Dreaming Lens: Were you in the hospital? Was someone else? Was there surgery involved? Illness? Was it an emergency that led you to the hospital? Were you being helped or hindered in the hospital? Was it an empty place?
Personal Focus: Hospitals tend to evoke powerful reactions. The discomfort that color associations tend to overshadow the benevolence connected to hospitals as places of healing. It is common for people to fear hospitals, adding a touch of irony to our relationship with the healing process. Healing is transformation and the first step to any major change is the breakdown that precedes the breakthrough.
Since the breakdown is the scary part, we avoid it, just as some people avoid hospitals in waking life. It is easy to forget that in order for surgeons to heal an illness they must first cut the body open, creating a wound. And since not everyone who checks into a hospital is fortunate enough to check out, they are indelibly connected to the fear of death and dying. However, remember that death is always followed by rebirth.
In this way, being in or near a hospital in a dream is always going to indicate that some healing is either underway or necessary. If you are the patient, then consider that your sense of self is undergoing a significant shift. If you are a visitor, then the healing transformation is connected to a Character Aspect or particular way of being as embodied by the person you are going to see. If you are playing the part of healer, the dream may be helping you step into that role in some area of life that is undergoing a transformation.
The fear or repulsion that is present in the dream will give you an idea of how much resistance you may be unconsciously engaged in. If you are experiencing a health issue in life, the image of a hospital may be literal, in which case your dream relationship to the hospital will inform you of underlying resistance to surrender to your body and its functioning (or lack thereof). [1]
1- Depending on our attitude to hospitals, when one appears in a dream it can cither represent a place of safety, or a place where ones very being is threatened and we become vulnerable. Taken as a place of healing, it represents that aspect within ourselves that knows when respite is necessary from cares and troubles when we can allow ourselves to be cared for and nurtured and put back into one piece.
If we find hospitals threatening, it may be that we are conscious of the fact that we have to ‘let go’, to put ourselves at the mercy of others and allow things to happen for us, in order that a situation can be improved.
2- Dreaming of being in a hospital may be mentally creating a transition period between something that has not gone well, and an improved attitude where things can get better. ‘I’o be visiting someone in hospital indicates that we are aware that a part of ourselves is perhaps not well, is ‘dis-cased’ and needs attending to in order to give us clarity.
3- A healing environment where things can be brought into a state of balance is signified by a hospital. [2]
If you find hospitals threatening in your dream, this may suggest that you feel apprehensive about putting control of yourself out of your own hands and into those of others in your waking life.
If you are a hospital patient in your dream, this suggests a period of transition after something has not gone well, or a time of rest when you can learn from the experience and find new ways to get back on track.
If you are visiting someone in hospital, is a part of you diseased, not well or in need of special attention? Either way, if you have a dream that focuses in some way on a hospital, this suggests that you are in need of some tender loving care, both physically and emotionally.
See also: SICKNESS AND HEALTH. [3]
The healing may be physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual. By paying attention to this dream you may be able to identify the source of your pain, and where and how the healing needs to take place. Think about why you or someone else was in the hospital in the dream. You may ask yourself, “What is going on in the dream? What is the prognosis, and what is the cure?” Answering these questions in light of a situation or issue from your daily life could be very helpful and, at times, enlightening. Therefore, try not to get upset by your dream, but rather pay attention to its message. Superstition based dream interpretations suggest that if you are visiting a patient you will be receiving surprising news (good or bad), but if you are the patient, you may be currently overwhelmed by life and should ask others for help.
If you are lying in a ward that has endless lines of beds, perhaps you feel abandoned
In some way, / or perhaps you are at a time of turmoil such as divorce, bereavement or job loss.
If you are healthy and dream of getting better, this indicates well-being, but if you are ill and dream that you are ill, it may suggest a delay in recovery. Rather than simply expecting to get better without any effort on your part, you should pay greater attention to your mental attitude, fitness levels and diet to boost the recovery process. [5]
Feeling vulnerable or desiring help somewhere in your life.
A fear of something happening that’s out of your control.
A source of help, or a place or person you went to when you needed help.
