Posts Tagged ‘dreams’

Alcohol

Is an influence which changes the way you feel, moving you toward negative or positive feelings. It is therefore often used to represent ‘the spirit’ or a power that changes ones heart and mind.

It can also be a prelude to friendliness or intimacy; an allowing into your life of another influence you do not immediately feel is your own conscious will. It can indicate sociability; dependence; alcohol dependence and the loss of ones control over oneself.

The Daily Express reported that “a nap can be spoiled by a nightcap” and that “a wee dram before bedtime…causes insomnia and robs a night’s rest of its restorative powers”. This research evaluated the impact of drinking before going to bed on heart rate and sleep. The study involved 10 university students, who were given low levels, high levels or no alcohol to drink before bed. Drinking higher doses of alcohol was found to reduce the amount of REM sleep, and resulted in a shallower sleep during the latter half of the night. It also appeared to adversely affect the part of the brain that usually controls the body during sleep. From this, the researchers concluded that the alcohol had disturbed the restorative effects of sleep.

In 2015 it was shown that even the lowest amounts of alcohol can lead to Alzheimer’s.

In an inner sense the wine or spirit represents a life changing influence, an influx of power or potential – i.e. a deep self acceptance allowing new and often life-changing experience and energy both from within and from other people and events. In this sense the alcohol or spirit is probably used by the unconscious because the conscious self often feels helpless, or has to surrender control, in order to allow the upflow of what is potential or innate within you to emerge. It therefore relates to drunkenness – drunk with the spirit.

Here is a man experience of exploring his dream about being drunk because men had poured alcohol into him.

As I allowed this I had a deep sense that this represented a profound self acceptance, but also an acceptance of my life situation. I can see this in that I am no longer struggling to climb out of building work or common everyday life. The men I felt as ordinary everyday life experience, and they were pouring the spirit of life on and into me. In other words the acceptance of everyday life opens to a connection with the roots of life within oneself – life that is both common and ordinary, yet profound. At this first part of the dream I also had an image that I was drinking the blood of thousands of human beings. I don’t mean I was drinking lots of blood, but that I was drinking the essence of their blood. This had in it the experience of taking in a huge realm of everyday life. It was the taking in, the acceptance of a wide range of human experience – everything from deep sexuality to religious realms of the supersensual. This I felt was what the wine used in Mass represented.

I believe there is an obvious difference between dreams that warn us of overindulgence or dependence upon alcohol, and those that use it as a symbol of an influence emerging from your infinite potential. In the former, negative feelings of one sort or another appear in the dream. In the latter some aspect of a transforming influence is seen.

Beer Social relaxation; social acceptance – ‘with a glass in my hand I’m one of the lads’; mood change; sedative to drown loneliness or emotional pain.

Champagne Luxury; richness; worldly success; celebration or prelude to sexual relationship. But in life it is a killer of the Life urge in us, as is any alcohol. I wonder if that was why Islam bans alcohol drinking.

Example: I was in a holiday community in which worked. It was a warm sunny atmosphere, and I noticed a wonderful feeling growing in my body with a sense of expansion. A few days into that feeling I was invited to a woman’s party and champagne was being drunk. I was offered some but refused but a woman friend said I was being a downer and poured me half a glass of champagne. I felt nothing unit the next morning when the wonderful feeling was gone and I felt empty of any feelings, especially the feeling of wonder that had been growing in me. So although people use champagne as a great source enjoyment I felt it was only a deadening substance that people maybe use to cover up their own loneliness and joylessness.

Whiskey or spirits: Similar to beer or wine. May be used to refer to the inner power that can spontaneously express through one.

Edgar Cayce said that whiskey is the ancient symbol of evil spirits based on actual clairvoyant sightings of the entities that hang around and attach themselves to the alcoholic fumes, the bottle, the person, or the place where these drinks are served. Often these entities or spirits attach themselves to the habitual drinker, actually urging him to drink more. Whiskey can also be a means of oblivion, escape from reality, a stimulant (temporarily), and a depressant.

