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Is your dream monster really as scary as it seems?
In our dreams strange and unusual creatures exist. Some fascinate us, some terrify us. Monsters seem to come from somewhere deep in our imagination, and can create a particularly strong impact. We tell children that monsters aren’t real and smile indulgently as we explain them away. But somehow it seems different when we dream of monsters ourselves as adult. So why is it that we dream of monsters?
Things in our dreams are usually symbolic, and very few more so than monsters. Monsters are our very own personal symbols, often cobbled together from different creatures in stories, films and even mythology. Monsters can come from deep within our subconscious, so they may have a very important message to tell us. The very nature of monsters, that they are creatures of imagination, usually indicates we are dealing with something we don’t want to face, or something we don’t understand.
We can go back to the basics of dream work to understand what our own monsters mean to us. We can describe how the monster make us feel, and then look for situations in life where we are feeling the same way. Are we feeling threatened? Harassed? Under pressure? Is this something we are feeling at work, in a relationship or with a choice we have to make?
We can also try the action of describing the monster in basic words as we would to a child. We can look at the colour of the monster and what it it is doing. (see “colours” post.) Is the monster big and overwhelming, or sneaky and sly? This may indicate how we feel about a certain problem or dilemma in our lives. Remembering also, that symbols in our dreams are usually a reflection of parts of our own selves, monsters can be a part or our own personality we don’t want to admit to. Is the monster angry? Maybe there is something in our life that we are mad at ourselves for, and now need to forgive ourselves. Is the monster faceless, maybe even invisible, but hounding us none the less? This can be a problem in life, a behaviour or issue that we are running from. Now it might be time to face the creature that pursues us. Very often a bad monster dream can be about the parts of our own personality we like the least. These kind of dreams ask us to face what we don’t like, change what we can, and be kind to ourselves for those things beyond our control. Is the monster hungry, and maybe wants to eat us? This can indicate we have a habit, maybe even a compulsion or addiction that is “consuming us.” It might be time for a more balanced approach to life. Are we attacking the monster, trying to kill it? This might be an angry reaction to a part or our-self we can’t accept. Maybe we should stop judging ourselves by other people’s standards, and accept and love ourselves for who we really are. Or it may be a symbol of illness, and our body trying to attack an invading infection or disease that our subconscious mind is aware of.
Is there something you would rather not face?
Monsters in dreams can be our fears made manifest, but not all dreams of monsters are bad ones. Sometimes a monster can be harmless, helpful or even amusing. Such dreams may come after we face a scary monster in our dreams, or as we start to confront the problems or concerns we have in waking life. These kind of dreams may help us to understand the transitions from fear to freedom, with the changing monster helping us understand our own transitions. Some monster dreams may be of mysterious, but not particularly worrying monsters. These kind of dreams may indicate a powerful period of transformation occurring, with new skills and outlooks on life developing inside us that we cannot fully understand or recognise yet. We may even be lucky to have a visit from a part of ourselves deep within our subconscious mind, that arise like a creature from the deep to help or guide us at an important juncture in our lives.
The thing to remember with monster dreams, is that they come from within our own minds. If we can be brave and true enough to really face and understand them, most monsters aren’t really so scary after-all. In fact, they may even turn out to be our friends.
The first step in making nightmares go away is to face up to our fears
Firstly, let me apologise to my regular readers for my absence! I have been travelling and have not had regular access to the Internet, but I am back now so stay tuned for many more interesting installments on dreams and how we can work with them! If there is a particular kind of dream, dream symbol, or process for working with dreams you would like to know more about, please leave a comment and I will do my best to address them.
So now I think it is about time we started looking at some of the more disturbing aspects of dreaming. Until we are able to understand and work with nightmares, there will always be a major obstacle for us to access the real value and opportunities that dreaming can provide. Fear of dreaming can paralyse us in our internal explorations, but it is these very nightmares we must learn to deal with to move onto the next stage in our dreaming life, and indeed our personal development.
