Research case · Nature & weather
Grocery Shopping with My Mother
Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
I was thinking about, I think I was in a grocery store, like either whole foods or something with a green logo, maybe fresh market, I was talking to my mom. Umm... I can't remember what I was saying, I think we might have been talking about what we were gonna get, and that's all I can remember.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- Zhang & Wamsley 2019 dream EEG reports — krank curated text-only release v1 — Jing Zhang and Erin J. Wamsley (research); Erin Wamsley, Jing Zhang and Megan Collins (archive); Remington Mallett / krank (text curation), 2019 study; 2025 curated release. Curated text-only release, de-identified report 286
- Record type
- Research case
- Place
- Not stated · American
- Date
- Date unknown · contemporary study
- Uncertainty
- Moderate — De-identified sleep-mentation report; the source does not establish a calendar dream date. Chinese title and translation are AI-generated editorial drafts, not human-verified.
- Imagery
- Food · Mother
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Food
Were you eating, being fed, or watching others eat? Had you eaten, or gone without, before you slept?
Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture
In prison Pharaoh’s baker dreams of three white baskets of bakemeats on his head, from which the birds eat. Joseph reads the baskets as three days, within which Pharaoh will lift up his head and hang him on a tree; on the third day “he hanged the chief baker”.
Genesis 40:16–22 (King James Version)
Psychoanalysis Depth psychology
Freud described a dream he could bring on at will: after salted food such as anchovies and olives, he dreamed he was drinking deeply, then woke thirsty. He called it a “dream of convenience”, a dream that substitutes for getting up.
Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), ch. III (Brill trans.)
Mother
Was this your own mother as you know her, or someone in her place? What did she do or say?
Jung · The mother archetype
Jung first reads a dreamed mother on the “objective level” — your real mother and your relationship. Only then on the “subjective level”: the mother archetype, which he described as both nourishing and devouring.
C. G. Jung, “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype”, Collected Works 9i
Early dream research & psychology Dream research
Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.
Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)
Myth & scripture (several traditions) Myth & scripture
Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.
Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- Strawberries, huckleberries, omelette Vienna, Austria · c. 1897
- Preparing Barbecue with Two Friends Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
- A melon in winter, still in his hand Northern Wei China · c. 500 (Northern Wei)
- Glass after glass of champagne England · before 1911
- A melon sweeter than any Luoyang, China · c. 60 CE (as told)
- A miracle drug called selvdrolla England · before 1911