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Dream Interpretation Samples
The following are actual dream interpretations that have been published with the dreamers' permission. Italicised text indicates the dreamers' input. No dream interpretation is ever published without written consent from the dreamer.Sample Dream Interpretation 1
Dream submitted by Alison X 06/02/01
Alison’s Dream:
I saw myself as a little girl standing in a basement with my father, holding his hand. I was crying but he was smiling. Suddenly my father disappeared and I was alone. I went up the stairs and found myself in an upstairs apartment of a double storey building. Everything in the room was orange. There was a man there and he was shouting at me to open the window. I opened the window to let some air in but was afraid I would fall out and die so I closed it quickly and ran back down the stairs into the street below. A man came out of nowhere with a knife and started chasing me. I was terrified of him. I ran into a lighthouse, right to the top of the spiral staircase and found myself in a blue room. I realised that he was still chasing me and that I was trapped. I knew he would kill me so I looked out of the windows to see if I could jump. On the one side was a lake and on the other side, a golf course. I decided that if I jumped in the lake I would drown, so I jumped onto the golf course. I lay on the grass, almost dead, and some people came out to help me. They carried me to the club house which became a hospital. They tried to help me but I knew I was dying. I saw a bottle of milk standing on the counter and knew I had to drink it - it was the only way that I would live. I slid off the bed and tried the grab the milk but the bottle kept moving away from me and then grew legs and ran out into a busy street. I dodged cars and chased after it but lost it amidst all the traffic. A car ran me over and killed me. Additional information My father died when I was 6. Also, when I died at the end of the dream, I was smiling. I could not understand this. I could not stop crying for about 2 days after this dream.
Carine's Response # 1 to Alison’s Dream 07/02/01
Alison's Reply is included in italics 08/02/01
Alison, I have some questions regarding your dream:
1. Were any of the following locations familiar to you or do they remind of you anything, and if so, what is their significance:
a. The orange apartment;
> It was a lot like my first apartment when I left home.
b. The lighthouse;
> My mother lives near this lighthouse.
c. The golf course;
> The golf course is where my current husband plays golf.
d. The lake.
> I don't know the lake.
2. It seems that there is a child involved in this dream scenario. Is this your child and if so, please give more details about your relationship with the child.
> I have a 1 year old child. She is very sweet but she uses temper tantrums to get her way with me.
3. Can you separately describe your relationship with mother and father?
> The relationship with my mother is not great. I was very close to my father.
4. Could you give me some details on male relationships in your life which you’ve viewed as threatening or threatened (in any way)?
> My first boyfriend was a womaniser and left me when he found out that I was pregnant and then I miscarried. Then I met my first husband who abused me physically and I ended up in hospital the last time. Then I married my present husband and we are happy, but he spends his life playing golf and this causes us to fight a lot.
Carine's Response # 2 to Alison’s dream 08/02/01
Alison's Reply # 2 included in italics 09/02/01
The Orange Apartment
I’m hazarding a guess that the relationship with your first boyfriend was in some way associated with the orange apartment. In terms of the chakras, the orange everywhere seems to indicate a feeling of being emotionally overwhelmed (2nd chakra) and also draws my attention to the womb area, which could symbolise the pregnancy and miscarriage. Could this man’s womanising possibly have had something to do with feeling suffocated within the relationship? Were you afraid that if you "opened the window on this relationship" and given him some air (i.e. breathing space and/or loosened your grip a little) that you were afraid you would lose him and "die" in the process?
> I met my boyfriend when I lived in the similar looking apartment. I think you’re right about the him and the orange, because it also just occurred to me that my boyfriend and I moved into a house in Oranjezicht after that, which also has to do with orange. I think he felt suffocated, because I tried to stop him going out on his own because I felt I could not trust him. I hoped that the pregnancy would help him to take the relationship more seriously, but it ended up destroying the relationship, which nearly destroyed me.
The Lighthouse
Based on your previous response, it seems that the man with the knife may be your 1st husband. Did you meet him very soon after or during the relationship with the boyfriend? I found it interesting that you’d barely left the orange building when you encounter him. Also, it is interesting to note that he appeared to be hostile from the outset and you were possibly aware of this? If this lighthouse is the usual red and white, it may be indicating the medical attention (red and white medical symbol) you required after having been abused within the relationship and also that that served as a warning (lighthouse being a warning beacon) of danger which could kill you (warning you to get away from your husband). Did your mother play some role in the recuperation process?
> I met my first husband during my relationship with this boyfriend . At first I really disliked him - I thought he was the rudest, most insensitive person I'd ever met. But I changed towards him when he stepped forward to comfort me after the break up with my boyfriend. We became close and eventually got married. The lighthouse is red and white and my mother has always been there to pick me up when I've fallen.
The blue room which you speak of is also significant. It may indicate the 5th chakra, which is your seat of power, yet you are once again threatened within it, again possibly indicating that you had given your power away and it was being used against you (or to entrap you). It may also indicate the inability to or unwillingness to speak your truth within this relationship. Can you comment on this?
> My first husband was very domineering and I was not even allowed to have opinions about anything for fear of verbal or physical abuse. In the end he did abuse me very badly. I was too afraid to "speak my truth".
The Lake
The meaning of the lake is still unclear to me other than that it may represent stagnant emotions, but I do sense that there's more to this. From a practical point of view, if one has the choice between the lake and the golf course as one’s only chance of survival, it seems that the lake is the lesser evil of the two. Yet you choose the golf course, knowing that you will die if you choose the lake. It seems that the theme of blue continues from the lighthouse into the lake. Was there ever perhaps an association between your first husband and a lake of sorts?
> Yes! I lived in a suburb called Lakeside, and our house was two streets away from a large lake.
The Golf Course
Again I notice that you’ve barely landed from this relationship when your current husband appears to step into the picture (if the golf course represents him). The abundance of green could be associated with a strong heart connection between you and your current husband, which is enhanced by the fact that he rescues you from your 1st husband’s clutches. Was this the case?
> Yes, I met him and he took care of me when I ended up in hospital after the last time my first husband beat me.
It is interesting that the medics (possibly your current husband) are unable to save you and you seem to believe that your baby (bottle of milk) will save you, but the baby is unable to do so. Do in any way recall feeling that having a baby would provide a solution to some area of difficulty in your life?
> When my relationship with my 2nd husband started going sour (he became a golf addict), I felt that having a baby might give him more reason to stay at home instead of playing golf. He was home more often until my daughter was 3 months and then went back to his old ways.
OVERVIEW
This is clearly a big dream i.e. a potentially life-changing dream, depending on what you do with it. It seems that there is a relationship between the loss of your father and the type of men you’ve sought out in your life. My guess is that as a child, your father was everything to you, in that you surrendered yourself to him entirely and idolised him, which is perfectly appropriate for a child. However, I wonder if you didn’t continue to seek out your father in your later male relationships by firstly seeking out men whom you felt were more dominant than you (like your father naturally was), and in doing so, surrendered your power to them too. There may also be the possibility that you did not fully grieve your father’s death at the time (possibly due to not fully understanding what had happened to him at the time) but remembered the pain of the loss and so associated the dominant male in your life with pain, thus unconsciously seeking out men who brought you pain. It seems as though you’ve carried this pattern forward in a modified form to your relationships with your current husband and child. The theme of chaos, powerlessness, fear, unhappiness and lack of control runs throughout the dream. It seems that you feel like you’re never in charge (despite wanting to be), are continually giving your power away and then finding that it turns against you. I strongly suggest that you watch out for areas where you feel that you're not in charge, and look at ways in which to take charge without needing to dominate or be forceful, or through ways which are likely to put you through misery. I believe that by simply identifying the emotions attached to the feeling of being dominated would serve to highlight these times to you - your job is then to examine and change the beliefs behind the emotions. I hope this is helpful to you.
Alison’s Response 14/02/01
Your dream interpretation has opened my eyes....wide! My husband and I have decided to see a therapist and I will let you know how we get on. Thanks very, very much!
Sample Dream Reading 2
Dream submitted by Suzanne 21/07/02
Suzanne’s Dream:
In the dream I always start out with me trying to get into what used to be my home (now my ex-boyfriend's house). There is a really evil woman there who tries to stop me from entering. My boyfriend just looks on and seems to be agreeing with her, so I leave. I end up in a house that I've never seen before. The front steps of the house are made up of telephone books but when I open them, there is nothing inside. The house is very dark and damp. There are no lights in the house so I find a candle but I can't light it because there's too much liquid coming out of the walls. I want to clean it up but when I turn on the tap, blood comes out of it. It floods the basin and spills onto the floor. I want to run away but all the blood has been drained from my legs and they have evaporated. The blood begins boil to flood the bottom floor and rises to the ceiling. I know that the only way I will live is by opening the door between my house and my boyfriend's house so that that the blood level will drop and I will be able to breathe again. I dive under the blood and try to find the front door but the blood is pushing against it from my side and my boyfriend won't open it from the other side. I begin to drown and burn up in the boiling blood. I wake up sobbing.
