Repressed Memories?
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Some dreams have elements that would be impossible to reproduce in real life, such as a person turning into an animal in front of the dreamer’s eyes. I know a woman, however, who had certain nightmares that did not contain these impossible elements but other than that they were as horrifying and terrifying and unlikely as any nightmare can get.
No ordinary person, herself included, would suppose that these nightmares were accurate memories, without the slightest distortion or elaboration, but it turned out that this is precisely what they were. She had suffered Satanic Ritual Abuse as a child and for decades had lost all memory of ever having been exposed to it. These dreams proved key pieces in the puzzle as to why she was always oppressed. She never wanted those dreams but they ended up playing a vital role in putting her shattered life back together.
My dreams always seem to contain fanciful elements. I don’t recall ever having a dream that was an accurate repeat of something I had previously experienced. So I was surprised to learn from people with traumatic pasts that sometimes their nightmares – often repeated several times over the years – are exact reproductions of traumatic experiences they had suffered long before. They seem more like flashbacks than dreams but they occur during sleep.
Often, like the woman mentioned above, it is years after first having these dreams that they begin to realize that they are not just having nightmares but memories of actual events. They suffered such horrors that anyone’s mind would naturally recoil from them and want to totally erase them, but on the other hand there is a deep human need to process and resolve traumatic memories, and, from another perspective, the experiences are simply too extreme not to be memorable. It can become virtually impossible to keep the memories suppressed forever, and dreams are one way in which they slip out. This turns out to be a greater blessing than is often realized.
I can best explain this with an analogy that for some sensitive people might itself become nightmare material. If, for example, you would find a mild horror story upsetting, then just read on. Other readers, click here. http://www.net-burst.net/dreams/coffin.htm When Bizarre Dreams Are Accurate Memories
I mentioned a woman who had bizarre dreams that seem to be an accurate replaying of what had actually happened to her in real life as a child. These events included being shut in a coffin filled with spiders, and ceremonies involving people wearing weird cloaks engaging in child sacrifice.
I presume it must take enormous mental effort to keep suppressed such traumatic – and so in one sense highly memorable – events. It must almost be like being left in a house alone after having just had a limb hacked off and then trying to convince oneself that it never happened – successfully suppressing all the pain, making oneself completely unaware of all the spurting blood, trying to act normally with no consciousness of physical disability. If one could achieve that, it would certainly lower the mental trauma but it would be highly undesirable. Life-saving procedures – stemming the flow of blood, phoning an ambulance, and so on – hinge on admitting to oneself that one is seriously wounded.
So it is when we have been emotionally wounded. Suppressing awareness of the wound initially seems easier than acknowledging that we need help, but to do so is dangerously unwise.
Strong Emotions From Known or Unknown Past Traumas
A dream might not be like a flashback is which details from the past are replayed exactly, but it could deal symbolically with unresolved fears, anxieties and anger stemming from past traumas. If this is so, then it doesn’t take a genius to realize that resolving these issues will stop this source of nightmare. Accessing suppressed memories might seem impossible but, as Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar as he began to interpret his dream, “there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (Daniel 2:28). Our prayer-answering Lord “knows what lies in darkness” and “reveals deep and hidden things” (Daniel 2:22). The God who begs you to ask that you may receive says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).
The God who calls you his precious child longs to reveal to you all that you need for peace and wholeness. All that is needed is for you to have the courage to face the truth when it is revealed and to handle it in a Christ like manner. This is not nearly as scary as it may seem because the God of all comfort longs to be with you every step of the way and Jesus has already borne in his own torture on the cross all the pain and punishment and injustice associated with your trauma.
When people suppose they are avoiding pain, and think the damage they have suffered is untreatable anyway, people are content to let unpleasant memories remain buried. But the surfacing of suppressed traumas through unpleasant dreams can be a blessing – and might sometimes be a direct act of God – because the damage can be treated and the pain can end, provided people with these pasts stop living in denial. The surfacing of these memories long after the event makes sense reveals divine wisdom because with the passing years these people have gained maturity, greater spiritual awareness, and sometimes greater access even to human help than when the original trauma occurred.
You need never fear truth. The Healing Lord is the God of truth and he moves in an atmosphere of truth, not one of living in denial. Just as Jesus offers full forgiveness but we must confess our sins – admit to ourselves that we are morally damaged – so healing is available to us but we must first admit that we have been internally wounded.
To deliberately live in denial is to resist the Spirit of truth. Even though he knew they needed healing, Jesus – the truth (John 14:6) – didn’t heal people without them facing reality and admitting their problem (examples For Healing We Must Admit Our Need
Mark 10:51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him,
“Do you want to get well?”
Mark 5:30-34 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”).
As much as Jesus wanted to heal them, their healing hinged on them admitting that they were sick and needed healing. Had they out of shame or through priding themselves in being macho said, “I’m fine,” they would have missed their healing. This principle applies to emotional healing as well as physical healing. There is no truth that takes God by surprise. There is nothing too hard for him or is beyond his ability to forgive.
The emotions we don’t want to face are inside of us, whether we deny it or not. They don’t scare God. The only problem is that they often scare us. He wants you to have the courage to get really honest with yourself and with him and face your fears and your past disappointments, frustration, anger, inner pain, and so on. He is not shocked. He knows it already and he still loves and accepts you. Rather than force himself on you against your will, he honours you by restraining his longing to deliver you and tenderly waiting for you to trust him enough to invite him into the dark corners of your life and let him touch that ever so tender part of you with his healing hands.
It is in the dark that shadows loom and harmless things seem terrifying. It is when we bring them into the light that sanity returns.
God wants you empowered to get on with your life but this cannot happen until with Christ you face the ghosts of the past. Living in denial is a sure way to keep the pain nagging in the background and hinder healing. Distressing dreams can be an invaluable way of helping us face reality so that we can heal.
Various things are needed to resolve emotional issues associated with past trauma. A key matter is to end the blame game. Nothing festers the wound, preventing healing, like blame, whether it be God, other people or ourselves that we blame. Our one and sure hope is to let our crucified Lord do what he longs to do by letting all the blame be placed on his innocent shoulders. There is blame – grave offences have been indeed committed – but we let all blame die with the One who died for the sins of the world; the one who was tormented so that our torment could end.
An obvious key to finding peace is talking to God about the issues. I’ve already mentioned this. Something we can foolishly overlook, however, is talking to people about the things that disturb us. Many of us think ourselves too spiritual for this. If so, we are more “spiritual” than God. For Scriptures exposing this as a lie our temptation to keep things solely between God and us, see Our Need of Human Help.
Here’s a powerful saying: You are as sick as your secrets. (Source I believe this statement originated with Alcoholics Anonymous and has been adopted by all the Twelve Steps Programs ) In the dark, things terrify us. It is bringing things into the light that empowers us to cope.
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