A Plane Crash Dream

Scary dream symbols

Sometimes dream symbols can be horrifying. Often the first response of the dreamer is to worry that the dream will come true, that it portends disaster. While prophetic dreams certainly occur, the vast majority of them—even with frightening symbols—are about something completely different than what their symbols seem to suggest. The dream that I will analyze this week is a good case in point. This dream was related to me about two weeks ago by its nervous dreamer.

A dream with a plane crash

In my dream I am on a lunch date with my wife. We’re at a restaurant, except that we’re eating out of doors, and all of the tables are set up on the grass at the very end of an airport runway—just outside of the airport’s perimeter fence. Our table is the closest one to the runway. We are literally no more than 10 feet away from the end of the runway tarmac. Our table is elegantly set up with a white table cloth and wine glasses. We are enjoying our time together, and our conversation is animated. Every time a large plane lands it makes a horrific noise since it is only feet above us, but it doesn’t seem to bother us.

At one point, I happen to glance casually over my shoulder at the runway, and I see that a large jet is about to crash. I grab my wife’s arm and run away from the impending explosion as fast as I can. But it is like running through molasses; everything is in slow motion. Nevertheless, we end up far enough away from the impact that we are physically unaffected.

In the next scene, which takes place almost immediately after the first one, I am sorting through the wreckage of the plane crash. My wife is standing off at a distance, watching. But she is within earshot. Mostly what I am finding are pieces of debris from the plane itself—broken seats, large chunks of plastic, twisted metal.

But then I come upon pieces of a human baby. There is no gore, no blood. It is more like pieces of a doll—an arm here, the torso there. I am concerned, but with surprising dispassion I pick up the arm and hold it high so that my wife can see it. She is curious to know what it is and I call out to her and tell her.

That’s when I wake up.

Is this a prophetic dream?

As is often the case, the images in this dream were so frightening that the dreamer was upset by them. Were the events in this dream going to come true? Did it warn of some other comparable disaster? As the dreamer discovered—and as we will, too—the dream was about a personal “crash” that the dreamer was experiencing. And the dead baby was a “brain child” that didn’t make it through the crisis.

Stay tuned for the details!