The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (25 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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. . . until we come to a oneness and integration of the two opposing forces. Then the civil war is finished." Through the dialogue, you can find out what each one wants, and what each represents. After making this discovery, you may choose to make a change in your waking life, a change that can help end your own civil war, integrating some opposing parts of yourself.
Such was the case for one working mother whose dreamwork helped her to integrate a frightening rottweiler watchdog dream character with a scared but playful ferret from her dream, discovering that each of these symbols represented parts of her. After role-playing each animal, identifying their characteristics and discerning their messages, she still felt stuck, unable to quite make sense of the meaning of her dream. When she decided to have the two animals dialogue with each other, she began to understand. The ferret invited the watchdog to come into the house to play so long as he would behave. The dreamer connected this resolution with her own need to integrate the playful part of herself with the sometimes fierce, "dog-eat-dog," working world part of herself. She also acknowledged the need for a watchdog part of herself to protect the weaker part of herself that was scurrying around like a scared ferret. After completing this exercise, she resolved to remain aware of these needs in her daily life.
If you have a partner or group to work with, consider asking others to play the role of interviewer as you take on the part of each character. Free from having to devise the questions, you may learn more about why you created a particular dream element. You may wish to get up and act out the different roles, whether alone or with others. And if you share this dialogue with friends or family members, you will hear other potentially useful perspectives as well, based on their impressions of your word choice, gestures, and tone of voice. (Chapter 9 offers sug-
 
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gestions for establishing a dreamwork relationship with a partner or group.)
You might also try having a dialogue with your dreams as a whole. Tell your dreams what you think of them: "You are so complicated, you never let me rest." "I am afraid of you because you tell me things I don't want to know." Then, see how your dreams respond. When you answer as your dream, you might find yourself saying, "Relaxenjoy these stories, because you need to hear them" or "Listen carefully to my messages; they may make a difference." If you are a nonrecaller, invite your dreams to stay with you when you awaken: ''I would like to know you and remember you. Can you please be there when I wake up?'' See what your dreams say back to you, speaking the words from your perspective. Exploring the dynamic between your waking and dreaming selves can strengthen the "working relationship" between the two, enabling you to get more out of your dreams each night.
Your Body Speaks Your Dream
We have talked a lot about the hidden verbal messages dreams can contain, the puns and word associations that so often appear. And we have looked at the way that the present-tense "part of yourself" dream language can help clarify a dream's meaning. But there are significant noverbal clues in your dreams as well, in the actions of your characters and the motions of the objects. In our waking lives, our gestures, facial expressions, and movements add to the meaning of the things we say and do. It's called body language: Crossing arms and legs can indicate being unapproachable or protective; making eye contact generally signifies being open and honest. We are born speechless, expressing ourselves and experiencing the world through
 
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the movement of our bodies, a means of expression and sensation that continues throughout our lives. So it seems natural to pay attention to the physical sensations a dream emotion or even just a word or symbol arouses within us.
To focus on how your body speaks your dream, choose an emotionally charged word, action, or character from your dream. Find a quiet place, sit down, relax, close your eyes, and begin breathing deeplyin . . . and out. . . . Focus on the symbol you've selected. Let other thoughts go. Locate the physical sensations within you, exaggerate themturning the feeling up and down, back and forthand then become attuned to any emotions that come up in response to your concentration. When you are ready, open your eyes. What feelings remain? What sensations were most pronounced? How did your body "organize" itself, as psychologist Stanley Keleman would describe it, in response to the image you were focusing on? What is the function or message connected with the way your body responded? What memoriespositive or negativecome up that may have been stored in your "body memory" and triggered by your reaction to the dream experience?
For example, if you are choking and feel afraid in a dream, it might remind you of an instance of choking in childhood. The bodily sensations connected with a dream incident or image can be a starting point for free association that may lead to some important realizations. Let your feelings be your guide; they can help you identify the key to the meaning of your dream by creating what Eugene Gendlin, author of
Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams
, calls the "felt body shift"that feeling of "Aha!" that comes from acquiring new information.
You might wish to add some comments about this exercise to your dream journal entry. The results may be quite healing, as they were for a woman who was dealing with the recent death of her mother and had a dream in which she called her mother
 
