Dreams and Self-Development E-Book

Ann Aaboe Bengtsson

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 568

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Dreams are important messengers in the process of Self-Development. They can give you information about obstacles and suggest solutions such as new ways of thinking, feeling and acting in your life. Dreams can also tell you about the past, the present or the future. They may point out what to look for or which direction to take. A dream may also awaken us to spiritual experiences and higher states of consciousness. This book combines the interpretation of dream symbols and their relation to the physical body and the subtle anatomy of man. It also suggests simple meditative exercises related to dream symbols, the physical body and the chakras. Theories are exemplified by practical dream work and illustrated and enlivened with symbolism from, for example: science fiction movies, fantasy literature and dance (Argentine tango). The author’s inspiration and theory come from C. G. Jung, Jes Bertelsen, Wilhelm Reich and other body therapists, and from Bob Moore as the main spiritual teacher.

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

Dreams and Self-Development

Getting Started

A Short Story

Sleep

The Physiology of Sleep

The Mystery of Sleep

Body, Dreams and Psychic Energy

The Body

The Theories of Wilhelm Reich

The Body during Dreams

Psychic Energy/The Aura

The Etheric Body and the Chakras

The Astral Body

The Mental Body

The Spiritual Body

Symbols in the Aura

Jung’s Personality Model

Self

The Ego

The Personal Unconscious

The Shadow

Animus and Anima

The Collective Unconscious

Dream Symbols from Jung’s Personality Model

Ego Dreams

People

Buildings

Objects

Animals

Dream examples

Shadow Dreams

Negative Persons

Negative Animals

Aggression and/or Angst

The Shadow as Shadow

The Body, the Root Chakra and Grounding

Urine, Feces and Toilet Visits

Nightmares

Animus/Anima Dreams

The Archetype of the Opposite Gender

Animus and Anima as Persons

Unfaithfulness

The Body, the Hara Chakra and Sexuality

Sigmund Freud’s Symbolic World

Intercourse, Pregnancy and Birth

Higher Animus/Anima Symbols Connected to the Self

Polarity, the Body and the Aura

The Collective Unconscious

The Collective Journey

Element Dreams

Examples of Element Dreams

Animal Dreams

Geometric Symbols

The Western Alchemical Tradition

The Transformation Colors Black, White and Red

Intercourse, Death and Rebirth in the Process of Self-Development

A Dream Process

The Collective Field Opens towards Higher Consciousness

The Great Moments in Life

Synchronicity and So-called Coincidences

BFG, Telepathic Dreams and Precognition

The ESP Senses

Hidden Regularities for Psychic Energy

Attraction

Cause and Effect

Truth

Love

The Wise Man and the Wise Woman in the Collective Unconscious

Wisdom Dreams and Transcendent Experiences

Wisdom Dreams and Psychoses

Karma, Quantum Physics and Consciousness

Conclusion

Appendixes

A – Symbol Meditation

B – Chakra Meditation

C – Shadow Meditation

D – Polarity Exercise

E – Drawing Mandalas

F – Triangle Exercise

G – Circle Exercise

H – Auragrams

Summary Diagram of Chakras and Related Dream Symbols

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

The dream-process while writing the book:

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part One

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Two

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Three

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Four

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Five

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Six

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Seven

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part Eight

Introduction

During Christmas of 1997, I was searching for a log-cabin near our therapy center. I needed a retreat – a place where I could find some peace and quiet to write the book I was working on. Therefore, my husband and I were driving around looking at cabins for sale. It had to be a cabin with electricity, so I could use my laptop. We found a little cabin located in a lovely recreational area. The whole environment felt good. We thought we should try to get in touch with the owner.

Life continued as normal, and I forgot about the cabin, but on January 6th, I dreamt about it: I went to look at the cabin with its owner; I had been there alone once. I thought the view was better the second time, and that the large trees were nice. A lot of work had to be done inside; among other things the walls needed a fresh coat of paint. The kitchen was connected to a dormitory. There was a large bed there, where we ate. I gave my son some of my blueberry yoghurt. A pond could now be seen nearby. The large trees also protected the cabin from intrusion. After that dream, it was obvious that we had to go back and have a second look at the cabin.

In this context, a short interpretation of the dream says that view means clarity and consciousness. The trees symbolize protection. In a process of self-development, both are necessary. The kitchen and bed being built together means that one can obtain nourishment and rest for both body and mind and that even my son, who is more concerned with computers and science fiction, would be able to find nourishment there. I had discovered something new – the little pond (which is not located nearby). Water can in this context symbolize a place where the collective unconscious pops up.

On closer examination, the cabin was solid, but worn out inside. Could we stomach this? We have had renovated houses most of our lives because we have moved many times. We agreed that this seemed like just a little too much fun.

On January 24th, I dreamt that I asked my husband why he didn’t want to buy the cabin we had looked at. He answered that the veranda was too small. (In this context I interpret veranda as something concerning view and rest.) Thus, my subconscious had not forgotten about the cabin. Still, my consciousness forgot about the entire project again.

