Some of the ideas for my novels have come from my dreams. For instance, the bad guy—Dade—from my The Hunted trilogy came from a dream. I think Dade represents many of my fears from when I was a young single woman, working in San Francisco.
My husband and I had an interesting conversation the other day about dreams. Specifically, what they say about you, and additionally, how dreams evolve in our lifetimes.
For example, Bruce has dreams of being a super-hero with the ability to fly. I’ve had flying dreams, too, but I’m mainly jumping up very high and then flapping my arms to try to stay aloft. Not much of a super-hero flight!
In these super-hero dreams, Bruce likes to rescue people and battle space aliens. I say, “Wow, Bruce, you sure have a healthy ego.”
But I like that he’s so self-confident and that he sees himself as a rescuer. Maybe that’s why, when I’m having computer troubles and call out, “Bruce, help!” he always springs to my defense. He loves to be my protector and provider!
My recurring types of dreams are:
The ones where I’m trying to travel from point A to point B, but I’m undercover because there are bad people trying to capture me. Sometimes I’m on foot. Other times, I’m doing the Winnebago-or-something-else thing.
The other type finds me in a very nice BIG house. Not the Stanley Hotel Stephen King used for his book, The Shining, but something equally impressive. We’ve just moved in. There are multiple wings in the house and one in particular I’m excited to use for visiting guests. (The guest part is always very prominent in the dream.) But as I inspect the three new rooms, I feel a sinister presence. I seem to understand that the daytime restrains the evil, but at night, the demonic entities within will control these rooms. Therefore, I won’t be able to safely house my guests in these rooms. There is a problem in my house and I have not solved it. Not a nightmare, but certainly an uncomfortable dream.
I’ve had this dream for many years. But in the past ten years the dream has evolved. The three rooms (always three) have been transformed. The feeling of evil is gone, and I can safely put guests, even one of my grown children in one of them for the night. In this more modern iteration, I hesitate and question whether I can put someone in one of the guest rooms, but then remember that the evil has been vanquished. I, myself, choose to sleep in one of the bedrooms occasionally and feel completely comfortable and secure at night. It’s a great dream.
For Bruce, he always has, and always will be the super-hero. His dreams reflect that need in him to protect others.
For me, I’ve grown in my confidence that Jesus Christ has vanquished the things I’ve feared all my life, and I can rest in the knowledge that He is WAY more powerful than evil. And my dreams reflect this new confidence.
What about you? How have your dreams changed? What do you think your dreams say about you?