Underground Metro Subway
Dreams use the images of being under the ground level and basements to represent our experience of not being aware, or dimly aware of what is going on at the surface level of your everyday life.
Many people do not realise that we have several levels of life we live in. But it is now understood that our brain developed its sections over the long span of evolutionary history. Because of this it has, within and also separate from the two hemispheres of our brain, a number of levels. As our present brain evolved it developed four separate ‘brains’ or levels, each with its own memory, motor and other functions (David J Mahoney, 1991).
We often have no or little awareness of these levels because these four separate ‘brains’ or levels, operates each with its own memory, motor and other functions What is important is that these levels are often described under collective title of ‘the unconscious mind’. I see that it is important for people who want to or try to explore these deeper levels of their awareness to understand, for any expansion of our awareness takes us into the unconscious. Many people trying to do this expect entrance into heavenly worlds, but they forget they are just entering the next or first level of the unconscious, and this is where we have repressed all those things we did not face, the emotions of hurt, the childhood traumas and the fear we have run from are all here.
Of courses many people only want to go upwards and thus try to escape their unconscious to avoid doing their inner housekeeping. See Pandora’s Box
We are all so full of traumas that act as huge blockages that stop us from dealing quickly with such hurts. Unfortunate most sufferers are not even aware that they have been traumatised. Traumas can occur at any time, while in the womb babies who are not loved or are stressed can suffer traumas. Some people are so full of crap that they hold on to, blaming the hurt, the depressing feelings on others, sometimes the smell becomes too much they have to end their life.
“So I came to that frontier with everything that I had. I came with everything that I am, everyone and everything that I love, everything that I possess. And I understood that the process, although it is no form of judgment, nevertheless cannot help but reveal the shadows, the lies, the falsehoods one brings. Because of this it can be a meeting that we might avoid, because we may not wish to lose or have revealed certain parts of what we are, what we hold onto, or what we have hidden within ourselves. But this was quite a wonderful feeling. I understood why Abraham was asked to bring his son to the Mount and sacrifice him. It had nothing to do with killing his son. It represents a willingness to come with everything that you love with the risk that you might lose it. Or at least, it might be revealed to you that it has no real value or place in your life.”
If you take time to watch where any type of memory arises from, you will perhaps realise that it arises from what you experience as a dark place in yourself. Then it is known and is held in the light of awareness. that dark place I link with the core of your existence – the great mystery of the unknown, the mystery of Life. If you care to walk into and explore that dark place you will find wonders.
If we realise that Life existed quite capably for millions of years before the self-aware human personality came on the scene. In all that time the ancestors of the modern human being survived without having a rational mind to reason with, or self consciousness to ask such questions as ‘What do I do about this?’ Nevertheless survival strategies were still developed in their unconscious intelligence. Our unconscious, below the ground level awareness, expresses this wisdom that was developed in humans and animals through millennia.
Life’s age old unconscious processes are still the major part of our being, yet we seldom consciously meet them – except in other levels. As our physical and psychological health depend upon a reasonable co-operation between the spontaneous processes of life and our conscious decisions and actions, the encounter in dreams is vital.
: Usually symbolises inner feelings, unconscious direction and tendencies, things that influence you that act below the level of your everyday awareness. This could include childhood feelings or painful memories that are suppressed; instinctive or intuitive responses; family or personal attitudes that are deeply habitual.
The hidden side of yourself; what is going on underneath the everyday – street level – of your life; your unconscious depths of experience – ancient strata of psychological and physiological processes in you or parts of yourself you have ignored or buried.
Example: Suddenly I was in a huge underground cavern. It was hundreds of feet high and as wide. It had two great statues in it, both to do with death. The whole place overpowered me with a sense of decay and skeletal death, darkness, underground, earth, the end. I cried out in the dismal cave, ‘Death, where is your sting! Grave, where is your victory!’ I immediately had the sense of being a bodiless awareness. I knew this was what occurred at death. Fear and the sense of decay left me. Andrew.
Underground-Metro-Subway: Your exploration or realisation of your own usually unconscious tendencies and influences. Or perhaps what you are doing that is not accepted in general society – an ‘underground’ activity.
Your journeys into what is usually unconscious in you – such as realisation of childhood traits still active in you as an adult – meeting repressed sexuality – discovery of unexpressed potential or insight; something alternative you are considering or involved in – as in ‘underground’ newspaper; your unconscious connections with other people or things. See: tunnel.
