In your dream, your boyfriend behaved awfully. He yelled at you about nothing. You noted how veins were popping out on his forehead, spittle flying out of his mouth.
Then, in the dream, he threw a shoe at you.
You ducked…
…Then you woke up.
Now you’re sitting up in bed, breathing heavily, heart racing.
That bastard!
Is this a sign of things to come?
We’re through!
Dump him if you need to, but don’t do it because of how he behaved in the dream. Even though he acted awfully in the dream, it doesn’t mean he’d ever behave the same in real life.
People can’t and shouldn’t be held liable for their actions in our dreams.
Dreams can be precognitive. Yet they aren’t necessarily so.
People in a dream are symbols
People in dreams are symbols in the language of dreams. Only you know what the symbols mean after reflection upon them and how they are presented in the dream.
You can pause to consider what the person meant to you in the dream.
The angry boyfriend in the dream might have been inspired by a situation you’re facing in real life. He could be a projection of your subconscious upon your own feelings about a particular situation.
What is the anima and animus?
Carl Jung had a concept in his theory of the collective subconscious of the anima and animus. The anima was the feminine part of a man’s personality; the animus was the masculine part of a woman’s personality. By exploring that opposite part of your personality, you can expand your creative ability, Jungian experts believe. Many dreams are there to flesh out our idea of our animus or anima. Doing so helps us understand others.
A dream of a loved one can be a reflection of that opposite side of our personality that’s coming out.
The same truth goes for a sex dream. Your particular partner in the dream doesn’t apply to real life, even if it wasn’t your significant other. There’s not necessarily a hidden message there beyond the partner in your dream may be reflective of what you sexually desire. You’re the best person to understand any of the symbols in your dream. One of the functions of dreams is to entertain us while we sleep and, among other things, sex can definitely be entertaining.
And maybe the partner in the dream isn’t what or who you sexually desire. Whether or not you decide it is should depend on the tenor of the dream, of the emotion it inspires in you.
It could be your dream partner has some characteristics you find attractive.
Whatever you decide it means, consider using the knowledge as a springboard toward improving your relationship with your real-life partner.
Partner or not, if you have a dream about someone, pause to think about what they represented in the dream.
The truth of dreams is figurative, not literal. The person in a dream isn’t real, even if they’re presented realistically.
This truth isn’t necessarily obvious at the moment of the dream. Sometimes a dream like that can change your feelings toward someone. Completely understanding how what you encountered in the dream was a reflection, not the person themselves and not necessarily precognitive, can help you go a long way toward interpreting the dream correctly.
Other Dream Recovery System Articles:
How to interpret dreams for other people.
Using PACTREPS to understand the symbolism of a celebrity appearing in a dream.
Should you follow your heart or your head?
What are your dreams telling you?
James Cobb, RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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