On February 20th, I dreamt that we were at the cabin once more: I sat inside the door writing, looking through the window. One of the things I wrote about was birds singing. I didn’t need to copy it, since it was a draft which was to be rewritten several times. I could enlarge the text through my voice, and minimize it in the same way. When I spoke, the text immediately changed size on the screen. Suddenly I noticed that the owner of the cabin was lying sleeping in one of the rooms. Had he been kicked out of his home? I became sad and went outside the cabin to my husband. We came upon the owner’s wife, who was pregnant (I knew she really was). We said that we were there to look at the cabin once more. Needless to say after that reminder we bought the cabin and at a reasonable price.

Please note that as I refer to dreams throughout the book, I find it practical to name them. I call these three dreams The Three Cabin Dreams.

The third dream tells us that the cabin will be a perfect place to write a book. The writing process will, however, take time; the book must be rewritten many times. (It turned out to be true. In 1997, I wrote on a book about psycho-therapy and spirituality, where I used a whole lot of dream examples but the book project came to a halt.) Birds singing refer to freedom, spring, growth and expressing oneself with sound. The same symbols can be seen through my vocal operation of the computer. I also understand that the book is going to be a practical book, expressing how to do dream work. I am going to write it as if I was running a course, taught by my voice. I interpret the owner lying sleeping as him waiting for us, that he was very set on selling us the cabin. A pregnant person refers to something ready to be born, a new beginning. My husband being outside the cabin while I was inside can be interpreted that I was in touch with the project, while he wasn’t really coping with it. (He had actually not dreamt about the cabin.)

The cabin is located along a road named Lindåsveien. The first place in which my husband and I had lived together was in Denmark, named Linå. Perhaps this was a sign that we could return to a time which was very important for us; that we could now address and resolve things we had left untouched for many years? Psychic processes take time. You cannot accelerate or force things to emerge. At least, the two Lin(d)å(s) places have in common the fact that they are located in a green and peaceful area in nature, and that they give me the same feeling of peace and medicine for the soul.

In the same way as you can interpret your dreams, you can interpret the events every day brings. Obviously, you can’t try to interpret everything throughout the day – that would be too exhausting. However it can be worth noticing symbolism when important decisions must be made. Our lives are filled with symbolism – they always have been – because the ability to form symbols is rooted in our psyche. We see it on old cave paintings, in fairy-tales, myths, the technical world, the icons on our computers, etc.

It is important to be open to the possibilities that life has to offer; as well as accepting what you can’t change. My 1997 book project never advanced because something was missing. Later, I was suddenly called by a publisher who wanted to publish a book on dreams. They had heard through “a friend of a friend” that I was working with dreams. I have been for 30 years, so that was nothing new. As I believe that coincidences are not so coincidental, I feel that the time has now come to write the book. As I see it, there is a universal law of attraction and repulsion. Put differently: You can follow the energy, or oppose it. If you oppose it you use a lot of energy without getting anywhere. In such a situation, it is rewarding to stop and think things through. Perhaps the path leads in another direction, or perhaps you have overlooked something.

This book is about working with your dreams, by yourself, through a process of self-development. Dreams are an excellent gateway to self-development, because they can be a comment on almost everything: your way of thinking, your way of acting, what you have suppressed emotionally. They also reveal events from the past and conflicts between what you might want and what you really need in order to live a better life or advance in your process of self-development. Dreams can be a comment on the past, the present and sometimes the future; dreams can be symbolic or straight down to business; and sometimes you can experience precognitive dreams.

In the book, I will describe Carl Gustav Jung’s personality model using many dream examples and suggest different tools and methods you can try out for yourself. I will also mention the relationship between dreams and the body and the chakra system. Besides this, I will look at some dreams in more detail. Illustrating what to look and ask for is a sort of key to opening and interpreting your own dreams. I will show you ways of thinking, asking questions and associating so that you can continually work with your dreams yourself – even though you may not know the purpose of an individual dream symbol.

In the appendixes you will find different meditative methods and other techniques which further support your dream work. In the back of the book you will also find a glossary, with a short definition of the terminological expressions. The index contains central notions and dream symbols from the text. Here you will also find the dreams mentioned as a subgroup under the named dreams, for example The Three Cabin Dreams.

The purpose of working with your dreams is to learn some methods for self-development. Dreams can certainly be used for entertainment, but the purpose must be to use this greater awareness of your inner life as a guide to your outer, awaking life. In this way, you learn to understand yourself better and thereby think, feel, and react more purposefully.

Dreams never lie, but obviously you can interpret them incorrectly, especially if you think the dream says something you do not want to hear. Then you may choose a more flattering interpretation. It is therefore important to be as honest as possible! It can be an advantage if you work with dreams in a group, since the others will give you suggestions and ideas. Yet ultimately the one who knows best whether an interpretation fits is the dreamer him/herself.

This book cannot be used as a comprehensive dream encyclopedia. However I hope it can be a practical guide – a sort of skeleton – that the individual dreamer can build upon and use in his/her own process of self-development. I have given numerous examples, and I occasionally include theory; mainly that of Carl Gustav Jung, Jes Bertelsen, Wilhelm Reich, Alexander Lowen and Bob Moore, who are my frame of reference. The fact that these particular people have meant a lot to me is connected with the history of my own self-development:

My relationship with dreams has developed through my knowledge of body therapy and the subtle anatomy of man. When I studied at the University of Copenhagen, Gestalt therapy – and later body therapy – ensured my continuing attendance. The connection between body and psyche gave my study of psychology a purpose, and led to my professional degree (“specialty” as it was called in Copenhagen) on the theme of “Body, Psyche, Energy and Body Consciousness in Relation to Body Therapy”.

