If your nighttime visions focus primarily on your elevator ride, you have come to the right place when it comes to the interpretations of your elevator dream meaning.
You have to pay attention to the context.
While the elevator may be the central focus of your dream, you also have to look at additional details to get to a more specific interpretation.
The general meaning of elevator dreams
A lot of people would like to think that they work and strive for the better things in life.
They would like to think that they have hopes, dreams, and ambitions.
On the surface level, this may be true because all of us have a set of goals.
Of course, this varies from person to person.
But if you ask the typical man or woman off the street, they would tell you that they have goals.
This can be short-term or long-term.
But at the back of our heads, there is a part of our personality that simply has given up on our big goals.
Either they’ve settled for lesser goals, or they just focus on just getting by day to day, there’s really no clear direction.
But you can tell when you ask them about their goals, they will tell you that they have these, but in reality, they’re not really expecting much.
When you have elevator dreams, your subconscious is telling you that things are shaping up in such a way that your goals are actually becoming realized.
The problem is you may be mentally and emotionally prepared for the positive consequences of goal attainment.
It is no surprise to a lot of people who take all this time to work for their goals and find themselves let down when they get there.
Because at the end of the day, they either have all these outsized expectations of what it would be like to finally “make it” or they simply have given up along the way.
You have to resolve these issues.
Because if the goals that you have set up are beginning or have already materialized, it really would be a shame for you not to enjoy them.
And worse yet, it would really be a sad day if you refuse to use them to get to the next goal.
Whatever it is, you’re after financial success, a happy relationship, better health, and better overall well-being.
All of these can fall by the wayside if you are not mentally prepared.
This brings me to the next general meaning of elevator dreams.
A lot of people who see this type of dream imagery feel trapped in their daily routine.
They think that they’re going somewhere, or at least they hope they’re making some sort of forwarding progress but in reality, they feel that the next day is going to be exactly like the day that preceded it.
It’s as if they’re just waiting to die.
They are marking time on their mental calendar.
And they feel that they really don’t matter all that much.
This is one of the most depressing feelings you can ever have.
Believe it or not, you were put on this earth for a reason.
Part of your journey is to figure out that reason.
This is supposed to be the thing that makes life fun and worth living.
But people focus on what’s in front of them and they feel trapped.
And it’s no surprise that people who experienced elevator dreams frequently suffer from negative emotions.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re toxic people.
But this can indicate an addiction to intense negative emotional ups and downs when they are triggered.
Maybe it’s the fault of your parents, an ex-relationship, your old boss.
Whatever the case may be, you can’t seem to separate the mental image from this range of negative and upsetting emotions.
What’s going on is that you are becoming emotionally paralyzed and numb.
It’s keeping you from moving forward, and you feel trapped in your life.
A lot of people would say that this is just a typical first-world problem.
That if you were in a developing country, and your main priority is to get some calories, all these side issues would be out of mind.
That may be true, but you have to deal with reality where you are.
You have to find a way forward when it comes to these negative emotions.
This brings me to the final general meaning of elevator dreams.
They can indicate a breakthrough in your ability to make sense of your day-to-day reality so you can move forward.
Put simply you are able to find the motivation that you need to make sense of your existence right here right now.
What does it mean to dream of an old elevator?
You feel it because you’re not as motivated as before, you often asked yourself “What’s the point?”.
This is a call to action from your subconscious to at least upgrade your mindset to better deal with your present circumstances.
To some extent, we are the product of our circumstances.
We live in reaction to the people and things going on around us.
Unfortunately, if you are going to deal with current situations using a mindset and point of view that may have made sense when you were eight years old, there’s going to be a problem.
Your subconscious is communicating with you using the old elevator dream image to step up and make the necessary changes.
Now, this might seem pretty straightforward.
It might even give you the impression that it’s easy, but it isn’t.
People have this habit of hanging on to old mindsets, despite the evidence of how frustrated it makes their old habits die hard.
