Continuing the JacK-Long series of articles on golf
In this article Jack discusses our "Golf" Dreams,now don't say you have never had one! I have! I really like the one where I single putt every green!!! Its a bit like golf excercise except its your imagination not your body!
Jack Long . . . Facts, Fiction, Hope
THE INTERPRETATION OF GOLF DREAMS The theory of dreams maintains that dreams partially satisfy repressed desires by representing them as having been satisfied. That is to say, there is a definite continuity between waking thought and dream content, such that dreams cannot be dismissed as “nonsense”. We have all had “golf dreams”. I submit that the study of golf dreams is an area that has been neglected by both the academic community and the teachers of the great re-creational activity. ( See Article No. 7 with respect to the “re-creational” aspects of golf).
Some golf dreams are straightforward and understandable (for example, playing with one of your pals and winning the Club’s member-guest tournament by sinking four very long putts). However, other golf dreams – to the extent they can be remembered – appear to be complicated and confused. Freud suggested that the remembered parts of such dreams which appear to be the most distinct and important parts, are oftentimes much less important than those parts which we believe to be insignificant and unconnected. In this regard, I would like to discuss one of my “confused” golf dreams.
After a mediocre round a few weeks ago with my friend Bill, I had dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed. I dreamed that I had just left a barber shop, went home, walked into my backyard, focused intently on a fly perched in the middle of a straight piece of model-train track, and unsuccessfully tried to kill the fly with a forceful jet of water from the nozzle of the garden hose. This dream stayed with me because it was so strange and I had no idea what it meant. However, since I do dream about golf, I had a suspicion that the dream might be related to golf and that it might contain a hidden message which could be of some benefit to me. I was determined to interpret this dream. While having a drink with Bill, I told him about the dream and he reminded me that when we had last played, I was having a hard time with some of my irons – my swing was going too far outside on the downswing, bringing the hosel into play. When I heard the word “hosel”, the meaning of my dream suddenly became clear to me. The garden hose – an apparently insignificant aspect of the dream – was the key to the dream. The garden hose represented the hosel. I was trying to kill the fly with the jet of water from the garden hose, and not having any success. I remembered that about a year ago, while waiting for a haircut, I read an article in Golf Magazine that addressed the hosel problem. The article claimed that one way to correct an outside swing that brought the hosel into play, was to force an approach to the ball on an inside path by placing the ball in a lane formed by using two sets of tees (the piece of model-train track in my dream) slightly wider than the clubhead, and hitting the ball without clipping the tees. I had forgotten that I had read this article. Remarkably, I had been carrying around within me, information which addressed the problem I was having with my swing. (After a little research, I found out that the article was written by Mr. Laird Small (with Mr. Dave Allen) and appeared in the March 2005 edition of Golf Magazine.) So, what’s the point? The point is that golf is a very demanding game and that we need to keep looking within ourselves for guidance and insights. I had forgotten about the simple golf exercise to correct my outside swing. However, my bad round of golf had somehow triggered a dream that, upon interpretation, contained information I needed to correct a technical problem I was having with some of my irons. Based on this experience, I have to ask myself whether it is possible that my brain has sifted through all the hundreds of articles I have read about golf, and somehow retained that information which relates directly to the technical problems I have with my game, and whether my subconscious tries to give me this information through my “golf dreams”? I submit that we should not ignore our golf dreams. We need to make the effort to figure out what they mean. I believe that this is an area with real potential, and that academic research should be encouraged. It may be appropriate for our club professionals to become more aware of some of the fundamental precepts of dream interpretation in order to help us in this area. And, we should try to help each other. This would be in keeping with the teachings of the prophet Caddyus, who taught us that in order to achieve success and centeredness, we need “To bring forth what is within us. See Article No. 1 If you have had an unusual dream which you believe may be related in some way to The Game, send it along, and perhaps some of our readers (who, I know, include psychologists, therapists, golf professionals, and people with insight and imagination) may be able to help you interpret the dream. Jack Long is a golf-theorist and founder of The Paranormal Golf Institute?. He is working on a series of articles based in part upon: Cold War research documents in the field of paranormally controlled trajectories (PCT), documents recently discovered in the archives of the PCT Institute in Niblickvostock in the former Soviet Union; and His own, and other recent translations of the Golfnostic Gospels unearthed last year in caves near the northern Egyptian city of El Sandtrapya. 9--Golf Dreams..4-4-06. No part of this article may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Jack Long, PGI, 192 College Street, Burlington, VT 05401.
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