Drowning
This is such a common dream and has been answered hundreds of times, we first ask you to look through the many answers given in Drowning – Many Replies Hopefully you will find an answer to your own drowning dream
Because of the water, drowning depicts fear of being overwhelmed by difficult emotions or anxieties, so it often points to struggles – conflicts – or fighting for survival you may have in your life. But this might apply not to dangerous emotions or urges, but to natural urges such as eating, loving or sex, that some people have enormous conflicts with. Drowning in a dream is also about struggling to survive as a person, so it applies to your identity as it is dealing with relationship with other people, but also with your own internal world of instincts, body activities and needs.
But the feelings of being overwhelmed can be caused by fear or anxiety. But if we can, we can meet and dissolve these. For whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear. So all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.
So in dreams you cannot drown, but fear takes away your confidence, so then you go through the agonised emotions of drowning.
This is about being or feeling overwhelmed by something. One can ‘drown’ in sorrow for instance. So you need to look at your waking life to see what you are feeling threatened or burdened by and see if there are ways you can deal with it. If someone else actually drowns in the dream it may mean some of your feelings, your creativity and responsiveness are no longer ‘alive’. But they can be brought back to life if you care for that side of yourself. Sometimes it is simply anxiety we drown in, and much of anxiety is about situations we imagine. Separating what is imagined from what is real can help this. See Characters and People in Dreams
But such fear can be caused because if un-dealt with traumas from childhood are not faced, or by being exposed to awful film images that you believe are real. Read and Martial Art of the Mind
If you feel you are struggling to you ‘keep your head above water’ in a dream, do not give in for it is only emotions you are facing, not reality.
Water and drowning often indicates you are facing the unknown changes and so are afraid. But in dreams we can never die or even be hurt, for we wake without real hurt except for our feelings.
Going under water in a dream depicts you are going deeper into your awareness, so you are beginning to explore your unconscious. That is a major step in your development and is an evolutionary advance. It can lead to many major new abilities such as a wider awareness of life around you. A person describes one of the possible changes, “Unexpectedly everything changed and my fundamental self was something that existed throughout all time. It didn’t have a beginning or end. There was no goal to achieve. I am.”
Dreamt about someone else: May occasionally show Your apprehension about their health or well being, having the suggestion of death or breakdown.
Example: ‘I fell into a pond. My brother was frightened to be by himself so he jumped in. We were both drowning in the water and we shouted out for Mum. My brother drowned.’ Poppy S.
Poppy dreamt this while feeling insecure and anxious due to her father being seriously ill.
Example: I had been dreaming about sitting on a sofa with my friends – well watching horror movies, when suddenly everything comes to live. I was afraid of the ghost that had been drowning with her husband in the movie, and it comes to haunt me. I asked the ghost’s sister to help and she passes me a necklace with can protect me. And suddenly the ghost appears and tells my friend she was pretty. What does this means?
It means that you need to understand how your mind works. It means that you have nothing to fear about ghosts. As the ghost that appeared showed you, there was no harm in it. Dream images are like images on cinema screens – harmless unless you are haunted by your own fears. But the dream also shows you that whatever you believe in becomes a fact and alive in our dreams. It mean that the necklace gave you confidence, and in fact the necklace is only a crutch for your confidence. But we need such things until we can deal with our own emotions. See Facing Fear
Idioms: drown your sorrow; if you’re born to hang, you won’t drown.
Useful questions:
What powerful emotions or changes am I dealing with?
Am I feeling overwhelmed by something?
Can I define the strengths and ways I use to deal with threatening feelings?
Do I feel as if I am ‘drowning’ in a situation or relationship?
What is it I am feeling overwhelmed by recently?
Is this someone else drowning – if so what facet of me do they represent?
What resource or person could help me survive in this situation?
Another person or animal drowning still suggests it is an aspect of your own personality you need to care for.
Whoever or whatever it is, imagine yourself back in the dream and save them. If necessary imagine rescue services coming to your aid. In doing this you are using imagery to shift your feelings and anxieties.
All water in some way signifies your own inner world of feelings, but the sea often suggests meeting urges and wisdom lying beyond the boundary of your conscious mind. What is it you feel in the sea or river? Try putting it into words.
