Similar Articles
Recurring Dreams
If we keep a record of our dreams it will soon become obvious that some of our dream themes, characters or places recur again and again. These recurrences are of various types. A certain theme may have begun in childhood and continued throughout our life – either without change, or as a gradually changing series of dreams. It might be that the feature that recurs is a setting, perhaps a house we visit again and again, but the details differ. Sometimes a series of such dreams begin after or during a particular event or phase of our life, such as puberty or marriage.
The theme of the dream can incorporate anxious emotions such as the example below, or any aspect of experience. One woman, an epileptic, reports a dream that is the same in every detail and occurs every night.
In general dreams recur because there are ways the dreamer habitually responds to their internal or external world. Because their attitude or response is unchanging, the dream that reflects it remains the same. It is noticeable in those who explore their dreams using such techniques as described under processing dreams, that recurring themes disappear or change because the attitudes or habitual anxieties that gave rise to them have been met or transformed.
Example: ‘This dream has recurred over 30 years. There is a railway station, remote in a rural area, a central waiting room with platform going round all sides. On the platform mill hundreds of people, all men I think. They are all ragged, thin, dirty and unshaven. I know I am among them. I looked up at the mountainside and there is a guard watching us. He is cruel looking, oriental in green fatigues. On his peaked cap is a red star. He carries a machine gun. Then I looked at the men around me and I realise they are all me. Each one has my face. I am looking at myself. Then I feel fear and terror.’ Anon.
A recurring environment in a dream where the other factors change is not the same. We use the same words over and over in speech, yet each sentence may be different. The environment or character represents a particular aspect of oneself, but the different events that surround it show it in the changing process of our psychological growth and experience. Where there is no such change, as in the example above, it suggests an area of our mental emotional self is stuck in a habitual feeling state or response.
Some recurring dreams can be ‘stopped’ by simply receiving information about them. One woman dreamt the same dream from childhood. She was walking past railings in the town she lived in as a child. She always woke in dread and perspiration from this dream. At forty she told her sister about it. The response was, ‘Oh, that’s simple. Don’t you remember that when you were about four we were walking past those railings and we were set on by a bunch of boys. Then I said to them, ‘Don’t hurt us our mother’s dead!’ They left us alone, but you should have seen the look on your face.’ After realising the dread was connected with the loss of her mother, the dream never recurred. Another woman who repeatedly dreamt of being in a tight and frightening place, found the dream never returned after she had connected it to being in the womb.
Recurring dreams such as that of the railings, suggest that part of the process underlying dreams is a self regulatory homeostatic one. The dream process tries to present troublesome emotions or situations to the conscious mind of the dreamer to resolve the trauma or difficulty underlying the dream. An obvious example of this is seen in the recurring nightmare of a young woman who felt a piece of cloth touch her face, quoted under nightmares. See: processing dreams.
But recurring dreams can arise because there is a need to learn something. Also the growth instinct is incredible powerful one and pushes us through growth, sometimes unwillingly. And if we resist it can cause recurring dreams.
Here is an example:
A young girl kept coming up to me and placing my hand upon her breast. She was just developing her breasts, and they felt so very beautiful.
Still asleep I asked myself what the dream meant, and saw that the young girl is the divine female that I long for. At present she can only relate to me as a young girl whose breasts I caress, due to the fact that my sexuality is still developing. In other words, I have not yet developed out of my sexual stage of growth. But if I simply allow this stage to go on being experienced, it develops into a new relationship with her. She herself develops or grows as I grow, and this suddenly threw a new light on all my sexual dreams in the past.
Comments
I have a dream where the area is reccuring, its like a path into the woods. I know this path, i know everything about it, turn for turn. I could navigate this area blindfolded and not even trip on a tree root. i’ve dreamed of this area for years, im always in the same path, same trail in the woods, weather i be on foot, on my atv, driving in a car or riding through it on a bike.
Last night i changed dramatically and i cant help but feel disturbed. Im with myself, theres two of me. I dont know why but we’re tring to escape and I dont know what from, just that we need to go, and go now. we need to get somewhere safe. “I know where to go! Follow me” I lead myself to the path, everthing will be better in the woods. we run though tons of abandoned homes and yards, tring to be unseen. Its almost like we’re hiding or running from something even tho the world is so empty. finally we get to my path and i’m just so confused. I know where i am, it looks the same, but im so lost. I want to keep going but i’m scared. I feel this amazing pressure, that i need to keep going into the woods, like i know i need to be there. iI know where I am. I know I know where i am. ive seen this a hundread times, but it feels like the first . i dont know where to go, i dont know what to do, im so confused, and even tho im there with myself, i feel like the last one alive. but still i need to get somewhere safe, i want to go on further into the woods, but still im lost. and i woke up
Amanda – A powerful dream.
The first change is there are two of you, and that is a sign either of division of what you want, like indecision, or of meeting a new part of your make-up. It could of course be a mixture of both.
The urge to escape seems to be mixed up with the images of ‘tons of abandoned homes’. So it lends itself to the idea of, what were the people who left their homes escaping from? Also you felt it as an imperative to get away, and do it now!
