A Dream Experience
I spoke to a lovely lady today who lost her husband recently. She told me she woke up crying from a dream she had last night. In this dream she was on a bus with her husband. At a stop along the way she couldn’t find her husband anywhere. She was so distressed that she woke up in tears.
The Bus in Physical Reality
In reality a bus is a public means of transportation. You travel on a bus with other people, many of them strangers. A diverse group of people are continually entering and exiting the bus. This symbolizes the movement through life that we all experience.
How the symbolic meaning of the bus was used in the dream.
In the above dream, the woman’s husband gets off the bus. He is nowhere to be found. Her bus ride will continue and his will not. She is still moving through life.
When a bus arrives in your dreams.
You will want to look at how you’re moving through life in a public way. The other clues in the dream will help you to realize what life situation you are dreaming of.
- School buses could be about things you are learning.
- Tour buses could be about trips you are taking.
- Public transportation is generally life as a whole; in the sense that everyone is moving along in their life. We’re all on planet earth, on the same “bus”, so to speak.
- A bus could symbolize a group you are involved with; in the sense that you are all traveling the same route together.
Why was the first bridge built?
“First thoughts” are the basis for the symbolic meaning to the man-made objects in dreams. Before the first bridge was built it was a thought in someone’s mind. Faced with a desire to travel over a body of water or a chasm in the easiest possible way someone created a bridge. The bridge became a way to cross what would otherwise be an obstacle to getting where they were choosing to go. This is, therefore, the basis for its symbolic meaning. When you dream of a bridge you’ll want to think about where you are, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there.
What you are choosing to cross isn’t always a “bad” thing, although it can be. For instance a deep river isn’t bad; a bridge simply makes it possible to cross the river and get where you’re choosing to go without having to bring out the boat! On the other hand, if you’re crossing a 300 foot deep ravine a fall would be deadly. This would symbolize the life or death feel to bridging something in your life.
For example: A diagnosis of cancer could produce a dream of crossing a bridge over a ravine, symbolizing something that holds the power of life or death. You’re at point A and you need that bridge to get you to point B, to “overcome” the cancer. The bridge symbolizes how you’re going to get there.
Examples of possible bridges in your dreams.
When you’re traveling along a road in your dreams and you come to a bridge, the bridge itself is a clue that you are transitioning from one place, activity, condition, thought pattern, or life situation to another. What you are crossing over, as well as where you start and end up, are additional clues to the meaning of your dream. The type and condition of the bridge can also be clues to the ease or difficulty of this transition.
You could dream of a particular type of bridge simply because it is the type of bridge you are most familiar with. On the other hand the type of bridge could be a significant clue to the type of transition you are experiencing.
Steel bridges-Steel is hard and flexible. Modern technology is involved in the making of steel from iron. Steel bridges used symbolically in your dreams could mean a firm yet flexible resolve to get something done; transitioning you to another stage in your life.
Stone bridges-Stone is a natural substance, of nature.
Stone could symbolically represent a natural transition.
- A bridge from adolescence to adulthood.
- A bridge from earth to heaven. Life to death.
- A bridge to anything natural, not man-made.
Draw bridges- Draw bridges protect the castle. Symbolically in a dream they would protect you and your home.
When a bridge is easy to cross you are finding it easy to make a transition.
When a bridge is hard to cross you are having a hard time making a transition or realizing that it’s time to make a transition.
When a bridge is a thing of beauty you are happy to be making a transition. Beautiful things are happening. Quite possibly you have found a beautiful way to rise above a chasm in your life.
Using Bridge Slang Symbolically
“Burn that bridge”
When you are burning bridges in your dreams you are symbolically cutting off all chances of going back to a previous way of being. You are leaving a past situation, place, thought pattern, or activity behind you.
“Cross that bridge when we come to it”
This means to handle the problems in your life as they arise. Think of point A as your first problem and point B as your second problem. The bridge is the path between the two problems. When this type of a feeling shows up in your dream it is telling you to take care of the first thing before you move on to the second one. Don’t jump ahead of yourself.
As always, I hope my understanding of bridges in dreams helps you to understand your dreams better. Please write with any comments, questions or suggestions.
Thanks, Michelle
The age old question of life after death could be rephrased as: Does the psyche live when the body dies? This is really what everyone wants to know. We already know that the body returns to the earth.
