Desperate for Help

I barely dream but I am having the hardest time with one that I had last night... I would be so grateful for someone to help me.

I had a dream last night that I was in an apartment that had all of my furniture and things in it. I was in my bedroom when I heard people outside the door, when the door started to open, I hid under the bed. I didn't get under fast enough though so two men who were walking in saw the sheets moving and found me underneath the bed. I got out on my own will and begged them not to hurt me, I told them that they could take all of my belongings as long as they left me. I was introduced to the head woman in charge of taking everything. She told me that she would spare me as long as they could clear out my apartment. I said yes and started watching as they took all my furniture. I remember feeling almost attached to the woman who was in charge and directing everything. We were talking and she told me that this was a premeditated attack and that they had scouted my place out. I remember them starting to carry out this old chest that was handed down from my great grandma(in my room in real life, and this great grandmother died a month ago in real life as well) to me and I begged her to leave it. She agreed and we started to bond more. She asked me to follow her down stairs outside. As I did, we were watching them pack up the moving van and nobody was stopping them but they all knew that I was being robbed. It was dark outside and I wondered why there were so many lights on. After they had packed everything up, I remember looking up at my wall and realizing they had left my 80 inch TV and thinking that that was odd. Right before the woman and her workers left, she gave me a hug and told me that I needed to wash my hair.
After that part of the dream, I found myself in my grandparents house with a strange man, I remember him leaning in to kiss me and i pulled away really quickly because I felt guilty because I am married. I ran away from him and ended up on the top of this mountain. It was almost like it was an amusement ride but it was all natural and there was a river going down the side of it. I got on an inter tube and the man who kissed me was in a tube behind me as well as my best friend, Jen. as we went down the mountain, there was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, so I pulled out my phone to record it but was concerned it would fall in and ruin it and that I wouldn't be able to send the videos to my husband. There were tons of trees and mountains in the background. as the river picked up speed my best friend and I eventually ended up away from the guy and we later found out that he had a disease and ended up dying. I was relieved because then my husband wouldn't be concerned about the guy kissing me. I found the guys medical files in the river and my best friend and I continued to flow down the mountain. As we were nearing the bottom I got caught in a huge crowd of people who were partying and wouldn't let me keep flowing through. They shoved me down and tried to prevent me from coming up for air, but I made it through them and was reunited with my best friend. As we got out of the river and started running to her car, it started to get dark again. As we started driving down the highway, I looked to my right and saw the most beautiful waves I have ever seen, they were electric blue and almost looked like lightning as they crashed into each other. The waves were flowing sideways and I remember being scared of how daunting they were, but also intrigued because they were so beautiful.
In the ocean were 3 crosses, one in the middle taller than the other two. I was in awe at how I thought of Jesus and what he did for us but as I looked closer, I saw a group of drunk people at the bottom of the cross being blasphemous and being drenched with rain but they kept chanting. It made me so upset that I turned around to the mountain and walked through a crowd of people proclaiming the Holy Spirit and singing loudly about Jesus to try to counteract their horrible words.

Then I woke up, it was the most vivid and terrifying dream.

Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some general background information about you (and a description of events just before this upsetting dream), a few ideas can be tried out to see if they might fit your personal circumstances in some way.

Just to start off by mentioning that the language of dreams is one based on analogies and metaphors which of course can be difficult to understand.

Also, dreams are the broad equivalent to those processes which keep our physical bodies in an equilibrium.

For example, automatic adjustments are continually made to keep one’s temperature, blood sugar level, water content etc. etc. at appropriate levels.

In an equivalent way, dreams try to maintain an overall psychological balance which will allow for the gradual all-round self-development of the dreamer.

So with your vivid dream, it’s possible that a certain way of acting or thinking etc. has perhaps been building up over a period of time and has reached a kind of climax when this outlook or attitude should be looked at more carefully.

Or perhaps a recent unusual incident somehow highlighted such an underlying problem which your upsetting dream is trying to urge you to examine more fully.

Generally speaking, the apartment symbolizes your overall conscious personality at this time while your furniture and other items represent things such as various accomplishments, beliefs and ways of orientating yourself etc.

Also, the appearance of an apartment or house partly involves how we present ourselves to others and how we wish to be perceived by them.

A bedroom is of course where we sleep and on analogy, being in your bedroom in the dream and hiding under the bed probably suggests that you might wish to remain “asleep” and “unaware” of various matters related to yourself and others in general.

So maybe the dream is saying that if an attitude continues which generally seeks to “keep you unconscious”, then unpleasant consequences could potentially occur, e.g. the men and woman arrive to steal all of your belongings as they had planned to do.

When such an event happens in outer life, we feel that as a person, we have been violated; that is, our conscious identity and “who we really are” hasn’t been respected.

The basic all-round and real “you” as a woman is probably represented by the old chest that was handed down from your great grandma who sadly recently died.

Unfortunately, the men who take the furniture could possibly symbolize a barely conscious stream of self-hurtful put-downs in the form of thoughts and opinions such as “How you ever got a husband is a mystery because you’re so dumb” etc. etc.

