THE WORLD DREAM BANK: TOPIC: FEAR

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FEAR

Why not merge this with nightmares? Because dreams can explore the mood of fear without being nightmares. Some dreams even fearlessly analyze fear by showing you other people who represent your fears--letting you observe how you panic, as a lesson!

Gestalt and Jungians and Freudians are all wrong about one thing: not every figure and scene and mood in a dream is about you. Dreams are observant; they can dispassionately show you how others fear something you don't. Including, sometimes, how they fear you.

Some dreams are all about fears--discussing them or recommending actions--without being scary at all. My dreams seem to find my more unreasonable fears quite comical--even my worst nightmares are often screamingly funny. It's only the dream-self, in fear's grip, who can't see the absurdity. Which is, of course, often the point.

RELATED TOPICS: nightmares of course - courage - anger - hatred - grief and tears - guilt - embarrassment and blushing- envy - humor - play - sex - love - joy - healing from abuse - diagnostic dreams - advice in dreams - dream-guides - mentors - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.

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	ADRENALINE HALL: by Wayan; 1992/2/3, a useful nightmare. A hall designed to give your fear-glands a workout, because muscles aren't the only thing to buff...
	THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 210K, 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art and courage Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake. Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
	AMAZON A(U)NTS: by Wayan; 1997/10/28, a nightmare. I camp in the Amazon but in the morning find I slept on top of something disturbing...
	BATTERED, WITH SYRUP: by Wayan; 1998/11/21, a healing dream. I'm a battered girl who sings in a mall. The Mall Dictator (of all people) helps me start to heal, and learn to fly... CAUTION: BATTERING AND ITS CONSEQUENT DAMAGE
	A BEAM OF FLIGHT: by Wayan; 135K, 1992/4/19, a dream of love and shellshock. I'm a dance teacher, I'm King Kong, I'm a shell-shocked elf, I'm a wild bird flying... CAUTION: GAY-POSITIVE ROLE MODELS, OH NO!
	BLESS MY PHOBIA: by Wayan; dreamed 1992/8/15; text and silk painting. I was Eve's guardian angel the second time round, and I blew it again. But this time, it came out right.... CAUTION: BREASTS AND BEASTS
	BLUEBEARD DRAG: by Wayan; 2008/9/5, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #22 On the waterfront, I meet a seductive girl. Well, guy. Well, serial killer. Um, I think I'll leave now... CAUTION: HOMOPHOBIA OR SURVIVAL INSTINCT?
	BREAK FREE: by Emily Joy; 2006/5/11, an encouraging dream on the price of safety. I search for family skeletons, but then a talking plant on TV inspires me to seek the sun and fly free. But certain velociraptors and barbarian swordswomen object... CAUTION: DUELS, FISH ABUSE, THE F-WORD
	CENTAUR QUARTET: by Wayan; 1980-84, a dream-series on shamanic families. Can our interracial family survive? Not just cultural conflict, but our instincts clash around sex--and incest... CAUTION: SEX, INCEST ISSUES, DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY
	CHOREOGRAPHY: by Wayan; 2006/9/7, a nightmare of murder in plain sight. At a beach, a mob of kids stage an intricate practical joke full of coordinated “accidents.” How many of the jokers knew the end was death? CAUTION: MALICE
	CHRONOPHOBIA!: by Wayan; 1993/7/10, a physicist's nightmare. I find myself driving a speeding car down a freeway--in reverse. And I don't mean the gear...
	CUBIST CHARLIE BROWN: by Wayan; 1977/4/1, a cubist nightmare. We're Cubist cartoon characters, trapped in a strip gone mad. But my dad stays calm! Too calm... CAUTION: SEAS OF BLOOD... OR IS IT RED INK?
	FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 1.5M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic. I had a spectacular dream one night, that lasted many days in dream-time--a true other life. It wasn't Earth, and we weren't human. I was a teenage lemur, sailing with two friends into unknown waters--a rite of passage. I woke on deck deep in the night, my friends curled around me, and realized I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a grown woman, marry and have pups. I loved my girl friends. In a world lacking the very word, I was groping toward queerdom. Sailing into unknown waters! "Here be dragons," the old maps say. And they were right... If 1500K is too big to load, try it in parts: 1: HOME, 450K, 2: VOYAGE, 680K, 3: BACK 400K. CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
	FORKS AND SAUCERS: by Wayan; 1988/10/18, a dream on when to quit. Tibet, 1910. A cult whose ancestors manned a radar station that shot down UFOs. But were they really hostile?
