Religious narrative · People & kin
A spirit passed before my face
Land of Uz · undated narrative
In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- The Bible, King James Version — Various, 1611. Job 4:13–16
- Record type
- Religious narrative
- Place
- Land of Uz · Hebrew Bible
- Date
- undated narrative
- Uncertainty
- High — Religious narrative; not a historical dream report.
- Imagery
- A stranger · Darkness
- Feelings
- Fear · Awe
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.
Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)
Mythological
Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.
Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37
Chinese traditions
Confucius lamented that he no longer dreamed of the Duke of Zhou; in Chinese letters, dreaming of someone is a measure of how much they are on one’s mind.
Analects 7.5
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- Would the fall never come to an end? Oxford, England · 1865 (novel)
- Falling from the palace hall Chang’an, China · c. 750
- Carried up out of a well Chang’an, China · c. 750
- I jumped into the sea and regretted it Tokyo, Japan · 1908
- The acrobat who never touched the floor England · before 1911
- Pigs on the edge of a cliff Tokyo, Japan · 1908