What happens to the psyche is the real question. It’s kind of hard to explore the question if you don’t take the time to explore the psyche. When you open yourself up to the world of dreams, you are opening yourself to your mind, soul, and spirit.
The psyche is the human soul or spirit, the mind. When something is psychic it is of the mind, soul, and spirit. It is the essence of who we are. Dreaming is a psychic function. Dreams are a fascinating way to explore the capabilities of our own personal psyche. Understanding what the psyche is actually capable of from a dreaming perspective is to actually take personal dream experiences and explore the possible origins of the dream information.
An Early Experience
On August 19, 1998 I had a dream. In this dream I was in a house in Antigua with beautiful back bedrooms. People that I know were there eating chocolate.
I could see a map. The map showed me that there was going to be a terrible earthquake caused by the two sets of rock that Antigua was built on.
I woke to the thought that all I knew about Antigua was that it was an island, and yet it wasn’t an island in my dream.
Was this beyond just a dream?
While researching Antigua, I read that it was indeed an island, but it wasn’t just an island. I was stunned to read that Antigua was also the capital of Guatemala, founded in 1543 and destroyed by an earthquake in the year 1773. Guatemala was originally home to the Mayans. It turns out that the Mayans made and loved chocolate. That was the significance of the chocolate in my dream.
The other big clue in my dream was the earthquake which was shown to be triggered by two sets of rocks. A bit of simple research led me to the information that earthquakes are caused by the movement of plates of rock and metal. In my dream I saw a map of two silver rock formations causing the earthquake in Antigua. I drew a copy of this map in my dream journal.
Connecting my dream with verifiable facts led to my interest in understanding what exactly was happening and how it was possible. Armed with the knowledge of my own personal proof, I became a serious dream explorer and sought out to answer some question about the psyche and dreams.
My Thoughts about the Psyche in the Antigua Dream
Past life?
- My psyche could be tapping in to my own memories that survived my previous death. Is this proof that I lived a past life in Antigua in 1773 and dreamed of it in 1998? Perhaps past lives are a reality and the ability to tap into this type of past memory exists in our dream state? This would mean I actually did live in Antigua in 1773. In this case I would be connecting to my own memories which, in this scenario, would not die with the body. They would be reborn with, yet hidden from the conscious memories of, the new body.
Time travel?
- Could my psyche be traveling on a wave that doesn’t differentiate between past and present? Everything that is and ever was is in the same space. I would, in theory, jump into Antigua in 1773. That doesn’t mean I was there in 1773, in a different body. (Or does it?) Is this proof that it is possible to somehow transcend time and space and connect to this information? Can the human mind in the present occupy the same time or space with a moment from the past? Can it actually move in to the past because time and space do not exist for the spirit? Is it free to wander? Can this be perceived by the mind of a sleeping individual as a dream? In this case my dreaming mind would be experiencing the fact that separation of time and space do not exist.
The future?
- Is this proof that it is possible to see the future and gain the knowledge needed for a dream by watching a future event? My psyche would have gained the knowledge of the Antigua earthquake by watching me, in the future, research Antigua? In this case experiences do not exist in a linear fashion. As in the time travel theory, past, present and future are simply there and available to the dreaming mind. The future experience would have created the “now” dream experience. Now that’s quite a mind boggling thought!
Imprinted record?
- Could my psyche be tapping into a wave, like a television wave, that holds the imprint, the record, of everything that ever was? In this way I could learn about Antigua in 1773. Is this proof that there is a record of everything that exists and has ever existed imprinted on the fabric of space and time? A record that a dreaming mind can connect to and read. Can our dreaming mind watch this record as though it were a movie? Could the reading or the watching of this imprinted record be perceived as a dream? Does a readable record exist of future possibilities; the more coincidences stacking up to make the future probable, the easier it is to read?
Is any of the above really happening and we simply don’t have the ability and proof to answer those questions?
Or, perhaps it’s simply proof that amazing coincidences really do happen?
Thoughts on Coincidence
There are those who will go with the theory that this was all “just a coincidence”, they will dismiss the relevance of the dream to the real historical events. In their understanding of coincidence it would appear as though the events were connected but were actually accidental.
What exactly is a coincidence? To coincide is to occupy the same place in space or occur at the same time. When things coincide figuratively it means that they: are alike; correspond to each other; agree. My dream corresponded to the true facts. It was in agreement with them. This provided the basis for the coincidence.
I find it such a coincidence that the understanding of how these types of dreams are even possible, and the way we experience time and space is the actual basis for things to be coincidental.
Are these dreams really such a coincidence after all?
If they are “only a coincidence,” could life be a series of coincidences that were meant to happen? A series of events that are there for us to see and connect with when our body sleeps and our subconscious psyche awakens to connections overlapping and occurring in the same time and space?
Can I prove anything?
I questioned what this dream could actually be a proof of and threw out a few theories to ponder. The future theory is the one I have the most experience with. I have dreamed future events too often for me to dismiss these as coincidences or impossibilities. Having already written about a few of these situations, rather than rewrite them here, I will simply direct those who are interested to my posts on Deja Vu and Gambling in Dreams. When the actual future happens it leads me to believe that it is no longer a theory, but a proof that it can be done. When you do it, you tend to believe it’s possible!
I can’t “prove” I’ve lived a past life. I can’t “prove” I’m watching an imprinted record. I can’t “prove” that time and space is more than linear. I can’t “prove” to anyone else but myself that I dreamed something before it happened, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Eventually a larger proof occurs as more and more individuals have personal proof. There’s no point in telling people what to believe, it’s much better if they do it on their own and then believe in themselves.
If you’ve had similar experiences or just enjoy the topic, join me in the exploration of the psyche through the connections between dreams and reality by sending me an email or leaving a comment below. Thanks for reading.
I’ve added 7 new definitions to my Dream Dictionary as well as revised the existing definition for “mountain.”
The dictionary is finally over 100 definitions! (That’s including the sub-definitions, but they count too!)
Here are the new definitions:
- Bridge: Bridges are connections. They transition you across the rivers, roads, valleys, or obstructions in your life. Bridges in your dream symbolize the way you’re moving from point A to point B. An easy example – When moving from high school to a career, the bridge in your dream might be symbolic of college. College would “bridge” this gap.
- Drawbridge: Drawbridges protect castles. Symbolically, in a dream, they would protect yourself and your home.
- Steel: Used symbolically in your dreams steel could represent a firm yet strong and flexible resolve to get something done. Steel is tempered for strength.
- Path: Symbolically in your dream this is the representation of your movement through life from one person, place, or thing to another. These do not have to be tangible things. They could also be mental, emotional or spiritual. For example, the path could represent a college degree or spiritual enlightenment. It is how your body and your psyche are moving through life.
- Psyche: The human mind, soul, and spirit. In Roman Mythology: She is the human soul or spirit often depicted as a beautiful young girl with butterfly wings. She was loved by Cupid and made immortal by Jupiter.
- Tunnel: Symbolically in your dreams they represent ways to move through the obstacles in your life. They are also representative of ways to get inside you, as in tunneling into things.
- River: Rivers in your dreams symbolically represent natural, moving energy. As blood flows through your veins, rivers flow across and through the earth. Water represents life. Rivers in your dreams will therefore represent large, natural, and very powerful things that are currently moving through your life. Some rivers flow lazily along while others are filled with dangerous undercurrents. In addition, rivers in your dreams can simply represent recreational fun, such as swimming, boating, and fishing.
- Mountains: A mountain that shows up as an obstacle in your path is a huge amount of something that needs to be gone through or gotten over. An easy example of this is when people refer to a “mountain” of paperwork that needs to be done, meaning a huge amount of paperwork that needs finished before they can move forward. It could also refer to something in your life that needs “gone over” or reviewed in order to gain insight, understanding, or enlightenment. Symbolically in your dreams you are telling yourself that in your physical life you are encountering something huge that needs some kind of work to get through.
Remember, if you’ve dreamed a symbol that you’re unfamiliar with, you can skim through my dictionary to see if I’ve already defined it. Any symbol that I’ve ever expanded upon in a full-length post will be linked there, too.
Also, if I haven’t covered a symbol yet and you’d like me to define something, send me an email or leave a comment at the dictionary page and I’ll be sure to write one.
Keep dreaming,
Michelle
A bedroom as a dream symbol is filled with highly personal content.
Traditionally your bedroom is your personal, private place. As a dream symbol it will reflect these personal aspects of the self.
Dreaming, in the figurative sense, is about your most cherished desires. Dreaming about a bedroom could be a clue that you are dreaming about things which you desire. What do you wish to have, do, or be?
First Thoughts on Bedrooms
In order for a bed and a bedroom to exist they had to have begun in the mind of a human being. The first thoughts about these items are important because they form the symbolic, universal meaning for beds and bedrooms in your dreams. What do you imagine was the first thought that brought a bedroom into being? Was it created for a child, or was it created for the self? What you think those thoughts might have been will help you to understand your own personal symbolism for your dream bedroom.
Let’s begin with the fact that your bed is a soft, comfortable place where you lay your head to sleep. Perhaps the first bed was an animal fur rug placed next to an open fire. Somewhere along the way there was a thought that created the need for a room in which to place your bed.
There was a time when there wasn’t such a thing as a house let alone a bedroom. I imagine a bedroom came into being as a private place to sleep within a house.
Some possibilities for the creation of the first house have already been explored at Dreaming of Houses. When you begin from the point that you are surrounded by four walls and there are as yet no “rooms” in the house, what would make you want a bedroom?
Did you perhaps give birth to a child and need a safe place where the infant could sleep? Maybe you needed to muffle its cries from the wild beasts that would think it was food?
Perhaps you shared your space with 10 other people and you were getting tired of their “crap”, literally!! Your thought would be that you would like your own space within the communal house so you created an area of your own, your bedroom. This is how you get to the basis that a bedroom in your dreams symbolizes your personal, private space.
Asleep Within a Dream
Being asleep in your dream represents not being aware. It means that you are not fully conscious of something going on around or within you. To awaken into the dream action means that you are becoming aware of what you hadn’t been fully conscious of before. The rest of your dream clues will help you determine what this could possibly be.
The Bedroom is Private
Choosing to share your personal space with your significant other is a huge symbolic clue. It is an agreement to share yourself, to share your naked, exposed self. It is a place where you want privacy for being physically close to others. Traditionally we think of sex as occurring in bedrooms. Sex as a dream symbol stands for a deep, tangible, connection to someone or something. Sex can result in new life, physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. Your dream bedroom could be symbolizing this closeness.
The Bedroom as a Changing Room
When you are naked in your dreams this means that you are exposing parts of yourself, or you feel that parts of you are being exposed. This exposure can be physical, mental, and emotional. Your bedroom is the place where you can feel comfortable in exposing yourself when you undress.
Symbolically, you can use your bedroom as a comfortable place to explore things that you are keeping hidden from others, but also possibly from yourself. Maybe there are things that you haven’t really wanted to face up to or admit. Maybe there are wonderful depths to you that you’ve always thought to be too good to be true. You could explore these things safely in your dream bedroom.
Beyond the Universal Meaning: The personal aspect.
Your personal feelings and experiences with bedrooms in your conscious life will influence your symbolic use of bedrooms in your dream.
Anything and everything that has ever happened in your personal bedrooms can influence how you use them as a symbol. Perhaps you are bedridden and cannot leave your bedroom. It could be your haven or your prison depending upon your feelings about the situation. Whenever your bedroom shows up in your dreams you are exploring something personal to you.
When It Is Not “Your” Bedroom
I also feel that I should mention that some dream bedrooms are not about you at all. When someone else features prominently in your bedroom dream, it could be about something personal to them.
For instance, I had a dream in which my son was exploring a bedroom in a house. In reality he really was shopping for a house. We looked at many houses, but there was only one that was the exact replica of the bedroom in my dream. In this case my dream was about a future event that was personal to my son.
As always, I hope my thoughts on dream bedrooms can help you in determining the meaning of bedrooms in your own dreams. If you have any questions or comments, please write below or send an e-mail
Thanks,
Michelle
It’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve managed to get some new dictionary definitions together. I wanted to try a new format this time, so here goes:
6 New Definitions added to the Dream Dictionary
- Bed: The piece of furniture that dominates a bedroom. Beds provide a soft, comfortable place to sleep. A bed in your dream will symbolize the degree of comfort you are feeling in a particular situation. The state of the bed will also provide a clue to the situation you are dreaming about. Are you sleeping on Cloud 9(a really good bed) or a bed of nails(really bad) or something in-between?
- Bedroom: A bedroom is the place where you sleep and where you dream. As a dream symbol it represents a personal, private place inside of you.
- Asleep: In a dream, it means not being fully conscious or aware of something. When you find yourself asleep in your dreams it is time to ask yourself if there is anything going on in your life that you are not aware of.
- Sleep: Sleep is a time of renewal. Our bodies and our minds are rejuvenated after a good night’s sleep. As a dream symbol a good night’s sleep would point to some type of rejuvenating aspect of your life. Sleeping poorly or unable to sleep would state the opposite, that you’re having trouble renewing yourself.
- Awaken: When you are asleep in a dream and actually wake-up, this is a clue that you are “waking-up” to what is going on around you. This would be something that you were previously unaware of.
- Naked: When you are naked in your dreams this means that you are exposing parts of yourself, or you feel that parts of you are being exposed. This exposure can be either mental, physical, or emotional.
Remember, if you’ve dreamed a symbol that you’re unfamiliar with, you can skim through my dictionary to see if I’ve already defined it. Any symbol that I’ve ever expanded upon in a full-length post will be linked there, too.
Also, if I haven’t covered a symbol yet and you’d like me to define something, send me an email or leave a comment at the dictionary page and I’ll be sure to write one.
Thanks for reading!
Exploring how a house becomes a symbol.
In order for a house to exist, it had to have begun as a thought in the mind of a human being; it was an idea before it was an object. This is a great place to begin when we are defining the symbolic meaning of a physical, man-made item.
Imagine our ancient ancestors wandering the earth without a house. Why might they create a house? Perhaps they are lying under the stars and a huge animal attacks them. After fending off the beast, they think, “Ugh! Me need to keep beast out. Me need to stack stones. Me call it wall!”
While overly simplified, the scenario above could have been the first thought about a house – ever. An ordered series of thoughts would be required to bring that house into being. Something such as the following:
- What can I use to build a wall?
- How can I make it strong enough to withstand a beast?
- Can I do it with only my hands or will I need a tool?
The necessary tools may then be created, after they are imagined up, of course. Perhaps the tools began as simple chopping and carving tools, but they sufficed to build a simple house.
From then on, a house was no longer a thought in someone’s mind, it had become real; it existed.
The Birth of the Symbolism
We build a house around us for our safety, our protection, and our relief from the elements, among other things. Doesn’t it then stand to reason that when we dream of a house, it is our shelter from the storms of life; our protection from predators?
Although we don’t often stop to think about it in our fast-paced world, our hearts and our souls and our minds need protection as well as our bodies. After all, they are the true creators of our lives. As a house protects our physical body, a house in our dreams provides shelter for who we are inside. This is why it is a symbol for the self.
More Symbolism
Rooms in a house represent different parts of you. When you find yourself opening a door into a wonderfully amazing room, realize that you are opening a door into a part of yourself.
When you see a room that’s really messy, realize that it too is a part of who you are; where your inner thoughts and feelings are messy.
Sometimes the house you’re dreaming of actually represents someone else. Perhaps you’re at a friend’s house and having a wonderful visit. You note all the things you like and dislike about their house. In this case, the house in your dream would represent your friend or how you feel about your friend.
In some way, shape, or form the house in your dream is showing you some interaction that you are having with the world around you. On a completely “self” level it would represent how you are personally thinking and feeling about something.
Dream Phenomena and Remote Viewing
Perhaps you are remote viewing inside someone else’s house?
As an example: I was telling my best friend that I had a dream about her in which she was in her closet and there were extension cords and hangers and lights. I told her that her husband yelled something up the stairs to her.
She told me that all of those things actually happened that night. It was like I was in her house “seeing” what they were doing, even if only for a few minutes.
The only way to know if you are doing this is by speaking about your dream experiences. My advice is to share your dream with the person to find out if you were visiting them while you were dreaming.
Additional Notes
I’d like to end by letting you know I have a few posts and dictionary entries you may find helpful in understanding the symbolic meaning of the clues in your dreams with reference to a house.
Are you in the bathroom?
Are you opening a door or sitting in a closet?
A house is also a building.
If you were eating in the dream, you may want to see my post on food.
Did any of the following appear in the dream: kitchen, living room, cooking, eating or laundry? If so, check out their meanings in my Dream Dictionary.
