Ian Wallace Interpretation:
When you dream that you keep pressing the wrong button or dialling the wrong number, it indicates a waking-life situation in which you find it challenging to communicate with a particular person. This is often because you are focused on getting your message across to them and not paying enough attention to understanding how they are responding to you. Rather than persistently trying to push your ideas on to another person, be more open to what they are trying to say to you. Make it a conversation. How might you change your communication style so that you can clearly express your needs to the people around you? We are used to experiencing a simple cause-and-effect process when we push a button or dial a number. That is why we feel so frustrated when this method goes awry. We tend to have similar expectations of the technology that we use, trusting that it will always respond in a reliable manner.
Dream: You are trying to dial a number on your telephone but you keep getting it wrong. Although it may be a familiar number, you frustratingly keep pressing the wrong buttons, mixing up the last two or three digits. You really need to make this call because you have to speak to someone urgently. Even if you do manage to make the connection, you often find that you have dialled the incorrect number and have reached someone who you don’t recognize. Similar dreams can occur where you are trying to send an important text or gain access to somewhere using a keypad entry system.
Meaning: If you dream that you keep getting a wrong number or are pressing the wrong button, then there is a situation in your waking life where you are finding it difficult to communicate with a particular person. Although you may routinely connect with this person, there seems to be a bit of a mix-up this time and you can’t get your message across in the way that you would really like to. The telephone is usually associated with communicating words and messages but this dream is more about how you communicate by your actions and behaviours. You have a habitual way of dealing with this person and usually know the right buttons to press in order to make them respond in a particular way. For some reason, however, they aren’t responding to your frantic buttonpushing this time and you just can’t get through to them whatever you do. Even if you do manage to connect with them, they seem to be behaving in a way that you don’t recognize. This usually indicates that the person is picking up on your behaviour and no longer responding to your requests. As you become more aware of this, it encourages you to reflect on your action by taking a deeper look at how you connect with others and how you connect with yourself. Dreaming of a keypad system or an important text usually indicates that you are thinking about how you act and behave in your workplace.
Action: The message this dream is trying to communicate is that dealing with a human being is different from trying to operate a machine. Not being able to get through to someone is often because of your communication style, rather than being the fault of the person you are trying to connect with. Instead of continually attempting to get your message across, listen to what the other person is really saying to you. The more that you are aware of their needs, the stronger your connection will be with them and the more likely they are to heed your messages.
Background: From the first time we turn on a light switch, we have the awareness of the cause and effect of our specific actions. When we start to use phones and computers, we know that we have to follow certain procedures in order to communicate with specific people. Much of our communication with others is remote rather than face-to-face, and so, instead of starting to communicate by seeing the other person and judging their mood, we press a series of buttons and express our feelings. This can often lead to a feeling of disconnection and misunderstanding.