ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This series is dedicated to those who serve and have served and have been broken by the work that they swore an oath to. It is dedicated to those who are plagued by the things they have seen, or the things they have had to do in the line of duty. Whether you're military, police, corrections, EMT, ETC.... this is for you. Thank you.
INTRO
Dreams. We’ve all had them. Some you remember, some you don’t. Some leave you smiling when you wake up, and some wake you up screaming. In this blog, we’re going to take a dive at how I used my dreams to figure out my life, and figure out what my subconscious is telling me. Specifically, we will be taking pages from author Robert A Johnson [RAJ] and using his methods to decipher our dreams. Good, bad. It doesn’t matter. They all mean one thing: to teach us a lesson.
In the society that we live in, there is no shortage of stressors, and traumatic events. It seems that this is all we see, & experience nowadays. Its these traumatic events that shape us. It shapes your fears, your anger trigger, sadness trigger, etc… But all of these we can work through and fix so that we can be whole again.
This blog is intended to be a multi part series due to the sheer volume of the information that is contained within dreamwork. In this series, we will be taking a look at examples from RAJ as well as examples of dreams that I've had myself. Dreams that I've broken down, and ones that I've yet to work on.
DREAMWORK
So, what is dream work then? Dream work is the act of dream analysis in which a person writes down his/her dream in order to analyse the symbolism contained within.
Dreams contain more than just images, characters, and the scaries. Dreams are the gateway to our inner self; our psyche (our true) self.
When you breathe, is that you doing it or is it automatic? Do you consciously digest food? Do you consciously heal yourself from sickness? No. It is your subconscious self. Our subconscious contain a trove of information, more information than you could ever fathom. From the first moment you laid eyes on something, to your last. It’s all contained in your subconscious. So, how does our subconscious play a role in our mental health? Say for example you attended an incident. I’m going to use inmate fights as I work in a prison. You attend an inmate fight and you see an inmate get stabbed, skull kicked in, etc… At first sight, it weakens your knees and so you begin to convince yourself that you’re okay. Eventually, at some point, you’ve done such a good job that you have properly convinced yourself and that you think you’re actually okay. It’s 2am. You wake up screaming, sweating profusely from a dream of that inmate fight that bothered you. This happens again, and again, and again. My point is this: even when you think you’re mentally okay, trauma’s stick with you until you work through them properly. This is where your subconscious comes in. Your subconscious will tell you these things through your dreams (even day dreams too), and through your thoughts and actions.Our subconscious mind speaks to us. Not in spoken words, or letters, or any language of man. It speaks to us in symbolism, and its this symbolism that we need to learn once again so that we can work through our traumas.
The only problem is that we as a society have lost the ability to interpret dreams. It might sound silly at first. “YoUr DrEaMs MeAn SoMeThInG.”But really, if you think about it, is it really that silly? You go to a psychologist, what do they do? They sit and talk to you. They listen and try to help you figure out the meanings of things happening in your life that have lead you to that office in the first place. The only difference is that this [dream work] is something you can do by yourself.
INTERPRETATION METHOD
The techniques we are going to be using come from a book called “Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth (1986)”by author Robert A Johnson [RAJ]. RAJ known for book he’s written such as “He: Understanding Masculine Energy”, Owning your own shadow: Understanding the dark side of the psyche”, “She: Understanding feminine psychology”, “We: Understanding the psychology of romantic love”and many more.
In this book, RAJ highlights the following four steps for dream interpretation:
- Associations
- Dynamics
- Interpretations
- Rituals
Its these steps that we will be following and taking a look at. Now, I’m no expert. I’m just like you, learning still but if you decide to take on this path and need some help, or somebody to discuss with, please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@astigindustries.ca or DM me on Instagram / Facebook. I’d be more than willing to talk and hopefully provide some insight, and help.
REMEMBERING YOUR DREAM
When I first began to do dream work, I struggled to have any material to work on because I couldn’t even remember my dreams. I wake up knowing I had one but cannot for the life of me remember any details. Here is a trick I learned: I tell myself that I will remember any dreams I had. Try this bedtime / morning routine:
- Try to make a habit of not using on your phone 30-60 minutes before bedtime. This makes your mind active and you will have a hard time sleeping.
- When in bed, simply be conscious of your breath. Here’s what I do: Breath as deep as you can but slowly, hold it for a few seconds, and exhale. Again, SLOW. Do this several time at least, or until you fall asleep. If done correctly, this should give you a relaxing euphoric feeling. While doing this, try and feel the air coming in to your nose, feel your chest rise and fall, fell your diaphragm fill with up.
- Before going to sleep, tell yourself “Tonight I will dream, and tomorrow I will remember any dream that I had.”
- When you wake up, try to use your phone for the first 30-60 minutes. Instead, sit and try to remember your dream. Think about it, analyze it. If you have the time, write it down, if not, thinking about your dream first thing in the morning will help you remember it later when you get the change to write it down.
Before we proceed, lets take a look at an example from the book and how it was interpreted.
This one is called “The Monastery”by one of RAJ’s patients.
“I’m in a monastic cloister, in a room or cell attached to the chapel. Iam separated from the people and the rest of the chapel by a grille. Mass begins. I participate alone in my cell. I sit with crossed legs, zazen style, but not holding my rosary. I hear the murmurs of the responses through the grille. The voices are tranquil. I close my eyes and I too receive communion, although no one and nothing physical enters my cell. The mass finishes. I become aware of flowers blooming at eh side of my chamber. I feel a deep serenity.”
In the next blog, we will take a look at what interpretations the patient came up with from this dream. For the meantime, try and see what interpretations you can come up with. What meaning can you associate with these symbols. For example: MONASTERY= Religion. Comment below what interpretations you came up with! I’d love to hear them.