Dream of Saving Someone from Drowning

If you ever wake up from a dream of saving someone from drowning, sit up and pay attention.

I know that you are probably going to be trying to catch your breath. You might even be sweating. Your heart is pounding so much that it might seem like it’s about to jump out of your chest.

This is precisely the kind of situation where you need to be more mindful of the exact symbols and situations that appeared in your dream about someone drowning.

Standard Dream Dictionary Interpretation of Saving Someone from Drowning

The main motif in this type of dream is the water. Without first understanding what the water means, you cannot come up with a workable interpretation of saving someone from drowning

Water is chaos and chaos in our lives takes many different forms. It operates in a seemingly infinite number of ways.

But ultimately it all boils down to chaos.

The Nature of Chaos

It’s something we cannot anticipate, control, contain, and to a large extent even understand. It is our shadow that cuts through our psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects.

Now, it’s easy to understand, given this description, if you’re fearful of this aspect of your personality.

But believe it or not, this is where your power comes from. This is what drives you.

Emotions as Chaos

Just as we are only able to fully understand the importance and value of land after we’ve spent time keeping ourselves from drowning in the ocean, the same applies to chaos. In our typical day-to-day experience, chaos is exemplified by our emotions.

Let me ask you. Are you really fully aware and by extension in control of your emotions?

If you’re being completely honest with yourself, the answer is no.

Welcome to the club!

If you’re like most people, you only need to think about a painful, embarrassing, or guilty memory, and this flood of emotions comes over you. It doesn’t just stay at the level of your heart.

Emotions and Actions

If you go through that process enough times and you associate it with certain situations, conditions, and circumstances in your life, it also impacts your actions.

For example, if you remember being sexually abused when you’re a kid by somebody you trusted, how do you think that would impact your relationship with people in the here and now?

How do you think that would shape your willingness to trust and at what level of intimacy you can commit to?

It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. Such experiences have an impact on your emotions which directly shape your decisions.

And the Worst Part About the Chaos of Emotion?

The worst part to all of this is just like being caught in a watery vortex, it could also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s as if you are caught in this endless spiral.

For example, you have a tough time trusting people because you got ripped off in the past. Maybe you got scammed thousands of dollars.

So, in your fear and distrust, you are triggered emotionally to be so guarded that you don’t take advantage of obvious financial opportunities.

What do you think happens?

Well, you see that opportunity translate into reality because your friends who invested in a crypto opportunity or in a stock pick are now making millions.

How do you think that will affect you?

Well, you develop a FOMO or fear of missing out. This leans you to jump on one opportunity after another and you get burned.

And then the process repeats itself again. Pretty soon, it even impacts your self-esteem.

You keep telling yourself: “I sure didn’t know how to pick them. I’m such a loser. Maybe it’s not in my stars to be wealthy and comfortable in life. Maybe I’m just a sucker.”

Do you see how this works? How does the chaos of the unknown manifests itself in our emotional states, which translates to actions that we take to change our waking reality?

They’re all interconnected and that’s why the dream symbolism of drowning is so powerful.

You can see somebody thrashing underneath the water with no control. And soon after, their life will drain out of them. This is how strong this dream imagery is.

We’re looking at an almost indescribable mix of emotions, consequences, impacts, nostalgia, memory, regret — you name it — just like a water vortex it goes so quickly. It seems like there’s no way to control it.

And if you add relationships to the mix, it gets even more confusing.

Dreaming of Somebody Else Drowning

Now, with the background out of the way, what does it mean to see somebody drowning?

Keep in mind that it’s not you who is drowning. You’re seeing somebody else drown.

At this point, we’re not gonna focus on the identity of the person who is drowning. Instead, we’re going to shine a spotlight on how you’re supposed to take it all in.

If you read somewhere that human beings are driven by selfishness, forget about what you’ve read. On the contrary, human beings are naturally empathetic.

There’s a part of us that seeks to relate to people in front of us. Of course, the more similar they are to us, the more likely we’re likely to empathize.

Maybe we have the same religion. Maybe we speak the same language.

Perhaps, we come from the same part of the world. More specifically, maybe we came from the same town and even speak the same dialect and so we have the same values.

The more similarities there are, the more we identify with them.

But even if they’re a complete and total stranger with a different color, different religion, and different geographic background from us, we still can empathize because that’s hardwired into the human condition.

When you see that person thrashing about in the water about to die, it’s a very emotionally violent image.

And a part of you is pushed to want to save that person. You’re pushed to even feel guilt for being in a situation where you can possibly see somebody die.

The guilt comes from the fact that you have some power in you to either prevent this thing from happening, prevent it from getting worse, or somehow get help.

So, let’s start there.

