Posts Tagged ‘dream’
Baboon
Some people associate impulsive unreasoned urges such as self centred grabbing of food or sexual expression without concern for the other person; mischievousness; mimicry folly or foolishness or feeling an idiot to monkeys. But monkeys can also be instinctive or intuitive wisdom about relationships, social interactions and life. The Egyptian god Thoth as the baboon is a symbol of arbitration, and is also active in resurrection and giving of life and wisdom. He was the power that judges the balance of your life after death.
So the baboon can represent a world of experience human beings have lost and feel sorrow at its absence. Many humans have also lost the wonderful directness and ability to express their wide range of responses to life and people. In developing self consciousness, with its labyrinth of ideas and decisions, humans lost a sense of oneness with life around them. Baboons act so directly and apparently without conscience that it frightens many humans.
Animals have enormous remembered wisdom; remembered through instincts and complex social codes. Without it humans can feel alone in the world, a meaningless existence in the midst of uncaring circumstance. See Animals
Useful Questions and Hints:
What to I feel about the baboon in my dream?
What influence does it have if any?
Does it frighten me or are I at peace with it?
Try standing in the role of the baboon by using Stand in role; also Processing Dreams.
Baby Babies
General
Aborted baby
Adult body with baby head
Adopted baby
Baby body with adult head – Baby Boy – Baby Girl
Crying baby
Dead Baby
Do I need a pregnancy test if I dream of having a baby? – Dream Baby – Dropping a baby
Gifted or holy baby – Girl baby – Giving birth
Happy baby – Hitting the baby
In a man’s dream – In child’s dream – In woman’s dream – Losing/not finding a baby
Man giving birth to a baby
Neglecting or forgetting baby –Nursing a baby
Pregnancy – dreaming of baby during
Sick baby – Starving baby
Twins or twin
When appearing with a couple
If you cannot find what you want in the first section, there are a lot of questions answered at the bottom of the page under Comments.
If you have given birth to a baby in a dream, it can represent a new phase of life; a new idea; new activity – as when we say someone has a new baby, meaning a new project or business. This ‘baby’ might be part of you that did not have a chance to be ‘born’ or express before. Or it may be things learned in a rich life that you could not put into practice because of circumstances. The baby in this aspect is the ‘you’ that could have been if you had been free from problems and past hurts.
In real life a baby is a blending of mother and father, and all they represent. A baby is a new thing that has been ‘born’ out of them and the circumstances they are involved in.
Example: My wife and I were walking out in the countryside. I looked around suddenly and saw my four year old son near a hole. He fell in and I raced back. The hole was narrow but very deep. I could see water at the bottom but no sign of my son. I didn’t know whether I could leap down and save him or whether it was too narrow. Then somehow he was out. His heart was just beating.
The dreamer had an argument with his wife the night before and was frightened it had killed his marriage. The baby son represented their marriage and his fear of the end of their life together, but the dream went on to show that it survived.
But the dream baby can also represent one’s own feeling urges at that level of development – such as possessiveness, joy, curiosity, responding to the world without words or formed concepts, innocent love, infant trauma; intense dependence; feelings of helplessness; vulnerability; lack of responsibility; and being cared for. Even as adults many of these early feeling responses still dominate the way we meet relationships and events. It is quiet common for instance for adults to feel intense and destructive jealousy about their sexual partner. This is exactly the sort of feeling we experienced naturally as a baby and child. Unfortunately in adulthood we seldom see such things as an emergence of baby feelings which we have not grown beyond. Instead we accept them as adult behaviour and justify them, often blaming our sexual partner for them – i.e. ‘You made me jealous by showing affection for that other man/woman’. The baby or child often feels murderous rage in connection with such dependence and jealousy, but it is too small to effectively act on the rage. When an adult feels such rage however, it is highly dangerous and irrational. See Beware of Love; victim; personal growth.
Aborted baby: In general something that was developing, a new facet of self, or a new opportunity that has now been lost or rejected. If in a pregnant woman’s dream, usually it is an expression of fears regarding ones ability to carry the child to full term – but it is wise to have a check. See: pregnancy.
Adult body with baby head: Suggests that the way one approaches life, ones thinking, is still immature, even though one is physically mature.
Adopted baby: Adopting a new stance in life, perhaps conceived by, or seen in someone else; taking on the responsibility of something or someone that needs care and help to grow; if you are trying to adopt a baby it would reflect feelings or intuitions about that activity.
Baby body with adult head: Suggests that while one has developed an adult intellect and rational thinking, or an adult self, aspects of ones feelings, hungers and sexuality remain at the baby level of development.
