Robot Robots Robotic

Dreaming of or being a robot can suggest several things, perhaps the most common being responses that are automatic or not thought about, acting purely on social or imprinted – perhaps through pain – responses. The robot in some dreams is linked with the future and how we feel about it. It also can suggest being defended, in the sense of armour defending against hurt, so having no feelings. This might be expressed as being a zombie. See: Autonomous Complex; Habits; automaton.

Human behaviour is often automatic and even robotic. Habits do not require much thought or concentration. Let us take the example of language as a form of behaviour that is passed on. It already existed before your or my birth. It existed prior to the birth of our parents or their parents. All of us were born into its prior existence. We may partake of it, we might even slightly add to or modify it, but it has an existence quite apart from our own single identity. So we have a pool of behaviour as well as a DNA pool. It becomes almost robotic in the habits of speaking, the use of ready-made explanations such as in clichés.

This is so incredibly important that I will explain it in a slightly different way. Although human beings originally developed language, as each one died, what had been created and perhaps added to continued its existence, not only as a form of behaviour, but as a consciousness altering factor. It is certain that genetic pool of data gathered slowly from the beginning of life on this planet, and is now experienced as one’s personal body. Also certainly the behavioural pool is passed on largely unwittingly, unconsciously, making us like robots who are simply running programs instead of acting with some awareness. See Clichés

Most of us identify our body as US/Me, your personality. But from the point of view of some dreams, our body is actually linked with our core self, the source, which exists in a different way, and projects our body sense of self into time and space. Like the operator of an underwater robot who looks through the lenses of the robot’s eyes, you too – the sense of self –  may perspire, your heart may race, your spirit feel defeat, as the robot achieves its task, or is threatened or crushed by its environment.

Example: The dream changed to being in a house with my immediate family i.e. parents and sisters. Every so often there was a shaking like an earthquake. On examination it seemed that some kind of structural joints that had something to do with the stability of the structure had been made badly, so that although they articulated, they were not completely sound and had been worn into malformed shapes, so that every so often there would be a shaking, and we (mostly my mother and sisters) were trying to determine how to fix it. A metal robot had something to do with this and was threatening in some way. I found it trying to cover up the joints with metal plates and when I tried to stop it, it stopped what it was doing and came into the house. We all seemed to be in its power. It picked out my father and I tried to intervene because I thought it was going to torture him, and I put myself in the way instead to deflect its attention and tried to plead with it but as I did so I knew it was useless because this creature had no feelings.

I think the dream of the house and the robot is about this. The faulty joints underpinning the house represent the faulty joints in me between my solid foundation and the structure of my life that I’ve built on that foundation. This is something shared by my family which is why we were all in there. I saw the robot trying to patch them over with rigid metal and while I recognised this would do, it would be very inflexible and was a botch-up that would not get at the cause. When I stopped it from doing that it came indoors and picked on my father and I felt the robot would torture him. I experienced this robot as having no compassion and I tried to plead on Dad’s behalf but knew this was futile. I think that was just indicating that the faulty joints come from my father’s approach to life. Sarah.

 Example: I go back upstairs. I sit on the bed and hug my nanny. She is an old square robot, and not very sophisticated. I ask it, “Why aren’t there any nice men for me?” It says, “Look, there are,” and shows me two of them (on a screen on its chest). I say, “But if I take them, what will be left for my brother!” Nanny laughs and shows me many women for Dwight. I am still worried.

An interesting dream showing the programs that robots run. Her Nanny is an old square robot without sophisticated programming. It shows how her inner nanny has programs that are to take care of her grandchildren and does so quite well despite its limited behaviour repertoire.

Useful questions and hints:

Can I see any connections between the dream robot and my way of living?

Are the things I do habitually a way of being a robot?

Some of our body functions such as breathing are a bit like a program that runs without any attention.

What happens if I learn to control my breathing, does that make me less robotic?

See The Slow Breath – Self Observation – The Fundamental Process – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams