Dream Journal Step 1: Prepare to dream. Begin with keeping a dream journal. Put it next to your bed and have a pen or pencil nearby. Step 2: Boost your dream power. Before you go to bed, set a personal intention. Say it out loud if or write it down. If you tell yourself, Tonight when I dream, I want to realize that I m dreaming, or, Tonight, I want to dream about my wife, or, Tonight I want to dream my next great masterpiece -- whether it s to solve a particular problem or if it s to see a person you want to see or a place you want to see, that s the single most powerful technique, said Deirdre Leigh Barrett, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and editor of The New Science of Dreaming. This step is especially important for those who think they aren t having dreams. You begin to train yourself to be aware that you are in fact having dreams and that you can remember them. It s like exercising your dream muscles or doing dream yoga. Step 3: Record your dreams. Don t try to convince yourself that you ll remember the dream in the morning. Get up, even if it s 4 a.m. and write it down immediately. When you re writing down your dream, be as detailed as you can. I know this is difficult if you re doing it in the middle of the night, but just try your best. Try not to think about what the dream means at this stage analysis can be a distraction from recalling the main elements of your dream and getting them out of your head and onto paper. Step 4: Review your dream in the morning. Make a list of all the nouns (person, place or thing) in your dream. Leave a couple of lines of space between each one. Step 5: Make associations. Act out all the parts (nouns). Jung believed that all these nouns represent some aspect of the self that has been split off from the conscious mind. He often used role-playing to help unify the self. So, look at your list from step 4 and begin to play the part of every symbol in the dream. You absolutely must become the symbol. Think, act, and express yourself as the symbol in the dream. At this point you are no longer the dreamer. Here are some tips: - Try to write down three adjectives or phrases that describe you (the noun). - Ask: What is your purpose, Symbol #1? - Ask: As Symbol #1, how are you trying to help the dreamer? - Ask: Symbol #1, what aspect of the dreamer s waking life do you symbolize? If you don t know this yet, it s ok.
Initially you ll probably resist this as I did because it feels weird, but pushing past this resistance will help you get to the juicy part at the end. Step 6: Rewrite the dream with the symbols unveiled. Once you ve done the analysis for each noun (symbol) in the dream, rewrite the description of the dream in your journal. This time, replace each noun with the thing that symbol represents. Later on in the dream analysis game, I ve found it interesting to have a book with me that defines certain symbol across time and in different cultures. This allows me to tap into the collective aspect of my dream as well as the personal. Sometimes I go through steps 4, 5, and 6 again using the collective definitions for the symbol. The book I use is An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper. Date: Dream:
List of nouns: Try to write down three adjectives or phrases that describe you (the noun). Here are some question you could ask yourself: Ask: What is your purpose, Symbol #1? Ask: As Symbol #1, how are you trying to help the dreamer? Ask: Symbol #1, what aspect of the dreamer s waking life do you symbolize? If you don t know this yet, it s ok. Note: if the dream is extraordinarily long, pick out the portion that feels the most powerful. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Rewrite the dream with the symbols unveiled.
Questions/ Reflections 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.