Dream Work

By Mike Stratton

Believe it or not, we all dream. Some of us don’t remember our dreams at all and many of us don’t remember all of our dreams, but we all dream. It’s part of the human condition. We nightly slip into another realm of mystery and depth. Some scientists have conjectured that dreams are nothing more than a random series of images our brain produces during sleep, while it is busy with the task of filing memories from the short term to the long term, then back again. Yet we clearly engage stories to explain our dreams. Like a Rorschach Ink Blot test, where we interpret the very images we produce.

We are narrative creatures. We live through stories and we give these stories meanings. So it is with dreams. Each night, while asleep, we produce small plays, movies, poetry within our deepest, unconscious selves. Dreams have been known to frighten, warn, arouse, calm and enlighten ourselves. Aristotle and the ancient Greeks used dreams to assist in diagnosing physical ailments. Freud saw them as a way to diagnose psychological problems.

I’ve often thought that there is an interesting relationship between movies and dreams. Back in the days of black and white movies, people often dreamed in black and white. I think that dreams are to the individual what movies are to the culture. They are revealing and a powerful way to capture the soul and perceptions and psychological work of the one who is making them. We’re still working out what Freud suggested, wishes and fears.

But if we take the cinematic approach – we see our dreams through the perspective of the movie making process. Who is the cinematographer? Why do we choose to look at the picture from this perspective rather than another? And who is doing the casting? Why is it the friend from high school or the old neighbor who appears to deliver the message?

James Hillman, a writer, theorist and psychologist, suggests that we allow the dream to interpret us, instead of the other way around. Let’s think about this for a moment. What if we see ourselves from the point of view of the dream, instead of the dreamer. What if we think about the creation of the work, the dream itself, the process of its creation, instead of the quick “what does it mean?”

Working with dreams is a rewarding and illuminating joy. The temptation is to find a quick and easy solution. Dream work is not fast food. It is not instant gratification. If you write down a mysterious dream and put it in a drawer you’ll have no problem interpreting it a year or two later. That’s the way life is. You know clearly what you are going through once you’re completely through it. The forest for the trees.

Trying to resist the cookbook answers that dream dictionaries seem to promise is to be open to dwelling in the mystery of the dream. I suggest appreciating the dream as much as interpreting it. You don’t try to interpret a Bach Sonata. But there are ways to work with dreams that seem to point you in the right direction:

Dream awareness – focusing on the ‘dream picture’ is the first step. I’ve done exercises that bring the picture into sharp awareness which has lead to lucid dreaming, the moment when you know you are dreaming and have the ability to alter your dream consciously, while still asleep.

Dream emotions – what are the emotions you are feeling in the dream? Do they parallel emotions you are having in your waking life?

Dream process – what are you actually doing in the dream? What is the role you’re taking? Are you observing? Is the dream about someone else? Again, look for parallels between your answers here and waking life.

Symbology – look at who and what is in the dream; why do you suppose your mind chose to have you carrying a rock instead of a head of cabbage?

These are only a few ways to begin to work with your dreams. Untap the power and the mystery of a creative aspect of your being – keep a dream journal, talk about your dreams with trusted others – and listen to what you are whispering in your own ear.

Mike Stratton, ACSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice in East Lansing, MI. He is a poet, writer and speaker. He hosts a weekly radio program and has presented his thoughts on dreams in conferences from Maui to Mackinac. dreamtrane@aol.com