Baby Boy: If you have given birth to a baby boy, it is usually about the principle of maleness entering your life. Maleness is like the sun, it expresses most of its energy outwardly to give life. Whereas the female is like the earth, receiving and nurturing life.
Birth or emergence of a new phase of self expression in terms of activity or achievement. In a males dream may suggest a new self emerging, or new aspect of self.
Baby Girl: If you have given birth to a baby girl, it is usually about the principle of femininity. Femininity is about having the power of creating life within and nurturing its growth.
Baby Dying: The anxiety dreams include such images as giving birth to a baby who is only a few ounces in weight – the baby is malformed – the baby is born dead – the baby is blind or deaf or injured.
Castle was able to follow the dreams of over 200 pregnant women, often from about the time of conception through to their post natal situation and experience. One of his interests was to see if dreams showed signs of information about physical conditions that were not apparent at the time of the dream. He says that many dreams did in fact show that small shifts in the physical state, such as conception, were shown in appropriate symbols in the dreams of some women. So if you have a worrying dream about your baby it is worth making sure you check out its condition, something that with modern equipment is easily done. To quote Castle, “The unconscious mind of the pregnant woman seems able to monitor and detect biochemical imbalances, tissue abnormalities, or structural defects in the uterine environment and communicate an awareness of disturbed functioning through dream imagery, which is sometimes fairly literal, sometimes symbolic.”
Seeing a baby die in a dream can suggest many things. It can suggest that the most vulnerable part of you has been killed by your hidden emotions. Also I have received, over 40 years, many dreams of mothers who dreamt their baby or child was dead, and not one of them died. One woman who explored such a dream with me found that a death had taken place, represented by the child, and the death was that of her love for a man. She had ended a relationship that had lasted for years.
Dead baby: Dreaming that your child dies can have several meanings. In some dreams a parent, much to their horror dreams of killing their child. But our dream
child can represent many things, and it is useful to realise that any person, object or scene in a dream is not a symbol – it is not dead thing that has to be interpreted – it is a living part of you and can only be understood by relating to it.
So in this way I have found that a child can represent whatever our strongest feelings about them are. It can represent your marriage or partnership because it is what you have created between you. In that case the death of the child can depict something like an awful argument that feels as if it the marriage has died.
A child and its death can also show you how you have killed out the growing or adventurous side of you; or if you see your child as vulnerable and needing protection it could show you the death of that part of your feeling.
If a dream seems to predict the death of your child, it is wise to remember two things. the first is that a said above many dreams about our baby are actually about injury or death of our vulnerable self – See Characters and People in Dreams.
That predictive dreams are very uncommon. But if you are feeling it is predictive remember that the future is not set in stone. But you can pray for protection for your child and it can change the outcome.
Gifted or holy baby: Often shows the dreamer having given birth to parts of their personality which are connected with wider sympathies, or wider awareness, than their own personal ego or self. It may show an awareness of the universal processes of life. It is the same sort of meaning as Christ in symbolism. It can show the emergence of awareness of the levels of existence beyond the senses. See: esp in dreams.
Example: “Was in a basement where my wife and a woman I loved was giving birth to a baby, but I was somehow the one who gave birth to it without a doctor being there. It was a lovely boy. Its lower face was covered by a tight caul, but I pulled this off and it began to breathe. It opened its eyes and looked about, fully conscious; then said something about Jesus, and, “It is gone!” I asked what had gone, and it replied, “The other ego; where has it gone?” I explained that the spirit self it knew before birth was now gone so it could live in the body. The baby was then taken upstairs, and I felt it was a holy and wonderful baby. I was going to rest from the rigours of the birth, but on looking around saw how dusty and dirty the basement was. I began to clean it, and felt I would go upstairs and rest afterwards.”
The man who dreamt this said that he felt afterwards that at the time of the dream he had given birth to the very best of him. This became more and more obvious as years went by. Also he realised that his inner life, his unconscious, needed cleaning, and then began to go upstairs to his wider awareness. It could be helpful for you to use the following Talking As.
If you have given birth without any man involved, it suggests it is a virgin birth – i.e. no male partner was involved at the time.
Many women dream of giving birth without any man involved. Virgin birth is normal part of dreaming. It means that the woman or young girl has conceived as a process of Life. Being a virgin represents the human soul or psyche and its possibility of dropping pre-conceptions, thus attaining an inner virginity and through that being receptive to the unseen or unconscious side of self. Joseph Campbell in his book “Myths To Live By” says – “There are myths and legends of the Virgin Birth, of Incarnations, Deaths and Resurrections; Second Comings, Judgements and the rest, in all the great traditions. And since such images stem from the psyche (from you and your dreams), they refer to the psyche. They tell us of its structure, its order, and its forces, in symbolic terms.”
