I keep having these recurring dreams where I am held captive, kept against my will for reasons unclear. Each dream has different scenarios and captors. I always try to escape. The dreams end with me breaking free into a world as a wanted man. I wake up when a feeling of ominous freedom emerges, with the world feeling scary and repressive. A paranoid sense that my captors are hounding me is ever-present. I suspect I keep getting recaptured because I keep having these dreams. I have been having them my whole life.
These types of persecutory dreams are a real confrontation with shadow. And an opportunity to understand what inwardly wants to merge with you, get your attention. What's telling is how the dream ego (our perspective in dreams) reacts to these forces. We find them overwhelming, fear-inducing, oppressive. Behind that emotionality is usually a psychological dynamic that would bring a greater sense of wholeness to the personality.
It seems like changes are afoot within, as the dream series are evolving. That's a good sign! Do you notice this sense of daring rising in consciousness as well? A greater sense of being able to harness it, actualize it?
I believe the dream progression matters for sure. Some friends and I recently report going from weightless punching and legs that don't move anywhere in dreams to being able to stand up straight and our limbs holding weight. Fighting back. You're on the right path bro, no doubt!
I can’t help but experience this as the sacred masculine breaking free from the constructs of the wounded masculine/patriarchy of oppression. It gives me hope in that frame that something strong and free within you is breaking out of this prison for drunks (I think that’s Rumi). I’m rooting for him. It feels like what we need now. Take back the kingdom...queendom...beingdom...lifedom!
I felt deeply touched by hearing about your dreams Peter, the vivid sense of something in you that wants to break free of something very oppressive. The intensity of the conflict, which continues to play itself out, in spite of all the transparent , generous and creative ways that you participate in life. I feel this dream life of yours working me, far below my cognitive capacities, offering me a strange, mysterious gift.
I have a recurring dream that is very similar in tone with slightly different details. I am reluctantly an accomplice to an awful crime, usually a murder or a theft. There is always an "other" agent who commits the crime but I never stand up to them in time. I end up helping them either commit the act and/or get away with it afterwards. Then there is an escape from the scene of the crime and I re-emerge into normal society where the police are looking for the criminals and I wander around in fear and tension hoping not be found out. There is a sense of impending doom and dread about being found and captured and I usually wake up as soon as I can remember that I'm dreaming. If I can manage to remember, but NOT wake up, I always get very excited and fly around as long as I can until the dream dissolves :)
I've had the experience of "changing my vibe" in other recurring dreams, but not this particular one. Maybe next time I'll remember this! Thanks for sharing your dream Peter.
Tribalism is part of us but so is compassion. Culture plays a massive role in conditioning which parts of our “nature” get amplified and high jacked in service of supporting a “team”. Everyone has the ability to ask why certain aspects of human nature are amplified in any given culture and for whose ultimate benefit.
The call to fight can have many interpretations. I started exploring Substack because of an interest in writing and I wanted to get a sense for the type of community here (vs say social media platforms). I have found refuge following a few and others that drew my attention for one reason or another have only disappointed and it is always due to what appears to me as a stuckness in bipolar thinking. I am curious since you have been working in worthy spaces for a while, do you see any value in trying to act as a mediator of sorts to help depolarize people and help elevate discussions above the good guys and bad guys or red and blue bubbles? I don’t mean as a paying job but more as an effort to bring cultural discourse and critical thinking to a better place?
Noble Fugitives
These types of persecutory dreams are a real confrontation with shadow. And an opportunity to understand what inwardly wants to merge with you, get your attention. What's telling is how the dream ego (our perspective in dreams) reacts to these forces. We find them overwhelming, fear-inducing, oppressive. Behind that emotionality is usually a psychological dynamic that would bring a greater sense of wholeness to the personality.
It seems like changes are afoot within, as the dream series are evolving. That's a good sign! Do you notice this sense of daring rising in consciousness as well? A greater sense of being able to harness it, actualize it?
I wrote more about these types of dreams here if you're curious: https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/p/meeting-the-shadow
I believe the dream progression matters for sure. Some friends and I recently report going from weightless punching and legs that don't move anywhere in dreams to being able to stand up straight and our limbs holding weight. Fighting back. You're on the right path bro, no doubt!
I can’t help but experience this as the sacred masculine breaking free from the constructs of the wounded masculine/patriarchy of oppression. It gives me hope in that frame that something strong and free within you is breaking out of this prison for drunks (I think that’s Rumi). I’m rooting for him. It feels like what we need now. Take back the kingdom...queendom...beingdom...lifedom!
I felt deeply touched by hearing about your dreams Peter, the vivid sense of something in you that wants to break free of something very oppressive. The intensity of the conflict, which continues to play itself out, in spite of all the transparent , generous and creative ways that you participate in life. I feel this dream life of yours working me, far below my cognitive capacities, offering me a strange, mysterious gift.
Thank you.
I have a recurring dream that is very similar in tone with slightly different details. I am reluctantly an accomplice to an awful crime, usually a murder or a theft. There is always an "other" agent who commits the crime but I never stand up to them in time. I end up helping them either commit the act and/or get away with it afterwards. Then there is an escape from the scene of the crime and I re-emerge into normal society where the police are looking for the criminals and I wander around in fear and tension hoping not be found out. There is a sense of impending doom and dread about being found and captured and I usually wake up as soon as I can remember that I'm dreaming. If I can manage to remember, but NOT wake up, I always get very excited and fly around as long as I can until the dream dissolves :)
I've had the experience of "changing my vibe" in other recurring dreams, but not this particular one. Maybe next time I'll remember this! Thanks for sharing your dream Peter.
Tribalism is part of us but so is compassion. Culture plays a massive role in conditioning which parts of our “nature” get amplified and high jacked in service of supporting a “team”. Everyone has the ability to ask why certain aspects of human nature are amplified in any given culture and for whose ultimate benefit.
The call to fight can have many interpretations. I started exploring Substack because of an interest in writing and I wanted to get a sense for the type of community here (vs say social media platforms). I have found refuge following a few and others that drew my attention for one reason or another have only disappointed and it is always due to what appears to me as a stuckness in bipolar thinking. I am curious since you have been working in worthy spaces for a while, do you see any value in trying to act as a mediator of sorts to help depolarize people and help elevate discussions above the good guys and bad guys or red and blue bubbles? I don’t mean as a paying job but more as an effort to bring cultural discourse and critical thinking to a better place?