I hope you are enjoying the journey so far, and discovering the light your dreams can shed on the struggles and triumphs of your waking life.
Dreamwork Skill #3: Writing the Narrative
When you first wake and try to capture your dream on paper, you may be hunched over a scrap of paper in the dark, scrawling impressions before you fall back asleep, or hurriedly scribbling the gist of the plot as you hustle through breakfast.
However, when you return to your dream for a second look, the way you choose to write it down is important. Here are three considerations in the transcription of your dream:
Give your dream a title.
Titles should be simple and direct. “A Tiger Chases a Woman”. “A Man Encounters A Ruined Building.” These titles will help you find your dreams easily if you keep a dream journal, and will also enable you to track themes over time. Often the title itself can provide an “aha” moment!
Write your dream in the present tense, and in generalities. Don’t edit or sanitize.
Consider the difference between these two narratives:
a) “I dreamed of a train station, I was in a hurry and in the dream, people kept getting between me and the trains. I did not handle it well.”
b) “A woman is trying to get to a train, she is in a hurry, and she cannot reach her destination. She flails and lashes out at the people that get in her way, pushing some aside and even trampling one. The train continues to be out of her reach and she wants to scream.”
Which feels riper for interpretation and insight? If the behavior of your dream-self embarrasses or horrifies you, protect your dream journal and keep it confidential, but don’t sanitize your report. You can rob yourself of a great deal of insight doing that, and remember, your dream self is not you! The dream-self is a representation, just like all the other characters we encounter in dreams.
Break your dream into scenes.
Dreams tend to move fluidly and bizarrely through time, and sometimes we move from one setting to another with no continuity of character, location, or theme. For this reason, breaking a complex dream into scenes and processing each scene individually can be a more productive approach.
Dream Practicum
A woman I had been working with for a while arrived at her session in a state of agitation I had not observed before. She was reluctant to share what was troubling her, but finally disclosed that she’d had a disturbing dream the night before and could not get it out of her mind. The content of the dream was so disturbing to her that she did not even want to speak it aloud, but she did consent to write it down later that night and send it to me by email.
As we worked with the dream, here is the narrative that emerged, using the three guidelines above:
A Woman Has A Disappearing Child
i. A woman finds herself giving birth to a baby in the middle of a crowded room, even though she did not know she was pregnant and there is no biological way she could be pregnant. She is horrified and embarrassed.
ii. The baby is born and is perfect, and the woman holds it close and decides that it is not so horrible that it is here after all. The woman feels joyful and warm.
iii. The baby begins to shrink. There is nothing the woman can do. She cannot feed the baby and it gets smaller and smaller, despite the woman’s panicked attempts to save it, it disappears into nothing. The woman is consumed with grief.
Once the dreamer worked through her initial feelings of guilt and failure, she was able to let go of the idea that this dream was about neglect and literal death. She shared that, although the baby was newborn in the dream, it appeared to be about 8 months of age. We looked at what had been happening 8 months ago in the dreamer’s life, and she realized that 8 months ago, she had developed an incredible idea for a book she wanted to write. Although she had shared her idea with a few friends, their enthusiasm frightened her and she backed away from the idea.
Writing the dream in general terms enabled the dreamer to get enough distance to let go of the literal interpretation of the “baby” and realize that her “baby” was her unwritten book.
She began work on her book, motivated by the deep sense of grief she had felt in the dream for letting her idea wither away. She describes feelings of profound fulfillment that emerged once she began her work and have continued as she devotes herself to writing.
These dreams are shared with permission, with some identifying features changed to protect confidentiality.
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Perhaps you can practice this skill on an older dream, rewriting the narrative in general terms, titling it, and breaking it into scenes. Notice any insights that pop up during the process!
Feel free to share ideas, questions, or comments below, or email me directly at innerlightasheville@gmail.com.
Want to go deeper? Join Lissa and Julie this September for a day-long deep dive into the imagery and meaning of your dreams. Learn more below.