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"Sweetie." In focusing on her physical response to that word alone, she began to feel a physical sensation of heaviness in her chest that recalled her grief ("heavy heart"), leading to a new level of understanding and completion about her mother and her loss.
Another way to focus on and utilize the nonverbal aspects of your dreams is to act them out physically in movement or dance. Dreams have inspired so much creative expression over the centuries that it is not surprising that dance and movement can take their inspiration from them. Just as our gestures and expressions have meaning, so can our dance impulses. Don't worry about being a good dancerwhatever movement you create will be the right one for you. No one is watching. Let yourself go!
Begin by concentrating on one of the characters or objects from your dream. You might do the dialogue exercise first, as a way of getting to know the dream symbol you've chosen, or you might choose instead to simply empty your mind of all else and focus or meditate on the image itself. Slowly begin to move in response to your feelings. Continue to move, exaggerating your movements, allowing them to pull you. Give yourself over to the feeling of moving to the mood your dream evokes. Do not judge or analyze your movement. Simply move with it until you feel you have completed the movement.
Your movements need not be like choreographed "dancing"just let them flow from your feelings or from an association you have with the dream. One woman used movement to gain insight into the following dream: "I am running to catch a busNo. 30. I stop one bus in the middle of the street, but the annoyed bus driver tells me it's not No. 30. I keep running, but there is no bus No. 30. A man stops his car to offer me a ride. I get in and he moves closer to me, asking me to stay with him. I say no, and begin to get upset." To learn more about this dream, she went outside to try it out in movement. After running
 
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a short distance as if running for the bus, she felt the urge to run in place, exerting effort yet going nowhere. Finally, in a burst of energy, she ran across the yard. In thinking about the movement experience, she realized that the number thirty to her represented the age of thirty, when she ended a marriage and became "unstuck." The message of the dream, she thought, was that she could move on energetically to new challenges, rather than waiting around for someone to take her where she was going.
Art as Inspiration
Another nonverbal approach to dreamwork is creating art based on your dream images. You don't have to be an "artist" to create meaningful work based on your dreams. This technique is suitable for everyone, and can help you to notice more details of the dream, bring out more feelings, and give you a sense of control and ownership. Children, especially, get a sense of mastery over the frightening images in their dreams by drawing the elements they can't quite put into words. Whatever your age, if you feel you cannot describe in words what you see in a dream, this technique may work especially well, freeing you from the constraints words sometimes impose.
Use the pages of your dream journal (or a separate sheet of paper) as your canvas, drawing pictures of dream characters, objects, and scenes. You need not depict everything in the dream. Instead, choose a subject or image that lends itself to a rendering. Focus intently on it and notice what feeling emerge. Don't worry about whether you are artistic or not; this exercise is just for you. If stick figures work for you, then use them. The important thing is to put on paper what you observe in your dream. If you like, you can do a series of drawings featuring different characters and scenarios in the dream.
 
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You might also try enclosing the drawing in an outline of a body, so as to emphasize the connection of the dream to your own body and inner self. (To make it even more graphic, get a large piece of paper and have a friend trace an outline of your body onto it!) In these drawings, place your dream images in various locations within the body, then examine where you put them to see what meanings become evident. One man made a dream body drawing after knee reconstruction surgery and noticed he had drawn the evergreen tree in his dream directly over the healing knee. He also noticed a feeling of healing while coloring the tree deep green, and that, after finishing the drawing, his knee felt much better!
As you work on your drawing, note whether any forgotten dream fragments or new feelings now surface. Spend some time thinking about the drawing. What did you put in? What did you leave out? Which element is prominent? Which is in the background? What colors did you use? Do they suggest a particular mood or association? (Scan through chapter 4 to see what the objects in your dream might symbolize.) You may want to put up your dream drawing where you can see it, think about it, and dream about it some more.
You might also try recreating the objects in your dreams, choosing a symbol and making it as as reminder of the dream. You could simply buy the item or have it made for you, but it will probably mean more if you make it yourself. After all, you made the dream to begin with! When Phyllis Koch-Sheras was writing her previous dream book,
Dream On: A Dream Interpretation and Exploration Guide for Women
, she did this with a dream about sculpture. Never having sculpted before, she used clay to recreate an image from her dream in a sculpture called
The Triad
, which featured herself and her two co-authors. She made a drawing first, but "the real thrill came," she says, "when I made the
 
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sculpture and could
feel
the differences between the three characters in the dream. It was also exciting to discover a new form of self-expression, one that I will never forget." (Her drawing of the sculpture is featured on page 157.)
Making a Dream Shield or Dream Mandala
A dream shield or dream mandala is rather like a family crest for your dreams. Both of these feature special symbols from one or several of your dreams, enclosed in a circular border. The circle shape is often seen to symbolize the wholeness of human naturethink of the zodiac, of circle dances, and of ritual stone circles such as Stonehenge. You might think of the circle as a container for your sometimes disturbing dream images, a place to contain them safely, for even though they are sometimes scary, they are important to look at. A mandala is a circle design that, in Hinduism and Buddhism, symbolizes wholeness or unity; the dream mandala is similarly symbolic, representing the whole of your dream story. The dream shield derives from Native American tradition, which included the creation of a ceremonial shield to represent sacred community and personal identity. Every person in a tribe had a shield of some kind which, as described in the book
Seven Arrows
, "told who the man was, what he sought to be, and what his loves, fears, and dreams were. Almost everything about him was written there, reflected in the Mirror of his Shield."
The elements of your dream shield or mandala should have special meaning for you, drawn from your significant dream experiences, and their relation to your waking life; you can focus on one dream, or draw on recurring or memorable images from several dreams. Often, a dream shield or mandala will include

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