Interested in Understanding Boyfriend's Recurring Dream

[MalloryAlice]

Hello!

My boyfriend has a recurring dream (possibly better to call it a nightmare) that has plagued him since he was around 6 years old (he's now 27). 

In his dream he walks through a red door (not clear if it is a front door, or just a door to another room) and in the middle of the room sees a bowl with a coin (always seems to be a silver coin, though he isn't sure on the size or value) circling around as if to go down a drain or funnel.  The coin continues to circle in the bowl and as he approaches he becomes filled with panic.  The rest of the room he has entered is very dark and feels the sensation of being watched though there is never anything but the spinning coin in the bowl that he can see. 

He has this dream once every few months (sometimes as rarely as every six months) and always wakes with intense anxiety and fear.

Have you heard of this type of dream and what do you think it means?

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

[Christine]

When he is ready to work on the meaning of the dream he will.

[Tony Crisp]

Mallory - Chris is probably right. Here's a way it can be done, and maybe why.

In dreams it is usually the emotions/feeling that create the images in what we dream. So your boyfriend’s panic is the important thing. So it would be helpful for him to ask himself when he can remember feeling that panic in waking life. It is obviously an early memory, so may have been cause by an early incident.

Here is an example: Marilyn was experiencing pain and anxiety about her impending divorce. Marilyn had dreamt of see¬ing a dinosaur standing in her path, devouring all who approached it. So we explored her dream by having Marilyn imagined being the dinosaur. By doing this we gave more attention or consciousness to what might otherwise have remained an apparently unimportant part of her experience - the dream.

In her exploration Marilyn did not sense anger or aggression, but she did feel like a predator which always had to TAKE to gain her own needs. This feeling immediately reminded her of her family life as a child. She remembered one time when she was sent shopping as a very young child of three or four, and as well as buying what she had been asked, she purchased some sweets for herself. When she arrived home she was treated as if she had done a terrible thing, and that was when she began to feel like a predator. It seemed to her as if her own needs were always gained at the expense of someone else.

With this awareness, she could now see that the dino¬saur standing in her path clearly related to her present situ¬ation. Bargaining to gain a realistic share of the house and property jointly owned by her husband and herself, felt to her as if she were gaining her needs at his expense, like a predator.

So please have him imagine himself as the coin ready to disappear and take time to not what he feels – in fact read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson

The fact of being watched is probably important. If he can place himself in the dark room with the feeling of being watched, and allow any feelings that arise, he can shift the dream.

Tony