I've been dreaming about them since I was young. They were very scary at times without ever being menacing. Over the years, as I began to contemplate and exert some forms of active control over my dreams, the bears seemed to take on a teaching type of feel to them. Sometimes instructive, sometimes guiding, always quite gentle compared to the popular conception of the animal.
Sunday night however something happened that hasn't ever happened in my dreams.
First off, I haven't had a dream involving bears in close to 4 years now, so the sudden reemergence took me a bit off guard. And..., even though I had the distinct feeling that I was dreaming, it all seemed a little too real. Try as I might, I wasn't able to conjure up any control over things until the very end of the dream. Without going through the entire dream, I'll lay out the crux.
I was out and about somewhere I was unfamiliar with and found myself at an indistinct hotel talking to what I assumed were the proprietors. Through the conversation with the faceless married couple I discovered a bear had killed their 6 year old son, and that the bear still stalked the hotel. Later on I was outside the hotel when I was attacked by the bear.
It led to a long portion of the scarier and more gruesome aspects of the dream which are too many to name and might not mean all that much anyway.
Finally and in the end as I began to bend the dream to my will, the fear was overtaken by anger and I eventually killed the bear with a baseball bat. Leaving myself covered in it's blood just before waking up with my fists clenched upon a spare pillow as I visibly shook with anger and found myself growling.
@HikingMan ive never thought of them as subconscious manifestations but maybe I should start allowing myself to dream again. I havent had any as intense as yours though. There is a website I used to use to try and interpret my dreams that has this about bears. Idk if it helps but its off dreammoods.com :)
@mooncrest02 Thanks. I'll try to add that into my contemplations.
Though none of that speaks to killing a bear with a baseball bat....
My long history of Bear involved dreams made this ending very concerning to me. I have bear tattoos on my arms because I have always viewed them as a Spirit Animal type of thing.
I've felt a little broken inside since that dream. It was really long. Really involved. There's a lot I haven't talked about that I need to go through and unpack.
I appreciate the replies and the link. I'll be unpacking this one for weeks I think.