This is going to take quite a bit of work, but you need to do it if you want your life to improve.
What does it mean to see an elevator fall?
It may not have something to do directly with your personal life, but you feel the drama nonetheless.
It is very debilitating.
It’s as if you are watching a slow-moving train wreck and there’s really nothing you can do about it.
This is especially troubling if you see a loved one inside the elevator and there you are paralyzed and helpless.
You can’t do a damn thing about the disaster that’s happening to them.
Thankfully, falling elevator dreams just like other traumatic dream imagery are rarely prophetic.
Just because you see that happening in your dream doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in your waking life.
Instead, it’s a symbol of the powerlessness you feel when it comes to the drama surrounding the lives of certain people you care about.
And this can lead to depression.
What is the stuck elevator mean?
It’s an uncomfortable feeling because you may not be financially and mentally prepared for such an event.
The reality is none of us is invincible.
All of us will get sick.
The question is, what kind of sickness?
And how quickly can you or your loved one recover?
Unfortunately, the answers to these questions can only be supplied by you.
Still, your subconscious mind is trying to give you an early warning because it’s connecting the dots.
For example, if you know somebody who loves eating fatty foods, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this person, especially if they’re already overweight, may develop Type 2 Diabetes.
It’s not a stretch.
The same goes for cardiovascular disease or cancer.
What does it mean to see your elevator open on the wrong floor?
There’s a part of you that is very frustrated because it seems that you have invested a tremendous amount of time, effort, and energy making a happen.
When all you can manage to achieve is be.
The big challenge in this type of situation is to avoid feeling like a victim.
A lot of people think that they’re just unlucky.
But in reality, pay attention to what you do on a day-to-day basis.
Focus less on what you think you’re doing and be completely honest with yourself regarding your actual efforts.
Again, it doesn’t take rocket science.
If you say to yourself, you’re going to be a millionaire by the time you turn 25 and you’re currently 20 years old.
But all you do all day is play Playstation 5, there’s going to be a problem.
There’s a big disconnect between the things that you do on a moment-by-moment basis, and your grand hopes and dreams.
You’re pushing the right buttons.
But you’re calling the wrong elevator through your actions.
Do you see how this works?
What does it mean to see service elevators in your dream?
I’m not saying that you’re not getting paid.
I’m saying that you feel that you’re not getting the recognition you deserve so you can move up.
Alternatively, you may be thinking that the kind of work that you do day to day doesn’t really add up to much of anything.
You feel like you’re just this faceless person out in the crowd, nobody notices you and there’s no importance to you.
This is just your head playing with you.
The reality is that everybody’s work is important because if you put them together or if you look at what chain reaction they trigger, it leads to something big.
And a lot of the time it leads to something momentous.
Do you see how this works?
Just as butterfly wings beating in the Amazon somewhere, far from view and far from our awareness doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a consequence doesn’t have consequences.
So don’t sell yourself short.
Focus on mastery.
Understand that what you’re doing right now can lead to something bigger.
The key is to be the best at what you do.
And once you do that and things become easy, level up.
Take on more responsibilities.
Focus on the harder stuff.
Do more.
Do you see how this works?
What does it mean to dream of fast elevators?
Maybe you know somebody, or you go into a company that is experiencing rapid change, they can’t hire enough people fast enough.
Also, people’s roles change because the company’s business environment changes day to day.
And when this happens, typically people get a pay raise.
As exciting as all these developments may seem on the surface, you have to be mentally prepared.
You have to be adaptable, you have to learn how to say yes, because unfortunately for a lot of people who work for typical American corporations, we tend to develop this “not my job” mentality.
We compartmentalize our role, and we focus primarily on the least amount we can do to earn as much money without getting fired.
That’s the name of the game.
And it’s no surprise that people have mediocre careers.
If you see fast elevators in your dreams, opportunities are popping up all over you.
And you need to have the right mindset and more importantly, the willingness to live out a positive mindset to take full advantage of them.
