Vivid reoccurring dream theme

[Perseus]

It started simple enough, my family and I moved into a new house. My brother and I were moving a bed and some boxes into a room when my dad called me. I walked to the top of the steps, looking down at the first floor. My dad had a steam cleaner and started cleaning this dark stain from the carpet of the landing. He asked how many of the plastic containers that hold cleaning solution we could store in the extra bedroom to clean up the stain over and over. My dad and I walked into the bedroom and there was just tons of storage space. I start asking myself why he was even asking the question. At this point the floor of the room became loose and bouncy. The room was tilted and both my dad and I were having trouble walking as if we had vertigo.

I struggled to keep my balance and walked back into the hallway where I first saw the ghost. It had no form, only a pale green fog that was moving at an incredible speed up the steps and right in front of me. It stopped directly in front of me in an instant. I could see its face now, the human facade it carried. It had the face of a small girl maybe 10 years old. She was dressed in a white dress with pink flowers printed all over the dress. The style was old maybe late 1800s or early 1900s. Even though I could see the human form, I saw behind it. The pale green fog still surrounded her and I could see it inside her swirling, sometimes creating skull like I had x-ray vision and the fog was her skeleton. She screamed and her high pitched scream filled the entire house. I felt the pressure hit me and started forcing me backwards. It was like being touched without being touched. I felt the wind hit my face but I stood my ground. I stared into its face until I passed out and woke up the next morning.

Now after that encounter everyone knew it was in the house and my mom especially was extremely frightened. I was angry that this new house for our family was being ruined by something. My mom was trying to calm me down but I couldn't take it anymore. I started yelling and demanding the ghost should leave, get out, and never return. My words didn't feel like empty threats, they were backed by something. The same pressure I felt hit me was now coming from inside me and radiating around like an aura. My demands were answered immediately with banging on the walls and the giggling of a child echoing from different places around me. I could see the pale green fog fly around the room, spot to spot, where at each one I would hear the banging.

I started to yell more at the spirit this time however my voice was lost. I was having trouble moving my body. It was like the air was taken from my throat so I could not make a sound. My mouth was frozen wide open. I struggled to move my arms to overcome whatever was holding me still. I was afraid but also unafraid. I felt that I had the ability to command the terror and force it to leave. As I watched it fly in circles around me, I regained control of my body and voice. My voice was starting to get hoarse but I continued yelling, giving each command with less authority.

Finally it began flying directly at me and stopped in front of me just like it did before. Unlike before, I grabbed hold of the forearms of the little girl. To my surprise my hands went into her arms, grabbing only the fog. It was solid and I had a firm grip. I looked down at what I was holding in my grip wondering what I held. I held her bones, her radius and ulna, both pale green and transparent. It looked worried that I could see through the human mask it was wearing and spoke to me.

"You're strangely spectral.", it said in a deep and growling voice. It seemed amused, like it was toying with me as an experiment. I was furious and tightened my grip so hard I wanted to break the bones. I told it once more with conviction to leave. It dissipated before my eyes and my hold was gone. The pressure and fear was eased slightly but I knew it wasn't over. I yelled once more for it to leave and heard the girl's frustrated scream as every door in the house opened simultaneously.

[Dream Ends]

I've had many ghost dreams before, but not one this clear. This is also the first time I've ever had one that it has spoken directly to me. This is also the longest dream involving a ghost or haunting I've ever had. Usually the ghost will roar or scream and I'll feel the pressure hit me like a shock-wave then I'll wake up shortly after that experience. I'm hoping someone can give me some insight to this because while ghost dreams are a recurring theme they've seemed to evolve and become stronger through the years. Thanks in advance.

[Rook]

Hi Perseus

The way I would interpret the dream is that the house represents you.  In this sense you are going through or making a lot of changes in your personality or life experience at the moment.  "Moving into a new you" if you will.

In relation to your father cleaning the dark stain - this relates to cleaning something from your psyche.  There is a good reason that you need to clean the stain again and again, to the point that, despite their being a huge amount of storage space in the house, your father (authoritative / protective part of your psyche) is concerned it will not be enough space to deal with the stain repeatedly.  The problem is that in dealing with the issue of the stain, you are cleaning the effect of the stain by removing it from the carpet, but the source of the stain is still in your psyche, so the stain comes back no matter how many times you clean it.  You need to resolve the source of the stain to resolve the issue properly.

The house becomes unstable.  You are struggling to maintain this new you.  Why?  The ghost.  I suspect the ghost is actually the same symbol as the stain.  It has a similar scenario illustrated around it - that being trying to force the ghost to leave (clean the stain) without addressing the issue of why the ghost is there.  But why a ghost?  What does it represent?

I believe that the ghost represents some behaviour or habit that you took on in your childhood (around the age of 10 - linked to the ghosts age).  The behaviour you took on as a habit is likely in response to some event or circumstance around this age.  What that behaviour represents is hard for me to decipher from this dream itself.  The gender of the ghost being female, along with its screaming and pain suggests that it is related to some emotional hardship (females represent emotion, males represent logic).  Perhaps you adopted some pattern of behaviour as a coping mechanism?  Now it is having a negative impact on the new you that you are seeking to develop.  This is causing you frustration.

I get the feeling it is a pattern of behaviour that you are trying to make yourself stop doing, linked to the imagery of you grabbing hold of the ghost, physically trying to break it.  Yelling at it to go away, though this is not having the desired effect.  Are you yelling at yourself about a particular pattern of behaviour at the moment?  What are you trying to stop yourself doing?

I think to get to the source of the problem you need to come to an understanding of the reason that the ghost is there.  Once you can understand why you behave in the way you do, you can perhaps find a new approach to deal with the unwanted behaviour.  It seems pretty clear that getting angry and yelling at yourself and trying to "break" the behaviour is not working.

Only by addressing the source of the issue can you remove this stain.

Does that make any sense?

Regards,
Rook

[Perseus]

Thanks Rook, a lot of it makes sense. I have been concerned with reinventing myself lately, career change, the works. The habit thing makes a lot of sense since I feel like I do have to break most of my old ways to become a new me. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what habit I picked up or emotional trouble I had around 10.

Anyway thanks for taking the time to respond, I feel like I understand the dream much better.

[Rook]

Hi Perseus

I am glad the interpretation makes sense.  You may have more dreams that help identify the issue, so if you have any other dreams you want me to take a look at it, keep me posted!

Cheers,
Rook