Wave Tidal Wave Tsunami
Any release of emotional or sexual energy. The reason this image is used is that when we feel enormous release of emotions such as might happen when we fall in love, have a baby, or are publicly condemned, our ego often feels carried along by the experience rather than in control. We may have learned how to ride such waves as surfers do. This requires confidence, daring and balance. If we can do it we can open ourselves to much greater range of feeling or change than if we felt threatened, overcome or powerless. Even happiness may be repressed due to feeling threatened. Anxiety or depression is one of these enormous waves that may threaten to engulf us, and so is one of the human conditions the tidal wave represents. Yet if we face it and meet it can be an enormously transformative influence. See Dream Yoga – Tsunami.
But huge waves cause many people enormous fear or terror. Often this is because of a past experience such as attack or rape. But dreams are not simply replays of the awful emotions, but are ways you can meet and transform them into healing. See Life’s Little Secrets; Secrets of Power Dreaming; Summing Up
The following examples illustrate our relationship with the forces of Life within us.
‘My husband and I were standing looking at the sea’s surface. It was just falling night. I saw a mass of dark shapes, thought it would be a school of fish. Then we were looking at water birds, maybe ducks, again dark shapes as the light had almost gone. Then there was a hole in the sea, like a belly button, I was wondering what it was, how was it being made, was there something under the water? Something very big was coming up to the surface very close to me. It shot me to wake.’ Ginny Q.
Ginny and her husband had been exploring the content of their dreams. The image of the sea shows Ginny sensing there are enormous depths to her own being, and something big – a previously unconscious insights and feelings – are becoming conscious. Unfortunately the fear woke her – unfortunate because: We can interfere with the life saving process behind dreams actions because often we are scared or even terrified of experiencing things that might be necessary to keep us balanced. An example of this is in the following:
I am in a very dark, bleak house, with a young boy. It is night outside and the house is isolated. A dark, shadowy, Thing, is trying to get into the house. I am terrified of it, and I am holding the young boy behind me protectively while I try to keep the door closed with my foot, as the Thing batters at it. – James H.
The interference in this case is that most people block the action of SR by repressing the feelings involved. But James explored his dream by imagining opening the door and meeting the Thing. When he did this, feelings from childhood arose – the young boy. He felt the fear of the German bombs he had experienced in his youth. He realised that this hidden – shadowy – fear had kept him from taking risks in life. In meeting the Thing he was now free of that fear. Most of the shadowy creatures of our dreams are expressions of similar fears or hurts, and if met, can be just as transformative.
‘A small speed boat was at sea. But the sea dissolved anybody who fell in. One man fell in but held himself together as a blob of water and jumped back to the speedboat. I remember the words ‘The sea is a great solvent’.’ Tim P.
Tim is aware of his unconscious sense of being a part of the huge ocean of life or energy. In it one might lose sense of identity. In the end, identity is ‘held together’ by one’s own belief in oneself.
‘I am either standing at the edge of the sea or near, when suddenly enormous tidal waves appear in the distance and are coming closer. I know they will engulf me, I turn and run away. Sometimes they do overtake me, other times I wake up.’ Mrs A. V.
We can run from pleasure and wider insight, just as much as from pain or fear.
On the first night I slept with my present wife I noticed she struggled with her breathing. While she was asleep I spoke to her suggesting she would relax and allow her breathing to be easy. Within moments she responded. This encouraged me and I suggested her whole body would relax, and the barriers within her dissolve, allowing healing and well-being to be experienced. Within ten minutes she suddenly awoke and told me a dream.
She was at the rear of a house sunbathing with her family, feeling very relaxed and happy. As she sank into the enjoyment waves, like a tidal wave began to roll up her body. The pleasure was so intense she couldn’t take any more and woke up.
