A shouty subconscious

[Happypants]

I was reading another post about dreams but didn't want to steer it slightly off-topic. Hoping those sceptics out there (that includes me, btw) carry on reading past the word "dreams".

For a year or so, I couldn't remember any dreams, or wasnt having dreams.  But, for the past year - a year where i would say I've had a more realistic attitude towards my family situation - I've had recurring dreams about bears.  It's probably important to add at this point that there are no bears in the UK where i live.  So, they're not a daily/weekly/yearly consideration in the slightest.  I do love animals, but I'm not absorbed in any reading or TV about bears.  I'm a dog person, and that takes up all my animal-orientated reading.

I've had approximately 8-9 dreams about bears that I'm aware of.  I'm aware that noticing the recurrence may play a part in triggering more dreams (trying to be scientific about this).  But, in all the dreams, i havent been attacked, the bears have been at varying distance away from me.  We're very aware of each other, i feel a slight fear purely because i know what they're capable of, but i know that at a distance, I'm relatively safe.  But the danger is ever-present. 

This all seems like obvious symbolism, but it's not quite so simple.  Proximity aside, the bear reference is interesting.  I dug my heels in (as a sceptic about symbolism in dreams, although i do believe in foreseeing huge events), but after the 3rd or 4th i researched bears in dreams.  Turns out, in many contexts they can represent people who can't be trusted or don't have your best interests at heart (tick). They can also represent pent-up anger and resentment (tick - me  ).  As with all dream reading, it can be very vague and generalised, but those themes kept coming up. But this feels like my subconscious trying to tell me that I'm not imagining it (which I do know on one level but still doubting myself).

The very fact that someone whose location makes a bear's repeated appearance unlikely also stoked my curiousity - i wonder if there's a genetic memory component to this ie experiences with different species may have been imprinted in the human psyche under the context of real threat, and this has evolved to a more mythological/symbolic manifestation in dreams 🤔

[Hilltop]

I don't know about bears but for me it's alligators.  If I dream of an alligator then I know someone around me is deceiving me or something isn't right.

[looloo]

I find dream symbolism and analysis can be really interesting and just plain fun!  Your dreams about bears this past year I'm sure represents significant events and feelings you're going through this past year.

I tend to immediately consider how language (spoken language, common expressions) might factor in.  My first reaction was that it's been "a bear" of a year.  And take that where it leads you 😁.

But reading about what certain things might symbolize is really interesting, and I don't discount it.  Humans have been living and dreaming among animals for eons, so who's to say it is "just" a dream?

[IRedW77]

I can't say much about bears, but as far as dreams there is not nothing to them. I think a lot of the old Freudian type stuff has been largely discredited, and there's enough new age stuff out there to (fill in your own metaphor) BUT

Dreams are still a part of the functioning of our brains on a daily basis, whether we remember them or not. I think most of the time dreams are just about processing day to day information and encoding memories to just helping us generalize and learn.

I think a lot of times if you can remember a dream well you can think about the previous day or so and decode the symbolism into being about stuff that just happened to you—good, bad, or just generic.

There's a lot of junk and noise that's supposed to be there, but some of it does have meaning. AND if you can ascribe meaning to it that helps you understand something about yourself and how you're feeling it probably doesn't matter how valid your interpretation is or isn't anyway.

It came from your sleeping brain right, if it feels like it means something particular to your waking brain then who better to know that you?

As far as common symbolism, we all share our common languages, cultures, and symbols that we live in every day. People that make this stuff up do spend time thinking about it and looking for common themes.

Anyway, if the bear means something to you that you can understand that's plenty good enough. There's no right or wrong answers, only what's right for you.

[Hepatica]

Can't interpret dreams and think it would be individual to the dreamer, but bears to me would feel like danger lumbering into your close proximity. And I mean, just walking out the door lately, to get groceries, I feel the Covid hyper alert. I keep the anxiety at bay but my brain knows that I could make one wrong move (or breath) and I might be in a perilous state. I wonder if this is part of it for you?

[Andeza]

I think you've analyzed yourself, and your dream, quite well actually. As I grow older, I learn more and more that they are not to be dismissed, especially ones that recur or are particularly vivid and can be remembered in perfect detail days, weeks, or even years later.

I used to have reoccurring dreams about tornadoes chasing me as though they were sentient entities. Those stopped after I ended contact with my uBPDm. I believe the chaotic energy of tornadoes was something my subconscious mind associated with her, since she had a habit of being destructive in an emotional sense. But it's not "believe" in the sense of "I think this is the case," rather, it is in the sense of I believe this is fact with the entirety of my being.

I'm definitely not a sceptic. And in my case, they haven't always been about past events either.

[Psuedonym]

Another definition of bear:

bear the burden (of something) To endure something distressing, painful, stressful, or emotionally or physically taxing, especially for the sake of others.

I say this as someone who had dreams for years about trying to leave the place where I grew up and getting to the airport and realizing I had forgotten all my luggage and couldn't get on the plane, or couldn't get all my stuff into the suitcase and missed the flight. As in: my baggage was literally back from going anywhere.

As a literary analogy it's pretty tortured, but it was a legit dream I had for a long time.

[IRedW77]

I just thought of something that I've often wondered about my own dreams. When there's a house in my dream it's almost invariably my PD mother's house. Granted, this is the house I grew up in and lived in for 20 years. However, I also haven't lived in that house for 20 years. Maybe it's just imprinted as my mind's archetype of "house" but it's always struck me as maybe a bit odd.