For instance, the story and events surrounding the virgin birth, when looked as if a dream are not about a biological miracle, but about how as ordinary people, we can drop our preconceptions, our fixed ideas and beliefs and allow an entirely new and creative impulse into our life. This truth has been so venerated that we find virgin figures all over the world such as Maya the mother of Buddha born 500 BC; the virgin mother of Osiris, and of course the story told of Mary.
Being a virgin in this case is about having a mind free from previous ‘conceptions’ and so being open to Life itself fertilising you for a new and precious thing being born. If you are not a virgin because you have had children, that is not what virgin birth is about. It is about conceiving without any mental preconceptions, having an open and receptive mind or soul. it is about a wonderful human possibility.
So the dream baby born to you in this way a wonderful creative act between you and Life. It is a new part of you that if you let it gradually grow into your waking life as a new force, a new way of feeling about life and acting. Being pregnant like that is very important. Obviously you are not going to give birth to a physical baby, but dream babies are important too.
Only a ‘virgin birth’ can bring forth the birth of an intuition, a new response to oneself and ones environment, that transforms ones life. This is a living relationship with the mystery which underlies our life. If we generate a child in this way, we are not held prisoner by habits of thought, stereotypes of behaviour, then we can begin to allow into our waking life what was previously impossible to know. This open state of mind and feelings, acts as a link between the identity or personality, and the deep unconscious life processes. This link allows a birth of realisations and inner change that brings healing and a possibility of experiencing the aspect of oneself that is our core self.
Crying baby or helpless baby: Your fundamental needs are not being, or were not in the past, met. These include basic things like feeling happy and relaxed in ones environment, feeling wanted and loved, having a sense of connection with other people. There may be something distressing you at a feeling/needing level that you are not acknowledging; a new project or aspect of self needing more care.
But it is part of inbuilt wisdom in babies to cry and act helpless of injured to get their needs or a parents love. So if you dream of such a baby it may well be showing you that you are using the same tactics to get people’s sympathy.
Example: Baby pelicans can produce a false epileptic fit; they do this because it is a way to get their parents to carry on feeding them. The alternative is that they must get off their butt and feed themselves.
Dream Baby – i.e. one you gave birth to in your dream. Dream babies are usually special and are a way that you give birth to either parts of your personality that have developed over time and are now ‘born’. They slowly become obvious to us as new talents, a new direction, or even a new way of life.
Such babies are easy to give birth to, and usually are beautiful and speak soon.
Do I need a pregnancy test if I dream of having a baby?: If you are having unprotected regular sex or if you are trying for a baby, then yes have a test. But if you know you had not had sex with a partner, then it is a dream baby. See all the comments and answers at the bottom of the page.
Dropping a baby: Carelessness in dealing with your basic needs, especially in relationship; mishandling an opportunity; betraying trust; feeling you have been ‘dropped’ by someone, perhaps in a relationship. It might also at times suggest a miscarriage or the lack of support in caring for a pregnancy.
Example: I turned and ran with the pram at a small boy on a tricycle who was pedalling toward me playfully. We laughingly collided. Not a bad bump, but enough to send the baby over onto the ground on its head. The baby cried but didn’t seem badly hurt. I realised it was the second time I had dropped the baby, and felt I must be more careful and responsible. We were then preparing for a storm on the ship.
It was during the past few days that my wife told me that her period was late. She thought she was pregnant. This caused an awful situation between us. I was out of work in an area that offered me no work. I suggested she had an abortion. As it turned out it was a false pregnancy. However, the damage had been done. (Apparently I had dropped the baby?)
Girl baby: Birth or emergence of new aspects of feelings and feeling relationship with others. But in a females dream may mean an emergence of a new phase or a new start in her life.
Giving birth: A healthy woman is designed by nature to create a baby. But it is also true that at the heart of a woman’s being is the power of creation, and that creation can go in any direction – a mother, an artist, a dancer, a poet, a social worker, or even an alcoholic or drug dependent.
But in our dream world the image of your creation is usually in the form of a baby. But as you may not be pregnant you have produced an image of your creation and creativeness. It is new so you do not know what it is. That you have dreamt this at all shows you need to take note of this extraordinary creativeness and investigate it. You can do this by imagining your self as the baby – remember that dreams are showing reflections of your own inner world so the baby is an expression of your creativity – and talk as the baby describing what it feels. Use Talking As.
