If the disaster in the dream is specifically manmade and not natural, such as a terrorist attack, or a plane, train, car, or bus crash, this image may be urging you to change an attitude or belief system before the situation in waking life becomes perilous. These dreams are telling you that you are not in a safe place and you need to move away from it.
Oftentimes, the unconscious will use cultural symbols and images to bring to mind some thematic experience or situation. For example, to dream of the attack on the World Trade Center can be symbolic of a tragedy, a horrendous situation, an attack, or the destruction of one’s working environment. Similarly, any form of terrorist attack can be symbolic of an intrusive invasion of your personal space in waking life, a violent clash of opinions or cruel, sadistic and cowardly behavior.
If you dreamed of making a panicstricken call to the emergency services, could your unconscious have been highlighting your fear that an emotional trauma has devastated your world, or is about to, and that you urgently need help? A dream focusing on a disaster in your home may be saying something about your attitude to life. It might be that you are ready to make important changes that will involve destroying what you have built up over the years, or it could be a warning that your present, or planned, actions could prove disastrous in the long run. Much depends on your reaction. Supposing that you dreamed your house was falling down; if you were relieved, unconcerned or walked away from the ruins, you are ready to move on and leave the past behind you.
You may have had a dream that focused on manmade environmental pollution and the disease, destruction, decay and death to which this leads.
If you have had such a dream, the dream is urging you to avoid an attitude, thought or emotion that is not good for you, now or in the future.
Other people’s attitudes and beliefs may also be contaminating the way you think and feel, and this can sometimes be shown in dreams about toxic waste or poisons. On the other hand your dream may be urging you to become more environmentally aware.
If demolition features in the dream, it can highlight either self-inflicted trauma or changes in your life, depending on the circumstances of the dream.
If you are carrying out the demolition, you should be in control, but if someone else is, you may feel powerless in the face of change. You may also be conscious of a build-up of tension within you that can only by released by a breakdown of old attitudes and approaches. [1]