Nightmares Are Aggressive Attempts to Communicate, Says Dream Analyst David Rivinus

Awakening from a nightmare may leave a dreamer terrified, but according to dream analyst, David Rivinus, that is not the purpose of the bad dream. The point of the unpleasant experience is to grab the dreamer’s attention.  

Rivinus, author of the book “Always Dreaming,” claims that nightmares usually take place only after gentler attempts to attract attention have failed. “Dreams are a communication from the subconscious, and they are trying very hard to make the dreamer aware of an internal conflict,” Rivinus says. According to him, these dreams begin gently. But if they are ignored, the subconscious becomes more aggressive in its efforts. “One sure way of leaving an impression is to frighten the dreamer,” he adds.  

Rivinus says that often the dreamer already knows what the issue is, but has not taken constructive steps to resolve the conflict. Rivinus relates the case of a woman whose Japanese parents immigrated to the United States when she was young. She grew up speaking Japanese at home, but English among her peers. She went to school in the U. S, but every summer would travel to Japan to attend summer school there. From the age of eight, she began having a recurring nightmare of being chased by a monster. In her dream she would try to run into a room, but the monster would follow her. She would then hide under some low-lying object, but the monster would find her and corner her.

Says Rivinus, “During our exploration of what ‘monster’ she thought was ‘cornering’ her, she explained right away that she had difficulty deciding which culture to identify with.” In the U. S. she sounded like her peers but didn’t look like them; in Japan, she looked like them but her mannerisms were American. She felt pressure from both societies and had never really made up her mind, internally, who she was. “It was a conflict she already knew about, but one she had never taken the time to resolve,” Rivinus says. The only purpose of the recurring nightmare was to oblige her to deal with the issue.  

Rivinus is a dream analyst with more than three decades of international experience. This month he is lecturing and teaching at the Transformation Conference in Springdale, Arkansas.
He is the author of the book “Always Dreaming.” For more information, visit www.teacherofdreams.com