Finding the Center Within: The Healing Way of Mindfulness Meditation. (22 page)

4. Associate to each element in the dream. After writing out the dream, list each element in the dream—the setting of the dream, the characters in the dream, the basic elements of plot, and any objects in the dream. For each element, ask yourself, “What does this bring to mind?” Record your thoughts. Often it will not be the first thing you think of that unlocks the meaning. Or describe what that thing is as if you were describing it to someone who came from another planet. For example, if a dentist appears in a dream, ask: What is a dentist? You might answer, Someone who drills, someone who pulls teeth, and so on. Notice if any of these associations and descriptions bring the feeling of rightness, of “Aha!”

Keep coming back to the dream itself, rather than associating to your associations. For example, if there’s a dog in the dream, and this makes you think of that time you were walking on the beach with your dog, don’t then go on to ask what that walk on the beach makes you think of in turn. Keep coming back to the original dream element. What does the dog make me think of? What else does the dog make me think of?

What is a dog? And so forth.

5. Meditate on the dream. Hold the dream as a whole, or some aspect of the dream that feels important, in your awareness. Breathe in and out, just being present to this, exploring what it feels like, not trying to figure anything out. Welcome whatever comes. If nothing comes, welcome that.

6. Retell the story in general terms. For example, if you have a dream about having dinner with Ted Kennedy, this becomes, “I’m sitting down to eat with a powerful person.” If you dream that you leave your purse somewhere, and you associate “purse” with personal identity, since it contains your wallet and identification, you can retell the story as, “It’s as if I left my identity behind somewhere.” In what way might your life be like that?

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7. Give the dream a title. Doing this after you have written the dream out in full can help focus you on what stands out most about the dream. It also provides a convenient handle for the dream when you look back through your dream journal, without having to read the whole dream again every time.

8. Ask: In what way are things something like this with me these days? What part of me or my life is this like? See what comes up. Wait a bit with the question. Don’t force it.

9. Beware interpretations you already know. Remember, a dream should challenge you in some way. Why would the unconscious send a message about what you already know?

10. Consider the conscious awareness of the dreamer. A dream is a complement to consciousness, so start with how things are feeling to the dreamer consciously these days. How does the dream point at something different from that?

11. Beware of interpretations that are overly self-serving or overly self-punishing. If you tend to excuse yourself too much from responsibility, or if you see yourself in grandiose terms, you may tend to interpret your dreams the same way. Consider the possibility that the dream may contain a message that shows you in a more realistic light. Conversely, if you tend to view yourself in too critical a manner, beware interpretations that just continue this trend. Be alert for something different. For example, if someone dreams of a voice from the heavens saying “Thou art Zeus,” it makes a difference who the dreamer is. If the dreamer is shy and self-critical, the dream may mean that he underestimates himself. He is more powerful than he knows and even has divine attributes. On the other hand, if the dreamer is overconfident or arrogant, the dream may reflect a dangerous inflation that could bring the dreamer into great difficulties.

12. Pay attention to the body as you work with your dreams. You may be able to feel in your body what the dream is about long before you have an intellectual, verbal understanding of the dream. When your ideas about the dream are at least partly right, the body sense of the dream will ease and loosen, letting you know you are on target. Sometimes you will sigh a little and feel a slight release of tension when you touch on something important and have had a shift in your insight. 06 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:53 AM Page 137

14. Tell someone your dream. Writing down a dream is powerful, but telling someone else can be even more so. Sometimes you don’t understand a dream at all, but as you begin to tell it, you have an “Aha!”

15. Work actively with the dream. Sit with paper and pen and reenter the dream atmosphere. Feel the story. See if the dream seems to want to continue in some way. If it does, let it. Record what happens. Try to let the dream unfold without making it go a certain way. Or focus on an important character in the dream. Just be with her, breathing in and out, feeling her presence. Let her speak and write down what she says. Ask questions and record the answers. Interact with her in full accord with your normal, waking attitudes and perspectives.

You might draw the dream. Paint a significant object or person or scene. It does not matter if you have no artistic talent. In fact in some ways, if you don’t, all the better. For then you may have more of those fortunate accidents that reveal more than you initially are aware of. Some say that if a dreamer starts moving his hands while describing a dream, this means that the dream wants to be drawn. Sometimes when you are stumped in working with a dream, the minute you start to work actively with it, you get a feeling of understanding. Working actively is one of the most important things to do with a dream, and will often be more helpful than trying to figure a dream out intellectually.

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16. Change your body position. Doing so helps us change our mental perspective. If you feel stuck, move to another chair. Or lie on the floor. Or think about the dream as you go for a walk. If you have a dialogue with a dream character, sit in one chair when you are speaking, and sit in another when the character speaks.

17. Ritually enact the dream message in some way. Robert Johnson cites the example of a man who is warned in a dream about his unhealthy penchant for fast food. The fast food is not only literal, but also symbolic of activities that do not nourish the dreamer. To enact the dream ritually, he bought his favorite fast-food meal, and buried it in the back yard, symbolically putting it away from himself. A ritual enactment should be a small, symbolic act. If you dream about India, you do not need to spend your life savings to go there. Perhaps read something about India or talk to someone from there. If a dream indicates you should be in contact with your inner child, you may want to finger paint, play on the swings at the park, sit on the floor with your old dolls or erector set, and so forth. Just see what feels right.