Wine I dreams may represent sociability; relaxation; social pleasure; the strange mystery behind the existence of self-awareness; blood or the flow of life force. The possible reason that wine, especially red wine, has become a symbol of the human spirit is most likely due to its method of production. The separate ‘lives’ of thousands of grapes were squashed so their life blood would pour into a common vat. This then underwent a magical transformation by yeast which turned it into alcohol. The connection here is that people who have a direct experience of God or of the spirit, experience it as a unification of all that has lived and is living. The experience of countless human lives has been linked and transformed into a vast sea of wisdom and heightened awareness. It is this we ‘drink’ when we touch our own union with the ocean of awareness that is our spirit. See: blood.

Example: We went to the same restaurant. This time it was narrower. We drank red wine from large goblets. On reaching for my goblet I knocked it over. The wine spread rapidly and I thought it was blood. I felt fear and ran from the dining room. Next I was sitting on a camel, being led by another girlfriend of mine. It was down a street where I had worked. It is called Hope Street. H. B.

The dream shows the connection the unconscious often makes between wine and blood. It shows how the alcohol produces transformations that lead the dreamer to experience fear. In other words the dreamer fears what emerges as the changes occur. Even so there is then the emergence of hope.

Example: I was sitting in a boat. It was a small sailing boat, on the sea. In one hand I was holding an ash tray with a joint, in the other hand was a glass of wine. I realised I couldn’t steer the boat while I was holding both. Bitz.

This dream clearly shows how the dreamer’s habits of drinking and smoking leave him unable to steer the ?boat? of his life properly.

Example: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. The King James Bible. Acts 2:2

Alcohol can represents the activity of a transforming process upon you. One that can change the way you act for better or worse. You need to consider your dream to see which of these it is. Also represents stimulation, relaxation, and a way to face inner anxieties, even if only temporarily. It can also refer to the way you deal with difficult feeling, by drowning them in drink. Or it might relate to sociability in some way, or the escape from the humdrum events of life. See: Coffee.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this dream about a transforming influence, or a dependent need I have?

If this is about a transforming influence in my life, can I identify it and use it?

What does the action of the dream suggest about the influence of the alcohol in my life?

What effect is the alcohol having on me in the dream?

If no alcohol is being drunk in the dream, what is the dream indicating about it?

See Processing Dreams to gain further meaning from your dream.

Alcoholism

See: Addicted.

Alien

This usually indicates urges or feelings you find difficult to identify with; feelings of being an outsider in a group or society. The alien can also depict something very new and previously not experienced in regard to your own potential or mind.

Frequently the alien in your dream represents aspects of your mind that have not previously been consciously experienced and so may seem frightening or difficult to understand. Considering that estimates suggest that we only use one tenth or less of our potential, it is not difficult to see that a large mass of our own inner functioning and experience are normally unknown and is called ‘the unconscious’. It is therefore not surprising that we have ‘aliens’ in our dreams and experience.

When some part of this unknown area of yourself emerges, or presses for attention, one may depict it as an alien. Quite often in dreams, or in UFO sightings, the meeting has a strong type of religious feelings. I believe, through investigating this experience, that feelings of awe and veneration often occur when fear is absent and we meet a vastly bigger intelligence or vision of life – even if it is our own unconscious content we are confronting.

While we sleep our conscious self is largely or totally unconscious, and while we dream our voluntary muscles are paralysed – therefore another will or motivating force 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 in everyday activities; but the second will takes over when we sleep. See Sleep Paralysis.

Life Will 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 now. But of course it has fantastic wisdom and skills, as can be seen in animals. 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.

But it is not usually realised that the whole phenomena of dreaming can occur while awake and you are in a receptive state of mind. Any visions, voices heard or hallucinations are all the product of the dream process breaking through the barrier that usually only allows such things while asleep. If you have had such an experience you will see, if you think about it, that as with dreams, images, people, voices appear as if outside you. That is exactly the work of dreams, which project a whole dream, its drama and characters, onto the screen of our sleeping mind. See Visionary for more information.

Because we are not used to knowing or seeing this wider and huge self our first feelings are that we are possessed by an alien being, or some dark shape or unknown creature. Remember that even while awake the Life will can control movements and thoughts. So any alien or strange thing that you experience needs to be treated like a dream.

That is not to say they are vague inconsequential fantasies, because they are attempts of your Core self – the ET of yourself – trying to communicate a much wider awareness of what you are. Yes, an ET. This Life will can move us to speak, to move our body, and in fact do things that we cannot do with our Conscious Will.

