Building Mental Hospital Asylum
This depends on what is felt in the dream. So it could be a fear of your own mental and emotional stability, or a process going on within you of meeting the traumatised or neurotic aspects of yourself and transforming them.
Example: Dreamt I was a voluntary worker in a mental hospital or insane asylum. I was only an untrained helper, and there were many professionals, doctors. I walked down a staircase from higher floors. There were many closed doors behind which, I knew, were women living as enclosed nuns in the life of prayer. But I felt there was much mental illness contained in what they were experiencing. This recalls another previously unremembered dream in which I wandered a corridor where there were cells of nuns living an enclosed prayer life.
This dream suggests the dreamer is actively and voluntarily approaching and trying to deal with his own irrational nature and neurosis. The women behind closed doors depicts aspects of his own emotions, of himself that have been closed off through practices he used to control or deal with his own neurosis. He had practised a lot of prayer and meditation, and the dream suggests a lot of ‘mental illness’ was contained in that practice – both involved in and also held in check.
The irrational shows itself in our daily life as moods that arise for no apparent reason; feelings of despair or emotional pain that destroy the pleasure of our life; crazy urges or actions; body tics and unwilled movements. The source of any or all of these we approach when we dream of an asylum or psychiatric hospital.
Example: This caused large numbers of inmates in the asylum to gather about us. The expression of love had attracted them, whereas ordinary movements or conversation did not make one conspicuous. Such a large group of these people was dangerous, because they were unpredictable and could be violent. The woman attendant withdrew because of the danger. I was in the middle of a tight crowd pressing in on me, and was afraid. The tension mounted and people began to jab or push me. Someone poked their penis in my buttocks. I tried to push them away but was so crowded I could hardly move. My fear melted, and I wildly sought some way of dealing with the situation. I began to chant, feeling that this might ease the situation. Gradually the tension lessened, and my fear decreased. Then I surrendered and allowed LifeStream to occur, knowing this was the way to deal with everyone’s sickness. Other people also began the healing movements, and I knew the healing had begun, but I would have to come back weekly and help the people until the shaking spread to everybody, and help them until they were healed.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What sort of irrational feelings or behaviour does my dream point to, and can I recognise it in myself?
Am I in a helping role or do I feel lost or imprisoned in the asylum?
What can I do through visualisation to shift and difficulties I find in the asylum? For help doing this see Stand in Role and Acting on your dream.