What does it mean to dream of being in the glass elevator?
You definitely expected of others, especially people in positions of authority.
The problem is when you find yourself in a position where people demand transparency from you, you get cold feet.
You feel that you can’t trust anybody because you can’t see their intentions, you can’t figure out what they’re about.
So you’re out looking for knives and you watch what you say.
While this may be prudent on a practical level, don’t go overboard because the problem with this is it pushes you to be less trusting.
You have to understand that successful organizations are built on mutual trust.
You trust that people will do their roles properly, you trust that people will work together for some sort of common good by pursuing their own individual interests.
You don’t build that trust when you’re paranoid.
What does it mean to dream about elevators going through different floors?
Very annoying, right?
Unfortunately, most of us who have worked for big companies in the past probably have experienced this.
Because it seems that on every floor, there’s going to be a person who’s very impatient to get to the next floor.
This is fine if the floor that they want to go to is several floors up.
But there are people who will get on an elevator just to get to the very next floor.
Annoying.
When you see this happening in your dreams, your subconscious is picking up signals where it seems that everybody else’s concerns are being addressed, but yours is being overlooked.
This usually takes place in a work context.
It’s as if everybody’s contributions are getting the credit and attention and recognition that they deserve, while yours flounders.
So you worry that you’re just going to be another face in the crowd and you’re not going to rise up in the organization.
Believe it or not, you get this sensation as well in your family.
If you come from a fairly large family and in the United States, we defined this as more than three children.
Attention is a scarce commodity.
Well, you may not want to be the apple of your parent’s eye, you do want your fair share of attention, but you feel that you’re not getting it.
If you see an elevator going to every single floor of a building these are the issues that your subconscious is trying to direct your attention to.
What does it mean to see yourself falling inside an elevator shaft in your dream?
The elevator didn’t show up.
A lot of the time they fall to their deaths.
This does happen in the real world.
If you see this in your dreams this symbolizes that you are focused on only one thing and one thing alone in your life.
Now on a certain level, this is commendable because at least you are focused and passionate.
But the problem is you’re so focused that you let everything else fall apart.
I know somebody who worked for a bank for 25 years.
All she cared about what she’s getting to work 15 minutes early and staying at work at least one hour after the doors close.
That’s how dedicated she was.
Well, after her retirement after 25 years of service, she got cancer, and the company that she slaved for couldn’t even be counted on to send her a get-well card, much less some sort of assistance.
It was only when I went to her wake that I saw this small card from the company saying thank you for all your proud years of service.
Pretty tragic.
You have to broaden your view.
You cannot develop tunnel vision.
While it’s great to envision yourself being at the top of the world and a master of your destiny, please understand that there are other people in your life.
This is especially true if you’re a parent or you’re in a relationship.
A little bit of balance goes a long way.
What does it mean to dream of an elevator falling?
This is called Schadenfreude.
This is the guilty emotion that we feel when something horrible happens to somebody we know.
We don’t even have to hate that person or be annoyed by that individual.
We get this feeling when it’s our friends or even our family members.
Imagine that.
Well, don’t feel too bad because this is actually seared into your DNA.
Imagine to caveman walking through grassy plain thousands of years ago and out of nowhere comes a saber-toothed tiger.
So the first caveman swoops down to adjust his foot wrappings and the other caveman says, “Why to bother? You’re not going to be able to outrun that tiger”.
The first caveman says, “It’s okay, I just need to outrun you”.
Schadenfreude is built into our internal survival mental mechanisms.
We compare ourselves all the time to other people as part of our survival instinct.
And this is often verbalized as “At least my life doesn’t suck as bad as that guy”.
It gives us some perverse sense of hope to keep pushing forward.
So don’t feel guilty when you see an elevator falling in your dream.
Maybe there are people inside the screaming, they’re falling to their certain death.
And maybe in your dream, you feel some sort of glee.
Your subconscious is trying to get the point across that you have Schadenfreude like most other people.
