Dream Illustrates Life’s Struggles

This column is intended as entertainment. But psychologists who work with clients’ dreams say that dreams can hold a tremendous amount of significance; a particularly disturbing or repetitive dream may indicate the need to see a therapist.

Dear Nancy: I am going through some major changes in my life right now: divorce, re-evaluation of my religious beliefs, and relocating. This dream really shocked me. Can you help me understand it? Steve

My three brothers and I are riding horseback in a big field. We play a game of tag and then we just sit on our horses talking and having a good time. I look down and see a huge fish swimming upstream in a small creek. One of my brothers, the bully of the family, rides off chasing the fish. Catching it, he brings it back and swings it as hard as he can, hitting my younger brother over the head with it. My younger brother falls off his horse. Suddenly, my father appears with a shotgun and kills my brother, the bully. I watch in shock.

Dear Steve: This dream seems to be illustrating your process and conflicts surrounding your religious beliefs. The fish, the symbol of Christianity, is swimming upstream away from you. Are you letting go of parts of your belief system that are no longer valid for you?

Oftentimes, all the characters in dreams are part of ourselves. In your dream, you have a bully, a part of your personality or being who is hitting your younger brother over the head with the fish. Is there a side of you that feels beaten over the head with religion? Are you beating yourself up for allowing new ideas in? The father may be the wiser and stronger part of yourself who protects and defends the new ideas and beliefs. Swiftly he eliminates the bully.

Throughout the dream you remain on horseback, which is implying you have gained a feeling of great freedom and expansion. Also, you will have a greater perspective as you make your changes from this higher vantage point. I hope your changes bring you happiness, Steve.

Tips for readers: There are different types of dreams. Some are cleansing or clearinghouse dreams. They tend to be reruns of the day’s experiences and provide the avenue to clear the mind for a deeper, more restful sleep. On a deeper level, we have problem-solving, instructional, spiritual, precognitive and visionary dreams.

Problem-solving dreams come to us to identify and find solutions to specific difficulties we have in our lives. We can ask for answers to our problems using dream incubation, the process of asking ourselves for a dream addressing a particular issue.

Instructional, or teaching dreams, come to us to guide us into new ways of behavior and belief. These dreams are usually higher teachings and you will find inspiration and new discoveries from them.

Precognitive dreams come to prepare us for the future. We may receive dream information regarding someone we know and love or an event in another part of the world. This is a psychic-level dream.

Spiritual and visionary dreams come from the highest levels of the soul and through them we receive mystical gifts and higher universal truths. Personal messages, as from God or God within, are given through these dreams. Always, there is an incredible feeling of expansion, and awe accompanies these dreams.

One of the goals in dream work is to recognize the various types of dreams. This will come with time.

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