Dreaming of flying

Dreams about flying are perhaps the most common in the world, widespread among peoples and cultures from our past and present time; Freud also includes them in ‘typical’ dreams.

Flying feelings in dreams are often accompanied by the wonder of knowing how to do something so incredible, and then always feeling a profound sense of well-being, freedom and joy.

Dreams about flying generally have these meanings:
– Desire for freedom, autonomy: rising from the ground represents the
possibility of exploring the world in a free and autonomous way. You need to free yourself from the constraints and limitations that prevent you from entirely fulfilling yourself, according to your wishes.

– Overcoming difficulties, obstacles, fears: you are coming out of a difficult
situation, you are freeing yourself form a burden.

– Power, success: you trust yourself, you feel capable of doing great things,
you’re climbing the career ladder; flying symbolizes your rise in the world,
the fulfillment of your ambitions thanks to your strength of will and
determination.

– Spiritual elevation: you abandon Earth and material things because you need to lift yourself up to Heaven, the spiritual dimension.

– Escape from reality: flying away represents the need to escape and get away from what makes you suffer.

– Urge to dominate: flying is a way of looking down on everyone. This dream can often recurs for those who suffer of inferiority complexes.

– Sexual excitement: according to Freud, dreams about flying originate from the memory of when, during childhood, parents hold us, lift us up in the air, making us swing here and there. Children really like this game and in dreams these pleasant feelings return through the experience of free flight. According to Freud, flight in dreams can be matched to or caused by feelings of erotic pleasure: he refers to the case of impotent men who manage to get an erection during this type of dreams.

Dreams of flying high in the sky, in space

In some dreams you fly by plane, balloon, helicopter, parachute, hang glider, or by car, motorbike or bicycle. But you’re able to experience the most beautiful emotion when you can fly free body like a bird, flapping your arms like wings, or like Superman: flying on water, over the mountains and cities.

For many people flying is a recurring dream, even among children it’s very
frequent and vivid, and that experience is always remembered with pleasure.
Some people reports that dreams begin with a series of jumps, gradually
becoming longer and longer, until they leave the ground and fly; others do it after a downhill run, by walking, or riding down the stairs, or after feeling the sensation of falling or crashing: the dream seems tragic, but then instead they save themselves by flying!

Sometimes dream fantasies like fairy tales happen: you dream of flying with a cape, an umbrella, on a carpet, with a balloon, on a swing, with the sled, with the help of a white powder, on a dragon, a horse or a winged animal. In most cases you fly alone, but sometimes it happens with someone you love, with an angel or a dear departed, in a kind of spiritual ecstasy.

– Dreaming of flying high in the sky, in the clouds: if you feel well-being,
happiness, joy, then power and success are coming for you. If you feel like
you’re flying too high and you’re scared and worried, it may means that you’re scared of new challenges and changes you’re going to face.

– Dreaming of flying in space: you could be on a spaceship, even alone, in a sort of interstellar journey; it’s a very beautiful dream, in which you could
meet angels or otherworldly creatures; it can lead you to great spiritual and creative growth. Also Jung had this kind of dream, and described it as an extraordinary experience.

– Dreaming of flying backwards: you may face a dangerous situation and have to get away from it, or maybe you need to reconnect with your past.

Dreaming of flying low

If you dream of flying low, this dream, unlike the previous one, may means the lack of motivation to elevate yourself in a higher place; you’re still
uncertain, insecure, you don’t completely trust yourself. It can also denote
the difficulty to loosen up, to abandon rationality and earthly safety. If you
fly into your bedroom or your home, it could also be an astral journey (see
below).

Dreaming of flying with difficulty, of flying and then falling

If in your dream you’re not able to fly right and hold the altitude, you feel
awkward and you’re afraid of falling, it means that you do not have full confidence in your abilities, you feel insecure. Dreaming of flying in the dark, in the fog represents confusion, lack of lucidity. If you find obstacles during flight (trees, branches, power lines, etc.), they can represent the impediments that stand in the realization of yourself.
Even dreaming of flying and then falling denotes insecurity, lack of confidence in your abilities. See also dream of falling.

Dreaming of flying and no longer be able to get down

Flying and being afraid of not knowing how to land, not being able to get down, can be determined by your tendency to abstract yourself from reality, to fantasize a bit much. You can dream with open eyes, but take it easy, never lose touch with the ‘real’ world. The dream may also means that your ambitions are too big; maybe you should keep a clear head.

Flying and astral travels
Flying dreams are linked to the experience of astral travel. The astral
journey, or OBE (Out of Body Experience), consists in perceiving the world from a location outside your physical body, detaching from it, rising upwards and floating in the room; in some cases you can see your body from above, lying on the bed. This situation can be frequently experienced during the initial stages of sleep, or immediately before awakening, when sleep is lighter; it’s often preceded by particular bodily vibrations. It can also be part of a hypnopompic or hypnagogic hallucination: if you dream of being possessed by the devil and flying into the room, this could be explained in relation to this phenomenon