As Freud pointed out this inner will has full access to our memories. So much of our inner enormity is held back by the way we live and our cultural attitudes, that when it does press to emerge it might very well be depicted by our dream making process as an alien of a flying saucer. Nevertheless, often in dreams we feel the alien as an enemy or something to be frightened of. This is not correct, for this is like saying there is reason to fear oneself. In the short term this may be rational as some of our own urges may not be dealt with well, and so may be dangerous. But in the long term we can meet ourselves. See:  Life’s Little Secrets; The Two Powers; Accept all that you Are.

Example: This morning I woke up and as I opened my eyes and sat up there was this alien creature there in front of me. I was amazed and felt wonder because it was real and solid and was trying to communicate with me. I felt so much love for this strange creature and its attempts to communicate even though I couldn’t understand what it was trying to say. Then suddenly a switch must have been tripped inside me and I understood and knew the alien. It was my wife, and she was saying, “Tony, turn over you’e snoring.” I must have been coming from a level where my language centre hadn’t yet been switched on and I was seeing my wife as a delightful alien. Example: I then tried to feel my way into the alien. Powerful feelings again – fear – anxiety. Part of it was the feeling engendered by my father’s death. Here one-day, gone the next! But then I got through to seeing and understanding, feeling the underlying alien. It was part that in me, or of me, that watches other people’s reactions to my emotions; watches without feelings, except for cynicism and plotting. But more than anything else, it is my fear of loss of self. I had been thinking of this lately. One loses self to enter the unification of all opposites. I had read this description in the fourth level of psychedelic experience. It was also the fear of being possessed by something “alien” such as I had felt about sex, about having no problems, about the Zen meditation, the void, the egolessness. Example: Taken from a TV interview. “I felt a strange feeling up my spine, like rush up my spine right up to the top of my head. Then I was in a meadow and there were aliens there, not the grey ones but slight and slightly see through. A female alien was holding her baby in front of her, and if I were religious I would have felt it was Mary and her baby.”

This last one has all the signs of an altered state of conscious experience. Also very much likea kundalini energy rush which leads to expanded awareness. The baby and mother is another sign or expanded awareness and so links her with an archetype of motherhood, so she feels in contact with the divine. Devoured by aliens: Forces, fears, neuroses, at work in you that use up your potential energy, and stand in the way of easy self expression.

Example: I had been told by a woman I used to work with, that I was to photograph a wedding near the Aldwych in London. I went there but there was no wedding. I was then in an underground series of tunnels, helping to paint the floor of the large rooms. Then someone killed the woman friend because she would not tell them the short cut through the tunnels. The short cut was then open and people were coming through to where I was painting. I looked to my right through the doors of the large room and saw strange alien type creatures. I felt a bit anxious. They were like skinless creatures. Now I was walking out of the town. It felt like the end of the world, or the end of society. I was walking through lots of churches standing on a hillside, surrounded by grass. They were of all types, strongly built but empty now. I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colours surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE SHEPHERD. Peter M.

Although the drama in the dream does not present a clear and obvious story, the dream does have symbols of unity in the wedding, of the unconscious in the underground, of the previously unmet aspects of self in the aliens, then the meeting with the religious feeling in the Shepherd and Peters joy. The end of society and the empty churches were representative of the changes going on in Peter’s attitudes and understanding of himself in relation to his own mind and religion.

Example: I left the house and went to the church nearby. I opened a door on the left side of the church but shut it quickly because ‘something’ was there. Five or six priests came and knelt down at the front of the church. The Reverend from my local church started talking and I hurried out, not wanting to get involved in the service. I then went to the side of the church and opened the door where the ‘something’ was. I could now see what it was. It was a being from another planet, completely human, but with a furry body and tail. It had a son with it. I slammed the door because I was afraid, but the catch did not connect and the door opened again. I threw a book in for the aliens to read. They threw out a book for me to read. It had loose pages – like my ready reckoner. I put them in order and read the story and lived some of it. As I read some of the words were in alien symbols, but I could understand them. Gradually the book changed to alien words. I/it progressed. All the lines sloped down from left to right. Now the sky was like a vaulted or squared ceiling. The two aliens looked down from one of the open squares and called. There was an answering call from two others of their kind. I knew these were the only ones on our planet. I also knew that they had to completely be themselves. I wondered why, and they told me it was because their whole race was within them. Peter M.

