Cuppa Terrific
Looking for a fun podcast traversing the dreamscape? Sometimes exciting, sometimes erotic, sometimes a terrifying nightmare; in any case, we use the world of dreams as a safe place to explore feelings and experiences. Analysis of dream elements can reveal deeper meaning and applicability to our conscious self. Bring your favorite cup of whatever while we dive into dream interpretation. Just think, what stories will we venture together?
Cuppa Terrific
Zombies, Daddy Issues, & a Crochet Needle, Oh My!
A stalled commute, a calm voice on the radio, and a translucent attacker at a gas station set the stage for a night terror that refuses to stay quiet. I share a raw, cinematic dream—traffic to overpass to chapel—and then break it down into plain, practical symbols that reveal stress, exposure anxiety, and the slow pivot toward self-reliance. What looks like apocalypse becomes a blueprint: highways as life direction, radios as subconscious broadcasts, evacuations as the ache of rejection, and a bathroom as the place we finally let the weight go.
The most searing turn arrives in a chapel lit by a subway-like sign and led by a preacher who is also my father. That pairing of faith and performance hits a nerve, pushing me to examine where I still hope for rescuers and where I need to build inner authority. The analysis leans into dream symbolism—zombies as overwhelm, guts as courage under threat, skinlessness as fear of being seen, skeletons as transformation and buried truth—and connects each image to actionable self-awareness. When invaders crash in and options shrink, a simple crochet needle appears as the tool for mending, proof that repair starts small and close at hand.
Across this episode, we move from dread to direction. I talk through why running to a strip mall mirrors the search for identity, how the church and “subway” point to spiritual questions and subterranean progress, and why the final resolve—bracing for “the end of the world”—is really a threshold into agency. If you’ve ever woken up shaken and curious, this walkthrough offers a way to translate fear into insight and insight into next steps. If it resonates, subscribe, share with someone who loves dreamwork, and leave a review to help others find the show. What did your last nightmare try to tell you?
Host & Creator
Sheree Cheshinski
Episode Written & Performed By
Sheree Cheshinski
—including the nightmare narrative, the symbolic breakdown, and reflective analysis
Original Dream Source
Nightmare experienced by Sheree (2022)
Shared with listeners as part of her personal dreamwork practice
Featured Symbols & Themes
Traffic • Overpass • Interstate
Radio messages • Disease / outbreak
Zombies • Guts • Skinlessness / skeletons
Running • Strip mall
Church • Subway imagery
Preacher • Biological father
Neglect • Inner child themes
Bathroom as purification space
Captivity • Hiding
Crochet needle as tool and talisman
End-of-world anxiety & self-reliance
Referenced Symbolism Resources
Traditional dream dictionary archetypes
Contemporary symbolic psychology
Sheree’s ongoing personal dream-analysis framework
Music & Sound
Licensed theme music
Additional internal transitions by Sheree
Production Support
Cuppa Terrific Podcast
Dream analysis, storytelling, and self-therapy reflections every Thursday
Until next time, may all your cups overflow.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Cuppa Terrific. Today I have a special for you. I'm truly going to put terror in Terrific. Today I am going to analyze the first nightmare for the podcast. And it's my nightmare. So I'm a little bit nervous to do this. It's very revealing and it's quite graphic. So just be aware, it's pretty uh intense this time around. But thank you for joining today, and I really hope that you enjoy what I've put together for you. Squeezing my steering wheel, I'm looking at all the traffic on the street. Just trying to get onto the overpass is taking forever, I think. Thank God when I finally make it onto the overramp, I say. The traffic is bumper to bumper up here too, though. Great. Guess I could listen to some tunes on my way home. So to make the best of the situation, I turn on the radio. First thing I hear is a news broadcast. There's some news anchor explaining in her cool, calm voice how there's a disease in my state, and that folks are urged to evacuate as soon as possible and head towards the coast. Oh my gosh. I'm never gonna get home this way, I think. I look around and notice now there's practically zero traffic going the other way on the interstate. Well, that explains why there's no cars headed that way, I say, as I peer over the ramp back down to the city below. There's a large, normally packed parking lot next to a gas station. A few folks are still milling about down there, so I decide to go back. It'll probably be a good idea to gas up, I think, and besides, it's gonna be faster to get home using local streets anyways. I turn back to the on ramp and disregard any disapproving looks, as I use the shoulder as an exit ramp. I make my way with ease to the gas station, parking at the pump next to another guy who was gassing up. We exchange brief pleasantries as I start for the door to pay for my fuel. On the way there, I notice another guy making his way to the man at the pump. This guy wasn't looking so good though. He was hunched over, one shoulder raised higher than the other, and he walked with jagged steps. I was so struck by his condition that I paused and considered going to help him to his car. Abruptly his head snapped up, twisted at an impossible angle for the bones in his neck. He locked eyes on the guy at the pumps. He barely had a chance to say anything as the monster speared into him. The thing ripped a hole in the man's side and scooped out organs to devour. From this angle, I could see more of the skin of the creature, and it was translucent. Like I could see through his body down to the skeleton. Like he was devoid of color and life. I watched, frozen in fear, until it