Dreams about celebrities are a common theme at bedtime. If you or a loved one has been covering this ground at night, you may have questions about what it all might mean. As part of a Huffington Post series on dreams and their meanings, we spoke to Shelley Smith, behavioral therapist and founding director of the Yoga Health & Therapy Center in Lexington, Ky., to get expert advice about the meanings of your or your loved one’s dreams about celebrities. Note: While dream analysis is highly subjective, this post might provide some insight into why this dream occurred or is recurring.
What do dreams about celebrities mean?According to Smith, "Celebrities typically, in our culture and worldwide, portray and carry some kind of message that's associated with personal accomplishment or lack thereof. A person dreaming about [a celebrity] is seeking inspiration ... or some characteristic that is associated with that celebrity."
What can I learn about myself from dreaming about this subject?"We can gain insight into the characteristics we seek," says Smith. "For example, a female who has been feeling like she's overly submissive, she may dream about being a male celebrity, that hero archetype. Upon waking, she may have a glimpse of that dream, of that hero, the feeling of adoration and the energy of inspiration. The waking ego will integrate that hero energy that she brought up from her own adoration, and she may feel some calming balance."
Are there any tricks to avoiding or inducing dreams about celebrities?"That's one of the features of dream images, they are not under our control. ... All those dream images are self-created," says Smith. The meanings of the images in our dreams are very individualized. According to Smith, "Your experience while you're sleeping is coming from a place that's totally and utterly unconscious."
Beyond analysis, what cultural symbolism can be found in dreams about celebrities?"The dream images can represent an archetypal image, or collective unconscious, where a scene is typical to human experience, like we all know what a celebrity is. Jung called them all the collective unconscious tales and myths that deal with human existence," says Smith.
Who tends to have dreams about this subject most frequently?"There is no one group we can say has this particular dream more than another," he says. "The image is energetic, and is specific to what the person's need is. For example, accomplishment, health, empowerment, rising to the top, whatever is associated with that celebrity."
How do we learn the most from our dreams about celebrities?According to Smith, "The people who pay attention to their dreams are going to get a lot out of their dreams, no matter what. ... But the psychological growth that comes from opening it, seeing the meaning, feeling the narrative, and reflecting on it in that meditative way -- active imagination, Jung called it -- is how we get the symbolic message that can be so varied on a personal level."
Shelley Smith is a behavioral therapist with more than 30 years of professional experience. She has a bachelor's from Indiana University (cum laude), and is a registered yoga therapist and a certified teacher trainer. She developed the Yoga Health & Therapy Center's Creative Dream Work Program, which emphasizes the use of "Active Imagination" (a Jungian approach) to unlock memories, reactions, and talents stored energetically in the body's tissues.