This is a dream of Peter’s that occurred at later date and shows his religious feelings, the church, directly presenting him with something alien. This new experience is gradually seen as himself – ‘I now looked within myself and also began to see all of them within, and was becoming like one of them’. Not only is Peter accepting this aspect of himself more fully, thus not seeing it as completely alien, but also it presents him with a new type of awareness – a feeling of connection with all of his race. In fact Peter had been a loner and very independent, feeling disconnected from society as a whole. This massive change, with very deeply felt fears and joy, is depicted in the two dreams.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is happening in my life that I don’t connect with, understand or feel is alien to me?

If I identify with the alien creature or thing, what feelings or facets of myself do I encounter?

Can I recognise from the dream the feelings or fears I use to avoid or meet with this alien facet of myself?

For help doing this see Processing Dreams and What we need to remember about dreams.

Allergic Allergy

This may be showing you an actual allergy you have. Or it might be used symbolically. In this case you need to consider what the allergy in the dream depicts. Look it up in the dictionary if possible.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What event, food or other substance might I be having trouble coping with?

Is there something I have a strong feeling reaction to that I need to be aware of – aware that is of how my strong feelings affect me?

If the dream involves people am I not seeing what a bad reaction I have to someone?

You might find it helpful to use Talking As and Processing Dreams

Alley

This is a direction you are taking at the moment. The dream shows you the often hidden side of what you pursue, so the condition, mood and quality of the alley is a comment on what you are doing or feeling. Because most alleys are small, it may be saying you are leaving the main highway of your life. See: road.

Like any road it indicates your prevailing direction in, or approach to, life – this direction/approach can be either self created out of your own actions or decisions, or arise out of other peoples or social influence. But the alley suggests limited possibilities or horizons, or present limited possibilities will be overcome with effort and initiative. The ease or difficulty in the alley shows the state of your present situation.

An alley with a dead end suggests concern about a tight situation that appears to have no easy way out.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What situation in my life does this describe – limited opportunities, lessened horizons?

What is the main action in the dream and is there any connection with situations in my life?

How would I describe my situation in the dream – i.e. happy, lost, searching, etc – and in what way does that link with my waking life?

Am I walking this alley or looking down it – if the latter, what opportunity or difficulty does this suggest?

Am I involved with other people, and if so in what way?

Where am I going or what a I trying to achieve?

Alligator Crocodile

Feelings or fears of being attacked or overwhelmed, possibly from within oneself, or by a powerful mother – i.e. ones internal dependence upon mother. There is so much about ourselves we do not know, and when a new aspect of us, or a much larger power within us emerges – like and great creature from our depths – we react to it with fear. See Autonomous complex

The alligator and crocodile often represent a hidden form of treachery, apparently harmless until it opens its mouth to eat us, such as that of a person spreading malicious rumours or trying to undermine us in some way. Another attack from deep within can be from repressed emotions.

But the alligator or crocodile as a dream creature is not the same as an external alligator. It is an enormous creature from your own depths, your inner self or core self – the part of you that you are not aware of and are frightened of. See core

The alligator or crocodile is similar to the serpent and depicts the power of the emotions, influences and experiences emerging from the unconscious. If you do not relate to your unconscious urges constructively, conflict can occur. Then you may feel fear of these forces within you – fear of being swallowed, or dragged into dark feelings. That is, of being carried away, or possessed, by fears, urges, ideas, arising from within, or fear of the irrational.

The Egyptians worshipped a crocodile as a guide to the dead in the underworld. It represents not only a threat, but also a wealth of wisdom about unconscious things. It possibly represented the forces of the unconscious because of the observation of the crocodile emerging from hidden depths to lay its eggs on the river bank. In this sense the crocodile or alligator in some dreams represents a personal confrontation with eternity. Depending upon the dream, the crocodile may well depict your fears about your inner hugeness. When we meet this it shows a personal awareness of merging with the many lives held in the collective unconscious. It is illustrated by the Christian idea of being cells in the body of Christ. We retain individual life, but know ourselves as part of an eternal life. This is possibly a natural stage in ageing, as our physical prowess and motivations fall away, this immense inner life begins to open to us. See The Life Will

As some people keep pet alligators, there might be a very personal meaning if one has actually kept an alligator.

