Recurring dream: Saboteur

[Korpo]

This one I had already at another night. I think I am mostly watching this one from "outside", but I also take various roles in it.

There is a corporation, who is totally into monitoring their employees. All kinds of angles of every room are watched by cameras. Even the toilets. And I think they analyse the pee, too. And they are really that paranoid, too. It's part of their philosophy.

And then there is this saboteur. He strikes at will. He will walk into one of their rooms, outsmart the cameras so they can never track him when reviewing the tapes later on, and starts to sabotage their security. Tampering with devices, sabotaging stuff. I think in the first dream I was one of the technicians reviewing the tapes, commenting on how well the saboteur did.

This afternoon I had the same dream setting again. I think part of this dream I was the saboteur, and it felt so satisfying. Sabotaging things, and watching later on how people go ballistic about it, how they basically destroy a full room of equipment because one device has been tampered with, at the same time going crazy about the cost of the equipment. It seems like the whole dream over I was devising better and bigger schemes to maximise damage to the company. I was kinda approaching this like a computer game, like "Splinter Cell" or whatever.

I don't know what this is about. My company does not do drug testing, I don't think it is usual over here. Most kind of monitoring is prohibited unless it is clearly visible, everybody is informed and no one's privacy is violated. So I don't think this is in any way related to my real work.

I really don't know what this is about.

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

When you walk outside of the 'company', do you see another landscape? How recurrent has this dream been?

[Korpo]

I never was outside of it. I am aware of at least another occasion, but when waking up from it today it either must have been a series of similar-themed dreams, or I must have had more of them than I remember when awake. I just seem to remember there were many variations of the same dream.

The day before yesterday we watched this time-travel movie, "Somewhere in Time". It is about a man (Christopher Reeve) who hypnotises himself to travel back in time to meet the love of his life (Jane Seymour). I dreamed all night about that movie again and again. That actually might have contained some interesting information, but I was so unnerved by the topic repeating over and over that I forgot all about it and only remember the feeling of annoyance. I felt like I "missed" a full night of dreams because of that movie, but I guess it would be more true to say I missed the messages of a full night of dreams because I dismissed the chosen topic. :?

Oliver

[Beekeeper]

If this were my dream, Oliver, I'd be inclined to see the company as an aspect of my life. I'd see all players in the dream and even the setting as aspects of myself. I'd be asking myself what it is about the "company" as it is that I don't like and why I'm taking pleasure in sabotaging it. In your dream you see sabotage as satisfying so there's a good chance that this sabotage isn't exactly a negative behaviour.

The exercise at http://www.dreamyoga.com/sample.html might be useful to you.

[Korpo]

Oh, I feel quite justified during the dream. It is the controlling, paranoid behaviour of the company itself that rubs me the wrong way. How it tries to control every aspect, leaving no place for the employees to behave like human beings, confining them to roles or functions, in effect dehumanizing them.

That's actually what I got from the other employees when being the saboteur. They are basically brainwashed into thinking along the company rules, where they are so afraid they can no longer risk violating the rules, and even seeing someone else violate the rules sends them into panic mode.

In this dream I am opposed to this atmosphere of fear and paranoia and what people it creates.

Oliver

[Korpo]

I wonder if the company is my ego, and I'm "undermining" it. I sometimes feel like I am in my own way, and that fears emanating from my ego hold me back. Maybe that's why I have two different viewpoints in the dream - a saboteur who sneaks in and enacts change, and in the other one an operator observing the saboteur. Different levels of consciousness? Sounds a bit weird as explanation.

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

Sounds logical to me. Only I'd substitute 'Id' for 'ego'. The ego gets such a bad rap these days. :D

[Korpo]

:lol:

Oliver

[Palehorse Redivivus]

Well, whatever the dream might mean for you personally, I definitely would think it's a message from your Saboteur archetype. Without knowing specifically what aspect of your life is being referred to, symbolically I would say it has something to do with his dislike of overly restricting rules and regs, a mischevious joy in subverting them, and a love of freedom and self-determination. If you've cast an Archetypal Wheel I'd be interested in knowing where your Saboteur falls... might well give insight on the specifics of this one.

Until then, the question I would ask would be -- is there some area where you're feeling like your self-determination / expression is being overly restricted, maybe even self-restricted?

From a Gnostic-influenced perspective, I'd agree that the ego (represented by the Demiurge) is a good place to look. The ego / Demiurge in its base form is a control freak god of rules, regulations and laws, out of a desire for security and a fear of change. Free people don't necessarily need those and naturally react against them, especially when they become too overbearing and intrustive. When you're free and sovereign, you don't need to be told what to think, how to express yourself and act -- your concept of what's right is derived internally via self-knowledge. Sudden thought, but this dream may be a prod to examine what parts of yourself and your "code of conduct" are someone else's idea of "the way things should be" that you picked up via social conditioning or seeking the approval of others, and which parts are truly grounded in your own nature. Given that the symbolism involves a repressive company, I would say it involves security issues -- i.e. people submitting to any restriction or indignity for a paycheck, out of the need for security. Are there any areas where your desire for security and stability is causing you to compromise your true values?