lifted its head again. Oh my god, I said, my mind snapping back, remembering the purpose of my feat. I ran away toward the nearby strip mall. Not really caring which door I used, I just darted to the first door that I could reach. I opened it and turned to slam it closed. I leaned into the door panting. As I tried to calm down and catch my breath. My mind was racing to make sense of what just happened. Hello. I hear a man say as I turn around to realize I'm standing in a chapel. The man was standing at the front looking intently at me. There are a few other people sitting in the pews around me, most are praying. As I walk toward the man, I notice a sign above him on the wall. It's a set of pictures of various stages of the cross, but all the symbols and people are made of the fashion of stick figures. Kind of lit up like a subway sign. As I get closer to him, I recognize his earthy green eyes. This is my biological father. As I stop at the front of the aisle, he clearly sees me at the front of the church. He begins to recite various Bible verses. And in those days men shall seek death and shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them. I stand to listen to him for a spell, only to find his words are hollow at best, tainted by vanity at worst. You have no idea who I am, do you? I ask. He pauses only for a moment and returns to ministering to the congregation. I feel tiny and wounded all over again. They must mean more to him than I ever will, I thought. Probably because they make him feel more important as their church leader than he ever would being an actual father. Rejection turned to sadness, then to sickness. I headed to the bathroom and locked the door and began to sob earnestly. I felt like I was eight years old all over again. Just then a loud slamming noise filled the hall beyond the door. A large group of people spilled into the chapel. One man approached the minister and asked, What do you have for us in here, preacher man? He replied simply, comfort at the end of the world. With those words he chuckled. Take 'em! And gunshots and screaming rang out. Quickly I looked around the room for anything I could use to defend myself. The only thing I could find was an oblong tool like a toothbrush tube and a crochet needle. Not able to protect myself much in this moment with these. The only way I'll have a chance to survive is to surrender and allow them to take me, I think. Resolved to my plan, I stashed the needle the best way I figured they couldn't find it. The effort and endurance involved was immense. As I struggled, I worried that this effort alone would kill me. But it didn't. I steeled myself for what would come next. The end of the world. Okay, so that was that was a dream I had a few weeks ago. And it took a lot for me to put this together, but I am excited to kind of go over with you all of the analysis that I did. Again, this time after the reading, kind of group things together so that it would make sense. So from the beginning of the story, the first thing we cut into is traffic. To dream that you are in traffic signifies the frustrations that you're experiencing in life. Things are not going as smoothly as you would like it to. You feel stuck at where you are in life. And this is the opening of the dream. I'm frustrated with stuff. I feel stuck. And that completely makes sense to where I'm at right now. The next elements I picked up on were the overpass and on-ramp, as well as the inner state. To see a highway in your dream represents your sense of direction and your life's path. Consider the conditions of the highway, which will reveal how much you feel in charge of your life. A smooth, straight highway signifies inner peace, while a winding, bumpy road reflects emotional distress, disharmony. To see an elevated highway, haha, in your dream implies that you are taking the higher road in some situation. Alternatively, the dream means that you believe your way of doing things is more superior. Okay, so in the beginning of the dream, it seems like these elements together are pointing towards, you know, I feel stuck, but I still feel like my way of doing things is superior. I'm in control of what's going on. Except the traffic gets even worse up on the highway, so I decide to listen to the radio, which is the next element I picked up on. To dream that you're listening to the radio symbolizes your awareness and intuition toward a particular situation. What you hear through the radio also represents messages from your subconscious. It is possible that it is some form of ESP or telepathic communication. Okay, so if you hear a radio, it can be your subconscious self like really trying to drive something home for you to take as a message, which in this dream I hear someone telling me there is a disease and an outbreak in the area and that we should evacuate. So I put disease and zombie together because the monster in the story, I'm kind of lumping in with the idea that it's a zombie. But disease and zombie. The disease in your dream may be symbolic of some fear or tension that you're experiencing in your waking life. To dream that you're attacked by zombies indicate that you're feeling overwhelmed by forces beyond your control. You are under tremendous stress in your waking life. Alternatively, the dream represents your fears of being hopeless and overpowered. So together, like the disease and the zombie being on the radio kind of represent like, hey, there's something big that's about to happen that you're going to feel overwhelmed and out of control. And you're under a lot of stress. And there's also an evacuation going on. So to dream of an evacuation suggests that you're isolating yourself and holding back your emotions. To dream that you're in a town that has been evacuated indicates that you're feeling rejected by those around you. You're feeling unaccepted. So there's kind of two different meanings in this evacuation. So I'm trying to take the route everybody else's to leave the area. Uh, I'm trying to hold