War Setting May Mirror Turmoil

Dear Nancy: My life has been in turmoil since my husband took a job driving taxi some time ago. His personality has totally changed. He no longer cares about me, our children or grandchildren. He used to be neat and clean, but that has changed, too.

I feel like I’m living with a stranger and I wonder if illegal activities are going on. Could this dream have some significance? - Alice

I have died and become an angel. I’m in a Korean war zone. I see several Marines crucified and hanging on crosses. No one can see me and I walk past them. My heart is heavy because of their suffering.

I go to my brother, sitting at the top of the hill with his gun. I tell him I’m an angel and I know how the Koreans are capturing our soldiers.

He tells his fellow soldiers what he learned from me, but they can’t see me and think he’s crazy. My brother goes by himself to try to help the POWs. I call out to him not to go alone, but he walks away. I am upset and know I will never see him again.

Dear Alice: This dream dramatically illustrates how you feel about your life right now. Being dead in the dream shows how you have changed and are now willing to see your situation from a higher perspective.

Because you have no experience or personal history with Koreans, we can assume they symbolize the feelings you have about your “stranger” husband. He is a foreigner to you, and your relationship feels like a war zone.

Perhaps the war is within you, which is causing you much suffering. Do you feel crucified in some way? Are you sacrificing yourself by not dealing with the situation? Do you feel trapped, like a prisoner of war?

Your brother may symbolize the part of you that is your protector and defender. You go to him with important information but realize he needs help to free the POWs. This is telling you to enlist help to get through this situation, that you can’t do it on your own.

Perhaps talking with a friend, minister or therapist will help. Community services are available if you need protection, shelter or an attorney. I wish you the best, Alice.

Tips for readers: If your dreams repeatedly depict suffering or death, don’t ignore them! These dreams are alerting you to your own feelings of victimization, your suffering, or ways in which you are killing or abusing yourself.

If you are the one doing the killing, the dream may be dramatizing your repressed hostility toward yourself or others. If you are the one dying, do you have an unconscious wish to die and escape from life? Is there a part of you that needs to die so new attitudes or beliefs can be born?

By working with these death dreams, you can have a much deeper understanding of yourself and the situations you find yourself in.

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.

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