Example: Now I looked at the large pool where the river surfaced. A woman swam in it, and was going to enter the tunnels. As I watched I saw some huge crocodiles swim toward her. With great speed and confidence she swam away, obviously being able to match the threat. A group of people in the pond, through their group strength, also dealt with the crocodiles.

Example: I can remember that in the dream another person and I, a male but very indistinct and shadowy, were facing mythical creatures in some sort of odyssey. A strange sort of crocodile or alligator type creature was supposedly attacking me. I had mixed feelings about this. Partly I felt there was nothing to fear about the creature, but another feeling was that it might be able to do some damage. In fact it was biting me across my chest, but all I felt was a very strong tickling feeling that made me laugh.

Example: Now a huge unknown creature began to enter into my awareness. I felt the presence of an enormous creature rising to the surface of something like a swamp or a body of water. At first I thought it might be a whale, but as I paid attention to what was happening it defined into a huge crocodile.

This huge creature looked at me and said, “Mathew, join me.”

I laughed at this because it was so huge, and with so many associations of swallowing things, that I said something like, “What do you mean join you? Don’t you mean that you want to eat me?”

The creature replied to me, “No. No, it’s not like that, I’m just like a submarine. I have all these lives in me. I have many, many lives in me. I am life. I contain the many. You can swim this ocean alone Mathew, if you wish. Or you can join me, you can join the many. You can always, if you choose to live your independent life again and  leave us.”

I laughed here because I had the image of me being independent, stripping off, diving over the side of the boat into the ocean and swimming off. It is something I have often done in the sea, swimming long distances alone, or off to an island out to sea, by myself.

I began to give myself to that great creature which I now understood as the collective unconscious, the unity of lives. It felt as if it was absolving me, much as I had experienced earlier on. (One of those strange and beautiful, and also moving coincidences just happened. I am reading this in using voice recognition, and it is proving to be very accurate. But in the sentence where I said that I felt it was – and the word was supposed to be absorbing me – the software used the word absolving. And here I am again, back in the ocean, weeping as I know there is no judgment on the life I have led so alone and cut off.)

 

Useful questions and hints:

What does the alligator represent to me?

What do I know about them?

Am I feeling threatened or carried away by any fears?

In what way is my intuition or awareness reaching beyond myself ?

Do I feel myself part of a larger whole?

See See Summming Up – Reaction to the unconscious – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Alone

Being alone in a dream expresses one’s sense of isolation, feelings of loneliness or independence, depending on dream feelings. Feeling alone can be a sign of dependence, you need someone else to feel complete – though this seldom works out. See Beware of Love.

In many dreams being alone expresses a fear of attack or being overwhelmed. If you feel happily independent then you have achieved a great deal. See Individuation.

Idioms: Go it alone; alone together; alone = all-one.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I feel okay about being alone in the dream or in waking life?

Are any feelings or fears about independence indicated or relevant?

What is the theme and drama of the dream adding to the aloneness?

See The Trackless Way; Identity And Dreams.

Alphabet

May refer to something basic to learn, being learned, or that you learned in childhood. It can also link with separate things that when put together in the right way can lead to an understanding or meaning.

But like numbers, the alphabet is the pieces outof which we make words and can express ourselves with. So it is the buildign blocks of enormous creativity. The thing is, can we put them together?

Useful questions are:

Could this be about ‘lessons in life’?

Am I or do I need to learn something from the beginning?

Are you feeling like a child in some way?

If you put the pieces of your experience together can you arrive at a clearer understanding?

Can you be creative?

Altar

Symbolises the sense of awe in face of life, nature or God. Also willingness, in face of this, to sacrifice some personal desires, to that of a universal desire. Schweitzer has said that a man who picks a worm out of a puddle is acting for life as whole, not just personal self.

Self giving – this can be a very positive action, or a sort of self punishment out of guilt. It can also represent standing before what you feel is of immense importance in life. Altars can link with a place of death, but also of rebirth, and thus a meeting with the universal life of which you are a part, and an connection with it through self sacrifice or surrender. The altar may be used to represent your feelings about other people sacrificing you to their needs. In which case you need to define what your needs are.

Standing before the altar is something we do on special occasions such as getting married, communion, birth or dying. So depending on the contents and context of the dream, there may be a reference to one of these. In this sense the altar is a link between the visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious elements of you. Like the sarcophagus it can also represent death and rebirth. As such it is a place of change, and may be a play on the word ‘alter’.

