Helpless
The feeling of helplessness is like a catch 22 problem – there seems no way out of it. But dreams are not examples of the external world in which sometimes one really is helpless. Dreams operate from very different principles; in this inner world of dream a slight shift of viewpoint or attitude can shift everything.
Although, as an adult, you might now be capable of gaining your needs, such powerful feelings of helplessness, anxiety or sense of abandonment, can be stimulated by any situation reminiscent of the childhood situation that first called them into play – i.e. being a helpless baby. Such feelings are often caused by a blockage, rather like a blockage in a river or a drain, a huge backup of water/feelings is the result. You may not think of yourself as having a flow but it is easy to recognise. For instance many people can see that blocking their sexul drive can cause irritability, anger or even neurosis. The sexual area is simply one channel our energy flows through – there are also hunger for food, blocked emotions, inability to say what is burning inside you – so you can be blocked in many ways bringing about difficult feelings. See Inner World; Life’s Little Secrets
Example: From that place we look at ourselves and see what a fantastic piece of equipment our body and mind is. As a conscious person we are right in the middle of everything. To say, “Oh God, we are nothing but a piece of slime, a helpless pawn in the hands of destiny,” is ridiculous. We are the culmination of everything that has existed before. We are that growing tip, that exploring awareness, in touch with unimaginable potential. We are everything that can be. What do we want to be?
Example: I am on my back, feeling completely paralyzed. Stunned and as helpless as a fly on its back with its feet in the air.
Example: I am very afraid someone is going to come in through that door – someone having to do with my bookstore dreams. But instead of shutting the door and locking it, I am kneeling down and cowering under a blanket below a window. I feel helpless to keep him from coming in. I am also afraid that the servant who is working outside in the dark will look in and see me.
Example: I felt helpless and wanted to murder you guys who did it to me; then I realized it was my own mind doing it; it’s always been my own mind imagining trouble and enemies
Useful Questions and Hints:
Has something caused or led to the feeling of helplessness?
What prevents me from moving from the feeling considering I can be or do anthing in the inner world of dreams?
Do I have unconscious fears or dreads of some sort?
See Avoid Being Victims – Martial Art of the Mind – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Edgar Cayce
Comments
I’ve had two very unusual dreams in the past week or so, they are very different from what i normally see and I’m seeking to find out what they mean. In the first one i was being robbed and the whole dream based around me trying to v=call the police but my phone didn’t work, the robbers were even mocking me about it and laughing at me. In the end a group of my friends appeared and tried to help me but nothing helped and i was not able to call the police. Throughout the dream I felt totally helpless and it was very scary, one of the scariest dreams I’ve had, I woke up sweating. It felt very real.
The second dream started off very nicely, I was in London having a great time and meeting new people, then when we started eating they announced that Isis was bombing right outside on the street. When I looked outside i saw the British army (their uniforms seemed to be like from the 18-hundreds and they were all on horses) The weird thing though was that I knew i was not safe, but I wasn’t scared. Or i was at first but the food gave me comfort, I thought of it as my one last meal and i enjoyed it because of that.
Why these drams are so unusual is the emotions that came with them. I don’t usually have strong emotions like that in my dreams.
Susanna – Dreams nearly always deal with actions or responses taking place not in the outer world, but in your inner world. This is the often neglected world of your beliefs, your thoughts and feelings. People often do not realise the incredible power of this world, and how it directs almost everything we do. So being robbed is possibly an action, probably on your own part now or in the past, that has robbed yourself of qualities or talents – the loss of something valuable. Please see https://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/#MakesInner
There are many things you need to understand in order to begin to understand your ‘strange’ 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, 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. Please see https://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/summing-up/
Dreams are not strange, it is us stuck in our views that the only reality is what we see and experience through our body. Humans live in two very different dimensions. The one most people identify with is the three dimensional physical world of the body. There a lot of rules to learn in that world; when very young we learn not to touch hot things; not to rush out into a road with moving cars. But as adults we have learnt not to step out into space while at a height because we will fall and have a major injury or die.
