How to understand dreams in which the dreamer is violently killed

Q: I was in a school parking lot with two other people. One male, One female. Suddenly a car comes speeding in the parking lot with a white rope and enters the school through the front doors. I tell my friends who are now layin back side down on the ground next to my car we need to go. I am tryin to start the car when an officer comes into my view. Suddenly there is a second unknown person with a gun looks like a black rifle and shoots me point blank. At that point i could feel my body fall and the two people i was with screaming and yelling. The unknown person picks me up and carries me to a car. At this point i can feel my whole body twitching and shaking. My head falls and i can see those two people outside of the car. My eyes start to roll back in my head and i am fighting it the whole time. Suddenly i am floating above the guy from the parking lot and someone else and the guy was telling the other person what happened. Then i woke up.

Asked by Sweetz

A:

First I should reassure you that dreams like these very rarely come true in a literal way, and it's not possible for another person to literally attack you in your dreams. Even though the dream was quite frightening and may have made you feel scared even after it was over, I don't think your dream literally means that you're going to be shot. However, dreams can be taken metaphorically to help understand your current feelings about some aspect of your waking life, which may in fact shape your future (making dreams seem prescient).

Was the school in your dream somewhere you go to school (or used to go?). In dreams, buildings often represent the dreamer's mind. Let's think about the significance of your mind's choice of a school to represent itself: schools are a place of growth and learning, but also a place of conformity, discipline, and insecurity.

Couple those aspects with the chaos and violence of the dream, and I would say the dream indicates some conflict that needs to be resolved among your peers. In the dream, your friends seemed oblivious to the danger but YOU were the one trying to get them to take notice. As in the dream, you must also be the agent of change in your waking life.

Note also that you were the one who was harmed, presumably for taking action and helping your friends. Isn't it a sad fact of life that the people who try to change things are the ones who often get hurt? Take this as a sign to proceed carefully once you've identified the issue in your waking life that this dream is trying to call attention to.

Violence in a dream, and even dreaming of one's own death, are not uncommon. They should be taken metaphorically and applied to more mundane issues in your life. I hope this helps!

Ask yolfer a question.

Dream of close family member drowning

Q: Dream of close family member sinking under water and I cant save her. Soes this mean anything about her not being safe around water?

Asked by Neesie

A: A dream like that can be very frightening!  I'm glad you sought out answers to its meaning.  It doesn't always have to be taken literally, unless there is something in your waking life that would lead you to think that she is unsafe around water.

I would look at the dream more metaphorically, as a sign that you feel you're unable to provide help or assistance to this family member to the full extent that you would like to.

Bare with me for this last part, it's somewhat strange:  often times the other characters in a dream really represent the different aspects of your own personality.  This would be especially true if the family member is a descendant of yours.  Think about what aspects of yourself this person represents.  Are they aspects of yourself you wish you could "drown"?  Alternatively, water is a symbol of the psyche, so perhaps these are qualities you wish you could internalize and make them part of you?

Hope this helps!  Feel free to post follow-up questions.

Ask yolfer a question.

Dream Interpretation vs Software Development

Q: Hey Joe, welcome to Askablogr! (My business partner has started keeping a dream journal, so I'll definitely send him your way). Does your dream work and your software development work interrelate?

Posted by Chris DeVore

A: Certainly!  The two areas are very similar.  They're both about recognizing patterns, getting to the heart of a problem, and communicating well with others using both symbols and plain English.

Also, I think they're similar in how quickly education in the field reaches a diminishing rate of return, and experience trumps degrees/pedagree.

Dreaming Q&A

Here are answers to some great dream interpretation questions I've recently received (questions posted anonymously, and with permission)

Q: When I have dreamt about the same house, room, parking garage, space, etc. many times or feel like I have, should I pay attention to the fact that "I've been here before" or try to look at the underlying feelings the dream brings up?


A: An enclosed structure (like a "room" or "space") in a dream is often your mind's way of describing itself! So pay attention to your feelings about the space, and try to figure out what facet of your mind is being shown in the dream. Any seemingly insignificant details about the room may actually be important clues...just the fact that you remember a detail from a dream (say, a particular piece of furniture or something on a table) means that it's probably a symbol your mind is using to tell you something.

Q: What about dreaming of either being pregnant, babies, or near people who are pregnant?-is it as simple as wanting that to happen in my life, or more like the old "something is about to be born" in my life.

A: You're right on both meanings. The Freudian "wish fulfillment" interpretation would be that you have a repressed desire to have a child (or another child). Think about your place in life and if it's an appropriate step for now, soon, or the future. Think about why you want or don't want a child.

Alternatively, the pregnancy could be a symbol for a life change in general, or even for an ailment. Recall how you feel in the dreams when you're pregnant, or when you see a baby or pregnant woman in the dream. If the baby or pregnant woman in the dream is actually a person in your life (pregnant or not), think about what it means for them to be going through this life change.

Often times, other characters in dreams are actually the different personalities of yourself, so seeing another person pregnant might be another way for you to see an aspect of your pregnant self. Similarly, seeing a child in a dream is a way to see your child self...either yourself as a young person, or the childish aspect of your adult self.

Q: I have dreams with terrible, horrible bathrooms and I REALLY have to use them in the dream.

A: It may be that you really do have to urinate in real life! If so, I'd avoid liquids 2 hours before bedtime, if possible.

Or like I said above, the bathroom may represent one aspect of your mind...sounds like a part of yourself that is "terrible". Urinating is a form of release, and holding it in is a form of physiological control your conscious mind exerts over your body.

Symbolically speaking, you want to "use" this part of your mind in your waking life. So perhaps there is a repressed part of your personality that should see the light of day from time to time...we all have a darker side. In fact, I was reading a book called "Mastery" not too long ago, and the author suggested that part of a successful well-rounded life is to harness that dark side we all have inside us. Something to think about.

Great questions, keep 'em coming!

Interesting article on sleep

I like this quote about the sleeping mind's ability to tackle difficult problems: "open the aperture of memory"

Greek perspectives of dreaming

In an earlier post I discussed a dream in Homer's The Odyssey.

Ancient Greeks believed that dreams were external forces that revealed themselves to the sleeping mind...hence the phrase "visited by a dream".

According to Homer, Dreams dwell on the dark shores of the western Oceanus (Od. xxiv. 12 ). The deceitful dreams would come through an ivory gate, while the true ones issue from a gate made of horn. (Od. xix. 562, &c.)

Sources:

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology edited by William Smith

DIY Dream Interpretation

I'll be posting a series of articles on how to interpret your own dreams.

The first tip I give everyone is to keep a dream journal, and to write every dream in it as soon as possible. This can be a physical notebook kept next to the bed, an online journal (keep it private), or a combination of the two. I keep an online dream journal, but also use a notebook for times I'm not near a computer.

When writing in the journal, first write the date and time, any background info or circumstances surrounding the dream. Then go into as much detail as you can about the dream itself. You may be thinking "how important can it possibly be that the desk was cracked along one edge?" Well, if you remember it after waking up, it's probably important.

The purpose of your effort will pay off after a few weeks. You'll begin to notice some patterns in your dreams (such as colors, dialog, pace, mood, or lack of any of these).

Finally, you'll begin to appreciate the difference between your significant and meaningful dreams, and the dreams that are just your brain doing some house cleaning. It will be different for each person, so it's hard to tell you how to do this.

Good luck, and happy dreaming!