Body therapy was not commonly accepted at the University of Copenhagen at that time. As a matter of fact, it did not exist as a topic. Along with a group of students and innovative teachers I began an in depth study of the work of Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen. We invited scholars to Denmark and we had an experimental group, where we tried out different types of body therapy together. We had a massage group where we progressed according to the manual, and I gradually learned Esalen massage. In time, I grew curious about what was really happening during the massage. I could sense something non-physical through my hands when I gave massage, and when I was giving massage myself many things happened to my body that I could not explain.

My instructor referred me to Bob Moore, who opened the energetic universe for me and articulated some of the experiences I had been through. Bob Moore is Irish, but he has lived in Denmark and taught self-development there since 1974. He has for many years worked with meditative practices, counseling and healing. He left the physical world on January the 6th, 2008. He has taught me most of what I know about psychic energy today, and we are going to hear more of him when dealing with the relationship between dreams and chakras and auras. Sadly, Bob Moore has not wished to write books himself, but many of his pupils have written about his methods (for example Helen Gamborg). I have attended his courses since 1978.

During my time in the massage group, some of the participants started with dream courses, and we gradually developed into a dream group. I had started with Bob Moore, which led to contact with Jes Bertelsen. Therefore, I soon found myself on Jes Bertelsen’s courses while he was a university lecturer. He filled the largest auditorium at the University of Århus (in Denmark) when he lectured about dreams. He later founded the “Vækstcenteret” (“The Growth Center”) in Nørre Snede in Denmark. I can thank him for showing me the path into Jung’s exciting universe. Jes Bertelsen has a considerable authorship. Unfortunately they are not in English. (I can recommend his Dreams, Chakra Symbols and Meditation and his four books about depth psychology. He has also written several books about the self, higher consciousness and dzogchen).

My husband, Harry Jensen, has also played a part in my personal development. Without knowing it, our paths have crossed several times since childhood, and we have been a couple since 1980. Harry has been influenced by Rudolph Steiner’s anthroposophy, the Danish priest and psalm poet N. F. S. Grundtvig and the Danish author Ole Sarvig. He has indirectly influenced me through this background, and he has taught me a good deal about how music and sound can have a healing effect. In 1986, we left our therapy center in Søndervig in Denmark and moved to Norway, partially because some dreams pointed us in that direction. For several years, we have been each other’s sparring partners and assistants, and together we now run the therapy center Lerkenborg in Vestfossen, where we work both with a more traditional psychotherapy as well as self-development.

In 1985, Bernhard came into my life. He is now grown up, but over the years he has taught me about pirates and knights, the sinking of the Titanic and last but not least Star Wars – an amazing universe of heroes and heroines, villains and strange creatures. I cannot write a book on the corridors of the mind without including the Star Wars universe. Children are a lot more in contact with fantasy and the archetypes – the fundamental elements of the psyche – than adults.

It is an advantage for a therapist/counselor to gain insight through the client’s dreams in the process of self-development. The dreams tell of the client’s problems and possibilities, and the progress or difficulties of the therapy process and the causes for this. At this point of the book, I would like to thank everyone who has willingly put their dreams at my disposal, as well as those who otherwise in various ways have supported and helped me during the writing process.

The process of publishing this book in English has not been possible without the help of good friends. First of all I must thank my two translators Carmel Bourke and my son Bernhard Aaboe Jensen for their help. Bernhard has also helped me with the English illustrations. I am also grateful to Thelma Patricia and to Daniel Perret, who has introduced me to “Books on Demand”. My friend Lynda Petterson has patiently supported the process in many ways and I must also thank my husband Harry Jensen for his patience. Finally my gratitude goes to Kitty Ensby for kindly making her front-page of the Norwegian edition available in the English version.

It is a great pleasure for me to finally see this book publish in English. I hope you the reader will find it helpful in your request to your dreams and useful in guiding you to work with dreams for your process of self-development. I wish you all the best on your journey.

Dreams and Self-Development

Self-development is about unfolding your unique self. Jung speaks of the self as the gathering principle of the psyche. The self is the wisdom level of the person – our inner spiritual guide. The self must not be mingled with the ego, which is the awareness about who and what we are and what we think and feel about everything. The ego is not in possession of the same wisdom as the self. The ego can be greedy and selfish. For example, we did not find the cabin pretty enough on the inside, but it was apparently the cabin we needed. The cabin has until now given us much joy as a vital retreat. The cabin wanted to be bought, and the energy wanted to go in that direction. The self had its way, but it had to manifest itself in three dreams before I listened.

Being ruled by the self rather than the ego is a much deeper way to be in contact with yourself – therefore you must uncover the self. The self, however, is encapsulated by our stiffened norms, attitudes, feelings, experiences, traumas, desires, etc. These limitations must gradually be worked through and understood in order for wisdom to become apparent. Everybody has the ability to access this wisdom as the paths to inner wisdom/self are cleansed. The more you listen to the messages from the self, the more messages it sends to you.

