The most common dreams fall into six categories. The first five are all anxiety dreams, but the sixth is a lot more pleasant. In no particular order, these are:
1. YOUR TEETH ARE FALLING OUT
2. YOU’RE NAKED IN A PLACE THAT YOU SHOULDN’T BE NAKED
3. YOU’RE BEING CHASED—OFTEN BY A NON-HUMAN ENTITY
4. YOU’RE TAKING AN EXAM, AND YOU’RE COMPLETELY UNPREPARED FOR IT (EVEN IF IT’S BEEN YEARS SINCE YOU’VE BEEN IN SCHOOL)
5. YOU’RE FALLLLING…!
6. YOU’RE FLYIIIING…!
“ARGGGGH…MY TEETH ARE FALLING OUT!”
This wasn’t really a dream but a nightmare, and I’ve never forgotten it. I’m getting dolled up to go to a party or something, and I can see myself very clearly in a mirror—this is the only time I’ve ever actually seen myself in a dream. I’m looking great, good hair, lovely makeup. I smile at myself, and my teeth sort of fall out of my mouth, all black and rotten, and I can even taste the blood in my mouth. I screamed in my dream and woke myself up, thank God.
Have you ever had one of those awful dreams in which your teeth are falling out? Sometimes they might be wobbling freely, or they might just crumble to dust at the slightest touch. It’s a hideous feeling, and it’s weird how the feeling of anxiety and horror can stick with you for quite some time.
Our teeth say an awful lot about us these days. As a society, we can spend fortunes on whitening them, straightening them or altering the odd little snaggle tooth. Retainers, once seen worn only by school children, are now a regular sight in grown adults. Teeth have become an important status symbol in recent years, and this new aspect of our gnashers only serves to increase the anxiety we feel when we lose them, even if it is only in the dream and not in real life.
Teeth aren’t just a status symbol. Although dentures are common, teeth—real or fake—are a vital piece of our survival equipment, used to break down food into acceptable chunks for digestion. They’re also a powerful symbol of sexuality; would you really want to kiss someone with a mouthful of rotten teeth?
Therefore it’s quite right to suppose that to dream of losing your teeth is an anxiety dream par excellence. It’s up to you to discover exactly what these anxieties are, and to find ways of allaying them. When you have a dream about losing your teeth, reflect on what happened earlier in the day so a pattern emerges. Things are never usually as bad as you might think, and it often helps just to talk things through with a neutral party.
“OH NO…I’M NOT WEARING ANY CLOTHES!”
It’s the same dream every time, and it has its roots in a real-life incident. I’m wandering around in a hotel room with no clothes on. I open the closet door, but behind it is a ballroom full of people I don’t know, and I’m standing, stark naked, in front of all of them. They’re all laughing. It’s excruciating. The real-life incident happened when I was a pre-teen, also naked in a hotel room, the door opened and a family of people walked in with the porter, who had taken them to the wrong room.
Nearly everyone has had a naked dream experience at least once. At first, everything seems entirely normal. You’re going about your everyday business. You may be on a bus, a train, or in a store…then you suddenly realize that you’re absolutely stark naked. OOPS. And you don’t know what you can do to hide your embarrassment. It’s also common to find that no one else in the dream notices your clothes-free status, or at least, if they do, they don’t make a point of commenting on it. This is a moot point, however, as we shall see below.
Ever since Eve handed Adam the fig leaf, thereby drawing attention to the fact that he was slightly superior to the animals and therefore needed to protect his modesty, we have worn clothes. For thousands of years, we’ve concealed our nakedness with all manner of skins, beads, feathers, and fabrics. Therefore, regardless of your general attitude toward nudity, if you find yourself naked in a public place in which it’s inappropriate or even illegal, it’s a serious taboo. So what does this mean in a dream?
We need to think very clearly about what clothes are and what they do. Effectively, they conceal our real state. They also allow us to give an impression of ourselves; clothes send out a clear statement to the world about who we are and what we do. Nurse. Businessman. Hippy. Rockstar. Policeman.
As well as revealing our identity, clothes are also a very efficient way of masking it, too. In short, they can be a disguise, if we wish them to be.
Therefore when we have a “naked” dream, we are having an anxiety dream that our identity is being taken away; that we are vulnerable and unprotected. There is also the possibility that, in real life, you’re trying to hide something, but a part of you feels that you’re going to get caught out. Do you feel like you’re “getting away” with certain aspects of your life—maybe you feel under qualified to be doing your job? Underlying insecurities of all kinds can result in “naked” dreams.
