The break in.
I was terrified, heart pounding, bones frozen, as my front door creaked open, and the intruder’s face came into view.
“You can’t come in! Go away! Help!” I shouted, each word so hard to squeeze through my tight throat that it came out as a slow ghostly drawl: “Go-awaaaay! Heeeelp!”
I may have been shouting in my dream, but it was a woeful, high-pitched, strangled wail that woke me up. I lay quite still. Partly still terrified, partly bemused that I had made such a strange sound. Had the neighbours heard me? Should I get up and check to see if someone really had broken into my house? I hear a rustle outside. My imagination? The wind? A mouse or snake in the bedroom wall?
Dreaming about someone breaking into your house is a common dream theme, but no less terrifying while it’s happening. I took some slow, deep breaths and summoned my dream analyst cool.
It’s easy to dream of shouting at the top of your lungs, loud and clear, but if fear begins to jolt you out of your dream prematurely, you may find yourself struggling to shout for real, as I did. In normal dreaming circumstances, our voluntary muscles are temporarily paralysed (known as REM sleep atonia) to protect us from acting out our dreams. But when fear begins to shake you from a dream, you may wake up while those muscles are still paralysed (a scary experience known as sleep paralysis). The paralysis fades after a few seconds, but the fear can linger.
So what does this common dream theme mean?
You may dream of intruders when you’re about to come down with a viral or bacterial infection. The unconscious mind can pick up on subtle symptoms before you become aware of the infection. It may picture the viruses or bacteria invading your body as people invading your house.
You may also dream of intruders when you’re experiencing issues around personal boundaries: are you feeling ‘invaded’ or ‘intruded upon’ at some level? Do your personal boundaries need strengthening or redefining? Or are they overly strong, perhaps defensive? What are you trying to keep out? What do you fear letting in?
Even with common dreams, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to interpretation. Every dream is unique, and its meaning is found by exploring the symbols and dramas in the rest of the dream, and in applying a range of intelligent dream interpretation tools.
So as I lay there, contemplating my unique dream, what did I discover?
Firstly, the door in my dream was not my actual front door. My dream door was made of sturdy glass, and it was firmly locked. I stood, looking through the glass, watching some animals in the fields nearby. Dogs, cats, to begin with. Then horses, exotic birds. I felt a sense of awe and magic. Next to appear was a big bear, on its hind legs, quite close to my door. In the dream I acknowledged how powerful and potentially dangerous the bear was, but I knew I was safe. From this perspective, I admired the bear. More awe, more magic.
Then a man approached, and it was at this point that I realised the door was not fully locked. It was a little ajar. He pushed on the door, and the terror began. I shouted … you know the rest.
While dream intruders are frequently axe-wielding, gun-toting, truly malevolent in intent, my guy looked quite friendly. He was smiling. In the dream, I feared his confidence, his intention to ‘push through’ and end up in my space. Imagine that! I wasn’t scared of the big bear, but this man was getting too close for comfort.
I thought about his face. He looked exactly like a character in a movie I had watched the evening before my dream. In the movie, the character was confident, knew what he wanted, and was prepared to stand up for that.
That was all I needed to know. In dreams, it’s most helpful to look at everyone and everything (and every animal) as representing something about the dreamer (a conscious or unconscious part of the dreamer). In my dream, I was taking a long, clear (through the glass) view of myself and my life. There’s awe, magic, finely tuned instinct (the animals), and a sense of keeping fear in perspective (the bear), as well as a sense of safety (the door that I believed to be secure).
Those things I could easily recognise within myself. What I hadn’t known was that I’ve been pushing back on a part of myself that is confident about what I want and prepared to stand up for it. (If you know me well, you’ll know that I don’t lack confidence and standing up for what I want in many areas of my life, but this dream character highlighted a different area that I hadn’t been ready to ‘let in’.)
My dream revealed a conflict: do I hold this part of myself at bay through fear, or do I let it in, hold space for it, and discover its magic?
Was my dream about a break-in or a breakthrough?
See Jane Teresa’s online courses
Read Jane Teresa’s books