18. Ask yourself what your dream may be about. Could it be about:

• something that happened yesterday?

• the place the dream occurs in? the story? the characters?

• some aspect of me? which?

• my body or my health?

• childhood issues?

• personal growth? spirituality? issues of meaning or faith?

• an unacceptable wish of some sort?

• sexuality?

• work or career?

• relationships?

• money?

19. Take the bodily shift into your body again and again. For example, if you contact a part of yourself in a dream that is self-assured, and you want to feel more like that in waking life, imagine what it would be like to be that person—what it would feel like in your body. See if you can call up that feeling several times as you work with the dream, and again at different times during the day.

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Be Patient with Your Dream Work

Above all, approach dream work with patience. You can get better at it. But you must not be in a rush. Since it is like learning a new language, you know you must go at it one step at a time. With more and more experience of the language, you will of course increase your ability to understand. Jung estimated that he worked with two thousand dreams a year for the many years of his career. It is from this broad experience that he was able to interpret dreams so well. As you gain experience with dream material, you will get better at it, too. Take the attitude that to remember and record a dream and work with it in some way is already a wonderful practice, even if you do not yet have much intellectual understanding of the dream. Although it is best to work actively with dream contents, dream theory can prevent us from getting lost. You can benefit from the work of those who have studied dreams extensively. Below we outline some universal themes and ideas from Jung’s work that can help orient you. Identify the Archetypes

An archetype is a primal pattern. Jung used the word to indicate dream characters and situations that are universal to human beings. He wrote:

“The archetype is an inherited tendency of the human mind to form representations of mythological motifs—representations that vary a great deal without losing their basic pattern. There are, for instance, numerous representations of the motif of the hostile brothers, but the motif remains the same.”

Think of an archetype as a kind of container, to be filled in by individual experience. Take the mother archetype, for example. This is a universal theme. As Jung sees it, we are born with a tendency to 06 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:53 AM Page 140

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experience life in terms of such categories. The categories, however, must be filled and activated by our personal experience and history. So while we all understand the category of mother, it makes some difference whether our actual mother is loving or distant, warm or cold, blonde or brunette, or if we have no direct experience of mothering at all. Archetypal aspects refer to that which is universal, which is common to all human beings. Individual experience colors in the archetype. Just as it makes a difference whether you fill a gallon jug with water, wine, or Kool-Aid, so individual experience will influence how we perceive and deal with archetypal material. However, the general shape of the liquid will be the same, always being that of the jug, regardless of what fluid it contains.

Jung felt there are as many archetypes as there are typical human experiences and situations. One could, for example, talk about the archetype of fording a stream. In practice, however, Jung only identified archetypes that he discovered to exist with great regularity in dreams. So in a practical sense, archetypes generally refer to a limited number of types of characters and situations.

Encounter the Characters of Your Dreams

At the beginning of a play, there is a list of all of the characters who appear in it. Some of the more common and important archetypes resemble just such a list of characters. Especially relevant here are the archetypes of anima, animus, shadow, and wise old man or woman. These archetypes are strong psychological forces. They are in themselves neither good nor evil, but both and neither. These personalities are
numinous
and
autonomous
. That is to say, these characters have a divine, awe-inspiring quality. When you encounter them in anything close to pure form, you know they are not to be trifled with. They have potential to bless and heal, but also to harm and lead astray. And even though in some sense they are aspects of us, it is best to think of them, from any practical perspective, as separate beings. At least you should not imagine that you can control them. They are forces of nature, and they should be held in the kind of respect with which you regard an ocean storm, a hurricane, or a bolt of lightning.

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Jung believed that we all, both men and women, have qualities that could be labeled feminine and qualities that could be labeled masculine. A man in any given culture learns to accept those parts of himself that fit his masculine role, and to repress those aspects that, because of their feminine character, do not fit his conscious identity. These repressed aspects are forced into the unconscious, where they coalesce around the archetype of the anima. Similarly, in women, unacceptably masculine traits are repressed and coalesce in the unconscious around the archetype of the animus. (The word
anima
is Latin for soul;
animus
is the masculine form.)

When a man begins to remember his dreams, one of the first figures to appear is the figure of the unknown woman, the anima. The anima can provide important guidance. Contact with her moves a man in the direction of wholeness, of androgyny in place of one-sided masculinity. Likewise, being in touch with the animus brings a woman into completeness, helping her become whole by integrating her masculine aspects. Integration of a woman’s animus or a man’s anima into conscious awareness is very important. To understand why, take the case of romantic love from a Jungian perspective. In the ancient Greek myth, human beings were once round (read: “whole, complete”) but were split in two by a jealous god. Ever since then, we have been looking for our soul mate, our other half, who will complete us and restore us to wholeness. The popularity of books about soul mates demonstrates the power of this mythic point of view. From a psychological perspective, a man falls in love by projecting his anima onto a woman. A woman falls in love by projecting her animus onto a man. The real person is scarcely seen or known, so captivated are we by the anima or animus. This is a very important experience in the Western world, because it is one of the few doors that remain open to us for the spiritual experience of ecstasy.

However, falling in love in this way brings problems in its train. No flesh-and-blood human being can live up to a numinous archetype. No flesh-and-blood man can fully incarnate the animus, as no flesh-andblood woman can incarnate the anima. This means that when we fall in 06 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:53 AM Page 142

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