“HELP! SOMETHING’S CHASING ME!”
I’m running and running, never sure what from, but the run ends when I have to jump off the edge of something; sometimes it’s a cliff, sometimes a tall building, one time it was even a bridge of some kind. As soon as I jump, I wake up with a start.
What do you do if you’re in real danger? Most of us would probably try to get away from that danger as fast as possible. Thankfully it’s unlikely that most of us will be chased by a bear, tiger, or mad axeman in real life. Well, in a dream, our response is usually the same—to run away.
Dreams elicit primitive responses from our subconscious minds, and running away from a stressful situation is a pretty logical thing to do. Indeed it’s almost a shame that we can’t just get the hell out when life’s stresses get to be too much. Instead, in real life, we have to confront the metaphorical wild animals and mad axemen that chase us in the dream.
There’s another aspect to the “chasing” dream however. Besides running away from our daily stresses, there’s a distinct possibility that the thing we’re running away from is an aspect of ourselves, something that we’re afraid of facing. This could be anger, jealousy, a fear of failure—or even of success. You might even be running away from your own powers, strengths, and talents, afraid of the inherent responsibilities that they might bring with them.
“OH NO! I’VE GOT A TEST, AND I’M TOTALLY UNPREPARED FOR IT!”
Yes, the exams dream. I still sometimes have those dreams where I’m about to take an exam, and it really takes me back to high school. I quite enjoy these dreams now, because when I wake up I’m so thankful that it’s not real anymore!
Who hasn’t experienced this sort of dream at one time or another? It’s hideous. There you are, mature, experienced, probably well-established with a professional career and a family. Then whoomf! You’re suddenly plunged back into the dreaded days of school or college with an exam looming which you’re certain you are about to fail.
But don’t fret unduly. This sort of a dream usually means that you’re putting yourself under pressure, and there’s really nothing to worry about. The residual feeling of anxiety, though, should be addressed. The feeling of being unprepared might be real, but the feeling of dread will only make things worse.
It might also be that there’s someone in your waking life—likely in your workplace—that is making you feel as though you are being judged against others. Sometimes, just recognizing the cause of an anxiety can be enough to dispel it.
“AAAAARGH…I’M FALLING!”
I used to have falling dreams a lot when I was a kid, so much so that my folks took me to see a shrink. The best one ever, though, was when I sort of switched the falling sensation around in my dream, and made it so I was flying instead. The falling dreams seemed to stop soon after that so I assume I’d made some kind of mental progress.
Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’re falling? The plummet often ends with you being jolted awake, back into consciousness, with your arms still flailing trying to grab hold of something. Such a feeling is all too real and can leave you with a residual shakiness—although you usually fall asleep again pretty quickly.
It’s commonly believed that these types of dreams reflect inner turmoil and anxieties. You could be worried, metaphorically speaking, about losing your “foothold” in a certain situation, or of losing your balance or equanimity. Or you might have taken on too much responsibility.
However, a falling dream can also happen for entirely different reasons. They’re usually experienced at the beginning of a sleep pattern and can be caused by a natural drop in blood pressure. They can also be the result of another type of natural reaction called a “myclonic jump” or “jerk.” This is an involuntary muscle spasm and usually nothing to worry about, although if you start to experience such reactions more frequently, or when you’re awake, you might want to seek medical advice.
“WHEEEE…I’M FLYING!”
I always dream I can fly. It seems so easy. You just step up into the air, one foot after another. And once I’m in the air, I can soar for hours. I wonder why I don’t know how to do this when I’m awake. It’s so blindingly obvious!
This is the only “popular” dream that has nothing to do with anxiety. But there are two types of flying dreams. One is a “normal” dream. If you’re soaring above rooftops, this is great. It implies confidence in yourself and satisfaction with your life. You’ve got perspective, you can see the bigger picture, and for all intents and purposes, you’re at the top of your game.
The second type of flying dream is often a result of, or precursor to, a lucid dream. A lucid dream (see LUCID DREAMING: THE ART OF CONTROLLING YOUR DREAMS) is where a high level of consciousness creeps into your sleep, enabling you to “control” your dream events. If you’re having a lucid dream where you’re flying, don’t suddenly question what you’re doing; if you do, you might suddenly find that you’re falling, and this requires swift conscious thought to set things right before you wake up.