The main thing to remember about nightmares is the same as most other dreams. All the things you are afraid of in your dreams are really only parts of your self. If you are being chased by a monster or wild animal, it is only are part of yourself you are running from. If something or someone is attacking you, it is only a part of you attacking yourself.
Knowing this does not necesarilly make the nightmares go away, but it does give us clues as to how we can make that happen. The simple answer is, we must learn to face our what we are afraid of. We must confront our demons. As you get ready to go to sleep, prepare yourself mentally to face your attacker. Remember it can’t really hurt you, the fear comes from not wanting to recognise what is really going on. In the first nights it may be hard to do, but persist. With time you should be able to stand up to what it is that scares you. In the early days you may also find that even though you face up to whatever it is that scares you, when you do it still catches you, or eats you, or whatever. That is okay. This is still progress. The important thing is not to stop now – you have just proved that you can change something in your dream by facing up to the scary thing instead of running. This is a major achievement.
As you keep exerting your conscious control to make your dreams change for the better, eventually you will find yourself winning in these situations. You may kill the creature, you may transform it into something harmless or laughable, you may put it to sleep or feed it so much food it can’t move. All these things are sure signs the nightmare is turning. Ultimately, you should be able transform your enemy into your friend. The creature may change shape or age, it will go from something threatening to a kind and helpful guide. This is a sure sign you are integrating the different aspects of yourself into a more unified, less conflicted person.
The outcome of this will not be simply less nightmares and a better night’s sleep, but a new sense of confidence and creativity and wholeness in your waking life. Address the deeper conflict that causes your nightmares, and chances are your whole life will feel brighter. I will write more about how to prepare for nightmare conforntations tomorrow.
After being chased in dreams we might wake up feeling exhausted!
Like being attacked, the dream of being chased, of running away from something or trying to hide is one of the most common as well as distressing dream themes. It is not uncommon after waking from a chase dream feeling stressed, anxious, or even exhausted as though we actually have been running all night! These dreams may involve long and complicated plots moving from location to location, or they may have just an intense feeling of needing to get away. You may be running, using transport, or seeking places to hide. All of these other elements give us different clues as to our emotional state and what the thing is we are running from. Look at the other symbols to help piece together the meaning.
Also similar to attack dreams, chase dreams can be confronting to deal with. They often ask us the questions:
- What are you running away from?
- What do you not want to face up to in your life?
- Where are you feeling under threat or under siege in your waking life?
If these questions were easy to deal with, they would not have reached the stage in our dreams where we feel panicked, so don’t worry if these questions are difficult to answer at first. Learning to confront our fears, to face up to people or ideas that we find threatening or demeaning, or to admit our own bad habits and self destructive behaviour is one of the most difficult aspects of self development. How can we learn to be brave and strong when we feel intimidated, threatened, guilty or afraid?
The good news is, you can start to address these elements in the same way your dreams do – symbolically. As you work with your dream, you can “train” your subconscious, eventually becoming strong and certain enough that you can act in real life as you do in your dreams, and claim back your own personal power. Try the following exercises:
- Write a conversation with the person or thing that is chasing or following you, it doesn’t matter if you never actually knew what it was in the dream. Write it like a script or dialogue, letting the words flow freely. This will help you “face up” to your assailant
- If this dream is because you feel guilty about something, write your self a letter. First, one explaining why you did what you did, and how you feel about it, then another, to forgive your self and recognise that you can’t change the past, that making a mistake does not doom you forever, and that everyone will be better off if you learn to be happy and strong. Read these letters out loud then destroy them.
- Make a sculpture or drawing of your chaser. If it still looks scary and intimidating, draw or sculpt something on it that makes it look funny or ridiculous. Tell the person or creature they have no power over you any more.
You will know when this dream work starts to take effect as the chasing dreams change – either you will face the one who chases you, you will dream of getting away, or the chaser will change into something positive. And as these changes take place in your subtle, subconscious mind, so too should you feel a renewed sense of freedom, confidence and strength. Chase dreams invite us to stop running, to face our fears and recognise what is good and healthy for our life.
(For more information, check out my post on “Dream Symbols: Attack!”)