The key is not to get carried away in terms of guilt or in glee.
What does it mean to see an elevator cabin get damaged and then shattered in a dream?
>strong>Your subconscious is seeing certain developments that you may be unaware of.
For example, if you’re an investor, and you check stock market reports and crypto market reports on a day-to-day basis, you probably would scan a lot of information.
Your focus would probably be on one stock or one crypto and you’ve pretty much forgotten all the rest.
Well, that’s your waking mind.
Your subconscious, on the other hand, is picking up everything.
And it’s able to compare, contrast and make connections.
When you see an elevator cabin fall or get damaged and then shatter in your dream, this disaster image is your subconscious using these emotionally disturbing graphics to draw your attention to possible disaster regarding your finances.
Because when you are scanning all those information, your subconscious picked up on certain patterns.
It may well turn out that the sector that you’re in is already in a bear market.
But you’re the last person to know because you focus on one stock or one cryptocurrency that is bucking the trend.
Do you see how this works? You basically operating with blinders on at great risk.
What does it mean to see the elevator you’re in keep going down into the darkness?
There is no crash.
There is no sign of impending death.
Instead, you just see yourself in an elevator going down until you fade into the darkness.
Your subconscious is using this let’s admit it, poetic dream imagery to communicate the fact that you have lost touch with your need for meaning.
Believe it or not, and I know that shocks a lot of people we were put on this earth for more than just eating, drinking, pissing, shitting, and fucking.
I know it’s a shock.
Now a lot of people automatically turn to religion and there’s value in that.
Others turn to personal philosophy, there’s value in that too.
But what’s important is to always remain in touch with the part of yourself that is looking for transcendence or meaning.
In the 1940s, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a needs hierarchy.
It looks like a pyramid and at the bottom are basic drives.
This is our need for security, food, sex, that kind of thing.
And then the next level is our need for power, the ability to control our circumstances or at least have a say in where we’re going in life.
But at the very top is the need for meaning.
What Abraham Maslow was saying is that if you focus so much on the lower tiers and you never progress up, you end up feeling that your life didn’t mean much of anything.
It’s as if you flashed into existence for a few nanoseconds and then just as miraculously as you appeared, you disappeared for good.
When you see yourself in an elevator in your dreams, fading into the darkness as the elevator slowly or quickly descends, this is your subconscious telling you to reconnect with your sense of meaning.
Figure out what you were put on this earth to do.
Is it to help others?
Is it to learn? Is it to conquer fears?
Is it to lead people?
There are so many possible answers.
But unfortunately, you are the only one who can supply the right answer to this classic question.
What does it mean to see an elevator open into a basement in a dream?
There may be certain things in your past that you assumed to be one way but in reality, involves something different entirely.
You have to consider this because it’s very easy to define yourself in such a way that there are no facts to back it up.
I remember a friend of mine, who was deathly afraid of women.
He just tried to avoid them.
They don’t want to have anything to do with them because they make him feel uncomfortable, but he was heterosexual.
So he went through counseling and it turned out that he had a traumatic experience where some girls in high school were laughing at him.
Well, at least he thought they were laughing at him.
In reality, they were laughing at a guy in a clown suit, who was a few feet behind my friend.
But my friend didn’t see that scene that way.
Since they were looking in his direction and pointing what appeared to be pointing at him, he took it personally.
To feel threatened around women he felt devalued and debased.
And when he has finally confronted this memory that he thought meant something completely different.
After all those years, he began dating and eventually he married the love of his life.
Funny how false readings of memories lead to a debilitating mindset.
Please understand that your reality is a product of your assumptions and expectations.
Make sure that they’re based on some sort of reality, and make sure that there are solid facts backing up whatever conclusion is driving your life.
What does it mean to dream of being in a narrow elevator?
It is a very claustrophobic feeling and when you see yourself in your dream in such a tight space in an elevator, this symbolizes your feeling of loneliness.
