I had attended some kind of elaborate world political event at Buckingham Palace with my family. I was standing in a room on an upper floor with large floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over an ornate garden where various world political figures were observing the Queen of England giving an important speech. After the speech was over, the world leaders who had been in the garden were coming inside Buckingham Palace and they were walking through the room where we had been watching the speech. At first, my mom chased down the Queen, who was wearing a purple dress, and was able to have a picture taken with her. I was so excited by her having done this, thinking how cool it would be to have a picture with the Queen. After everyone was gone, I found myself alone in the large room. I saw Obama, dressed in a white shirt and tie with black pants and shoes, come through a side door with his entourage and I yelled out “Mr. Obama, can I have my picture taken with you?” I was really nervous at first because I was not sure if I would be allowed to take the picture with Obama due to the secret service personnel. He told them to go away and come back later and he said he would be more than happy to take a photo with me. At that point, I felt thrilled to be able to do this. I was having trouble with the digital camera, so Obama took a look at it and he was able to get it working! We took several photos and eventually Obama began making silly faces at the camera as we took photos! He began to act goofy, just like we were best friends hanging out. At one point, Obama began to break dance and he allowed me to take pictures of him while he was dancing. We talked for a long time and I felt so excited to be hanging out with the President of the United States. Eventually, Obama said he was really disappointed that he had to go, but he said if he didn’t, the Secret Service would be angry with him, and then I woke up.

From a 26-year old U.S. History teacher in Tennessee, July 18, 2010

The dreamer enjoyed the dream and said, “I felt really happy to have had such a cool experience, even though it wasn’t real.”  A liberal Democrat male, he thought the dream had somewhat changed his view of the President:  “It made me see Obama more as a human being or ‘average guy.’”

The Queen of England’s recent visit to the US, where she spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on July 6, very likely influenced the setting of this dream.  The symbolic grandeur of a true Queen speaking to the United Nations, the embodiment of an ideal global community, certainly provides potent raw material for the dreaming imagination.  We might expect a teacher of U.S. History to be especially sensitive to the impact of such momentous events.

Obama’s friendly presence in the dream suggests that he may, at one level, represent for the dreamer a personal sense of connection to that collective realm of political idealism.  The playful, surprisingly competent figure of Obama mediates between the dreamer’s individual reality and an idealized collective reality.  Obama is the President of the US and the most powerful man in the world, but he is also a goofy dancer who’s an average guy just like the dreamer.

I had a strange dream a few nights ago with Obama in it… It was very realistic and it went like this ~ I was actually having a conversation with Obama face to face. In the dream I was telling Obama that I didn’t like how he was doing things and that I was very concerned about our nation. I explained to him that I had not taken the Swine flu vaccine and was “refusing” the human tracking device that they were trying to implement on people.  I explained in a very calm and confident manner that he and his team of doctors could do what they wanted with me but I was standing my ground and would fight them off. I remember feeling NO fear because I knew that what they were doing was against God’s plan and that the Lord would protect me from harm… I was telling Obama in a straight-forward manner that I believed that the human tracking device was “morally and ethically wrong” and to make it mandatory was against God’s will. Amazingly, Obama listened to all that I had to say and we seemed to come to an understanding. His face suddenly looked sad and he preceded to look down and spoke the words “Okay, then” … I watched him turn around and exit the same same way he had entered the room. After that, I woke up.

From a 30-year old man of undefined political views, on January 29, 2010

Asked to describe how he felt when he woke up, the dreamer said,  ”bizarre.. I can still visualize the dream very well. Very strange to have a dream like this and haven’t had one since then. It seemed very real.”

Such strong concerns about vaccines and tracking devices suggest a strain of conservative extremism and populist paranioa, perhaps in relation to current cultural/political conversations about the Tea Party movement and the anti-Obama bias of Fox news. 

More generally, the dream reflects a kind of political-psychological integration; to use a biblical image, the lion laying down with the lamb.  Because most people who take an interest in dreams tend to be politically liberal, I’ve heard more examples of liberals having dreams in which they find a surprising degree of kinship and agreement with conservative politician they dislike in waking life.  Here, it seems a person who is politically conservative and anti-Obama in waking life has a dream of unexpected connection with the President. 