What is on the altar: As the altar is basically a point of transformation and sacrifice, what is on the altar may suggest what you give the highest value to in your life, and what you worship; perhaps what you are sacrificing.

See: death and rebirtharchetypes; church.

Gradually my being became quieter and quieter. My breathing slowed down so much it seemed almost non-existent. I had a feeling of my peripheral, changing self, slowly dying in ashes to reveal what all the world is seeking. I felt that as my peripheral self died, there was the possibility of this other part of my being shining through more brightly. Brenda was still beside me, and I had the sense of my body being an altar on which the exterior me had burnt away, revealing an eternal quality, and Brenda, other people, receiving it, worshipping it. There was nothing personal or worthy of self praise about this, because all had this central being. But I never really seemed to experience this thing. It never shone out. In the end I wondered if what I was experiencing was yet another cul-de-sac one is led to believe the Self is found through – that is by letting the outer self die.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I ‘giving up to God’, or some higher power?

Does this represent something I hold in the most high esteem?

Is there a transforming influence in my life?

What is being altered?

Do I feel I am sacrificing myself in some way?

See Processing Dreams.

Ambush

If you are being ambushed: Anxieties about how other people are relating to you. It could be you are suffering paranoia about being a victim; or possible difficulties in relationships or work. Certainly it seems as if you feel you are in a difficult situation and maybe surprised. You can try using the following to change the situation: Carry the Dream Forward.

If you are staging an ambush: Desires to get the upper hand of a situation, or trying to outwit or take advantage of some aspect of yourself or someone else.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you feel trapped or compromised in any way?

Do you feel somebody is trying to get the better of you in some way?

Are you in some sort of battle with someone or an organisation?

Perhaps this is a time to look around carefully and access the situation?

Try using Processing Dreams.

Native American

Natural wisdom; self acceptance and wisdom based on this awareness of ones links with the world and the intuition or wisdom of the irrational or unconscious. It can represent realisation of tribal wisdom and the link with intuitive initiations into stages of growth and entrance into the house of the ancestors. For some people it links with feelings of being dispossessed.

If you live in America, you may have all the above associations of being touch in with nature, but some people dream of being attacked and threatened. And this is probably an expression of meeting the alien in you, or a fear of strangers. The Indian can also be a guide and a wise person. See See alien – Reaction to the unconscious

Example: Dreamt that a young modern Red Indian was talking to me while walking in London. He said he would show me one of the secret nerve blocks used by the shamans. He pressed quickly the right side of my throat and tapped my forehead. Then he walked backwards away from me a few paces, and he appeared to shrink in size and diminish in age. I immediately thought this must have been the physiological method used in their magic. I seemed to remember having been shown it before by another Red Indian. He didn’t have to walk away, but looked young and small anyway. To end the effect, the Indian tapped the base of my neck in the thyroid area, and tapped my buttocks.

 

Useful questions are:

What are my feelings about the Indian or being an Indian?

What am I gaining or getting from the Indian?

See The Iroquoian Dream Cult – Native American Beliefs – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Being the Person or Thing – Spirit Child

Amethyst

Common beliefs about the amethyst is that it has an influence connected with healing; and dreams. Moses described it as a symbol of the Spirit of God. It is also said to offer protection against drunkenness – in fact the Greek word ‘amethystos’ mean ‘not intoxicated’. See: jewels.

Like any jewelery it can have a lot of personal associations, such as who gave it, what associations with family, etc.

It is said to be a bringer of dreams and visions and protection against being carried away by spiritual elation or inner influences. Also a healing influence.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feelings about the amethyst in the dream, and how can I translate that into my waking life?

Can you define what you believe the jewel’s influence is before you dreamt of it?

Does it have anything to do with wealth?

What happened in the dream that might give clues to the dream meaning?

What part is the amethyst playing in the dream, and what does that suggest?

Use Processing Dreams to aid in doing that.

Ammunition

This may indicate pent up feelings that if expressed could be harmful to yourself or someone else. Or it could suggest information or feelings of being ‘armed’ against someone else’s attack or as protection against the world. As such it points to attitudes or strong feelings that you use to protect your own feeling or vulnerability.

If it is something someone else has: Things that you feel others can use against you, such as lies, criticism, anger, etc.