Waves: Impulses, feelings and emotions, such as sexuality, anxiety, anger or fear. Waves can also indicate an impulse such as life in one that has its beginnings from a mysterious source. See Sea
Idioms: All at sea; plenty more fish in the sea; lost at sea; stranger things happen at sea; between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Comments
Your interpretations seem to be the most thorough and sensitive and rooted in physchological knowledge and that’s why I like them. Last night I dreamt of a tidal wave threatening me, my son and his father as we sat close to the sea picnicking. At first it knocked 3 old men over as they sat staring at the sea in front of us. Then it came roaring towards us. We stood up to run but the wave sucked up my 12 year boy and engulfed him and dragged him within its furl as it retreated back to the sea…I was screaming, terrified and yelling to his father to go in and rescue him, he didn’t seem to have any awareness of the danger and was walking slowly away holding our 3 tea mugs in one hand and the flask in his other. I was beside myself with fear and panic and didn’t know what to do, my darling son being engulfed and taken by the sea, my ex husband (sons father) carrying tea cups away as if nothing was going on. I considered running to save him myself but knew I would be killed as I’m such a weak swimmer. I was presuming I’d have to go get help elsewhere, inland, but that was in the opposite direction to my son so I stood there hands in tearing at my hair not knowing what to do. All of what I’ve just described took about 10 seconds in dreamtime, not the ten minutes it sounds like! I know I’m undergoing lots of change myself…I’m having surgery in 12 days time and I have done lots of emotional work around all of that recently. But what can the bit about my son mean? I’m at a loss as to how to interpret this or get any sense of it My son is very solid and happy and doing really well and seems perfectly ok about the upcoming surgery…it’s been a process evolving over the last 2 years which hes been lovingly and carefully included in. Thank you for any insight.
Shell – First of all you are suffering because you mix up what is relevant to your waking life in a body with your inner life of dreams. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
So nothing can hurt you in the inner world. You are simply seeing a virtual reality – like a computer game – of your own fears being reflected back to you. If you accept them as fears they will disappear.
The tidal wave is a sign of tremendous changes going on in you. Your child is you own vulnerable feelings that you fear will lead to hurt or death. Your son is not your outer son but the feelings you have about him. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/characters-or-people-in-dreams/
Tony
i was driving on a beach of what looked to be blood red sand. i stopped and got out and dug my feet into the sand and then all of a sudden i am falling through the sand and i am underneath a giant wave that is about to crash on me and my wife. my wife is laughing and smiling and dancing next to me while i am frozen with fear. i can not hear the laughing and did not know what she was laughing about. all i could hear was this wave about to crash. as soon as the wave crashed i woke up with my heart pounding and i was sweating like crazy.
In my dream I saw the tidal wave approaching, but I wasn’t frightened of it. I think I was inside a house, and was working on a model ship (I’ve never done this before). The wave got closer, and enveloped where I was, though it didn’t get me, and ruined the ship. I got upset about the ship and kept crying out loud that it had gotten ruined. (The next two parts I don’t remember which order they came in.) I was standing on a bridge (?) and saw a family, who had passed away because of the wave, in a flatable raft, floating above the wave.. I was thinking to myself wondering what it would be like to be in their place, to be dead. Along with this family, I saw couples, naked, holding each other, floating as well, and thinking that I liked the look of skin. The other part, the wave enveloped me. I was looking straight, and it almost looked like the water had made a wall. I got a bit scared because I couldn’t see the way up (which did happen to me when I was a teen). Next thing I knew, I was out of the water. The sky, weather, had beeen stormy and grey throughout the dream.
Rebecca – First you should not put links to other sites in posts as it makes me think it is spam to be deleted.
The ruined ship – have you had a ruined relationship? If so it would explain the tears and the wave and dead people. Please see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/tsunami/
As you will see, it is about a massive change taking place in your life, and should not be seen as threatening.
Tony
I had a dream that me and my wife where riding the waves and where taking us to land where we needed to go. Like the waves knew where I needed to go. What does my dream mean?
Rolando – The waves are the natural tides of feeling, or inner influence that are guiding you. Remember that you were guided all the time without any help from thoughts or your sense of being a person when you where in your mother’s womb and after birth. You may think that was all automatic biological function – bu9t even the text books on biology describes it as a mystery. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us/#DualBeing
So it is those natural forces that are still guiding you.
Tony
I had this dream last night, i was surffing on small waves and then out of know where i wave hundereds of feet high over took me and i blacked out. i didnt wake up but instead i was in a room with people looking over me. it was my first dream where i woke up inside the dream and when i did i was screaming and yelling wtf’s and what not. when i actuly woke up i was out of breath, short of breath and felt like i just ran a mile. i have dreams that are crazy all the time but this one hit me hard…any input or something would help
Blake – This could have resulted from two things. One is that you might be suffering from sleep apnea (a breathing condition); or you felt such fear at the sight of the huge wave.
