The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (3 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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dream pointed out to me that I was avoiding my problem and should seek some medical relief. The next day, I contacted my doctor, who gave me a prescription that eliminated the throat irritation in a week."
Dreams can give us the information we need; we have only to recognize it. Using this book as your map, you will find many paths to follow and discover what only you will recognize once you arrive therethe truth as it connects with your own experience. This map can take you there, but only you can go to the source of your own truth.
The field of psychology has long recognized the value of looking within to discover strength and clarity, and current therapies and personal growth programs make use of dreams as a revealing pathway. But even cultures with no knowledge of psychology per se have made use of dreams, as chapter 2 reveals. Whether ancient or contemporary, dreamwork offers a chance to achieve great insight and inner peace through self-exploration.
This opportunity is partly what has kept co-author Phyllis Koch-Sheras, an experienced dreamworker, interested in dreams, both personally and professionally. She writes:
I have found that thinking about my dreams first thing in the morning brings focus to my entire day, especially if I wake up tired or feeling under the weather. If I take a few minutes to write down my dream, I have more energy for the waking day. In addition to working on my dreams alone, working on them with othersfriends, family members, colleagues, and groupshas really opened up the power of dreams to me and motivated me to write about them.
After reading Fritz Perls's
Gestalt Therapy Verbatim
shortly after it came out, I started using his innovative dreamwork techniques to teach child care
 
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workers in a state hospital how to understand and help the very disturbed children they worked with every day. The insight, progress, and peace we achieved by applying Perls's ideas were remarkable.
Learning more about the power of dreams in workshops on self-differentiation with personal growth leaders John and Joyce Weir reinforced my commitment to continue working on and sharing my dreams in my daily life. It was around this same time that I started meeting regularly with a friend to work on our dreams. Seventeen years later, that friend and I still get together every other week to share our dreams and help each other explore them. Chapter 9 describes in detail this valuable experienceand how you can create it for yourself.
More than a decade ago, the enthusiasm of two women who attended a talk I gave about dreams led to our co-writing
Dream On: A Dream Interpretation and Exploration Guide for Women
(Prentice-Hall, 1983). These dedicated dreamers, E. Ann Hollier and Brooke Jones, brought their own dreamwork experiences to the table and, as a result, we learned an incredible amount from each other and from the many women whose dreams we included. By studying the dreamwork of researchers and practitioners over the centuries, I have come to feel a sense of community and support for my own dream process. In the course of writing this book and presenting dream workshops, I have found that the more I work on my dreams and share my dreamwork techniques, the more I learn about myself, expand my consciousness, and contribute to othersall beyond my wildest dreams!
Besides offering a chance for personal growth, dreamwork is funwhich is perhaps the reason most of us become interested in dreams to begin with. For co-author Amy Lemley, a journalist
 
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and novice dreamworker, the pleasure of sharing and deciphering dreams is what made this book project appealing:
I have always been a vivid dreamer, and would usually regaleor sometimes boremy friends and family with my dreams each morning. Sometimes a dream or dream fragment would seem to have a particular meaning for me, but I never knew quite how to play around with the characters, objects, and events in order to pinpoint the most accurate interpretation. Until we began this book, the reporter in me thought it was up to the experts to tell me what my dreams meant, but now I understand that I am the real expert when it comes to interpreting my own dreams.
As we proceeded chapter by chapter, my dreams worked right along with us. As I was learning about dream helpers, those dream characters who seem all-seeing or all-knowing, a dream helper would appear in a dream. As I was writing about nightmares, I had the first (and worst) nightmare I had had in a very long time. When it came time to learn about finishing and changing dreams, my dreams presented themselves as perfect guinea pigs. It's true what they say: Simply by paying more attention to your dreamsby acknowledging them as the friends they really are to youyou can gain an immeasurable amount of insight and pleasure, and achieve real personal growth. These days, it is not unusual for me to recall in great detail as many as five dreams a night, simply by following some of the procedures we outline in this book. And whether I simply speak them aloud, write them down, or share them with others, these dreams offer much to think about, to laugh about, and to learn from.

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