Connection in a Dream Question

[IlseMJupnur]

I've been having some odd sets of dreams lately. I'm currently involved in a show, and while I am good friends with most of the cast there are a few I have barely talked to. I have spent enough time around them during the rehearsal process to pick up personality traits and whatnot though.

The past two weeks, I've been having nightmarish type dreams. Each one basically involves a group of people (switches from unknown assassins to slasher movie killers to gangs - any type of group that would cause a threat) in an unfriendly/unfamiliar enviornment attacking a few of my friends from the show. The set of friends changes each dream, except for one guy. He's one of the few I barely talked to.

Each dream, while I do most of the fighting and protecting - he's my savior. It always starts with me fighting off the threat, getting everybody to safety, and gaining some nasty wounds in the process. Then, as soon as I feel everybody is in a safe place, I get swarmed. Then, depending on the dream, either he fights them off of me, or I fight them off, and he takes care of me til I wake up.

The violence and gore in these dreams dosen't really scare me that much; it's actually sadly a norm for me. I'm quite sure I'd be more terrified if there wasn't violence in one of my dreams. What isn't a norm is having somebody in the end watching out for me and taking care of me. And I'm not really asking to interpret these dreams as much as the connection between myself and this guy.

I'm not sure whether this is my mind telling me to be a closer friend to him, or that he's a guy I should be trying to get with romantically, or maybe that I need a person with this caring quality in my life and he's just the fortunate face my mind placed on this quality.

I'm assuming most of you are going to be like - wow this girl is nutters, but if you could just give me your opinion on this, I would be greatful.

[JON]

What kind of TV and movies do you watch? And computer games do you play?

[Athanor]

One view regarding the various figures in dreams is that in most instances they relate to inner psychological traits. However, they can also be about the outer figures they resemble, perhaps about 15% of the time by some estimates.

So although it might be hard at first to let go of the natural reaction of believing that the helpful man in your dream represents the outer person, it’s probably worth trying to in order to explore the other possibility mentioned above.

The fact that you know him less well in outer life than the others is also a partial indicator of his representing an inner aspect of yourself because a very unknown interior part of you can therefore be more easily projected onto him. You’ve mentioned that such a figure is new in your dreams, so on analogy this would fit the “new and unknown” idea.

The various gangs would also tend to represent the same inner dynamic in you as the single man, an overall aspect called the “animus” in one school of psychology. This figure develops from early contacts with the father and other male figures. It tends to represent what naturally has not been made a conscious normal part of your feminine personality. For example, he might symbolize such things as assertiveness, knowing what you want and going after it, and perhaps using thought and reason as opposed to feelings and values to orientate yourself and your decision-making overall.

It’s possible that so far, this aspect of yourself has been undeveloped in some way, perhaps coming out as self-doubting thoughts, occasional angrily expressed opinions, or in some other way that tends to disrupt feeling good about yourself at times.

The goal would be to develop this part of you so that it becomes a link with the creative side of your unconscious, leading to such things as positive impersonal endeavours since developing good relationships is possibly already not much of a problem if any for you overall.

You can try seeing what spontaneous thoughts, memories and feelings come to mind when focusing on the helpful man in the dream. It’s possible that a recent trait emerged in you for some reason which could benefit from further development.

However, this approach doesn’t exclude trying to get to know the outer man better because it’s still possible that he could in some way assist the growth of your inner potentials by being somehow directly or indirectly helpful like the dream figure.

If you’d like to learn more about the inner figure though, many women have found the works of analyst Marion Woodman very helpful such as “The Ravaged Bridegroom”, or you might like to take a peek at a website devoted to her ideas at Marion Woodman Links to see if her approach interests you in some way.

[IlseMJupnur]

Thanks so much!! I really do appriciate the help.

In answer to the question above, I watch just about anything as long as it is done well. Although as you can probably guess, I have an affinity for action and fantasy movies. Thats not saying I don't love sitting down and watching Love Actually or Moulin Rouge. As for video games - I don't play that many. I have very bad motion sickness and anything that has odd angles gives me a migraine, plus my coordination is crap - therefore I mostly stick to puzzle games (Monkey Island and such). I do enjoy Tomb Raider and American McGee's Alice - but I can only play them badly for an hour at a time at most.
The reason I most likely have alot of violence in my dreams, is because I love stage combat. I've taken many classes on it, and have been certified in some fields. Alot of times I'll wake up and think something looked right, and then try to find how could I use that in staging something. I just love breaking down fights on stage or screen and finding the inner workings there.

[Wolfjk]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this is my mind telling me to be a closer friend to him, or that he's a guy I should be trying to get with romantically, or maybe that I need a person with this caring quality in my life and he's just the fortunate face my mind placed on this quality.

It is odds on you fancy this guy. However it is also possible that he wolud be the last one on earth and your subconscious uses your dislike for him raise your level of consciousness. I would go for the first option!
A lot of dreams are dreamt purely for entertainment and have very little significance. However some dreams , especially near your normal waking time will have a potential energy that grabs you attention and puts you brain in gear. I think you describe the first signs of falling for someone.
Cheers Wolfjk