Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconscious Mind : Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconsc

[shiraz]

I walk into a large old house, walk down the passage and enter a room. Behind the door is a large suitcase - jammed between the wall and the open door and there is a little girl about 2 years old lying like a rag doll on top of the case - she is watching something behind me - I turn around to see a family seated on the far side of a double bed. A family of five - the father is seated on a chair in profile to me and a little girl about 4 years old is kneeling between his legs - seemingly giving him oral sex. The man looks irritated and angry - he is looking in my direction, but I think I am invisible. I don' like that angry stare, I feel like I am intruding on his privacy, like I shouldn't be there, so I move on but want to run back and stop that aweful scene. The rest of the house has similar scenes - lots of children being abused. I run from the house, past the child on the suitcase - and as I do, I see her dead eyes staring at me and I can't leave without her, I swoop her up and cradle her as I run, telling her that I will never let her be hurt again.

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi sirsir.
Dreams about your past is very common. An old job could represent the need to contribute to society because you don’t feel the same as you used to prior to leaving that job. Now you view the job as a very large task, which would be difficult and you would have to struggle with it.

The job turning into monsters could be you own mind feeling this way about yourself because you are no longer working. It appears your tormenting yourself with negative criticism again.

Aging in dreams can be attempts by the subconscious to review, remember, explore your “deeper feelings” about, or make sense of past events. They can also be part of the process of reconciling the past within yourself, including grieving, reaching closure, forgiving, coming to terms, letting go of, or reaching inner peace with your past.

The zombies are mindless and not in touch with their emotions and I think we discussed that you wont let your guard down because you don’t want to feel weak. So this part is stating that you probably should explore the demons from your past so you can move on into peace.

Basements represent repressed memories. It appears that some may surface because they have been stored in your subconscious. The deeper you dig the more you will find in your past that you forgot about, but you woke up.

There probably will be a follow up dream. In this dream you stated you don’t recall anyone being burned that badly since the war, so this could be a memory surfacing that you need to deal with.

Take care
Tammy

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi shiraz, The large old house represents your psyche and since it's old it may be from your past.

The door indicates your going into a room that represents something in your life. The suitcase indicates you've been hanging onto baggage since you were 2 years old.

The little girl is your "inner child" and she is looking behind you which represents your past.

Being invisible could mean a lack of understanding of what's going on (you probably didn't understand this type of thing at age 4) or a wish not to be seen.

The angry stare at you could indicate that you are remembering his anger and you feel the same way toward him for invading your privacy.

Similar scenes of abuse is your minds way of processing the situation in order to make you face it in waking life. Which it appears you are making progress because you pick that child up off the suitcase "who is 'you' at that age" and state you won't let her be hurt again. So, you basically are telling yourself that you are going to deal with these issues so you can heal.

Even though the dream looks bad there is progress being made. I think nightmares and bad dream images help us deal with problems, and let us know if we are making progress or staying stuck in a bad cycle.

Take care
Tammy

 

[Deleted member 541]

Tammy,

I know that this is a group for analyzing dreams, but what if you don't dream, or remember your dreams?????

I used to have pretty bad nightmares, and for the past few yrs...NOTHING!!!!!! I don't even know if I do dream.

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Wendy, It's not just for analyzing dreams even though it may say that. I will share anything I know about sleep and dreams.

I know it's a scientific fact that everyone dreams because I read about it in Wiki and a few other trusted sites.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_everyone_dream_while_they're_sleeping

I have some theories about why you may have stopped remembering your dreams, but I'm not sure on all of it since the human mind is so complex.

Before I started to heal I would have nightmares at least 1-2 times a week, maybe more? because I didn't keep journals back then. On top of the nightmares I had really bizarre dreams almost every single night as well.

Once I started to heal the nightmares and bizarre dreams slowed down and I would dream about mundane things and not every night.

Now, I rarely remember my dreams and rarely have nightmares or bizarre dreams anymore, unless I'm under major stress.

For me, I think once I faced the trauma head on the negative charge in my dreams dissipated, and if there is no negative charge in dreams then you most likely won't remember them because negative holds more weight than positive.

Also, if you don't suppress a bad feeling in the day and face it when it pops up then its less likely you will dream about something negative. Anyone who suppresses their traumas and just regular situations that need to be discussed and released will have negative dreams. (However, they still may not remember them)

The more we learn to be assertive and deal with other people's crap and our own issues, the less we dream. But we still dream and I'm just not sure exactly how much each individual dreams or why they don't remember them.

It's a good thing for the majority of people though. It's better not to remember them then have to deal with nightmares everynight.

My thoughts are this: I prefer to have a nightmare (not like it used to be LOL) because it is telling me I'm not facing or dealing with something in waking life that needs to be dealt with. Since I know how to decipher dreams I figure out the nightmare and then address the issue I was suppressing or not facing.

So having a nightmare once every other month is not such a big deal to me anymore, but I never want to go back to having them every other night on a regular basis ever ever ever again LOL

Tammy

 

[Deleted member 541]

Funny, but I had a dream last night. I remember waking up during and thinking WOW I had a dream, but now that I am up I couldn't begin to tell you what it was about, I forgot....Age maybe as I am older than dirt.. LOL!!!!!!