The second dimension is totally different and is experienced in dreams or deep mental activity. It will surprise many people to realise that in this dimension you have no physical body, although most people are so locked into thinking that their reality is their body, that they create a dream image of themselves. But that is not all they carry with them, because they believe so much that everything is ruled by their bodys life and experience, they are also terrified of falling in dreams, they believe they can be torn apart by savage animals, also that they frighten the life out of themselves with dream images of demons or even the devil, or are horrified of being shot or raped, etc.
The key of your dream is feeling helpless – personally I see it as helplessness when meeting yourself. I see the cause of the fear and the conflict arising because you have been drip fed ideas that cause the conflict. In life and sleep we have two powerful actions working in us. The first is our waking experience based on having a body, its limitations, vulnerabilities and a particular gender. Our second is the power that gave us life and continues to express as dreams, in our breathing and heartbeat – our life. This I have given the description as the Life Will.
While we sleep our conscious self is largely or totally unconscious, and while we dream our voluntary muscles are paralysed – therefore another will or motivating force moves our body. So we have a Conscious Will, and what I will call a Life Will. The first one we have experience of as we can move our arm or speak in everyday activities; but the second will takes over when we sleep.
This Life will can move us to speak, to move our body, and in fact do things that we cannot do with our Conscious Will. As Freud pointed out this inner will has full access to our memories. It can do so many other things that are described else where – See https://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/
So your confusion and conflict is between your conscious self, your ersonaliy and what causes you to live – the Life Will. Perhaps you might use https://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
You wrote that, “I don’t usually have strong emotions like that in my dreams.” That is simply because you have blocked a mass of what takes place within you, for our life process is fantastically passionate, deeply feeling, and of course ALIVE.
Hello,
What about dreams where you feel almost helpless because:
When you try to walk or run you feel like you’re wading through water. Everything is slow and cumbersome.
Also:
When you try to speak the words come out sounding garbled and slow…like your mouth has gone numb.
I was standing in the kitchen dishing out food. A woman was with me. She held out her plate and while I spooned food onto it, I realized that I had become weak with the symptoms described above. This made me feel very uncomfortable and I couldn’t wait for the other girl to leave..(I don’t know who she was.)
She turned and walked out of one entrance to the kitchen and my relief was great, but soon she came back around the other side, (still holding her plate,) and stood in front of me. She didn’t appear to want more food. She stood in front of me and smiled knowingly, as if she understood that I was weak and helpless. That she had an advantage over me. I felt exposed and threatened by her, and this made me feel like lashing out in desperation. I started screaming at her. My words could barely be understood but, as I started to say “I hate you,” I changed my mind and yelled, “I don’t trust you!” Then I somehow purposefully woke myself up from the dream.
Could the girl somehow represent a part of myself that I don’t like or trust? And if so, what can I do to trust her again?
Hi – It is important that you read https://dreamhawk.com/forums/index.php?topic=529.msg1472#msg1472
Nothing can replace your own ability to understand your dream. With a little effort you can do this by practicing 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
Becky – Nearly always when people dream about someone they know or a strange new person or situation they automatically believe the dream is about that person, situation, or animal. But it is usually our thoughts or feelings that are portrayed as the person or even the animal; for when we think of our friend or partner our thoughts are not them – just our thoughts and feelings about them.
A trick dreams often play on us is to use the image or person of someone else to represent you. This happens because we often do not want to see the truth about ourselves the dream portrays. So the person is most likely an aspect of you that you recently fed – given energy to, and so if gaining your attention. But because it is you it is not an enemy, but probably a part you have never met before.
The gone numb feeling is what I have called ‘made of lead’ which is a common feeling which may be because you are a life-form, and so are created by the process of Life, and because life has a flow or current which carries you forward all the time, through babyhood, childhood, adolescence, and onwards, you could be trying to fight the current.