Additional Comments:
I started having this dream about two months ago when I moved into my new apartment. I dream it around 3 times in a week. Strange thing is that every time I dream it, I wake up immediately afterward and the time is always between 4.20 - 4.25am.
Carine's response # 1 to Suzanne’s Dream 22/07/02
Suzanne's Reply is included in italics 22/07/02
I can understand why this dream upsets you. It seems to me that this is a guidance dream and concerns people in your life as well as major issues which you need to release. While other people in dreams usually represent an aspect of you (and there is an element of that in this dream too), I strongly suspect that this dream is primarily pointing to other people in your life. Before giving you my interpretation of this dream, I'd like your input on the following:
1. Something sudden, dramatic and painful has occurred between you and your boyfriend. Can you give me more detail on this?
I grew up with my boyfriend and lived with him for the last 3 years. We were a really happy couple and planned to get engaged next year. He travels a lot and suddenly one day when he came back from a business trip to France, he told me he saw no future for us, and asked me to move out. I have grown up with him and I've never seen him act this way.
2. Who or what does this other woman represent to you?
I don't know this woman but I suspected many times that there was another woman and I asked him about it often, but he would just get angry at my lack of trust in him and would refuse to discuss it further.
3. Have you maintained contact with your boyfriend since the break up, and if so, what is your relationship like now?
Our parents are best friends, so I see him every few weeks at social gatherings. When we're with our families, it's just like old times, like we never broke up. I can see that he loves me and misses me, but then when we're away from our families, he acts like he doesn't know me.
4. It seems that you're harbouring extreme anger and hurt over this situation but have not yet expressed it. Can you elaborate on this?
Yes, angry and hurt, but my boyfriend refuses to listen or answer any questions. He walks away or puts the phone down. He has also forbidden me from going to his house so I can never catch him alone to talk to him.
Carine's response # 2 to Suzanne’s Dream 22/07/02
It is clear to me that you're very confused and that you're having difficulty in making peace with this break up owing to the inconsistencies and mysteries, which is perfectly understandable. It is also apparent that the emotional side of this situation has been extreme for you and that there has been little or no outlet for expression of either the anger or the pain. This experience has been draining for you and has immobilised you in terms of moving forward with your life, leaving you feeling quite powerless and helpless. For the sake of your own well-being, you really need to find a way to reclaim your power. Clearly the situation cannot continue as things currently stand, it is way too costly for you and has impacted at many levels. The passive stance which you've adopted up to now with your ex is not serving you in that you don't understand what you're really dealing with in this situation, and his unwillingness to give you satisfactory answers clearly isn't helping. This dream is showing you that there is information which is being withheld from you and it is understandably difficult to find inner peace under the circumstances. Also it seems that your ex is not prepared to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions, and this is adding considerably to your frustration. It seems that the key to resolving your anger lies in demystifying this foggy haze of mysteries and uncharacteristic behaviour. Your dream is showing you that it's time to approach your ex and openly share your feelings with him irrespective of his unwillingness to hear you or his reaction to them. You do need to find a way to speak your mind as well as establish the truth, as absence of either has clearly become too overwhelming for you. In the interim, it makes sense to try and dissipate some of the anger and hurt before you approach him and in so doing, regain some of your strength. A good method for doing so would be by giving intent prior to going to sleep to open the door between your blood soaked house and that of your ex, should the dream recur. Then watch what happens. A lot of healing takes place in the dream planes and if you're able to do this successfully, the relief for you will be enormous. If you're unable to do this during your dreams, go into meditative state and visualise opening that door and seeing yourself coming out of the original dream situation in a way that is comfortable and pleasing to you. Either approach will bring you considerable relief. Let me know if there are any aspects of my interpretation which do not resonate with you, so that we can revisit them. I wish you lots of love and strength!
Suzanne’s Response to the Dream Interpretation 23/07/02
I agree completely with your interpretation. Last night I had the dream again, but this time I was able to open the door a little. I will keep trying until I get it right. Thanks for the helping me to gain the confidence to confront this.