If it is difficult or a C-section then you are anxious or have fears about having a baby, or else there is a history of difficulty that you need to work out. Try using Carry the Dream Forward.
That you have dreamt this at all shows you need to take note of this extraordinary creativeness and investigate it. You can do this by imagining your self as the baby – remember that dreams are showing reflections of your own inner world so the baby is an expression of your creativity – and talk as the baby describing what it feels. Talking As
And do not dismiss this as a silly dream, such dream babies have a very real purpose and life of their own. They are your creation out of the wonderful creative process that is a woman, and your own ideals and longings. If you nurture them you will see them grow – I call the spirit children.
Happy baby: Feeling at ease with oneself and surroundings. It may be that something has happened in a relationship or environment that brings a deeper level of relaxation and sense of security.
Hitting the baby: Usually a sign of not being able to cope with ones own childhood pain, and so it ends in hitting. See: hitting.
In a man’s dream: The same as general definitions, but also may be oneself at that age; desire for parenthood; weight of responsibility; fear of inability to produce. See Man Giving Birth to Baby.
In child’s dream: Themselves at that age; feelings about a baby sibling.
In woman’s dream: The same as general definitions, but also may be oneself at that age; desire for a baby; responsibility of caring for baby; worries about having healthy baby; worries about baby’s welfare.
Losing/not finding a baby: Losing contact with or not caring for your fundamental feeling responses to life; losing an opportunity or mishandling a delicate relationship; feeling lost and abandoned in ones own child feelings.
Man giving birth to a baby: Often happens during the pregnancy of the mans partner; shows the man bringing something to birth in himself. This is usually a new understanding, or a new sympathy or viewpoint. It can show the emergence of awareness of the unconscious. See Special Baby
Neglecting or forgetting baby: Many baby dreams, as in the example at the bottom, have this theme of neglecting, or even starving the baby. This is usually because we need to take care of, or be more aware of, how much personal need we have for things like care, appreciation and love being given to us. If as a baby our need for being held and given attention were met, then we can move into the next phase of our growth. But if these needs were never met, one is often stuck emotionally at this level of development. See Beware of Love.
If you are a parent with a baby, the dream may represent natural anxieties about ones ability as a parent – i.e. the dream may reflect a fear you are not giving as much to your child as you wish, or that you find yourself wishing for a break from parenthood.
Example: ‘I have my own baby who is lying in a cot in a bedroom looking very weak and pathetic with eyes closed. I know that he or she is getting weaker and weaker through lack of food and care. In fact the baby seems to be dying. The feelings of guilt are terrible because I know it is my responsibility to do something to make it well. I keep saying to myself I must go and feed that baby – but I don’t. I just keep worrying and feeling guilty.’ J. C.
Because of circumstances we may not have been able to satisfy all our babyhood needs – we may have been weaned earlier than we wanted; our need for attention may have been unsatisfied or we felt rejected or unwanted – and these are shown as a baby in our dreams. Dreams such as the above show how we sense the need of this part of us to be cared for and nourished. If some of these earliest needs are not met in some way, the development of our enthusiasm, our pleasure and ability to be involved and self-giving, may be diminished, giving rise to dreams suggesting the need for nourishment, as above. See: baby – healing and helping; baby in my dreams.
Nursing a baby: Caring for ones own infant needs which still exist in ones adult life; giving care and love to someone who is relating to you in a baby way; wanting a baby, or needing to express the depth of your own ability to give and love.
Pregnancy – dreaming of baby during: Most women dream about their growing baby during pregnancy. These dreams are vary varied and often anxious or frightening. Such dreams are not to be taken as signs of a problem other than natural anxiety. Occasionally a pregnant woman dreams of the identity or personality of her unborn child, perhaps even before it is conceived. This can of course occur to the father too. See: pregnancy; birth dreams during pregnancy; fifth example under penis, in the body section.
Sick baby: Our babyhood experience builds the foundation of all relationship with other people and the world. If for instance we are punished for being curious, or are traumatised in our need for love and support, it will show in our adult relationships. Perhaps we will lack explorative curiosity, or avoid or have difficulties in a close relationship. The sick baby usually depicts such difficulties. Exploring our feelings in connection with the sick baby, or being the sick baby as in Gestalt dream-work, will help uncover the details and intense feelings involved in such unsatisfying emotions and habitual responses.
Starving baby: See: Neglecting or forgetting baby: above.