The fear is caused by not understanding that all dreams are like computer games in which nothing can hurt you – except of course if you felt extreme fear which can cause you enormous panic. But a dream tsunami can indicate a tremendous and fundamental change in you. Most people now know that tsunamis are caused by massive earth changes under the sea. These changes are part of the natural order, and often show themselves to people in their dreams. So they can be understood as an expression of our personal adaptation to enormous changes. They can wash away most of the beliefs, social structures we have built or held onto as important. Yet if we are not afraid of change and the forces that we are actually involved in, then we can find enormous power and force within us. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-interpretation-example-one/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us/#DualBeing
Tony
i wrote to you before about a native american woman but i recently had a dream that was very strange to me. i was surfing a tidal wave going across land and i was heading right at my highschool. i was in the tunel of water and all of a sudden i was inside my school and watching the waves hit the border of my school like glass but there wasn’t any glass, it was as if it was stopped my air. i had many of my peers (students) around me. i grabbed some of my friends and two girls i like and ran to the gym and climbed the ladder to the roof of the school. right after that the water had broke through and flooded the inside of the school. i dont know how but i wound up outside our library up toward the cieling floating in water with my friends. we were all looking up at sun light coming through the ceiling glass. i dont understand it.
I have been getting such dreams for many, many years now. I have noticed these trends in my dreams: 1) The waves NEVER touch me. They go high over my head & crash into something, but they never touch me even though I am right underneath it. I am always completely dry. (2) I am usually scared of these waves. I might try running away from them to a safer ground, or hold on to something so they don’t sweep me away. (3) There are people around me in the dream. Sometimes i don’t know them, sometimes they are my family members. (4) Sometimes I see just a fast rising water body instead of the waves, but everything else i described above remains the same.
I have been having reoccuring dreams for the last year or 2 of tidal waves and tsunamis. I always survive them but I am struggling to understand what they mean. I don’t recall having any other dreams besides these and they are very vivid and terrifying, but I always survive. I do have anxiety and try to deal with it, but not sure what this all means. Any ideas?
Melissa – Remember that tsunamis are dangerous in waking life, but are the expression of your inner life in dreams. They are not dangerous and need not be avoided or run from while asleep.
They area probably represent fear and also the fear of being overwhelmed. Please see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#FaceFear
Tony
Lastnight I had a dream that my husband had just won a relay when all of a sudden I notice down the street there was a Tidal Wave building up. I grabbed my husband and pulled him down the alley which was actually towards the ocean. We realized we had no way out of it hitting us so I looked at my husband and told him how much I loved him. I told him to hold on to me and not let go. Once the wave hit we were pulled out to sea and I still have him in my hand and kept telling him to swim. I noticed there was rescue choppers there to try and save people in the ocean until we notice another wave coming. Again I told my husband to not let go and this time we ended up on the sand. My husband at that time told me he could not go on and ‘went to sleep’. At that point I grabbed his wedding ring to keep him by me, but then I decided to put it back on his hand so he always has me with him. At that point I woke up. Could you help with trying to decipher what this means. Thank you!
Meesh – First of all I feel that you love your husband very much. That is shown because of the enormous effort that you put into caring for your husband.
You must have read the entry about tidal wave where it says that it is about massive changes going on inside of you. And I am sure that is what is happening to you and many others at this time; not simple external changes but also internal.
Because dreams deal with what you feel or intuit about your husband, the dream goes on to show you doing all you can to help him survive the enormous changes that are happening or going to happen. And I get the impression that he is not so capable of meeting change as you are.
The next part of the dream where you take the wedding ring and put it on again and he goes to sleep is very important. I have difficulty about being precise in regard to it, but it is a critical point in your relationship. It could mean that he finds the changes too stressful and literally closes off to being an active partner; or else he cannot go on with the marriage.
Your determination is wonderful and is a great force to keep the marriage intact. So see if you can visualise you working on his sleeping self and waking him into being with you. You are a power house, and that may be difficult for your husband.
