Dreaming Of Becoming Another Entity - What Does It Mean?

[crazy8]

Like many of you all, I am plagued with horrible nightmares relating to my abuse - physical, visual, and auditory sensations and experiences in my sleep. However, after learning in therapy that I frequently "detach" from myself as a defense mechanism to deal with cognitive dissonance and emotional pain, I find one recent dream particularly intriguing:

I dreamed that I was an owl - yes - the actual animal. I could fly and only had owl functions - I could not speak or create logical, human-like thoughts. In my dream, I flew around and felt a sensation that I did not enjoy the sunlight, and I found myself seeking the dark. The most striking part of the dream was that I really WAS the owl. "Me" didn't exist anymore...the real "me" had dissolved away...dissipated into nothingness, and I was an owl in an owl's body with an owls' cognitive abilities, actions, and perceptions.

I was not on any drugs/medications except the SSRIs I have been taking for a few weeks.

Does anyone else experience this sort of "detachment" from yourself? Does anybody think this dream is important to understand myself in any way? Or, is it just a random, meaningless, abstract dream?

Thanks.

 

[Seasounds]

Oh, yes, I've loved my flying dreams, where I inhabited another existence. So free, so interesting. One of mine, simply followed a fantasy I had. I learned that I was happier being where I was.

From what I know, there are quite a few ways to look at your dream. Your dream's message is uniquely yours.

What was your feeling response to the different parts of the dream?

What meanings do you give owls?

How are the owl's preferences for sunlight and darkness similar to yours? For being near or far from other creatures?

What did you resonate with in the dream? Being wise, seeking wisdom, wanting freedom, wanting to explore darkness or are you soothed by darkness?

As you listen to your feelings in the dream and relate to the symbols in the dream, you may keep getting more insights.

The dream may be giving you psychic relief from being human, it may also simply be reflecting patterns of yours, so that if you want, you can be continue, or change, daily choices (i.e.what directions you want to guide yourself towards).

Have fun!

 

[kahlan]

You mention ssri's...I had some extremely vivid dreams while taking paroxetine(sp?). If I remember correctly its a common side effect, but not one to be especially concerned about.

I do agree with the previous post though as far as the interpretation lies in how you perceive the different "symbols" in your dream(flight, light/dark, etc.)

 

[Dendrite]

For me its about aspects of myself. My dreams are often (though, not always) different parts of me expressing stories and emotion. Of course, some of my dreams are also related to present day issues like dreaming of a fire hydrant when I am busting to go to the loo at 4am - LOL.

Last night I dreamt of a man who called himself Asylum Seeker who came to me for care and support. Eventually as more people entered the dream he became nervous and left and turned into a dog. I called out to him 'I love you. If you need me, feel free to leave a note in the letterbox overnight.'

I have found that in my 20s my dreams were mostly nightmares, in my 30s they were sometimes nightmares and sometimes healing and engaging. In my 40s, as I have matured and spent more time during the day to actively care for myself, many of my dreams are about parts of myself wanting to communicate and relate to me.

I have found that it takes serious effort during my waking hours to care for myself and re-train my brain to use nurture and care.

Its hard work but gradually working on caring for myself and using healthy ways to meet my needs is really bringing results. I will always have struggles but kindness and care is what is changing my life.

 

[crazy8]

The dream may be giving you psychic relief from being human

This sounds like it could be a part of it...or perhaps, "relief from being me." I often feel angry that I have to "be with myself" 24/7. I'm not really able to view things in the dream as "symbols." This might be because my therapist says I behave with a sense of denial about how I feel - I subconsciously suppress emotions - something I learned how to do as a child to avoid feeling emotional pain during abuse. I'm working on overcoming this problem in therapy.

 

[franciemarnie]

It could also be that the Spirit Animal of the Owl came to give you the strength and wisdom and vision it has - even in darkness - because it can see you are perhaps in a kind of darkness sometimes now where you will be transformed.

You can Google Owl as a Spirit Animal or Power Animal and see the characteristics the Owl is known to have and the help it can give.

I think this is a fantastic dream.

 

[arfie]

I have serial dreams like this. I love them and am fairly content to just let the mystery be. I treat them like cable TV. I simply enjoy them as they come. I have travelled with coyotes, butterflies, ants, earthworms, trees and a host of other lifeforms through my serial dreams. I look forward to sleep when I am in the midst of a dream series. Well... The horror series can be worse than a spider and a fly...

If I were to publish them I might call them, "Dream Sharing on the Bio-net." Maybe. Depends on my make-believe publisher of the day...

 

[Seasounds]

I like all of these options, so refreshing!

@crazy8, However you look at your dream, the owl is, as they say, "good medicine".

 

[Aaron David]

Like many of you all, I am plagued with horrible nightmares relating to my abuse - physical, visual, and...

I had a very terrifying paranormal nightmare then wide awake owl experience.