The Psychology of Dreams<>On Line Since 2012

Jungian/Psychology Based [ GO ]

www.powerofdreams.net

Dream Forum
[Since 2005]
Myths-Dreams-Symbols    www.mydrsy.com    Since 1998
The Dream is to The Psyche

As the Immune System is to the body

Dream Analysis/Interpretation by Dream Analyst Gerald Gifford
Read: Methodology I Use in Analyzing Dreams,,,,,Based on Jungian Psychology
5000+ Dreams
    /a>
Interpreted
Please Support My
Rescue Kitty Fund

Click the Kitty

FREE INTERPRETATIONS: Please Provide Age/Gender For Proper Analysis.....Follow-up Response to Analysis Requested
By submitting your dream you have read & agree to our Disclaimer/Privacy Policy

The Dream Forum is Closed
Private Interpretations Available-E-Mail: mythsdreams@hotmail.com
Power of Dreams/MDS Dream Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Vegetarian Eating Meat

Hi. :)

My dreams have been filled with food lately. Not just food though, among the vegetables and fruit is meat. That wouldn't seem so bad but I am a vegetarian.

Its recurring in my dreams that I am starving, like so famished that I become blind and someone rescues me by putting a plate of food in front of me and tells me to eat. I begin to eat and half way through I begin to see again, once I can see I realize that I am eating meat and I become very sick. Very ill to my stomach. I also feel very guilty and end up crying. I chastize myself for eating meat.
Here are just a couple examples.

In one dream I could see. I was 5 years old, and my mom had abandoned me. She left me and I was starving. I had a big crush on my boyfriend in the dream, he was the same age he is now. His mom adopted me and she fed me a huge sub full of meat. I chowed it down. I remember running down a hill to catch my boyfriend, only he obviously wasn't my boyfriend yet. He told me, its okay, when you get older I will be your boyfriend and love you then. But, I did end up realizing I ate meat after that and I became sick and started crying.

In another dream my boyfriend found me starving, I was the age I am now and he put a plate in front of me and guided my hands to it, because I was blind. I began eating and when I could see again there was half a eaten hamburger in my hand which I quickly became sick and upset over.

Now I have dreams of me eating meat, and I realize it when I am halfway done and I just quit eating it and criticize myself for eating it.

Any ideas? Needless to say they are very unpleasant dreams for me. I would appreciate any input. :)
Tink

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 22, Michigan

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

Tinkster,
Perhaps your dreams are merely debating the downside of your vegetarian lifestyle. I'm sure there are always reminders that most other people are meat eaters and being a vegetarian you probably have to answer a lot of questions about your eating habits {are a veggie because you are against eating meat, or against killing animals or purely for the healthier lifestyle, etc.}. You state in your post that when in your dreams you eat meat you 'feel very guilty and end up crying'. That suggests there is some emotional conflict about eating meat, whether it be over your vegie lifestyle or something deeper {or both}.

And then I read the first dream and see there is possibly something much deeper. Food is nourishment and in dreams it is often symbolic of emotional nourishment. The first dream seems to be using the meat as that sickening aspect of perhaps not receiving enough emotional nourishment earlier in life {abandoned and starving}. The boyfriend to run after may represent that substitute of love you are unconsciously seeking to replace the love and nourishment you did not receive earlier in life. Of course this is all predicated on whether indeed your childhood was void of proper love and nourishment {as the dream suggests when your mother abandons you}. The abandonment need not be a literal experience but representative of emotional abandonment you feel from your childhood. Getting older often is how people believe they will get over something in life. But deep unconscious emotional conflicts takes a lot more.

The second dreams seems to be be directed at your boyfriend. In a dream post by Craigy {Freaky Shopping Dream} we discuss his unconscious motivations for needing to have several sexual entanglements. It turns out {at as least as I can determine} he is trying to replace that lost love never received in his childhood. He is looking for love in all the wrong places using sex as a substitute for the ungiven love earlier in life.

So the question is, are you in the relationship with your boyfriend because he is the right guy for you or merely a temporary substitute that is capable of giving you 'nourishment'? In the second dream you are blind. Is that blindness due to my question about your boyfriend {unconsciously you know, perhaps consciously you are not sure about the relationship}?

