When You Dream of Bad Things Happening to Someone You Love

Although this is a common type of dream,  it’s one that few people really want to think about – let alone try to find the dream interpretation!

Have you ever dreamed that something bad happened, or was about to happen to someone you love, as you watched?  A recent reader recently sent me a dream to analyze that involved her watching as her husband was robbed by someone dressed as Richard Nixon.

How amazing is that?!

Anyway, she said that she watched as her husband handed over all of his money to “President Nixon.”  She wanted to help her husband, especially since at one point it looked as though he was about to be hit on the head with a bat, but she was frozen in place.

When analyzing dreams,  I often go with my initial gut reaction and this time I felt 110 percent confident with it.  After complimenting her brain on its creativity (!!!), I e-mailed her back something along these lines:

While we often dream about something happening to our loved ones as a reaction to being worried about them (even more than usual) – we often dream these types of dreams when we’re upset with them – even incredibly angry at them!  This dream would be that type of dream.  The fact that the husband was the only one in any sort of danger indicates that he alone is on the recieving end of negative feelings.  The good news is that since he wasn’t actually harmed, the feelings weren’t terribly bad!

Something else that’s interesting is the symbolism of money.  The fact that the husband had to give all of his money away, while the wife retained her own purse and possessions indicates that the negative feelings spring from a financial disagreement, difference of opinion, or even resentment.

The only thing that mystified me was the Richard Nixon mask.  I kept wondering why him?  I went over a few things in my mind, such as what he represented:

1. Trickiness (“Tricky Dicky”)?
2. Dishonesty?
3. History?
4. Maligned?

I simply e-mailed her my thoughts, ignoring our ex-Presidentfor the time-being.  I got an e-mail back within a few hours. It was filled with exclamation marks, because she thought I’d nailed it.
Apparently, her husband had recently spent a great deal of money on purchase that she felt was frivolous. She explained how they’d argued, how she had wanted a kitchen hutch, how he had stormed off to sit and sulk in McDonald’s for 3 hours (I love this guy! – I pointed out how lucky she was that he drowned his anger in milkshakes as opposed to something else!).
Then, she said the magic words that solved my Nixon mystery – she said that on the day he’d gotten his bonus check, he called and said he’d be home a few hours late, that he had to “pick something up.” She thought the something was the kitchen hutch she’d been eyeing for months.  SO, when McDonald’s Mike (not his real name) showed up with a golfer’s dream set in the pick-up rather than a wife’s dream, she was floored.  She said she met him outside and lit into him.  She told him that it all felt like a “dirty trick” – aha!   That’s where the Richard Nixon mask came in!  Tricky Dicky strikes again.

It reminds me of the time my oldest two daughters had a HUGE fight when they were younger.  The oldest one told me the following day that she’d had a dream that her younger sister was attacked and eaten by a crocodile.  I asked, “Awww, are you upset by the dream?” (I was ready to reassure her that it was just a dream, and that nothing like that would ever happen.) My speech wasn’t necessary, though, because when asked if she was upset by the dream, she just said, “No, not really.”  Then she smiled and went outside to ride her bike!