Self-development is a slow process which can continue throughout your life. A psychologist can help a person in crisis, or address a more limited problem that can be solved relatively easily. However if you want to get to know yourself better, you must go deeper and farther. In a process of self-development – alternatively a process of “individuation” as Jung calls it – you must try to understand yourself to the depths of your being and live according to your true self. In a way, the process of self-development can be split in two: The first part concerns getting to know different sides of yourself. Possible traumas must be resolved, reaction patterns must be studied, the language of the body must be learned, and body blockages must be loosened up through, for example, body therapy, yoga or massage. You must discover and learn about your stiffened attitudes and emotional reactions and your sexuality. This is the area of the psyche that Jung calls the personal unconscious. Our personal problems must be read and understood. Circumstances must be accepted, and we must take control ourselves. We do not need to let unconscious aspects of our personality dictate our actions – if that is the case we are, in a way, asleep while awake. Self-development does not mean that you must not be angry or sad. It means that we can get to know our feelings and become aware of the causes, in order to choose whether to just touch the feeling or express it fully. Most importantly, we must become aware of the feelings we have. In such a process you become an integrated, harmonious human with a clear sense of who you are. A good and lasting psychotherapy can be helpful here.

The second aspect of self-development is more advanced as it concerns an expansion of consciousness. Although humans use all parts of the brain we probably just use a small part of the brain’s capacity. One can learn to administer this well, but the human brain can do much more than just that. By learning to utilize more of your brain capacity, you increase your consciousness. Imagine a person in the top of a tower and one on the ground. The view from the tower is the best one, but both the tower and stairs must be solid. A person on the ground cannot see as much as the one in the tower. You can simply say that the one in the tower has a higher consciousness than the one on the ground. The second aspect of the process of self-development then becomes qualitatively expanding consciousness in the direction of higher consciousness. If we imagine that we can use 20% of the brain capacity and not for example 10–15%, then our consciousness will be considerably expanded.

The self is something far deeper than the ego. The ego is developed during our early childhood years. We develop the ego in order to differentiate between ourselves and our surroundings and also to attain identity. If we did not possess this ego, we would be mentally ill or deeply stunted.

The self is the source from which our inner wisdom flows. The problem for most humans, however, is that hearing what the self is trying to tell us is not easy. That is because we, throughout our upbringing and into our adult lives – yes, perhaps even previous lives, if you will – have been exposed to a variety of experiences which have left their mark on our psyche. Fortunately we do not remember everything that has happened in our life. The ego usually only remembers a little of what has happened – namely what you need to use here and now. The reminder is stored in the memory.

If, however, one is exposed to traumatic experiences or other psychic strains over time, these experiences can be so painful that our ego does not want to remember them at all. Therefore, we forget them permanently. In that case, life is partially ruled by these awful forgotten emotional strains of which we are unaware. Sigmund Freud was one of the first to speak of repression. That means that we cannot consciously recall the forgotten episodes – even if we should wish to do so. However with the help of a psychologist or other aid, meditative work, healing, etc. one can remember. The self also remembers, and that is why it sends us dreams. The self wants to help us understand our problems better by getting to the heart of the matter, and also presenting suggestions for solutions. The more we appreciate the self, the clearer messages becomes.

Between the self and the ego’s daily awareness, we find all the repressed material we have pushed away in the past. The more material that separates the ego from the self; the more difficult it is for the self to call upon the ego and awareness. But the self is doing its best to be heard, and that happens through our dreams. The self clarifies what is blocking the communication, and as one has gradually learned to process problems differently our contact with the self becomes clearer. The self disentangles itself from the repressed material in the psyche as the repressed material gradually becomes conscious. This is what we understand as self-development. The self is entangled in all of our old repressed traumas, but the contact between the self and ego becomes more distinct when the disturbances are removed. Thus, the self can manifest itself more directly in our awareness.

One could say that while a person lacking awareness is being ruled by the ego, the self gradually becomes more distinct through the process of self-development. Eventually, it replaces the role of the ego as the center of command. That does not mean that the ego disappears. The function of the ego has to do with our individual identity and awareness. Therefore we do need the ego, but as Jes Bertelsen puts it, the ego becomes more like the hands and eyes of the self. The ego becomes the tool of the self.

Bob Moore expresses it this way: He says that man is normally ruled by his wants rather than his deepest needs. The wants are ruled by what you think you need and what you greedily want. For example, the ego wants to take a trip south with friends and drink wine day and night. But maybe the person has to look at why he is having an increasing alcohol problem, and really needs a week of sobriety and self-reflection in the mountains. A trip down south is apparently more fun, but the alcohol problem is destroying his life. What, then, does he really need? The ego wants to go to the south while the self wants to go to the cabin. The self will communicate this through dreams; for example in a nightmare where his friends want to kill him or where he is drowning in a bottle of alcohol. Or he has a comfortable dream where he is in a cave in the woods with a simple candle.

The process of self-development can sometimes be revealed in dreams in a quite peculiar way. Here is an example: The woman dreams about a meat sausage or something similar. A wire is twisted around it, or vice versa – the sausage twisted around the wire. Suddenly the wire unfolds, and it turns out that the sausage is a dirty and groggy little girl. This dream is most certainly about self-development. Although her entire self does not unfold, quite an important aspect of it does. Children in dreams represent the self. Through different experiences, most of us have been given roles, which prevent us from addressing the deepest needs in ourselves. We adapt, and deny the little girl within us. But she is something real and unique that we need to care for. (One could also say that this dream points to a shadow aspect, as it is about a person of the same sex as the dreamer. This is, however, not the common understanding of a shadow. Angst or aggression is often present in the usual shadow dream – in this dream case we are talking rather about neglect!) We can call it a part of the self, or a part of herself. We do use the word self quite often in our language, we do not say a part of her ego very often. We will later refer to this dream as The Self-Development Dream.

