My previous article regarding dreams and how they’ve influenced my life started the same way I’d like to start this one: It has been an age-old debate as to what exactly dreams are.
Many questions have arisen on the topic, and dreams are filled with so much speculative history that it has become a concept of wondrous intrigue. Throughout documented time, dreams have been revered, feared, judged, and interpreted.
Entire careers have been created for the purpose of understanding dreams, and entire lives have been spent driven toward answering the question: what are dreams and how can they help us?
I’ve spoken to a lot of people about their dreams from an analytical perspective. Every single person I’ve talked to rarely experiences recurring settings in dreams, but there’s always one dream, and it’s always one aspect of each person’s dream which is consistent: the feeling masked behind the setting.
Sure, the specific setting may change in each recurrence of the dream, but the person dreaming always knows it’s the same place.
Each time she dreams of this place there is something highly relevant to a stressful part of her life, something which she needs to think through that ultimately helps her through whatever hardship she is facing.
My sanctuary is a palace with hundreds of rooms and off chutes – skyways to separate buildings, and a racetrack for a driveway.
After a lot of thought and research into this topic, I’ve come to the conclusion that dream sanctuary is a representation of our subconscious mind. The best example I have out of all of the sanctuaries I’ve discovered is my own, the palace.
Within this palace, there are many locked doors, many things which my subconscious knows my waking mind is not prepared to accept or face.
Also, there are many levels, many buildings, and the external influences which can alter the layout of this palace. It is so vast that I could never imagine exploring all of it, even if I was dreaming all of every day, but every room and hallway seems to hold significance.
I’m 26 years old and have only dreamed with myself in this setting on 4 occasions, but each time was a significant part in my life, and each time, reflecting upon the dream helped me to get through a particularly hard time.
Aside from the feeling of familiarity and significance, these dreams can be recognized by how vivid they are, and how well we remember them the next day.
That is because our subconscious construct represented in a dream state is just that, a viewport into our own minds, and at a time that our minds “want” our conscious selves to remember.
I do believe that about 80% of our dreams are significant and that dreams are entirely based in the subconscious realm, sometimes even to the extent of bringing the astral realm into our perspective.
Our logical minds have a tendency of seeing what we think we want to see and creating justifications to believe what we think we want to believe – as such, our own analysis of our dreams may very well be completely wrong and should not be acted on, only speculated about.
I have warned many people of the issues which acting on personal analysis could create, and absolutely do NOT want any of my readers thinking they’re qualified to act on what they interpret their dreams to mean.
Only use them and what they show you for speculative figuring and leave any conclusions you reach as a part of your overall view on reality, but not a driving factor.
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Mine, interestingly, is an actual sanctuary... or, more precisely, a church with hallways and stairs that seem to go on forever. Only once in a dream have I reached the bottom of the stairs, and all there was is a small concrete space and a locked, steel door.
I have no idea how many times I've been in the church in my dreams. It used to be a very common location. I only go there occasionally now.
Mikal,
That's interesting, I've never talked to someone who had a spiritual base in their sanctuary. I have found, though, that, with age, we stop visiting our sanctuaries as often.
I have several sanctuaries, all of them being a pathway / shortcut that ended up getting me lost. i don't think there's any good interpretation of my sanctuaries, it's like telling me I'm lost and i don't know where I'm going. anyone relate to this?
I have sleep traveled to very real, specific locations, more than one place and almost all I’ve been to at least two or more times. The dreams are always vivid and I know where I’ve been the moment I wake up. I remember the place like it’s a real place in this dimension except it’s not in this dimension. I can’t explain it any other way. I’ve always wondered if someone else sleep travels to the extent that I do.
Yes!! Me too, the places resemble kinda places ive been to, but they look out of this world, from the future type of stuff. Its crazy what rhe subconcious can show you
I've only had this dream setting twice now, and I'm not sure I'd consider it a sanctuary but a recurring setting none the less.
The first dream about a month ago I was exploring a home of someone I didn't know. They weren't home but it was obviously "lived in" and not abandoned. I walked through a few rooms and came to a bathroom. I noticed a handle on the bathroom's built-in shelving so I opened it and found a secret room. The room was dated, the walls and floors were covered in white furry shag and it was freezing cold because someone had left the window open and it was the dead of winter outside. It was desolate and a bit ominous.
Then last night I had a similar dream. I was attending a small social gathering with people I did not know. I broke away from a game of charades to look around. I found a bedroom and a bathroom, decorated differently than the previous dream but similar layout. In the bathroom was the same handle on the built-in shelving which also led to a secret room. This room was a very swanky bedroom, decorated with high end pillows, sheets and curtains.
I've left quite a bit of revealing detail out of these two scenarios but I think the recurring setting of a secret room is very interesting. I think it's my minds way of going into my subconscious.
I have a few recurring dream locations, although weirdly enough both of them are warped versions of something in my life.
The first is the location of the condominium where I used to live as a child; but in place of the parking lot is a grassy field with a swing set, and the whole layout of the condos has changed too. The second place is a school, which doesn't look anything like any school I've attended in my life.
I don't know what it means at all.
when i was around 5 or 6 i had a recurring dream for about over a year. i was older and looked different but i new that the person was me, i would walk over a bridge everyday to school im guessing, there was always a truck with two men in it, my dream would kind of pause or fast forward through time to where i would be done with my things i had to do and i would be walking back over the bridge with the same two men in a truck. the very last dream i had was the men in the truck were chasing me in there truck and i ended up jumping off the bridge and never had the dream since. always wondered if it meant something.
I came to this article to find meaning. I have dreamt for the 3rd time of a same place. Perhaps it is my sanctuary now. Everytime I went there, I had a different feeling and different person who I am with. I first gone to my sanctuary with my Mother, as I felt lost I also felt worried as I think the road is getting harder and getting no where. I did able to get around the place. The second dream was when I was with my wife we entered the road as where I exited on the first I dreamt there, it was a surprise how I came about to be on that road again but then I have already appreciated the view and what it has. The third time I dreamt of that place was this time I was with my brother. Surprised again why I was able to find myself again on that sanctuary, this time I am excited and the depth of the place I know seems got bigger. I know now what can we see and do on that place. I have even suggested where we can camp. It was just weird.