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

-Charlotte 2017-08-24 13:38:44

I literally just woke from a horrible dream and had to research what it meant. I was at a school and my neighbour and her son were there (we’ve been having problems lately). She said she might have poisoned my dog to me and then my daughters father appeared along with his former friend who happens to be my daughters dog father.

I said since you’re all here I’m going to go out for a cigarette. I never get breaks because her dad doesn’t bother so I took the opportunity in my dream. As I stepped outside there was a large swimming pool with garden chairs and tables around it. I went to step around the corner of the pool to carry on walking. As I done that it was like I knew I was gonna fall but didn’t really fight it, I had two large side bags on me and as soon as my body touched the water I just looked and took a breath. I managed to wake myself up but not into reality. It was into another dream.

What I don’t understand is that my uncle drowned 7 years before I was born. So, I’ve always grown with the instinct to be weary around water. This dream wasn’t the case at all.

Please please please, help me figure out why I had this dream. I could feel my heart pounding and it was horrible

    -Tony Crisp 2017-08-27 10:05:28

    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

    Charlotte – You start the dream with a lot of ‘baggage’ connected with your memories of school, the neighbours, your daughter’s father and his friend.

    But all of those people, when you think about them, you are only taking in your thoughts, impressions and feelings about them. So many people do not realise that they have inner people equally as powerful as the external person you know. You have taken in millions of bits of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings or problems met by meeting or living with them, and they change you and make you the person you are. The memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. Such an inner person can appear in dreams because you still carry the memories or impressions of them, and so they influenced what you hold within you.

    You tried to have a break from all those influences, and as our dreams constantly try to show us ways of really ‘having a break’ it took you into the pool. Being under water in the pool is about entering a completely new environment, losing awareness of the everyday surface world we know. An aspect of ones personality that has not yet been recognised consciously. Also it suggests seeing what is going on unconsciously or under the surface of your mind.

    Because it is like entering an alien world for most people, we tend to fight to avoid being aware of it, so you woke to escape. The human personality – the You that you call yourself, with a name, is only a tiny thing. It is moved and tossed around by all manner of drives, ambitions, emotions, fears, temptations, worries, love and desires, with its pains and hopes. Many people as their awareness reaches beyond what they feel is their normal self feel scared. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/extending-your-awareness/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/potential/

    The fear you inherited from hearing about your uncle is simply that – fear

-Janie 2017-08-22 20:50:45

I had a dream I was on a beach celebrating my ex’s father’s birthday.His father started drowning but no one went to help so I tried to help, but I couldn’t find him. Then I went to look for them but they were gone.I went into a store and found a family member of theirs I’d never met.She was taking my body measurements to give me a present.I asked if it was someone’s birthday and she said “yes,it’s Jason’s birthday.” (his dad.) when I asked where they went,she said they went home.Which meant they’d left me behind.I blinked and suddenly woke up.
What does all of this mean?I’m worried.

-Frida ornelas 2017-07-10 8:11:10

I just had a dream of my self drowning, or being stuck in a water tank banging for help. No one would hear me, I came to realize it wasn’t real so I stared to tell stop. In that moment I looked up and the tank opened but there was a girl(me) already unconscious sinking. As I pushed my self up to get out I got her and when we got out I was looking at my self help my self. This is my first time dreaming this but it really scared me and woke me up panting and shaking. Any idea?

    -Tony Crisp 2017-07-11 12:04:25

    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

    Frida – All the people, animals, places you see in your dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images. So, it makes sense to take the image of your dream person, thing or animal back into you and own it. In that way, you are meeting and dealing with the things about yourself you are not owning or conscious of. That is why dreams are often difficult to understand, because we are hiding things from ourselves.

    Also the events we dream of – like “I was looking at my self help my self”. /is a way of saying that you have lots of different aspects of you, one of which is in need of help because it is trapped and overwhelmed. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/autonomous-complex/

    You learnt a bit of the magic world of dreams. You said for it to stop. That meant your attitude had switched from fear. Attitude changes can completely change the dream. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/example-15-life-changes/

    Also you cannot be hurt in dreams – 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.