You sense that you are making all these plans for the future and working hard to make things happen but there’s nobody to share it with.
There’s also nobody to help you.
You are all alone.
And this is not necessarily a bad thing.
You have to understand that you are never alone.
Because you have the intuition and imagination needed to work through any situation.
As disturbing as this image may seem to a lot of people who have issues with solitude, solitude may be exactly what you need to be a more self-reliant person.
What does it mean to escape a falling elevator?
You no longer resigned yourself to being some sort of passenger in a situation driven by somebody else.
Instead, you know what you want and once you get it, you get out.
A lot of the time this applies to work situations.
Maybe you’re making the switch to freelancing.
But it can also apply to relationships.
There is such a thing as a toxic relationship where two people are just basically using each other.
So you got what you need, and you have moved on and if that person doesn’t want to also move forward with you, then it’s goodbye.
It may seem heartless. But it’s also necessary.
What does it mean to see objects and people with you in an elevator?
You’re distracted.
And it’s no surprise that you feel that you’re just going around in circles.
It’s as if when it comes to your career, your business, or whatever personal ventures you may have, you’re going around chasing your tail.
You focus on something that you think is important.
And before you make a breakthrough, you find something else that is more attractive.
So you work on that until you get bored and then you move on to the next one, then the next one after that.
You may be thinking, “Well, what’s wrong with this issue? Don’t a lot of people do this?”.
That’s the tragedy.
Yes, a lot of people do this.
And what do you think happens when they turned 65 or when they turned 70?
And it’s time to assess the kind of life they lived.
That’s right.
They look over their shoulder and they see a long trail of half-baked ideas and unfinished projects.
This is bad enough when it comes to career and business issues.
Can you imagine the personal tragedy when it comes to relationships?
It’s really important to understand the meaning of this clutter and let go.
Focus only on what you need.
What does it mean to dream of being in an elevator with complete and total strangers?
This indicates that you are not looking to move forward based solely on what you already know and are comfortable with.
Instead, you’re looking to mix and match and experiment and eventually come up with the right combination to build something new and exciting.
At the very least by entertaining different ideas (or even stranger ones).
You put into a process that can help you level up in different areas of your life.
What does it mean to dream of an empty elevator?
I know it’s troubling to some people but the truth is, you need me time.
You need time to think and be alone.
You need time to develop a better relationship with your thinking and emotional processes.
A lot of people don’t bother with this.
They think that “I think the way I do or I feel the way that will be especially this just my identity”.
Wrong.
Those are choices.
Do you think successful people think and feel the way they do through some random chance?
Do you think that there is no connection between the way they process information and how they choose to feel emotions about them, and the results they get?
Think again.
If you are in any way, shape, or form, frustrated about whatever big issues you may have in life, it may have something to do with the fact that you don’t give yourself enough time.
Be alone, don’t be afraid.
Keep a journal.
Get stuff off your chest.
Catalog your thoughts and feelings.
There is no right answer.
The key is just to get it out.
And then once it’s out, you can then pick it apart.
Maybe you are going about things in the wrong way.
Because you are operating with faulty assumptions.
Maybe your expectations and assumptions are outdated.
Whatever the case may be things aren’t optimal.
I’m not saying that they are a total disaster, but they could stand some improvement.
What does it mean to dream of being stuck in an elevator with doors that refuse to open?
It’s one thing to be stuck in an elevator where you desperately click on the elevator button, and nothing seems to happen.
But being in an elevator, with doors that refuse to open is completely a different matter.
In this scenario, you have defined yourself out of happiness.
The doors aren’t opening because you feel that they can’t open.
That’s how you “reason your way” into an impossible situation because there are no answers, and there will be none.
That’s just the way it is.
At least this is what you’re telling yourself.
This is the most profound example of being stuck.
And the worst part is that other people rely on you either to put food on the table or to provide emotional support and emotional comfort.
But you can’t because you’re stuck.
Focus on the choice here.