See Associations Working With; Techniques for Exploring your Dreams; Avoid Being Victims; Secrets of Power Dreaming
Comments
I had a dream where in the dream I was madly in love with a man. I have no idea who he was when I woke up from the dream so I was really confused. But anyways, this man and I had taken a trip to what seemed like a tropical island. While we were there, we had gone scuba diving. We had dove into the water and spent a long time under water looking st I don’t remember what. When we came back to the surface, I had taken all of my equipment to help me breathe under water off. Then as soon as all of it was off, the man I was with forcefully shoved me under water. He took me pretty far under the water and I was scared and confused. I thought I was going to die and then all of a sudden he was just gone and I was able to swim back to the top. I really don’t understand this.. Help?
Taylor – Unfortunately, like most of us you confuse the dream world with the world of your body. It is also important to realise that every image, every scary or terrifying thing, is taken place inside you, in your mind, as you sleep. This means that every awful animal, every scary thing or person, is created out of your own fears and must not be seen as outside you as happens in waking awareness. The problem is that we are often scared of or frightened of actually experiencing our emotions and so they confront us in our dreams. Avoiding them or controlling them is like running away from oneself – there is no escape – unless you meet them by not running away in fear.
But your dream is a wonderful teaching dream – the man you love is your guide, your future self. A modern view of the personality says that our mind is made up of many modules which are quite distinct. Some drives or areas of self act or express despite what we would want. These are named autonomous complexes. Recent research into brain activity shows that in fact the brain has different layers or strata of activity. These strata often act independently of each other or of conscious will. Sensing them, as one might in a dream, might feel like meeting an opposing will. So you met a part of you that opposed you in some degree.
But the you that you see yourself as – your personality – is just a tiny part of you. It is like living all your life in one room when you have a massive and splendid mansion with many rooms. The loved man was a representation of a part that lives in the mansion, and is trying to show you what a potential you have – so is your future self.
He took you under the surface of your mind, taking beyond the small room you live in, with its fears and preoccupation with the world of the body. It was an initiation to the wonder you are. See http://dreamhawk.com/news/there-is-a-huge-change-happening/
You perhaps couldn’t remember what you saw because it is a strange world and you were still seeing it through you old stereotypes. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-paradigm/
He took you mask and underwater gear off to show to try to show you that you are also a native of a different world or dimension, where you do not need anything to breathe underwater – in your inner world.
But he was just giving you a taster. For the fuller experience you need to try being him – see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
It is just a start if you can take it.
Tony
I dreamed last night about I was helping this old lady with some things and she was driving, we were talking about my mother, mother n law, my two kids and my husband. We came to a stop sign and she backed up 3 times and drove into a ditch canal. My little one year old was in the back seat watch a movie. When we rolled into the ditch I looked back at him and the water was coming in and I was trying to get him out the car seat. The look on his face was fear and I woke up with my heart racing and panic. What does this mean???? I have had several dream kinda like this with my younger child always never my oldest, why???
Just a dream that I was walking down a dock from the ocean with my husband while holding my 7 month old son. A huge wave knocked us off into the water, I couldn’t fight the current under the water. I was swimming under the water, under the bridge trying to swim out and I couldn’t. My husband was under the water trying to help but I could never reach him. My baby was sucked away from me, from the strong water. The dream switched to my husband screaming at me because our son was gone.. And me screaming and crying. Why did I have this dream!!?? It was so very real. I have heard that your dreams come from events in your life, things you see every day. But, I have not had any conversation about the ocean or anything involved with this dream. It has really scared me!
I had a dream I was swimming in a pool. Once I reached to the deep end there was a little girl lying on the bottom. I brought her to the surface and began cpr. She revived. I do not know this little girl. Her mother was there and thanked me.
I had a dream that I saved someone from choking then in the same one there was a old man drowning in a pool.. Buy the pool was in the car park of my work and my work was my house… I told my friend to jump in and grab him and bring him over to me but he was to heavy she couldn’t so I jumped in he was at the bottom and he was so heavy I struggled and just only got him up before he died… Not sure what this could have meant… I continued my dream with random with but I kept randomly telling people look I’m exhausted Iv saved two people today… There it’s lots more to my dream but it would get to long..
The other night I had a dream that I was on a boat/Submarine and a whale came and broke the bottom of the boat with the top of its tail and well people on the bottom began to drown and sharks came but i never have seen any of the people in the dream… why did i dream that then?
I had a dream that my boys drown in a crowded shallow pool of children, i walked in and was searching for them and saw their lifeless bodies on the bottom. I picked both of them up, and tried CPR. I couldn’t save them, in the dream they had been in there for hours. What does this mean??