You’re seeing somebody thrash about in the water. The meaning depends on who it is.

1. Saving a Loved One from Drowning

This can involve you trying to save, having saved, or saving or rescuing or trying to rescue a person younger than you. It can be your child, a family friend, a younger brother, or a sister.

Whatever the case may be, when you see yourself concerned about this person thrashing about because they are somehow related to you, your subconscious is telling you that you are actually a supportive person.

Pillar of Support

You might not think you’re a very supportive person. Or, you might not even think you’re all that capable.

But your subconscious is telling you that you can support these people. You can be a pillar in their lives.

They don’t have to make the same mistakes you did when you were their age. They don’t have to get burned, scammed, let down nor do they have to go through heartbreak.

When you see yourself looking at a loved one drowning or in the process of drowning, your personal past and capabilities are being drawn in.

2. Saving a Parent from Drowning

When you save your mother or your father, this indicates that you are trying to find some sort of closure with your past. Now, this doesn’t mean that there was some sort of abuse or neglect. Instead, it can point to something much bigger.

Becoming Better Than Our Parents

Because at some point, we want to become greater than our parents. It is the natural dream of boys to become greater men than their fathers. The same goes with daughters and their mothers.

If your think about it, this seeming competition is not all that weird because this is how humanity has moved forward.

We move forward in terms of higher heights to climb, greater summits to master, and more vistas and horizons to explore. We don’t go back to the safe, the well-charted, and the small.

But you have to have a healthy relationship with this competitive feeling. By being more and better than your parents, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you love them less.

This doesn’t have to involve some sort of disrespect. Instead, it’s just built-in to your emotional, spiritual, and psychological DNA.

If you see yourself trying to pull your family member from the water and they appear dead or their color has changed into gray, this is not a prediction that they would die.

Instead, your subconscious is telling you that you should be careful about what you choose to hang on to when it comes to family memories and most importantly your ideas regarding your family members or your history.

Because in many cases, we hang on to a family narrative that prevents us from moving on and reaching higher heights.

There’s an old saying: “Respect the fire but don’t worship the ashes.”

In other words, we need to respect our past but at the same time, we have to be open-minded enough to accept the fact that whatever worked in the past may not necessarily work in our time.

So, you have to be open-minded and adaptable.

And just because people you respect and trust did certain things a certain way doesn’t mean that you’re a slave to that same process. You have to find your way.

But interestingly enough, the problems never change throughout changing times. The shape and form of the solutions do.

3. Saving a Relative from Drowning in the Ocean

You may be thinking to yourself: “What’s the big difference between saving a family member in a bathtub and doing the same in the open ocean? Is there really a marked difference between saving somebody’s life in a backyard pool and doing so in the Pacific Ocean?”

The change in venue indicates the scope of the problem.

When you’re trying to save or you’ve successfully saved a relative from drowning in the ocean, your subconscious is telling you that you are dealing with forces that are almost beyond your control because the consequences are vast.

They are not compartmentalized or easy-to-chart or limit as with a backyard pool. We are, after all, dealing with the ocean.

It’s very deep. It’s wide. It has surface storms. It’s got a lot going on.

Let Go and Believe That Things Will Work Out for the Best

When you save somebody in that context, your subconscious is telling you that you have to accept the fact that you can only act up to a certain extent, and you just have to trust that things will work out.

You just have to leave the rest alone because when you find yourself in a situation where the possibilities of different reactions and combinations of reactions and consequences are almost limitless, it’s easy to go crazy.

It’s easy to worry about stuff that has a very low chance of happening, but people do this anyway. It’s an absolute waste of imagination.

9 times out of 10, the worst-case scenario that you think up in your head and which can keep you up at night never come to pass.

That’s the power of worry. It truly grinds you down on so many different levels.

That’s why when you see yourself saving or in the process of saving a loved one in the open ocean, your subconscious is telling you that it’s important that you take action.

It’s important that you take this seriously to the point that you make arrangements, you set up goals, and you take action.

But there is also a point where you have to just trust that things will work out because there are some things you can’t control past this point.

And it’s actually pointless. It’s as if that you reach a certain line where you get diminishing returns for all the emotional and psychological energy and resources you put into this thing.

4. Saving a Baby from Drowning in a Pool or Ocean

If the image of the person you are saving or in the process of saving from drowning is a baby, this indicates some sort of emotional vulnerability on your part.

There’s a part of you that is struggling through certain changes in certain areas of your life.

And what makes it so much more difficult is that your tools are not fully formed. I’m reluctant to say this because it can be easily interpreted the wrong way, but there’s no better term for it.

There’s a Part of You That’s Retarded!

I’m not talking about your IQ or your mental prowess or your cognitive abilities. Instead, I’m talking about your spiritual discernment and your ability to emotionally make sense of things.

