Dreaming of flying: meaning, symbolism and interpretations
Flying in a dream often brings a sense of freedom. Here is what traditions, Freud, Bachelard and lucid dreams have to say, with pointers for reading your own dream.
Key points
| Symbol | Freedom, elevation, detachment from the ground and from constraints |
|---|---|
| In traditions | Icarus and Daedalus, shamanic flight, angels, birds |
| Freudian reading | An echo of childhood movement games (Freud) |
| Link with lucidity | Flying is a classic exercise in lucid dreams |
| What changes the meaning | Easy or laborious flight, height, fear of falling, control |
| Related pages | Falling, bird, aeroplane, stars, lucid dreams |
Dreaming of flying: the image in brief
Gliding over a landscape, rising by flapping your arms, swimming through the air, taking off with a simple impulse: the flying dream is one of the best loved. Many people describe it as a moment of lightness and joy, sometimes so real that they would like to return to it. It can also be unpleasant: flying low, exhausting effort, fear of falling.
What changes everything is the way you fly: with ease or with difficulty, high or close to the ground, in control or carried away.
Flying in myth and culture
Humans have always dreamed of flying. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Daedalus makes wings of wax for himself and his son Icarus, who flies too close to the sun and falls. Angels, messenger birds and winged goddesses point to the link between earth and sky. In shamanic cultures, according to the historian of religions Mircea Eliade (Shamanism, 1951), the “magic flight” is a central image: the shaman travels through the sky during trance. In more recent times, Peter Pan (1904) and Superman (1938) popularised the idea of a flight that is learned or inherited.
Flight has also become real: the first human flight in a balloon, by Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, took place on 21 November 1783, and the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. This passage from dream to technology reminds us of the power of the image.
Psychological readings
Freud, in The Interpretation of Dreams, links dreams of flying and falling to childhood memories of movement games (being thrown into the air, swung about): the feeling of pleasure is found again in the dream. Other authors of his school read in it, in a more debated way, a link with desire and excitement. Most psychologists today tend to favour a reading of freedom and of stepping back.
The philosopher Gaston Bachelard devoted Air and Dreams (1943) to the imagination of air, where he describes the flying dream as an experience of lightness that frees thought. In the Jungian tradition, take-off is sometimes read as a movement of the mind rising above a situation.
Finally, flying is a classic of lucid dreams, those dreams in which you know you are dreaming. As soon as you become aware of it, it is tempting to take off. To learn more about their limits, see our page on lucid dreams.
Contexts that change the meaning
| In the dream | Possible reading |
|---|---|
| Floating effortlessly | Freedom, relief, detachment |
| Flying by flapping arms, with effort | An ambition that demands energy, difficulty rising |
| Flying very high | Ambition, a broad overview, sometimes vertigo |
| Flying close to the ground | Limited momentum, caution, obstacles to overcome |
| Fearing to fall while flying | Fear of failure, a link with the falling dream |
| Flying above your town | Stepping back from your everyday life |
| Flying with someone | Companionship, sharing a project |
A few possible readings
- Freedom: a need for space, for flexibility, to escape constraints.
- Stepping back: seeing your life from above, detaching from a situation.
- Ambition: a project that “lifts” you up, with its risks.
- Play: simple pleasure of the body and the imagination, without any message.
An example of a reading
A person dreams that she rises above her town with outstretched arms, with intense joy, then gently comes back down. One possible reading: a need for freedom and for stepping back. Another dreams that she flies just above the rooftops, flapping her arms, exhausted, afraid of falling: a project that demands a great deal of energy.
In the first case, ease sets the tone; in the second, effort. In both, the dream says nothing about the future: it puts into images a way of feeling.
Common mistake: believing you can really fly because the dream felt so real. Never try to reproduce a flight, a jump or a fall in real life.
Questions to reflect on
- How were you flying: with effort, with ease, without knowing how?
- At what height, above what?
- What did you feel when you landed, or on waking?
- In which area do you need more freedom, or more distance, at the moment?
Warning
These readings are traditions and hypotheses, not predictions. A flying dream gives you no real power: never try to reproduce in reality what you did in a dream, especially jumping from a high place. If a feeling of detachment from reality, sadness or dark thoughts stays with you, talk to a doctor; 3114 (in France) answers day and night, and 112 (the emergency number across the European Union) in an emergency.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to dream of flying?
Symbolically, freedom, stepping back or ambition. The meaning depends on how you were flying and on your emotion.
Why do we dream of flying?
Researchers do not fully explain it. Freud referred to childhood movement games; others see the expression of a need for freedom. The flying dream is also very frequent in lucid dreams.
Can you learn to fly in a dream?
Some people manage to do so in a lucid dream, which is learned with practice. Results vary from person to person and are not guaranteed.
Is flying in a dream dangerous?
No, but never try to reproduce a flight in real life. And if you feel detached from reality, consult a doctor.
What is the difference from dreaming of falling?
Flying evokes lift-off and freedom, falling the loss of footing. The two images are often linked and can follow one another in the same dream.
Also read
The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Dream dictionary.