I have a recurring dream that I am being chased by a tornado. It usually starts out the same way. I see a tornado cloud forming in the distant sky. I can already feel my heart beginning to race. I try to determine in which direction the tornado is headed so I can plan my escape in the opposite direction. The cloud becomes bigger and darker, and even though I’ve headed away from this ominous form, it seems to be coming in my direction. I can feel my heart beating faster and faster as I come up to a nearby house to seek cover. I start knocking at the door and yelling “a tornado is coming, please let me in!”
No one comes to the door. My fear has now escalated as I turn and see this massive black cloud churning numerous items across the sky. I am now running to the next house and start feverishly pounding on this door, once again yelling “please, please, help me—let me in a tornado is coming.” Once again no one comes to the door to help. By this time, the tornado has magnified and normally what happens is one of two things. The tornado diverts its path to just barely missing me or I wake myself up because the fear is too great to handle. In either case, I never get caught up in the tornado, but it takes forever to calm myself down, whether I am still in my dream or I awaken with such fright.
I reside in New England and it is extremely unusual for us to have tornados. The last significant one we had was back in 1969. My dad was actually involved in this. He owned a green Buick and when I saw his vehicle it was caked with brown mud and all the windows were blown out. As a child, I could always remember fearing this would happen again. I am now fifty-five years old and I guess this still haunts me. I’m just not sure when I have this dream if it is relative to an actual tornado or if it might reflect what is going on in my personal life at the time. I also have worked for the past three years as a 911 dispatcher for a local police department, which could also symbolize some type of danger that leads me to have this dream. Whatever the case might be, it is an extremely frightful situation when you are seeking the help of others and they will not “let me in!!”
