Dreams...how Our Little Selves Are Represented

[Hashi]

I've also never heard of water in dreams being sexual. As a general dream symbol, my psychotherapist (Jungian) said that water represented the subconscious. It could have a different individual meaning for you, though, based on personal associations.

My dreams about myself as a child always used to centre around fear, dread and a feeling of threat. There would be a scenario, but not graphic. They were much more about the feeling and anticipation of something terrible. For example, one of the worst ones I had I was hiding behind a boulder from people coming down the street, but I knew they were going to find me. It might not sound so bad but the feeling of terror left me shaken for days.

Now they seem to have become more about compassion, although fear is still in them. Recently, I dreamt I was looking after a little girl and I realised that a man who often spent time with us/her was molesting her. I felt incredibly sorry for her,... as I was myself running to get away from him, leaving her to her fate. I really felt bad for her but was too scared of him myself to do anything except run.

Oh dear.

 

[Springer80]

she said it is evidence of abuse. Damn did not want to hear that

I'd be a bit worried that what she said has confirmed some sort of label for you. I think that water dreams represent the sub-conscious and that all they represent is supressed emotion and your relationship to it. Sexual abuse causes repressed emotion but so do a lot of over things.

 

[Chava]

I haven't had water dreams, but depending in the dream it would seem like a metaphor for flooding or overwhelm, eh? In my childhood nightmares cartoon characters or the seven dwarves rescued me a couple times. Sad when those were my options...and a family member was also present...either chasing me or ignoring my cry for help.

I've had lots of good, creative dreams where I invent cool things...and am a little disappointed when I wake up and realize how impossible they are. Violent nightmares are my new thing and I'm not entirely understanding why or what they connect to...but the thought @Springer80 that they can remind us we are safe now. Past-present-future (and all time and everywhere and nowhere) get weirdly knotted up sometimes but when I'm present I feel really safe where I am.

 

[Springer80]

...but the thought @Springer80 that they can remind us we are safe now.

I think I only feel safe now afterwards, when I'm awake and bringing myself back to the now. I think dreams first and foremost allow your emotions to re-play and your subconscious to unfold a little bit more.

 

[Chava]

Agree..."safe" only if I am awake and returned from freaked out

 

[Whirlwind]

Interesting thread!

I am struggling long term very violent dreams, and part of the reason I am feeling rather dejected lately, the dreams are back in full force lately and I feel like this is a sign of a general lack of progress.

I
Others are sometimes me doing horrible things in my dreams. These ones used to really bother me, but my therapist assured me that they weren't representations of who I was, just my mind trying to cope and understand what happened to me.

I've never heard this before, nice to hear.

What experiences have you had with dreaming about trauma, or representations, and who the kid is...and if you are watching from outside the dream?

I am not a child in my dreams. It is almost the norm for me to flip from observer to participant during the course of the dream. My dreams are mostly nightmares I suppose since they are almost always violent. Extreme violence, Armageddon themes and torture are common. I also have some very old dreams that have replayed since childhood or young adult. Interestingly, I have a particular reoccurring dream since childhood and it plays out specific decapitations.

Helpful thread, thanks

 

[Chava]

I've had a decapitation dream too (though not recurring). It would make sense that it represents some mind-body split or even dissociation. In my dream, I was observing from outside the dream. I did not see the decapitation, but my brother and my dad were kicking the little girls head around and laughing (sorry, I question even posting this because it's so disturbing). I haven't had violent nightmares so much recently, but I had a sort of spree of them when my life felt sort of turned upside down and when I also felt unsafe and questioned if I was really supported by my therapist (or could trust her). Blood on the walls, total slaughter, disgusting images I could never imagine in my daily life. I do believe our body/mind is trying to help us cope with mega stress and that disturbing dreams aren't a negative reflection on our true personalities.

When my dreams are really violent, I'm always under stress, though I don't always even know it (like stress I can't even let myself feel or process in waking life). It does help for me to process them a little bit and accept that level of stress, even if I can't ultimately know what most of the dreams mean. General themes of betrayal, disconnection, and threat beneath the really bloody appearance.

 

[KwanYingirl]

I'm not sure it's ok to recommend a treatment, but I want you all to know that my nightmares have ended since about my third reiki session. This after a lifetime of violent nightmares, always dying or near death from violent occurances. I also listen to Pandora at bedtime. I listen to Tibetan singing bowls and set the timer for one hour.

One of the nicest things about sleeping well is how much more energy I have during the day. I have been able to increase my work load from six clients a day to ten. The extra money has allowed me to squirrel away moola for heating oil.

Just sayin'....

 

[Chava]

I don't know if I could tolerate reiki, but I did look it up when you mentioned before @KwanYingirl , so I'm open to considering at some point. Touch of any kind can exacerbate my physical pain and I think I'd need to massively trust the practitioner...which would probably not happen because it would take years to get there. :eek: I've tried to find good examples of Tibetan singing bowls on youtube and either there is talking or adding water sounds (how horrible...I'd be getting up to pee all the time) or other nature sounds. Do you have a CD you can recommend by any chance (or a recording I can download)? I just want low ringing tones and not lots of others sounds.

I do think these kinds of tones are helpful...and I do seem to do a little better just resting when I'm not afraid of sleeping and having another nightmare. Sometimes I have one anyway, but don't feel so threatened by it if I can just understand it as part of my sleep process and the workings of my imagination and trauma process.

(sidenote: sounds like, from other posts, @Whirlwind you aren't feeling completely helped in this area by your therapist..??? Are you able to still talk about them or is it that your therapist thinks they can't be "cured"? It's hard not to feel threatened by nightmares, but it helped me here that @Springer80 suggested they were possibly like helpful messangers in some ways, even if for me that meant I needed to find greater safety in my waking life...I think that's part of it for me when dreams get violent).

 

[KwanYingirl]

@Chava. Reiki can be done without direct touch. I still tremble a bit when her hands are on my abdomen, but I know her and trust her. I really went into a flashback the first time she touched my abdomen. We've been slowly working towards it and I want to overcome my nervousness because my root chakra is only just spinning. I also had a flashback during polarity therapy when she got close to my pelvis. She was not cool at all. I tried to flee and she pinned me to the table resulting in me having an asthma attack and she refused to let me get my inhaler.

I know several people who practice reiki and they are all empaths. You call the shots. I should have told my reikiologist about my trauma history before we started. But, again, many people don't like hands on and it isn't required to get the benefits.

Tibetan bowl recordings: now that you mention it, many of the recordings also have other sounds. I have bought some singing bowl recordings on iTunes. Those you get to sample before buying. I like the added sounds. There's a meditation supply company called DharmaCrafts.com. They sell CDs I guess you could contact them to see which recordings are of bowls exclusively.

 

[KwanYingirl]

@Chava I just checked my iTunes. The CD of Tibetan singing bowls is a mix of just the bowls or bowls and gongs or bowls with nature or ocean sounds. I bought them all, but I could've just picked bowls.

 

[Springer80]

Hi Chava, I found a musician called Estas Tonne. He's a guitarist but he plays it in such a way that it's very gently hypnotic. One of his albums is called Internal Flight, which is the first one I heard. Try it?