Surviving Drowning - Imported from Comments

[Tony Crisp]

Bine

Last night I had a very long dream. Actually only about half of the dream was about drowning, but I hope that I can still get an answer.

I dreamt it was the future and that I once had a husband that I really, really loved, everything was perfect. Well in the dream, that was a couple of years ago, because he died. I don’t know why, and I remember absolutely nothing about him, only that we were happy. This is where the dream actually starts, and what I just mentioned is memories of me in the dream. I am with my family and the family of my dead husband on a tour to an amusement park I have been to in real life (really fun place actually) There is this kind of helicopter, the creepiest thing in the whole park. Half of the time you are upside down and spiralling around in weird patterns while being very far from the ground. I don’t know but maybe about 100 meters. It also goes so fast that you can’t move at all.

Well, I finally got my guts together and tried it this winter. In the dream my grandma who normally hates that kind of stuff offers to go with me and I gladly accept because I’ve tried it lots of times before and am not scared. I should maybe mention that the reason that we are on the trip is to forget about my dead husband and try to finally have fun again. Well, when we get to the helicopters and sit in the seats I realize I forgot something and get off. When I get back the helicopters already started and when my grandma comes down she is to my surprise completely unaffected by the tour, but calmly refuses to go again with me. I decide to get on alone. When I sit in the seat I realize that I have my bag on me, and that I should hand it to my family. I get back on the seat, and before I get the belt on it starts. I panic and my hands won’t do as I want them to. I realize it is too late and that I should grab something, so I cling to an iron bar a hope for survival. I was really scared; it felt so real, the gravity shifting places and the knot in my stomach. I wear this weird dress kind of looking like a wedding dress with real roses in pink and violet sewn on various places on the skirt. When I turn upside down I get the skirt in my head everything whitens and when I come to my senses I lay on the ground, everyone is worried and looking at me.

Some days pass, and I am constantly scared of everything. Then we go on this fishing trip on a long boat in a lake. The boat is way too big for the lake now that I think about it… well the weather is amazing, no wind, sunny and a blue sky. I’m wearing the same dress again. I suddenly panic, thinking I am at the helicopter again. I try to calm myself down, but when I look down I don’t sit in the boat but in a little canoe. In my panic I don’t really understand what happens, but I think big waves tilts the boat and I fall into the water. It is not icy and not warm, just a little cold. My sense of direction totally leaves me and I try to swim up, but I hit the bottom. I try to get up but it’s useless. It feels like my lungs burns and then I give up. I sink to the bottom and lay there for a second. But then I get this crazy idea, I start to listen. I hear birds, and start to swim against the sound. In that tiny period of time I felt calm, strangely. The same thing happens, everything whitens and when I come to my senses I am lying near the lake on the ground and everyone is looking worried. I don’t really remember the next part clearly, just that I get home and the days seem to “circle” with the same things happening, and me getting constantly scared of everything. I also remember looking in my old diary from when I was a kid. It’s filled with colours and when I look at it, I feel like I was someone else’s diary, not mine. Even though it was me who wrote it. Well the days just continue to circle and then I wake up.

Sorry if my English is incorrect, it is not my native language. I have dreamt of drowning many times before, but not like this. I really can’t figure what the dream means, and I would appreciate an interpretation.

[Tony Crisp]

Bine – Facing scary funfair rides in dreams shows that you are not backing off from scary situations. That your Grandmother also did the ride suggests you come from a long line of tough or courageous women. WOW.

However you have to face the test/tour alone. In dreams you are being tested to see if you can pass on to deeper experiences. It is like when as a child you were dependent on your mother, and as you grew in confidence you became a little more independent; so in a way not a test.

Of course you really faced your fears and became frightened of everything. But dreams are about homeostasis/self regulation and growth. For each of us are immersed in a ‘river’ of constant change. If you think about it you have been carried, pushed, impelled by this current as you were moved through babyhood, childhood, teenage and adulthood. And as we passed through these changes we died to our old self in order to change to the new. It is the current of Life. This current then carries us on through old age and through the gates of death. All the time we are faced by decisions, and each decision directs us on a different path, helping to create our future.

The life process behind dreams constantly wants you to grow, so your dream was pushing you to face the next stage of growth. But of course, those who cannot face the challenges life and dreams confront them with cannot take the next step.

For you the next step was going on the boat, then the canoe, a definite move toward fuller independence. You managed that, but past memories made you feel insecure. Most of us have heard of Post Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it is a condition where memories that are now old are still influencing one to cause emotional upset. They are deeply buried memories that are stored in our body. Such memories are frequently revealed by dreams. But they are often prevented to be able to express their passionate content, because most of us are scared of deep emotions or passions. But somehow you went on into the deep water despite your fears. Amazing!

By ‘giving up’ your struggle to survive drowning – something in dreams that is no danger at all – you passed onto a huge realisation, you entered another dimension of your consciousness. To deepen what you learned – a trick dreams do in case we missed learning it – you cycled through it again and again. Control and letting go of control also relate very fully to what we know about ourselves. This is because with too tight a control on what we allow ourselves to feel or experience we build a barrier against the re-experiencing and healing of old painful events, and also for the arising of new aspects of our potential to emerge.

To save a lot of writing I would like you to read and consider http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-long-memory-of-existence/ - http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/clicking-on/ - http://dreamhawk.com/news/summing-up/ - http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/

Tony