Dream -- I'm in a dark shopping mall...

[luminescent]

I had a dream the night after a frightening incident, that left a strong impression on me.  I have an idea what some of it means but I would love to have other input.  Here it is:I'm in a place like a shopping mall.  I'm on an upper floor, near an escalator, when I realize everyone is leaving and the place is closing for the night.  The guy closing turns off the lights leaving only emergency lighting.  It's impossible for the person furthest inside building to get all the way out the door and for the closing-up-guy to turn out the lights before I've even begun to move, but somehow that's what's happened.  The closing up process has barely begun before -- zip -- it's ending.  I shout "Hey, wait!" and leap up onto the railing, about to jump one story down, and my concsious (real, awake me) thought is "I can't do that without hurting myself."  However, in the dream, I leap over anyway, and land cat-like on the floor below, completely unharmed and even unjarred.I zoom toward the exit, which is a series of glass doors that are frosted (so that i can't see out).  I kick and bang on the first door, hoping to get the locking-up-guy's attention before he gets to his car.  The sound of my kicking and banging is strangely very quiet and muted.  I'm not scared, I feel determination and calculation.  I move to the next door -- I kick and bang with the same results.  The locking-up-guy is long gone, having moved away from the building as if by magic.I suddenly see a woman outside, coming toward the door/window.  I am able to see through the glass that I'm banging on at this point, as if the frosted-ness has melted mostly away like a heater was turned on and the frost had been real ice.  She is waving hello/goodbye.  She's not looking at me -- she's waving to someone behind me.  It's dark and rainy outside, I see the rain running down the window and glistening on the sidewalk and pavement.As I'm kicking and banging on the door/window, she sees me, gives me a disapproving/angry look, turns, and leaves.  I notice that I have no interest in her opinion of me.However, as I realize that she is waving to someone inside, I whirl around to catch that person.  Again, time seems distorted because I see her look disapproving and leave, even though I whipped around immediately after I saw her wave.Conscious me (real, awake me) thinks "I should feel scared now," and yet I don't.When I whirl around, I see a tall man dressed in a long tailed red suit and red hat, reminding me of the Dick Tracy movie.  He is supernaturally tall -- seven feet.  He has no face.  I see only red suit and red hat, no hands or anything other than the color red.  I lunge determinedly and agressively toward him to grab him, but he starts with surprise, whirls, and quickly disappears in to the shadows as I bullet after him.  I awaken abruptly.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Things that may or may not be significant, in the days prior to the dream:That day I discovered that a person that I recently met is clearly strongly dissociative, anywhere from extrememly frustrating to outright dangerous.  I'm currently financially entangled with this person, and I felt devastated, terrified -- and -- alternately felt competent to handle the situation.  I went to sleep with the intention of inspecting my dreams for useful info regarding this incident.  (I'm female and so is that person, if it helps any)The evening before the dream (but after the alarming incident), I started following links semi-randomly and ended up reading a long Lloyd deMause article from his Origins of War in Child Abuse, referencing the Killer Mother.  Did not find it encouraging. :)I have no affinity for (or opinion about) the Dick Tracy movie, and I'm not sure that I've even seen it.  I think of the yellow suit as being plastic, or very smooth, but I'm not even sure I've got the right movie.  "Dick Tracy" is just what came to mind when I wanted to describe it.Er, the red suit does not look like Santa Claus.These made a strong impression on me:  - A podcast where the listener mentions a dream that contains a possible "true self" image.  I had the thought that I would like to have such a dream.- The sixth part of Venkat Rao's Gervais Principle article (At Ribbonfarm.com -- the article analyzes the basic structural dynamics of organizations in terms of the characters in the american version of the TV show The Office).  [Doesn't seem relevant to me though]These seemed to stand out in my experience:  - Surrealism in painting -- I started to get a feel for how it's representational of dreams, rather than just intellectually knowing it.  Rene Magrite's "The Pilgrim" is just a suit and a hat and no head at all (somewhat like my dream image).  - The phrase Red Queen popped up twice.  I don't remember in reference to what either time.Thank you for any help you can give!  It would be delightful if this dream could help tell me what I should do about my new alarming Situation.  Unfortunately my intuition seems to say Just Step Lightly Off the Ledge into the Abyss, whereas any way that I can calculate it intellectually says Run Like Heck.  I think my intuition in this case might be a Simon-the-Boxer in disguise...?Argh.

[thornyd]

I was surprised when you said you lunged at the man in the red suit. Were you startled by him which caused you to lash out - was he threatening or something? What would have happened if you didn't chase him into the shadows?

I feel like I could come up with a million things that the dream could mean, but I don't know if that would be very helpful. It sure sounds like very poignant dream though.

[luminescent]

 

I was surprised when you said you lunged at the man in the red suit.

 

 

You pinpointed one of the most bizarre things -- I didn't even know that I was going to lunge at him.  In the dream I seem to have thoughts that are mine, but the dream me is ignoring them and taking actions that have nothing to do with what I'm thinking. 

If I hadn't chased him, is a question I hadn't contemplated before -- interesting.  I was focused on wondering what would have happened if I had caught him.  What would I want with a seven-foot tall empty red suit, haha.  I guess the more accurate question is, what was I expecting to acomplish?  Only I know that for sure... and I don't know!  This is one of those times when I wish it was a movie clip that I could watch again to see if I missed anything.

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[_LiveFree_]

 

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_(Through_the_Looking-Glass)

 

 

Maybe a good place to look ,  especially since you were "Through the Looking-Glass" in your dream (banging on the glass doors), and the Red Queen (even though it was a faceless dude! lol) moved swiftly away from you. It seems, Alice, that your subconscious is trying to tell you you're not out of Wonderland yet (maybe even for just one particular instance or delusion that still remains). Maybe the swiftness of the closing of the mall means you have far less time to rid yourself of whatever delusion you're holding onto before you can't get out.

[]Good luck! and please follow up if you have any other related dreams or real life stuff happen.