Skin

This is often shown in dreams as the quality you display to others, or your awareness of someone else’s quality. This means things such as skin colour, condition of skin, whether rough or smooth, young, old, thick, thin, spots or scars, healthy or injured.

It is also your contact with the world. Through it you feel warmth or cold, wet or dry, and all the subtle interaction with other people and your environment. So to understand the dream consider what impression you have of the skin, then ask yourself how this connects with your self image, or your sense of your own quality. See Your Amazing Circle

The skin may also relate to what tactics we use to deal with others; our strength or vulnerability in feeling the impact of other people, their remarks and actions. It is our protection against the huge forces we deal with every day; for our skin deals with and destroys thousands of bacteria every day. You also may be sensitive to remarks which is known as being ‘thin skinned’, or if you are not  influenced that is called ‘having a thick skin’.

Skin is a window on your emotions also – so any disturbance can show in your dreams as spots, boils, pus or maggots erupting or other things. So what emotions – strong ones have you felt recently? It could make you feel uncertain of what people think of you, especially if you have met a new girl/boy friend.

Example: All I remember is seeing red bubbles appearing all over my skin and being scared and then one huge one bursting on my chest. R.

When it was pointed out about skin as a window on his emotions, R. replied – Well I have met a lot of new people recently and am often insecure about what I think they really think about me; also I have met a girl here but it is still early days. I have also been worried about work and think the change in location has taken me longer to adjust to than I thought it would.

A skin can also be a disguise, a cover, underneath which another you, or another person exists. In these cases the skin might suggest something you have taken on that is not really expressing your real feelings or potential. So the dream might show you pulling the skin off or even tearing it off. See Potential

Animal skin: The spontaneous level of yourself such as instincts, flight and fight, and so your animal wisdom and survival drives. If the animal is being skinned, See: skinned animal.

Rough skin: A surface impression. If this is a dream about yourself, it suggest either that you have been through difficult times and so are well worn with a rough exterior, or you feel that is how others see you.

Burnt skin: A hurt you have suffered in relationship with the outside world or people.

Maggots breaking through the skin: It shows a possibly unhealthy condition occurring in that body area. But remember dreams use the body to often represent something other than the organ or arm – see Body

Seeing through the skin: An insight into what is going on under the surface of your mind or body.

Shed skin: Like a snake, changing your old way of life, or shedding old protective attitudes. This might refer to outgrowing a stage of your life, like a spider or snake shedding its skin because it has outgrown the last one.. So a move from youth to adulthood might be shown as this in a dream. This usually leaves you feeling vulnerable for a while as you adjust to the change.

Spots, blemishes, moles: Feelings about personal failings or some sense of not being as good or acceptable as other people. Maybe a feeling that other people see you as unattractive or can see failings in you. Often links with shyness or difficulties about facing or being in the company of people. See Victim – Avoiding Being My Own 

Occasionally it could indicate that you have inner disturbances that need to be dealt with. See: Acting on your dream.

Something or Stuff on the skin: If this is a liquid or substance it could mean you have been in contact with something. As the skin absorbs all that is on it, there might be a suggestion you are taking something in that is either harmful or healing.

If it is a thing or a creature on your skin this shows you sensing an influence. What it is depends on the dream. See  Animals

Things escaping from under the skin: This usually refers to powerful emotions that you have contained for some time and an event or circumstances are now allowing to surface. This means you will be aware of them in some measure in waking.

Depending upon what it is that is escaping, it can also refer to a physical condition. For instance the following dream refers to a virus the dreamer has.

I have had the same dream as I fall asleep for several years. I have it nearly every night just once, sometimes, rarely, twice as I fall asleep. I dream that I find a dried piece of skin or scab somewhere on my body, usually my foot or my hand, though it has varied over the years. I begin to pick at the skin/scab and scratch it until it comes off. When it comes off it unleashes a flood of seed spiders that engulf me. Another variation is I find some odd black hairs growing out of my body and when I examine them more closely they are regular sized spiders crawling out of me and they begin to engulf me.

