Panic

Many dreams in which one feels panic the dream often involves some injury or life threatening situation to someone, so therefore concerns the stress felt by some part of our personality. Such dreams may have an ambulance or involve feelings of emergency.

Another source of panic in dreams comes from dealing with ones instinctive drive often shown by an animal. The horse for instance is a dynamic instinctive power and a means of locomotion; it carries one away like a surge or instinct. It is subject to panics like all instinctive creatures which lack higher consciousness – like we ourselves do when our animal brain takes over. See Animals in your Brain

It is important to say that when a person enters real sleep with a little waking awareness, and either meets the experience of powerlessness through paralysis, or the hugeness of their Life Will, which feels like something alien or attacking, it is a shock. As I repeat later, as we begin to meet the Hugeness that we are, we often react to it with fear or panic.

Many big things can cause people who dream them a lot of unnecessary fear or panic. So things like a huge tsunami rushing at you; a great fish of whale swallowing you; or a giant and threatening person are actually a sign you are nearing a very important experience.

Such enormous things are showing you your own immensity. 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 desire with its pains and hopes; it is something we take so seriously and get carried away into awful situations; we take many sorts of pain killers to deal with ourselves. Things such as alcohol, coffee, medical drugs and street drugs, and yet we are still prone to break down, as can be seen by the number of people who need antidepressants or are totally lost in themselves. See Summing Up; Avoid Being Victims

Losing control or feeling that you are not in control in some way can cause great panic. For instance in some reversing dreams the car is going so fast it suggests being out of control, or doing things in a way that is not as efficient as it might be. So you may feel tremendous anxiety or panic. See Conditioned Reflexes

 Example: I go upstairs to a bedroom to get a weapon. When I enter the darkened room, I sense that someone is there. I fall onto my stomach on the bed and there I am paralyzed, unable to move, extremely fearful that I will be attacked while I am in this vulnerable position, feebly kicking my feet, sure that the ‘enemy’ is somewhere in this darkened room with me. I keep expecting to kick someone, but I can’t really tell if I ever do. I am in a state of complete panic. PG

Example: whenever a boyfriend initiated even the most innocent sexual approach, such as touching, embracing, or kissing, she was overwhelmed with terror. It seemed to her that when such a situation occurred, her lover was actually changing physically and assuming animal features. Repeatedly, she fled from these situations in a state of panic anxiety and never wanted to see her partner again. Episodes of this kind were repeatedly relived… with details of the physical setting, as well as the physical sensations and emotions involved. From Realms of The Human Unconscious, by S. Grof.

Example: My recurring dream – some disaster is happening. I try to contact the police or my husband. Can never contact either. I try ringing 999 again and again and can feel terror, and sometimes dreadful anger or complete panic. I cry, I scream and shout and never get through! Recently I have stopped trying to contact my husband. I managed once to reach him but he said he was too busy and I would have to deal with it myself. I woke in a furious temper with him and kicked him while he was still asleep.

Idioms: press the panic button

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I aware of what causes panic attacks, and can I control them as describe in conditioned reflexes?

Do I look to someone or something else to deal with my attacks?

How have I tied to deal with panic?

See Method to Manage Intense Emotion – Martial Art of the Mind – Life’s Little Secrets