by Gillian Holloway, Ph.D. (Dream Discoveries Newsletter, Spring 1995)
Recurring dream action is a powerful clue about the challenges
and pressures of your waking life, your typical style of response,
and may reveal childhood conditioning that still impacts you as
an adult. Here are some common recurring themes and the waking
life situations that frequently accompany them:
- Being Chased: This action suggests the dreamer
is carrying fears from childhood forward into waking life. These
fears become reactivated with each new problem or challenge, and
are often played out on the screen of life through pressures and
threats in current situations. It may help to consider what the
greatest threat or source of pressure was during early years.
(If a child feels pressure because of poverty, abuse, criticism,
or the expectation to compensate for parental unhappiness he or
she may internalize that pressure and carry it forward like a
personal monster into adulthood.) Check for residual inner tension
around that old issue, for that tension can cause each new situation
to appear as the old familiar threat. The recurring dream replays
in much the same way the dreamer experiences old fears in waking
life.
- Falling: The fear of falling represents a fear
of loss-of-control. Falling is a symbol most common to people
who exert personal effort to control circumstances: working harder,
planning more, avoiding hazards, and anticipating events. Falling
dreams recur when the dreamer feels an overload of events and
variables and senses all of the details cannot be controlled through
effort. They may feel compelled to try to control circumstances
that cannot be controlled, but can only be responded to. When
overloaded they have a sense of the bottom going out from underneath
them. These dreams may be relieved by practicing a more responsive,
less controlling style, first in relaxed situations, and then
in more stressful arenas.
- Flying: This image comes to people with some exceptional
ability.The dreamer is able to soar over ordinary circumstances
in some respect, and often achieves elevated states of consciousness
through the work they do, or their life perspective. The challenges
experienced during dream flight usually represent inhibitions
that occur in waking life, such as disbelief in one's powers,
interference from external authority, or the fear of success that
can take hold when one begins to go higher in life. Flying dreams
can serve as excellent reminders of innate capacities the dreamer
may be overlooking - as well as recognition for accomplishments
and the joy of liberation from constraints.
- Climbing: This action reflects the effort required
to meet a challenge. An upward incline almost always depicts a
challenge, the effectiveness of the dreamer's movement up the
incline reflects the subjective sense of success in meeting the
challenge. The waking life challenge can be anything from a relationship
to college completion. It may also be a metaphor for a passage
in life that is simply more arduous than expected, or something
that feels more like an "uphill climb." If the present
circumstances will remain the same for some time, repetitions
of the climbing dreams can be expected. Use this dream to be aware
of how much effort is being expended, even during normal operations,
and pace yourself accordingly. Climbing is a gradual, long-term
process, so strategy, pacing, and gradual progress should be employed.
- Unprepared Performance: The more preparation your
job requires, the more likely you are to have variations on this
theme. One reason this dream appears so often is the fact that
no matter how well one prepares a performance or presentation,
spontaneous events cannot be predicted. This anxiety dream also
is most common to people who never allow themselves to
be unprepared. The people who have it are generally successful,
competent professionals who excel at their work and prepare as
much as humanly possible. Take Heart. The dream is not predicting
public humiliation - it is processing anxiety.
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