Dreamwork technique

[daphne]

The technique is a simple one.
The small group I attended was run by a lady trained in the methods of Robert Bosnak.
I have adapted it somewhat to work for myself, and not in group work, where I had originally encountered it.
It’s based somewhat on Jung’s ‘active imagination’ and the alchemical reactions that happen in the body when accessing emotional energy.

It does not need a long dream, though what is required is 2 different emotional states. One of comfort and one of discomfort.

To start, be comfortable, go into a light relaxing meditative state.
The first re-entry into the dream is purely one of watchfulness, and awareness of the emotions in the dream.
The second re-entry is of a more mental nature and observation of the dream scenery/dialogue.

The re-entry is then the dreamwork itself.
Going through the dream, find the place where there is a comfortable emotion, one that feels at ease. Hold that emotion and know it, - you will find that it resonates in a part of your body, - and then move on further into the dream.
Usually the more comfortable emotion comes first in the dream-scenes.
Then continue going through the dream until you reach a place where the emotion is not comfortable. Hold it, know it, find where it resonates in the body, and then access that point in the dream where you felt the comfortable-at-ease emotion. Hold both the emotions together, and move your awareness into the parts of the body they represent, holding and connecting the two areas.

Where you find the uncomfortable emotion, there will be some sort of image, animate that is participating in that event. It may also even be your own image of yourself in the dream, as you are following your awareness, and not the ‘charactors’.
The idea is to ‘morph’ into this “other”, while holding the 2 different emotions. You sort of flow into the “other” in your dream. Best way to morph is to find the “eyes”.
Once you have moved inside (so to speak) turn around and look through those “eyes” at yourself in the dream or at the happening/event.

You will have a perspective that is not accessible through ‘thinking’ and often rather surprising. Stay with this until you feel a change in your body – you will feel ‘something’. It doesn’t really matter what, don’t have expectations or projections of “what” to expect or feel.
Once you have this, then move out of the ‘body’ you have morphed into and bring yourself out of the dream.

I am adding a dream of mine that shows the technique in practice.

I dreamt that I was floating in a warm ocean. Bobbing up and down, tired and letting the water carry me. It was comfortable and empty all around as far as I could see. Suddenly there was a fly also floating and the current was carrying it towards me. It was one of those big metalic shiny flies. I started feeling distressed, fear, and tried to paddle out of the way, but I was tired and all I could do was just push at the water hoping the movement would deflect the fly. I didn't want it to get tangled up in my hair - or swim into my mouth, and it was getting closer.

The dream technique is to go back into the dream, eyes closed, breathe, relax; a light meditative state. The first part is to find the place of comfort, and hold that feeling, and note where in the body it is. Then to go to the part which caused the distress/fear feeling and to hold that feeling and also where in the body that is. Then to hold both feelings at the same time, and awareness in the parts of the body. When this is stable, then mimic the movement of the 'other' causing the discomfort or fear - this is a body movement - allow the body to do it naturally, not forced - a sort of shapeshifting. Look into the 'eyes' of that confronting you (in this case was the fly) and move into it. You 'become' the 'fly' and your awareness will now be looking outwards, through its eyes, towards 'you'.

The emotion evoked looking through 'other eyes' was quite different to that held by the me, the dreamer - a connection is set up between the two parts of the body where the energy is held and is 'changed'. Kind of like an energy differential being balanced.

This gave me a different perspective, but more important than just interpretation, it actully effected an inner energetic change which projected into my outer world.
My perception had changed not through a cognitive understanding of the situation, but of a release held within the emotional body that then effected change. Through accessing and balancing the energy the 2 parts of the dream represented, a 'new' point of reference emboding thought and emotion resulted, and I could move on from there.
Kind of like the song in Cabaret... "if you could see her through my eyes..".

[mandala]

Great synopsis of the Boznak dreamwork. I too belong to a dream group that uses Boznak's techniques. The original founder of the group (who was an alchemical hypnotherapist) moved away, but the remaining members kept the group going.

