Research case · Light & dark
I had swallowed molten lead
United States · before 1911
a young lady who dreamed she had swallowed molten lead, though quite well on awaking, was attacked by severe tonsilitis toward midday.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. The World of Dreams
- Rights
- Public domain (US)
- Record type
- Research case
- Place
- United States · American
- Date
- before 1911
- Uncertainty
- Moderate — Reported in Havelock Ellis’s study of dreams.
- Imagery
- Fire · A stranger
- Feelings
- Horror · Fear
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Dreamers often report vivid light, shadow and colour. Ellis observed that vision dominates dreams even though the eyes are closed; some later writers treat light and dark as figures for knowing and not-knowing.
Ellis (1911), ch. IV
Mythological
Sun, moon and stars bow to Joseph in his dream; across cultures celestial lights mark rank, destiny and the order of the cosmos.
Genesis 37
Chinese traditions
The moon in Chinese poetry is a shared light across distance — the same moon seen by people far apart — which is why it appears so often in dreams of absent loved ones.
Su Shi; Du Fu
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- A shirt washed clean by fire Wu, China · 3rd century (Wu)
- A spirit passed before my face Land of Uz · undated narrative
- Cut in two down the middle United States · before 1911
- Father, don’t you see that I am burning? Central Europe · before 1900
- A fire in a hotel in a strange city Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1913
- Swallowing a burned book of Go Chang’an, China · c. 873