A dream in which you have asthma or problems breathing may refer to problems in your waking life. In women, it may indicate difficulties with your animus or the male part of your personality; in men, it may relate to your sense of manhood. Alternatively, it may indicate a need for more space, air, or freedom. Dreaming of respiratory ailments or breathing problems can also suggest general anxiety about work, relationships or a difficult situation. Heavy breathing, panting, perspiration, or sweat in dreams is a symbol of some kind of fear, but also of excitement. If you dreamed that you needed an oxygen mask, your dream might be suggesting that you need to get some fresh air into your life, not just in the form of outdoor activity, but in the form of ideas and energy.
Internal Organs
If your dream features images of an appendix, either your own or someone else’s, this indicates something within yourself that may have become a problem; it may also suggest an internal problem to do with appendix itself. If you are having your appendix out in your dream, this represents inner pain or problems that urgently need to be attended to in waking life.
If you dream of your brain, are you concerned about your poor memory? In dreams, brains indicate your intellect, insight, and creativity but they can also suggest what you really think. You may dream of something happening to your brain; something may tear at it, shoot it, or it may be impaled. Things that invade or harm your brain in dreams typically represent current factors in your life that are coloring your perspective or outlook. On the other hand, if you dream of having brain surgery or of prying a foreign object out of your brain, this may reflect a change in your way of thinking.
In dreams, the heart generally indicates emotion, pity, sympathy, and likes and dislikes; not just romantic love but your way of loving all things. It can also reflect problems with not having followed your heart or a change of heart. Being stabbed, shot, or in any way injured in the heart may depict emotional hurt; it could also be a warning of a physical heart problem, reflecting an anxiety about, for example, your high blood pressure.
Unless you are a heavy drinker and your dream is urging you to take better care of your liver, in dreams this organ represents the liver as in someone who ‘does the living’. The dream is reminding you that you are not a machine and life should be lived to the full if you are to find true fulfillment. In dreams, lungs might relate to tension or feelings of being suffocated in a relationship or situation; they may also be to do with smoking and your desire to give up.
Dreams of the ovaries and uterus (for women) and testes (for men) represent not just sexuality, but a sense of validity or adequacy in the real world. Such dreams may also represent fears or feelings about having children or the ability to express your creativity. But if you were to dream of the rectum – a place often seen by children as the origin of babies – it may indicate the place from which things begin, your deeply personal self, your need for privacy, and your resentment of intrusion.
Menstruation
Dreams that feature images of menstruation indicate the very mystery of life itself; the acceptance of the life processes in yourself if you are menstruating in your dream, and non-acceptance if you are not. Such dreams can also represent the desire to have children. If irregular periods, PMS, or problems with menstruation appear in your dream, these may refer to emotional problems needing your attention, or issues concerning sexual selfishness on your part. In his book Our Dreaming Mind, dream expert Robert Van de Castle describes research he did on the subject of menstruation and dreams with the help of nursing students in Miami, Florida. He found that dreams changed according to the different phases of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Before ovulation, more male characters appeared in the dream and the women found them more appealing, with women characters pushed to the background. After ovulation, the dreams tended to be more hostile toward men, depicting them as less attractive. If you are a man dreaming of menstruation, it may refer to your receptive, nurturing nature, or the aspect of yourself that is creative.
Research has shown that in the week or so leading up to menstruation, women who suffer from PMS spend an increased length of time in dream sleep, the dreams they report being extremely vivid and colorful. The conclusion drawn by researchers is that one of the functions of the dreaming mind is to help dreamers deal with difficult states of emotion and anxiety. Dreams that focus on the menopause are likely to indicate change, the end of one phase and the beginning of another.
BOMB
See EXPLOSIVES.
BONE
See BODY.
BOOKS To dream of books can symbolize knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, the search for knowledge, and the ability to learn from the opinions of other people. If you are surrounded by books in your dreams, this might suggest that you are more concerned with theory than practice. Depending on the kinds of books that figure in your dream, they can also suggest the world of imagination and escape. Are you surrounded by literary novels, racy best-sellers, or fascinating biographies? If the books are very old, this suggests learning and inherited wisdom. If the books are account books, this indicates a need to take care of financial matters.
Sacred books, such as the Koran or the Bible, signify a search for hidden or sacred knowledge. Dreaming of a sacred book can also represent a need to know you are heading in the right direction. To dream of an encyclopedia suggests a hunger for knowledge and new experience, as an encyclopedia represents collective human wisdom. On the other hand, it can also suggest information overload and a need to find focus. To dream you are searching in a dictionary suggests a need to find answers to a particular problem or situation in your life. It can also suggest an over-reliance on the opinions of others. If you look up a particular word in your dream, this can be very significant. Finally, a poem is the ultimate form of self-expression, so if you are a poet, or a poet figures in your dream, or you are reading poetry, your unconscious is urging you to find a creative outlet in waking life.
BOOT
See SHOES.
BOSS
See WORK.
BOT
See INTERNET.
BOTTLE This symbol could suggest bottled up feelings but if there is something in it, it may indicate resources you have or are unaware of.
BOTTOM Is there something at the back of your mind? If you are at the bottom of a well (or anything else) it may suggest feeling that you are no longer sustained or held up by your daily routine.
BOUNDARY A dream featuring a boundary or a frontier may suggest challenge and criticism or the ability to overcome problems.
BOX
See CONTAINER.
BOXING If you dreamed of boxing, wrestling, or practicing any kind of martial art, such as karate, judo, or kick boxing, your dream may have had either hostile or defensive undertones. The violence of boxing or martial arts reveals a repressed hostility toward someone or something in your waking life. A knockout can indicate a guilty wish to inflict punishment or pain. Your dream may also be urging you to adopt a more calculated or self-disciplined approach to a certain threat or challenge in real life. At its most basic, boxing is an endurance sport; in dreams, it can suggest a period of uncertainty during which your intuitive and rational halves will be in conflict with each other. Your dream is telling you that if you have self-discipline and patience, you can develop inner strength and resilience.
BOY If the child in your dream is a boy, you