Hello!

I was curious as to others' experiences as to when a recurrent dream drastically changed.

For example, I had two recurrent dreams (one a dream, the other a nightmare) that suddenly changed while I explored myself through counseling:

1. The dream was that I sought this one very important person to me, but I could never find him or her.
I felt as if I could interact with everyone but this person.
And then one night I dreamed I caught that person.
I can't fully explain but I felt inexplicably healed after that dream because I recognized that that person wasn't a person but a symbol. That person symbolized the innocence and joy that I felt I lacked in my own childhood due to my circumstance. And I saught after those qualities in my own waking life. I haven't seen this person in my dreams since.

2. The nightmare was being chased by a malevolent force. The force was often unseen or was symbolized by the undead.
But one night I dreamed that I fought back and 'killed' the figure. I ripped it's jaw open and it's face off (eww!) to recognize that it wasn't a man but a beast-machine hybrid.
I felt the force represented my own unrecognized power (constructive and destructive) to act against what I felt was oppression.
Now I can feel that force in my dreams and in my waking life.

Bizarre.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?
If so, how did those dreams help or hinder you?

[egoalien]

This is not really a response to your question but I see nobody answered to your thread, so I thought I might as well put this hear.

I have a lot of trouble with dreams (nightmares and night terrors), there are many recurrent themes that never change. An interesting thing happened fairly recently. I began therapy with new therapist. I usually have multiple nightmares about every night and since the therapist is into dreams, we talk about them. After the first ever time I told a dream to this therapist, I had a nightmare about a common recurrent theme but the ending totally changed. This happened the very next night after talking about (the other) dream. While I do not wish to tell the changed dream, I can say that the changed outcome was way more pleasant. I find this quite interesting.

[Perna]

I believe dreams are just our unconscious trying to let us know what it is we really should learn/need to know. Often, we don't have the psychological wherewithal to "listen" yet and get what the dream is trying to tell us but then something will happen in our real life, therapy or an unexpected "ally" and things will change/get resolved.

I had experiences similar to egoalien where therapy changed the types and number of dreams I recalled dramatically. If you are "open" to working with your dreams, they're more "useful" to one I think. Otherwise, they're stuck running the same script/recurring theme until you do pay attention.