When I say true nature, I mean your fundamental instinctual nature, in the way that Carl Jung meant it, and as I have mentioned in several articles. Your instinctual nature is an innate drive to live an authentic life. When you are separated from it, it will let you know through symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and even physical illness.
But before any of that happens, you are likely to get a dream letting you know that you have strayed from your path, and often that is a dream about being lost.
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While it is certainly true that some dreams about being lost constellate anxiety, the angst itself is not the message of the dream. Many dreams, such as those about losing your teeth or dreams about cheating, make you feel anxious.
The conditions under which you are lost in your dream will give you an idea about where in your life you may lost or disconnected.
The questions concerning anxiety in the dream are:
In order to find out the answers to these questions, you have to look at the entire dream situation, as well as all of the other imagery, and not only the fact that you are lost in your dream.
Are you on a busy freeway and taking the wrong exit? Maybe you are on an old country road that reminds you of your grandmother. You could be somewhere completely unfamiliar. Every detail of the dream is important. Write all of it down and then compare that to what you feel in your current situation.
Next you have to relate – symbolically speaking – all of that imagery to your current life situation. Always keep in mind that you may or may not feel like you have gone astray. And above all, remember that the dream always gives you a perspective on life that you don’t see yet.
For instance, I know people who have had dreams about being lost on the their way to work, but in their conscious life they feel no anxiety or sense of lostness about their jobs whatsoever. So, in these cases, the dream is an image for something in the unconscious that feels lost or disconnected from conscious life and it is related to their job.
Here are some considerations for your dream interpretation:
Answering all of these kinds of questions establishes the underlying psychic context of your dreams about being lost. Once you have answered these questions, then you have to make your associations to each dream image. Only then can you start to build a bridge between your conscious situation and the underlying unconscious reaction to that situation.
Here’s an example dream:
In order to give you an idea of how to work with a dream about being lost, let’s take a quick look at the dream above.
Your dream destination is important because it tells you something about where in your life you are unconsciously lost. Are you driving to work? Can you not find your way home? Or are you aimlessly driving around with no destination?
Each one of these scenarios in dreams about being lost would point to a different psychic situation.
Remember, the dream imagery is symbolic. It’s trying to show you something about your life and your attitude that you are not aware of.
The feeling tone in your dream is very important. You have to compare that feeling to your current attitude. Remember that the dream is responding to something in your
Obviously, these are only a few examples.
Now imagine yourself in that dream state, but see it in real life. For example, what if you were driving home and really could not find your way? Would you panic?
Likewise, you if felt ambivalent about being lost, what could that mean? Would your ambivalence in a similar situation get you into trouble?
Once you have gotten yourself into the feeling tone of the dream:
Whenever I listen to my clients giving their associations to their dreams, I can hear them speaking about themselves – only they don’t realize it until I point it out to them. Write everything out and then read it back to yourself as though you are talking about your own life.
Let’s talk a little bit about anxiety in dreams about being lost, for the very reason that it’s a really common theme.
To repeat myself, anxiety dreams do not symbolize anxiety. That is a literal interpretation of the dream, not a symbolic interpretation. You can read more about symbolic meaning here.
Remember, a dream symbol points to something you do not know. I have said this many times, but I’m going to say it again: most dream sites copy and paste the same material. It’s journalistic incest and I have a hard time seeing how people don’t see through that.
If you are already anxious in your life and you have a dream where you feel anxious, the dream is not speaking about what you already know. The dream is an image for what’s behind the symptom of anxiety.
If this is the case for you, then the dream is an image for an unconscious problem in your life – a problem which may or may not cause you to feel anxiety in your waking life.
The dreamer doesn’t feel anxiety, so what then does the dream mean?
If you are in this situation, I would suggest that you reflect on this dream. Be open to the idea that the dream says, “you are lost and you have no idea that you are lost.” I see so many people who push themselves beyond all extremes in their jobs and suffer all kinds of anxiety and other illnesses over it.
They talk about how important their job is to them, yet they cannot see that their job makes them miserable. They cannot see that the source of their misery is a job they actually do not want to be doing.
It seems like, whether we want to admit it or not, all of us have a need to find our unique place in the world. We want to be appreciated, respected, and seen. Our dreams about work or working often depict problems with finding our authentic place in life.
If your dreams about being lost involve you trying to get work or working in general, then they could be saying something about finding or losing your place or position in the external world.
