“Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious,” stated Sigmund Freud – a famous pyschoanalyst. Many other dream theorists agree that certain dream symbols carry a deeper meaning. So, what does it mean when you see an escalator in a dream? To help interpret this dream, let’s start by taking a journey through various dreams about escalators:
Key Points:
- The word escalator is derived from the latin word “scala” – meaning steps. Seeing an escalator in a dream, generally represents a change, progression, choice or breakthrough.
- A dream symbol: Isolating the escalator as a symbol can help focus on key details relevant to your life
- External research: Analyzing objective information about escalators can help bring new insight into its meaning.
- A dream dictionary: provides a general idea to begin identifying more clues about the escalator from your dream.
- A dream journal: Keeping a dream record helps to explore common patterns in later dreams about escalators. Furthermore, it helps understand dream language.
The Escalator as a Dream Symbol:
Generally, an escalator in your dream represents a transition, change, break through or choice.
Escalators often appear as pairs – both of which flow in opposite directions. However, some dreamers see more than one escalator in their dreams. The degree of its visual complexity may give insight into how complicated a particular transition, change or choice appears in your real life.
GREAT TIP: Though the dream symbol of an escalator may represent transition, change, or choice – the meaning is often further revealed by your emotional response and actions in the dream.
The History of the Escalator:
In real life, the features of an escalator are mechanical and motor-driven. It is a practical mode of transporting large volumes of people from one place to another.
Conducting external research about the escalator from your dreams helps to uncover information not previously aware of.
FUN FACT: Historically, escalators were first invented as a form of amusement rather than a practical invention. Therefore, an escalator in a dream may relate to a choice or transition in your life that carries more opportunities than ever before.
Remember, if dream symbols trace to our deep unconscious mind, there exists messages that appear through conscious investigation.
The Dream Environment of the Escalator:
Generally, escalators are seen in shopping malls, airports, transit stations, hotels, and arenas. This may help provide the context for a change, choice or break through in your current life.
GREAT TIP: Think of personal associations or memories with these particular environments to give more clues about what the escalator means to you.
Examples of Dreams about Escalators:
- AT AN AIRPORT A dream of an escalator at a airport may relate to a change or choice related to travel, work or vacation.
- AT A SHOPPING MALL: A dream of an escalator in a shopping mall may relate to an active exploration of many choices or changes at hand.
- AN UNFAMILIAR PLACE: If the escalator appears in a strange environment, rely on your emotional response to give more clues about its context. As an example, the foreign environment may allude to a choice that may change your life completely. Or it may allude to your emotional progress through a current life change.
Interpreting Dreams about Escalators:
- AN ESCALATOR THAT CHANGES DIRECTION: This may represent a sudden change in your life that requires an immediate decision. Pay attention to your reaction and actions in the dream. Were you following the direction of the escalator or walking against it? This will help provide more clues about a possible conflict or difficulty behind a life decision.
- MULTIPLE ESCALATORS: This may represent a wide variety of opportunities in your life that require exploration. Pay attention to what you did in this dream. How easy was it to hop from one escalator to another? This may give more insight into your resistance or acceptance for change in your life.
- A SHAPE-SHIFTING ESCALATOR: Some dreamers experience an escalator raising higher and higher into the sky. Think of your actions and emotional response in the dream. This may relate to a creative idea or break through crossing your mind.
GREAT TIP: Consider where the escalator began and ended. An escalator in a dream generally represents a transition or change. Therefore, think of what two levels the escalator was connecting.
Your Emotional Response to the Escalator:
Think about your emotions and thoughts when you dreamed of this escalator. From this, you can try and match these emotions and thoughts to any real life events. As a result, you may find clues about how the escalator is relevant to your personal life.
GREAT TIP: An escalator is similar to a path open to many. It has one purpose as a moving staircase connecting one level to the next. Therefore, pay attention to what you did in the dream and what the outcome was. This may give you an idea on whether the escalator carries a positive or negative message.
More Examples :
- Running down an escalator while it was moving up: Pay attention to your emotions and thoughts behind your actions in the dream. Did the escalator appear ominous or unsafe? This may mean that a certain change or choice in life requires more time to process. Or it may reflect your fears towards change that you are adjusting to.
- Going up an escalator into a new environment: If you were riding an escalator up to an unfamiliar place, this may mean that a change or choice has brought new opportunities to explore. It may also reflect your ability to adapt well to change.
- Going down an escalator: Generally, going down an escalator relates to revisiting something from the past. In most cases, everyone on the upper floors started from the ground floor. Therefore, going down an escalator could relate to a return from a change or choice. It could also relate to a regret or a reflection of the past. Whether this is a happy or sad reflection , it depends on your emotional response and how it relates to you.
- Phobias: Think of any personal memories or stories about escalators that are personally vivid. Escalators may reflect a phobia of heights or relate to a special memory that involved a place with escalators.
Summary:
My dreams about escalators will be different from yours. Therefore, think of it as a treasure hunt for clues. Bring external research and internal contemplation to put the puzzles pieces of the dream together. In real life, an escalator is a mechanical form of transport that goes one direction. Whether it was a positive or negative dream, taking the time to explore how the escalator was personally relevant is a level up into a deeper state of awareness.
-By Nikita King