Have you ever had that end of the world dream?
We have all woken up in the middle of the night or the morningโs wee hours with tiny beads of sweat trickling down our foreheads. The cold sweat, shivers, and (at times) mini shrieks are tangible effects nightmares can have on us. In the aftermath of the dreams, the toll it takes on our mind becomes visible as wellโ a sense of foreboding, grimness, and even jump-scares.
Well, nobody needs reminding of the nightmares that they have had. Dreams about how the world ends are a category in itself among these nightmares. End-of-the-world dreams come in many forms and are all scary, to say the least. Some dreams of world-ending include vivid stills ofโ the world collapsing, buildings crashing, pandemics spreading like wildfire, or simply people dropping dead like fliesโ as if the nightmares of waking life werenโt enough!
It is strange that even though we are aware of in the waking life its inevitability, it terrifies us the most. Maybe because we have no idea of how or when it could actually happen, even with our advanced technologies and centuries of scientific research, we cannot tell anything for sure.ย
By answering these questions, you will undoubtedly discover your hidden dream meanings โ What caused the world to end? Were you able to endure the worldโs end? Was there another survivor with you if you survived the end of the world, or were you alone? How did you feel during your dream? Were you terrified and perplexed?
We become nothing, but a number of days. An hourglass with sand trickling down faster than anticipated.
What Role Does Religion Play?
We have all dreamed of an apocalypse. Religions preach the nature, causes, and aftermath of the apocalypse. It is a major part of monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam. Theย Book of Revelationsย of theย New Testamentย speaks at length of the apocalyptic warning and hope.
Several chapters inย The Quran talk about the day of judgment, Gog and Magog, and the blowing of the harp that would signal the end of the world. Therefore, for theists, the end of the world, and consequently, the end of the world dream, take more symbolic and highly personal meanings.
The Greek wordย apokรกlypsisย has become significantly associated with the last book of theย New Testamentย entitled โRevelation,โ and also known as โthe Apocalypseโ or as โthe Apocalypse of John.โ The term is also included in the title of some non-biblical canon books involving revelations. Today, English speakers commonly refer to any larger-scale catastrophic event or chain of detrimental events to humanity or nature as โan apocalypseโ or โapocalyptic.โ
Even the atheists who trace the origin of the universe in the big bang, have grandiose ideas about the cosmos and how the Earth, a miniature part of it, will get destroyed eventually. Every other day one reads news of a huge asteroid about to hit our planet and end all life. Although such news has grown less disturbing over time, they definitely trigger the end of the consistently horrific world dreams.
Dreams are a shadowy realmโ where our beliefs, fantasies, emotions turmoil dreaming, and ideas get mixed and manifest.
The Interpretation of Dreamsย is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud widely read to this day.
It talks about the theory of the โunconsciousโ concerning interpretations of dreams and gives the ground for psychoanalysis.
Certainly, interpretations of dreams are a thing. But what is the use of interpretation, one may ask, as the end of the world dream could only foreshadow doom, anxiety, orย nihilism?
Positive Interpretations
On the contrary, it is believed that such dreams are not necessarily negative. The end of something also signals the beginning of something new. Dreams symbolizes major changes in life. Research shows that people leaving old jobs, getting married, or moving away from home see a certain type of dream.
Check out about this more,ย click here!
Changes are a way of moving forward in life. It represents breaking off old habits. It could also reflect the acceptance of change in our life. Acceptance of unavoidable changes is not necessarily negative; rather, shows depict growth and maturity.
As is famously saidโ โlearn to accept the things you canโt change.โ Nevertheless, changes shake foundations and take time adjusting to, so dreams make us aware and come to our rescue.
It is also interesting to note with how much dedication we are researching, on how the world will end, while we definitely will not see its end. Being concerned with the worldโs end is not an alarming thing. It is but natural, and a theory believed by one and all, although, the explanations surrounding the end may be varied. Owing to its inevitability, it is something to be partially concerned about.
End-of-the-world fantasies are motivated by a few major factors: a big life transformation feeling out of control or unprepared for anything on the horizon an emotional struggle, a sudden spiritual awakening, something is changing in your life.
If not anything, these dreams teach us to stop for a moment, think about our lives, appreciate the smaller things we tend to ignore and be generally more grateful for this one life. We learn to value life when faced with fact that the world is about to be over soon. Perhaps your time is running out, and you need to decide on some issues.
Negative Interpretationsย
More cold sweat follows the dreams if the interpretation of the end of the world dream is negative. Such a dream or death dream is rarely good. Itโs almost always considered bad to die until you get into higher levels of thinking where you realize that death is merely the next stage of real life. In a way, we are all dying small deaths every day.
