HOW DO I PREPARE FOR JOINING A DREAMGROUP?

Hello Victoria;

Your name was given to me by a friend while we were talking about some difficult dreams I’d been having. I am also an artist but feel rather that I’m either banging my head into a wall or actually regressing in the quality of my work. My question at this point is how would I prepare if I wish to pursue using dreams to help me at this “stuck’ point in my life and work. I’ve not been keeping a journal of my dreams as I know is so commonly recommended, since I’m not very organized in regards to keeping a journal. Perhaps it’s also because of the quality of some of the dreams/nightmares I’ve had. Some feel almost as if they are someone else’s dreams since I don’t know the location or players and although I would want to learn from them, at the same time, I don’t wish to encourage anything negative (which is usually the feeling I am left with).

KS

Dear KS,

Your query is poignant. I have often worked with dreamers who feel like you – Stuck and unable to get out of a waking direction that seems to be underscored by “negative” dreams.

Nightmares confuse us. Just when we expect a lovely, pretty inspirational dream to help us climb out of our downward spiral, we feel haunted  by scary, unsettling dramas.

Welcome to the World of Paradox!

Under the influence of children’s literature and Hollywood, we expect our dreams to be fluffy little things with pink horses and marshmallow clouds.

As artists, we expect direct inspiration from an inner voice that gives clear directions for what to paint or write.

Although many astonishing tales of great inventions and profound works of art abound, let me assure you that most of the time dream messages are disguised in metaphor and wordplay.

The world of dreams is a labyrinth with a string. In creative DreamWork, we grow to trust that this string will lead us out from the great “Unknown”

By bringing the dream onto our writing desks and into our journals, we acknowledge that dreams take time to unravel. We accept the dedication to time in the labyrinth, exploring it hallways, knowing that a monster lives within. We take the hero’s journey, because we must. The alternative is to remain lost.

Before attending a dream workshop or beginning to work with a DreamGroup, I encourage you to become an adventurer of the mind. Open a few dream doors. Let in a few unsettling images. Know that this is where the juice is. Write about the images, sketch them, turn them around in your mind’s eye.

This doesn’t mean that you have to become an obsessive recorder and arrive at your first dream circle with a volume of one hundred dreams captured in one month! If you have ever captured one dream, you can begin. Some people only work with one dream throughout their lifetime. Others work with fragments. Still others work with one dream a week.

In my blog, I offer thoughts about the mysterious world of dreams plus ten minute dream journal exercises. Each exercise can be used with one dream or different ones. Read about several of the workshop themes and try a few of the exercises. Begin to flex your dream muscles.

Once you have become acquainted with a dream tending practice in which you have welcomed a relationship with your journal, your meditations, your dance or your artwork; you will know when you are ready to bring your dreams into a DreamGroup environment.

I hope this response holds some inspiration for you to jump into that unknown territory! Go for it!

Victoria

I DON’T DREAM, HOW CAN I BECOME A DREAMER?

Every sentient being dreams. Humans typically dream every ninety minutes. The first REM cycles are short. But as the night wears on, the length of the dream cycles get longer. The more rest we get at night, the more chance we have of having longer, more memorable dreams. Dream recall can improve by trying any of the following techniques:

• Make a conscious wish to remember a dream before you go to sleep.
• Write out a dream incubation (a question or a topic of concern) before going to sleep.
• Place a pen and a pad of paper with a tiny night light or a voice recorder beside the bed, so that you are ready to record a dream the moment you wake up.
• Avoid censoring or judging the merit of the dream.
• Record any fragment or wisp of a dream even if it makes no sense.
• Read a book about dreaming at bedtime.
• Try to wake up without an alarm clock. Avoid using a radio to wake up to if you must use an alarm.
• Join a Dream Group. Psyche tends to remember dreams when she knows she’ll be heard.

THE DREAMER’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all dreamers are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That, to secure these rights, dreams are given to dreamers, deriving their just powers from the consent of the dreamer’s psyches, that, whenever any dream becomes destructive, it is the right of the dreamer to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new dream, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Security and Healthfulness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that recurring dream themes long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes. Dreamers are more disposed to suffer than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations evince a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off the tyranny of such dreamings and to provide new models for their future health and well-being.

About “THE ART OF THE DREAM” ™ WORKSHOPS

The Art of the Dream™ workshops invite dreamers to ponder the mysteries of the night in a way that brings a fluid wave of understanding, rather than a rigid, authoritative interpretation. I have been extremely careful not to pathologize the interpretation of dreams. I have eliminated the buzz words that categorize dream work as therapy, new age or pseudoscience. I don’t offer magic incantations or fortune telling. My brand of dreamwork is neither prophecy or analysis. I don’t tell individuals what their dreams mean. Instead, I offer a framework for self-discovery.

CHAOS AS CAMOUFLAGE

The dreams of the night are not easy to decipher. At first look, dreams appear to be an unruly conglomeration of elements, a disorderly jumble of confusing imagery without order or connection. Distinguishing meaningful utterances from such apparent nonsense is not a trivial task. Our minds seek order and balance. Without a sense of authority or cohesive structure, our minds become confused by the chaos and absurdities in the dream narrative. Because of the nonsensical distortions of reality, many believe that dreams are random, unpredictable misfirings in the brain.

Yet, anyone who has ever worked with a dream knows that the chaotic appearance of dreams is simply camouflage for the multidimensional genius of our night minds.

FILLED WITH WONDER

Our nightly dreams are the repository of our deepest memories and feelings. They call to us from the innermost center of our being. They touch us in our tenderest places with the depth of our longing, our joys and our sorrows. They enchant us with euphoria, they arouse our passions, they frighten us, they inspire us and they fill us with wonder.

THE MUSE IN THE NIGHT

Our dreams are the muses that come in the night. Those of us who have fallen under the spell of writing mythic reinventions of our dreams have become enchanted by the world of mystery and paradox. For those who care to look, the subtle underbelly of a dream is lyrical, harmonious and sublime. Balanced in perfect proportion, polished with a sure eye, the organization and genius of each dream is stunning. Dreams are dagger sharp, ever on target, never off key. Once opened through creative writing, each dream reveals its perfect pitch.