Twins or twin: The many polar opposites or splits in us – the split between waking consciousness and sleep or the unconscious; the split between what we want in our deepest desires, and what we can allow ourselves socially; the split caused by infant trauma; the split between our sense of eternity and the facts of physical mortality; introversion and extroversion; something of self which has got split off; the lack of balance in our being; twins can represent duality, conflict, or two sides of an issue, but also the emergence of something new, something that was denied, or born with one, but never acknowledged as part of oneself; ones unconscious relationship with another person, such as occurs in a telepathic link; separation.
Or perhaps even ‘died at birth’, or one died, leaving us feeling only half a person; the lack of balance in our being. When one of the babies died and the other survived it might be as happens often that the situation wasn’t right for one perhaps because of health issues. See Tony’s Inner Voice
When appearing with a couple: The marriage – what is created in the relationship; the life process in us based on reproduction. What you have produced and care for or neglect together
Quoted from Dreams and Dreaming, by Norman Mackenzie.
Then I went back in my mind to being two years old when I felt that a terrible thing had happened to me, the realisation that my mother had no love for me. I saw her holding a male baby and I felt in that instant that I hated males. I had just this fundamental feeling, a terrible feeling, and it grew and I became full of hate and I realised that it was directed toward the opposite sex. I felt that this had begun at an early age when I felt that my mother had given affection to the male members of the family and not myself. I was the only female. I realised that at that age she didn’t love me and I must have felt jealous of the male This grew up within me.
This graphically describes the depth of feeling we often carry from our earliest years, feelings which deeply influence our adult behaviour. In this case it made the woman’s relationships with her husband strained and tense.
Example: I have my own baby who is lying in a cot in a bedroom looking very weak and pathetic with eyes closed. I know that he or she is getting weaker and weaker through lack of food and care. In fact the baby seems to be dying. The feelings of guilt are terrible because I know it is my responsibility to do something to make it well. I keep saying to myself I must go and feed that baby – but I don’t. I just keep worrying and feeling guilty. J. C.
Because of circumstances we may not have been able to satisfy all our babyhood needs – we may have been weaned earlier than we wanted; our need for attention may have been unsatisfied or we felt rejected or unwanted – and these are shown as a baby in our dreams, as with J. C. Dreams such as the above show how we sense the need of this part of us to be cared for and nourished. If some of these earliest needs are not met in some way, the development of our enthusiasm, our pleasure and ability to be involved and self-giving, may be diminished, giving rise to dreams suggesting the need for nourishment, as above. See: baby healing and helping; baby in my dreams.
Example: I am 48, have two children in their late teens and definitely DO NOT want another baby. Nevertheless I have a recurring dream in which I am always in labour, experiencing no pain, and although there are nursing staff I am in some sort of laboratory, although everything is very pleasant. I never actually give birth and when I wake I always have a vague feeling of disappointment. V. I.
This dreamers conscious decision to have no more children may be in conflict with her biological urge for another baby. But the dream might also suggest there is something she deeply want to give birth to in her life but has not yet achieved. Her creativity did not end with her children, there is still more for her to bring out of herself in some way.
Example: My mouth was full of what looked like liver. It was also coming out of my left ear. When I turned away from the mirror I saw medical people in caps and gowns who kept telling me to bear down. I then gave birth to a baby out of my mouth. I am an invalid and very sick at present. Mr. M. S.
This mans dream is about preparation for death. The baby is the extraction of all that can live on after his present life is left behind in death. See: death – is there life afterwards.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Useful questions are given in baby in my dreams.
Bachelor
In general it probably indicates the attitudes and qualities evident in the dream character. See: man.
In a woman’s dream it may be a signal that she is looking for a likely man, or it might refer to a bachelor friend.
Elderly bachelor: It may show a fear that you will lose your partner and be left alone. Or else you are still longing to be free to explore other women.
Man’s dream: Oneself if unmarried; desire for freedom, or comparison with present situation if married. Also it might point to the way you were prior to marriage.
Woman’s dream: Possible hope for sexual partner; husband prior to marriage; unmarried male friend; or if the man is married in real life, hopes that he were single.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is this someone I know – if so how would I describe him and how do those characteristics or feelings apply to me?
Is this someone I do not know – if so what type of person is he and how do those characteristics or feelings apply to me?
What is my relationship with this man and what can I gather from that? See: relationship and dreams; Stand in Role.
Back
For Back of or Behind see Back Of
Back Pain: This can be caused by tension, and this is turn could be about holding yourself back through anxiety. See back pain and its cure.