I realize that not everyone recognizes the value of asking and answering these kinds of questions. Some people are just chasing money or power. Others only want a job where they don’t have to think. And others still, don’t want to work at all!
My advice to anyone who has a dream about being lost on the way to work is to do some serious reflection on your place in the world. The dream could indicate that you have something to contribute, but you simply haven’t found it yet.
Sometimes we have dreams about lost at work. For example, in my younger years when I was still desperately searching for my place in life, I had the following dream about being lost in a confusing office complex.
I am trapped in an elevator. When I finally free myself and exit the elevator, a new red Porsche 911 appeared. I had crawl under it to get to my car. As I came out, the two guys behind me (a businessman in a suit and a very fat man in street clothes) also tried to get out. As the fat one moved around under the car, it began to bulge and buckle. He said, “Can you please let someone know we are trapped under here?”
How many dreams have you had about being lost in a complex of some kind? The word complex has a very specific psychological meaning. Our dreams often speak specifically about our complexes by using that word.
I have spoken at length about psychological complexes in another post, so I won’t go into detail here.
I was also constantly worried about not making any significant financial contribution to the household, so money was always an issue for me. That fear and worry had trapped my inner masculine: the fat man and the business man trapped under the car. You can see that dream says, “let someone know we are trapped under here”. My potential (the business man) was trapped by my fear and worry (the fat man pleading for help).
The office complex was an image for the underlying structure that kept me trapped, while the other images told me how I was trapped by my own attitude. Of course, realizing all of this is only the beginning of the work. Resolving such a complex takes time and a lot of conscious effort.
In the dream below, you can see yet another manifestation of a dreamer lost in a complex. This is the dream of a 39 year old man, whose thinking function was extraordinarily complicated. Even the simplest of tasks were excruciatingly difficult. It was not that he was incapable. His mind was brilliant, only he couldn’t seem to access it.
Apparently, I’ve done or had something done to me so that I appear as one of them. I’m with a woman in some sort of sci-fi jumpsuit who seems to be helping me get out, but she definitely appears as one of them. I haven’t yet seen myself, but just know that I am masquerading. I don’t know why I am there, but that there was a reason.
We’re moving through the elaborate structure, which involves all sorts of bizarre leaps & flights amongst crazy tubes & slim paths without rails, seemingly unsupported & winding this way & that with no apparent floors. There are walls with all kinds of doors, but no ledges. Isolated platforms suspended in mid air. It is dazzlingly confusing, but I must act cool & comfortable with it – like I belong & am familiar with it all.
I’m totally lost & relying on my guide.
Now, if you read this dream language with the idea in mind that this man was absolutely lost in his life, the dream makes perfect sense.
Remember the dream shows you the underlying psychic processes, that is, all of the undercurrent of our conscious situation.
The dreamer actually had no awareness of how lost he actually was, even though he was clearly suffering. He couldn’t get out of this kind of thinking, even to the detriment of his marriage. His complicated thinking had robbed him of his ability to relate to his wife authentically.
The feeling of “not belonging” was deeply embedded in his psyche and it manifested itself in many ways, such as social awkwardness, fear of taking action, and addiction.
All of his issues are in this dream; and, the end of the dream spoke of his potential to be that wise man. All he had to do, was follow the woman – a representation of his capacity to feel his way through life, instead of getting trapped in complicated thinking. This woman is also the key to this man overcoming his fear of life, but first he has to become aware of his pain and suffering.
Sometimes we are lost in a house. It can be our own home,where we discover new rooms or floors, or, it can be an unknown house, as in this dream example below:
These dreams typically symbolize that we have entered an unknown aspect of our personality. The rooms and floors in which we find ourselves are important. For example, if we are in the upstairs portion of the house, then we could be developing a new conscious attitude toward life.
When we find ourselves in an attic, then perhaps we should consider looking at old attitudes which are no longer of any use to us. The attic could also symbolize the opposite. Maybe we have kept an important part of ourselves stowed away in the attic and it’s time to dust it off and put it to use again.
In so
The problem of a dream like this is that you cannot find your way home. The meaning of the dream lies in the symbolism of home and your inability to find your way to it.
Our home symbolizes our whole situation in life, meaning our entire system of adaptation to life: our relationships, our motivating forces, and in particular, our dominate attitude. By attitude I mean it in the way C.G. Jung defined it:
I bold that statement because our unconscious expectations about life lead us down a path of conventionality and habit. In other words, unconscious expectations lead us down the well-trodden path of life and not the way to our true nature. Our path should be our own and not someone else’s.
