Perhaps you dream of your fears, which are not so fearful to others. Half the basement looks like a house or the conscious mind; the other half a dark den, the unconscious mind. You may be bringing up and working through fears which have been repressed in the unconscious. You cannot get anyone else to understand the significance of that which you fear, because they cannot sense or fear it. When you face your fears, you learn that "being vaporized has a nice warm feeling" and you have won and worked through some issue you have been fearing. I couldn't hazard a guess as to the nature of that issue. Almost drowning in India sounds like a fear of being overcome by material in the subconscious, which, it is my understanding, water represents. Tapping the lions made them runaway, and, again, you faced and overcame your fears! Good Dream Work! Not that I have much experience in this regard, but I am picking up things here and there. Dream On ~ billieJ