The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung
surrounded by light, this suggests that light has entered the person during a period of transition and they are becoming more self-aware. If you become invisible in your dream, it can indicate that you feel ignored in waking life—that you and your life are insignificant to others. It can also mean that you are hiding from others or yourself. If you have this type of dream, it might be time to look at how you present yourself to other people.
TRANSITION
The following dreams tend to be common during times of change or transition. A dream of waking and getting up, when in fact you are still asleep, may signal reluctance to face change or a new challenge—such as a new job or new relationship. Then again, perhaps this false wakefulness is the mind’s way of preventing us from waking up, thereby exemplifying Freud’s theory that the purpose of all dreams is to prolong, rather than interrupt, sleep. Dreams of a vehicle careering out of control suggest worries about losing all sense of direction in life, especially if you are the driver, passenger or bystander unable to influence the events.
A rudderless, drifting raft or boat suggests loss of direction, but some believe that sometimes not knowing where you are going can be a way of discovering your true self. A raft is an image of survival and, in some ways, this image suggests the ability to ride out the sea of troubles rather than be overwhelmed. Strange reflections in the mirror are often said to suggest personal identity problems during times of conflict—if it’s your face, and your eyes are closed, this is a refusal to confront reality and if it is someone else’s face, this may indicate a sense of inadequacy when compared to them. No face at all is the ultimate identity crisis; a fear of death itself. If a bridge appears in your dream, this is a clear symbol of transition from the present to the unpredictable future. Crossing the bridge suggests that you possess the strength within to cope with life’s journey and with difficult events such as moving home, divorce or a new job.
Conflict Scenarios
ABANDONMENT/FEAR/LOSS OF CONTROL
Dream images connected to feelings of abandonment, fear and loss of control all have some form of conflict as their theme. For example, dreams about missing a bus, train or airplane all point to some kind of tension in the dreamer about failing to achieve a goal. Dreams about being abandoned or left alone by a group of loved ones suggest feelings of anxiety about being left out, or being different from the crowd. Anxiously searching for the right road or path could point to fears about losing your identity. If you are happily wandering alone in your dream, this may suggest a feeling that the source of your problems lies outside yourself. Dreams about anchors and lifeboats also tell of the fight for survival in daily life. If you dream of being lost in dense vegetation, towering trees or tall reeds, you may feel that your progress is being thwarted by obstacles. As in the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, this dream may evoke longing for the comfort and warmth of home.
ARGUMENTS
If you dreamed that you had a heated argument with someone, try to identify who that person was. Your dream may mirror real-life hostility between the two of you, or you may be consciously unaware of your aversion to that person or their aversion to you. Your unconscious may use the dream as an outlet to release feelings of aggression, or it may use the dream to alert your conscious self to the hidden aggression. If, however, you can find no reason for hostility between the person in your dream and yourself in waking life, then perhaps the dream argument represents an aspect of yourself—this interpretation is even more likely if you are arguing with someone you don’t know. Try to recall what the person looked like and what the argument was about. If the dream focused on a young person arguing with an older person, perhaps the dream represented tension between the part of you that longs to be more spontaneous and the part of you that is a stickler for routine.
ATTACK/ATTACKER
If you are being attacked in your dreams, this suggests you are feeling threatened in some way, perhaps by your own impulses, or perhaps by other people and their attitude or remarks to you. If you are the attacker in the dream, who or what are you attacking? Attack is almost always a form of defense, so may also suggest defensiveness about some issue in, or aspect of, your life. There is also a positive side to attack, as new ideas and positive changes can threaten our old way of life and habitual way of thinking about things. If you are attacked by an animal in your dream, this suggests anxiety about aggression in yourself or other people. If you are attacked by a shadowy or frightening figure, this may depict feelings of fear and pain associated with the past. How you deal with the attack is important. If you run from it, the trauma is not being dealt with in waking life.
DANGER
Dreams about earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes all point to inner turmoil or emotional conflict that is shaking the foundation of the dreamer’s world. The dream may often come close to being a nightmare, but such dreams are warning you about something that is going on in your waking life to which you need to pay attention. A dream about a natural disaster is unlikely to be prophetic; it is more likely to be referring to something dangerous in your waking life. For example, an avalanche dream may refer to oppressive forces in waking life threatening to overwhelm you—an avalanche of responsibility, for example, that accompanies the birth of a new child. If you are swept away in the dream, you are being urged to find something, or someone, to hold onto in waking life to regain stability. If you dreamed that the earth was cracking open beneath you, this threat may be echoed in changes at work or insecurity within a relationship.
An explosion may reflect sudden changes in waking life or the release of emotion. What damage has the explosion inflicted in the dream? If anything was broken, interpret its symbolism; if someone was clinging on to you in the dream, who are they? If you dreamed you were in danger of thunder or lighting, again this may refer to emotional turmoil in waking life; but a dream about being struck by lighting could refer to sudden insight. If you dream that you are falling into a dark hole, is there some situation in waking life out of which you feel you cannot climb?
Dreams featuring alarms may be caused by car or house alarms that go off in the night; if there is no external stimulus of this sort, and your dream features a house alarm, does this allude to your family? Does someone need protection at this time? Was the alarm effective in the dream? If the alarm failed to go off, this is an extremely significant symbol. If your dream features a car alarm, this may allude to some kind of rash behavior and, as men often equate cars with sexuality, you may want to consider it in this context.
Dreams can also often warn of dangers of which we may be unaware in waking life. For example if you dream of overspending, this may suggest you are expending too much emotion on a particular person. If you dream of escaping from a prison to a happy landscape, this may be a warning that you need to relax more. There are other practical warning dreams. For example, you may dream that your car brakes fail and in waking life find that this is indeed the case. There is usually a simple explanation as your unconscious mind may have registered the fault, but this kind of dream should not be ignored (see ACCIDENTS, ACTION AND ADVENTURES). Similarly dreams of bodily aches and pains and other signs of poor health are also worth taking note of. See also SICKNESS AND HEALTH.
DISOBEDIENCE
Dreams that feature some kind of disobedience, mutiny and rebellion are about conflict with authority, such as a parent, a teacher, a corporation or even the government. If you were disobedient or rebellious