If this is so, then the dream could say, “You are not yet in your true home”. Maybe he knows this or maybe he doesn’t. If this man does not consciously experience the anxiety of leading an in-authentic life, then the unconscious is feeling that anxiety.
This would be a dream that falls into Jung’s category of an unconscious conflict. If the unconscious presents you with such a dream, then it is a gift from beyond. At the very least, it presents you with an opportunity to widen your perspective about your life.
So, if you have had dreams about being lost on your way home, you should take some time for self-reflection:
These are the kinds of questions to explore.
Maybe you already know you’re not at home in the world, which ultimately means that you are not at home in yourself. If so, try looking at how you may not be following your instinctual path. Perhaps you don’t even know what your path is, yet. If this is so, the dream could say: this feeling lostness is your state right now and this is why.
If you feel anxiety in your life, then now you know where to look for the problem. It has something to do with home and finding your your way into yourself. If you do not feel anxiety, then the unconscious says, “Okay, there’s something wrong here and you don’t see it. You haven’t found your way home yet.”
This dream image of lostness is an archetypal image: lost in the world. It’s part of the Hero’s Journey. Anyone who takes the road less traveled will certainly find themselves in this lost state. It’s the only path to your true self. If this is you, then be happy that you have lost your way, even though it’s scary.
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i think we were supposed to be in a tourist place I was taking pictures of my little brother and sister I heard about a guy taking children’s and using them for making money and out of nowhere this man showed up and took my sister saying that he was responsible and they got lost when I searched for my sister her hair was shaved she was bald I sneacked into the place there were lots of children’s I found her at first she was scared to come with me I took her while hearing that guys swearing and so on but all I remember I saved her
In my dream, I am an undergraduate student. I had a class somewhere in the branches of our colleges where I am not really familiar of. When lunch time came, some of my classmates and I went the canteens and cafeteria to buy lunch but there are long lines of people waiting for their turn to get their food. To our boredom, we split in finding lunch. I am with two classmates from elementary whom I encountered again in college, a guy and a girl. The other two guys in our group of five teamed-up to find more stores which has fewer lines. Seeing everything is crowded, my team decided to take a bit of a walk to other buildings and rooms. We happened to see one of the teachers my only female classmate companion in the dream loved and idolized. She thanked the teacher and they had some short talk about stuff with the teacher saying she's proud of that former student and she's the brightest in her class though in the waking world, she was quite the average academically and just excels in singing. After the talk, we happened to meet the other two guys and failed to have a good lunch in school so the other three decided to go back to their dorms and one guy classmate and I went to downtown to eat lunch. My classmate luckily snuck a burger from before lunch and ate it in the public jeepney where we stayed for some time until the vehicle is almost full. Then a few moments and the vehicle moved forward to downtown. The place where I was doesn't really look like the city where I studied college though. It looks so unfamiliar. The jeepney stopped at a terminal downtown and let us out the vehicle. My classmate told me he'll go somewhere and so I tried to find my way to the malls if I can find a place to eat. But I was lost since it's not the city I know so I entered an alley where I thought I could take a shortcut to the nearest mall and I did not. Someone ran past me and I wondered why but as I glanced at my back, a crazy old man is carrying a knife which he twirls and tries to stab people with. It got me scared and frozen but then, some other guys, chased the crazy man and they were gone. At that moment, I already noticed I was lost so I ran towards the well-lit street further away from the alley and found a jeepney again to hide myself from the crazy old man. I looked everywhere and found the malls but the jeepney already moved forward and away from it. I don't know why I did not stop the driver until the journey was already halfway towards unknown places. I felt scared so I asked where the jeepnet would stop and so he said that it was just a few minutes further and he was right. Then at the terminal where the public vehicle stopped, I asked the driver where I can find the teller to where I can get back to my dorm which is far from that place. He pointed a room to me and along the way, I lost some handouts which was inserted in the books I was carrying. I peeped inside the room and did not see the face or even the body of the teller so I thought maybe he or she just went outside for a break or something. I decided to explore the places there and saw a lot of stores and then when I went back to the teller, someone has already occupied the room so I had to step back and wait again. I don't feel safe in that place. My confusion, anxiety and fear were active at the end of the dream.
Hello i had a dream that i was walking with my friend to my house from school after like 5 min a kidnapper parked next to us so we ran into some trees and flowers and different types of plants we went in a different direction because we where scared we ended up walking to a dessert and we lost count of time we walked for 2 days only thinking it was 2 hours we found a book store with working wifi so we connected and called 911 we went to a police car and they drove us home the end what dose it mean ?
