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I have a recurring tornado dream.
In the dream there is a tornado coming toward me and I am unable to get out of the way.  The setting is always different but the "danger" is always the same.
My family was hit by a tornado when I was a kid and for may years I thought it was a type of PTSD.  After I started my own family, the tornado was threatening not only to me, but to them as well.  I would wake up horrified.
Only recently have I come to understand what I think is the true meaning of this dream: I am the tornado.  The tornado represents me living a life totally surrendered to God and that scares the hell out of me!  The tornado is wild and irresistable just like a life lived totally in faith.
I still have the tornado dream sometimes, but it doesn't scare me anymore!  Isn't that crazy?  I have made peace with the tornado because it is me!
To quote Paul Atreides from Dune:  "I am the whirlwind!"
peace,

I also have a recurring dream, though sometimes I think of it as a nightmare.  It's of when I was a child, I am floating and looking down on myself in bed.  I can see what's going to happen to this child and start yelling and screaming at her to get out, but there's nowhere to go.  Watching is too much for me, I am now floating in the woods; they are so beautiful,so green and incredibly peaceful.  I never want to come down, but I have to.  But herein lays the problem, I can't seem to get down, I am fighting so hard, but it's not working.  I am so scared, someone is going to find out and I'm going to be in trouble.  Finally something happens and I just drop back down to my bed.  Back to reality...
I have just recently come to realize that this is the way I coped, this is how I lived thru this stuff.  Sometimes I see it as a nightmare, but then sometimes it's good because I lived through it.  This is how I was able to grow.  The way I view it, God was helping me, He was showing me that there are good things in life. 

My recurring dream involves a pet bird I had as a child. Whenever I'm not taking very good care of myself, he shows up. Often he hasn't been fed for way too long, or doesn't have any water left. Once his eyes were plucked out. A couple of times there have been multiples of him, all in his cage. And in one glorious dream, he was actually healthy and happy and beautiful, and no longer caged. I take him as a symbol of my soul that shows up when I need insight into what's going on in there.

A recent, but vivid dream that I'm still wrestling with:

I was with my husband, and we were going to a high Latin mass at the cathedral in the city I was born in. I was very excited to have him coming with me, because he doesn't like going to Mass, and I don't like going alone. On the way in, we had to pass by a sort of gift shop, set up right in the central aisle of the cathedral-- this was normal, in the dream-logic. I looked at the items on the table, and picked up a small white rectangular box, the sort that usually holds a baptisimal candle; I think this one held incense. It had red lettering on it, and the box said something about burning the blight of the Godless nation of Israel off the face of the earth. I turned to the old woman manning the cash register, and asked how they could sell something so hateful, and she told me that I'd have to speak to the Bishop, and they just sell whatever the company sends them to sell. I got very upset, and ended up blurting out "But I can't come inside now! I'm a Jew!" and ran outside. My husband followed me and said "That's why I never go to Mass. What did you expect?"

I dream about being chased through buildings I'm unfamiliar with; often I have an unfamiliar child with me that I must protect as I make my way through these buildings. Frequently, they're old houses, with dank, nasty cellars. I'm not sure who I'm being chased by, but the chasers are malevolent, and I'm frightened of them. I always wake before I find out where I am, who the child is, who's chasing me or what the purpose of my journey is.

When I was younger, I always used to have dreams of fighting with people. Or trying to hurt them. It always troubled me, especially since I was rarely able to, even when defending myself. I somehow froze, or was stuck in time, and I couldn't.

 Last night, I had a dream that would disturb most people. I was in a weird place with many horrible people. So I killed them. For once, I was able to do it without much of a problem. Many people would consider this dream to be bad, but as I study dreams, I have learned that killing in dreams means that the "victims" are actually old habits or parts of ourselves which have been harmful to us. By killing them in our dreams, we are letting them go and moving on.  While such a thing might disturb some people, and in the past may have even disturbed me, I feel a sense of freedom from it. I need a change in my life and I'm working hard at achieving it. Knowing that I am slowly conquering my old demons is great news to me, even on a subconscious level. It's interesting how dreams work..
 Note: Sorry that this is all one paragraph, but for some reason, my posts always end up like this, even when they're properly organized before hand. 