Idioms: beauty is only skin deep; by the skin of your teeth; get under my skin; jump out of your skin; more than one way to skin a cat; no skin off my nose; skin alive; thick skin;.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the skin shown as protective – if so what against, and how well is it working?

Does my dream show the skin as an expression of who I am or the person is – if so what is the impression it is giving?

What qualities or racial type does the skin show – and what do I associate with that?

Try Being the Person or Thing and Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

 

Comments

-Patricia 2017-10-14 12:20:12

Hi. So this is not my dream. It my Moms dream about me.

It started in my grandma’s house and now I’m 17 but in her dream I was a child. At first she didnt recognized me because my skin was burned to the bone and my bones on the ankles were also broken.

She just then realized it was me when she came near me and asked me who did it. She said that my answer was “Venus”, Venus is my best friend

So she immediately rushed to my Uncle and my Grandma and told them to ” Lets bring Tina to the hospital”

This is where it gets creepy, My name is Patricia. Never did I have a nickname as Tina.

Tina is my Auntie’s nickname, her name is Christina, she passed away when I was 4 or 5 due to pneumonia. Now my brother says she hears footsteps on the second floor whenever she goes to Mom’s house because thats where tita Christy stayed

So do my Mom and Dad. The weird thing is I am always alone in that house but never heard a single thing

-Jackson 2017-08-25 7:13:15

Probabaly the most bizarre dream I’ve had in a while
I had a dream My skin was being peeled off by some kind of strong wind layer by layer, just like how you peel a banana. As each layer peeled off I could see veins pulsing and then my muscles contracting, then I saw my guts moving, and could see my head beating, and finally I’d completely
fallen apart, while somehow still being able to see what was left of my body, even though I had been completely dismantled at this point.

????

Most times I have a bizzare dream like this I shrug it off, but I could feel something heavy as I was dreaming this and I felt like I needed to know what it was.

    -Tony Crisp 2017-08-28 9:45:43

    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

    Jackson – Understanding dreams is an amazing education, and your dream is just that – educating you in depth.

    Most people feel certain their body is them, and are certain that their body is who they are. But dreams have a very different view of the body. They show again and again if anyone takes the time to record their dreams over a period of time that we all have a body, a soul and a spirit. The body is in constant change and will age and die. Dreams see it as like a car that we can use to get some necessary life experiences, but the driver can leave the car and the car does not define the driver.

    And your dream dramatically showed that your body could be dismantled and yet You were there to witness it. It is a wonderful paradox, that you are not there as a body and at the same time you could witness what was left of your body.

    We build our identity and our sense of self out of the many physical interactions with other people and the world. In a real sense we create each other by believing in and communicating with each other. With prolonged absence of other people and events, and especially if we lose our ‘noises’ and body awareness, we feel we – our sense of identity – is disappearing or dying. People immersed in a sensory deprivation tank begin to lose a clear sense of themselves, and can result in anxiety, hallucinations and depression. Is it seems you were approaching the experience of bodilessness.

    Approaching that is often felt as being a ‘shape shifter’. The shape shifter is the part of you that has lived through every experience from conception through to where you are at the moment. It doesn’t have a face or even a recognisable shape because it can be any age and in fact anything. What part it plays in your dream is that it says, “Do not get lost in being just one shape, just one age, just being the body, because I am a shape shifter.”

    Getting back to defining what we are – The soul consists of all the personal thoughts, decisions, likes, dislikes and memories of the person – of this lifetime. It can be quite limited in its perceptions because we are only aware of only 1% of visible light and 1% of the range of sound – so we are really blind and deaf, and yet we are so sure we know the world and what it means.

    The spirit is basically consciousness/energy that can enliven a body but is not limited by it, and can exist as bodiless awareness. So from the point of view of dreams you cannot die or be destroyed. Also in dreams – your inner life – you can appear as any form, any gender and any creature. But we are so sure we are the limited world we know through our senses, and we are often trapped by this view.