Of course, such thoughts would “rob you” of feelings of accomplishment and self-esteem in a gradual way over time, potentially leading to a feeling of “emptiness”, e.g. the apartment is essentially totally cleared out by the men.

The gang-leader is a woman who represents a part of your psyche which apparently could leave you “bereft” overall if not kept a close eye on.

You could try focusing on her image in the dream and see what memories, thoughts and feelings spontaneously come to mind. Then by sifting through what emerges, hopefully a clue will appear as to what attitude, habit or viewpoint etc. she symbolizes so that any appropriate changes in your overall approach to what she represents can gradually be made over time.

Probably if an improvement can be made, this part of your psyche could apparently expand outward into a healthier and less destructive attitude (e.g. she lets you keep your great grandma’s chest) so that you’ll never have to feel terrified, “robbed” and bereft in the future.

The fact that no one helps you even though they know you’re being robbed might symbolize the idea that it’s up to you alone to change the conditions that allow for such a “robbery” of almost all of your “vital belongings”, as it were, to ever happen.

You can also try gathering your memories etc. in connection with the 80 inch television that’s left on the wall, but generally speaking, it looks like it could possibly represent an over-reliance on certain collective ideals and beliefs etc. as based on the analogy that television content is mostly created by powerful organizations whose only criterion for success is usually “pleasing the masses” and obtaining “money” as opposed to fostering individual psychological growth among the population overall.

The woman then gave you a hug, told you that you needed to wash your hair and left.

Based on some analogies that would take too long to describe, hair usually symbolizes the free flow of energizing and potentially transforming thoughts, intuitions and fantasies etc.

The woman implies your hair is “dirty”, perhaps a clue that her unredeemed self as a psychic figure doesn’t like certain darker themes and ideas etc. as connected to life in general and therefore, keeps you from exploring them by urging you to “keep things clean” at all times.

The dream might be briefly hinting at how to approach any such problem by setting the next scene in your grandparents’ house.

That is, perhaps you might tend to be too grounded in various basic, well-established and workable beliefs developed during your upbringing which of course are quite valuable, but which might be hindering too much the exploration of certain more “dangerous” intuitions and goals etc. of your own, e.g. the strange man kisses you.

You feel guilty because you’re married and run away, ending up on a mountain which has a somewhat gigantic water-related amusement ride.

A mountain in dreams often symbolizes the potential overall development of a person’s inborn legacy of abilities and talents etc. which was also probably symbolized by your great grandma’s chest.

The man who kissed you is on the ride behind you while your best friend Jen is with you.

This probably represents the idea that you can’t get away from the inner man who may come up with startling ideas and thoughts etc. about how to go about things etc.

Maybe this includes the idea of needing to take in and enjoy life for yourself (the beautiful mountain scenery) and not just needing to please others too much (e.g. the phone could just distract you from experiencing things directly for your own good).

Perhaps your fear of the man could get out of hand and he could “die” (i.e. become totally unconscious) from the “disease” of being shut out of your awareness too often.

The idea could be that if you did manage to shut out various ideas and impulses etc. that are natural and normal, emotions could tend to build up and “drown” you (e.g. the partying crowd).

Your best friend might have a similar outlook to your own which, if it became too strong, might lead gradually to increasing unconsciousness overall (e.g. you meet up with her again and it gets dark).

Also, because of the colour blue, the fascinating and powerful electric blue waves of the ocean might symbolize the intellect and certain fixed opinions and beliefs that, while beautiful, are also dangerous.

The danger might be hinted at by the fact that the three crosses are on the ocean and not on “solid ground”.

This could mean that certain beliefs etc. might tend to be “supported by” only strong stormy emotions (e.g. the roiling ocean) which might unfortunately betray some underlying doubts and fears instead (i.e. about how the drunken chanting people, i.e. annoying thoughts and ideas etc., could potentially upset various fixed beliefs because they’re “outcasts” and say “blasphemous” things).

Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this way of looking at your upsetting dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this particular way of looking at your dream.

Wow. This was pretty spot on.
I just moved across the country and am undergoing significant life change.
I have struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder triggered by ptsd.
last year the man who killed my father (a police officer) was executed and I have felt a lot of guilt. Even though I never believed in the death penalty.
Thank you so much for helping me and bringing me clarity. I have just started having really vivid dreams and had no idea where to start.
You're awesome!!!

Hi again,

I’m very glad that this way of looking at your dream was helpful because, from what you’ve written, it’s trying to help you through the very tragic loss you suffered and the subsequent distressing events that you’ve had to go through.

If a person has a knack for looking at their dreams, they can at least be helpful for keeping an eye on what’s happening inside even though full interpretations can’t be made.

To see if you’d feel like learning more about analyzing your dreams to some extent, you might like the short introductory book “Dream Work: 10 Lessons for Understanding Dreams” by Jungian analyst Katherine Olivetti although it’s apparently available only through an Amazon Kindle version.

Other reliable introductory books are “Inner Work” by Robert Johnson, and “Jungian Dream Interpretation” by Dr. James Hall.

So best of luck as you “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again”!