Part of that may be that I haven't ever lived in any single other house or apartment for more than 4 years in that time, but...

[Hilltop]

This is taken from an online dream dictionary:

Bear:
"To see a bear in your dream represents independence, strength, death and renewal, and/or resurrection. Bears are symbolic of the cycle of life. You may also be undergoing a period of introspection and thinking. In particular, if you see a bear in your grandmother's house, then it implies that your grandmother is a dominating figure in your life.

The dream may also be a pun on "bare". Perhaps you need to bare your soul and let everything out into the open. Or there is a situation where you just need to "grin and bear it".

To dream that you are being pursued or attacked by a bear denotes anger and uncontrolled aggression. You feel trapped. Perhaps you are in a threatening situation, some overwhelming obstacle or domineering and possessive relationship".

If you are having multiple dreams about bears then there is a message in it for you, even if it is simply drawing your attention to your inner feelings.

[Maxtrem]

Hi, without going into too much detail, I had already had dreams where I was chased by zombies or killed; drowned and stabbed dozens of times by a vampire. I told my psychologist that I perceived the zombies as members of my family and the vampire as my uBPDm. My psychologist replied that my interpretation told me more about how I perceived my family than anything else; monsters/ parasites that destroy others to be alive. The interpretation I had made said more about how I felt about my family than the meaning of the dream, and that according to my psychologist was revealing.     

[Happypants]

Thanks for the input, and apologies for not responding sooner - things have been a little crazy around here (nothing to do with family). 

I had another dream last night, this time it was very specific and without symbolic animal appearances (is my subconscious shouting even louder now?).  Things have been "fine" on the family front due to restrictions here plus a lot of normal behaviour on their part just now.  Last night's dream: family inc mother, father, brother, SIL, nephews, OH and myself, heading for a walk (which we never do together) along a high dune path.  We parked up, went up onto the dunes, then i went back to my father's car to get something that we all needed - it was just an unspoken agreement that i'd be the one to do it.  I got down to the car then realised i didn't have the key.  This is where it gets strange, nothing is spoken but it's expected, and i just do as expected.  They realise i don't have the key, but instead of my father throwing the key down to me off the high path as it passes above the carpark, i'm expected to go all the way back to the start of the path (which started far back from the carpark), climb up and chase after them as they keep walking.  This is how i've felt on so many occasions - literally walking after him to JADE as he walks away enjoying the supply; a feeling of being forgotten about in the sense that there are expectations that i'll fall into a role; a feeling of being separate and ostracized; etc. It's a feeling not borne out of my childhood - i wasn't neglected or expected to do all the chores - but of how i've evolved into the scapegoat role as an adult.  I think my subconscious is showing me the gulf that exists between how they view/treat me and how they treat others, and how i've allowed them, or dare i say it, enabled them to do so thanks to years of programming.  The thing is, i forgive them now and i'm ready to move on, however that'll play out.

Hilltop - I definitely do/did(?) feel trapped, that was a huge issue and living in their locale wasn't helping.  With regards to the bear significance, it's probably fair to say that all elements in the dream dictionary probably resonate to a degree.  Interesting about your alligator dream, i did have one dream about alligators and read an analysis similar to your perception of what it means.

Looloo - Completely agree, we've lived alongside other species for so long it would be flippant to ignore their appearance in our dreams (as i did for a long time  )

IRedW77 - Yes, it was the new age philosophies flying around when i was in my teens in the 90's that has always put me off dream symbolism.  I suppose the important part is whether a dream throws up something that catches your attention and stays with you, or whether it's the other 99% of random "clearing out" of the brain that's better forgotten.  With regard to your impression of dreaming of one house, the one you grew up in, I have a similar recurring pattern in the sense that my father is always the same age whenever he appears in my dreams, and i would say it was the age he was when i started truly questioning his attitude - maybe that house represents a significant time for you beginning to notice some fundamental truths?  Thanks for your thoughts.

Hepatica - Covid certainly may be exacerbating my warning dreams, that's for sure.  Maybe moreso in the context that for a period i felt more obligated towards fulfilling a role for my parents and the worry about the future that that brought with it. I do agree it's a feeling of added insecurity every time we step out the door though which doesn't help an already inflamed nervous system. Hope you're doing well 

Andeza - "I used to have reoccurring dreams about tornadoes chasing me as though they were sentient entities" - this pretty much sums up how i perceived the bears always at a distance, i knew the threat but it was as if they were posing as something else.  The distance aspect was a double-edged sword - i felt physically safe, but with a constant feeling of threat, which couldn't be more accurate for how i feel.

Pseudonym - Thanks.  If i'm being honest, i really struggle with accepting the literary analogy possibility of my dreams, i think because the visual aspect is the part that strikes me the hardest, plus there's always very little actual dialogue in my dreams (i'm not even going to explore what THAT means  ).  But now that i think about it, i must have made literary associations with animals throughout my life so i'll definitely look at the dreams again in a different context.

Maxtrem - Thanks.  "The interpretation I had made said more about how I felt about my family than the meaning of the dream" - this is what i believe. It's also the explanation that scared me the most initially as it left open the possibility that I had it all wrong and it was my skewed perception.  But i'm now more confident in my judgement.