The same direct self-development symbolism can be found in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ book Women who Run with the Wolves. She tells the fairy-tale about a fisherman who catches a female skeleton in the ocean. He gets scared and runs home with the skeleton woman in hot pursuit. Eventually he pities her and untangles her from the fishing line. After several events her body is covered with flesh, and we get a happy ending. (We will call this fairy-tale “The Skeleton Woman”.) This story is about another aspect of self-development. The man exposes his sensitivity, which apparently has been blocked: He feels compassion and unites with her. The “developed” imaginary person here is a woman, of the opposite sex to the fisherman. This is about the man’s anima, the female aspect of the man, which he captures and disentangles. Both the shadow and anima are archetypes – that is, basic structures of the psyche. Aspects of these two archetypes are disentangled in the two examples. Corresponding to anima, we say that the woman has a masculine side named animus, which can also be unfolded.

The self is also an archetype. The self appears as a direct symbol in dreams – for example as wise men or women. In order to get more in touch with our inner wisdom, we must get to know repressed material, feelings, experiences, thought patterns, etc. which block our vision. Getting to know the shadow and anima/animus means getting closer to the self. So one could say that the shadow and anima/animus are aspects of the self, or emanating from the self - the archetypes are the language of the self.

When repressed material between the ego and the self is cleared, the self will manifest itself in everyday life and not just in dreams. This is because the ego gets in touch with its needs – therefore it is no longer ruled so much by its wants. So the person will not let himself be controlled by his emotions, but rather by intuition and insight, although things he encounters along the way can be very tempting. Take the case of our alcoholic tourist. If he is governed directly by the self, he will say thanks but no thanks to travelling down south; since he feels that what he really needs is peace and quiet and time for self-reflection. He will not question his choice at all and will wholeheartedly wish his friends a nice trip.

Consciousness and awareness are other key terms in self-development. They are somewhat related to the ego, but they are not the same. You can describe some things intellectually, while other things are more subtle. If, for example, you met someone yesterday, you will be able to recognize them if you meet them again on the street among hundreds of others. However if you are only told about a person with fair hair, a large nose, big ears, brown eyes, etc. you will not be able to recognize that person if you meet him. Thus, our awareness is more than intellectual understanding. We need other things to hang our awareness on, for example our feelings and all of our senses. In order to separate awareness from consciousness one could define awareness as the knowledge aspect of consciousness.

We work on our dreams to become aware of our repressed problems. When you become aware of something previously unconscious, it can turn out to be concrete. Here is an example: The dreamer is walking up a steep stair towards a loft room with an old, large door. She has been given a key previously in the dream. She is afraid and hesitates, but she eventually decides to stick the key in the lock and turn it around. The door opens, and she stands face to face with… (gasp) the witch. (This dream will henceforth be referred to as The Door Opener.) This is a standard dream which can uncover anything. Doors being opened are in themselves always positive, because it means that we have opened an aspect of the psyche which was previously unconscious. The witch represents an ugly, nasty or wise aspect of the dreamer. The point here is that something which has been locked has opened and the light of consciousness is thrown upon it.

Getting Started

As you dream every night, you can start the dream work right away. The first problem you might encounter is that you cannot remember what you have dreamt; yet the ability to remember dreams can be learned. Some people remember many dreams every single night, others remember dreams only if they are considered very important, and some never remember what they dream at all. Yet it is possible to train yourself to remember more dreams and more details. You can also learn to be more aware in dreams, so that you are awake to a greater degree while you’re dreaming. The more interested we are in our dreams, the more we remember. So our attention must also be sharpened - nobody bothers to speak when no one is listening; neither does the self. If we listen, we will be rewarded.

First, you will have to sleep. Perhaps this may seem unnecessary to say, but many people have a very irregular sleep pattern. Certain regularity can be positive. You also have to get hold of a dream book and a pen, and place it next to the bed so you can easily note the dreams during the night. Some prefer a tape recorder. Try it for yourself.

Write down the dream as soon as you have it. If you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night, you are almost certain to have forgotten it the next morning. Even if the dream is very strong, a nightmare for instance, it disappears from the memory before dawn. Some lie awake half the night and try to memorize the dream in order to remember it the next morning because they find it too exhausting to write it down right there and then – thereby destroying their sleep. Writing the dream down and then going back to sleep is much better.

Then how do you remember dreams? If you cannot remember anything from the dream when you wake up, it’s still possible for you to extract it. Sometimes it surfaces during the day itself. It pops up in a moment where you’re mentally off guard or an event or conversation that triggers your memory makes you aware of the dream, but it is not always that easy.

The phase of wakening up is important. If you always wake up with a radio playing or talking, your daily awareness takes charge immediately, and the dream vanishes at once. Or perhaps your children or the dog calls for attention as soon as you open your eyes. It is therefore important to have some time for yourself in the morning. If you should have been up fifteen minutes before the alarm clock sounds, you cannot nurture your dreams. You must have time to grasp them or write them down, or you are sure to forget them during the day. You must at least note a couple of clues in order to hold on to the dream until you get time to write it down.