Even if you have an IQ north of 160, you can still be retarded in this respect.

That baby that’s drowning or thrashing in the water whose life is about to be snuffed out is you.

It’s your emotional side. It’s the unformed side of your psyche.

In more practical, day-to-day terms, it’s the part of you that refuses to grow up.

Believe it or not, Peter Pan is actually more common than we care to realize. Sure, in many areas of your life, you have figured things out and you have your act together.

Maybe you’ve saved enough for a nice house or you live in a nice place. You have a nice car and a garage. Your career is going.

But there’s a part of you that is still a child. There’s still a part of you that refuses to let go of childish concepts that are no longer doing you any good today.

Maybe you’ve held a grudge. Maybe you’re hanging on to some sort of cartoon picture of who you are, where you can and cannot go, or who you can and cannot be.

For whatever reason, you treat it like some sort of security blanket. You can’t let go.

Let That Child Go

Save that baby by knowing where to cut. Cut the umbilical cord of the baby trapped within.

Let it drift off into the vast, amniotic fluid of your subconscious so that the rest of you can raise forward and surface to see the bright, endless sun of the possibilities that your life has to offer.

There’s a greater world out there that cannot be matched by going back into the cave of our subconscious fears as well as our conscious securities and self-deception.

5. Saving a Stranger from Drowning or Saving a Drowning Unknown Woman

Sometimes this dream happens when you are losing your identity in life.

If this resonates with you, please understand that you are involved in something that’s truly risky. You need to be careful of what you aspire to be or what values you think you have.

A lot of the reasons why people end up chasing their tails in their life like a giant snake with its tail caught in its mouth is they don’t really know where they’re going. This has happened because they lost track of who they truly idolize or who they look up to.

I’m not talking about your physical surroundings here. I’m not talking about something physical that you can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell.

I’m Talking About the Ideas That You Allow to Enter Your Head

Just because you see people desiring something or looking up to somebody doesn’t mean that you have to follow suit.

Instead, you have to look at their values. That’s how you see how things truly are.

You do have control over your values because they define what your character eventually will be. Take ownership of that.

Choose Your Values Carefully

Don’t just go along to get along. Don’t just be another piece of plastic that just coasts on the surface of a storm-tossed ocean because you feel that there’s really not much you can do or this is just who you are because these are the types of people you hang around with.

If you start thinking along with those terms, eventually you’re going to start looking at your life as some sort of accident.

Seriously!

You think that your values are a certain way because you were born in a certain place by certain people who make a certain amount of money.

And you are surrounded by certain types of people.

Life is not an accident, at least not in the way we normally define such a situation. You do have a lot more control over your life than you give yourself credit for.

And it all begins with what you choose to prioritize.

So, when you see that image of a stranger thrashing around in the water — in a pool or in the depths of the ocean — what your subconscious is trying to get at is that there is a part of you that you choose not to know.

You do not know because most of your waking consciousness is trapped and invested in things that you shouldn’t be invested in. These are the things that you automatically subscribe to because you feel that there’s nothing else out there.

There’s nothing interesting. There’s nothing worth investigating.

Well, think again!

Because if you are frustrated in any area of your life, it may be because of this deep and profound form of laziness.

You owe it to yourself. Explore the bear in you.

Plunge deep into the cave because behind your fear is the sunlight of endless possibility.

Dream Example #1

In my dream, I was visiting with my grandpa in Mukada country.

When I was about to leave, he started pleading to return with me to Kingston. He wanted to see my wife, but especially my daughter who he has missed for a very long time.

But Lizzy has become very uncomfortable about meeting her great-grandpa. I tried giving him all sorts of excuses.

I was ready to depart but the weather was wet, drizzling with rain. So while I was arguing with grandpa, I was also waiting for the rain to cease.

“It’s been over two months since I saw my one-and-only great-grandchild. Why do you invest so much effort to keep her away from me? What’s my offence?” he said.

I stood up from my chair and went close to him where he stood. His dog, Chat, was going all around him. I placed my right hand on his shoulder and said, “Look, grandpa, I’m not keeping Lizzy away from you. You will see her very soon but not today; maybe when next I visit.”

“When I must have died?”

“You’re not dying,” I replied.

We were standing on the veranda. I looked outside and noticed that the rain had stopped.

Almost all of a sudden, the sun had begun shining. Even the grasses in front of the house looked so dry as though the rain never fell. And the same thing is true of my car, which was in the middle of the compound.

I noticed that the windows of my car were wound down. I didn’t know how that happened.

Then I saw two birds playing all around the car, chirping. Presently, they were chasing each other, entering the car through the driver’s window and flying out through the other side.

