Dreaming Insights A 5-Step Plan for Discovering the Meaning in Your Dream 2002, 2004 by Gillian Holloway. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. Practical Psychology Press P.O. Box 535 Portland, OR 97207 press@thrivenet.com www.practicalpsychologypress.com Cover design: Amie Walter, Amiedesign Book design and prepress: Kristin Pintarich, KP Services 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Print version, 2nd edition) Holloway, Gillian. Dreaming insights : a 5-step plan for discovering the meaning in your dream / Gillian Holloway.-- 2nd ed. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-944227-27-9 1. Dream interpretation. I. Title. BF1091.H57 2001 154.6'3--dc21 2001088457 Rev. Electronic Version 2006 ISBN-13: 978-0-944227-32-9 (0-944227-32-5)
Contents I wonder what that dream meant...1 Adjust Your Lens to See What is There...5 Your Dream Journal: A Tool For Remembering...17 Dream Language...25 The 5-Step Technique...50 Typical Symbols and Metaphors...63 Keys to Understanding Symbols...77 Extraordinary Dreams...85 Dear Dreammaker Your Nightly Advice Column..107 Sharing Dreams with Others... 111 What to Expect From Here...123 Chapter Notes & References...127 Index...131 Suggested Reading...133
Chapter 1 I wonder what that dream meant Sometimes the feeling that a dream has meaning will be so strong it will be an almost physical sensation, like having a forgotten name on the tip of your tongue. Whether or not you discuss such a dream, you are left with a haunting feeling of having been touched, of receiving communication from a deeper part of the mind. If the dream is particularly meaningful, it may float to the surface of your consciousness during the day, triggered by some word or event which seems oddly related to it. The dreams which seem most puzzling are the most critical for us to understand. Those dreams that stir us with the sensation of their importance, yet challenge us to unravel their message are often the most valuable to understand. The subjective experience of relevance combined with the conscious inability to recognize meaning is always a powerful clue that a dream is significant. Any dream that feels important may indeed be vital even more so because it is difficult to understand. Each of us has areas in life that we tend to deny or avoid understanding. Some of us have been taught that we cannot think and feel at the same time for example, so that any experience which would evoke both feelings and contemplation causes us to draw a blank. If a dream centers upon something that eludes the grasp of your conscious mind during waking life, you may find it tricky to examine the information in dream form as well. Yet the determination and courage required for the exploration of dreams is well worth it. Dreams, if understood, are a powerful resource for better understanding yourself and the complexities of your waking life. Dreams can offer insights about why you feel so strongly
about certain things, what is really going on in your work setting, why relationships always seem so difficult, and what is meant by those stirrings of discontent that sometimes excite you and other times depress you. The part of your mind that creates your dreams has a stronger awareness of certain kinds of information, and certain levels of understanding than does your conscious mind. As a result, your dreams contain surprising insights and perspectives about your waking life, and the themes that are woven throughout your lifetime. You may already have noticed some intriguing connections between your dreams and your experiences in waking life. Even people who have not made a study of dreams have the intuitive feeling that they hold meaning. Many who remember their dreams have had at least one experience of recognizing what was meant in a dream. It is a strange and exciting feeling to recognize the connections between dream images and experiences in waking life. This awareness can give you a feeling of greater depth in your life a sense that events are interconnected in ways that are not always visible, but which nevertheless have impact and purpose. You may have felt drawn to learn about dreams several times before, and only now have decided to make the time to do so. Or you may have a great deal of experience with dreamwork and find that your level of understanding has evolved and changed, so that now you crave more information or another perspective. Methods for exploring dreams and interpreting their imagery are quite varied. Some developed out of the early approaches to psychotherapy, and those methods tend to be oriented toward uncovering pathology. As a result, even today many people approach the topic of dreamwork with the fear that some unfortunate character attribute will be uncovered by the process. In my work with the dreams of friends, students, and family, however, the reverse experience is by far more common. Dreams tend to point out talents, gifts, and inner strengths which the conscious mind has either forgotten or ignored. You will not become involved in dreamwork and discover there is something wrong with you, but you may well be deeply moved by recovering aspects of yourself or talents you had long ago abandoned. Other types of interpretation arose out of native folklore and religious teachings. These methods carry with them the 2 / Dreaming Insights
necessity of familiarity with and belief in certain traditions and philosophies. Without a background in these schools of thought the methods of interpretation can be frustratingly complex and obscure. Many people have heard bits and pieces of information from differing approaches and have assumed that each truth came from the same source. Hearsay about these different processes can create confusion and even fear about understanding a particular dream s significance. The approach I have developed and share with my students is geared toward personal growth and self-discovery. Using principles from contemporary psychology, as well as understandings about the language of the unconscious mind, you will be able to decipher and learn from the information that comes to you each night. This approach is really a system for recording and looking at dreams in a way that helps make their meaning more apparent. If you have ever accompanied an outdoor guide on a journey, you know that such a person is able to see and recognize things in the woods that would be invisible to you and me. This is because they have cultivated the skill of looking at things in a way that permits them to see what is there. Similarly, uncovering meaning in dreams is largely a matter of practicing the skill of looking at them in a way that allows you to see what is there. The method I will share with you in these pages is simple enough to give you an immediate experience of success, and profound enough to provide a framework from which you can dive off into deeper explorations as you feel ready. The steps are straightforward but effective, and the checkpoints insure that you examine your personal associations for the greatest possible accuracy. If you give yourself a little time to practice and explore dream interpretation, you will be pleased and surprised by how proficient you become, as well as by the depth of understanding revealed by your inner mind. Whether you are a vivid dreamer with a excellent memory for rich details, or you are aware of the potential value of dreams but have yet to make much sense of them, I hope you will be able to enjoy and use these guidelines with ease. I believe there is a thread of destiny that runs throughout our lives, guiding us into places that hold potential gifts for us at specific times. Since this book has come into your hands, it is very likely that this is your time to explore and benefit from your dreams. I wonder what / 3
To improve dream recall, try the following steps: Decide to make the effort. Conscious determination filters down to the subconscious and helps to build a bridge between the states of awareness. Keep a pad of paper or tape recorder near the bed. Simple preparation is practical and also acts as a signal to your mind that you mean to follow through. Use the tag approach. Give the entire dream a name that stems from part of the action or a memorable moment. By writing down or recording the tag, you will be able to pull the entire dream out of your memory bank later when you want to record it. Write it down or tape record it. Don t try to decipher meaning as you record it. Simply get it down. Highlight the action, feelings, and any symbols that stand out to you. Put the dream aside and return to it later to interpret it. Avoid making the declaration that you don t remember. Memory is one of the most susceptible functions to autosuggestion; that is, we generally recall what we tell ourselves we remember, and forget what we direct ourselves to forget. If a dream eludes recall temporarily, rather than tell yourself I can t remember, think, I will remember it in a minute. It s coming back to me. This works surprisingly often, and is an excellent habit to improve memory skills in general. If you feel a little embarrassed making these announcements to yourself when they don t seem true, take consolation in the fact that no one else can hear you only your subconscious mind will overhear and respond to what you declare to be true. 4 / Dreaming Insights