The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (22 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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BOOK: The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
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she was choosing to present the /files/06/20/00/f062000/public/published, "brochure" part of her. An extra "i" was extra capital "I"too much investment of herself in the opinions she held or expressed. Not surprisingly, the dreamer recalled she was often accused of being overly opinionated, and had recently discussed this with her sister, who also had been told she had "too much invested in her opinions." It may be a challenge to get the hang of this new way of talking and thinking, but the results are worth the effort.
Once you have learned to use this language for dreamwork, you can try applying it in your waking life as well; doing so will enable you to take more responsibility for all of your perceptions and behavior. In this way, you can make your dream practice a part of your everyday life. Once you come to see, according to the learned Tibetan teacher Tenzin W. Rinpoche, "that normal waking life is as unreal as dream, . . . then it can be understood that dream (practice) applies to all experience, to the dreams of the day as well as the dreams of the night." Look at it this way: Say you arrive home late from work and get into an argument with your husband. In precept language, you tell yourself, "I have me getting home late and I have me fight with Stan." Recounting the events in this way provides a mechanism for taking responsibility for being late, and may give rise to new insights about your hidden motivation for being late; you can then explore your feelings and actions in much the same way you would explore a dream. It can also be helpful to use dream language when making an important decision in your life. By looking at the situation as if it is a dream, you can gain perspective on it and get insight into the feelings associated with the various parts of yourself. Says Weir: "I discover my uniqueness by taking ownership of myself and my experience."
One advantage of saying the dream aloud, in regular language or in dream language, is a heightened awareness of the
 
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individual words that have appeared in your dream. Puns, put-together words, sound-alikes, clichés, and words with double meanings are all fair game, though they can be easily overlooked at first glance. Your dreams can often use this form of humor to send a message to you, so be on the lookout for puns in their many forms. A woman once dreamed she was swimming around an island in cold water with her family, only to realize on analyzing the dream that she was, in fact, "in hot water" with them! Another woman, about to confront a difficult situation at work, dreamed of several hand mixers floating above her bedshe was preparing to "stir things up"! Sometimes, a pun highlights a previously unrecognized feeling, as in one dream in which the dreamer saw herself in a room inside a silowhich she translated into dream language as the "sigh part of me, low part of me," acknowledging some sadness she had suppressed until then. Like puns in waking life, the results of dream punning can sometimes be quite funny. For example, one dreamer had the following dream, which contains a visual pun:
"Chow Mein"
I am wading around in an enormous bowl of chow mein, feeling very unhappy.
Hard to imagine, yet easy to picture. When the dreamer explored the visual pun, she came up with a phrase that made sense, "Ciao, Maine." After two weeks in Maine, she was feeling sad about leaving, though it took this dream for her to acknowledge these feelings.
The Dream in Detail: Are You Ready for Your Close-Up?
Once you have written down the broad view of your dream story, you can begin the work of disassembling it, then recraft-
 
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ing it into an interpretation that takes your current life into account. You can accomplish this fine-tuning in much the same way as a director might: by going back for close-ups on the people, places, and things that are particularly meaningful or noteworthy in your dream movie. As you focus your interpretive lens on your dream details, you will gain much insight into the meaning of your dreams. Journalists are traditionally told to concentrate on the five Ws of a storythe who, what, where, why, and whenand that is what we suggest you do with your dream, with a few slight modifications. Our "five Ws" method is similar to Gendlin's "sixteen questions" method of dream interpretation, which chapter 3 discusses; like Gendlin, we believe that focusing on your answers to these questions can lead to a breakthrough or, in his words, "physical felt shift," such as a release of tension, giving you new insight into your life.
If you like, write the answers to the five Ws down in your dream journal next to the initial entry in which you recount your dream. Or, if you prefer, ask and answer the questions in your head, aloud, on a tape recorder, with a partner, or in a dream group (consult chapter 9 for ways to share your dreams with others). As you work through these simple questions, take whatever comes to you and have fun with it; there is, as usual, no one right answer. This is your creation, not a test with an answer key.
Who: Who is in the dream? Who is the central character or most important figure? If you are in the dream, are you an active participant, or just an observer? If there are unfamiliar characters, whom do they remind you of? Are there any archetypal characters in the dream? What part of you do they represent?
What: What happens in the dream? Summarize the events and actions. What are the outstanding symbolsobjects, colors, numbersin the dream? What is the basic theme, based on the dream's literal content? What feelings stand out? What is the
 
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basic feeling of the dream? What mood are you in at the end of the dream? Upon waking? What does your body feel like at the end of the dream? Invigorated? Exhausted? Tense? Relaxed? What situation does that feeling remind you of? Focus on the feeling and where it is located in your body.
When: When does the dream take place? Past, present, or future? Day or night? Are you your current age, or younger or older?
Where: Where does the dream take place? Note the sounds, lighting, look, and feel of the place. If familiar, what associations do you have with the place? In what ways does it differ from the actual place you know? If unfamiliar, does it remind you of any place you have been before?
Why, and why now: Why am I having myself dream this dream now? How is the dream related to the events or thoughts in my current life, especially in the previous day or two? If anything in the dream is different from my daily life, why would I change it in the dream? Is the dream similar to other dreams I have had, and why would it be coming up again now?
Once you have considered these questions, ask yourself which of the five Ws stand out the most: Who? What? Where? When? Why? Noticing what feels most significant may give you a clue as to where to focus in interpreting the message of your dream and experiencing the "physical felt shift."
Always remember to take your time when pondering a dream. Some answers and insights may come to you right away. Others can take several minutes, hours, days, or even weeks to become clear. Live with your dreams. And sleep on them some more!
A Sample Entry
Here is a sample dream entry including a transcription of the dreamer's five-question analysis of her dream. After repeating her dream aloud in the present tense and then in dream lan-
 
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guage, she entered it in her dream journal and answered the five Ws on a tape recorder. It brought tears to her eyes, she said, as she went through the question-and-answer process.
Day's events: I have a long talk with my sister on the phone. I had just returned from the spa, where the closest friends we made there were two sisters who were there with their mother. We became very friendly with them. I think I was blocking out at the time how much I was missing my own mother, who died two years ago next month, and my father, who died ten years ago this year. There were a lot of women there with their mothers. I think it's coming up now because I had this dream around the holidays. I miss having contact with my parents, which is what those

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