I feel like this dream is important and I really need your help in interpreting it

[EmW96]

Okay, so I am new to this forum and the only reason I joined is because I have this compelling feeling that this is a very important dream! it was the most vivid one I've had in months and I just haven't been able to shake it. I don't remember the beginning of the dream But what I remember that I was sitting in a convertible car driving through a dark wood-surrounded area that I believed to be in Bath, in the UK. I was driving around with a friend of mine when I heard a voice whisper my name (Which was not my real name, the voice called me Lucy and I just knew that was my name). It was calling for me to come meet him (and I think i just remembered that it felt like I was Harry Potter going to meet Voldemort in the forbidden forest to die). I was terrified but I knew I had to do what the voice told me so my friend and I drove through the dark unpaved paths which involved so many turns. In the end we get to a dark part of a forest and I had to descend a really scary staircase into a dark room where there was this man. He was really handsome although he was scruffy, not extremely tall or muscular but he had these green-blue eyes to die for, that looked gentle. I was still terrified of him and he told me I will have to meet him somewhere and that he will arrange for someone to drive me, but he warned me that I might be taken aback by that person's identity. Sure enough as I go out I see one of my friends whom I have grown apart with in the last few months. She has her car with other people whom she forcefully removes out of the car and escorts me in, she is in a mind-controlled state and I was begging her to stop and take me home but she couldn't and I man she physically tried but couldn't. SO in the end terrified she took me to the middle of the wood where a smal square building that is barely as big as a room stood. in the middle of the building was an old staircase that was going down. I jumped out of my car terrified and began running because I felt like I was out of time to get there, and mid straircase i got disoriented and felt like the entire staircase shifted so i was climbing up instead of down. So i had to jump over the railing and run downwards heart thudding as fear filled me. I exited that staircase and was running across the street of a really sunny and warm place still panicking. There were alot of car and the lights were green but non of them moved as I ran across them and towards a pharmacy. The closer I got the more excited I got like I wanted to get there not like I was terrified of him. I walked into the pharmacy and I see the guy in a white coat smiling at me and at that moment I just felt like I have finally found the love of my life, and he smiled at me really calmly. I woke up convinced that that guy symbolised death but this was not in my dream. Can someone please explain this?

[Athanor]

Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some additional general background information about you (and a description of events just before the dream), your feeling that the dream is a very important one is indeed the right emotion to have. That’s because it’s what’s called an “archetypal” dream which comes from the deepest layers of your unconscious. This is shown by such things as hearing the whisper that compels you to seek out the man, the presence of your mind-controlled friend as well as the disorientating staircase etc. This type of dream usually appears at some very important transitional point in the dreamer’s life. The idea is to show the dreamer her or his overall objective situation so that moving forward can be more effective. Of course, because dreams use the language of metaphor and analogy which can be very complex, it’s usually very hard to connect an archetypal dream in a practical way to what’s going on in the person’s life. But for example, in your dream the dark, wood-surrounded area symbolizes a part of your unconscious mind about which you’re not very familiar. Generally speaking, a vehicle in dreams (whether a truck, car, bicycle, ship or aircraft etc.) represents a complex mix of the physical body along with the dreamer’s interests, drives, wishes and beliefs etc. etc. So it symbolizes a kind of body-and-mind mix with which the person moves through daily life. The friend you’re with probably represents one method that you generally use to orientate yourself in making decisions. For instance, you might make important decisions based on your values and emotions. What you are evaluating could be either the facts you obtain from the senses, or instead, from intuitions, so your friend could symbolize one of these. Alternatively, a person could be outgoing and have a quiet friend who appears in dreams as a kind of “compensating companion”. To find a clue about what this particular friend symbolizes in your dream, you can try focusing on her image and see what spontaneous memories, thoughts and feelings come to mind. As you know, Bath got its name from the presence of ancient Roman baths. This location has probably been specifically chosen by the dream to show that some kind of important “baptism” and “change in attitude” etc. is involved at this time of your life. Of course, the central theme of the dream circles around the man and your relationship with him. It might sound like a confusing idea, but he symbolizes in effect your “inner man” with whom you need to have a conscious relationship. This so-called “masculine” part of a woman’s psychology usually involves developing such traits as focus and determination, being target-orientated, assertive, showing initiative and clear thinking, and having an overall ability to look at things as they are in order to decide what’s best for herself, instead of maybe following along too much with what “everybody else does” or with what “everybody wants her to do”. A key thing which your dream points out is that the “man within”, as with any symbolic idea, has two potential sides on a kind of spectrum, one leaning towards the positive and one towards the negative. All of this is probably a little puzzling to you, but basically, in its positive role, this inner figure can become a kind of bridge to the deeper levels of the unconscious mind over time. This takes the form of spontaneous, creative thoughts and ideas for projects etc. etc. that are closely suited to the woman herself, and which can further her unique self-development. However, the negative side consists of the possibility of a woman getting caught up in a certain kind of rigid opinions, “self-evident truths”, and “intellectualisms” etc. While these can seem to help her move forward in a career, for example, the danger is that over time she can tend to become overly argumentative, rigid, controlling, and excessively critical of herself or others. In your dream, the man calls you Lucy and you just know that this is your true name. Since “Lucy” means “light” in Latin, it looks like the dream again chose a very specific detail to get across that the man relates to the “light of consciousness” as gained through the development of “mind” and the intellect. The idea is that a woman should add this side of herself to the understanding that she already has, for instance, from a deep-seated connection with values, emotions and relationships. The danger is also presented in the fact that in the dream, you feel that going to meet him after his whispered summons will lead to your death; that is, if not very careful, you could become “totally unconscious” and be “swept up” by the intellect (e.g. you later find the handsome man who has green-blue eyes to die for). Other positive and negative sides appear (e.g. you’re terrified of the man and his strange request to meet him somewhere else, but his eyes are gentle). The idea of going down a scary staircase into a dark room is meant to emphasize that you’re dealing with something that lies undeveloped and “lower down” in your unconscious mind. So while it can potentially be something very valuable (e.g. you know you must obey this man because “Lucy” is the real you), on the other hand, it could be a treacherous journey into the unknown. The man says he will arrange for someone to drive you to meet him elsewhere, but he warns you that you might be taken aback by that person's identity. The fact that the man points this out, and that the person who’s going to drive you is a mind-controlled former friend of yours show that this dream figure is a very important one to decipher. Since she’s the one “in the driver’s seat” and in fact can’t go anywhere other than where she feels compelled to go is possibly hinting of the danger that a certain inner compulsive and even obsessive attitude in yourself could conceivably “take over” and spoil things as you try to “meet” and “unite” with an inner part of yourself in the form of the man whom you feel later is the love of your life. In this way of looking at your dream, it looks like a fairy tale-like ordeal will have to be gone through in order to rid yourself of a potentially negative attitude as symbolized by your former friend. That this is a crucial part of how you are to move forward is shown by the fact that you are taken to the middle of the forest to a small square building. That’s because anything that’s “in the middle” and is of a “square” shape symbolizes the need to make one’s unique, unconscious potential real in the outside world. In doing so, a person always has to face obstacles and has to be determined to overcome them. The key thing might be the need to resist going “up” when you should go “down”; that is, maybe there could be disorientating and attractive lures towards going “up”, for example, through fulfilling certain money and power orientated ambitions etc., as opposed to remaining humble and grounded in wanting to achieve more personally important goals (e.g. by going down). The idea might also be that by going up the staircase, you would end up once more with the negative, mind-controlled friend, so it might be helpful to use the method mentioned above by focusing on her image in the dream to see what comes to mind. The dream seems to encourage you to “go down” and stick with the earthy, grounded realities of who you are as a complete person in order to find the “love of your life”, maybe both inwardly and outwardly. The bright, sunny day suggests the idea of both emotional warmth and intellectual brightness through which the “traffic” of various obstacles etc. can be overcome as you try to reach an inner union with yourself. The man takes on the role of a “healer” by being in a white coat in the pharmacy, suggesting how important for your all-round “health” that staying in active touch with this inner figure can likely be for you. What a person is thinking and feeling immediately upon waking can also be considered as part of the dream. So symbolically, it looks like dedicating yourself to this inner union now as you move further into your life could involve some big sacrifices related to your current mind-set and goals etc. If so, then the present “you” per se might have to “die” in various ways in order to allow a new level of self-development to move forward. Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this way of looking at your very important dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope that these ideas can be helpful in some way. Please feel free to comment on, or to ask any questions about, this particular way of looking at your dream.

[shadowofwind]

To me most of the imagery in the dream suggests a struggle with a prescription opioid addiction. Not necessarily yours, and not necessarily yet, but the the love attraction to the pharmacist, the fear, the mind-controlled friend, and the gravity reversing staircase are all suggestive of that. This isn't to imply that other interpretations aren't also valid.