I was dreaming, because I told myself that my own negative attitude was affecting the narrative. I decided to think positive thoughts, believing that in this way I would be able to check in. At first, my plan seemed to work; when I returned to the lobby, I found a clerk waiting for me, smiling and offering to get me a room. I felt pleased at having found a way out of my conundrum. But alas, I was unable to complete the check-in process, because the hotel wouldn't accept my credit card! So apparently there were limits to how big an impact I could have on the storyline, no matter how positive I tried to be.
Much of this dream, like the others, consisted of my wandering throughout the building and trying to figure out what to do, where to go, and how to get home. Though the dreams are not exactly nightmares, they can be unsettling.
Now for my interpretation. Of course, there are endless ways of explaining this sort of dream. But given my interest in out-of-body experiences and life after death, I gravitate toward this one:
While asleep, I'm exploring the astral plane. The plane ride represents my transition from the earthly realm to the spirit world. The other passengers are the souls of recently deceased people.
The luxury hotel or other complex is a way station used by the deceased to help them become acclimated to their new existence. I should mention that in one of the dreams, one floor of the complex was a hospital ward, presumably for traumatized souls requiring rest and recuperation.
I don't have a room, cannot check in, and don't know what I'm doing there because I don't really belong there. Unlike the rest of the guests, I'm not actually dead. And on some level, I know I don't belong there, because I have a strong desire to go home – i.e., to return to the earthly realm.
Being out of place, I wander around, feeling lost. My ability to control the situation is limited, even when I slip into a state similar to lucid dreaming. No matter what I do, I can't check in.
As I said, many interpretations are possible. And even if my analysis of the dream is correct, it doesn't mean I've actually visited a five-star astral hotel. The whole thing could be the imaginative product of the reading I've done on the subject.
Or maybe I really am exploring a way station in the astral realm, in which case it seems very nice … assuming you can get a room!
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*As it turns out, there is a McArthur, California, population 338. I'd never heard of it. I suspect the reference in my dream has something to do with MacArthur Park in L.A.