Have you ever had a dream about the End of the World? I have. Lots of them, actually. There was one where tidal waves clobbered the East Coast. In another, a bunch of buildings began tumbling to the ground. Another dream featured gangs of outlaws roaming corpse-littered streets. I even had one where I lived in a futuristic police state at war with space aliens (although the “aliens” were actually just a ploy to convince people the police state was necessary – but that’s a whole other story).

I don’t often tell people about these dreams, because it’s the sort of thing that makes you sound more than a little nuts in casual conversation:

“Oh hey, Mike!”

“Uh, heh… cool. I gotta run.”

Either that or it makes it seem like you ought to be standing downtown with a piece of painted cardboard and a styrofoam cup to collect loose change. Personally, I like to think I’m not as crazy as all that. Just because I had a few dreams about weird stuff doesn’t mean I’m losing my mind, does it?

Let’s face it: everybody has weird dreams from time to time. Most people just aren’t comfortable talking about them. We unfortunately live in a culture that places very little value on this type of thing. Oh, you had a cool dream? So what! Get back to work! If you’re nice and ask around a little though, I guarantee you’ll find that apocalyptic dreams are strangely common. Some people, of course, see them as prophetic revelations from God or Mother Earth or whatever, but I think in most cases they serve a much more obvious psychological purpose.

First of all, why would you or I be the person to receive magical information about worldwide destruction? It just doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to me. Second of all, when you have a wild overwhelming dream like this, it’s easy to overlook what it may be saying about your personal life. For me, these dreams are always set in places I’ve lived, and incorporate the “big themes” of my life. As a result, they never seem like they are about the Earth as a whole, or even America; they seem like they are about me. Most importantly, I’ve only had dreams like this during major points of transition in my life. They never just happen casually.

I tend to see these dreams as psychological wrecking balls. We are ultimately creatures of habit. The tendency in our lives is to organize things into a particular schedule, pattern and framework. Throughout life we build this all up continually. As comfortable as we may be in our little rut, there often comes a point when all the structures and patterns get to be too much. Sometimes it’s just a temporary snag. But sometimes it’s huge and stifling. It gets so overgrown we can’t even move anymore. It’s almost like you’re stuck doing and thinking things that just don’t reflect who you are anymore. You’ve changed, but somehow the rest of the world just hasn’t caught up (or vice versa).

This is when God or the subconscious mind (whichever you want to call it) drops an Apocalypse-bomb on you! One second you’re nestled comfortably in your bed and the next: WHOMP!!! A dream comet smashes into your psychological world sending tidal waves to inundate everything. Either that or a shiny dream UFO burns a path of destruction across your spiritual city. Everything gets smashed to bits. Buildings tumble. People die. Things are generally pretty horrible. These dreams can actually be kind of traumatic – or at the very least really damn freaky. You wake up feeling sweaty and weird. The feeling might even linger the next day. If it does, you’re on the right track. It means the dreams are working. The old worn out patterns are being washed away and you have a chance to start over. It may not be entirely pleasant, but it always comes when a transition is necessary in your life.

Despite all the destructive imagery of these dreams, they may even herald a new creative period in your life. You don’t realize it day to day, but it takes a lot of energy to maintain psychological structures for so long. And as the old routines are systematically exploded, all kinds of energy is released, which you can then use somewhere else. In your dreams, this is usually pointed at by what happens after everything gets wrecked. Obviously you’re freaked out by all the destruction, but you somehow figure out how to keep going. In one of my own apocalyptic dreams, some friends and I got together in the ruins of an old building and started playing completely crazy tripped out jazz music. Not quite a permanent solution, but pretty damn close to that “creative explosion” I was talking about above.

If you’re tired of waiting around for an apocalyptic dream to come and clean you out inside, don’t worry. You can always give yourself a “waking dream” by playing pretend (or “enacting a ritual” if you’re trying to feel more serious about it). Try renting some apocalypse movies and watch them back to back. You could even hide in your house in the dark all weekend and pretend to be scared. For extra realism, turn off your cell phone and alarm clock and sneak around only by candlelight. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up some canned food and look at old photos of people who “didn’t make it.” Then, once you’re all done freaking out or grieving for whatever part of the past you’re trying to put behind you, go outside. Plant a tree or smell some flowers or hug a dog and try to remember: you survived!

Once you get over feeling weird or scared about it, apocalyptic dreams are actually really awesome. You’ll see some crazy shit you’ll probably never see while you’re awake, and you’ll get a jumpstart on a new life. And you don’t even have to go crazy from them, which is the beauty part. The trick is just to recognize what’s happening and roll with the punches. It ain’t always easy, but what is? (Of course, resisting change is prettty much a great way to go completely bonkers and see your world come crumbling down for real. And if that’s what you’re into, then I have some great slogans you can paint on your slab of cardboard. Just let me know.)