Most of our dreams don’t play out in a
formless void, or some Cloud 9. We were with our dream lover in a certain
house, the tiger chased us (or licked our face) in a certain landscape, we lost
or found our luggage at a certain airport or train station.
In regular life, we understand fairly well that if we have been to a place, we can probably go their again, even if we have lost the exact directions and may need to turn to GPS or an old-fashioned maps. It is the same with dreams. If you were in a certain place in a dream, you may be able to go there again, by the technique I call dream reentry, which means taking a remembered dream and using it as the portal for a journey in which you will travel, wide awake and lucid, into the space where the dream action unfolded.
Why would you want to do this? For all sorts of excellent reasons. To understand your dream from the inside, by gaining access to the full experience of the dream, which is likely to go far beyond your initial memory of the dream. To dialogue with someone in the dream. To solve a mystery or brave up to a fear. To carry the dream onward to a place of healing, beauty or resolution. To go to the place where a part of your vital energy that has been missing can be found and reclaimed, so you can be whole and live a fuller, juicier life.
We dream of an old place – grandma’s house from childhood, perhaps, or the home we shared with a former partner – and those dreams may give us a way to connect with a younger self, or a series of younger selves, who parted company at the time we were living in that old place, maybe because of pain or trauma or disappointment or bitter frustration over life choices we made. When we make that connection with a younger self, quite wonderful things become possible. We can bring vital energy and joy and imagination back into our life, with that “wonder-child” or that beautiful teen self we have discovered again. We can reach back across time and be the mentor and cheer leader for a younger self that person may have desperately needed in that time, speaking mind to mind across the years.
In regular life, we understand fairly well that if we have been to a place, we can probably go their again, even if we have lost the exact directions and may need to turn to GPS or an old-fashioned maps. It is the same with dreams. If you were in a certain place in a dream, you may be able to go there again, by the technique I call dream reentry, which means taking a remembered dream and using it as the portal for a journey in which you will travel, wide awake and lucid, into the space where the dream action unfolded.
Why would you want to do this? For all sorts of excellent reasons. To understand your dream from the inside, by gaining access to the full experience of the dream, which is likely to go far beyond your initial memory of the dream. To dialogue with someone in the dream. To solve a mystery or brave up to a fear. To carry the dream onward to a place of healing, beauty or resolution. To go to the place where a part of your vital energy that has been missing can be found and reclaimed, so you can be whole and live a fuller, juicier life.
We dream of an old place – grandma’s house from childhood, perhaps, or the home we shared with a former partner – and those dreams may give us a way to connect with a younger self, or a series of younger selves, who parted company at the time we were living in that old place, maybe because of pain or trauma or disappointment or bitter frustration over life choices we made. When we make that connection with a younger self, quite wonderful things become possible. We can bring vital energy and joy and imagination back into our life, with that “wonder-child” or that beautiful teen self we have discovered again. We can reach back across time and be the mentor and cheer leader for a younger self that person may have desperately needed in that time, speaking mind to mind across the years.
Photo: Bench overlooking Thirteenth Lake by RM
1 comment:
I was looking for another blog and discovered this new one. I was stunned. I had tentatively titled my next children's book "A Dream is a Place." And had notified my web person to purchase the domain if it is available. I guess I will have to ask your permission now? What an interesting synchronicity since I am planning to attend the workshop in two weeks. What a wonderful blog. Meredith Eastwood
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