In addition to what you discussed, we also take that resisting part of the dream, where emotion is the strongest or heaviest, and save it for last. We ask clarifying questions to get more details of the happening that is causing the most resistence, then take that emotion and contrast it to one or two of the lighter emotions, such as joy or awe.

It's amazing how different fragments of a dream can create a whole!

[osiris]

Sounds very interesting daphne. Would you consider a medatative state of high awareness after gazing to be the dream state you speak of though? I am unused to dreams but im beggining to think there is more to my gazing and the states i enter that have to do with dreams and awareness than i realized. Oftentimes the emotions can be very high.

[Lena]

This question is probably silly, so forgive me But what if you have a dream that doesn't have a comfortable moment??

[mandala]

That's actually happend a couple of times in our group, including one of my dreams. Throughout the dream I was anxious. What we did in these cases was try to find comparisons with an opposite emotion. In my dream, I had witnessed the slaughter of several animals. I was asked something like, suppose the animal had broken free, compare that to what happend. What comes to you?

[daphne]

mandala said:

In addition to what you discussed, we also take that resisting part of the dream, where emotion is the strongest or heaviest, and save it for last. We ask clarifying questions to get more details of the happening that is causing the most resistence, then take that emotion and contrast it to one or two of the lighter emotions, such as joy or awe.

Hi Mandala!
In our group work we also did that. Our group was founded by a jungian psycholoanalyst and it was rather fun. She left last year though - went to the USA.
I adapted it for use by a single person, namely myself, even while in the group. I found that asking the questions etc at that point was too much for my mind to handle and I would lose the emotion for the questioning..
In a group situation it works great, as you describe it, because then someone else is leading it and the one whose dream it is can remain within the dream.. me I found it difficult.. :)

[daphne]

osiris said:

Sounds very interesting daphne. Would you consider a medatative state of high awareness after gazing to be the dream state you speak of though? I am unused to dreams but im beggining to think there is more to my gazing and the states i enter that have to do with dreams and awareness than i realized. Oftentimes the emotions can be very high.

Hi Osiris!

Yes. Re-entry into the dream is very much the same state - "light trance" - as that which i feel in a meditative state of high awareness.
It's not only about the emotions thouhg, the technique is about 2 different emotions and bridging the sort of 'differential' between them - well.. thats how I see it.. something like a chakra balancing except that it is accessed (so to speak) through the energy held in different parts of the body - I see that much the same as accessing cellular memory - somatic - and in that way releasing, as energy flows from one place to another - kind of like on a gradient..
Gazing is great but it is also partly the act of observing.. there is nothing to "do" really.. just gaze and receive.
With the technique, it is pretty much an active way of accessing Jung's "transcendent function" - the third that relsoves the polarity into something "new". In tholding the tnesion of the 2 different energies, an alchemical process takes place - transmutation of sorts.
With gazing, there is also a process that takes place but it is different - the intent is different.

[daphne]

lena said:

This question is probably silly, so forgive me But what if you have a dream that doesn't have a comfortable moment??

Hi Lena!

No question is silly!! In my group there were some who also didn't feel there was a comfortable moment in their dream, but ended up finding otherwise. There generally is, but sometimes our emotions so overpower our thoughts in some dreams that we don't always find it.
That is why with the technique one goes twice into the dream - once with the emotion/feeling aspect and simple awareness of that, and where in the body it is felt, and the other with the thinking part of the mind, rather like looking at the dream, observing it mentally, associating, but not going into the emotion of it.
Even nightmares generally have a moment of ease, perhaps at the beginning before the nightmare..?
Usually though, the dreams used are dreams that may not seem particularly comfortable or discomforting, but dreams or dream scenes that stay with us, as those hold the greatest potential for the energy change.
Sometimes they may seem quite ordinary, but we remember them for some reason, and then when we go back into the dream - as with other dream techniques too - they often yield surprising or different insights.
Gestalt dream work does that too.