Example: I was on a red underground train, sitting at the end of one of those carriages with door only in the middle. I noticed on the seats opposite me some cardboard boxes full of books and pamphlets. On looking at them I realised that they were mine. I got up to leave the train but the gangway was blocked by two well dressed coloured men. One of them – the furthest away – who looked whiter than the other, moved aside in a friendly fashion. The other remained in my way and I bumped into him trying to get by. Then I said “Excuse me” three times. He made no effort to move, in fact purposely ignored me. So I pushed by him, not roughly but firmly. As I stood at the doors waiting for them to open he rushed at me in anger, Our hands linked and we grappled together but I forced his hands down and felt a match for him. It went through my mind as we struggled, “This is what yoga has done.” (That is, given me the strength to hold my own against the coloured man.)
Comments
Hello Tony
I had a dream that I was travelling in a metro train in mountains and there was a beautiful river nearby which was visible from the window. the river was very still and calm. So I asked one of my friend if we can get down somehow and sit down near river bank and just chill for hours. Suddenly water level starts to rise and the river which seems far away with in seconds reaches to us and after that train stops moving it was broken and everyone including me travelling in train became victim of flood I was afraid that time and also my cousin’s were travelling with me. Strange thing is the water was clean. And then I somehow manage to get myself and my cousin’s out of the train through the door and then I realized before flood there was a city on the left of us is now all flooded. And the whole time my face was above the water level. The city was looking beautifull actually and everyone outside the train was actually enjoying it.. people were boating swimming I was also enjoy swimming too and was able to reach at a safe place.the journey started in day time and it is night now so city lights reflecting on the surface of water was actually looking pretty. But the situation in the train was completely different alot of people died there and I was also afraid at that time that I’m gonna die in that train too but I get out it.
Daisy – You are beginning what in dreams and the inner life is called ‘The Night Journey’.
This is a very ancient inner journey open to those with a tendency to explore life and themselves. See https://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-night-journey-the-search-for-self/
You were on a journey which took you into the mountains – a higher state of awareness. You saw the beauty of the river – Each of us is immersed in a ‘river’ of constant change. If you think about it you have been carried, pushed, impelled by this current as you were moved through babyhood, childhood, teenage and adulthood. And as we passed through these changes we died to our old self in order to change to the new. It is the current of Life. This current then carries us on through old age and through the gates of death. All the time we are faced by decisions, and each decision directs us on a different path, helping to create our future. And this is a force of growth and change; and is fought like hell by many as we are often afraid of such changes. But the change that is open to you is one of realising The Self – the emergence into an experience of greater wholeness or completeness; the falling away of the defences, resistances and fears that have held us back from our fullest and most profound experience of ourselves; an experience of enlightenment. It is not a case of developing an attribute we didn’t already have, but of bursting through the personal or culturally imposed barriers that have walled off this greater expanse of self from easy access.
You enjoyed being a part of the river, but you didn’t dive under the surface. Going under depicts one going deeper into oneself. See https://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/mountain-path/
Obviously, on this journey you die, not physically, but you go beyond your personality.
Hello Tony.
I had a strange dream I was in the subway and got separated from my friends. These were two old former high school friends. I had some expensive packages and a coat etc. We were going downtown to have our photos taken. When our stop came I realized, my shoes were gone black chuck sneakers. So I stayed to look. Doors closed separated from two friends. Looked for my shoes refused to leave. Felt tired . Finally found them but then could not count back to the right station. Got off at the wrong station but the ticket man let me back on for free.After I got back inside I was confused. Went on a train felt sleepy got in argument with girl with long hair who made faces that I had brushed against her hair. Realized my expensive parcels were missing. Looked through train found the scattered on a seat beside a dark woman. I was so happy to have found them I started to put them in my purse. As soon as I turned around she took the rest of the objects but had left the empty boxes. She denied it and had a half smile smirk. I told her I knew she had taken them and to give them back. She refused, and had friends around her that had the same look and guilt on there faces. So I proceeded to try to get my things back. No one helped me even though I knew they had seen. One girl started to tape me in confrontation, and a rude brash man with glasses and a trench did as well. I sacked the phones out the way. Train stopped. Ran out tried to find 4th woman who had fled in different directions as there had been an 8th ice when the train stopped. Can you help analyze this, It would mean a lot go me.
Thank you.
Hi – It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/news/summing-up/ and also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/features-found-on-site/ which has so much information in.