It looks as if you are using the vegetarian lifestyle as metaphor for something else having to do with nourishment. You are criticising yourself over this aspect of your life. The two questions that are perhaps central to the dreams, and your life, are about your earlier childhood and how that plays out and whether there is some conflict about your vegetarian lifestyle that you are beginning to question. My 'guess' it is the first with the vegan lifestyle being a lesser concern.

What are your thoughts to these suggestions?

Gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

Hi. :)

Thank you for responding. I appreciate it.

I love being a vegetarian, I had conflict the first time because people would try to question me, and basically try to force me to admit I was wrong for being a vegetarian, so this time around I have not told anyone and they have not even noticed. I am for a combination of reasons, mostly because I don't like the thought of what factory farm animals go through, or the thought of what meat really is. But please, I never try to push this on anyone so I don't want anyone to read this to think I am trying to make them feel guilty.


Okay, about my childhood. I mentioned in another dream of mine that I have Borderline Personality Disorder, but you never responded back in that one. I was looking forward to your insight as you seem to have a very analytical way with dreams. Naturally I am analytical myself, but not with my own life.

I had a rough childhood, I will put it that way.

Sometimes I think that I am just using my boyfriend to fill in the hole, but I then can't believe it because I really do love him. We have been together for over three years. He is everything to me.

I'm not sure what the blind part is about. I will have to think about your response. It makes sense to me and it scares me.

Tink

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 22, Michigan

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

Tinkster,
I'm so sorry for not replying to your last request.I must have overlooked it. I try to address all requests and most the time I do a pretty good job. I apologize and promise to do better.
I'll take a deeper look at this dream and your reponse in the morning. Hopefully we can find a message that may be of help somewhere in your life.

Thanks,

Gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

Tinkster,
First, let me again apologize for not answering your follow-up post from your last dream request. I can see where it is important for you to understand your deep emotions since you are daily confronted with conflicting degrees of emotion.

It looks as if my assumptions about the nourishment {"I had a rough childhood"} aspect of the dream were going in the right direction. Also there seems to be some validity to my assumptions about your boyfriend {"Sometimes I think that I am just using my boyfriend to fill in the hole"}. Perhaps you do love him but he is probably filling the void from your childhood, not receiving the proper love and nourishment.

As for the blindness it may be alluding to the unconscious aspects of your 'rough childhood'. But it may be directed at the relationship with your boyfriend. You do question whether he is merely filling the void although you say you love him. Deep down {the deep unconscious that informs you of your true emotions, through dreams}you may question the relationship to a deeper degree. There may be aspects that consciously you ignore but unconsciously you intuitively recognize faults in the relationship. And although that may frighten you, some time in the future it may serve you, knowing and acting on the deeper emotions about the relationship. Are there questions about the relationship, whether it is what you really want? Is he, as you stated, merely fillin the void?

But on the other hand it may be addressing the lack of nourishment as a child and just how the relationship is filling the void. Your borderline personality may be distorting this aspect of the emotional self {I believe the true emotions come through dispite your disorder}. The test is in how the relationship plays out and whether in the near future your boyfriend proves to be that person you need in your life. And intuitively you know more than you may consciously admit about the relationship. I refer back to your statement "Sometimes I think that I am just using my boyfriend to fill in the hole".

As for your *Borderline Personality Disorder. It may be playing into the emotional aspects of the dream but I don't believe so. Even with such a psychological trait the deep unconscious is capable of providing truthful evidence of your true emotions, without giving into the disorder that plagues your waking life. That is one important aspect of the dream that can provide relief even when there is mental disorders. To confirm which is correct we need to know just how rough your childhood was and whether it is the cause for these dreams. If so the lack of nourishment in your dreams is at least partly addressing the lack of proper parental nourishment given to you as a child.

And it does seem that the vegy part of your dream is a lesser aspect {dreams aalways have at least two interpretations. One is addressing current waking life decisions and emotions and another is addressing the deeper causative aspects to who you are in the present}. Meat eaters find it hard to understand vegetarin's motives. Of course when they develop heart and cardiovascular problems they too may wish they eaten more vegies and less meat.

I know you have questions and I would be interested in your observations. Also more details about your childhood and any thoughts on the relationship with your boyfriend may help clarify the dream's message.




