January/February  2006

Dream on

By Wendy Underhill

Twenty-three years ago, I desperately wanted to work in Washington, D.C. I put my pennies together, headed out there, and landed two job offers. Which to take? I slept on it; I dreamed about it; and I took the job that my dream highlighted, one with the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).

After starting the job, it took about a week to realize I had landed in alien territory, and about three months to get myself out of that office. I had set a new “personal worst” for jobs, and that was the last time that I used dreams for everyday decision-making. (For the record, the FSLIC was reorganized right out of existence a few years later.)

Even so, my experience doesn’t mean that dreams are just junk, or merely night-time amusement. Throughout history and across all cultures dreams have been valued; what’s one sorry anecdote compared to the collective experience of nearly all humanity? Looking just at our own culture and times, people who study dreams have figured out quite a few things, one of which is to not take your dreams too literally, as I did. (Actually, by looking at the mainstream of our culture and times, dreams are considered the purview of the foolish. Think of what we mean when we say, “He’s a dreamer, all right.” It’s not exactly a compliment! But these skeptics aren’t the ones involved in the field.)

By looking into dream work, I’ve learned that methodologies and taxonomies for dreams may differ, but that there’s a common thread: dreams can be of use. Whether they help inspire creativity, provide solutions for every day life or, at the very least, shed light on your mental/psychological life, dreams are worth remembering and contemplating.

To delve into them, it helps to know that dreams come in many flavors. Some are recurrent, some are nightmares, some are erotic, and it’s possible that there may even be recurrent erotic nightmares. But in this case I mean that dreams differ in the purposes they serve. To wit:

• Basic dreams may just sort all the mental accumulation of the day.
• “Interference” dreams allow the sounds and even smells of the world to find their way into your dream state. This is good, if the dream alerts you to a fire on the stove, but not so good if the sounds of the television override your brain’s messages.
• Anxiety dreams, in which you might be late for an exam, can’t find the testing room and haven’t attended class all semester, offer the clear message: get a grip on stress.
• Premonition dreams, such as those that lead people to go in for medical testing, may be the body’s way of signaling that there is something amiss.
• Teaching dreams allow the parts of ourselves that are buried deepest during the day to “speak up” at night, and can provide intuitive insight that can be used in everyday life or work.
• Issue-solving dreams are self-explanatory, and tricky, if it’s not your highest self speaking in the dream state. You may be able to program your dreams to ask for solutions to issues that you identify.

And last, some dreams can be interpreted as a message or connection to some greater force or higher power.
Let’s say you’ve had an intriguing dream. It’s fodder for the ruminative part of the brain, but you don’t know what kind of dream it is or what, if anything, to make of it. What’s next?

You could look up some of the elements in a dream dictionary; these have useful suggestions about what various symbols in dreams can mean, but their use is limited. For instance, a German shepherd might signify a menace in one person’s dream, and protection in someone else’s. Yes, there is universality to symbolism, but symbols are person-specific as well.
Or you could seek out a dream counselor. It’s not so easy to do; there’s no such thing as a registry of licensed dream readers, and few people hang out a shingle for that service only. The internet offers people who will communicate with you for $20 per dream, but buyer beware. That may be a bit like consulting a psychic on a 900 hotline.

Instead, look for people who work with dreams in conjunction with some other therapy or approach; think of Jungian psychologists who have focused on dreams as a portal to the psyche and the collective unconscious for almost a century. It’s quite possible to find a psychoanalyst in the Jungian mode who will use dreams to plumb your depths.

Others pair dream work with counseling, social work, hypnotherapy, spiritual practices, psychic modalities, even coaching for high performance sports. In these practices, dreams can be an avenue to building self-awareness. Look for professionals who mention dream work in their advertising, but don’t limit your search to these. Ask others if they work with dreams, and if so, how. The usual caveats apply: check a practitioner’s references, see if his or her prices are in line with the local norm, and expect at least a free phone consultation so you can decide if he or she is right for you.