Nothing can replace your own ability to understand your dream. With a little effort you can do this by practising what is described in – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/getting-at-your-dreams-meaning/
Tony
Alexandra – In the Subway shows you trying to find your way through emotional reactions, difficult personal attitudes that are just below your normal awareness. So, your dream is showing you the difficulties you hold within you.
Going downtown to get photos, suggest you were trying to get a clearer ‘picture’ of yourself – a better understanding of your life situation.
Losing shoes may point again to your uncertainty of your role in life. Such uncertainty often occurs because the culture we have been raised in has not kept us connected with our own basic life processes. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
You get lost in the many opinions or influences that you face. If we place you in the centre of a circle and put all our dream characters, animals and objects around you in a circle, and if add to this all the many things that impact upon us such as peoples influence on you; your thoughts and emotions and how you are swayed by them; your physical urges such as hunger and sex, and of course pain and pleasure; your desires such as ambitions, your sense of being a success or failure, and the hundred and one other things that hit you as you stand in the middle, as well as your intuition, social pressure, hormonal influences, fears, ideas and images from media or people, your instinctive drives etc., we would see what a diverse mass of influences we stand in the middle of.
You need to find strength not only to face all of that, but also see http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/the-great-and-ancient-secret-part-eight/ and http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/
I grew up in foster care in Brooklyn. I have had many dreams for years about being on subways trains and busses that I actually rode a lot in my waking world, in the years when I was in care, to escape. I’m 63 now, so this is just so curious to me. Many dreams are of being in a certain train junction station, that has many long hallways and very high escalators to get you from one train to the other. This station happens to be between where my birth mother raised all her other children except me, and the street where I grew up in two different foster homes. I don’t really seem to be going anywhere in particular in the dreams, just riding the escalator or walking down the hallway and in my dream I not trying to get to one place or the other.
Another recurring dream is riding the bus that goes between the neighborhood I mostly grew up in and the downtown area in Brooklyn where there used to be a major shopping area. I’m not going shopping, just riding the bus, seeing the neighborhoods as they were when I was a teenager, seeing the shopping area as it was. I haven’t been there since I was a teenager, but know it has changed with the Brooklyn Nets stadium, etc.
Dear Sharon – What all your dreams may reflect is that you have not found a direction yet to face and digest your childhood and teenage experiences that are difficult and painful and which influence may still be unconscious to you.
This may have also led to not going shopping; to not explore what more of Life has to offer you and what more of your potential you are able to express; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/potential/
The way I have learned to face and digest those experiences is by working with my dreams – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/processing-dreams/ – and by an approach that is called LifeStream; http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
See also http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/peoples-experiences-of-lifestream/
Anna 🙂
Hello,
I’m not sure if you are still analyzing dreams on this website, but I’ll leave one here in case you still are. Thank you in advance.
I dreamt that I was talking to my coworker from the office. She is older than me and the same ethnicity as me. We were in her office, even though it looked nothing like her office. It was really small and cramped with lots of stuff in it, and we were sitting adjacent to each other. She asked me what I’m studying and I said Psychology, and she asks wow… do you have any like tips on how to build rapport. I was like um… I don’t remember what I responded if I did at all. Then I’m in the underground subway station. It’s poorly lit and damp and brown and yellow. It looks like the Columbia University 116 street station. I’m walking the opposite direction it seems… as if I’m taking the uptown train instead of the downtown one like I usually do – the perspective is different because I can see both sets of stairs… like when I do take the uptown train (when I’m taking the downtown train, I’m walking down one set of stairs and when I look ahead, it’s just the platform and the vendor). Anyway, I’m walking in the underground subway station, kind of crowded as usual, like everyone is going home or something, like rush hour. I see Emily and I think she glances at me but we don’t say hi or greet each other. The train arrives and I get on. It’s just like the usual, people coming out and going in are pushing against each other. The train doesn’t feel like the one train. It’s small and feels like of mushy… out of sorts and out of perspective. It is also yellow and brown, dimly lit. So it feels crowded and cramped. People are sitting on the seats with 1-2 seats between them. Then they decide to scooch over so the people standing could sit… felt like they were making room for us. So I sit down and I’m next to this guy who puts his arms around me, like on the back of the seat and I’m like what… so I scooched over to my left where it’s an empty seat, next to this black woman who finds a bag on the seat and she’s like oh it’s a nice bag… if no one is claiming it, it’s mine! As I’m watching/listening to her, the guy pokes my thigh. I’m like what the hell and I confront him about it. I said did you just poke me? And he and his friends are like what? I didn’t do anything what’s wrong? Like making a big commotion like teengers do, like really loud on the train. I said um no, first you put your arms around me and now you poke me, what the hell is up? I remember feeling a bit annoyed. That’s the end of the dream.