-Michelle Charles 2017-08-10 21:59:32

Hi
I had a dream last night that I had an abrasion on my right thigh but when I inspected it further, I was able to pull apart the skin either side of it and almost tear it open. There was no pain but it opened to a really deep wound and I could see some yellow parts on the flesh inside. I then woke up. The dream has troubled me all day and when I think about it I get goosebumps. Any ideas?

-Monique Chance 2017-08-03 16:10:48

Hi I recently had a dream that I was outside the house I grew up in. There were massive spiders in the old swing set and one jumped on me. I brushed it off but then blood began pushing itself out of my pores, then blood started to gush from my ears, nose, mouth, then finally my eyes.
It left me with a horrible feeling when I woke up. What does it mean?

-Angela 2017-06-29 12:58:51

I had a dream I was surrounded by family and next thing I know my body was in so much pain and I was looking closely to my skin and it had bumps all over kind of like chains connected on my body. As the pain got worse my skin started opening up and seeds started to fall out of my skin almost like how you cook peas and when it’s soft you can squeeze them out of the cover. I’ve been feeling very stressed lately and every morning for the past four days I’ve been waking up sweaty and drained. This dream felt very real and left me out of my comfort zone.What did this dream mean ?

-Rhiannon 2017-06-21 16:11:21

A few nights ago I dreamt I was petting a family members dog and when I pushed up the dogs fur it exposed large chucks of half buried gravel over the surface of the skin. I started pushing and pulling them out and they were leaving big holes, and underneath the holes were more pieces and once I pulled them out tiny bugs started to pour out of them. My Mum appeared in the dream and I told her to grab a hose so I could wash it all away and she told me there was no water and more and more bugs started to fly around the dog while his head was suddenly covered with plastic and I woke up. I can’t stop thinking about it and it’s making it really hard for me to sleep, just wondering your thoughts. Thank you

-Joe 2017-05-10 9:34:20

I had a dream that I awoke to someone cutting lightning bolts into my skin, we were in a mental health facility that was lightly guarded or watched. I went to a orderly and they took him away, but he seemed to be able to get by the locked doors and I awoke to him doing it again. same as before I basically fought him off and they took him away I felt in my dream that the only way to stop him was to leave, I noticed I was not the only one he had done this to. Then things got a bit stranger as I was leaving friends helped me leave but they to would mess with me but I knew it was safer with them there was one instance of hallucinations as we left long story short there were 5 friends I think 3 female and 2 male but one of the girls was a scarification artist and told me that the only way that everything crazy and scary in my life to stop was for her to scar me I remember they held me down and she cut a small lightning bolt on my right foot and a larger one on my right calf a small one on my right hand on top, a line down the center of my face and a small oval under my chin. I awoke and I was alone and in an unfamiliar house there’s a knock on the door and it’s them but much much older the girl that cut me was gorgeous now but she looked like she had lived life and one of the other women had another set of lips that were on her neck and those are the ones she talked out of and she had a cane. That’s when I woke up….

    -Tony Crisp 2017-05-12 8:13:59

    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

    Joe – First of all, 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.

    So it is a good question when I ask, “Why are you doing this to yourself?”

    Also some characters in your dream symbolise helpful agents. The lightning flash can represent a sudden and disruptive event, a tremendous change in yourself. Scarification in the past was to give a visible sign of death and rebirth – a great theme in the world of dreams. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-archetype-of-rebirth-or-resurrection/

    But you are fighting off what may be a difficult but necessary change in you. Remember that 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.

-Victoria 2017-04-12 12:39:15

I had a dream that there what looked like pox or dark holes on my chest, which actually were seeds burrowed in my skin. I removed them easily and they left deep pits, which weren’t quite healed but appeared closed at the surface. I remember seeing a doctor, and the doctor examining them, and saying they were healing nicely but I might need surgery to fully close the holes.