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

That's funny I thought you were about my age for some reason. I never really paid attention or tried to find out LOL. But now you have me interested.

That is pretty common for people to forget their dreams if they don't write them down immediately upon waking. I used to get irritated when I would forget them back when I used to analyze every single one of them. LOL

I'm in the habit of analyzing them when I wake up to go to the bathroom and think to myself I will figure it out when I wake completely up, but once I go back to sleep it's gone forever. I don't have the patients to record every dream I have these days.

Now, I only write down the ones that I feel have some meaning that I need to examine. Sometimes they seem important and other times it just seems like I'm dumping junk.

My uncle and a friend of mine who are over 60 both dream and remember theirs, so I'm not so sure age has anything to do with it? It may be the way your mind works at the moment? However, I'm not an expert on it so this is just theory.

TTYL
Tammy

 

[shiraz]

hi Tammy. I am fortunate to be away at the coast for a bit of a rest. Every night i have been here, i dream of seeing a wooden post holding up the corner of a gazibo, which really exists here, and i am surprised to see crazy scratch marks on it - in the dream i think they are human scratchings - its like a human scratch pole! The scratchings are unsettling, very irratic!

 

[shiraz]

jeez, cant get a good nights sleep here! I actually startled out of sleep with a sudden aweful image which flashed into my dreams for a moment and was gone. The image was of what i first thought was female genatalia - there was congealed blood covering three gashes on the right facing side. Then a suddenly saw it for what it was - male genatalia (i recognised as my man's). This is what startled me and had me bolt from the bed.

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi shiraz, I haven't read your trauma diary in it's entirety. I have a hard time concentrating because I have ADD and it makes me feel bad that I don't read the diaries. I can read about two paragraphs and that's about it. I've been trying to get into mine and write but the ADD is preventing me from just sitting down and doing it eh!

But I should find out if you or someone you loved was harmed or mutilated in that area because it seems to come into your dreams lately.

The first thing that popped into my head about the pole is that is is symbolic for the phallus. Usually wooden objects (especially standing up straight) represent that, but not always.

The gazebo might represent the need to escape these thoughts, or you feel you need some shelter from them, but the memories are part of who you are.

The pole would be holding you up (one way to look at it) Kind of like not letting you move forward in your healing. It's OK, we can't just get passed the memories in one month or even one year. It will take time. So the dream may be telling you that if you feel you are not progressing as fast as you think you should, it's due to the memories.

The scratchings indicates the consequences of hostility or anger. So, maybe if someone, or yourself was harmed in the genitalia area the scratchings on the pole indicate that you are still angry over this.

Can you PM me about your traumas? Then I can get a better understanding of these dreams, which will lead to a better interpretation that is most accurate.

I'm sorry to hear that you are on vacation and the dreams are ruining it. That would make me mad, but try not to let it get to you so you can enjoy yourself.

Take care
Tammy

 

[cookie]

hi tammy. hope you are doing great. i don't remember most dreams, had one the other night that just disturbs me.
in the dream, i took a knife (kitchen knife) to bed with me and put it under my pillow. i awoke later to discover that i had cut open my stomach, and my guts were all laying out on my belly--funny, though, no blood. it was so vivid, i awoke and looked to see if i was really cut, then i went all through the bed, looking for a knife--none there, just a dream, lol.
it really bothered me for some reason. i had been carrying the knife in the dream in my purse for a few days, not really sure why...mostly, i think, because i agreed not to buy any razorblades (seems to be like a security blanket, lol) i was worried that i might actually do that some time, and maybe hurt my husband by accident. what do you make of it? i would like to be able to just throw it off as a dream, but i can't.
thanks,
cathy

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Cathy,
I used to sleep with knifes under my pillow then I started putting them in-between the mattresses so I wouldn't cut myself. I carry one in my purse for security even though it's so small it wouldn't be able to harm anyone.

The stomach's job is to break down what is put into it, into a form that the body can deal with. The stomach is where most of us hold our emotions too.

Carrying the knife around is something that you "can't stomach" or don't feel comfortable with (and you stated that you were worried you might harm someone).

The pillow indicates that you want to rest your head on something soft and comforting, but it seems your unable to rest your mind or thoughts.

The kitchen knife indicates you want to make these thoughts smaller and cut them down to size so you can deal with them easily in order to digest them so it doesn't become lodged inside of you.

The dream indicates that you felt you were at risk of harm, or fear of being criticized by someone and you couldn't deal with the emotion properly in waking life. So it triggered this dream and the stomach wasn't able to take care of the emotion and use it's natural process to digest it, and then release it.

It's OK, I'm having attacks of paranoia and having some creepy dreams and I rarely have them anymore. It takes time to get past all of our fears. They will pop up for the rest of our lives I imagine. We can just take it in stride and keep working on our trauma.

Please, no beating up on yourself or being afraid of the dream, because the dreams rarely ever mean what we see.

Peace to you Cathy!
Tammy