THE DREAM There is some kind of bomb and it is continually failing to go off. At some point I, or others, try to hide behind something like a bush so when it explodes it will shelter us from the blast. I later realise that this is pointless. It is a nuclear bomb and hiding behind something will not protect us from such a big blast. I then wonder how lucky we have been that it does not explode. Someone is kicking it and later someone is pushing it and crashing into it. But it still does not go off. I was thinking "It has to explode sometime."

BACKGROUND INFORMATION The dreamer had been holding onto a friend's bank card because she had broken her leg and could not get around. The dreamer had lost this bank card and would have to tell this friend the next day. He was not looking forward to this and feared that she would explode as she had a terrible temper.

DREAM ANALYSIS: Dreams use metaphors and a bomb going off was a simple metaphor for the dreamer's fear that his friend would lose her temper because he had lost her bank card. Dreams will play out our fears for the coming day. In this case this issue was playing on the dreamers mind and he could not think of anything else.

Actually the dream seems to link to this exact thought process "I fear she will lose her temper and when she does there will be nowhere to hide I will just have to stand and take it." At the start of the dream the dreamer feels he can avoid the nuclear blast by hiding behind a bush. Later he realises that this is totally pointless and if it goes off he will be blow apart. This pinpoints the feeling "there will be no hiding when (she/it) explodes."

The dream seems to pick a highly unlikely symbol as a nuclear blast seems too extreme. A bad temper will never be as bad as a nuclear bomb. But we use metaphors like this to express our worst fears. We do use extreme metaphors like "when she finds out it will be like a nuclear bomb going off. She will explode."

These types of metaphors express a worst possible scenario. We do often think of how bad things will turn out.