I worried that they might drop their excrement in the car. My wife and Lizzy would be appalled to learn of that.

I looked at my grandpa and told him that I had to live.

Seated at the wheel, I saw him coming down the small stairs of the veranda with much difficulty. He was holding Chat by the rope in one hand, and the rails in the other hand.

His shirt which I had dry-cleaned for him was sparkling white. He managed to come close to me, standing near the door of my car. I was already about to zoom off.

Then I noticed that there was smoke all around. It was from my exhaust. Now grandpa was covered in this unhealthy smoke.

He was still insisting on going with me. I pitied the old man. At that point, I had to be blunt and tell him exactly why I did not want to take him to my house.

“You know this is your fault,” I began. “You and Lizzy used to be buddies until she went from being fond of you to becoming disgusted at you. And you know exactly why this is so, grandpa.

Lizzy detests dogs. But you keep on bringing Chat along, even allowing him into the bedroom. He defecates everywhere, pollutes the house, spoils Lizzy’s toys, and even eats up her food.

And when the poor girl comes to her great-grandpa to catch fun, she finds the dog’s droppings on your clothes. On top of that, she has to compete with the annoying beast for your attention.”

“It won’t happen again,” said the old man. His voice was soft and shaky. And I noticed through the smoke that even though the weather was dry and sunny, grandpa’s eyes were wet.

“I will keep the dog outside; maybe tether him to the rails of your swimming pool,” he said. Just let me come see my baby girl. He was crying now.

My heart was moved. Why should I be a cause of tears to my grandpa? I felt guilty. Thus I came with him to Kingston.

Back in Kingston, I met my wife and daughter at the door. I had barely opened the door. At the sound of my voice, they rushed to welcome me.

I wanted at once to show them to grandpa, who I thought was behind me. But when I turned, I saw neither the old man nor his dog.

We all started towards the garage, with Lizzy in my arms.

I was now hearing the dog barking. I let my baby down and hurried in the direction the barking was – towards the swimming pool.

When I looked, alas, the dog was in the water, struggling to stay afloat. And by my instincts, I knew that the old man was definitely in the water!

I quickly kicked off my shoes and plunged into the pool. Good grief, I found him. I pulled him out of the pool.

I figured that Chat must have slipped out of his hand while he was trying to tether him to the rails, and then fallen into the pool.

The old man, thinking that it’s an ordinary pool like the streams of Mukada country, went in to save his dog.

I laid him on the floor. My wife and I started pressing his stomach, pumping the water out of him, and trying to resuscitate him. Then I woke up from the dream.

Dream Example #2

I have had many dreams in my life but one that has remained indelible on my mind. This is the one I had on 21st June 2020 at the height of the ‘lockdown’ occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in my country – Nigeria.

The last thing I remember doing that day was watching the movie – “Titanic.” I obeyed the government order to stay indoors so as not to be arrested by the law enforcement officers or contract the virus all day.

As soon as the entertaining movie was over, I retired to bed around 11 pm draped in my nightwear. I said my prayers and went to sleep as my wife and children had relocated to her village, Okrika, to take care of her ailing mother.

Schools were closed so I allowed her to leave with the children.

June is known as the height of the rainy season in Nigeria so the weather was cold prompting me to go under my blanket.

I found myself on the bank of the River Niger – the longest river in Nigeria, at Jebba stark naked.

I then heard someone screaming right from inside the river. On taking a closer look, I discovered he was no more than a teenager. He was dressed in a yellow T-shirt and brown khaki shorts.

Without much ado, I jumped into the river and swam towards him.

In real life, I am an average swimmer; I learned how to swim during my teenage years in Lagos. In my dream, however, I was an expert.

With 5 powerful strokes, I reached the teenager. I then tried holding him under his armpits with my left hand and swim to safety with the right one. This proved very difficult as getting the drowning chap to relax in my hand, proved to be a Herculean task.

I persisted and finally succeeded when the river threw him up, perhaps, for the last time before sucking him under finally.

I passed my left hand through his armpits from the back. I then held him tightly and swam to safety with powerful strokes from the right one. It is not as if he stopped struggling completely but I was able to persuade him to relax speaking my local language as I perceived he is from my area. It worked.

I recall feeling very proud of myself as I approached the shore within minutes. The boy was still in my grasp.

No sooner had I dragged the boy to safety, however, than the empty shore became full of my friends and family members clapping for me!

Two feelings immediately engulfed me; one of triumph at the feat and the other of embarrassment as I was still naked.

I woke up with a start shortly after partly happy it was a dream. I would have enjoyed the spotlight if it was real saving someone’s life but how would I have handled the aspect of being stark naked before the crowd? I even spotted my mother and grandmother among them.

I have not had a similar dream again to date.