My feeling is that you may be facing a big change in yourself, which we are all subject to – the forces of growth – it is one of the main functions of life. But because growth is a push toward change, change that we do not want to face, we often resist it; often without realising we are doing so.
Many people as their awareness reaches beyond what they feel are their normal self feel scared. Such resistances cause us to create awful dreams and fears as a means of avoiding our own inner world and its wonders. We feel that we will be swallowed up and we will die. It is important to say that when we meet the experience of powerlessness through becoming aware of the hugeness of your Life, which we are usually unaware if, it feels like something alien or attacking and it is a shock. It might give more information in https://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/ and https://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
Trust may come through understanding the inner workings of yourself
Another dream I had was my cousin had a wedding that was very gloomy. Her father did not show and neither did her husband. She was making excuses for them and married the guy without his presence. She was taking pictures at her own wedding so I decided to take over the photography. None of the pics came out right. My cousin also lied about her fathers whereabouts. And she decided against putting on her wedding dress and jumped right into cutting her cake. Very few family members were there. Others that attended appeared to be homeless. My cousin did not appear to be happy at all.
Dear Kirsten – Please read this first; http://dreamhawk.com/news/summing-up/
When someone drowns in a 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/these sides” of yourself.
I believe “that side” is your inner male – in different stages of development – which is also expressed in your second dream; “Her father did not show and neither did her husband.”
See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/individuation/
The way I see the dream about the wedding is that you perceive it as difficult to look at and understand the role your inner father and inner husband have in your inner and outer life.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/father-dad/#InnerFather
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/male-man/
Your difficulty/resistance to explore your inner world is also expressed in this part of your dream; “My cousin also lied about her father’s whereabouts. And she decided against putting on her wedding dress and jumped right into cutting her cake.”
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/defence-mechanisms/
“Marrying the guy without his presence” I feel is like taking a courageous step to dare to explore if you can integrate this part in yourself again, without looking into it and dealing with it first. I feel the next part of the dream expresses that this approach will not make you happy.
“Very few family members were there. Others that attended appeared to be homeless” suggests that you are becoming aware that you deny/repress parts of what you took into/absorbed in your mind from living with your father and your family.
What you have absorbed are values, attitudes and emotional or social responses, beliefs, habits etc. and what you have “thrown out” of your mind without exploring it I see symbolised by the homeless people.
See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/
Most of what we absorb is unconscious; values, beliefs, habits etc. were absorbed in childhood and often remain without any conscious evaluation.
They all influence our decision making, responses and relationships though.
Apart from exploring your dreams – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/ – another way to become aware of your own choices, responses etc. is to use self-observation.
Observing your own ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings, your own habits and responses to things, is one of the most powerful of tools to use in transforming your life. This also leads to a fuller connection with your intuitive connection with your core.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/self-observation/
and please also read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-animus-jungs-view-of-the-male-in-the-female/
I gave you a lot to read, because I believe that both dreams are important.
Anna 🙂
Please help! I have had three dreams in the past 48 hours. The one that concerns me the most is the one I had last night. It was thanksgiving day and everyone was eating but there was a small round pool in the room that was 12 feet deep. There was 5 guys that fell in the pool and drowned and I was the only one trying to save them. I could not save them or get help no matter what I did. Oddly none of the guys looked familiar. I was crying just trying to get them out. Everyone was telling me to just let it go they are gone but I would get out and get right back in and try again. No one else really seemed to care. What could the five guys drowned represent? They was like one from every age group all black males.
I dreamed of the 7 of red diamond card, one card above the other???? What is the meaning?
Lo – I haven’t seen many dreams of this sort, and never worked with anyone who explored their associations with the card or cards. So please try http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson and let me know of anything you discover.
But meanwhile here is a link you could explore – http://www.metasymbology.com/templates/cards/sevenofdiamonds.html
Tony