If mastered properly, the flying dream will not only give you hours of dreamtime enjoyment, but you might also find that your self-confidence improves in your waking life.
FARM
Anything to do with agriculture, farming, or animal welfare speaks of maturity, responsibility, and sensibility. Your dream is telling you that you need to work hard to achieve worthwhile and long-lasting results. You’ve either begun doing this or you know that you should.
FATHER
Regardless of whether your father has passed away or is still alive, and regardless of your actual relationship with him, the father figure that appears in your dream is more than the sum of his parts, since he appears as the paternal archetype. But what does this mean?
As the paternal archetype, the father stands for security, protection, paternal authority, and affection. The flipside of all these qualities includes tyranny, restrictions, and aggression. We can draw upon all these different aspects of the father figure, and know where they are coming from. So that you can have a greater understanding of what your father means if he appears to you in a dream, you need to remember the context of the dream. You may be overjoyed to see him, in which case you’ve embraced all those fatherly qualities; you might be afraid of him, which means that you’re equally afraid of the responsibilities that come with paternal authority, or the situation might seem quite normal. His appearance means that there are aspects of paternal characteristics that you need to be able to understand and absorb to become a more fully rounded person. It’s also important to remember that the father is an authority figure, so you should listen carefully to his words if he speaks in your dream. It could be a guidance dream.
FEATHER
Because they come from the wings of birds—and, in dreamland, from the wings of angels—feathers are a happy dream omen and tend to bring with them information of some kind, or a comforting reminder of something or someone.
FEET
The foundation and balancing point of the body, the feet, in a dream, symbolize similar ideals. So if you see your feet or someone else’s, then it’s likely that you or the foot owner are solid, secure, and well balanced. The feet, after all, are in pretty much constant contact with the earth! However, if you see only one foot, then that balance in your life has been skewed for some reason.
FENCE
The fence signifies a boundary between places. To be “on the fence” about something implies a boundary between opinions or ideas. A fence is also a barrier, providing protection (think of the word “defense”). If you’re constructing a fence in your dream, it’s possible that you’re feeling the need to protect or defend yourself in your waking life.
FIG
Figs are symbols of eroticism and fertility, so if one turns up in a dream, unexpected pleasure could await you. Alternately, if you’re trying to get pregnant, figs are a good omen.
FIG LEAF
Some symbols occupy a very powerful place in our subconscious because of generations of association. For more than 2,000 years, we’ve been told that fig leaves were used by Adam and Eve to preserve their modesty when they suddenly realized that they were naked. Therefore, we see the fig leaf as a symbol not only as the loss of innocence, but as one of modesty and the preservation of embarrassment. If you’re wearing a fig leaf in your dream, like those biblical characters, then events in your life are making you feel the need to protect yourself somehow.
FINGERNAILS
These can indicate a lot about our sense of self-esteem. If your dream fingernails are in good condition, trimmed and healthy, then you have good self-esteem and a positive outlook on your life. If they are bitten or broken in the dream, then you could be feeling below par and/or anxious about something. Broken nails also indicate low self esteem. Nails with bright red polish hint at your erotic side.
FIRE
Fire is beautiful powerful, dangerous, illuminating, destructive, or purifying. And so its meaning depends entirely on how the fire presents itself in your dream. If it’s a fire that you can’t control, then maybe there’s a similarly heated and uncontrollable situation in your own life—think about the flames fanned by desire. If you are put in the situation of controlling the fire and you do this successfully, then the dream is showing you that you’re more powerful than you had thought. If you are burned by the fire, then you might be getting involved in something in your waking life that may similarly result in you getting “burned.”
FISH
Like birds, fish can carry messages for us in dreams, so look out for potential messages there. Water represents the female element and fish can mean new life, so it’s not surprising that some women dream of swimming fish even before they know that they are pregnant. Fish also symbolize emotions; you may have deep-seated feelings that you’re finding difficult to express. Try to let them come to the surface in your waking life. If you dream that you’re fishing, then it’s likely that you have started to make conscious attempts to get these feelings to the surface—you’re not afraid to deal with them anymore.
FISSURE (See Cave)
FLYING
Flying is a very common dream, and a full detailed analysis can be found in THE AWARD FOR “MOST POPULAR DREAM” GOES TO…
FLOATING
Not as common as flying, floating is still borne of the same feeling of relaxation and letting go. Floating dreams indicate that you’re extremely comfortable with who you are and where you are in your life. Sometimes you can induce a floating dream using lucid dream techniques (see LUCID DREAMING: THE ART OF CONTROLLING YOUR DREAMS).