Tony
i was wondering if u can help me i have two girls but i am having a dream (nightmare) about me and my oldest daughter standing on the beach then i crouch down looking and at the stand with her when a Tsunami comes i am trying to swim to the surface while holding onto her and i am talking her threw it but when i come to the surface it’s as if she was never there. My daughter is 4 at present and this dream is concerning to me plz help
Brooke – Standing on a beach is a magical situation. In front of you is an ocean – a dream ocean. In dreams the ocean is about meeting the huge ocean of mind, the collective unconscious as Jung called it. It feels like nature’s memory, where all experience is stored. So in your dreams about the sea, you may be accessing some aspect of this immensity.
A tsunami is caused by earthquakes on the sea bed. So many people are dreaming about them at the moment because of the enormous change going on around us and within us. So learn to face them without fear and be ready to meet change in your life and in your family.
Your dream is saying that you are in that great ocean of universal knowledge and that you can speak to your daughter shows you are not drowning and things will be okay. But you should not fight to get to the surface. That comes from fear of the actual ocean and does not apply in dreams. If you realise that you are in the ocean of mind then you will know all that will keep you and your family safe.
Your daughter isn’t with you because she is not fighting to get to the surface. Young children are at home in the mind of everything. That is where they came from as they entered your womb. As William Wordsworth says:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, 60 Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come 65 From God, who is our home:
Tony
Hello, I had a dream last night for which I would be interested to hear your input. I was standing at my beach front holiday house, looking out over the ocean when this gigantic tidal wave starting building and heading towards me at a tremondous speed. My only thought was that I had to get to my husband and daughter. I knew that I couldn’t get away from the wave but I desperately wanted to get to my family, that was all that I was concerned about, was the fact that I might not make it to them in time. When I managed to get to my husband and daughter, I was panic stricken but so relieved to be with them. I was confused that I hadn’t been overwhelmed by the wave and when I looked back it had completely subsided and my husband was there in front of me looking at me as if to say “whats wrong?”. Even now thinking about this dream I get very emotional.
Jennifer – I believe the tidal wave was actually an image in your dream of the emotions you then felt. That is why it disappeared when the emotions emerged. Also you felt concern and care for your family instead of for your own safety. Such feeling are very powerfully transforming.
It is possible that you were thinking in your dream state of the possibility of a natural disaster separating you from your family, and if you hadn’t explored that possibility it can be an awful shock. But when we do explore it gradually we wee it in a different light.
Any release of emotional or sexual energy. The reason this image is used is that when we feel enormous release of emotions such as might happen when we fall in love, have a baby, or are publicly condemned, our ego often feels carried along by the experience rather than in control. We may have learned how to ride such waves as surfers do. This requires confidence, daring and balance. If we can do it we can open ourselves to much greater range of feeling or change than if we felt threatened.
Tony
hi i had a dream yesterday where i was in my house 7th floor… and i could see a huge wave the bigger than my building come towards me.. after that suddenly i was under water.. everything was in water and i could clearly see everything… i felt like i am floating in the water and experienced a very peaceful feeling suddenly.
next thing i was suddenly on a beach with a child and few others were around too…
this was very peaceful experience but i am not sure what the dream means..thanks
Sonya – This about a very big change coming to you. It is probably working its way up to the surface at the moment.
The change will change the way you see the world around you and the way you feel. It is like a rebirth dream in that you were submerged in the water and then you were on the beach with a baby.
So it seems as if your old life will change as it is swept away by change, and a new life will begin. Obviously dreams dramatise, but you should see it emerging.
Tony
I always have strage dreams, and i would like to understand more about them. Hope you can help me.
My family and I went to a little island to have hoilday. The island was in the middle of a sea. That’s a very beautiful sea. Suddenly the people who lived on the island were very frightened. And I asked one of them”Why are you so frighten?” He said”There is lots of ships which is for sightseeing. Whenever these ships get into the water or rise to the surface, tidal wave occured. Many people dead everyday” By the moment he finished talking, I saw a tidal wave is coming towards me. I was very nervous and stayed in a small house.I hide behind a wall. And the water rushed into the house though the windows next to me. The wall protected me from the water. And I was fine finally. I started looking for the others, my mum and dad. Luckily, they were fine too. They told me that they saw a rope when the tidal wave was coming. And they hold the rope so that the water couldn’t rush they away. And then I woke up.
Milk – I have the feeling that you are a fairly happy family living in a way that is not with a lot of outside influences. At least that is what your island suggests – a way of life not influences by many others.
But then the outside world and its influences, shown by the ships with sightseers, bring unwanted changes or influences into your world. But you found a way of surviving.