Iris – I have received many, many dreams like this and not one of them was predicting the death of their children.
Dreaming that your child dies can have several meanings. In some dreams a parent, much to their horror dreams of killing their child; or as one dreamer said, “I saw him jump off a bridge to his death.” This occurred at a time when her young son was making his first moves toward independence, and it was a difficult thing for the mother to face – the loss of her son. So it can easily be shown as the death of one’s child in a dream.
But anxiety is a normal part of life, except as humans we do not deal with it well. Your baby can trigger your mothering instincts with a vengeance. Being female and a mother holds with it an enormously increased anxiety about the baby. They see all manner of things that might be a threat, and I believe that is what such dreams shows. Your imagination for such dangers is enormously increased. This is natural in all female mammals, but is greatly magnified in humans.
I hope this helps.
Tony
My daughtet is only 4years old she’s always dreaming drowning in the sea sometimes its me or her father she’s always crying when she wakes up the latest is she dreamed about elsa in frozen character also drowning its her favorite cartoon character..can anyone tell me whats the meaning of her dream im just confused because she is so young and yet can dream about it already..thanks
So i had a drowning dream. In the dream the water was like meshy, constant small waves from each side , and there was a girl (which i do not know) and a guy ( which i dont know) and we just swimming aroud and then the guy tied the girls hands behind her back with a rop and pushed us both under the water. For some reason i could breath under water and immidietly went to save the girl by dragging her to the surface and untied her. Then me and the girl climb up on a floaty and start going away form the guy. We get to shore where my old best friend was just walking by. It was a really long dream. Please intrepretate asap cos im very anxious about it.. thanks.
I had a dream were I was in water and idk how I got into the water but I was in there I was holding my breath for awhile till I no longer could hold it and right as I started to drown I woke up and I was literally gasping for air because I wasn’t breathing while I was sleep, this happened last week.
I dreamed that I was in an island with my children and wanted to cross a shallow area of water to reach a deeper end but was Warned by two little girls that they’re were sharks and things of that nature the atmosphere went from day to night and I no longer had my children and I decided to swim across the deep end and began to drown, I knew I was going to drown but I no longer cared, my eyes were open as I went in ,all I did was look up and saw the sky and went in deeper till all I saw was the dark water
My dream last night was my son and myself messing around swimming in a river. I saw what looked like an edge and by the time I’d realised it was a waterfall it was too late and we both went over. I felt myself fall then was under the water and looking up I see grass and reeds floating through the peaty water above me with the light shining through but I just couldn’t get my head above. It was almost like a current holding me down. I couldn’t see or feel my son and then it just went black.
This article is really helpful as I’m going through quite an anxious time right now with a few things in life.
Thank you
I had a very vivid dream last night where I was in my friends truck with my dad and brother. Friend was driving. He drove us into a lake, and the truck sank. Him, myself, and my brother manAged to surface but I woke up before I could tell if we got my dad out . it was very scarry
Could you help me figure out what this dream meant?
I had a dream that I was in a really deep pool with my family. Some sea creatures could get in the pool as well. One of my sisters sank to the bottom and we all tried to get her, if we could bring her back up then she would be alive even if she was down there for long. Once she was down there I also saw my friends cat in less deep water that was screaming, I went and saved the cat. This is not the first time I have dreamed about something like this. I have also dreamed about all three of my dogs drowning and I saved them all.
Dear Marie – Being in a pool or with other people around or in it suggests you are sharing a common awareness in some degree. It indicates an opening up of uncharted territories in the unconscious. The depth of the water and the ability of the person(s) are all factors reflecting one’s feelings concerning the unconscious.
See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-unconscious-2/
Sea creatures can depict something arising from within you that you perceive as threatening.
You might allow feelings from within to emerge that had been held back in you and your family, perhaps for generations.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-conjuring-trick/
Actively helping to save “others” that are drowning suggests an action to deal with feelings that might otherwise engulf you or someone else. In this case it is showing what strengths or techniques you use to deal with difficulties and challenges.
Questions you could ask yourself to get a better understanding of your inner world could be;
What powerful emotions or changes am I dealing with?
Am I feeling overwhelmed by something?
Can I define the strengths and ways I use to deal with threatening feelings?
Do I feel as if I am ‘drowning’ in a situation or relationship?
Is this someone else drowning – if so what facet of me do they represent?
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/self-observation/
Anna 🙂