FLOOD
Since water is often representative of emotions, dreaming of a flood symbolizes the sudden bursting forth of emotions, to the point where real damage can take place. If in the dream you are caught up in the deluge, then you need to realize that there’s a possibility that this might happen in your waking life—metaphorically speaking, naturally. The dream is a warning to be aware of this and deal with a situation before it’s too late.
FLOWERS
Depending on the condition of the flowers, this can be a good dream or not. Bright, healthy, colorful flowers tell you that you have a happy soul. The opposite—drooping, dying, or desiccated flowers are not so good. If you’re given beautiful flowers in a dream, some people believe that this is a gift from the spirit realms, especially if they’re accompanied by a friend or relative that has gone over to the “other side.” If you see flowers blooming in impossible conditions, then unexpected good news is coming your way soon. Among the most popular flowers, the red rose stands for love, so hopefully your dream reflects your real-life situation, whereas the lily is a reminder of death, not necessarily of a person, but of a situation, friendship, job, etc.
FLIES
If you have flies buzzing around in your dream, this indicates that there are aspects of your life that you feel are unclean or out of control.
FOOD
Food symbolizes the material body as well as the emotional state, and the quantity, type, and quality of the food speaks volumes. If you find yourself eating something you never normally touch—for example, if you’re a vegetarian and you find yourself eating meat in a dream—this isn’t a sign that you should suddenly swap your lentils for lamb chops, but an indication that you should try something new in your life. If you’re stuffing chocolates into your mouth while ignoring a table full of more sustaining fare, then there is an imbalance somewhere in your waking life; an area that has been neglected and needs to be fulfilled.
FORGETFULNESS
Sometimes in dreams we forget where we are; familiar places become unfamiliar, locations change, things become misplaced. We could go into a long analysis of why this is, but it comes down to that same old chestnut: anxiety.
FOUNTAIN
Fountains can have phallic connotations and signify repressed desires. However, the fountain is also symbolic of happiness and joy. Only the context of the fountain in your dream and an insightful look into your own life will let you know which it’s to be.
FOX
Foxes are smart, cunning, and clever enough to outwit the hounds that pursue them. Yes, the fox is ultimately adaptable and if you follow the tip that you have access to all the qualities of the animals you dream about, then rest assured that to dream about the fox is very handy indeed. If a person that you know appears as a fox in a dream, then this might be a warning not to trust the person because of their cunning, sly, foxlike qualities.
FRAME
A frame is usually square and defines a boundary, so it can be viewed as a sort of cage since it effectively “traps” its subject within its boundaries. That’s why it’s important to observe what’s in the frame in your dream. Whatever is displayed in the frame is something that you wish to remain intact or unchanging. A family portrait or wedding photo, perhaps? If the frame in your dream is empty, then you’re waiting for someone to fill it.
FROG
Living somewhere between the earth and the water and with a very visible life cycle, the frog—for all its comic value—is a magical creature of transformation, and that’s what is signifies your dream. Remember the frog that turned into a prince after a kiss from the princess? You, too, or something in your life, is undergoing or will undergo a major transformation.
FUNERAL
Signifying an end and a “saying goodbye,” to dream of attending your own funeral is more common than you might suppose. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be sitting on a cloud playing a harp any time soon, but there will be an opportunity to say goodbye to an aspect of yourself that has passed its sell-by date. If you’re burying a friend, then the same point is true; you won’t necessarily lose the friend, just an outdated aspect of the relationship. Similarly, if you dream of a parental funeral and the parent is still alive, then it’s time to cut free from parental constraints and influences.
FURNITURE
Another relatively popular dream is that you’re moving furniture around in a house. Both house and furniture may or may not be familiar. Remember that the house represents you, and the furniture symbolizes aspects of your character. Rearranging this “soul” furniture means that there are things about yourself that you would similarly like to alter.
“I’m downstairs in my friend’s house. It looks the same, but it’s different. The window is different. It is nighttime and I open the window, which is long with the hinge that opens it along the top. There’s a steep road right outside the window, and hundreds of ghostly white horses are coming down the road. They come to the open window and put their heads through into the room and look at me. I know that they want to tell me something very important—a secret.”