	GHOSTS PUSH TOWARD THE SUICIDE DOOR: by Wayan, 1997/8/7, a nightmare that wants a break. I live in a haunted house where ghosts push you to suicide. But they're as tired of it as I am...
	THE GOLDEN KEY: by Wayan; 200K, 1996/7/9, a subtle dream lesson . I was so lonely the potheads on Haight looked good. I dreamed I had the Golden Key, but under a cheap sodium streetlamp, ALL my keys looked gold! Then I met true gold: a woman meditating until she shone... CAUTION: NUDITY, HAIGHT ST DECADENCE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
	GROUNDHOG DAY: by Wayan; 140K, 3 images, 1994/9/2, an illustrated lunar dream. James Hillman is the first psychologist on the moon! Only he sees, not HIS shadow, but MINE...
	HEARN'S BEAST: by Wayan; 1986/2/18, a dream fable. Inside an evacuated region, the Lafcadio Hearn Zone, I meet the monster thousands fled...
	HER OWN WEAPON: by Wayan; 1983/8/31, a poltergeist-therapy dream. A woman says she's being stalked, but it's her own poltergeist! Her therapist makes her reach for it...
	HERMIT IN THE PIPE: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a dream of the end. I'm a holy man sneaking into a sewerpipe at the beach, to pop anxiety pills in shame. Do they even work? CAUTION: CHEMICAL CRUTCHES
	HIS MINE: by Wayan; 1985/12/2, a wild dream epic. I'm a hobbit seeking Henry Fonda's haunted gold mine, who ends up in a showdown in a shaman's bar...
	HOBBIT SNIPER: by Wayan; 1998/10/13, a dream on strategy. I'm a sniper in a desert battle of men against hobbits. Guilty for not fighting openly, but that'd be suicidal... CAUTION: MATH AND WAR
	HUMANITY'S GREATEST FEAR: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/8, a sarcastic dream on education. My teacher insists, "You'll be scared too, when you see it." But when he shows us humanity’s greatest fear... CAUTION: UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS
	HUNTERS' FIRE: by Wayan; 1997/9/8, a nightmare that may be a memory. I'm an orphan shot at by hunters. They shoot my sister! But no one believes me... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	I GOT OUT: by Wayan; 1992/1/4, a psychic dream; 9-page comic, 500K. I flee our love triangle when Abe turns mean. He's telepathic, but I have a plan: the goldfish, the snakepit, the caves... CAUTION: THREESOME, SNAKES, MOTORCYCLE FATALITY
	I LET RATS: by Wayan; 1994/4/22, a nightmare on appeasement. A bold rat comes right up to me. I don't want to provoke it, so I stay quiet. And let the rats... CAUTION: UGH!
	THE ILL-FORMED TALE: by Wayan; 160K, 1981/4/7, a wild dream anti-epic . To reach the Peak of Happiness on the Isle of Dreams, I must pass four Perils--but they're all backwards... CAUTION: RELIGIOUS NUTS, KNIVES, NUDE ALIENS, BACKWARD PLOT...
	ILLUSIONISTS DON'T RULE: by Wayan; 1996/8/26, a dream on the strength of logic. I read 'The Closing of the American Mind," and dream I'm a pilot who suspects an illusionist in my plane...
	IN EL RIO: by Wayan; 1994/5/14, a singles nightmare. My family runs a bar. I walk through, after hours. Who are all these silent figures? CAUTION: UNHEALTHY READING FOR SINGLES
	ISLE OF THE BLEST: by Wayan; 1990, painting inspired by series of fox-dreams I'm a Japanese werefox, longing to reach the Isle of the Blest; but dare I swim for it?
	JOIN THE WOLVES LATER!: by Wayan; 1980/9/4, a dream of false but useful fear. Shepherding a group of cityfolks through an alien wilderness, I need a werewolf's help. So why do I lie?
	KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29 One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to. Some things should be avoided at rush hour...
	LACED WITH TERROR: by Wayan; 1999/5/3, an anti-nightmare. Researchers show me weird little objects like shoelaces that drive people mad with fear...
