Recurring Dreams: What Are They Trying To Tell You?

If you are now—or have ever—had a series of dreams that are the same dream repeating itself, or the same dream with slight variations over time: Pay Attention! This type of dream—the recurring dream—is repeating itself and being recalled for a reason. Most often, a very important reason!

An excellent example of a recurring dream from film-makers is the movie"Groundhog Days." In the film, the main male character—played hilariously by Bill Murray—continues to experience the same, exact events every day for several consecutive days... until he gets the message: "Be Kind and Considerate To Others." His life changes dramatically when he puts this information into practice.

Let’s agree to call the source from which our dreams emerge the 'Dream-Maker Within.' When our dream-maker continues to bring the same scenes, story, dream to us, many times, over time... the obvious suggestion is that we didn’t understand it or DO anything about it the last time. Our dream-maker is patient. So...., here it is, again!

When the dream maker is so persistent, insistent, you can rest assured that the message being repeatedly imparted is of great significance to you. We simply don’t get the message.... don’t understand on the conscious level what is being conveyed. Here again is where having a dreamsharing partner or belonging to a dream group is of great help.

Often, with recurring dreams, the dreamer will notice slight variations on the theme, over time. This is occurring because—whether we consciously understand the purpose of the recurring dream or not—we are getting it on an intuitive level and we are responding, taking action, making changes in our daily lives in some way, as a result. Dreams do work in this way; they do us good service whether we remember them or not, or whether we understand them or not. Much is assimilated on the intuitive level.

For any and all of our dreams, however, it is worth repeating that developing dreamsharing relationships is of great value—especially with the dreams that demand out attention like recurring dreams and nightmares. The sooner we gain understanding and insight, the sooner we can take action in our daily lives to respond and/or remedy the situation being addressed.

Shirley MacLaine, in one of her current books, recounts a story of a recurring dream in which she is always being chased by a ferocious bear and always felt she was being outrun, couldn’t run fast enough. She always awakened terrified just before the bear was going to catch up with her. At one point she learned about the technique—taught to us originally by the Senoi people of Malaysia—of learning to become aware that she was dreaming (become lucid) and stop running but rather, STOP!, turn around and confront whatever it is that is pursuing and ask it what it wants.

Ms. MacLaine achieved this the next time she had her recurring Bear-Chase dream. She stopped, turned around, put her hands on her hips and said: "Allright! That’s it! I’ve been chased around enough by you! Just what is it that you want?" At that point, the "ferocious" bear turned into a Sweet and Shy looking Yogi Bear type character, and with knees together and index finger in its mouth, said: "I don’t know! It’s your dream!"

The bear, in its ferocious form, never returned in her dreams after that confrontation.

Often, even though we are adults, we can remember a recurring dream series that we had as children. Even though the dreams occurred many years ago, this ‘dream-theme’ remains very important. Carl G. Jung, well known for his vast contribution to our knowledge and understanding of dreams, believed that recurring dreams in childhood are often previewing our destiny. If you do have memories of this nature, it would definitely be worth the effort to locate a knowledgeable person with whom to discuss this.

What is most important, here, is to understand what is being communicated by the dream-maker within. Often, we are not well enough informed or educated in unraveling the mysterious, symbolic ways in which our dreams are presented: to ‘get it’ on our own. In fact, no matter how much we know, intellectually, we can always come to a quicker understanding of our dreams when we share them with someone—or a group—that is equipped to help. Today, there are a growing number of individuals who are well educated and experienced in assisting dreamers to come to a better understanding of the meaning of their dreams. Fortunately for us at this time, there is a growing body of literature and information available.... many exceptional books to help us become better acquainted with dreams’ language. Dream Network exists to serve this purpose; also, any good reference librarian or bookstore proprietor can refer you to the literature they have available. Ask around you’ll find the information you need!