Some Dreams Require Little Analysis

Dear Nancy: A month ago I put in an offer to purchase a home. I really liked the home, but I noticed I was feeling very anxious about it. I had this dream a few days after I put in my offer, and because of it, I was relieved when it fell through.

I don’t usually have nightmares. I know its normal to be anxious about things like this but it doesn’t seem right to have such disturbed thoughts and dreams. - Carrie

I’m napping on the couch in my new house. I’m having trouble sleeping well. Finally, I get up and decide to have a look around. I open a door that leads to a narrow hallway with little storage compartments on the wall. Each cubbyhole has a door on it. There is an old piece of newspaper stuck to one of the doors. The man who used to live there has left his wife a note on it. It says something about how to deal with a problem their daughter is having.

I continue down the hallway, and it leads to a basement where I see a man killing women with a knife. After mentally torturing them, he cuts their throats. Some live and some die. It’s as if the man himself isn’t really there but is just a symbol of something dark and scary in the basement.

Dear Carrie: I’m so glad you didn’t buy that house. There must be something there that caused you to have this dream.

When we sleep, the door to our intuition and natural instincts opens up, often giving us information and insights we would not be aware of. This is one of the great gifts of the dream world. It is always important to look at a dream literally. We can be so focused on analyzing the dream that we miss a direct message entirely.

In the beginning of your dream, you were having trouble sleeping. This may have been a straightforward warning that you would be restless and unable to sleep well in this house. Have you ever walked into a place that was beautiful and well-kept but somehow felt uncomfortable? All places have a particular feeling to them, often caused by their history. Some people refer to this as the energy of the place. Others simply call it the feeling.

I wonder about the history of this house. In your dream a newspaper was posted. This is news - information you didn’t have before. It would be interesting to look up the newspaper records in the local library to see if this house has a recorded history involving some kind of negative events. If there was abuse of any kind in the house, your intuition could have picked up on it.

Remember that our dreams tend to exaggerate so we will pay attention. Although I do believe that this was a dream warning you not to purchase this house, it may also be enlightening to look at it as if all the aspects of the dream are parts of yourself. The fact that you rarely have frightening dreams tells me that you are probably a well-adjusted person. But I wonder, do you have an inner destroyer? This could be an inner critic, a perfectionist, an over-achiever or any part of yourself that wants to dominate or control your life.

I hope you find your perfect home in the near future, Carrie. Be sure to ask your dreams for the OK on your next purchase offer.