	LAMPREYS: by Wayan; 1974/6/27, a dream of assimilation . Pretty much everyone in my school is a bloodsucking alien, but, come to think of it, so what? CAUTION: SEX, VAMPIRES, SEX WITH VAMPIRES, BUT NICE VAMPIRES
	LILY THE LION: by Wayan; 1991/4/7, a small psychic dream. My housemate Lily is a lion. She bursts into my room. Stare-down. And then she pounces. So I... CAUTION: VIOLENCE! MUTUAL GLARING! THE VULCAN NERVE PINCH!
	LION-MEN: by Wayan; 1995/7/9, an eye-opening dreamlet. I'm a traveling Zen warrior talking to a circus girl in a barn. Four guys enter--and my life changes forever.
	MANSON'S CAGE: by Wayan; 1992/9/10, a nightmare. At the end of my long, tiresome tour of Hell, it's feeding time in the cage of the Manson cult... CAUTION: SO MEAT REALLY IS MURDER!
	MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DUSK: by Wayan; 1994/10/10, an initiatory dream. To enter the House of Dusk, I must say what haunts the Pass. Even if I guess right, do I really understand?
	MAYAN FORCE: by Wayan; 1992/12/6, a political dream-fable. First, sf writer Heinlein advocates a strong army; then I see one in action--turned against the people...
	MELTDOWN BABY: by Wayan; 1996/10/13, a guilty nightmare. In a Mormon future, my baby climbs a tree and spontaneously disintegrates! I try repotting, but... CAUTION: BAD PARENTING
	THE MELTING POT: by Wayan; 1982/7/30, a nightmare on fitting in They were swimming in the glowing, molten pool of the Melting Pot, and beckoned me to join them... CAUTION: SUICIDE SOUP?
	MILK ADDICTS: by Wayan, 1974/6/2, an early psychic dream. I'm in what seems to be a village of very conservative Muslims. But they're really alien castaways...
	A MISCARRIED LIFE: by Wayan; 1981/2/12, a short dreamfable. I'm Hattie, a pregnant girl on a Lewis and Clark expedition. I miscarry, and they tell me...
	THE MURDERS: by four Wayans! 50K, 1971/7/14; a family has simultaneous psychic nightmares. Nearly everyone in my family dreams of a mass murder as it happens nearby. But my dad's sure it's his own evil id, and my mom clams up, and my sister forgets. And me? I doubt the whole thing for ten years, until... CAUTION: NIGHTMARE VIOLENCE
	MY WILDCAT WOUND: by Wayan; 1994/7/8, a dream on gender trauma. I'm a wildcat in a cat/fox team led by a woman who wants us to merge with a man/wolf team... CAUTION: LANGUAGE
	NANCY AND KIT: by Wayan; 1994/1/3, a psychodramatic dream. I step between an ultra-femme girl and a butch boy, trapped in a psychodrama. But I'm bleeding...
	NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream. At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
	THE NIGHTMARE EFFECT: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/14, an anti-nightmare. My own fear creates a field of time/speed distortion; can I use it against my attackers?
	"NOHOR!" YELLED THE NIGHTMARE: by Wayan; 1982/12/27, a passionate nightmare. I dreamed a black mare was howling "Nohor!" At first I thought she meant "I'm not just a horse", but... CAUTION: SEXUAL ISSUES
	NO ONE'S OUT TO GET ME: by Wayan; 1993/12/14, a subtle nightmare. I always thought learning no one's out to get me would be a GOOD thing...
	NO VACATIONS?: by Wayan; 1999/8/14, a spiritual nightmare. Before I was born, I set up this life to learn loneliness, boredom and fear. Good move, soul! No vacations?
	NOT THREE!: by Wayan; 1996/11/11, an encouraging nightmare I was wrong. I didn't survive three assassins. It's been seven! Why'd I forget the others?
	OTTERS DON'T FAKE: by Wayan; 125K total, a dreamtale with 2 illustrations, 1989/10/15. I'm scared to show my dream-paintings to my art class. That night I find an large otter in my bed... CAUTION: SEX
	PET ME DARE!: by Wayan; 200K, 6 illus., 1996/2/7, a healing dream. After whining all day that I lost my anima, all I dream is I'm petting a cat. But she grows. Too much... CAUTION: PUSSY TROUBLE
	PIER'S END: by Wayan, 1989/2/21, a Raymond Chandler dreamtale. My detective lover warned me, "Stay away!" Now I'm trapped. Dare I follow the lion over the edge?