After you’ve found someone to work with one-on-one, have your descriptive dream notes handy. You may find yourself analyzing the dream as you might a piece of theater: the setting, the characters, the action and the climax. At night it was your unique job to be the producer and actors, and later, you get to be the critic as well.

Then, your counselor may ask you to revisit the dream. You may find yourself talking to the characters in your dream, thanking them for coming and asking them if they have any messages. You may role play the characters in the dream, and answer questions such as “As the German shepherd, what would you like to say?” Then maybe you’ll be both sides of a dream dialogue‹the dog and a car from the dream, perhaps. (Since dreams are “all in your head” anyway, everything in the dream can be viewed as a slice of you‹even cars.)

If a private counselor is too pricey or not necessary, look for a dream group. Sometimes these groups begin with a class or workshop, and then continue with regularly scheduled meetings. In such groups, it helps to remember that the interpretation of a dream belongs to the dreamer. Listeners are encouraged to say simply “If that were my dream it might mean...” and avoid stamping too heavy an imprint of their own on it. Keep a lookout for dream groups that are forming in your area; these are not uncommon in the Front Range.

As you become more expert at working with dreams, you may find more and deeper dreams coming your way. Or you may begin interacting in your dreams from inside them, even changing the endings of repetitive dreams. Eventually this could lead to healing by dreaming‹a great idea for those who can manage it, and one that dates back at least to the Greeks.
Maybe none of these “extras” will come your way, but at least there’s little downside to working with dreams. It costs nothing to remember your dreams and write them down; if you choose to see a practitioner of some kind to discuss dreams, there are no invasive, painful, or potentially counter-productive side effects.

But you won’t get to first base with dream work if you can’t remember them. I, who usually doesn’t bother to think about dreams longer than the time it takes me to stumble from bed to bathroom, decided to follow some of the plentiful advice available to aid dream memory.

I placed paper and pencil together by my bedside and reviewed the day’s goings-on mentally before nodding off; evidently this does the daily sorting so the brain is ready for its more sophisticated work. I skipped the candle-lighting and extinguishing advice (a good way to signal to your brain that it’s time for sleep, but fire fighters say the candle-by-the-bed scenario is dangerous). And I did set a verbal intention to remember my dreams.

Lo and behold, I rose to the surface of wakefulness briefly around 5a.m., and was about to turn over, when I remembered that I wanted to remember what had just happened. I took notes, and then went back to bed. I can’t say that this dream was spectacular‹I was boogie-boarding with my youngest child, and chatting with the cooks at a retreat center while scooping rice and salad out of stainless steel vats‹but at least I had captured it. So, my report on phase one of dream work is a big thumbs up.
Actually, dream work deserves a second thumbs up, too. The best dreams, it seems, come toward the end of a good night’s sleep; to get the best dreams, you’ve got to stay in bed longer. Who can’t profit from an excuse to sleep more?

Here are a few books and resources on dreaming to consider:

• The Tao of Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams, Health and Healing by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, PhD. and Sheryl Martin, O.M.D. ( Berkley Trade, 2005).
• The Beginner’s Guide to Dream Interpretation by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
  (Sounds True, 2003).
• Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van de Castle, Ph.D. (Ballantine, 1994)
• The Dreamwork Book by Zoilita Grant, M.S. C.H.T. (MasterKey, 1997) - find it at www.selfhealing.com.
• www.jeremytaylor.com ( Taylor is a well-known dream expert who comes to Colorado regularly to do dream workshops)
• www.asdreams.org, the website for the International Association for the Study of Dreams

The following local practitioners offer dreamwork in their practices. To learn more about them, see their ads on the pages listed after their names.

• Richard Wesley, LPC, 303-855-0155
• Edie Stone, MA, LPC, 303-415-3755
• Swan Ashley, MSW, 303-449-2039
• Billie Ortiz, certified dreamworker, 303-929-6122

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