Need someone who interprets dreams.

[Liberty Belle]

I hadn't remember a dream for several decades, until last night. I had 2 scary dreams. In both, my life was in danger.

In the first, i was about to cross a field to get back to my car, and it started raining and suddenly the field was full of water. Someone next to me tried to cross and was swept away, water up to his neck. Then I woke up.

In the second, I was at someone's house and was asked to go out back and do something, ask people to turn down music at a party. For some reason I had to drive my car down a long dirt driveway and suddenly there was a vehicle in front of my and I slammed into it, then woke up.

These are particularly frightening to me because the last dream I ever recalled, when I was 16, was scary event that was actually happening as I dreamed it. Back then, I awoke at 12;10 a.m. in a cold sweat after dreaming a guy I was dating was in terrible trouble in someplace cold, dark and wet. Later I learned he'd gone to the mountains with friends and they found a cave, went exploring, and got trapped when it started to rain and drop below freezing. He told me when the last flashlight gave out he thought they would die --he had just looked at his watch and it was 12:10 a.m.

I am sure I blocked out all dreams after that, so am wondering what made me suddenly have two new dreams that I remembered last night? I was away from home, on a mini-vacation when this happened, not particularly stressed about anything.

Any psych experts out there on what this could mean?

[BigmanPigman]

1. I was given a book called "The Dream Encyclopedia" and it alphabetized

different topic like "spiders". Soon afterwards I was told to ignore it since each person's dreams are personal and specific to the individual.
Sorry that doesn't help much but at least you know how NOT to interpret them.

[peacebuzzard]

2. By the date/time of your post

At least there are 2 of us unable to sleep well.
The latest evolving headline news has me on edge.

And I have a new addition to my house, a rescued injured cat on cage rest. My long time cat companion is on edge with the new feline, and my dog is trying to find paths away from both cats.

I hope you can find an easy answer to your dream.

[Doodley]

3. Dreams are what is going on in your mind, hence can be influenced by

external stimuli. So the thing about the rain and the flooding is probably directly linked to concerns you have had recently or a sound that you heard while you were sleeping. Being away from home, your sleep was different from your usual experience. Dreams are formed just before you wake up. You were in a different environment. Maybe you had different sounds giving you stimuli you are not used to before you woke, for example, other people talking, TV, radio, animals, traffic. an air conditioning fan, rain - any of these could trigger a dream that you would more likely remember. A fan can sound like rain. Think of what was different.

[Beringia]

4. I also had a dream dictionary

Water represents how you are getting through daily life, so it sounds like you were overwhelmed by something. A car represents your body and so it would seem you were not in good control of your body.

[Liberty Belle]

12. Thanks, I will need to mull that over.

Odd that it happened on vacation, when I was away from the daily stress, if only for a weekend. I'd hoped a weekend down by the waterfront would be a stress reliever! Maybe this was just a sign that I've been working too hard, and just need more time off.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Just a quick remark

You have two which revolve around a car. "Cars" often represent your personal journey. So, with the first dream, you are seeing your journey/life (the car) is temporarily stopped by an emotional situation, which, at first, is subtle (the rain), then becomes unmanageable (the flooded field). The person crossing (a friend/or situation) is overcome by the emotional strain (the flooded field).

The second one requires you to addresses the personal issues of someone else (asking others to turn down music). The situation is uncertain/undeveloped/unclear (a dirt road) and someone else's life/journey (the other car) is blocking the situation.

Personally, I don't see think these are "prophetic" dreams, but rather, symbolic. Our minds try to process information by making stories and "purging" them through dreams. You may be involved in some overly emotional drama, caused by others, but people are looking to you to "solve" the situation, but you are apprehensive because you have seen others trying to help only to get sucked into the mess.

Dreams are very personal, so it is important to also recall colors and the like, because it can help you break down the meaning. However, don't expect to get much help from the dream as they often only are "reflections" of things happening or worries about what may happen.

[Liberty Belle]

10. Interesting thoughts.

Other than the obviously stressful national turmoil, my personal life has actually had some good things happen of late, significantly reducing stress. Which is what made me concerned about these dreams, apart from the significance of normally not remembering them.

I haven't been asked to intervene to help anyone else. I do run a nonprofit media outlet and have dealt with a few of the wacko "fake media" emails and posts, but none that were threatening or scary.

I do have a lawsuit about to be filed over a car accident that injured me nearly 2 years ago, but I'm not stressed after handing over all the documentation to the lawyer and knowing the fault is clearly the other driver's. I'm generally someone who doesn't stress or worry too much over things beyond my control; my philosophy has always been that worrying is negative and harmful; if something bad does happen, you can always deal with it then.

I was actually caught in a flood with my car in January, only briefly, no harm other than scratches to my vehicle. But it did make that dream more scary, and of course the dream of hitting someone was too much like what actually happened to me two years ago when a truck pulled out in front of me. But I hadn't had flashbacks of that in a long time, and never in dreams, just the occasional freezing up in actual traffic situations.

I sort of feel like something badk may be going to happen, and this is trying to warn me to avoid it. Before I stopped having dreams, I had a couple of episodes like that, too. And even as a kid, I usually didn't remember very many dreams, only ones that were really significant.

I hope you're right, though, and this is merely a reflection of something that was nagging at my subconscious, not a precurser of something to come.

[Donkees]

6. Maybe the tiki torches triggered your deep memory about the flashlight in the cave, and that memory

tapped into the fear you held of that event. Maybe it's about being flooded with emotion and trying to turn down the 'volume'. The 'party' in the dream may be about political parties and hateful rhetoric.

[Liberty Belle]

11. Very interesting thought on that metaphor.

Could be, and drowning may simply explain feeling overwhelmed at times by all the hate, particularly as a person of Jewish descent who still remembers my grandparents' anguish at learning all their relatives had died in the holocaust.

[alphafemale]

7. There is no such thing as interpreting someone else's dream.

That is as woo-woo as astrology.

It means something to you and if you remembered a dream for the first time in that long you probably have something that is prowling at the backdoor of your brain.

[SkatmanRoth]

8. Remembering dreams has a lot to do with nutrition

You probably consumed food with the proper vitamins for remembering your dreams.

Try taking vitamin B6 everyday for a week and see if you start having dreams.

The majority of dreams is a 'replay' of events that happened during the day. The mind is house cleaning the long and short term memory storage and dreams are short clips that are 'deleted'. Think back to things that happened before you went to sleep. Was the evening news about rain events and car events? (Like a Dodge Charger running over 19 people).

[Liberty Belle]

9. Interesting, I did eat quite different foods while on vacatoin.