Recurring Dreams

[Guest]

I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this, as it isn't really about General Theological issues. If it's not placed right could someone please move it? We had a thread a few weeks ago that spoke of dreams, and I told about my recurring one from my childhood. Well, last night I had another of 3 dreams that I have from time to time, but I consider them kinda the same dream because they have the same basic plot. I'm wondering what the theme of these dreams could possibly mean.

 

Anyway, in all of them I discover a secret room or area of my house (or my friends house) that I never knew existed before. Last night it was an area of my back bedroom that had a removable part of the floor, and there was a bomb shelter like room under the foundation, and when I find it, I immedietly set it up as a hide away in case I need it. I do not remember the details of last night's dream, other than I was down there being quiet trying to hide form someone/something. There is no fear in this dream though, I'm just hiding.

 

In another varient of this dream, I find another entire wing of my house (that used to be my grandparents house when I was younger) that is still set up with their old furniture and such. It is like it's own apartment inside the house, with another bedroom, kitchen, etc. I decide to move into this "new" wing of the house because I like the layout. There is no fear or need to hide from anything, I just think it's neat I found an apartment inside my house!

 

And the third and oldest version of this dream dates to around the time I had my recurring nightmare about jesus. As a child, my best friend was rich as hell, their house was on 2 lots, on the water, 3 boats, etc. They had a 2 car garage with a workshop in the attic above, filled with all his dad's electronic gagets and stuff. We used to hang out and explore up there alot...we'd make our own movies with their video camera, and this was our "prop room". Anyway in this dream, we find another hidden passageway up in the workshop that leads to a huge cavern that seems to be physically located inbetween the walls of his house, but more likely was deep underground. Anyway, it was made of stone, about 50 or so feet in all dimentions, and looked like it was formed naturally, yet also looked like it had been modified by humans. Although this dream also did not have any fear in it, the discovery of this room always gave me a mixture of reverence and a slight waryness, as if we had discovered some ancient temple or mosoleum that we shouldn't have been in.

 

Every time I have one of these dreams, I discover the rooms for the first time. I only remember that they are recurring when I wake up. Anybody have any idea what the common theme of these dreams could be? (beside the obvious of finding a secret room? ) Does anyone else have a theme that seems to come up in their dreams for years and years?

[Ouroboros]

I can understand the secret room, and the feeling of satisfaction, and excitement it gives. Sometimes I get the same kind of dreams, but very few recurring. I don't believe in giving dreams too much of importance, so I'm not sure there's much to interpret. But it could be just that you do like to discover secrets, ruins, or castles and stuff like that.

[Deva]

I had a recurring dream for many years involving being lost on a large campus and unable to find my class. I can't even tell you how many of these I have had.

 

I had recurring dreams as a very young child of being chased by monsters. Some of these were really terrifying.

 

Occasionally I have flashes of deja vu while awake. I just had one yesterday, the strong feeling that something I am doing or seeing in present time I have already seen in the past in a dream or already done.

[par4dcourse]

I had a recurring dream for many years involving being lost on a large campus and unable to find my class. I can't even tell you how many of these I have had.

 

Me too! One of my recurring is of being in high school and unable to find my class. The other is of facing a long trip, and being unable to get my "stuff" together. Can't find items I need or want to take.

 

I love reading about dreams and reasons why we have them. Sort of a hobby.

[Vomit Comet]

I had a recurring dream for many years involving being lost on a large campus and unable to find my class. I can't even tell you how many of these I have had.

 

Oh, I hate those ones so much. The worst ones was when they'd kick me out of college and force me to go back to high school. I would scream "no! Let me join the Marines! Send me to Iraq! Please, anything but that!!!" Fortunately, I haven't had one of those in years... though watch, I've probably jinxed myself for tonight.

[Deva]

A couple of variations on the lost on campus dream are:

 

1. Having the suspicion I should be in a certain class but don't know what time it starts or where it is. Not able to keep track of the schedule and again getting lost trying to find it. Also, walking into the totally wrong class.

 

2. Suddenly finding out I don't have enough credit hours to graduate, having to go back to college, and then no. 1.

 

3. Attending a class for half the semester then suddenly forgetting I'm supposed to go to it and its too late to go back and even if I could, I can't find it.