Dear Cindy – We still make an effort to help people understand their inner world, by giving them tools to explore their dreams; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/peer-dream-group/
I believe that in order to be able to build rapport with someone in our waking life, we can practice with all the different “people” that live in our inner world first.
If you keep in mind that your co-worker and her office are aspects of your inner world too – then you could start with “Being the co-worker” and “Being the office”; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
You can then become aware what it feels like to be really small and cramped with lots of stuff in your mind, and ask yourself if that is a good starting point to make rapport.
You can play with this idea and your dream by exploring different approaches in your imagination – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/active-imagination-and-dreams/ – and become aware with which approach you can build rapport with Emily – “I see Emily and I think she glances at me but we don’t say hi or greet each other” – the black woman and the guy who puts his arm around you.
I believe the dream has served a purpose when you can give any tips to the part of yourself that is symbolised by your co-worker; “do you have any like tips on how to build rapport. I was like um… I don’t remember what I responded if I did at all.”
Anna 🙂
Hello Tony! If you are still interpreting dreams on this site please help? I came online as soon as I woke up! Thank you in advance. I was on the metro relaxed when I saw an old boss I hated with his wife. An older man sat beside me and grabbed me and he kept mumbling about a transfer startled I jumped up and yelled for him to leave me alone! I ran off the train at the wrong stop and a nice lady offered me a handfull of transfers I said no ran upstairs in the station then back down to my train. Then I was at a good friends house whom I haven’t seen or spoken to in awhile but her and her husband were sitting in front of a small black and white TV we began to conversate about usual things but then a tan horse burst in with some little kids. I was afraid but she quieted everyone down but i hadnt really paid attention that her husband was someone else with the same name. Then on the TV there was this huge spider and he slowly crept my way My friend turned him over and he was brown, hairy with two fangs. We all jumped up and ran.
I had a dream where I was sitting with my friends mum talking with her in the sitting room with her other daughter who doesn’t like me but in the dream we all laughed it off and were fine again and when I had left I realised I wasn’t wearing a top and the daughter that doesn’t like me was following me (not in a creepy way) so I went into this house which was also like a restaurant or something and as I was walking up the stairs I had a top on again and another friend was at the top floor so I was talking to her then for some reason I went outside and when I was outside again I was topless and I heard my phone ringing from the inside and it was this boy I like ringing me and my friend wasn’t letting me in and kept teasing me showing who was calling but not letting me in then I woke up
Hello Tony,
I’m not entirely sure if you’re still analyzing dreams here. I’ll leave a comment anyways, in case you do.
Well in my dream I was riding the Subway. I was wearing just casual clothes and there wasn’t a huge crowd waiting for the Subway. Then comes down the stairs, is my ex-boyfriend. He waves at me and I wave back at him, then he comes over to me and we greeted each other and started talking about what our plans were together.
That’s the end of the dream for me. What could that possibly mean?
I had a dream that I was late for something and I have to rush, and then I end up climbing something likes hill. It was tiring, but I was able to get up fast. The hill lead me to some sort of subway station where many other people were waiting for the train. The train doesn’t come, and somehow many ppl start walking toward the cave. Suddenly, there is light coming from the other end of the cave, and we saw the train coming fast. There were two man ahead everyone, it looks like the train was going to hit them. Fortunately it didn’t. The subway turned 90 degree and it miss the two. Near to the end, I said something like “it scares me to dead” to some girl i meet in the station, and we end up laughing with each other. Somehow, in my dream, it tells me that this girl is the girl I loved before when I was still in high school. After this, I got another dream.
Karu – Our dreams are often about the state of our inner world – our thoughts and feelings, and our personal growth. Being late seems like you need to catch up with your inner world. Because of that you climb a hill which represents effort on your part to get a clearer view of your life and where to go with it.
The subway station is another sign that you are exploring new areas of thought and insights. It also suggests making a change in your life, much of which facing the unknown in yourself and the world. This is frightening because it is a new area of your experience, a walk into the unknown again. The girl is a sense of love and warmth you developed in a past relationship, and is a source of courage for you.
