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| Image courtesy of Flickr |
The Wizard of Oz is the
ultimate venting
dream.
Readers who are familiar with this story know that it features a myriad
of fantastic images. In addition to those magical ruby slippers, there is an
army of flying monkeys, the constant threat of a vindictive witch intent on
exacting revenge for her sister and a city made entirely of emerald. Dorothy
Gale’s new friends are not even human but a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion
that not only walk and talk but are also in search of something important to
them: a brain, a heart and courage, respectively. Fortunately, the entire Land
of Oz is in Technicolor—Dorothy’s home in Kansas was symbolically in black and
white—which should make it all the easier for the group to find their symbolic
treasures.
Of course, the final portion of their journey to the Emerald City is
fraught with new dangers, including having to cross a field of sleep-inducing
poppies that seduce Dorothy into much-needed slumber—actually a temporary
escape—from her worries. When she awakes, her beloved dog is in the clutches of
the Wicked Witch. Dorothy accidentally dispatches the witch by throwing a
bucket of water on her, rescues her dog and runs back to meet her friends to
find the Wizard. When Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal a little man
manipulating various levers and controls to simulate the mystical “Wizard,”
Dorothy and her friends are immediately disheartened and disappointed. How could
their dreams possibly come true, now?
Fortunately, like the charlatan who correctly warned Dorothy about the
storm in Kansas, this wizard can still help Dorothy by spiriting her home to
Kansas in his hot-air balloon. But when he accidentally launches the balloon
and takes off without her. Glinda the Good Witch makes another appearance at
this point. She points out that the Scarecrow obviously has a brain; how else
could he have helped his friends find the Emerald City? The Tin Man already has
a heart, or he wouldn’t have been able to feel sad and cry when he thought of
Dorothy going away. As for the Cowardly Lion, he had so bravely faced every
danger with his friends as they made their way to find the Wizard. Of course,
he was very brave indeed. And Dorothy only needed to click her heels together
three times repeating the heartfelt sentiment, “There’s no place like home” and
she would be reunited with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry on the family farm.
When Dorothy next opens her eyes she is in her own bed, surrounded by
everyone she knows and loves, the film returned to its original black-and-white
from its Technicolor dreamscape. There is no telling how long she has slept,
but the pseudo-realistic/symbolic experiences she had in Oz are compelling
evidence that she had one doozy of a venting dream.
The concept of the Gales’ home being picked up by the wind and being
symbolically dropped in Oz could easily have been triggered by a physical
stimulus: the tornado that hit the property and likely knocked Dorothy out
in the first place. The similarities between Miss Gulch’s physical appearance
and Dorothy’s perception of the woman’s personality as being a witch are very
strong to the Wicked Witch. Indeed, Dorothy called the woman a “witch” when
Miss Gulch packed Toto into the basket on her bicycle because the dog chased
her cats. When the tornado hits, the girl looks out her bedroom window to see her
nemesis riding her bicycle as it transforms into
a witch riding a broomstick on the swirling wind.
Other people in Dorothy’s daily life were also represented
in her dream, including several of her uncle’s farm hands who showed up as the
Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, respectively. Furthermore, the things these
characters wanted to find in Oz—a brain (intelligence), heart and courage were
traits that Dorothy would have needed to run away from home and, more important,
find her way back. As for the ruby (red) slippers and Emerald (green) City,
these might have symbolically represented what and the people whom Dorothy
loved, and the fantastic, trouble-free, “grass is always greener” land she imagined
running to before the storm hit. Even the fortune-teller she met before the
storm had shown up in her dream as the Wizard of Oz.
Finally, the biggest “tell” that her experience was a venting dream was
the representation of Dorothy’s subconscious mind as Glinda, the Good Witch. Although
Glinda is only seen a few times, always arriving in a bubble of golden light
(Dorothy’s higher self), her gentle counsel and advice are felt throughout. Glinda
is the one who sets Dorothy down that Yellow Brick Road to find the way home; which
the girl does, even though she really has no idea where this road will truly
lead. The love and protective instinct Dorothy has for her dog has her reach
for the nearest weapon to hand—a seemingly innocuous bucket of water—to ultimately
defeat the Wicked Witch and rescue her Toto. Finally, it is Glinda who reminds
Dorothy that she always had the power
to go home when she wanted to, all she needed to do was click the heels of
those magical ruby slippers together three times and say “There’s no place like
home.”
Fortunately, Dorothy ultimately, gratefully understood.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified
hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors
from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more
information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an
appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2016