-Zach 2017-07-07 16:13:14

I had this dream where a murderer kidnapped me and was ready to kill me. He was going to kill me by putting me in some sort of container and drowning me. I ended up rejecting the idea and fighting back, would represent me conquring the emotions that you mentioned in the artical?

-Onnie Jefferson 2017-06-18 11:10:05

Hi! I’m not remembering the entire dream clearly but this one scene from it is just buried in my head. It’s weird that I’d even have a dream like this (I’m 19 if that helps anything .) — Okay so in the dream, my sister and I were walking to my step families house to see them since it’s been a while since we have. Well on the way there, I saw water leaking from the window. So I started running to see what it was. When I got there, I saw that the entire house was filled with water! I saw my stepbrother holding his newborn while trying to open the window, while my stepmother and younger stepsister were trying to help. The windows only opened from the outside so I opened them as quick as possible. The water came out fast. Everyone was crying, then my real brother and sister ran out after my stepfamily did. It was weird because I didn’t see them at first. I also wasn’t able to visit them for 3 years. A few minutes later my other stepmother(lesbian couple) came home drunk and crying and she kept saying “why did you let them out? Why did you let then out? They weren’t supposed to leave!”— that’s when I woke up crying. What does it mean.?

-Mrs.Uhila 2017-06-18 6:05:57

Hi, I had a dream were my toddler and I where about to go in a pool and I was trying to go in first and then have him come in so that I could grab him from the inside of the pool, but as I am barely trying to step in to the pool I see him very anxious to come in with me and I’m like “oh no wait! ” but he jumps in wuth out being able to hear me so I grab him because he can’t smiw but as I grab him to try and save him for sone reason I can’t swim us both to the surface and we both began to drown and sink in deeperand deeper and as we are sinking inmy mind I am hoping so bad that someone notices we are drowning and saves us and I am trying to gasp for air and as that happens I woke up from my dream in fear and gasping for air. What could this dream mean?

-Donna 2017-06-17 3:01:33

My mother died almost a year and a half ago. The other night I had a dream that I was on a deck looking at the most beautiful translucent water. I could see a huge alligator and there were all kinds of beautiful animals like elephants and horses running in the water. Kids were swimming in the water. My mom walked past me on the deck and jumped in the water. At this time I remember walking back in a room to get a camera to take pictures of her, when I went back outside, I heard the kids say, I saw her swim by and then she was gone. I remember in my dream thinking my mom drowned. At that point I woke up scared and it hit me that my mom was already dead. This dream has bothered me this past week, any interpretation?

    -Tony Crisp 2017-06-20 10:26:34

    Hi – It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing 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

    Donna – The dream is one of beauty and instruction; the beauty of the water and the animals in it.

    Your mother disappearing under the water is the instruction. In dreams you cannot die – or drown, or burn or any other threatening thing. We make the mistake of taking our very real values from our outer life into our inner life of dreams. 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, so 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.

    Your mother swimming and disappearing are all dream symbols meaning pointing to other things. For example, the sea, with its surface and hidden depths, lends itself to depicting this human experience of known and unknown regarding yourself. The enormity of the sea is also a visible image of the enormity of your own inner world – much of it unknown. Your mother was demonstrating the huge difference between the outer world that you take as reality, and the reality of your mother’s death experience – she was saying, “Wake up, for I am experience a much bigger life experience where nothing can cause me harm.” See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/near-death-experiences/

-Tennille 2017-06-06 16:08:15

I I had a my second dream about my granddaughter drowning. In my second dream I was trying to save her with CPR. what do this mean?

    -Tony Crisp 2017-06-08 10:10:43

    Hi – It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing 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

    Tennille – Your love and care for your granddaughter can trigger your mothering instincts with a vengeance. Being female and a mother holds with it an enormously increased anxiety about your children. You 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 mammals, and acts as a warning making you aware. It helps to check whether your child or children are okay, and if they are, say to the part of you that is worried, “It’s okay, I checked, but thanks for keeping me on my toes, I can relax now.”

    But it might be about something else because dreams seldom are about the person dreamt about. Your feelings in the dream are about a young vulnerable part of yourself, and because that is difficult to accept, you use your grand daughter instead.