I used to dream I couldn't find my way around NYC, especially my apt, where I lived for years.
Lately I've been dreaming I can't find my car.
Last night I dreamed I couldn't find my office in the building. In that same dream I also lost my handbag and a couple of packages I had been carrying. I was so happy to wake up.
I dreamed that I was going to school (a weekend university class that I do go to) and someone showed up at my house and said a friend from high school (who I am Facebook friends with but we aren’t really close) needed a ride so I said she could come with me. She said she’s a pretty good navigator but I said I don’t usually need one but she can pick the music. I was on the highway and there were a lot of interchanges. We took an exit and saw several people drive off a cliff so I avoided that route but then we came to the end of the road and we were driving on green grass. I felt anxious and lost so I asked my friend to please be the navigator and I have her my phone.
I had a dream about being lost in the supermarket/mall and we (means my brother and friends) are on a field trip. My brother and I are not that close, we often fight even for the smallest thing and I remember that we almost kill each other because of hatred and anger. So in this dream we are partner so that after we buy things we both can go back safely. But after so many round my brother make and me following him cause I have no other plan to buy then one thing distracts me. Then he is gone, I have all the things he want to buy on my hands, including mine. Then I started to look my way out of the supermarket first but something is wrong with my feet I can't walk fast or even run. Its not that the items are heavy or anything but I don't know then suddenly one of the staff approachme and lead the way out of the supermarket/mall. I got to see the bus we were riding but something is wrong its about to go I keep running, and everyone (friends) on the bus is cheering on me until I get to stop the bus and get on. After riding the bus I scolded my brother while I'm crying because that is my angry habit. Everyone is looking at me and the heavy feeling in my chest wake me up on that dream.
And I decided to search it meaning about getting lost because this isn't the first time I got to dream like that. But on different scenarios.
I had the strangest dream last night and even though I've been awake for 10 hours and have had an entire shift at work it just won't leave me. I've never experienced anything quite like it. I was in a labyrinth of houses and kept going through doors trying to get home. At one point I'm almost in a toy store, there are displays in plastic cases everywhere. I wound up there twice. At one point after passing through a door I was in an elderly lady's living room and she was in a chair watching television, I asked her how to get out and she just pointed me at the front door of her house. At another point I know I have to keep moving forward and there were two dog houses, I looked through both of them because by now I realized that they would each take me somewhere bizarre, and end up going through the one on the left. I was sort of on a farm, with small chickens and rabbits and I kept trying to stomp on them for some reason. The strangest place I wound up was in a room. There was a girl and a bed there. I started to head towards the door but she convinced me to come talk to her. Things progress until we're in the bed, and she pulls a bloody knife our from under the covers but I wasn't scared. I looked down and saw that my penis was mutilated but was completely unconcerned by it. I just got up and kept going through doors to strange places. I came onto a porch once and there was a Mexican man there who also had a knife. He made me apologize repeatedly for being on his porch and chased me away. I've been awake all day now and cannot shake the vivid imagery of all of it. The feeling I had the entire time of just frantically trying to get home. At one point it was as though I had woken up. I was in my bed and was like, thank God, I'm awake. But I wasn't; within moments I was lost again. I kept the idea throughout the second part of the dream that I just had to get back to where I had been recently. I understood how I became lost during the beginning of that. I was waking a path through a park and suddenly was just completely confused as to where I was. I'm a 33 year old man and have rarely been this shaken. I tried talking to my sister and my co worker about it but they had zero time to hear my crazy dream lol.
I just had a dream , I woke up and I thought it was true, my heart is still pounding. I dreamt that I found out my husband had cheated again on me again.
We were at home (but it didn't look like my home) and he was due to go to work, I found a large note book with notes in it regarding a game my husband plays but there was a woman's hand writing in the book and and she had made some kind of picture that relates to the game my husbands plays ( a space war strategy game) and I knew he was having an affair and I confronted him, then all of a sudden he disappeared and I desperately wanted answers and to confront him, so I went to go to his work.