	PINBALL SHOWDOWN: by Wayan; 1995/3/18, a flirty game-playing dream. I suspect the pinball champion of Jupiter is cheating. I try to scare her psychic confederate out of hiding...
	PLESIOSAUR: by Wayan; 1985/9/5, a medical dream. An itchy patient of mine insists he's turning into a four-headed man-eating plesiosaur. He left one thing out...
	PLUSH BEAR: by Wayan; 1994/8/3, a dream poem. Two mimes terrorize our art class in a stretchable bear-suit. At least we HOPE it's a suit...
	RATTLER BANQUET: by Wayan; 1993/1/29, a farcical nightmare poem. My parents invite me to dinner, but my mom chases a rattlesnake up my leg. Then I wake to find two holes in my...
	THE RIPPLE EFFECT: by Wayan; 1992/6/19, a double dream of false judges. A dream of innocent incest turns guilty, grows into a war of ghosts versus a cult of sneaky sexy psychics... CAUTION: SEX, INCEST ISSUES, NIGHTMARE
	ROAR!: by Wayan; 2000/4/3, not exactly a nightmare... Night. A jungle full of prowling lions and leopards. So naturally, I get up on a rock and roar back...
	SALIA AND CHUR: by Wayan; 1989/2/25, a psychic Star Trek dream. Our starship signs up a strange new woman whose quirks turn out to be the effects of slavery... CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
	SAW HER IN HALF?: by Wayan; 2008/8/28, a warning dream-poem, Dreamverse #15 A student of a sorceress I know describes a medical procedure her teacher plans that I wouldn’t want done to ME... CAUTION: TALK OF BLOOD AND SEX
	SEX THERAPY: by Wayan; 1998/5/18, a dream on the messiness of healing. Both of us were abused as kids. Sex is hard. So we go to a therapist who has us act out sex on the floor... CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
	THE SEX WORKSHOP: by Wayan; 1997/4/6, a dream on taking the next step. The teacher of our sex workshop picks me for a demonstration in front of everyone. Gulp... CAUTION: WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK?
	THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: by Wayan; 1989/7/8, a psychic nightmare. My sisters get bored with the game of power, so I watch TV instead. But it melts, and a huge terrifying figure rises...
	SHADOWS ADMIRABLE: by Wayan; 1993/9/28, a dream on dreams. A dream-lecturer says Shadows aren't just what we hate or fear, but what we admire yet see as "not us"... CAUTION: IDEAS
	THE SHAKEN PROFESSOR: by Wayan; 1996/2/11, a dream on fear. A great teacher abruptly blanks out. Memory loss is scary, but in the empty moment, a deeper fear emerged:
	SKUNK? SWALLOW!: by Wayan; 1981/5/7, a dream-joke with a point. When I see two scary men on the trail, naturally, I swallow my skunk! I really don't recommend...
	SLAVES ON RED MARS: by Wayan; 1999/8/15, a dreamfable on will. As Mars demands independence from Earth, Jovians enslave us all! Now freedom-fighting is personal...
	SNOW STALLION: by Wayan; 1994/6/4, a tangled political/spiritual dream. I'm a peace terrorist trapped in Squaw Valley, herded like a mare by a huge stallion made of snow... And then the dream shifts and I blurt out the truth behind our idiotic waking world! And wake believing it...
	SPLINTER: by Wayan; 1981/3/14, a dream of love and nagging. I love Splinter, but her mom insists I got BOTH of them pregnant. Then I notice I'm pregnant too... CAUTION: SEX, NAGGING
	STAY GROUNDED!: by Wayan; 1988/2/27, an unexpectedly grounded dream. I'm playing poker with a dragon. But we barely dare move: we're both crackling with thousands of volts...
	SURF THE SAN ANDREAS: by Wayan; 2008/8/21, three short dreampoems, Dreamverse #11. Through twin gates of dream -- Dream-castles on the sea, lovely and lame -- A surfer of the San Andreas Fault
	TAROT: PHOBIA!: by Wayan; 22K. Tarot card, 3x5", 1978-1981. Groundless fears slow you to a crawl, testing every step of a clear, safe path...