When you have done everything in your power and still cannot remember your dream, then what do you do? We must remember that dreams come from our self, not our aware ego. Therefore, if we use too much mental effort trying to remember, we will, in the process close the channel from which the dreams spring. Therefore, it is important not to focus intellectually, but remain open. If you think “I wanna, I wanna” you are not gonna! Expressing the attitude that “it would be nice to remember what I have dreamt last night; maybe I can coax it out”, is a lot better. There are methods for doing that:

The body has also experienced dreams so if you are unable to summon the dreams into daily awareness immediately, your body might be able to help you. When awakening the body becomes more active, often twisting and turning, becoming more present physically. If you then try to find the position you were in while dreaming the last dream before you awoke, it is often possible to pull the dream out again. In the same way as when you grab a loose thread in a sweater and pull it, you wind up the dream, stitch by stitch in reverse from sequence to sequence.

Feelings are often present in dreams too. Therefore, you can try to get in touch with your feelings. Is the morning full of inner birds singing, or did you get out bed on the wrong side? What feeling are you waking up with? Take some time to sense the feeling a little. It can also bring you back into the dream.

If you have a particular problem that you wish the dreams to illustrate, they actually can. In that case, think on this problem before you go to sleep. You should use a good deal of energy on this if it is going to work. The more advanced dream interpreters can meditate on their problem. This is done by sitting relaxed and thinking about or feeling what the problem is. Then you may possibly receive an insight in dreams.

When you have worked with dreams for a while, you will discover that you are participating more in them. The more you are awake while dreaming, the more you can enter the dream directly and take care of it. That is referred to as lucidity – being awake while dreaming. In that way, the dream in itself can be a sort of active therapy process and not just a comment on what is happening in the subconscious.

Your dream book is something special for you. Make it a dream journal, by for example, writing the dream down on one page and using the opposite page for other things. You can note themes, just as I have named the dreams I have described. In that way, you can easily find a dream at a later time. Going back to previous dreams can be an advantage. Sometimes they are given a new meaning when you have come further in your process. You discover new aspects you didn’t think about before. You can also draw in your book, or combine dreams with diary entries.

Day residue and compensation: As dreams are often a comment on what has occupied your emotions the previous day, noting additional important clues to your life can be an advantage. It can tell you something about what the self thinks of your approach in your waking life. That is precisely why working with our dreams can be so useful, as they tell us how we relate to the physical, awaking, everyday world. They guide us in our lives. We call the connection to your emotional reactions the previous day the day residue. Dreaming about, for example, your own red car – that you own a red car which you drove the previous day – is not necessarily the day residue. The interesting thing is what is happening to the car. If you dream that you are driving too fast and lose control of your red car (The Car Dream), it is a reminder that you have been moving too fast mentally and have thereby lost control of yourself. The car is just a by-product, being used as an aide to tell the dreamer that he has been out of control. The day residue can be that the dreamer has agreed to take a new job without thinking it through or that the dreamer has split up with his girlfriend because of a false rumor about her. The dream says “control”, “stop”. This is where the compensatory aspect enters. In the car dream the dreamer was unaware that he had too much speed, and therefore the dream compensated by showing this. It could be said that the dreamer came out of balance due to his own unawareness and that the balance can be restored by becoming aware of the problem. It is like a pendulum losing its equilibrium: it will swing just as much to the other side in order to compensate.

Free associations was a method both Freud and Jung used when they were going to interpret dreams and it is being eagerly used in psychotherapy in general. In the example above one can ask: do you have a red car? (No.) Do you know someone who owns a red car? (Yes, my girlfriend.) Did you see her yesterday? (No.) What does the red color tell you? (Danger, stop, the red cloth they use to attract the bull, I have just bought new red shoes, etc.) Free associations bring you into your unconscious. If you are in a dream group, the dreamer should at first be allowed to associate for himself, but sometimes it can help if others do so as well. But in that case what is important is that the symbolism means something to the dreamer, since the dreamer knows best for himself whether an interpretation feels right. This reality must be respected.

Interpretation beyond the possibility the free associations give, can be important. Some symbols can be difficult to interpret, while others have a more specifically limited meaning. Some symbols can be mysterious or incomprehensible, possibly lacking reasonable associations. The more archetypical the symbols are, the easier they are to interpret for someone who does not know the dreamer personally. For example, “an elephant” has a reasonably limited meaning, while “Aunt Sophie” can be both your favorite aunt, a figure from the Norwegian poet Thorbjørn Egner’s children’s book When the robbers came to Cardamom Town or someone else. Such a personal symbol is more difficult to interpret. One must know that person’s relationship to the aunt first.

Contact with the problem is important. What was the dreamer’s role in the dream? Was it, for example, the dreamer himself who drove the car, or could he see from above that a red car was driving too fast? Participating actively is always best. Was the contact positive (a kiss, sex, eating together, dancing), was it neutral or negative (murder, attack, mutilation)? The best contact is when you have a positive interaction with the problem, but a negative one is still considered second best, because it is contact after all. Being the Seeing Eye, completely neutral, is usually about bad contact.