All of a sudden I'm in London (I used to live there) but I'm in a part I don't know well and am lost, I see 2 men and ask for directions, one of the men seems quiet mean to his companion , putting him down, I get the feeling he isn't a nice person, and he asks me about a film and I get the feeling If I haven't seen the film he won't help me, luckily I have seen the film . Then suddenly I'm sitting on a red double decker London bus, sitting on the top deck travelling over the river Thames, and there are lots of bridges that the bus is traveling over, the the last bridge was a ship, and I thought that is the cutty sark ship, and the bus went through the ship and as it went through I looked out the window and the inside of the ship was the ships bones, it's Skelton if you get me, and I couldn't believe how big the ships bones were.
Then I get off the bus as I sort of recognize the area , and realize I have lost my bag with my purse in it , again 2 men are passing one much older, I think they are father and son, I ask if they have found a bag I lost but they say no , then I look and my bag is lying on the side, I feel relieved I found it but I'm getting more and more frustrated as when I walk to where I think I know I'm lost again and becoming angry and anxious I can't find my husband, I woke up and thought the dream was real, it was so vivid!
Having read your article on being lost I found it very interesting, and I do feel in my current situation I am not being true to myself, would love to know more about what I dreamt.
Hi Joanne, feel free to reach out and make an appointment. I would love to help you out.
Hello!
I was trying to find the meaning to two concurrent dreams of being lost that seems to have a pattern.
In the first dream, my mother asked me to help her send care packages (boxes full of rice packs) and we were going to a DHL but ended up going to the docks by tuktuk. From there, the search for courier service started. At the docks, a stevedore told us that we could send to a place just straight uphill so my mom and I carried the boxes up. The paths seem to shift and change and we started getting lost. Once I got tired of walking, my mom and I took a tricycle to go to that courier place, but the driver doesn't seem to know where it is. He also looked like he couldn't be bothered to find it. And just went back towards the docks, and going through dirty, crowded alleys. I didn't feel particularly worried about the entire situation. Just wanted to find that courier place. That dreams ends while we were still lost.
After that, another dream began. In this dream, I was finishing work and was wanting to go home. I felt tired. Just as I was finished for the night, my boss gave me a pair of girl's glass shoes and told me that those were for one of our students and that I should put it back in the office. I couldn't hear well the rest of what he said, but I took the shoes and went back. The building is unfamiliar. I went up a flight of stairs. It felt very heavy going up, and from there, I started to get lost. I couldn't find the right door to the office. So I went back down and searched for the door in the lower floors. In my search, night turned into day in the blink of an eye. I went to the ground floor and looked at my environment again. The place now transformed into the building complexes of the Inner Palace in China. This is where I figured that I am shifting places and went out to the streets. At the streets, I saw Indians lining up (hugging the back of the person in front of them) to go through a gate being guarded by soldiers. A soldier was checking a group of soldiers of varying height before they could pass. I thought that this time I was transported to India (where I have never been). And because I got all confused, I felt some panic and tried to backtrack. That dream also ended still lost.
Hello. I just woke up and immediately seach the meaning of dreaming about being lost before I forget all of the happenings on my dream.
I was in a vast land or/and kind of mountain? (I'm not really clear about the exact location) But I saw that I'm in top of mountain and there's a house there. That house feels like a city hall. In my dreams I didn't see that I was inside the house but was about to go out. I am on my home but I walk and walk, climb and climb but ended up on the that house again twice. And then when I took a rest there's 2 handsome men who are teasing me. "Why are you coming here back and forth?" without knowing that I am lost and always ended up on the same place no matter how far I traveled. I just smiled at them as if I don't want them to know that I am lost. And then I sighed and look how high we are and feel the breeze of the fresh air. And then suddenly it feels like I've known them not too long ago and we are talking like a close friends adding one girl beside me. I heard of them saying that he want us to be like a squad. The conversation feels like I am about to replace their old friend. And that old friend they mentioned the name of korean artist I've known. It's so confusing. I am lost but when I started talking to them I forgot to go home. When I got lost I'm not panicking. I am certain that, that is what I felt when I was going home and ended up on the same place. That's why I didn't tell to those men that I am lost. But deep inside me I want to go home.
Thank you for sharing you dream. Because you have taken it so seriously, I wanted to respond to you. The ending is most important because have a quaternity: 2 men and 2 women. This is a symbol for wholeness, which would be an expression of your unique personality, meaning the real you. Apparently, it has something to do with this Korean artist. You are being called to express your creative impulse. Are you aware of what that is for you? Each of us has a unique way of expressing our creativity, you have to find your way to that. Look to that Korean artist for your clues. We are not talking about imitation...follow my leads in the posts on this site when you make your associations and amplifications.