What does this dream mean? Finding a corpse?
In the dream, my mum, and younger brother and I were in my bedroom just talking. My brother suddenly confessed that he had found a dead body buried in our garden. I said "Are you serious???" and my mum said "Oh no, not another one…" like this was just an annoying nuisance. My brother told us he had dug it up a few days ago by accident, but wasn’t sure what to do so didn’t tell us. We went out into the front garden, and the hedge that separates my house from the neighbour’s house was half gone, and there was a shallow grave there instead. I could see a decaying, blackened body halfway out of the grave. My mum said we’ll worry about it later, but right now we have to have a family party. So then suddenly all my relatives were over at my house, swimming in the pool and having fun and seeming very unconcerned with the corpse. Only I was freaking out….thinking we should call the police.
Then, suddenly I keep seeing a koala that stood up on its back legs and kept waving and grinning at me from behind gates or fences or places where I couldn’t get close to it. I knew that no one could see this koala, just me and, for some reason, my pet black cat. This concerned me, because I thought I was going a bit insane, like in Donnie Darko.
When I put my black cat through the fence to get close to the koala, the koala suddenly turned into a replica of my pet black cat. And when my cat touched this fake cat they both disappeared in a blue ripple, like they teleported or went into a portal or something.
I was freaking out because I thought I had lost my beloved pet forever. I ran down to the front of my house where the corpse was. I was suddenly very, very curious and wanted to see what it looked like up close. But As I went closer, suddenly the corpse sat up and started to climb up over the grave. I knew I had to run, but when I turned to run back into the house, the corpse was suddenly in front of my house door. My mum appeared and said something like "So you want to play with the unfortunate dead fellow do you? Well, this is what’s going to happen, then." Then she somehow made the corpse disappear back into its grave and it didn’t move again. My mum then said to me that if I went near it again, it will move again, so I shouldn’t go near it at all. I didn’t want that, but I was still so curious to see what it looked like. But I left it alone.
And then…I think I woke up. It was a very creepy dream and made me feel very uneasy. It was all so realistic! And the weird thing was absolutely nothing in it was relevant to what I had done that day…which I thought dreams usually were – that they were just your subconscious processing what worried you that day and stuff.
Could anyone be so kind as to maybe interpret this for me please?
Thank you to anyone that answers 
Wow! Thank you both for the great and detailed answers! Especially you, Kurt. That was very, very useful! And gives me a lot to think about…
2 Comments on “What does this dream mean? Finding a corpse?”
Alice! Quite a story! In view of the fact that you write so well I suggest that you do with this story what Mary Shelley did with her dream! Frankenstein!
First I should like to clear up a mistaken view of dreams. They are not just processing yesterday’s experiences. True, every dream has something of yesterday. Freud called that the “residue”. He saw that dreams build on such residues. He also found that the residues had a strong influence on the dream story. What he didn’t realise was that dreams are not just looking to the past to mull over it, but to show the way into the future. Yes, dreams are totally about the future and any past elements they include are pointers to the future.
Now you say that you found absolutely nothing of yesterday in this dream. Have you looked further back than yesterday? After all a half decayed corps points to something long ago, not just yesterday! And have you reflected on all the items in your dream long enough to say that none is calling up a memory of the past?
Your younger brother is the trigger to the dream plot. Being younger than you, he represents innocence. It is innocence and apparent accident that finds the corps. The corps represents both something hidden and of the past. It is an awkward discovery, not the first of them. Something your mother wants to deny or worry about it later. She wants you to forget it and arranges a party. But the secret won’t let you alone. You want to know what it is.
It seems your neighbours are involved. The hedge, the separation between them and your household is partly broken down; the grave is exactly on the border between your house and theirs. Have you thought about that? You might know what that means! How could your neighbours be connected to this ‘something of the past that is partly decayed, but also blackened’?
You want it out in the open that is why you are thinking of reporting it to the police. Police represents detection of the truth and applying justice and even retribution.
Now comes the interlude of the koala and the black cat. The koala is behind a fence. A hedge too is a fence. Are the two associated for a good reason? Does this take you to your neighbours? The koala is beckoning you; he (!) is inviting you to move over to him (!). Only you and your black cat can see this koala. Your secret!?
Now we are on Freudian ground. Furry animals are in his opinion a reference to our genitalia. Well, the pet name for ‘cat’ spells this out. Suddenly your dream takes on an erotic hue. Breaking through fences in that context becomes something illicit. The fusion of the koala and the cat suddenly makes sense in the field of the god Eros.
This awakens your curiosity about the corpse. It rises from its grave and even plants itself in front of the front door of your house. Here the cat/koala plot merges with the corpse, the thing of the past, for the house is, according to Freud a reference to your body and so the front door becomes a corresponding part on your physique. It is here that mother interferes and calls him a poor fellow, one that is not worthy of your standing. You are not to play with him since he is far beneath your social standing. She stops you from getting near him.
Earlier in the story she glossed over the corpse news and arranged a family party. It suggests that you ought to move in circles that are equal to your own standing. Mother is keeping a watchful eye over you. She is very protective of your innocence. But is it too late?
Anyway all this will give you plenty to think about. You will nut it out, I am sure. And yes, don’t forget to forge this dream into a short story if not a full blown novel!
Hi Alice,
I don’t know what to make of the part about your cat, but the rest of the imagery is giving me a strong feeling that things in your family are not as they appear to the outside world. That there are skeletons in the family closet, but your mom doesn’t acknowledge them, doesn’t acknowledge your pain, and pretty much sets out to paint a pretty picture of a perfect family in front of the relatives and neighbors, but once the front door is closed, the experience that you and your brother have there is quite another matter. I sense a lot of denial on your mother’s part here. Yet you see that things are not right, and you want to do something about it. That is what I see there. I hope that you are keeping it together ok. This isn’t a dream about mundane every day things like what you did in school or whatever, you are delving more deeply than that into larger problems that bother you. Good luck…