This could be the dream of a young teenager who is coming out of the world of childhood and facing the adult world.
Tony
Thank you for such in -depth analysis of my dreams and for sharing your remarkable insight. At the time I found the huge wave terrifying, but in the future I will see if I can make a “conscious” effort to interact rather than wake up. In my waking life I feel that something very defining is destined to occur but I don’t know what or when. Maybe this dream and your interpretation will help me to not only recognize it, but to react courageously when the time comes?
I wrote to you previously about my dream involving a Great Dane puppy. I most recently had another dream and I found it even more disturbing: I was with a male acquaintance and we were standing in the ocean in water up to our knees. We were holding onto a small boat and this acquaintance, although I can’t remember what he was saying, was being annoying in what he was saying to me. There were other people around but we were not interacting with them. I suddenly became aware that the water was receding away from me more than usual and I looked out to see an enormous wave approaching. I could see it growing larger and larger and I knew that there was no way I could get out of the way before it got to me. In the seconds that it continued to grow I thought, “this is it, I can’t survive this” and I wondered if I should tie myself to the boat so that my body would be found. My acquaintance is no longer with me and no one else is around, I am completely alone as I watch the wave approach. I am momentarily distracted by the undertow pulling very hard at my legs but I am aware of the sound of the approaching wave which was by now huge, and I looked up to see it just starting to curl and break high over my head. I suddenly woke up at this point with my heart pounding and I was in a cold sweat. As I think back on this dream I remember how very real it was and the complete silence once the wave was high over me and ready to come crashing down – I think that silence was the most terrifying. Let me add that this acquaintance is in no way a romantic interest because even in real life he can be an extremely annoying person and I don’t see him for months at a time – he is just a family friend.
Deb – This is an amazing dream, but I will have to explain things to make its significance clear.
1. 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.
2. While we sleep our conscious self is largely gone, and while we sleep our voluntary muscles are paralysed – so another will or motivating forces 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; but the second will takes over when we sleep.
3. This Life will or motivator has been active for millions of years and we see it working all the time in animals. We are partly split in half because we are often opposed to what Life in us wants. So the only way to express what is good for us is in dreams when our conscious will is largely passive.
4. Life created your body and pre-existed you as a person you know today. It was working in you prior to your ability to speak or know in the way you do today. But of course it has fantastic wisdom and skills, as can be seen in animals.
5. Life, if you look around you at Life’s creature, can take any form. So Life is without form. In fact the recent advances in quantum physics suggest that what gives us existence is beyond space and time.
6. So dreams do not come from the human unconscious, but from the formless origins of Life. To express in a way that is understandable to us as a person with limited understanding, they use all the common imagery and ideas. So people who say that dreams are a mish mash of common everyday events are mistaken.
7. In dreams, using images, what ever moves away from you is going out of your life, and whatever moves toward us is emerging into consciousness. Whatever it is that is coming toward us is giving us something. The fact we give it a frightening image is because we are brought to be scared of ourselves and to not trust Life. If you know the tenets of the AA, you will see that is what they are about – to trust Life.
8. Most people are frightened of life. I see this in so many dreams sent in. They do not trust themselves to the powerful action of Life flowing through them.
So Deb, you we frightened of something wonderful that could have grown you and enlarge your experience of yourself. The wave was a wonderful gift that you were frightened of. But so was I. But it is like learning to swim. So please go back into your dream and let the Wave be fully experienced instead of waking up in fear.
Here is an example of something I experiencing with my wife ‘H’: “We can run from pleasure and wider insight, just as much as from pain or fear.
On the first night I slept with my present wife I noticed she struggled with her breathing. While she was asleep I spoke to her suggesting she would relax and allow her breathing to be easy. Within moments she responded. This encouraged me and I suggested her whole body would relax, and the barriers within her dissolve, allowing healing and well-being to be experienced. Within ten minutes she suddenly awoke and told me a dream. She was at the rear of a house sunbathing with her family, feeling very relaxed and happy. As she sank into the enjoyment waves, like a tidal wave began to roll up her body. The pleasure was so intense she couldn’t take any more and woke up.
This is an example of how we are afraid of life, but it is a wonderful illustration of how dreams use imagery.
Tony
Deb I was inspired to write a much longer piece in respond to yours and other people’s dream of fear. Here it ir – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-dreaming/
Tony