SHOCK IN DREAMS:Understanding dreams is not so difficult. In practice dream symbols translate into certain words within the English language. For instance a "shock" dream may simply translate into an everyday word or phrase such as "wild behaviour" and your dream maybe noting the recent bad behaviour of your child.

FULL LIST OF KEYWORDS
In practice "shock" has several symbolic meanings. Here is the full list. Try to pick out phrases and words which seem relevant and then try to weave these into sentences which capture your thoughts right now
- "realising how bad your health is" (we often dismiss the truth but eventually it catches up with us. After a while we realise that this new health problem is not going to go away and that's when we realise how bad things have become)
- "unexpected event the day before" (A completely surprise event could obviously trigger a shock dream)
- "something is so predictable" (dreams can be sarcastic. We say things like "I would be so shocked if he did not get the job" when we know very well the person will not get the job. Our dream minds will use the same type of sarcasm)
- "wild behaviour" (Have you started to realise how badly behaved you have been? Have you shocked yourself? Were you shocked by someone close to you behaving badly?)
- "not wanting to shock people" (Have you realised just how shocking you have behaved? Are you now starting to think about the consequences e.g. What's my Grandma going to say when she finds out)
- "a break up" (Big changes of any kind may cause "shock" dreams. A break up takes a long period of adjustment and so you may have "shock"" dreams at any time)
- "shocked by someone's plight yesterday" (Dreams are often linked to the previous day and if you have been genuinely shocked by someone's plight then your dream may dwell on this. Dreams can link to major changes in our way of thinking and so anything which has shocked you may change your world view)
- "thinking about how bad things could turn out" (We occasionally have dreams which explore a worst possible outcome. Its your minds way of saying "this could have serious consequences". We often say things like "well we can be hit by lightning but it would never happen to me". However, we might start to think that "this could actually happen!" What worst possible scenario were you thinking of yesterday?)- "not knowing how to react" (Were you lost for words yesterday? Did things happen so quickly that you did not know what to do?)
- "you have only just realised something" (Sometimes it takes us a long time to realise the truth of the situation. What problem have you tried to ignore? In what way have you said "that could not happen to me")
- "cannot believe how someone thinks" (were you genuinely shocked at someone's reaction to something yesterday?)
- "things have changed so much"

Its a fallacy that dreams capture unconscious thoughts - dreams represent thoughts that we are all too aware of. A typical dream would translate into the types of thoughts that we might write down in a diary or tell a best friend. Dreams represent your key thoughts which pinpoint the problems right now. Try to write down some quotes which capture your feelings right now and try to include the words and phrases above (or just the word "shock" itself). Here is an example - the dreamer had a dream where she was shocked at how badly a dog was treated. The day before she had had been shocked at the plight of someone she was teaching to read and write. So the word "shock" was clearly relevant the day before. Its likely that the dream about the dogs plight and the real life story of the man learning are connected.

Dreams can represent very sophisticated thoughts. A dream where the dreamer was shocked by a guy asking her to marry her linked to her dating a man on the internet. She did not really believe in internet dating and the shock in the dream symbolised her total lack of faith in the internet dating. So the dream is sarcastic. The dream captures this sarcastic thought - "if a guy on a dating site did ask me to marry him it would shock me. I really do not have confidence in dating sites".