This dream represents failure, the end of something valuable precious, or something โthat unnoticed and that necessary.โ It is common in people dealing with the loss of a loved one, a breakup, or divorce, these people dream about such things. In such cases, this scary dream reflects our deeply negative emotions.
An existential crisis also leads to such morbid dreams, maybe it is just a dream or is it? The feeling of non-belongingness in a world of rat race. A midlife crisis could also trigger it. Such dreams have as their premise, a collapsing world.
Now, a huge role to play in the interpretation is our response to the same in the dream. We could be someone in the dream attempting to escapeโ successfully or unsuccessfully.
If youโre MIA in your world ending dreams, your absence is very much a presence. An absence of the self in the dream could also signify a lot. The person has no role to play or no rescue missions to run and is simply helpless in the wake of a world-ending before his eyes.
Anyway, if you are dreaming of the world coming to an end, donโt panic. It might seem scary, but an apocalyptic dream is not as strange or unusual as it might seem. These are not prophetic dreams that predict the future.
In fact, far removed from the future, they are triggered by (stressful) events of the past and present. Sometimes, uncertainty for the future, too, can cause anxiety in the present.
Often, we are in denial of whatโs happening to us or around us. That doesnโt change the truth. The unconscious or sub-conscious emotions manifest through our dreams.
Therefore, being aware of our dreams and their meaning/ interpretation only helps us through the difficult moments in life. We have all watched the world collapsing and falling apart as we sleepโ sometimes standing in the middle of it, sometimes only as a spectator, helpless, and sometimes the savior.
Blast From the Past: Did Our Forefathers Get Such Dreams
Since times immemorial, human beings have looked to their dreams for deeper and greater meaning. In ancient Greece and Egypt, interpretations of the dreams were for their prophetic properties. Temples even had the inclusion of whole dormitories for people to sleep in while they waited for a dream message!
Catherine de Mediciโs son had a dream that he lost the crown jewels, and when it happened, it was interpreted as a sign that his life was in danger. He was advised to avoid any personal risk (though he was still murdered after three days).
Napoleon Bonaparteโs mother supposedly dreamt that an eagle was born to her while she was pregnant with him. No dream dictionary is required to connect the dots on this one.
Numerous mathematicians, inventors, and artistsโ including Benjamin Franklin โ said they found solutions to issues in their dreams!
Click here to know more about this topic.
So, is there a โdream dictionary,โ common symbolism, or metaphors? One can find several online websites and dictionaries that promise to interpret your dreams.
According to Ann Cutler, a licensed psychoanalyst, no dream dictionary can replace the depth of information that a dreamerโs own association with images he dreams about. For example, people who live near the ocean might have frequent dreams related to oceans. For a person who might have experienced a near-drowning situation, the ocean would have varied connotations.
It all makes sense. Our brains arenโt all exactly like one another, so why would the dreams have a similar meaning?
And for dreams about the apocalypse, Cutler said that they isnโt uncommon. โTheyโre sort of anxiety-based dreams in generalโฆthose typically result in dreams that have a fairly dramatic component.โ
Are there really so many chances of the world ending? A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that could put human well-being at risk on a global scale, even endangering modern civilization. An existential risk is an event that could lead to human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanityโs potential.
Potential global catastrophic risks consist of anthropogenic risks, caused by humans (technology, governance, climate change), and non-anthropogenic or external risks. Hostile artificial intelligence and destructive technology are some of the likes of technological risks.
Insufficient or malignant governance globally create risks in the social and political domain, such as war, including nuclear wars, bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms, cyberterrorism, or failure to contain a natural pandemic.
Problems and risks in our planetโs domain include global warming, environmental degradation, extinction of species, famines as a result of non-equitable resource distribution, overpopulation, crop reduction and failures, and non-sustainable lifestyle.
Examples of non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact, a volcanic eruption, a lethal gamma-ray burst, radioactive explosions, marine oil spills, climate change, or even hostile extra-terrestrial life taking over the Earth.
So many new โend of the world dreamโ to see. Sigh! Do you still want to know more? Click here.
Psychoanalyst, Ann Cutler has her own website that offers consultation on what our dreams mean. It reads:
Are you curious about what your dreams mean? Do you wake up some mornings with either wonderful or frightening dream images that seem mysterious and indecipherable?
โDo you think that if only you could interpret what your dreams mean, you would know more about yourself? You can unlock the meanings of your dreams. I can help.โ
For instance, the end of the world dreams involving an earthquake is believed to suggest that you are experiencing a major โshake-upโ that is threatening your stability and foundation. The dream highlights your insecurity, fear, and sense of helplessness. Is there something in your personal life that you feel at โfaultโ for?
If you find cover from the quake, you will overcome these challenges. If you become trapped or injured during the disaster, you will face some or other losses in your life. According to the Bible, earthquakes are symbolic of Godโs anger and power.