    -Tony Crisp 2017-04-13 8:19:55

    Hi – I am stopping from answering your posts fully – but will try to give hints; sometimes long ones because I quote from masses I have already put online. Also, I need to take time to update the site – dreamhawk.

    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

    Victoria – An intriguing dream. My question is, did you feel that there was something wrong with you, that you were sick and so needed to see a doctor?

    Dreams are a magic mirror in which we see our inner life – parts of ourselves we often choose to ignore. So I wonder whether the seeds should have been allowed to grow. Seeds which will flower into deeper feeling awareness? Try using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/

    Fritjof Capra, writing about the tendency in Western culture to overemphasis the intellectual capacity of the mind to the point where we see the universe and earth as mechanical systems, says, “the effect the intellectual and mechanistic view has had on modern medicine and the lay person’s approach to their body, he says we are led to see our body as a machine “The intellectual approach is prone to constant failure unless supervised by doctors and treated with medication. The notion of the organism’s inherent healing power is not communicated, and trust in one’s own organism not promoted.”

-Mohammed Fahad 2017-04-04 6:32:50

I had a dream that some one had shed their skin because of some disease.. Please answer me what it meant

-Tam 2017-03-12 0:53:58

Hi,
Dreamed I was walking with a friend and there were animals around. I picked one up and got hurt – a tiny looking black claw was stuck in my finger- then all of a sudden all these tiny/small black moles started growing on my hands covering my hands in an instant. I remember feeling quite shocked and bewildered. I shook my hands and then the moles started to disappear, they all dropped off right in front of my eyes. I remember feeling relieved but at the same time in disbelief…But then my fingers were stuck together/meld together (there were no lines between the fingers as if my fingers were becoming part of one) and getting ‘chubby’ (my fingers are usually not chubby at all). At this point I remember that I was dreaming and it wasn’t real, so I shook my hands, clasp and unclasp them and my fingers started to become unstuck or meld away from each other.
I kept thinking about the small black claw that stuck to my finger throughout the dream over and over again

-Julia 2017-03-08 11:29:34

I had a dream where I www looking in the mirror and focusing on the skin below my eye. I being to scratch at it and it all peeled off including the skin on my eyelid. underneath were a bed of extremely huge black heads and my eye including the water line of it had turn black and my whole eyeball was black/foggy/milky looling. I woke up to do my makeup this morning and when I was looking at my skin I felt sick because I thought about how disturbing the dream was

-S 2017-03-07 23:37:22

Hi,I keep having a dream that the skin on my forehead is peeling off an underneath it is really big turquoise gem stones which In the dream I handed over to my mother and she says to me” Oh another one” iv had this dream the last 3 nights but have no idea what this could mean.

-Reece 2017-03-07 1:30:41

I had a dream about a girl in the supermarket, and this one girl was white and blond haired, then over time she got darker skin toned and changed race and then I fell off a wall and woke up, have no idea what it means

-Nikki 2017-02-24 14:19:38

I dreamt my skin was peeling as if I had a previous sunburn. It didn’t hurt it just looked flaky and it was around the edges of my face and my breast. I kept peeling it, it didn’t hurt. I could see newly fresh skin underneath, but it seemed like I kept dreaming of it like replaying it over in the same dream. Trying to figure out what it means.