*Borderline Personality Disorder
persons with this disorder present instability in their perceptions of themselves, and have difficulty maintaining stable relationships. Moods may also be inconsistent, but never neutral - their sense of reality is always seen in "black and white." Persons with borderline personality disorder often feel as though they lacked a certain level of nurturing while growing up and, as a result, incessantly seek a higher level of caretaking from others as adults
However, please note the following:
  • Everyone has all these traits to a certain extent. Especially teenagers. These traits must be long-standing (lasting years) and persistent. And they must be intense.


  • Gerard

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Hi.

    Thank you for the reply.

    You have posted the basics of BPD, and it is actually very hard to live with, it is INTENSE. I have been diagnosed with it.

    I basically was abused (physically and mentally) by my mother and watched my father beat her, at least until he abandoned us, but my mom loved me then and we have a good relationship now.

    I actually dreamt about her last night, she was watching these three little children (that was actually how many of my sisters and I there was) and she was beating them, almost killing them. They were my cousins in the dream. I was begging her to stop and she started yelling at me and I got scared again, I ran down the stairs and told my Aunt to quietly go up there and stop my mom because I didn't want my dad to know what she was doing, otherwise my dad would go up there and hurt my mom. My dad was shirtless and drunk and he was wondering why I ran down the stairs and why my aunt ran up so I hugged him and told him how much I loved him, and was trying to distract him so he wouldn't kill her. I finally woke up though.

    Sorry, I thought that might be relevent because it shows a bit of how my childhood really was.

    Okay, I was wondering, is it possible that I can be in love with my boyfriend and love him more than anything and at the same time be using him to fill a void? Because that is what I feel like sometimes.

    Tink

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 22, Michigan

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Tinkster,
    I'll give a full response a little later today {it is now almost 12 noon Tennessee time}. Have a few errands I need to run. I'll comment on your relationship also. That can be very delicate and I want to be clear as to how I think the dream may be addressing that.

    Gerard

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Tinkster,
    The possibility that your boyfriend is filling that void is a real possibility. But it doesn't necessarily mean he is or isn't the right guy for you. I would judge that by how the relationship is progressing. No one is perfect, and every relationship will have its pitfalls. But if he suites your needs, is a good, dependable companion, that is how you should judge him and the relationship.

    But I would listen to that intuitive self. Women have a big edge over men when using these inherent senses. You can sense things when they are not right. If there are doubts, real doubts beyond and before anything said here, then the dream may be addressing those intuitive 'readings'. You could love him and he be an ass. The problem begins when you let him get away time and time again abusing the relationship. That could point to patterns of behavior that prompt you to make the wrong choices because a need to merely fill the void. But again, judge him for who he is and not what other possibilities there might be.

    I'm looking at your current dream and working on an interpretation. I wanted to make these comments because of the questions about the relationship with your boyfriend.

    Gerard

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Tinkster,
    Seldom do you see a straightforward dream like your last one. I'm sure it reflects your abusive past as you stated earlier. But normally dreams don't come out and say 'exactly what you experienced', they use metaphor.

    The question I would ask about the dream would involve the real relationship with your aunt. Was there something special about her that or experiences from your past involving her that may be significant to the dream or your life?

    Gerard

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Hello.

    The aunt in my dream was/is important to me, she married my favorite uncle and they got married at a young age. She is only 10 years older than I am, so now that I am older I have grown closer to her. She was always very pretty and nice, and as a young girl I looked up to her. I did forget a part of the dream, she actually was injured in the dream, like my mom had somehow poked three holes into my aunts hand, in the part between the thumb and forefinger and it was bleeding when she came back downstairs. She wasn't able to protect her children so they were being abused upstairs and only her and I knew. I was also upset that she was hurt.

    About my boyfriend, my instincts say that he is the one for me, but that it is going to take a lot of hard work. :)

    I appreciate your input.
    Tink

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 22, Michigan

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

    Re: Vegetarian Eating Meat

    Tinkster,
    The use of related people in dreams is common. Since you identify with certain qualities your aunt possesses is one main reason why. As for the 3 holes in her hand it may in some way relate to your 3 siblings. Hands often symbolize ability to do do certain things. That may relate to an inability to handle those past experiences of abuse.

    As for your boyfriend, it is great you realize it will take a lot of work. All relationships require sacrifice {a favorite quote from Joseph Campbell about relationships: you must sacrifice to the relationship} and even the best have their moments of conflict.

    Gerard

    Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 56 Murfreesboro, Tn.

    Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

    How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes


    stats from 7-14-10 to the present