Underwater Secrets

The dream today has me a young man again. I have gone into business with enterprising young teenage woman. She has created a business in which she harvests natural medicinal plants grown in remote wild or secret locations. Many of these plants are rare and she has a knack for finding them. Some of these plants she intentionally cultivates in secret places as they will only thrive in a wild natural environment  and cannot be grown using traditional farming methods.


One of these secret locations turns out to be underwater and she, and I, must use scuba gear to regularly reach it, and harvest these tiny golf ball size growths. What they might be I have no clue, but doctors will create some kind of medicine from them. The problem is these plants are underwater near some secret government facility. The area is restricted, of course, and it is in fact illegal to go there. The young woman and I defy the law, and accept the risk of getting caught. We reason that it is more moral to help to save lives with the medicine created from these plants than to heed any concerns that some government agency might have about preserving it's secret activities.


In the dream the young woman and I are gathering some of these unusual underwater plants when we are discovered by a lone government agent diver. The girl makes a run for it and I decide to lead him away from her to allow her to escape. He then becomes relentless in trying to capture me. I am a much stronger swimmer than he is and I manage to get far ahead of him. I am able to leave the water and, I am now on the island of the top secret government facility, with this agent chasing me like a possessed mad man. He has now alerted the rest of the security personnel and everyone has been mobilized to hunt me down. Somehow, I am able to elude and evade them all. I have run in a big circle back to water. I slide down a muddy steep bank into the water with them shooting at me as I swim clean away and make good my escape. The agent who discovered us is furious and seems determined not to give up. He will do anything to capture or kill the young woman and I. This is when I wake up.

This dream speaks to some deep unconscious desire for altruism and idealism. This all brings to mind something I studied at university. I took a psychology course and learned about Lawrence Kohlberg's
theory of the stages of moral development. Kohlberg used stories to illustrate his theory. He was looking at trying to explain the development of moral reasoning and how it relates to ethical behaviour, and how individuals will respond when faced with a moral dilemma.

My dream partner and I have reasoned that it is more morally correct to violate federal law if it means saving lives. The core of my being agrees with this in principle and it is acted out in my dream. Would I do such a thing in my waking life if I found myself in similar circumstances? Honestly, I don't know. I am inclined to think I would. Although I have been classical conditioned, by my military training, to follow regulation. I confess that my internal idealism has overturned this programing on many occasions. This might explain why my military career was not hugely successful and I was forced to retire early.

The water again is a reoccurring symbol and speaks about emotion. My moral reasoning is an outgrowth of my emotional self. My idealism does override my intellect very often. I can be an idealistic rebel at times.

The government diver is my adversary. He is the authority figure who thinks he is more morally superior than I. He wants to please his boss and prove he is the better man. He thinks simply in terms of black and white and follows the letter of the law. I, however, consider the greater good. I have a more broader perspective than him and place a higher value on human life than him.

This dream is very taxing on my energy level. These sorts of things drain me. I find the process of making decisions, especially moral ones, requires a lot of thinking and feeling, and I rely on my intuition heavily before I act. I have to thoroughly consider everything from every angle before I decide to act. It is interesting when I dream to see how my unconscious self behaves in these scenarios. My unconscious seems more authentic, acts with out overthinking it and lets the chips fall where they may. What a contrast to how I behave when I am conscious.

This dream gives me much food for thought. I often wonder if I could ever integrate what I learn about myself from my dream life into my conscious waking life and  would it be good to do so. There would be some strange and/or serious consequences to doing such a thing. This is another rabbit hole that I will forever be pondering about.