Because a lot of the things that you assumed to be true may not be backed up by facts.
Your opinions are just like the other opinions.
So select an opinion that works.
Select an opinion that delivers value to the lives of people around you.
What does it mean to see an elevator, opening and closing all on the same floor?
This is a dream image of frustration.
You’re feeling that no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, things never improve.
I’m talking about your relationships.
I’m talking about your health.
I’m also talking about your money.
What’s wrong with this image?
You keep doing the same thing.
As the old saying goes “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time”.
If you do the same things and it produces a predictable result, it’s high time that you change your actions.
So when you see your dream desperately pressing that button and the doors keep opening and you’re still on the same floor then you need to do something else.
Maybe you need to get out of the elevator and head straight for the stairs.
I know it’s uncomfortable.
But you need to do what you need to do.
What does it mean to dream of being an elevator?
You feel that you’re the person who basically has to give up so that everybody can move on.
You’re the one who is always sacrificed.
You’re the one whose ambitions have to always be set aside so other people can get a shot.
As comforting as this image may seem to some people, the truth is you’re playing the victim.
Please understand that you were put on this earth to be a victor.
And the more you think that there’s some sort of victim who constantly ends up with the short end of the steak and always has to give way to other people, the more of a victim you will become the further away you get from victory.
Please understand that whatever happens in your life ultimately is a matter of your choice.
Either you brought it on, or you responded in such a way that it didn’t change.
Either way, you’re responsible, the buck stops with you.
So stop giving yourself excuse after excuse by painting yourself as some sort of victim.
You’re not.
Your choices made your life and you can make different choices to create a different life.
That is the essence of being a victor.
What does it mean to dream of an elevator suddenly stopping midway?
You get all excited at the beginning of a project you put in the hours, you burn the midnight oil, you do whatever it takes for however long it takes and then you start seeing some breakthroughs.
You start seeing the fruits of your labors begin to materialize.
So far so good, right?
Unfortunately, that’s when you stop.
At the back of your head, you’re thinking, “I’ve already done all I could. I’ve already invested enough of my time, blood, sweat, and tears into this. Now is my time to just coast”.
This is a warning sign.
If you see yourself in an elevator and it stops midway, this is a warning sign regarding how you work.
You have to focus on thoroughly seeing the project through.
You cannot coast because a lot of people confuse coasting with mastery.
They are two totally different things.
Masters seem like they’re taking it easy.
Why?
Because they’ve mastered their field of discipline.
They can see the answers to their day-to-day tasks in their dreams.
That’s how good they are.
A person who’s coasting on the other hand is somebody who achieved some initial success but doesn’t want to put in additional work to see that success through and achieve mastery.
I hope you can see the difference.
Your subconscious is showing you this dream image of an elevator going up or going down and stopping midway to communicate your important personal truths regarding your tendency to coast.
What does it mean to dream about an elevator that has an “as out of service” sign on it?
On the surface, this might seem like a disaster because let’s face it, we get accustomed to easy answers.
We get accustomed to doing things a certain way.
Now it’s going to be a hassle to do something else or come up with a new approach.
But that’s life.
Just as GPS would have you go through certain streets to get to your destination if you take a wrong turn, it’s going to reroute you.
It’s going to recalculate and send you through a different itinerary.
That’s how life works.
So be ready for it.
Don’t think that if you can’t do things exactly the way you’ve been doing them then this is a cause of depression and anxiety.
Don’t do that.
Don’t make things worse for yourself.
Instead, just be mentally ready for the fact that you have to recalculate, you have to reposition, and you have to change the way you do things.
After all, change is the only constant in life.
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Dream interpretation and symbology have fascinated me ever since I read Freud’s classic, “The Interpretation of Dreams.” Ever since, I have explored Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist as well as Jungian psychological ideas about the meaning of dreams. Thanks for joining me in my exploration of the amazing intersection between our conscious waking world and the rich expanse of our subconscious-the home of our intuition, instincts, and hidden potential.
