Convict

This may be depicting anti-social urges, or feelings of being trapped, perhaps by your own undirected emotions and reactions to events. It may also show how you are holding back some of your own feelings and urges. See: Prison prisoner.

Being an observer in a prison is probably about being aware of parts of your nature that have been repressed or constrained in some way. But there is also the element of social judgement here, perhaps suggesting that your own or other people’s judgements have led to the controlling or denial of things you would otherwise feel free to express. This situation might include strong desire to be free, or resentment about what has ‘imprisoned’ you.

The things that imprison us in life might be old behaviours unconsciously learned from parents or imprinted by events. These might be things like a rigid moral code; terrible feelings of inadequacy or lack of confidence; guilt or feelings of worthlessness or pointlessness. Seek in your dreams for ways of being free from such restraints.

Example: I was in a prison cell with two other men. I felt it was in Spain somewhere. We ate, slept and defecated in the cell. I was standing at the bars of the cell, and had the impression I had been in the prison for years. I was shouting and cursing the people who had put me in the prison, full of hate and self pity.

One day as I stood raging at the bars I suddenly realised that my years of shouting had availed nothing. The only person who was upset by it was me. I was the victim of my own anger and turmoil. It was as if I had been haunted all my life by ghosts of anger and passion. I dropped the attitudes or ‘ghosts’ and was free of them. Years went by and one by one I recognised and dropped other habits of emotion and thought that had trapped and tortured me. I realised I could be totally free within myself.

One morning I woke and sat up on the mattress on the floor that was my bed. The last ghost of inner entrapment fell away. A fountain of joy opened in my body, pouring upwards through me. It was so intense I cried out. My cell mates called a warden because they thought I had gone mad. They stood looking at me as I experienced radiance so strong I felt as if I must be shining. I was aware my joy poured into them, although they thought I was possibly insane. I could sense the enormous change in me influencing them, and I knew it couldn’t help but change them also. I realised that I might never be released from the prison, but it didn’t matter as I had found a fuller release than simply walking the streets. Even though remaining behind prison bars, I would still be touching people’s lives deeply. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it I feel I have restrained, or is being held back?

Dows my dream suggest what it is in terms of my needs or feelings that has been controlled?

Is the dream suggesting any way freedom can be arrived at?

See Life’s Little Secrets – Dream Yoga – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

See: Prison.