Presidential dreams

Local woman’s Obama visions undergo an expert’s scrutiny

Jaclyn Youhana

The Journal Gazette

"Which one should I start with?" Kim Siratei wondered in her e-mail. The Fort Wayne woman was responding to a call for dreams of Barack Obama.

She's had at least three.

I Dream of Barack is a blog that features dreams people have had about the president. Sheila Heti, who edits the blog, is putting together a book about Obama dreams because, she noticed, they seemed common.

New York Times columnist Judith Warner noted the same trend in a February column.

What is it about Obama that lends itself to dreamland?

Robert Van de Castle, a dream expert and former director of the Sleep and Dream Research Laboratory at the University of Virginia Medical Center, worked with Heti on dreams she has collected, and he analyzed them.

"Obama is certainly a wonderful symbol representative for many, many unfinished global issues," Van de Castle says. "He's not just one point of view. In some ways, he's kind of a

universal solvent for whatever it is we're concerned with" - money, health, threats to individual livelihoods, threats to the nation, family values.

On a more personal level, his relationship with first lady Michelle gets a lot of news coverage, and that can find itself in dreams representing female energy, women not getting equal pay for equal work and, of course, that whole sexy thing Obama's got going on.

These dreams absolutely have meaning, Van de Castle says.

"When (people ask), 'Do you really think dreams mean anything?' (I think), 'Do you really think we should eat food?' " he says.

He listened to Siratei's dreams and shared his thoughts behind their meaning. But he made one thing clear: He can only interpret dreams based on his own feelings. He would have to know a person to know for sure what a dream might mean.

Consider a dream where someone is at the top of a mountain. Depending on the dreamer, one might feel success at reaching the top, while another might be scared that he'll fall off.

"For one person, it's a triumph," Van de Castle says. "For another, it's abject fear."

Here are three of Siratei's dreams about Obama and Van de Castle's interpretations of them:

Dream No. 1: I had one where I was in my dining room and my front door opened and in walked (Obama's) youngest daughter with Barack and Michelle following. When Barack saw me, he said "Hey, cousin." Then I said "Hey!" Then he gave me a hug. Then Michelle said, "Hey, cousin" to me and also gave me a hug.

Right off from my living room is a den where my kids put their toys, and Barack took his coat and his daughter's coat and was heading for that room. I knew the room was a mess, so I tried to get the coats from him, but he said to me, "This is where I always put the coats." So I let him put the coats in there.

My mind starting thinking that I had better call my mom to let her know that the Obamas were there, so I started looking for my phone, and for some reason I was unable to find it. I then thought that they must have come over to eat, so I went into the kitchen to see about some food and found that the oven was filled with food.

Analysis: Siratei's dream suggests a feeling of some distance from the presidency, Van de Castle says; however, Obama's reaction to her is one of acceptance - that she shouldn't feel the need to impress him and that he doesn't care if her place is messy.

He thinks that in her dream, Siratei might have felt she was going to be rejected and that her offerings wouldn't be enough, but food magically manifested itself.

"I see it as a dream of hope and affirmation," Van de Castle says.

"If I look at it in terms of personal dynamic, 'I put myself down. I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy enough,' but lo and behold, that's not how I'm viewed by the highest authority in the land. I'm accepted."

Van de Castle guessed that Siratei is black because of the Obamas' use of "cousin" and that she is younger than 35, because so many young people turned out in support of Obama. He was half right: She is black and 43 years old.

"If it were my dream, it'd be a wonderful and uplifting dream," he says. "I'm coming out smelling pretty good and looking pretty good."

Dream No. 2: Another dream was the Obamas and I were in a hotel room getting ready for bed, and for some reason, I thought about the first dream that I had and was going to tell them about the "cousin dream," not knowing that I was currently dreaming. Anyway, we were in this hotel room just casually talking about nothing in particular, and I kept trying to tell them about my dream because I thought they would get a kick out of it, but I wasn't able to tell them.

Analysis: Often, women's dreams will involve bedroom scenes, Van de Castle says, because "there's a lot of dreams where (Obama's) a real sexy dude."

This doesn't seem to be the case in this dream, he says. However, a bedroom still suggests a feeling of intimacy and comfort. At this level, things get beyond the superficial, and Siratei finds herself wanting to share something humorous.

Dream No. 3: There was one where Barack was in this place where people were being ushered in to shake his hand, and I was one of the people doing the ushering. There was a break in the crowd, and so I sat down with him, and he was eating barbecue ribs that were quite messy and licking his fingers. I laughed because he seemed so normal. He asked me what was funny, and I just said that he was not what I expected. He said, "I get that reaction from a lot of people." Then he just smiled.

Analysis: "He sort of hits three home runs in her dreams," he says. "All of her dreams are fantastic. Here, it's finger-lickin' good."

In all three, Siratei has a personal level of interaction with Obama, Van de Castle says. In the first, she is apprehensive, but things turn out well. In the second, she is less apprehensive, but she wants to share with him and hope he finds her story amusing.

One thing that struck Van de Castle is that Siratei's dreams don't project anything huge onto Obama. He's not 10 feet tall, nor does he give her a million dollars.

After interpreting her dreams, he asked whether Siratei had worked on Obama's campaign. In fact, Siratei doesn't consider herself to be political at all, she says, and the 2008 election was the first one she followed.

Maybe, Van de Castle says, she should work on the Obama campaign in the future.

jyouhana@jg.net

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