Dreams and Emotion
Jolted Out of a Dream
We all know what its like to be jolted awake by a dream. You’re right in the middle of the action – you’re fleeing from a pursuer, or falling from a tall building, or even bringing a new invention to life. Whatever you were doing was interrupted and has come to an abrupt stop. Still, your heart’s pounding, your minds reeling and your emotions are racing full steam ahead. You’re now awake and all dream action has stopped. But that doesn’t mean your body knows it.
Smuggling Emotions out of Your Dream
Hmmm. So your physical body responds to dream action as if it was action in your waking life. I’ll have to take a closer look at that in a later post.
Anyway, the point is your emotions are going wild and it takes you a little while to calm down. So what do you do with all these left over emotions from your heat-pounding dream?
Most people would take them literally, just like everything else in their dream. But what if the fear that’s causing all these physical reactions is a way to get you to remember the dream? Wouldn’t that make the fear you feel immediately after a terrifying dream be sorta like a metaphor? Absolutely!
Let’s say you have a dream about a tornado destroying the home you grew up in when all your family is in the back yard at a family reunion. Everyone’s running in panic and tries to hide but there’s no time. This huge tornado came out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. You’re shaken awake by fear as you watch the house where you celebrated every Christmas being destroyed.
That’s quite a dream, wouldn’t you say? Now that you’re shocked and can’t get those horrible mental images out of your mind, the dream’s got your full attention.
EB