Overall you are making progress in your life.
Tony
I had a dream that i was at the train station waiting for the train with 2 of my 3 children (5 & 7yrs) and my neice and nephew (same ages), but because there seemed to be trouble going on at that station, i took the kids across the road to the underground train station.
The kids were happily playing around when i heard gunshots coming from one tunnel and the people waiting also started panicking. I grab the three kids closest to me and push them towards the entrance of one tunnel and tell them to run while i go back for my nephew who seemed to be caught on the staircase bar. My two kids and niece wouldnt leave without me which made me panic because i couldnt seem to get my nephew free from the bar and the gunshots were getting closer and closer. I woke up but not before seeing the terrified look on my nephews face!
Needless to say that dream has scared the bejesus out of me and has left me wondering whats going on in my head! Any clarification on this dream will be welcome! Thank you kindly
Jan – I believe the dream is a reflection of your caring mother feelings, not only for your own children but for the wider family.
Such dreams are common among women whose child shows any signs of becoming independent. This is because a mother has a living inner link with her child, and it feels like a part of them is dying – thus the dreams.
Some years ago, while I was leading a dream group to explore their dreams, a woman told us a dream that was so real it terrified her. She dreamt that her daughter had been murdered. It took the group a while to hit the real feelings behind the dream. She told us her daughter had recently left home, and as we gradually unfolded what she felt it suddenly exploded in her sobbing with real anxiety and passion. It was the first time the woman’s daughter had really left home and the feeling of loss was so deep that it was shown in her dream as murder. In our dreams it mirrors what we feel and fear; and the woman was terrified that harm would come to her daughter, on top of the fact she had cared for her child all her life, and the shock of her leaving was awful. Underneath our personality we are in fact creatures of enormous passions.
Here is another persons dream along the same lines:
Today is my daughter’s birthday and I woke up horrified as I was dreaming she was murdered. Today of all days. She has recently moved away.
A mother has a much heightened sense of danger and of protection, so in her dreams she explores these and how to deal with them. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/
Such feelings are natural in all mothers. When my son Leon was working for a year prior to entering Cambridge University, he met people who owned wolfhounds, and often walked the dogs. I went with him a couple of times. The dogs were kept in a large pen, and owner went to get the keys for the pen. While we were waiting at the door one of the dogs, a bitch, was kept in the house. The bitch came to the door to look at us, then ran back, only to reappear again a few moments later to look at us anxiously. This was repeated a few times. I asked my son if she had pups and he said yes. So as soon as she saw we were strangers she rushed back to her pups to check they were okay. Then, for the short period we were there she continued to come and look at us with obvious tension, and then run back to check her pups.
Tony
Hello Tony,
I don’t know if you are still analysing dreams on this website but I will leave one here so if you have time I’d love to hear your analysis- Thank you in advance…
I was on a subway in New York. I had fallen asleep on the bench. There was a young man sitting across from me watching me the whole time. When I awoke I asked him, “where am I?” and he said, “you’re in Brooklyn.” I knew he was not “of this planet” – he had long straight blond transparent hair and very clear blue eyes, sort of like an Albino. (note: yesterday, my boyfriend was wearing a t.shirt that said, “Brooklyn” on it.) I felt a bit lost and still in a hazy sleep so he stayed close by for a bit then I realized that Brooklyn had changed a lot. There was lots happening. There were lots of new stores too. As I was walking on the sidewalk observing all the newness I stopped at a small stand that was selling boxes of couscous that had a brand name that was my mom’s name, Liliane. I thought of buying her one but then I changed my mind (note: my father is Moroccan and we used to eat couscous at home). I kept walking and looking around feeling a bit safer seeing the street was lively and busy in a positive way.
Keren – I take it you do not live in New York at the moment. And being asleep on the subway in New York tells me that you have been largely asleep to the wonders of your inner life. Not so unusual because even though we are an experienced explorer of that world it is so enormous that of course we are all asleep to most of it.
You woke up to realise that you have been watched over by someone who is not of this earth – lucky you!! Brooklyn seems to be a lively and innovative place in the centre of New York, which is for many associated with the ‘New World’ with all its meanings. So you are on the verge of discovering a New World and some of what it offers.
Don’t worry about the associations with the t-shirt and mother’s name they are ways our associations help us to realise what we have received formlessly from within. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/association-of-ideas-with-dreams/#Working and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Symbolism and http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
Tony