If it is something you have: Attitudes or thoughts you use to bolster your confidence; things you feel or think that could be used to wound other people or even yourself; ways you defend against other peoples attack.

Lacking ammunition: Feeling without hope regarding a difficulty you are involved in, perhaps an emerging conflict with a partner or at work.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part does the ammunition play in my dream, and can I identify what that reflects of my daily life?

What do I feel about the ammunition or bullets, and where does that feeling arise in my life?

What might this do to me, or how am I reacting to it?

What am I using or planning to use the ammunition for or against?

Am I using the ammunition in the dream – if so what against, and how does that relate to my waking life?

What do I feel about the ammunition in the dream, and when do I experience those feelings in waking.

Use Talking As to help define the dream meaning.

Amnesia

The example below says only too clearly how one may often forget things that are so important, and fall into old habits. The woman David was sleeping with was someone from his past he was unhappy with. A dream may often show this forgetfulness as the experience of sudden recall after a long period of not remembering. Both the loss of memory and the recall illustrate very real ways the mind works. Things that may have been of great importance to us, or caused powerful feelings at one time, are subsequently forgotten. Such experiences may not even be taken into account when making present decisions, and so literally one has a sort of amnesia regarding them.

Example: ‘I am sleeping rough in a garden with a woman I do not love. I think I should try to make the best of the situation, but my feelings against it are too strong. Then I decide I don’t ever want to live like that again and tear up the mattress we slept on. As I do this I realise, as if waking from amnesia, that Pat lives just across the road. She has specially moved there because of our love. I realise with horror I had forgotten and may have lost her.’ David H.

And here is another example of forgetting the awful things we have done.

Example: I was in a large house – probably the kitchen. I discovered a lock, bright and sparkling, that had its keyhole covered up. On it were drawn pictures of a young woman. I felt it was a part of the puzzle regarding the big house, and belonged to a room that was now so locked, and even the keyhole covered, that it had been forgotten and lost. Finding the lock was rediscovering the mysteries of the house. The room and lock associated with love for the young woman depicted on the lock – a very sentimental love. I felt very emotional just looking at the pictures. This part of the dream is very difficult to remember clearly, but there was a wooden snake and a rat that were eating breadcrumbs. I felt that the snake would have swallowed the rat if it could have moved faster, but it was hindered by its woodenness.

Then I was looking in a big cupboard, and found a clue to where the room of the lock was. This was to the number of salt sellers or something in the cupboard. A young man came in, he was Lord Montague, a homosexual. He said something like, “Hello, been up all night?” I couldn’t understand at first, then saw that the curtains were drawn, and it was daylight outside. I was surprised, and thought I must have been in unconscious, or in amnesia, and not known what I was doing. There was also something about having had homosexual relationship while unaware of what I was doing. The next thing was that I, as someone else, entered the “lost” room, with Montague. In it a young refined and lovely woman was kept prisoner by myself. This was because of a supposed adultery, of which she was in all likelihood innocent. I treated her as a prisoner, a thing, a coarse animal, to be hurt and belittled emotionally in every way my sentiments could. The servants were told that she had chosen to live the life of a nun. I made her strip off her clothes in front of the other man, and washed her, roughly. She was terribly sensitive about this, but endured it. Montague apologised to her again and again for the part he was playing in this. She told him not to feel too guilty. He also asked her how she did not go mad. She said not to talk of madness, as it was always a threat, but she had developed a true religious outlook and patience, that protected her.

One of the easiest ways
To find out who is a psuedopod
And who is a real person
Involves a simple memory test.
Ask the person if they
Can remember their childhood.
If they say, “Oh yes, I remember
My aunt Nellie telling me how I
Used to wet the bed.
I remember that.”
Well that is not real memory.
It is more like having photographs
That you are acquainted with.

Ask them if they remember being a baby.
Ask if they remember being in the womb.
Ask them if they remember their life in eternity.
The real self remembers all this.
After all it emerged from eternity,
Lived in the womb,
And experienced all those years until the present.

If you are suffering amnesia,
You are probably a psuedopod.

As for me, I was desperate to find my way back.
I saw the signs of my maladjustment
Everywhere I looked.
It was difficult to accept those signs.
Painful!
They were like being stabbed
With a hot knife.
They were in places
You don’t want to be dug.
They hurt too much – old wounds.
That is my story.