Back – trunk spine: Mostly the back indicates your strength, particularly moral fibre; confidence physically; decisiveness, ability to stand in face of opposition; power to endure without being overcome. A psychiatrist once told me that many men in a tramps home were diagnosed C.W.B. It meant ‘congenitally without backbone’. That is, They hadn’t developed the strength to deal with everyday life.
Example: ‘I was looking across a hedge at a bull. I seemed to be just looking at its back.’ Andy.
Andy was a teenager, uncertain of himself. In this dream he was looking at and discovering his strength. This was a revelatory dream for him because he suffered a great deal of anxiety in the past because of an old back injury. He had in fact left a higher paid job and taken a much lower paid work because he felt he couldn’t cope. From working on the dream he felt, he was adequate as a person. So the dream was a turning point after which his ability to explore and be active outwardly was hugely enhanced.
So the back can also indicate what you are holding back in yourself, or even what is happening to you ‘behind your back’. Holding back in this way can create real back problems because it causes tension in the back – causing pain – causing worries about the back – causing tension – and so on.
The different strata of the back may also indicate different aspects of yourself. The lower back for instance suggests the earliest stages of your development such as life in the womb and birth; but also the earliest levels of experience such as sensuality and sexuality.
The back at about waist height links with your process of growth and digestion of experience, along with sympathetic links you have with others and the world.
The back connecting with the chest indicates your emotional and feeling development and the way you connect with the world through empathy – especially what you take in and put out of yourself.
The neck connects with your ability to express yourself and communicate with others, along with such things as asking for your needs and speaking your inner truth.
Carrying something on your back: The influences and burdens you carry from your past. This can be useful or difficult depending upon what you carry. This also suggest your karma, or the results you face in the present of all past events and actions – cause and effect. See: dweller on the threshold.
Sitting on the back of an animal: Being supported by your inner and instinctive strength, wisdom and animal self. See: animals.
Somebody on one’s back: Feeling dominated by someone else; feeling the ‘weight’ of one’s parent’s, or someone else’s wants and decisions instead of your own. Carrying an influence from the past.
Idioms: Back breaking; back to the wall – See the example in nightmare, and note the use of the words ‘back against the wall and what it implies; behind one’s back; flat on ones back; get off my back; put somebody’s back up; rod for one’s back; pat on the back; stab in the back; turn one’s back on; scratch my back.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is this indicating strength. If so what strength does it help me become aware of?
Is this an injury or weakness – if so what vulnerability or weakness does it help me become aware of?
What does the theme of the dream tell me about myself? See: themes; Processing Dreams.
Background
This is often a summary of the environment in which the main action of your life is happening at the moment. For instance parents provide a background of support for their children to go to school or to the movies. A different background would change the whole feeling of the foreground. So the background – the room you are in, the surroundings or secondary characters – represent the things we might take for granted, but which give enormous colour to our life and activities. If you dream of going for a walk in the country on a sunny day, that background of walking with an attractive partner gives a completely different ‘colour’ than walking between traffic in a busy town street.
If possible define the feeling and functional quality of the background in the dream you are considering. A city background might have the feeling of high activity and hurry, and the function of providing work opportunity. The country background might have the feeling of non-demanding quietness, and the function of relaxing you.
When you have defined a feeling and function, consider what part those things are playing in your life, and what the details of the dream suggest about them.
Research has show that the surroundings and atmosphere we live in during the day is often reflected in dreams occurring in the early part of the night. See Background and Foreground.
Useful Questions and Hints:
How am I relating to the background?
Is the background a changing one – if so what is the difference?
How does the background relate to my present life situation?
Explore the dream by using Processing Dreams.
Back-Pack
See: Knapsack.
Bacteria Germs Virus
A hidden or invisible attack that may weaken or even destroy you – your confidence – in one way or another. They can also depict anxieties that undermine your health or attack your well-being; or feelings that keep you away from another person or situation – in case of infection.
The germ or virus can indicate fear of illness or feelings of inadequacy or a sense of uncleanness. Remember that nothing in a dream can hurt you. Dream images and actions are all your fears, hopes, habits and wonders clothed in images. But of course if it is fear clothed in scary images, then it is wise to realise that running away and hiding can only encourage the fear. Better to face it. See victims; Facing Fear and also the example under prison.
In investigating virus intuitively, I saw that each different virus was such a packet of data or information, and that life had produced packets of data about the potential for almost anything. In other words, different viruses could have an infinite number of effects in one system. Some might produce a destructive response; others might produce a positive change in mind or body. They are the information base of life. They are the lumps of information other life forms take and use.