Being in the hospital can represent a desire for help, or not feeling your usual self (mentally, emotionally, or physically).
Someone else being in the hospital can indicate your concern about the person, or your opinion that they need extra care or attention.
Working in a hospital (when you don’t in real life) can represent giving, good will, or demands from people in your life who need help.
See also: Illness, Injured, Medical Treatment, Surgery, Doctor, Nurse, Emergency Room, Medical Office, Medicine [6]
If the nurses, doctors and receptionists are rude and dismissive, this may represent your own refusal to acknowledge your needs. Operations and procedures that fail can suggest attempts to solve problems with quick fixes.
If you can think about what would improve your situation in your dream, this may give you some indication of a possible way forward.
See also: HEALTH AND SICKNESS.
Depth Psychology: The Illness in a dream is a sign of your anxiety.
If you are not actually sick, the dream may refer to a conflict between your feelings, thoughts, and actions.
The hospital represents the help you receive in solving problems and overcoming obstacles.
See also: Sanatorium. [8]
If in the dream you visit someone who is sick, you should take special care of your health, since your body is crying for help.
In Ancient Greece, it was believed that dreams not only diagnosed the dreamer’s state of health, but also had a curative ability. This was claimed by Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine. Tibetan medicine also takes note of patients’ dreams to discover the spiritual cause of the physical illness. [9]
The hospital also stands for the dreamer himself.
If you are the sick person, the type of illness will give insight about the problems you face.
If you are the physician, your role as helper is addressed.
According to Jung, the hospital is the place where people are being taken care of, a symbol of mother. [10]
If the dreamer is in a hospital bed with the attendance of nurses, the dream is significant of a type of helplessness with a wish to have people wait upon him (or her). [12]
To dream of visiting someone in hospital indicates that there is an imbalance or depletion in us, is ‘dis-eased’ and needs attending to in order to give us clarity. [13]
If you are only visiting a hospital then you will be able to avoid the illness.
To see a friend in a hospital shows that you will soon here some distressing news about that person. [14]
A dream of visiting a hospital or helping in one predicts surprising news.
2. Being instrumental or playing a role in healing of another (doctor or nurse).
3. View of self or state of being; in need of healing (feeling miserable). [17]
If you visit patients there, you will hear distressing news of the absent. [18]
If you dream of being a nurse or doctor, you may look forward to happiness. [20]
The hospital also suggests the need to pay attention to one’s health. [22]
2. Healing ministry;
3. Sick church;
4. Place of healing, Is 61:1-3; 1 Cor. 12:28. [25]
being in a: solution wil be found to a longstanding problem.
another’s: misfortune to the entire community.
children’s: starvation of love in one’s future must be fed.
enemies’: misery without the push to the competitive edge.
mental: conflict between intuition and actions must be mended.
oxygen tent, in an: are being nurtured by those standing by.
relatives’: someone wil be highly considerate of you.
religious: your imperfections need attentive prayer.
to visit a friend: must explain misdeed to one outside the family.
very ill: news wil be difficult to bear; project as now planned wil fail.
cafeteria, eating in a: it isn’t the food but the atmosphere that causes indigestion.
confined in an MRI: are being exceptional y decisive with your improving health.
an iron lung: are stricken with worries only gargantuan efforts can solve.
lead object on your chest in the: situation weighs you down, confining your rejuvenation.
leaving a, completely recovered: a good friend is relieving you of a difficult task.
nursing someone in a: are expressing an imprisoned part of yourself to another.
back to health: and succeeding.
of a: misery is yours right now.
patient in a, being a: the obstacles are too high to hurdle alone.
strapped to a, bed: strong family relationships, but they are not listening to you.
stretcher, being carried on a: argument over important matters in own ambition.
carrying a: your need their talent and they need your management skil s.
surgeon operating: a profession is always messy; a work of art takes time.
using a lance: friends avoid you for unexplained reasons.
surgery being performed: your misdeeds are known to everyone, though not spoken.
on another: loss of a friend through tragedy.
trapped in a: get a second opinion and you wil be better off.
treated by religious person at a: wil be helped by God.
wandering in circles in a: are missing someone lost to depressed melancholia. [31]