Dreaming about a hole
A hole is an absence with edges, and dreams handle it the way they handle every absence: the edges are generated and what is beyond them is not. Dreamers report being unable to see in, and being certain about what is there.
Also searched as: a hole in the ground, a hole in the wall, a gap, something missing
The unseeable interior is the characteristic report. Dreamers describe a hole and describe not being able to see into it, at any distance and in any light.
Certainty about the contents follows, without evidence, which is the pattern this file is built on.
A hole appearing where there was none is reported and is accepted without objection at the time, which is a substantial impossibility passing unremarked.
Holes in a body are a separate and much more distressing group and belong with the wound and skin material.
Common associations
- An absence with edges.
- An interior that cannot be resolved.
- Certainty about contents.
- Appearing from nothing, unobjected to.
Positive readings
The unresolvable interior is a decent check: look in, twice.
Otherwise little.
Difficult readings
The unseeable interior produces the sustained unease that every unresolved thing in this database produces.
Holes in a body are genuinely unpleasant and belong elsewhere.
Psychological perspectives
Dreams generate what is attended to. A hole is defined by what is not there, so the dream produces an edge and has nothing to put behind it, which is exactly what dreamers describe.
The certainty about contents is the unearned-knowing machinery, and this is one of the cleaner cases because there is demonstrably nothing to know.
The unobjected-to appearance is reduced critical evaluation, as everywhere.
Cultural and historical
Holes and pits appear in a great deal of religious and folk material as places of danger or of passage, and falling into one is a widespread narrative image.
The well entry covers the version with water at the bottom, which behaves differently.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dream detail is generated at attention, so an absence has edges and no interior.
Reasonably supported: feelings of knowing are generated without content.
Not established: any meaning for a hole.
Your own context
- Could you see into it?
- What did you think was in there, and why?
- Was it there before?
- Did you go near it?
If this recurs
Log with the darkness and cave reports. The unresolvable interior is one pattern and the shape of the opening does not much matter.
Emotions often reported
- unease
- dread
- curiosity
- alarm
- vertigo
- detachment
Specific a hole dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
Where it happened
What state it was in
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Could I see in?
- What did I think was in there?
- Was it there before?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
4 references. What these labels mean
- 1.Dreaming: A Conceptual Framework for Philosophy of Mind and Empirical ResearchAcademic book
Jennifer M. Windt (2015) · MIT Press
Cited for: A modern philosophical treatment of what dreams are, including the immersive-spatiotemporal-hallucination account and the status of dream reports as evidence.
- 2.The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development and Content AnalysisAcademic book
G. William Domhoff (2003) · American Psychological Association
Cited for: The continuity hypothesis (that dream content largely reflects waking concerns) and a sustained critique of symbolic dream interpretation as an evidential method.
- 3.The Reinterpretation of Dreams: An Evolutionary Hypothesis of the Function of DreamingPeer-reviewed research
Antti Revonsuo (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Cited for: The threat-simulation hypothesis. That the over-representation of threatening content in dreams may be functional rather than incidental.
- 4.Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication During REM SleepPeer-reviewed research
Stephen LaBerge, Lynne Nagel, William Dement and Vincent Zarcone (1980) · Perceptual and Motor Skills
Cited for: The eye-signalling experiments that established lucid dreaming as a verifiable state rather than a self-report.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of a hole have gone for other people, in their own words. Nothing here is an interpretation of anyone else's dream. It is a record of what happened and what it was like.
Nothing here yet. Be the first to say how this has gone for you.
Related records
- PlaceCaveThe natural counterpart to the built underground spaces. What separates cave reports from tunnels and basements is that a cave was not made, has no plan, and offers no assurance that the passage continues.
- PlaceWellA well is a hole with water at the bottom of it, and the reports are about the looking rather than the water. Dreamers describe being drawn to look down, and describe not being able to see the bottom.
- SymbolDarknessDarkness in dreams is not the absence of an image. Dreamers describe an active inability to see, frequently with light sources that do not work, and that failure is one of the most reliable features of dream perception.
- ActionFallingFalling is one of the most reported dreams in every population studied. The jolt that often accompanies it, a hypnic jerk, is a well-understood physiological event, and it is frequently the cause of the dream rather than its result.
- SymbolFootprintsEvidence of a person who is not there, and the reports turn on a single question the dreamer answers without evidence: whose. The certainty arrives complete, as it does throughout this database.
- SymbolRootsRoots are reported for one thing above all: extent. Dreamers describe a root system far larger than the plant above it, and describe knowing that without seeing it.