Jung says that every person, place, and thing in your dream has some special significance for you. If you dream about your daughter, she represents some part of yourself.
 
In the case of the dream I wrote about, my father has a pair of binoculars just like the ones in the dream, and I recently borrowed them. This is a clue to what my subconscious self seems to be wrestling with. Just a clue, but fun to think about it.

I had a dream a few weeks ago.

I am a Christian --Roman Catholic to be precise-- and while I admire other people who seem to know all there is about heaven and earth, I find the more I learn the less I really know. I've been content just to trust that it is in the hands of God and be content in that. Therefore, I haven't really speculated upon exactly what happens after death. I'll go as far as to say I believe everything will be made clear to me then and whatever I learn at that point, I bet I'll also say, "Gosh, I should have figured that out myself! Duh!"

I've never tried to nail my beliefs down as to what actually happens in heaven: what it's like, who is exactly there, what we'll exactly do. I really don't think man is really supposed to know, to be honest.

Well, anyway to get to the dream part of this. I've beena dog lover all my life. I had my first dog when I was three and have had at least one or two ever since. (I am 49 years old). I loved my dogs and they gave me great comfort and joy. For some reason, I never counted upon them being in heaven, though.

One night, however, I dreamed I died and I did go to heaven and there to meet me were all my old dogs. I was so happy as I sat there and was able to hug and pet and kiss all my old friends. I felt so happy!

So that was my dream.

I told a relative of mine who is very religious and knows more than I do and she said, "Why, Jeannie, you're going to Dog Heaven!"

And you know, that wouldn't be so bad.

What do you think about inducing states of dreaming?
-djeikyb serten

My husband just told me about a dream he had the other night:
In the dream he had taken the family vacationing in Iraq. Everywhere we went we met Iraqis who were trying to make him pay a water bill. They would hand him a piece of paper with "water" and a number written on it and they would say "you must pay for this water". He was very annoyed by this and went back to the hotel to try to hide from the water salesmen. He could tell when one was approaching because they made a dripping noise as they walked even though they were not wet. Later on, at the hotel, he inadvertantly walked into a room where the water men were sitting around a table. They looked at him and he could finally see him in their "true state" -- they were all reindeer. End of dream.
He has no idea what it could possibly mean, but it was very funny. I wonder if the water part has anything to do with Iraq being a Muslim country and our little girl says "allah" when she means "water". And maybe the reindeer could be explained by the recent appearance of Christmas merchandise in stores. I don't think I want to delve any deeper into it than that! :-)

"Dreaming is one of the ways that we learn what it means to be human." That's beautiful.

I have a lot of dreams in with very detailed and "scientific" answers to questions that I pose (explaining traveling in another dimension, or the wiring system for radio-lizards, or why Nalgene bottles are so popular.) I think this is because I like to validate and explain away (contain) all the questions that I have.

Another similarity in my dreams is that all of the buildings have many chambers, something I hadn't noticed on my own but was mentioned by a therapist. She said that the lines in my head are very rigid and I make sharp distinctions between right and wrong or value judgements. I also tend to separate head and heart, and honor both equally.

Most of my dreams, though, are completely composed of random bits of my life, from grocery shopping (with a hamster in a ball as the wobbly wheel on the cart) to going to work and not being able to find any of the conference rooms. Occasionally I can fly by maintaining a certain level of anxiety--it makes me levitate.

The only tangible benefit of starting Interferon injections for MS was that the side effects woke me up at times of the night when I wouldn't usually wake up. That's the only thing that ever convinces me I dream at all--being awakened in the middle of one and remembering bits of it.

I remember one dream, in particular, from the period before I learned how to control the side effects. A human-sized maze, not unlike those big topiary mazes, but made of cinder block. Where you might expect an opening that would lead from crooked segment to crooked segment, there'd just be another piece cinder block wall in the way, so that the maze was really a bunch of zig-zaggy closed-off sections.

Lots of people were making their way through this maze by vaulting over the walls at high speed, just as though leaping over hurdles in a track event. The walls were maybe 8 feet high; you couldn't tell what was over them until you leaped. No one was racing with anyone else, but everyone seemed to be going as fast as possible.