The setting says something about the “scene of the crime”. Did the car drive on the roads of the childhood location, in southern France or in the Himalayas? Are we on the track of our childhood? Was it about running away, if the feelings took over? Did something important happen five years ago when you were on a trip with your previous girlfriend in southern France that you are now repeating with your new one? Are you thinking about running away again? Or are you driving a car where it is not really possible, like in the Himalayan Mountains?

The time aspect says something about whether the problem is recent or about something from the past that pursues you. Some dreams can also be aimed at the future. So is the dream taking place in the past, the present or the future? How old are you in the dream? Did you have an old red car 15 years ago, and is that the one you are driving around in during the dream? What happened 15 years ago that affects you today? Do you look older than today, but do you find yourself in an existing scenario, such as a new house or job?

The body is almost always present in the dream. You are bitten, you sweat, your belly is naked, you are wearing two different socks, etc. It shows the connection we have between the dream and our conscious physical state here and now. Although it might be about an old problem, you feel something in your body here and now. You can contact the part of the body where the feeling is sitting: Does your stomach hurt; is their anger in your belly? Were you angry yesterday? Was that why you made that red car drive so fast? Were you running away? You can then learn to become more aware the next time you feel angry, and thereby react more purposefully.

The leitmotif or connecting thread of the dream shows that even if you dream a lot of different and incoherent things during the same night, all parts of the dream are usually about the same problem, expressed with different symbols and intensity. Giving all the dreams of that night a common name, containing the essence of all the parts, is a way of finding the red thread and thereby focusing on the most important message.

Drawing the dream symbols often gives a new idea about what the dream might be about – especially if they are mysterious symbols you do not recognize. When you draw, you turn your awareness inwards towards the dream. Or you see that something highly familiar suddenly looks like something completely different when you have drawn it. Beyond the benefit of drawing a symbol as such, there are other special methods of working with drawing and dreams. In the appendices you will find descriptions of how to make mandala drawings – a method of drawing you can use to transform a dream symbol until you have reached a certain kind of revelation. I will also explain in the appendices how to draw an aura-gram. That is a drawing of the position of the dream symbols in your aura.

Role-playing is another approach to working with your dreams. The principle is that you try to play all the symbols from the dream in the first person. This method is called gestalting the dream. If, for example, you dream of a skyscraper in the wind, you talk in presence: “I am a skyscraper; I can see far, I am big and strong, etc.” You then take the next symbol: “I am the wind; how I blow, I am dangerous, etc.” In that way you can understand the particular symbols better by playing them. One can also use a method called psychodrama. Here, you should have a group of people available, and the dreamer instructs each in playing the different symbols in the dream. One plays the skyscraper, another is the wind, a third one is perhaps, the dreamer himself. It is useful to have a dream group to work with in any case. It creates several different approaches to the dream. A group can also be particularly useful if you prefer to work with dreams more analytically.

Meditating on the dream symbols is an effective way to open up a symbol. This will be examined in more detail in the appendices, along with other useful and basic meditative techniques you can use in a process of self-development.

Summing up, one can say that if we remember to look at

the free associations

the day residue, the emotional leftovers of the day

the compensation

the interpretation (the contact, the settings, the time aspect)

the body

the leitmotif or connected thread

then we have remembered the main components for being able to open a dream. We then have a dream key.

THE BOOK PROCESS – Part One

This book is both about dreams and self-development. Therefore, I find it natural to continually describe my own process of writing the book as an example of how a process of self-development progresses. I will therefore from time to time talk a little about what is happening to me, based upon the dreams which underpin the writing process. In that way we could actually speak of two books, intertwined.

This is the first time I am writing a book which will be published. I wrote many reports during my student years, but this is in a way more serious. Therefore, my subconscious is working. The book has “moved into” me. My subconscious is working on the next chapter. A question appears: What does it mean for me personally to write a book about dreams and self-development? How does it become my book, and not a book other people could have written better? The book is going to be my expression, not someone else’s. The book becomes a part of my life for the rest of the year. How is my process of self-development connected to the book process? Why am I going to write a book now?

I assume that this process is important to me; and it feels right to venture into it now. In order to give the reader an impression of how external and internal processes coincide, and how they cooperate in a process of self-development, I will therefore become personal – without becoming private – when this is relevant to the reader.

After a while, my editor asked me if I had started dreaming about the book. My answer was no but that was not true, because I actually had dreamt about a book. It was not exactly the most amazing dream, so I suppose I had forgotten about it, but you cannot do that. (It is not enough to write dreams down if you then just forget them, though it can obviously be tempting!)

When a person starts a new and important process – be it psychotherapy, studies, moving, or writing a book – one can have a so-called initial dream. It is a kind of dream that tells you that something new is now beginning; and it can shed light on difficulties and solutions. So it was for me too.

I was thinking that I had to write a little about history and research on dreams. I had actually written a draft. When my husband saw it, he said: “That’s too heavy. Do you have to write all of that?” That night I dreamt the following: I am writing a book. It is a little special. It is in A4 size and all the pages are encircled in a frame of either tin or silver – it needs polishing. The frames are old-fashioned with a lot of weird shapes – slightly Celtic in style. Some say that it must be hard to write on the paper because the pages are not lying flat on each other due to the frames. I claim that it will be all right. In one place, there is an extra frame directly over the page with a pattern of three planes as a seal in the middle. This leads the thoughts to German bombers from World War Two and Nazism. The dream continues, and I am going through the pages until I reach a new scenario where I am in a way present and experiencing it myself. I am standing by a large stair leading up to a large ostentatious building. People are running around confused. I see a broken shop window where three small children are running in to seek refuge. I think perhaps I am witnessing the Night of Broken Glass or the Reichstag fire – something related to the ravages of the Nazis. I see people everywhere being brutally kicked and beaten (January 20th). As the dream sequence in the book is a normal dream, I have, in the second part of the dream, entered a page in the book and into the experience. I am consciously aware in the action as an observer (The Book Dream).