So what have you felt like that about but kept it in the background? It is wirth thinking about it and taking it seriously.
Then there is the feeling of being lost in familiar circumstances. This might be explainable because of the second you, but also that this is a very new feeling and circumstance you are meeting. I wouldn’t class the dream as a major warning, but it should be highlighted and explored. Like your need to get into the woods, which is a classical way to get back to the natural and the inner world. Dante at the beginning of his great poem, says he is lost in a wood. Heroes lose their way in woods, or are torn and cut while searching in a wood, and so on. Here it represents all the knowledge, education, facts, information acquired in life, and yet leaving the feeling of being lost amongst them, not understanding why we are here, what life is all about, what is birth or death.
I seriously suggest you explore this dream to find for yourself the fuller meaning. You can do this be looking at and using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-in-your-dream/
Tony
Hello, I’m from the ‘Dreams of Dead’ page. This is what I meant in the last sentence.
The nightmares I have commonly are in the same place but the one from last night seems a bit too eerie. I remember a long time ago I had a nightmare about the same type, but the building was smaller, like a normal one story house, and it was filled with nothing but cheap jump scares and zombie/ghost props. Then the next time I had a Haunted Mansion esque dream it was the larger house, about the size of the official HM in Disneyland. Still filled with cheap jump scares but there was actual dead or costumed people and the scares were amped up. Also the basement was clogged with tons of random stuff and I kept my eyes closed because I was too damn scared to keep them open. Finally last night the building was huge two story mansion type and it seemed to not stay one level. I remember looking out to a balcony while inside/ being part of the ride but I don’t remember climbing down any stairs to get to the entrance/exit. Also this time there was actual deaths happening in the ride, see my other post for reference. I’m afraid that this recurring place has actually been GROWING every time I have a nightmare of it.
On a lighter note though I have a nicer recurring dream that’s only happened once. It was a mixture of fandoms I have and Sora, the character I bunked with in the apartment that needed to be opened by a triforce puzzle (Go fig) actually tackle hugged me once the door was open and asked “Where have you been!?”.
Alex – I see you like one of those plants that blows with the wind because it has no roots – the tumbling tumbleweed. Therefore you can be move by any fear, although none of them are serious nevertheless they cause anxiety – anxiety enough to cause recurring dreams.
What can you do about it? Well you need a view of life that enables you to see death and face it without fear; a view based on observable facts that enable you to see that the surface life we live in is a shifting one that has no roots.
Perhaps read the books http://www.amazon.com/Closer-Light-Melvin-Morse/dp/0804108323/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307353595&sr=1-1-fkmr0 and also http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Death-Elisabeth-Kubler-Ross/dp/1587613182/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309172670&sr=1-3
These are not conjecture but are from experts in the field. Your dreams face you with death a lot and these books may really help.
Tony
My husband has been having a reccuring dream from the past year, it has two diffrent dreams, One is hes on a massive rock groyne, going to go fishing. And there is always people around him that he knows and sometimes random people. Another time hes driving around backroads of this rural area with awesome houses, he goes to this particular house all the time sometimes its beautiful and other times its run down. All the roads are edged with yellow grass all the roads eventually link up with eachother like a property. Then he can go into the woods if he drives up far enough, and then there is a river area. There is a five star hotel that hes driving around fixing things. He thinks it might be a whole world but he mainly dreams about these places. Could you possibly tell us if this means anything? Thank you so much
Grace – Well, I feel the dreams show your husband enjoying being with other people, and is someone who would not like to be idle.
But the main feeling I get is that this is an end of life dream – end of working life. It may be a bit premature but of course your husband may be dreaming about what he wants to do at retirement. He wants to be useful on a big property that I presume he is not responsible for, and of course spend time with other men in a relaxed situation. I see the fishing from the groyne as a statement that within constant movement and change he wants a situation he can remain stable in.
Tony
When I was little I used to have a few dream settings that would stay the same, but with different things happening. I haven’t had any of those dreams in a long time, but for the last five or so years I’ve been having dreams in five different settings that I’ve never personally been to; a burger restaurant, ski slope, grocery store, mall and toy store. Every time I have dreams in these locations, they seem special, like they have some internal meaning that I can’t figure out. The same thing happened when I was young which is why I still remember those settings too. Any idea what these particular recurring dreams mean?
Hillary – The different settings are about the environment in which the action of the dream takes place and this signifies the background of experience or circumstances that support the situation dealt with in the foreground. For instance we dream of certain places again and again because it saves time saying what the dream is about all over again.
A helpful way of defining this is to give it a name, such a name such as one does with dream people. You do this by trying to sense what your main feelings are about regarding the place, or what happened to you there, and how that left you feeling. You might have felt a lot of conflict in a certain town or while living in a particular road. So you could call that ‘My conflicts’. Or a place may be linked with a loving relationship, so could be called ‘My ability to Love’.
So see if you can see what the original feelings were in each place. For instance my home in London was the environment I went through the struggles of puberty in. So I call it ‘My adolescent struggles’.
Tony