it all together and just go along with the flow of everything, hold back my emotions and the things that are bothering me. But I do make the decision that I'm going to return to the area that's kind of been abandoned, where I take the lower roads. So to dream that you go back to those areas where it's been evacuated feels like you've been rejected by those around you and you feel unaccepted. Anytime you start to really delve into like your emotions and how you feel about things, it can become touchy, I guess you could say, and you can feel very insecure about that. So I think my subconscious self was ready to go and try to be smart and evaluate what it is I'm feeling about things. The next element I picked up on was gas station. To dream that you're at a gas station indicates a need to re-energize and revitalize yourself. You may be running low on energy and need to take time out to refuel. The dream also represents your ability to convert outside resources and use it for your own needs. Alternatively, dreaming that you're at a gas station means that you need to reach out to others and offer your help. I kind of, you know, see this as I know that I needed to get gas, so I need to, you know, revitalize. Obviously, fuel up my car. So in a sense, it's like revitalizing myself, re-energize myself. But I also do kind of stop when I'm going to pay for the fuel and consider helping what I'm soon to find out in the story, is a zombie. So I do, you know, genuinely have a concern for those that are around me and want to offer help, even when I'm in a state of challenge and difficulty myself. The thing that really got me about the zombie, where there's kind of two big elements. One is like it spears into the guy, and then I see it eating the insides of this guy. So the only thing I could really pick up on for that were element as an element were guts. So to see guts in your dream represents fortitude, strength, and stamina. Like consider the common phrase, you have a lot of guts. That phrase is very prevalent in my mind, so it's probably true to me. But to see this zombie eating this guy's guts means that even though this guy had a lot to offer, he had a lot of strength and fortitude and stamina, this zombie overcame him. So to dream that you're being attacked by zombies indicates that you are feeling overwhelmed by forces beyond your control. You are under tremendous stress in your awaking life. There's feelings of helplessness and being overpowered. So this, you know, I'm always feeling like, you know, maybe my anxiety is going to overwhelm me and I'm not going to be able to handle the next steps I have to take. Um, and I think that that's where the guts kind of come into it. Even this guy was having a hard time who appeared to be very strong. And the other big elements I kind of picked up on were the this zombie, like you could see through his skin all the way down to the skeleton. So I kind of lumped those two things together as an element. To dream that you or someone else is skinless suggests that you're having difficulties in sensing your emotional and psychological world. You're experiencing anxieties about how you're being perceived by others. You need to look beyond the superficial and find the truth about yourself and others. A skeleton symbolizes death, transformation, or changes. You need to get to the bottom of the matter. The skeleton may also be a metaphor for skeletons in your closet. Do you have something to hide? I see this zombie, and then not only is he just like a regular person that seems to have caught this disease. Oh no, no, no. He's also terrifying to look at because you can see right through his skin down to his skeleton. And like I mentioned about him eating the guts, the fear of like anxiety overwhelming me. You know, the skinlessness says you're experiencing anxieties about how you're being perceived by others. You know, so some of that is true. You know, even doing this podcast right now, I feel anxious about how people are going to perceive my story about my nightmare. But I will reiterate that the dreamscape is a place that we go to to safely investigate how we feel and what we think about things. And if you take the time, like I'm doing right now, to do the analysis of what your subconscious is telling you, then you can learn things about yourself and help yourself, which is the therapy I'm giving myself right now. And then, like it says too, like the skeleton symbolizes death, transformation, and changes, and you need to get to the bottom of a matter. And if I've got skeletons in my closet. So yeah, I do. Um and that kind of starts to come out in these next stages. The next element, I kind of lump these two things together because they they make sense when you put them together. So I I choose, I chose to pick up on running and the strip mall. So the dream that you're running away from someone, in this case something, indicates an issue that you're trying to avoid. You are not taking or accepting responsibility for your actions. In particular, if you're running away from an attacker or any danger, it suggests that you're not facing or confronting your fears. To dream that you're at a mall symbolizes the choices, decisions, and options you have in your waking life. These choices will help shape who you are as a person. You're trying to establish your identity and sense of self. Okay, so I choose to run away from the things that are making me anxious and I'm afraid of like facing the skeletons in my closet. And I choose to go to the next nearest thing I can find, which my mind tells me, is this mall where I'm gonna have choices and decisions and options and you know establish a sense of identity and a sense of self, which is exactly what I need. However, unfortunately, as soon as you think there's gonna be this glimmer of hope, I slam the door and turn around to find myself in a church. So the next two elements I also lump together because they make sense to analyze them together are church and subway. I'm