[SWIM]

I did some study on dreams a while back for a website I was designing. Recurring dreams is considered to be your subconscious minds way of telling you that there is something on your mind that you are not addressing, but you should, because it is disturbing you.

 

Since you are not focused, and it takes some focus to organize your thoughts, dreams tend to be in symbols instead of words. So, different dream symbols have different meanings for different people. For example a "beach" might be a symbol for fond family memories for one person, but may symbolize danger to another, based on there life experince. Someone who got shark bit, might see the beach in a negative light. Someone that say, proposed marriage on a beach might find it a romantic symbol etc etc.

 

It is up to each individual to interpret their own dreams, since only they know the key to their own minds symbology.

[par4dcourse]

I read an interesting book recently, "The Emotion of Dreams". I'll post the author when I remember him.

The basic idea is that recurring dreams are just as SWIM described.

Usual dreams are another matter. His theory is that the hippocampus throws out an emotion that the concious is having trouble addressing to practice, and the "rational" mind makes up a story to explain why we're having this emotion. He says this is why dreams are so disjointed yet we believe everything happening. The brain is more active during REM sleep than when awake, and doing it's best to explain this emotion that "popped up."

I don't buy it all, but it does explain why most every dream has some strong emotion tied to it.

[Jeff H]

For the most part, modern psychology has thrown out the whole Freudian "dream interpretation" thing. I mean, there are still psychologists that do this sort of stuff, but it's not very common anymore. The more modern schools of thought say that dreams are either a) random electrical activity in the brain that other areas then try to interpret and combine into a (semi-)coherent narrative, or collections of bits of information that one has been thinking about or processing during the past few weeks or so - it's kind of the brain putting information into the right storage container.

 

But at any rate, I have had a few recurring dreams, although not for a while now. When I was younger, I had one where there was some sort of witch chasing me in my own house, and I had to climb the fence in my backyard, but for some reason I had a lot of trouble doing it. There was a lot more to the dream than that, but that's all I can remember now. I also used to hallucinate the same things whenever I was sick - one was just an Indiana Jones-style boulder continually rolling towards me. I remember feeling very scared that I was going to be crushed.

 

Nowadays, I don't remember most of my dreams, but of the ones that I do remember, a lot of them take place in a building that I'm familiar with, but it's somehow different than it is in real life. Sometimes it's two buildings put together - like my house and my school or something. It's very odd, but for some reason in my dream I always know my way around...lol

[Vomit Comet]

A couple of variations on the lost on campus dream are:

 

1. Having the suspicion I should be in a certain class but don't know what time it starts or where it is. Not able to keep track of the schedule and again getting lost trying to find it. Also, walking into the totally wrong class.

 

2. Suddenly finding out I don't have enough credit hours to graduate, having to go back to college, and then no. 1.

 

3. Attending a class for half the semester then suddenly forgetting I'm supposed to go to it and its too late to go back and even if I could, I can't find it.

 

I would get those, as well as a fourth one: going through half the semester before realizing that there was a "super important core class X that you have no choice but to take" that I had signed up for but forgotten to go to, basically screwing myself because they only offer it once every five years.

[Brother Jeff]

I made the terrible mistake of joining the Army back in 1996 at the age of 30. I arrived at Basic Training in Ft. Benning, GA to discover that my recruiters had lied to me about many things. Assholes. I spent ten of the longest, most miserable weeks of my life in that fucking hellhole where I got treated worse than a murderer on Death Row. The happiest day of my life was November 4, 1996 - the day I left that shithole of a government prison camp, never to return again. For several years after that experience, I had periodic nightmares about being back in the Army and back at Basic Training. I called them my "Back in the Army" dreams, and the theme of them was usually anger that I was back again and determination to escape somehow once again. Twelve years have passed now since that horrific ten-week experience, and I rarely dream about it anymore. But it wouldn't surprise me to find out that I had PTSD for quite a while after I got out of the goddamn Army. I am extremely glad that I didn't make it through Basic, mostly for medical reasons. If I had, I probably would have committed suicide rather than face spending four years of my life being forced to let sadistic, mean-spirited assholes order me around all the time. FUCK the Army. That sort of horrific treatment - being treated worse than a murderer on Death Row - is NOT what I signed on the dotted line for. And yeah... I'm still pretty fucking pissed off about it...