By the above logic, often, only we can discern what our dreams mean. It doesnโt matter whether itโs valid or not. Itโs fun to feel like we are learning more about ourselves.
The modern world is so full with world-ending situations, both actual and fictional, that it should come as no surprise that apocalypse dreams come in all kinds and sizes. There are zombie apocalyptic dreams and nuclear wars.
Rising sea levels are a concern, as are renegade self-replicating nano-bots. Meteors, vampires, atmospheric collapse, dragons, solar flares, and crazy extraterrestrial races are all possible. Regardless of how the world ends.
No wonder, we check our horoscopes almost every day. We love explanations of bizarre things. With practice, we can find the cryptic meaning behind our dreams.
FAQs
1. Is It Possible to Read Dreams?
Dreams may be deciphered. To interpret a dream, one must first understand the individual who dreamed. One cannot adequately comprehend without sufficient details. Because you know your life so well, only you can predict what it is.
Spirits compose and induce dreams for a variety of causes, including
- They play a game with other spirits as part of their game
- To warn the individual who is dreaming
- To appease the spirits that are upset with you.
- To fulfill the desires of the dreamer
Still, there might be other explanations.
A human person coexists with several souls that have joined one by one since birth. These spirits observe, lead, and determine a personโs fate based on his or her everyday actions, conversations, and thoughts.
To interpret a dream, you must first understand yourself thoroughly. You must remember all you have done in the past. There will be a reply to every action. This is equally true for discussions and ideas. You can readily guess what spirits say if you understand the point.
Spirits are distinct components. A human being lacks a spiritual body. During his or her lifespan, a human is surrounded by countless souls that have joined one by one since birth.
They include information, abilities, sentiments, emotions, interests, and everything else. Even your ideas are not yours.
For example, when you wish to make a judgment on a subject, the spirits think one after the other, and you just listen, pick, or reject the ideas that they convey to your mind in the form of thoughts through your brain.
The brain is only a conduit for spirits to communicate with your thoughts. A mind is just the mind of a computer. You will not be able to recover a computerโs mind after it has been entirely destroyed.
A mind is just the mind of a computer. You will not be able to recover a computerโs mind after it has been entirely destroyed. The same holds true for humans.
A soul is just the energy required for a body to function. Itโs not a spirit or anything like that. After death, the spirits that followed a person leave and travel to different locations in quest of new bodies. After death, no one exists in any way. All humans are only flesh-and-bones machines and toys for the spirits to play with.
2. What Exactly Is Dream Interpretation?
What exactly is dream interpretation?
Freud and his fellow psychoanalysts used to believe that dreams were the finest method to comprehend a personโs unconscious psyche.
Sometimes, or in fact most of the times, it is quite difficult to put words on what one feels within. We normally just see the symptoms, and our advanced abstract language and cognitive skills donโt assist us grasp why we suffer or act the way we do.
The purpose of psychoanalytic treatment is to get a person to express her emotions, worries, and feelings. This can take several years, but it is by design not easy.
Dream interpretation provides a shortcut in this process of self-discovery. Though words are important in understanding our identity, dreams reveal far more about who we are than our conscious portrayal.
Dreams, in addition to providing us with information, may also assist us in our daily lives by instructing us on what we should do. It is not uncommon to find a solution to an issue late at night.
This is due to the mind reorganizing and reprocessing the events and obstacles of our everyday lives in order to fit them into our particular life plan. Dreams are an important element of the process. They communicate with us symbolically.
And, if we get used to it, deciphering our dreams isnโt too tough, but a psychotherapist can aid in the early stages.
3. What Are Some Popular Dream Interpretation Symbols and Their Meanings?
Dreams frequently incorporate material from your life. They may express anything happening in your current experiences that you are not coping with if they are understood carefully, such as a replay of some theme in your recent past.
I am not a fan of picking out symbols and assigning significance to them based on some source of dream symbols. I donโt think thatโs the whole depth of a dream.
A dream is a narrative. Understand it as a meaningful narrative. When seen as a tale, what is the meaning of the dream?
Take notice of the predominant emotion in the dream.
One would rather comprehend the concept of the dream narrative and seek for ways in which this theme is related to some continuing issue in your life with the same sensation.
What about the dream tale being a metaphor for your life? Without the need of symbolism dictionaries, this reveals the dreamโs true meaning. That is my sole and preferred way of dream interpretation.
But we should know where to draw the line between taking our imagination at the end of the world dreams, too seriously, in real life. It could just be that youโve watched several horror films. So, sometimes that bizarre zombie apocalypse that takes over the planet is simply bizarreโnothing more, nothing less.
Click here to read more with us.
Also read: What Does MIA Means?
-Edited by Steffy Michael|1/7/22
Last Updated on by Laveleena Sharma
Top Comments