Lately Ive been having dreams about being in jail.  Last night I drempt I was locked up, I did not even do anything to break the law.  THe second day the cell opened up, and I snuck out.  I was in a bad neighbor hood, and I went to a secluded spot to change clothes so noone would recognize me.  Suddenly someone sneaked up behind me and tried to attack me.  I got a feeling it was a crackhead/homeless person. Like I said, it was a bad neighborhood.  But now that I think about it, it seemed more like some kind of evil entity.  And that ended the dream.  But this might be my 3rd or 4th dream about jail within a couple weeks.  I think it has somthing to do with my cousin, who I grew up with and was my best friend for a long while growing up, recently went to jail.

Greetings Obi-Dude. 

I take a more traditional approach to dreams.  Although, Betson’s suggestion may be a good one.  Your jail dreams reminded you of your cousin and that might be an association to explore in finding out what the dreams mean.  The key to interpreting dreams is always that the symbolism and the interpretations must make sense to you as the person having the dream.  Symbols in dreams can mean different things.  It always depends on the context and what is meaningful to the dreamer.

In my approach, the dream of the jail might also suggest what you are going through in your exploration of consciousness.  You have many OOB experiences; you’ve engaged in several retrievals; and you’re advancing through the different Focus levels.  The jail might indicate that you feel somewhat imprisoned by your physical body and physically focused consciousness.  In a way it balances out the non-physical exploring that you’re doing.

You’ve had a number of dreams where you are being chased or in a situation where people are attacking or threatening you.  These kinds of experiences are referred to as the Shadow.  According to Jung, the shadow represents aspects of our whole personality that have been suppressed or repressed as we grow up and develop psychologically.  As our psyches develop we always make choices; we choose to develop certain aspects of our personalities and the expense of other potential aspects.  Those things that we don’t develop become suppressed in our subconscious.  Jung suggests that the psyche’s goal is to become whole and that an important process we go through is to incorporate those aspects of our personality that have been suppressed.  These hidden aspects often appear as threatening because we ignored them as we developed other aspects of ourselves during our development.  I’m probably not explaining this too well, but you might want to google “Jung” and “shadow” or “dream” and “shadow”.  You’ll find better explanations.

In one of your other dreams, you also had a shadow situation where someone was attacking you.  In that dream you were with and protecting your grandmother, as I recall.  Symbolically, a grandmother can represent an archetype or major dream element that is sometimes referred to as the wise woman or wise old woman.  This kind of figure represents the feminine and the wisdom of the feminine.  Generally, that is a type of wisdom that is more intuitive, natural and subconscious.  It’s opposite would be the wise old man, whose wisdom is more rational and analytical.  In exploring consciousness, especially for a guy, it’s important to not be overly analytical.  It seems to me that the kind of knowledge we obtain through the different focus levels often has a strong intuitive element.  In the dream with the grandmother, it could be said that you are protecting the intuitive aspect of your self and your explorations.  Because we are taught to analyze and think and be rational in our culture, the intuitive side is often hidden from us.  In your dream you may have encountered that hidden side and you are defending it.  I see that dream as a very positive development that goes along with what you’ve been accomplishing in your on-line journal.

I suspect as you continue to explore your consciousness and tap into the unconscious you will continue to have other shadow dreams.  It is significant that instead of running from the threat that you stop and face it.  You are dealing with suppressed parts of your own psyche instead of running.  That’s very positive.  Jung, I believe, maintained that with these shadow elements we can repress them or we can confront them and, best of all, transform them.  It is the transformative aspect that signals our development.  That’s what I think you are doing – transforming your self.  Sometimes it seems threatening and unpleasant but the result is a good thing.

As I said before, if an interpretation doesn’t strike anything meaningful for you it is probably incorrect.  What I’ve written is just something to think about and decide if it has any meaning to you.  Rob

Well, I think you're proof about there being more abilities than most of us suspect.  I notice you've transformed again.  You must have had your birthday, because I think I notice a mustache.  Transformation's good.