The main point of change for me lay in the feeling that a virus might have a very life enhancing effect, not simply a life destructive one as we are led to believe. At the end I felt I had made an agreement with life for myself, my family and Hyone, that our choice of ‘viral data’ was a life enhancing one. We had chosen to be on the side of life, and this would act as a way of choosing the packets of information we would need for our physical, mental and spiritual growth. We live in the midst of continual change. Part of our fundamental need is to change to meet the altering environment in which we exist. But without care we might choose a direction of change that becomes destructive.
The word germ is used extensively to suggest the beginning of something, the point from which great growth can occur, so if the dream does not suggest anxiety, there may be a positive connection with growth.
Bacterial warfare: The undermining of ones personal or social well-being by surreptitious means.
Computer virus: Being got at by another person; something surreptitious that you feel is or might attack or undermine your work. It could indicate something that is a destroyer of calm and pleasure, so energy that may be disruptive, but is like bundles of automatic functioning of some sort, depending on the dream. So the virus could also suggest unconscious responses in yourself that are destructive or undermine your conscious life. See habits.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What sort of influence do I feel or see the virus or bacteria having and how does that apply to me?
Am I experiencing an anxiety or fear that is undermining my health and activities?
Is there an influence I feel from someone else that triggers my own negative feelings or fear?
Being the Person or Thing might help you find out the meaning of your dream.
Bad
Our view of what is bad or good changes with each generation. It was thought so bad in the past to be born out of wedlock that people lived a life of shame. One woman who came to me could not even say the word ‘illegitimate’, it held too much emotion for her.
Here are some examples of its use in dreams.
Example: A man in the class said that he felt bad because he had few clothes on. There was an atmosphere of shame because of sex or the body, so I told him to put his shirt on.
Example: I had slept with the woman’s daughter and now she was going to have a baby. I didn’t seem to mind, and accepted the responsibility, and despite being married with a newborn baby, was going to bring up this baby, and maybe even have the mother living in. I realised that I had always thought/felt intercourse with animals was sinful and awful, but now saw nothing bad as I loved the cat.
Example: I was in a cinema with the children. We were sitting near the front on the right. The children were on my left. Beside me on my right was a man, a sort of incarnation of evil – lecherous – filth – devilishness. He leered at me and I believe I stared back. Next the man was on the stage. He was hanged by the neck, without, it seemed, any body, only his leering awful face at the end of the rope. I felt it was bad for the children and was going to get them out.
Bad used in a dream description will probably depend upon your own upbringing. So think carefully were the bad feeling comes from. Even killing someone although it is judge as universally bad, is legalised in warfare – whether national or business.
Something bad such as eggs or food refers to something that might be upsetting you, or that you are taking in rotten information or feelings. But as usual it depends on the context in the dream. See Context; evil; rotten.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What is the feeling or thought of badness about?
Is it something that is often troubling you?
Why did you see it as bad?
Why not try exploring your dream by using Processing Dreams.
Badge
A feeling of identifying with a particular group if the badge is connected with a group or organisation; memories, experiences, things learned with a group or organisation. The badge might suggested an attitude, depending what the badge is. It might suggest courage, authority (such as police badge) or social recognition, or a role; a sense of achievement; a reminder of values held or feelings that strengthen beliefs. This is meant in the way a person will wear a Christian cross or St. Christopher to remind them of their moral decisions or help bring confidence in the face of anxiety. But a badge worn in this way also means you readily show to others what you feel or believe. So it could be the revealing of love, beliefs or decisions made, depending on the badge.
The badge might also link with potential strength and feelings of authority, as one might have with a police badge; acknowledgement of attainment; if it is a name badge it most likely suggests your own sense of identity, or the identity you display to others – or who you feel yourself to be in the circumstance of the dream.
In some dreams the badge shows that you have now achieved a new status, as when you have passed a test or achieved a higher rank. The badge therefore lets others know what qualities you have, what skills you have, or what remarkable deeds you have done. The feathers of an American Indian brave would have a similar significance. See: feather.
Useful questions are:
Does the badge have words – if so what do they connect with in your life or thought?
What does this badge mean to me?
Does this represent an important quality or skill – if so what? Is it related to an organisation – if so what do I feel or associate about it?
What rank or achievement does the badge denote.
Bag Baggage
In some dreams it represents the vagina, and female sexuality in general. More often, as in example below, depicts the dreamer’s identity. Our sense of identity is often dependent largely on social contacts and recognition. The bag, especially handbag, with all one’s personal belongings and money, credit cards, represents our social ability to get places and cope.