There could be an additional level here of personal symbolism.  Perhaps the dreamer needs to speak up more directly to people in authority: to his parents, boss, minister, or anyone who wields a kind of “presidential power” over him.

The dreamer says the dream had no impact on his waking views of Obama, but I wonder.  Having had counter-political dreams like this myself (one in which I had an extended debate with Newt Gingrich), I know that afterwards I looked at those conservative politicians differently.  I didn’t suddenly agree with them, but I saw them as more complicated people and realized my previous views were somewhat narrow and self-righteous and I needed to give them more critical thought.

I would especially wonder about this since the dream was so memorable and realistic.  I don’t believe the sleeping mind creates such dreams without a reason.

I was at a fraternity party. Barack was the president of the fraternity and it was very apparent to me and him that he would soon be president of the USA. He and I were best friends around that time and I wanted to call, write, and email everybody I knew from past decades of my life to tell them that I was best friends of the future President of the USA. Also, as a way of helping him win the election, I worked with his dog and small children to explain that the camera was always on them so they needed to watch what they say and do (even though he didn’t have a dog and small children). As I was leaving the fraternity for a few weeks and I knew I wouldn’t see Barack for a while, I went up to give him a hug… but we decided to do a regular handshake instead. And, to show a bit of distance between us, we didn’t even use the secret fraternity handshake… we just did a normal one. This was my fourth dream of Barack Obama. In each one, he and I are best friends.

From a 62-year old software developer in Arizona, January 10, 2010

The dreamer said when he awoke “I was surprised that I was not, in fact, Barack’s best friend.” 

Many dreams of Obama have a vivid, highly realistic quality that can make it temporarily difficult to distinguish waking and dreaming.  The carry-over effects of such dreams add to their memorability and impact on people’s thoughts and behavior.

The dreamer here, a liberal Democrat, says the experience corresponds to his waking views of Obama: “I always liked him (once I heard his comments on the Beatitudes).”

The reference may be to Obama’s comments on March 2, 2008,  an Ohio church in which he said, regarding religious concerns about same-sex marriage, that his religious faith puts more emphasis on the moral inclusiveness of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (best expressed in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-10) than on some “obscure” anti-homosexuality verses in Romans (1:26-32). 

Although the dream came nearly a year into Obama’s administration, it portrays an earlier time in political and perhaps personal life, when the dreamer was of an age to attend fraternity parties.  Yet he is apparently aware of his current age, too, as he thinks about people to call “from past decades of my life.”

Twice in the dream he shows a sensitivity to appearances and self-disclosure, first in teaching media relations 101 to the small children and dog (!), second in refraining from saying goodbye to Obama in a way that expresses the depths of their intimacy.

The move toward some degree of distance and psychological separation from Obama may be a healthy thing for his supporters and his political movement, even if it translates into temporarily softening poll numbers.   Extreme idealization of a politician too often leads to angry disillusionment.  Better in the long term to dial back the reverence, abstain from frat bro hugs, and take comfort in the human touch of a regular handshake.

My fiancee and I went to the White House to an Illinois-only party, which was the only one Barack was attending.  Barack had his Blackberry and I had my new iPhone, so I struck up a conversation with him at a long, rustic wood mess hall table.  Everyone at the party was clicking beer glasses in toasts over the table and Barack put his arm around my waist and leaned in to make a toast, but his hand moved up, unbeknownst to him, so that he was groping me.  I was going to tell him but I didn’t want to embarrass him.  Later my fiancee and I took a tour of the White House on our own and saw Barack downloading an iPhone app that would allow him to monitor his daughters as they slept, to make sure nothing bad happened to them.  Later in our self-guided tour, we overheard Barack in his study, drinking Scotch and watching what sounded like porn.  He heard us in the hallway, changed the channel came out and offered to show us around.  We declined, saying, “You’re tired, just rest.  We’ll show ourselves around.”   (I wasn’t bothered by the porn. I thought, the man probably needs to unwind.)

From a 28-year old female writer in Chicago, January of 2009.

From a 29-year old Canadian woman, in February of 2009.  She describes herself as a “theatre artist, educator and activist. I am originally from the East Coast of Canada, and have traveled to and lived in most major cities in Canada.”