-Kaitlyn Smitherman 2017-02-07 23:52:38

I had a dream last night that I was burning up in flames and the skin of my chest was black and charred. I put my hand on my chest on the left side and my skin began to fall off in large chunks as I struggled to keep my skin on. They were black on the surface but a fleshy pink underneath. (Sorry for the graphic details)
I think that maybe I have a subconscious fear of people seeing what I look like on the inside, metaphorically. There have been a lot of things going on in my life, and a lot of lies I have been keeping from a lot of people. I am not good at keeping secrets and I’ve done bad things, it feels like I have some sort of secret kept from everyone I know. My best friend,my mom, even just my aquantances. It feels like my life is burning up, and there is no way I can make everyone happy and somehow I got caught in the middle.
I don’t know what to do anymore. I feel like my entire life is the secret and I’ll never be able to get my story straight.
Secrets kill, guys. They burn you up alive.
Does my own interpretation make sense?
(This probably doesn’t help, but I am 20 years old, and I am a woman with a pretty terrible past that is too long to go into. I have a lot going on in my mind right now, including college, planning my own wedding, and a career change. This may have something to do with it, but I have been feeling strange lately. I feel weak and dizzy and I have been having chest pains, inside where my heart is and on my breasts. I don’t know what is going on because I can’t afford to go to the doctor)

    -Tony Crisp 2017-02-09 10:50:11

    Hi – I am stopping from answering your posts fully – but will try to give hints; sometimes long ones because I quote from masses I have already put online. Also I need to take time to update the site – dreamhawk.

    It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/features-found-on-site/

    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/#BeingPersonOrThing or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/getting-at-your-dreams-meaning/

    Tony

    Dear Kaitlyn – To really help you to understand your dreams and your life position I need to educate you about dreams and your life. You are obviously experiencing stress badly, and stress can cause you to experience real physical illness. So the first step of your education is to read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/emotions/

    No, your interpretation doesn’t mean the same to me as it does to you. All dream images are indicating things about yourself – 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.

    It is also important to realise that every image, every scary or terrifying thing, is taken place inside you, in your mind, as you sleep. This means that every awful animal, every scary thing, or person, is created out of your own fears and must not be seen as outside you as happens in waking awareness. The problem is that we are often scared of or frightened of experiencing our emotions and so they confront us in our dreams. Avoiding them or controlling them is like running away from oneself – there is no escape.

    Burning your skin away to me shows that you have protected your feelings by hiding from yourself – and the fire is the enormous emotions you have been experiencing that have revealed the real healthy you – the pink skin. Fire also in dreams is a cleansing. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/

    You are an example of Life, and Life never creates the same thing ever again – all snowflakes are unique, and Life is ever creative, and so you too are unique and have massive potential. The fact you have had a bad beginning is an advantage, because it has given you experiences that have opened your eyes to things and made you aware, even angry, in ways that can be very useful.

    A man told me that he had been physically and mentally floored. So much so it felt as if he was flat on his back and couldn’t get up. Then one day he learnt to use what I describe as ‘Opening to Life’. In doing this he was able to stand again, and it felt that LIfe communicated with him – for wasn’t he himself Life, and so could he communicate with his own depths? He saw himself standing before or in sunlight, and he saw that his hands and arms were bound and locked in chains. He cried out, “Why am I chained? Please take these chains off me!” Then Life seemed to speak to him, “Sam, I love you, and would never put chains on you. You put them on yourself.” See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/

    You are a living example of the Miracle of Life, and Sam’s experience showed him that his suffering were caused by himself, which was hard for him to believe. But life has an underlying law, called cause and effect. Life does not try to cause bad things to those it gives life to, but look at what people do to each other – murder, rape, warfare, nation turned against nation, religion turned against religion and humans. The enormous causes putting chains and torment upon ourselves.

    But it is a frightening realisation too. For it brings us to the realisation that nobody else creates the hell or heaven we experience life to be. Nobody else creates our love or smouldering vengefulness. We are alone in our creation. Many of us live in an emotional hell.

    An example – “I went out of the hotel and search for her without success, for it felt to me she had deserted me. Then anger and anguish mixed into awful feelings. When I found her in the hotel shop nonchalantly browsing I felt like hell. But I recognised the feeling. It was the murderous rage I had felt when I was suddenly abandoned by my mother. So, I felt I could not face her, but went for a walk till I calmed down. When I entered our room I was calm, without the raging volcano that had erupted in me.”

    These are the causes of our misery. See http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/the-next-step-criticisms/

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