I was just one of these people, but I only encountered people coming the other way. No one passed me going my direction, and I passed no one.

Vaulting that last cinder block wall was the one that woke me up, because I found myself hundreds of feet in the air, over a broad ocean. There may have been an island off in the distance. That was the end of the maze--or maybe I broke out of it entirely and went somewhere else.

I haven't remembered another dream since I figured out what Tylenol dosage would let me sleep.

I was walking along a sidewalk with my dad one day, and happened to tell him about my recurring dreams of picking up coins from the ground, off a sidewalk, etc. He told me that he has similar dreams, and has had them all his life. We had never discussed this until I was in my mid-20s, but it has caused me to think a lot about those nature/nurture questions. Did I inherit from him a brain structure that predisposes me to this dream? Did his recurrent dream cause him to raise me in a way that made "finding coins" a theme for me?I'm content to leave it a mystery, but I wonder if anyone else has a similar story.
 

Brother Terry,
I dream of tornados as well. The "being chased by a tornado" dream and the dream where a house (my house -- myself) is obliterated by a tornado and when the tornado leaves a new foundation has been laid.

I think (at least for me) that the tornado is the finger of God himself. God chased me for a long long time. When he caught up with me, he wiped away the old life I had built and laid the foundation of my new life himself.

I haven't dreamed the dream of a tornado in a while -- once I accepted that God was chasing me, the dream ended. If I dream it again, I plan to let the tornado catch me -- as see where it will take me.

I also dream of fire in the same manner -- it's always fire that burns and purifies but never consumes.

I personally believe that it's how God speaks to some of us.

http://reverendmommy.blogspot.com
If God intended us to be vegatarian, why did He make His critters so dern tasty?

I dream almost every night. I have an entire parallel universe that happens just in my dreams, and I'm the only constant in it. Last night, I was involved in a rescue of a young boy who was kidnapped and taken into a tropical jungle. For some reason (perhaps because I like him), Tom Selleck was there.

I dreamed my friend's biggest client died, and he was inconsolable. I tried to talk with him , be there, anything to cheer him up, all to no avail. He gave me his cell phone to share cameraphone pictures of the client's last days, and then he disappeared and I couldn't find him. And I couldn't call him because I had his phone. I felt so helpless and sad.

When I was an undergrad at Michigan State, I took a course on dreams and dreaming with W.S. Penn, an author who wrote several novels about dreaming in a Native American context.  During the course of that class, we were forbidden to share our dreams nor would he tell us about his (save the dreams he wrote about in his biography).  The reason is that he believed dreams to be communications with a higher level of human consciousness - primarily with our ancestors.  Discussion of our dreams openly is, therefore, embarrassing because it involves the sharing of things so personal that we often don't even understand them ourselves.  I don't know if he is right or wrong, but that notion has stuck with me.  I dream all the time, but I never share my dreams with anyone until I have completely  understood them.  I have a recurring dream that I still do not understand.  I'll keep that one close to the chest.  I don't want someone who is more astute than I am to know something about me that I don't even know myself. 
It seems that you share the notion that dreams are communications with a higher consciousness.  Don't you think there is a slightly voyeuristic component to reading the content of other people's dreams - especially in this format? 

Bridge dreams are what I experience before I have a real challenge I'm facing- something that terrifies me, that I've never done before.
All different kinds of bridges, depending on the situation.
Some of them are very beautiful, and almost all of them are incredibly steep: I usually have to cross them alone: it's an incredible relief to cross over.

I had one, just as we were considering starting a family, that I travelled with Ivan- we were traveling on a bridge that had a turnoff in the middle, that led to a little island with a museum. They were having an exhibit of "The Family through History". There were neolithic cave families, and Egyptian families, African families with apprentices who were acknowledged as brothers, cousins who were given the same nomenclature as siblings, foster families, guardians, wards etc. All the definitions, as broadly portrayed as possible.
I went to the gift shop- to get Guatemalen worry dolls for one of the little girls we were helping to raise, and I saw this incredible piece of Jewelry- three pins, consisting of three abstract shapes, in diamonds- but they could be joined to form a bird.