[ShackledNoMore]

I've had several series of recurring dreams, and usually I'm pretty good at figuring them out, but I used to have a lot of bird dreams that was the one theme that I was never really able to interpret. Haven't had one of those for a long time now, and since I never figured them out, I don't know if something is different that explains my not having them anymore.

 

I'd take a shot at guessing the symbolism of your secret room dreams, maybe you suspect there are aspects of yourself that you have not really discovered or tapped into (?), but I think the dreamer is the best interpreter of his/her own dreams.

[R. S. Martin]

I would get those, as well as a fourth one: going through half the semester before realizing that there was a "super important core class X that you have no choice but to take" that I had signed up for but forgotten to go to, basically screwing myself because they only offer it once every five years.

 

Oh no! Your dreams are as smart as you are VC. How do they manage that? There's just no program (that I'm aware of) that is five years long but how would dreams know that??? I think that's a pretty strong argument for dreaming what we're thinking/worrying about in everyday life. I would guess my farmer father with six grades of elementary education went through his entire life without dreaming that particular dream because he would not have known enough about university courses and programs to dream such a thing.

 

There was a recurring nightmare I had throughout childhood and into my thirties. I don't think the content of the dream was the same but the emotions were. It paralyzed me with terror. Finally, when I was in my thirties and reading about Jung's dream analysis, I was able to figure out what it was that I was terrified about.

 

The nightmares stopped.

 

That must have been fifteen to twenty years ago and I don't remember having that kind of dream since. Thus, I am convinced that some dreams are indeed rooted in the unconscious or subconscious mind and when it becomes conscious and dealt with things can improve.

[Emme]

One recurring nightmare I had freaked me out.

 

I am in my home town going home and suddenly I sense that a madman is somewhere in the village. As I become aware of him, he becomes aware of me and starts to go after me. Hes blabbering and whispering stuff and I just get terrified. The faster I run, the faster he runs, so I realise I have to slow down in order to escape him. I try, but I'm panicking and start to run anyway and end up waking up really scared.

 

A friend told me to stop, turn around and face the madman.

I did and I saw... (BAM BAM BAAAM) It was me! Me in a shaved head and a shabby coat five sizes too big!

 

I've never had that dream again.

[insert freudian interpretation here].

[Jubilant]

Thus, I am convinced that some dreams are indeed rooted in the unconscious or subconscious mind and when it becomes conscious and dealt with things can improve.

 

You're story, coupled with the statement above is very reasonable. It really hits home with me R.S.; sometimes I have terrifying nightmares of something happening to my kids and/or husband -- something of which I find myself worrying about quite regularly (not everyday mind you, but often enough to have related dreams several times a month).

[Guest]

I'd take a shot at guessing the symbolism of your secret room dreams, maybe you suspect there are aspects of yourself that you have not really discovered or tapped into (?), but I think the dreamer is the best interpreter of his/her own dreams.

 

Well, I really haven't a clue, which is why I posted it here. I do like discovering new things and bits of information other people don't know, and I am also an extremely introverted and introspective personality, so I guess the meaning is pretty straight foward. I was hoping there would be some secret meaning that I could discover!

 

I've enjoyed reading other people's dreams...keep 'em coming!

[MaggieMae]

I used to have several reoccurring dreams when I was a kid, the most memorable of which was what I called my "Halloween dream." (According to my diaries, I always had it in October...spooky!) In that dream, no matter how old I was in real life, my little brother was always just a baby. In some way or another, he would die and we always buried him in the front yard (crib and all). The most consistent part of the dream though, was when I would be standing on our front porch, looking at his grave and crying, and then all of the sudden a really ominous feeling would take hold of me. I would suddenly become terrified, try to run into the house, and then wake up.

 

My other most common dream from childhood was my Tooth Fairy dream. In those, the Tooth Fairy would round the neighborhood kids into my basement (our secret hideout was behind the deep freezer) to help her fight crime. I was the leader of our gang, and she would give me a magical Tooth Sword so that I could kick butt in her absence. Pretty damn awesome, IMO. I had both of those dreams about 5 or 6 times throughout my childhood....I was a weird kid, I guess!

 

Now that I'm All Grown Up , my most common reoccurring theme is that of anxiety. I always seem to be running from something, or desperately searching for something before time runs out. I don't know what my mind is so worried about though...!