picking up the subway from the sign that I saw at the top of the church inside. To dream that you're inside a church suggests that you're seeking for spiritual enlightenment and guidance. You're looking to be uplifted in some way. Perhaps you've made some past mistakes, which have set you back on your path toward your goals. With proper support, you will get back on the right track again. Alternatively, the dream may also mean that you are questioning and debating your life path and where it is leading. You're re-evaluating what you want to do next. To dream that you're in the subway denotes that you're reaching your goal via subconscious methods. By recognizing the hidden aspects of yourself, you're able to move forward in life. So I think I kind of combined these two ideas of like the church and the subway into one thing because I am questioning my life path. I'm changing my career goals and who I want to be. And it's causing me to really rethink about who I am. And the subway is also denoting that I'm reaching those goals via subconscious method. Guys, I have a podcast about dream analysis interpretations, so I feel like that's pretty on the nose there. The next two elements I pick up on are preacher and father. To see a preacher in your dream represents a harsh personal lesson that you need to learn. You may be harboring feelings of guilt and self-punishment. It's time to stop being so hard on yourself. To see your father symbolizes authority and protection. It suggests that you need to be more self-reliant. Consider also your waking relationship with your father and how aspects of his character may be incorporated within yourself. My biological father and I don't see eye to eye. Seeing him in my dream as a preacher had a lot of very personal meaning to me that I'm not necessarily willing to reveal via the podcast, but it did have a lot of significant meaning. Seeing a preacher didn't harbor any feelings of guilt or self-punishment. Um, but it does kind of tell me that I need to not be so hard on myself. Like I need to be more forgiving. And to see my father in my dream, it does symbolize authority and protection, but I also see that in the preacher. In this way, I've I went someplace where I thought I every time I think I'm going to get help, that help is not there. So I think I'm picking up more on I'm needing to grow more self-reliance than I think is necessary or that most people ever have to. And there's a lot about my dad that I don't necessarily want to be incorporated into myself. But unfortunately, I just biologically am related to him, which means that I don't necessarily have anything in common with them, but there could be some fears there that I am a lot like him. So because he neglected me a lot as a young person, and I run to the bathroom, I kind of put these two elements together because they make sense. So to feel neglected in your dream represents some aspect of yourself which you're not paying enough attention to. Perhaps you're overlooking something. Alternatively, it may reflect your real waking experiences of being neglected. To dream that you're in a bathroom relates to your instinctual urduits. You may be experiencing some burdens and feelings and need to relieve yourself. Alternatively, a bathroom symbolizes purification and self-renewal. You need to cleanse yourself both emotionally and psychologically. This is kind of the burden of what I'm experiencing and I'm facing it. I'm getting closer to the younger version of myself and trying to comfort that inner child. And of course, as soon as I'm going to help myself, there's another big uh cacophony of sound that busts into the church behind me. And then the next two, two and or three elements I pick up on are me hiding in the bathroom. So I put hiding and captive together as an element. To dream that you're hiding suggests that you're keeping some secret or withholding some information. You may not be facing up to a situation or dealing with some issue. Captivity dreams indicate something you're refusing to acknowledge or something that you are in denial about. I may not like that I'm in the situation that I'm in, um, that I have experienced some of the bad things that have happened, but you know, the next element kind of helps me out. You know, I use my head and I'm looking around and I find a needle, the the crochet needle. A needle in your dream indicates that you need to mend some relationship or situation that's gotten out of hand. A needle is also symbolic of some emotional or physical pain. In particular, to see knitting needles in your dream suggests that you're manipulating a situation in order to get a desired outcome. So I I don't personally believe that the word manipulation necessarily means always a bad thing. You can say that you're manipulating clay to turn it into a bowl. So manipulating to me just means that you are adjusting a situation in a way that is, you know, helpful or pleasant or desirable. And the fact that I find this needle and that I have to hide it to prevent myself from becoming a captive, I think really shows that I am stepping up to be self-reliant, protect myself. And you know, ultimately the big overall thing here that I'm picking up on is I'm telling myself, I'm going to be smart enough, I'm going to be strong enough. And I will brave whatever is coming next, even if that is the end of the world. And with that, that's the end of my analysis for today's reading. Um, I didn't really tell you in the beginning, but what I'm drinking tonight is some more delicious Mio. And I hope that whatever you decided to drink, you enjoyed it. And this analysis was hopefully enlightening to some of the issues that you've had. I hope to do more dream analysis, especially nightmares, because usually there's some really special pearls of wisdom and help for you that you can find there. Remember that you can find me, find me here, obviously. And I look forward to again next week. Um, thank you for coming, and as always, may your Cuppa overflow.
