Dream of Being Arrested

Okay, this dream is about control. Seeing yourself arrested (or someone else) is about something controlling you. We are controlled in our lives a lot.  even if we think back as children we are controlled by the school system and also our parents to some degree depending on the type of parents you have had. You can't see a prision when you are in it. If you see what I mean. Sometimes in life we just get to a point where we just can't stand the control anymore and that is as exactly what this dream means. I often see this kind of dream when somebody is having work problems.

If you see yourself with handcuffs, around the wrist this can be super scary and actually turn into a nightmare. It came to WAKE you up. Sometimes God, the universe, your own buried soul has to shake you by the shoulders And say "PAY ATTENTION!" and honestly, nothing gets your attention like being thrown against a cop car in your own subconscious?

So what does it mean to dream about being arrested?

But here's the thing most people get wrong: They think arrest dreams make them guilty of something. Nope. You feel stopped nine times out of ten by an arrest dream. Blocked. Like running towards something important and then some invisible force pulls you back. Consider what arrest is. It's stopped something from happening. The questions you need to ask yourself is: What decision were you avoiding? From what truth are you running?

My brother had this dream once, he kept dreaming the FBI was arresting me his daughter's birthday party. Same dream over and over. Humiliating. Terrifying. I know exactly what this was about. One promotion had meant he had to move his family. His wife did not want to go. He didn't want to disappoint his boss. He felt he was stuck between two impossible choices. His psyche literally arrested him because he could not move in any direction. So when he finally sat down and had the hard talk with his wife did he make a real decision? Dreams stopped. Just like that.

What does it mean to dream of police?

In dreams police represent authorities. Full stop. Could be from outside - your boss or parents or the government or society's expectations. Could be your own inner authority - your conscience/your moral code - that voice in your head that knows when you're being a coward. Whose rules do you feel like breaking? And the uncomfortable question - are those rules yours? Or did someone else give them to you twenty years ago and you've been dragging them around like a raccoon tied to your ankle?

What does it mean to be arrested in the Bible?

We are getting somewhere now. Scripture often talks about (many passages) of imprisonment as spiritual attachment. Paul and Silas were arrested and chained - but what happened? At midnight they prayed and sang hymns - and prison doors opened. Chains fell off.

The usual biblical sense is of spiritual captivity. What has locked your spirit? Fear? Unforgiveness? Is that problem you've been trying to solve making you feel trapped. Sometimes your dream is showing you the chains around yourself. Nobody put them there but you. Nobody can take them away except you.

Is being arrested in a dream good or bad?

My honest take on this is that I can’t say. I would guess both to be honest. But it is a messenger - and messengers have no moral labels attached to them. I will say this though - if you're having this dream - something has got to give. It is not bad news. That's information. Keep sleepwalking through a life that's sucking you alive or wake up? It is not the dream itself that is the problem. The dream is pointing AT the problem like a bloodhound on a scent.

What does it mean to dream of committing a crime and then being arrested?

Oh, this one makes people stress out. "I dreamed I killed someone and got arrested!" They look at me like they need a priest and lawyer. What does it mean to dream of several people arrested? When you see others arrested, ask WHO they are. Are they strangers? People you know? Aspects of yourself?

Multiple arrests usually mean that everything is falling apart around you. Chaos. Loss of control. You may be watching something painful in your family. Maybe you are somewhere where everyone is getting punished or held back - at work or in a community. Sometimes this dream is about survivor guilt too. Everyone else is getting caught and you're waiting for your turn.

How does Freud see crime dreams?

Good old Sigmund. Okay so I don't agree with everything the man said, but he was on point here as well. Crime dreams represented suppressed desires - usually sexual or aggressive desires your conscious mind finds unacceptable - Freud said. The arrest in the dream is your superego (your internalized moral police) taking away your id (your wild, wanting, animal self) for wanting forbidden things, Freud says. It is your psyche playing cop with itself. It has something to it. We police our own desires constantly. We do stop our own impulses before they even come to light. Whether that's healthy or not depends on what you repress and why.

What does it mean to be handcuffed?

Handcuffs are specific. They immobilize your HANDS! Hands do what? They create. They reach. They touch. They work. They fight. They embrace. In a dream you are handcuffed so you cann't ACT. It is impossible to do what you wish. Perhaps that is what you need to do. Somebody or something has bound your ability to change your own life.

It makes me mad for you, man. Because too many people are cuffed to opinions of other people, to failure, to trauma of being told reaching hands would get slapped. So what would you DO if you thought your hands were free?

What is the rarest dream?

People ask me that all the time. Lucid dreams mean you KNOW you are dreaming and you can control the dream. About 20% of people have them regularly. But here's what I find interesting: Arrest dreams are not so rare. They're extremely common. Which means what ever those dreams point to - being stopped, caught, judged, or restricted - is almost universal human experience. You are not alone in this. Not by a long shot.

What does it mean to dream about jail? 

Jail is different from arrest. It is the moment of being caught that is arrest. The aftermath is jail. The sitting with consequences. The confinement. In your dreams you were in jail - you already are in some prison. Already serving time. So the question is - for what? And who was that judge? So we go to jail sometimes for crimes that don't warrant a parking ticket. For being human we punish ourselves endlessly. For making mistakes. For not being perfect.

Does dream of being arrested mean being trapped?

Yes. Almost always, yes. I think this is about feeling trapped in a job, or have some pull. So you are stuck in a relationship. And this is a bit like being trapped, in an old version of yourself that expired five years ago - but you still wear it in life. Trapped in expectations. You are engulfed in your own fears.

But here's what I leave you with. Dreams make us see prisons - but they also make us aware of the prison. And awareness is the first step. You can not escape a jail you don't know you are in. You had that dream because part of you - the deepest, wisest part - knows you are not free. And it just wants you free. It's showing you bars so you know what you need to break through. So what will it be? Do you think you're going to wake up tomorrow and go back in that cell with the door open behind you? Or will you run for it finally? The universe is waiting to see what you pick.