    But you did a useful thing – the CPR. So take time to remember back when you were that age, and see if there was any time you felt as if it was difficult to survive.

-ken 2017-05-26 23:09:00

hello i had a dream that someone is nearly completely drowning because of me, and other people saved him from drowning

-Jennie 2017-03-22 10:22:24

I used to go abroad with 7 friends on a golfing holiday. I have now moved and also given up golf. I dreamt last night I was away golfing with them and whilst waiting for taxis back to airport one of the women and I decided to go to loo. There were two doors side by side to leave reception area of hotel. She went through left one straight into pool. I laughed at first then realised she was drowning. I called fir help but my voice was weak. I think my friend drowned. Strangely she was wearing clothes very similar to my work skirt and jacket???? What does all this mean? I haven’t seen her for over 3 years.

-Sara 2017-03-05 15:10:55

Hi so I had like 5 dreams with the guy I like and in the 5th one I was drowning and my friends where drowning too (they were all girls) then all the guy ran over me to save the others amd I was drowning and no one helped me

-Triana Cullen 2017-02-14 1:55:35

Help!! I have had the same nightmare on and off for the last 2yrs (since my daughter was born) I dream of her drowning, sometimes it’s a pool, sometimes it’s a lake, it’s even been the bath tub. Now I am a very strong swimmer and love love love the water. My daughter also loves the water, and we have never ever had any type of water accident with her or anyone in the family (I don’t even know anyone who has drowned) I want to get her swim lessons this summer, but this nightmare thing has me so scared! The details and her clothing are clothes that she has and even currently wears right down to the sneakers. Any idea what this nightmare might mean or be or how to make them stop???

-Adela 2017-01-29 19:26:17

I don’t remember much…
But I was dreaming and I some how ended up with a boat next to the coastline (that was parked on land or out of the water next to a pier). My only son and child was on this boat with me. For some reason, I left the boat…
A HUGE storm came…
I could not get to my son. I somehow ended up with my fiancé and we were arriving to his mother’s house. We walked in to his mother listening to her voicemail message and it was my son. He was uncontrollably crying and unable to catch his breath. He sounded as though he was drowning.
My fiancé ‘s mom had a look of fear and my fiancé looked at me with a fear and concern in his eyes.
Then an overwelmingly sensation of FEAR swepted over me. I became extremely terrified and yelled out to go save my son! Somehow my son must have found a phone to contact help, while left on the boat. I also, somehow forgot about him.

I woke up immediately after that and started histarically crying.
So I ended here, trying to figure out what this nightmare ment.

-Torrance 2017-01-14 5:04:03

What if you dream you’re drowning someone else like it’s not you but someone that’s helpless?

    -Tony Crisp 2017-01-14 10:14:00

    Hi – I must take time to upgrade the dream dictionary, so must halt from answering your posts – I started revising the dictionary in 2006, and haven’t neared the end yet. I believe someone else may start giving interpretations.

    So, for a while I urge you to read http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/i-am-no-longer-interpreting-dreams/ – It describes ways that can help you. And often it would help too if you looked at http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing

    Tony

    Don’t be fooled. We make out we are doing it to someone else because we don’t like admitting the awful things we do to ourselves. I dreamed Germans were attacking me, and it took ages for me to face the truth that I was doing awful damage to myself.

-Bailey 2017-01-13 20:41:36

Hello there, so the other night I had this dream where I was stuck inside an abandoned house trying to run away from someone. I think it was a murder that broke into the home or something like that. Well when I escaped the house I stole a vehicle. As I was speeding through the forest I went over this huge hill and somehow I had fallen out of the car and I was being tossed into the air over a cliff on the ocean. As I was starting to fall towards the water I looked down at what was bellow me only to see a huge submerged man made building of some sort in the water. (In awake life I do have a fear called submechanophobia where you are terrified of man made objects submerged under water, anyways.) So other than the building there are some large islands that I thought I would have fallen and hit my head on but instead I landed in the water, instantly I knew there was something sunken beneath me. As I sunk to the bottom of the ocean I just gave up and thought “welp, this is it. I guess I’m either going to drown or a large creature will come get me.” But just as I was about to hit the bottom I started floating back to the surface, but woke up right before I did.

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