The bag can also link with the ‘luggage’ of attitudes, chip on the shoulder, beliefs or fears we carry about in life. Or it can be the things we put away or hide from ourselves and others, therefore secrets, perhaps danger.
The dream bag might contain the personal skills or tools one has, or is carrying with you, such as a laptop, mobile/cell phone. Or it could connect with a holiday or getting away from work or home; freedom or the ability to move.
Another possibility is the association with protective attitudes, as when one might carry something precious in a bag – such as a baby, small animal or objects; secrets or what is hidden, so unpacking it may bring revelations or the unexpected; ones hopes or dreams.
Example: ‘I am in a strange town – usually where there are shops and lots of people. I don’t know where I am or how I got there, but I suddenly realise I have lost my handbag. I know no one and do not know what to do. When I panic I wake.’ Mrs R.
Mrs R. has obviously lost her feeling of who she is and her identity and confidence. So her bag link with all those things.
Bag of refuse: Desire, emotions, ideas you have discarded, or need to discard; rubbish being dumped on you by someone else.
Bag over ones head: Trying to hide, or feelings of fear or inadequacy; a cover up.
Body bag: Death or near death; loss of someone.
Emptying bag: Getting rid of attitudes or feelings one has been carrying about; unloading or looking at the thoughts and memories one has been ‘carrying’. Sometimes refers to leaving or dumping a lover.
Loss of bag: Loss of feelings of confidence, of the means to survive in the world; loss of something valuable; occasionally loss of child bearing function.
Packing bags: Planning to leave or make a change; wanting to get away; making changes; a journey; putting things in order; sorting out ones needs or priorities.
Sleeping bag: Powerful sexual symbol – i.e. sexual intercourse or a sexual partner – especially if linked with a partner; could also represent the feelings of being in the womb, or wanting to sleep alone; may occasionally have the same significance as a body bag.
Vacuum cleaner bag: The contents would suggest the rubbish you have picked up in your attempts to tidy up your life. It might also show stuff you have lost or been unaware of. Your attempts to improve yourself or your living situation.
Idioms: Bag and baggage; wind-bag; in the bag; pack one’s bag; punching bag.
See: Example in clothes; luggage; knapsack; suitcase.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What type of bag is it and what would you generally use it for?
Am I ‘carrying’ old attitudes or grudges?
Does the bag link with feelings about my identity or security – if so in what way?
What does the action in the dream add to my understanding of the bag?
Try Being the Object or Thing – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Avoid Being Victims
Badger
May refer to badgering people, or feeling badgered; the quiet unobtrusive or even secluded life – so may refer to urges to get away from other people’s influence or company; define what you associate with the badger, as there are very mixed general associations with this animal, far more so than with the fox for instance.
Useful questions are:
If I imagine myself as the badger in my dream what does it feel like and what am I doing? (For help doing this see Stand in Role under peer dream work.)
How would I describe a badger, and how does that apply to me?
Baker
Creative ability; ability to alter one’s approach to make experience more acceptable – such as when comments, instead of being taken as criticism, are taken as information. Also the creator of bread, so the provider of basic needs.
It may be connected with money because of the term bread or dough being used for money. See bread.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Am I the baker or the baker is just a character in the dream?
What food is there or is being offered?
What am I doing in relationship with the baker?
See Characters in Dreams and Talking As.
Balance
Your ability to judge and discriminate, to measure one thing against another. It may also suggest conscience, that weighs outer acts against the innermost feelings.
Bald
See: Hair.
Ball
If it is a ball game, the ball may depict something about a personal or group relationship and what is going on, the back and forward or interactions shown in the dream. Or it might represent competition and ways to win or play the game or life, love or business, with skill. The ball can also stand for wholeness.
A ball represent wholeness, an ‘all round’ view or a rounded character.
Ball: Interaction between two people, sexual and otherwise – the ‘ball’ is in your court – in that throwing the ball may show someone trying to get ones attention and response.
Ball games or being thrown a ball: Challenges, prowess, competition in the game of life; having and letting go; sex play; masturbation; a man’s ‘balls’; a way of moving toward personal wholeness.
Balls: As in men’s testicles
Idioms: Have a ball; ball at ones feet; ones eye on the ball; start the ball rolling; new ball game; play ball with someone; he has/hasn’t the balls. See: the self under archetypes; games.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What are you doiong with the ball?
Is there interaction with it of another person?
Do you feel any feelings or competition?
Use Talking As to help define what the ball is about.
Ballet
See: Dance.