This is ground zero.
I am a reporter on the scene.
It’s rough going at the moment.
Maybe we are both pseudopods,
But I hold out my hand to you.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my dream suggesting I have forgotten?

What has led me to forget this?

Is there someone or something I want to forget – and if so why?

The technique Talking As may help.

Amoeba

May relate to blind urges; basic cellular processes in your body; fundamental levels of awareness – i.e. being barely aware of something, but acting instinctively, or it could relate to sperm or ovum or reproduction. This might also relate to feeling your way instinctively in what you are doing. Amoeba’s engulf their prey, and if you know this it might figure in your dream in some way.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I sensing from my body that links with the dream action?

Are there clues in the theme and drama of my dream as to what part in my life the amoeba is playing?

If I imagine myself as the amoeba what do I feel or experience? For help doing this see Processing Dreams.

Amputate Amputation Amputee

To lose the use of, or cut off by repressing, whatever the limb or body part represents. It can also suggest a loss of skill, ability or adequacy, sexual or otherwise. The amputation could also depict a fear of losing or of having lost whatever the limb or body part suggests. In some cases a depiction of old trauma that has left one less than fully capable

The dream might also express a desire to be inadequate in order to have an excuse to withdraw from the demands of life.

Amputation dreamt after having a broken limb or the cast removed: Fears regarding being inadequate after having only one good limb; the difficulty of having to adjust to being healthy – more can be demanded of us when healthy.

Example: This is not a dream, but is a powerful example of how the unconscious can produce very real sense of experiencing something as physically true, that is a mental phenomena. The account is by Phillip Zimbardo in the book Psychology and Life, published by Scott, Foresman and Company.

It was my first day back to work after recovering from a traumatic automobile accident. I was lucky to be alive with only torn ligaments in my leg and a concussion: the driver had been killed by the impact of a head-on collision. As I hobbled up the three flights of stairs supported by a crutch, my initial joy of returning to school was suddenly suspended. With each step I took a strange sensation occurred: I could ‘feel’ myself BECOMING my younger brother, George. Not IMAGINE ‘as if’ I were George, but being transformed physically to be him.

I perceived my face changing to be his face and my body doing likewise. My limp became more pronounced, and it took great strength to climb the last flight. In a panic, I shut myself in my office, not wanting anyone to witness this strange transformation. I avoided looking at my reflection in the window for fear I would see his face and not mine. Had I really become my brother or was I MERELY hallucinating?

Time passed during which I tried frantically to relax, ‘to pull myself together,’ and make sense of my distorted sense impressions. After all, I was a normal, serious scientist type not given to such flights of fancy. I lived by the reality principle.

My secretary and colleagues knocked and came into the office before I could say I was busy. They were worried by my abrupt disappearing act. They were relieved to see I was ‘my old self again,’ and I was relieved to see them responding to me as if I were Phil and not George. A glance at my reflection confirmed my hope. I had changed back, ‘or was no longer George….or George was no longer manifesting himself in me.’ Whatever? Weird, no? But why?

When we were children, George had infantile paralysis and for a time had to wear leg braces and walk with crutches. I would accompany him to therapy sessions and observe his frustration, embarrassment, and anger at not being able to function normally. Since we were only eighteen months apart in age, I could readily empathise with his feelings. I may have also felt guilty at being glad I too was not crippled. Once I recall volunteering to exchange places with him in the swimming pool exercises, but the nurse chided me, ‘being crippled is not fun and games young man.’ I was about four at the time.

As I hobbled up the stairs to my office some twenty five years later, the pattern of feedback sensory stimulation reactivated this pre-recorded motor action plan. Memories of George’s posture and movement were enacted. I had retained mimicry responses of his motor activity that I had observed so intensely. Now I was changing places with him, but not consciously and not volitionally. The suddenness and vividness of the hallucination was frightening because it was so real, yet at the same time contradicted my knowledge of reality. See: Body.

Amputating someone else’s body part: The other person could easily represent a facet of yourself you are denying full expression. If so define what you associate with that person by using the amplification method or role playing. It could also suggest a desire to injure someone; or a way you cut off their ability to interact with you or communicate.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I denying or repressing an important facet of myself?

Do I have any sense of not being adequate in any way suggested by the dream?

Am I angry or hurt about something enough to deny my full expression?

Have I made a decision at any time never to allow certain things in my life again?

Use Talking As to help.