[Korpo]

You mean like working a job I'm not "very enthusiastic about" for the money? ;)

Takes 11 or 12 hours out of my day through commuting and everything. :?

What is an archetype wheel?

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

Isn't that the list of archetypes he posted in another post somewhere else? And if he didn't, maybe he could make one for us and show us how to use it? Once the dust has cleared, so to speak. :wink:

[Palehorse Redivivus]

I think I may have went into this a bit before, but I don't remember where or what I said, so I'll give the shpiel again, lol...

The archetypal wheel is from Carolin Myss' book "Sacred Contracts." You start with the first four survival archs common to everybody (the Child, Prostitute, Saboteur and Victim) and then pick 8 more that you feel relate to aspects of your character. Those are randomly shuffled and placed on a wheel, the wedges of which correspond to areas of life, like home and family, relationships, highest potential, etc, and also correspond to the zodiac. From there you can use the wheel as a tool to gain insight on which archetypes are dominant and how their energies are influencing various areas of your life, in order to make them work with you, rather than against. I've found it to be a useful tool, and the way the wheel came out fit me pretty well.

Most of the important how-to content from the book is posted on her site...

http://myss.com/library/contracts/


You mean like working a job I'm not "very enthusiastic about" for the money?

Yeah, something like that could be it... even if the IRL employer isn't particularly repressive, if you feel like it's exerting more control over more areas of your life than you're comfortable with, the symbolism would still fit IMO. If you think that may be what's being indicated, I'd suggest maybe before going to sleep, tell Sabby "alright, you've gotten my attention; now what do you suggest I DO about it? Gimme some options, man!" :D

[CFTraveler]

Thanks for posting it again. I've bookmarked it this time.
:)

[Beekeeper]

Me too, sounds interesting.

[Palehorse Redivivus]

You're both welcome! :)

As the Saboteur has been one of the trickier archetypes (surprise surprise) to figure out what to DO with for me, I've been thinking on him a lot lately, and I think I may be onto something here. Thinking on this dream of yours Oliver, has actually helped me piece together more info on this for my own benefit, so I'm glad you posted. :) So, for the benefit of anybody else in a wrestling match with Sabby at the moment, heh...

Myss defines it primarily as being tied into areas of self-sabotage, which IMO is true but overly simplistic. I see the Saboteur a lot like a hacker, and the "software" he's targetting is your life. If there's an exploit, vulnerability, imbalance or area where you're not being true to yourself, he WILL find it and direct your attention to it one way or another. How he does so depends a lot on how integrated he is, whether he's operating out of his light or shadow side, and how aware you are of your own personal responsibility. It can be a valuable service, in the sense of pointing out areas of concern you might never know about otherwise, though before being integrated he can also make life pretty rocky. Unfortunately "drawing our attention" in those cases can be a matter of "let's see how bad things can get before you sit up and take notice, and figure out what changes to make." People operating with the Shadow Saboteur may have a very negative outlook, and unconsciously sabotage the good things in their lives... they suffer from feelings of guilt, feel undeserving, or are afraid of success because of the changes it requires. Ideally the Saboteur is an agent of change leading to realizing our highest potential, through suggesting and then forcing the issue, though at his worst he can do real damage that hinders progress. Before I became aware of any of this for instance, mine was operating in such a way where he'd just skip straight to blowing up parts of my personal life with no prior warning, leaving me to both try and piece together what the pre-existing issue was and fix that after the fact, while cleaning up the real life mess, hopefully before he did it again with something else, heh. I'm pretty sure we're on better terms now. :P That's not to say there won't be the occasional explosion even still, as I was inspired to realize by this quote on the mainpage:

Enlightenment is a staggered process that can be likened to hopping through life on stepping stones surrounded by landmines, while not realizing that you actually need to hit a mine once in a while to make any real kind of progress.

...But when those happen, in my experience it's more like a "controlled crisis" where you're not in actual danger, but you don't know that until after the fact, and it's useful for building character and learning about yourself under apparently dire circumstances.

So Oliver, hopefully this gives some insight on the nature of the energies and influences at work with this crazy character, lol. It sounds like yours is pretty well integrated already if you're getting dreams with a positive vibe, though IMO it definitely indicates something to look at and resolve one way or another before it gets to the "real life explodey" stage.

[Korpo]

Thanks, PaleHorse. :D

Mine knows what he is doing, it seems. He focusses indeed on a weak link, but I don't think "I" share "his" plan of what to do... ;)

Good info indeed! :D

Oliver

[CFTraveler]

Enlightenment is a staggered process that can be likened to hopping through life on stepping stones surrounded by landmines, while not realizing that you actually need to hit a mine once in a while to make any real kind of progress.

Ha ha I got a mental picture of the landmine as the proverbial rocket in your butt that propels you forward.

Sabottoogie-our.
Excuse the weird sense of humor, I'm a little sleep deprived these days.