I had this great moment of clarity, then, that God's family was not conventional, but that it IS, and the first inkling that my family might not be conventional either. It was sad and miraculous and scary and really beautiful.And, as it turns out, 10 years later, true.

Love, Marya

I don't know much about interpretation, at least in a scholarly sense. What I believe about dreams is another matter entirely.

My grandfather died in 1996 after a long, loving life farming in Nebraska. My dad farmed with him for many of those years and I was blessed to grow up less than a mile from my grandparents' house. After Grandpa died, I was grieving pretty heavily, until I had a dream one night that changed my life and my faith.

Grandpa sat on the side of my bed and we talked for hours, it seemed. He was young - younger than he had been even when I had known him as a toddler. He was smiling and loving and everything I remembered. And when our conversation was wrapping up, he looked at me, smiled, and said "I'm okay - and I'll always be here with you."

This April my mentor, Pastor Larry, died after a two year battle with cancer. I'd known Larry from my sophomore year at the University of Nebraska. Much of what I know about being a pastor I learned from watching him. The week Larry died, I didn't know what to do with myself - one of the wisest and most loving people I'd ever known was gone, and I didn't know how I was going to learn to be a pastor without his guidance.

As RLP will probably agree, this pastoring bit is one of those things you can't learn to do at seminary - and having a mentor is invaluable for those first few years (decades?) of mistakes and miracles. I was having trouble sleeping and focusing during the first few weeks after Larry's funeral. Then the dream came.

Again, Larry came to me at night. He was the healthy, vibrant, joyous guy I'd known for years. We talked at length about ministry, family, his life, mine to come. And as we wrapped up our time together, Larry looked at me and said, "I'm okay - and I'll always be with you."

I sleep better these nights believing that for reasons unknown to me, God uses my dreams to communicate with me. The saints of my life come when I need them and support and sustain me. Sometimes the saints come to kick me in the ass, too - I've had other, less pleasant kinds of dreams. But this is what I believe: my dreams are a window of sorts into the world yet to be, and those who've gone ahead of me come to the window sometimes to remind me what's in store. I'm grateful and incredibly blessed.

That was an interesting dream - I find that dreams that tell stories are almost always in some way profound - telling something we want to know or need to know, but may not have a way to do it in the waking world. Both parts of the dream seem to be about increasing in understanding and knowledge - and appreciation.

I love ya padre. I cannot for the life of me remeber a single dream as of late however. Too busy with work and kids I guess. I miss my dreams. *sigh* haha

i have a terrible dream where i was stabbing people and cutting my hand off, i awoke and my hand was in the postion of holding the knife!!! ive now got a fear that i might do some harm is this right to have this after such a bad dream, what does it all mean?

My husband woke me up from a bad dream today.He said that I was speaking in some strange language which he could not understand; he said it sounded Latin. The only words he could understand was "Jesus Christ." He said that my voice was deep and sounded evil. I remember my dream. I was in a room of photographs when a photo of an old woman flew off the shelf and began moving on the floor to get my attention. I picked up the photo and began making the sign of the cross over the image. I could feel my hand shaking as if a force was trying to make my hand stop. The image then turned into a photo of a man with bushy black hair,very tan skin, wearing a brown robe. Ever heard of this?

"Dreaming has a meaning, like everything else we do" Carl Jung.

Had a dream last night that involved characters from the O.C violently fighting each other, ryan was beaten and covered in blood and had to be picked up by marissa and a few others in a car. There was no room for me in the car and they left.
It started raining heavily, I was under a bridge somewhere, and on the horizon I could see black clouds and what looked like huge tornados forming. I got my camera out and started taking pictures.
The tornados moved towards me quickly, and I started running.
Suddenly I was back in my family home, and I was telling my parents that a tornado was coming. I went upstairs to find marissa and ryan in my bed huddled together. Again, there was no room for me in this bed. I looked out of my bedroom window and saw the tornados coming, they had slowed down and were sort of hovering outside my house.
The house then started spinning and I lay on the floor. I remember feeling quite calm.

Any idea what this means? I am quite confused!!!
Thanks

I know this is werid but what is this about?How is this about tornados?Hah? This haves something to do with god.Or tornados god,I would love to know.So call me my number is 777-777.Hope to hear from you.So call me.My name is Day.ByBy