	TEN THOUSAND MAD GHOSTS: by Wayan; 1996/9/3, a psychic nightmare. A toxic site in Silicon Valley isn't a chemical spill, but angry ghosts, killed in a camp and forgotten... CAUTION: THE CAMP TURNS OUT TO BE REAL
	TERESA'S BILLBOARDS: by Wayan; 1988/5/1, a dream about trust. Teresa mistrusts men. Her best friend Sabina comes on to me in front of Teresa, who blames me... CAUTION: NUDITY, BETRAYAL, GENDER PARANOIA
	THE THREATENERS: by Wayan; 1997/4/23, a small psychic dream. Two gunmen break in, call me by a strange name, and demand I repay a loan I never borrowed...
	TWO-HEADED BEAST: by Wayan; 333K total, 12 images, 1997/7/31, a Gothic dream. In Castle Frankenstein, will Mary Shelley wed Elmer Fudd? His two-headed monster has marital advice...
	UNCORK A SUB GOD: by Wayan; 1998/8/11, a warning dream. Exploring a sunken sub, my buddies salvage a live bomb. Toss it back, but the next find may just toss us...
	AN UNEXPECTED MOVE: by Wayan; 1998/12/17, a peripatetic dreamtale. In the Los Angeles ruins, a wizard-gang jumps us. Trapped, I try a desperate move never seen in LA: I use my feet...
	A VALLEY NEAR HOPE: by Wayan; 155K, illustrated, 1984/10/17-19, an epic dream. I'm lost in a valley where unicorns love cyborgs but fear giant ants, who adore unicorns but hate cyborgs, who think ants are cute, but dread unicorns! And while the Three Tribes love and hate, cave-monsters sculpt them all. I set up peace talks between these four vertices of my tetrahedral soul, but what if I get what I want? Peace, love... transformation? What if those aren't cute and New Age? CAUTION: SWEARING, DRUNK LIONS, CYBORG SURGERY, AND GOGGLE-BARFING
	VELOCIRAPTORS AND BANANAS: by Wayan; 1994/2/6, a dream. After a visit from our landlady's angry, crazy son, a pack of vicious dinosaurs invades our house...
	THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic. I go half-mad and massacre a whole cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle. Then I'm one of the cult members, struggling to ignore the Voice of God pushing all us mortals to murder in His name. I woke up haunted, and wondered for weeks what this was about... until the Waco Massacre. CAUTION: CREEPY VIOLENCE, CREEPY GOD, CREEPY PREDICTION
	WAITING FOR PIGFALL: by Wayan; 1979/10/31, a puzzling Halloween dream. The messiah of a suicide cult prepares to ritually sacrifice me. Then a miracle occurs! But... whose?
	WAPATO BIRDS: by Wayan; 1986/2/2, a subtly psychic dream. I'm a Wapato Bird: part crane, part elk, part tree-bud. Despite shyness, I must lead our people's migration...
	WHO'LL BE MY LOVE?: by Wayan; 1986/4/14, a dream noir farce; part 4 of UNICORN TAG. I'm a hardboiled detective wincing as I grill a meek little psychic (who might just be me) about embarrassing subjects like unicorns, and love... CAUTION: A UNICORN WHO MAKES EVEN THE COPS BLUSH
	THE WILD HUNT: by Wayan; 1998/7/24, a dream of myth--or abuse?. We're exploring the English farm we inherited, when The Wild Hunt storms over the hill...
	WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, disorienting, apocalyptic dream When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us! Fleeing from Saruman's army, I bonk my head, exposing the backstage truth about our world... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!
	WING IT: by Wayan, 1995/12/23? 1 MB, a 9-page improv comic. An art experiment--the only rule is DRAW--no models, no ideas, no plans, not even dreams. Drawing from the void!
	WITCH, FLY FREE!: by Wayan; 1997/5/3, a predictive dream. A castle of witches in Europe. Persecuted for centuries, they're wary. Can I find a good witch to love? CAUTION: PAGANS CRIPPLED BY SIEGE MENTALITY...
	THE WRAITH OF KHAN: by Wayan; 1982/6/2, a dream on brains I'm being stalked by Ricardo Montalban, playing Khan, from Star Trek. Why him, why me? I know why.