The dream suggests that the book is rather heavy and difficult to handle. My book must not be like that. The frames must not be so heavy that the book becomes boring just because I want all of “the right things”. I am not going to read a book that looks great but which is unreadable – or so difficult to write that it is a waste of energy. I will take the challenge and hope that my subconscious will help me adjust the writing.

Let us look at the symbolism of the dream: Metals in dreams matter. The finest metal is gold. Silver is the second finest, while tin is not a noble metal at all. If I had dreamt about a beautiful, golden book, I would have been satisfied. Not so with this however. The dream directs my thoughts to what to write in the book. The dream usually reveals what the dreamer is concerned with here and now; this is what we have just described as the day residue. The dream says that this will be too heavy and intangible, and does not contain that special thing which only you can evoke concerning your topic.

If you look at my dream, something with three planes in metal suddenly went directly across the book. I cannot fully understand that yet. Perhaps it means that were I to continue along the path I was now on, I would have to stop, (because that extra frame went across the page). Why were there three planes? A dream will often be like a continuous story. There is something mysterious you do not understand which is to stimulate your curiosity. When your conscious mind understands a little more, when self-insight has increased, you are ready for the next step; you will then have a new dream which can increase the understanding of an element from a previous dream.

Such a new dream can come immediately after the first one, or you may have to work with the same dream for years before the explanation is revealed. Some dreams can be experienced as very strong; they make a deep impression on the dreamer, and they can describe questions which can be sort of life tasks – topics you have to work with all your life.

Obviously, I will remember my book dream while writing. Meanwhile, the three planes will stand as a question mark. You can travel in a plane, and it can be used to transport both bombs and southbound tourists or to fly towards a higher insight. The planes looked like a sort of seal – maybe such a seal could be on the captain’s uniform. In a way I am a flight captain with the task of taking the passengers through a dream book also concerning a process of self-development. The book can be said to be a sort of journey to self-insight, both intuitively and intellectually but then we have the number three, since there were three planes. All elements in a dream have significance. Therefore the number three also matters. Could dreams and self-development represent the two first planes, and my own process the third aspect? It could also be the physical book itself, which will not leave my computer without the help of the publishers – or perhaps the third aspect is the reader? I’m now associating freely to see if a solution appears. I am landing on a third solution: It feels right to think that the three planes are the reader, the publishers and me. All three of us are now going on a flight. That does not mean that we are losing ground contact, but that we can let the freedom of thought move away in the process of self-development. Planes move in the air; in full freedom. It is also in the symbolism. Maybe the book project will be an important process for the reader, the publisher and me?

We can fly bombers, but also choose different plane types. That depends on what this book is going to be like. I dreamt that I walked through the page, into another sort of reality. If you go into the book and do not just read the words but move beyond them with your awareness, you might reach new levels of consciousness. You will possibly be able to get a deeper understanding than the intellectual one (which is good enough for its purpose). Wisdom exists on a deeper level than the intellectual. Wisdom emanates from the self, and if we are open to it, the self will show us what we need, not necessarily what we want.

Working with oneself is not exclusively pleasant. You will discover that several human features are actually very mean. Nazism could not rise without people letting it rise. So when you look into yourself, what you spot is not always pretty. The scenario I saw in the dream was human confusion and despair. The horror of Nazism is an existing possibility which lies in all of us, myself included. (Wilhelm Reich has occupied himself with this topic in his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism.) Such an instinct is an archetype.

While the first part of the dream was what we understand as a common dream, the second part was different. I am entering the book in my awareness and I am almost physically present during the Night of Broken Glass. I also see some children fleeing in through a broken window – a hole – to safety. In the dream we thus see two cases of going through something – in the book or the hole in the window. This symbolism relates to a changed level of consciousness. Explaining the meaning of it will be too complicated here, but we will look more at this in the chapter about karma, quantum physics and consciousness.

The same night (January 20th) I dreamt that it was snowing. It was wet snow that turned into rain, so the snow on the ground melted. The result was a lot of water which ran in a small river past our houses but without any flooding. My husband and another familiar man went out to shovel snow, and they eventually were so wet that I had to hang up their clothes to dry when they came in to change (The Snow Melting). This dream speaks of old patterns being broken – there is a thaw, and the (book) process is rolling. Water also represents the collective unconscious; new aspects which want to gradually penetrate the ego and become aware. We will look a lot more at what water means later. Mindful that dreams from the same night usually always have to do with the same problems, we must assume that this water dream also has something to do with the book process. I interpret the water dream very positively and assume that the dream tells me to let it flow without letting the frames be too restrictive. Sometimes you can find funny words which somehow fit in the dream. I cannot help pondering on those tin frames in the book dream, and then the far-reaching melting in the snow melting dream. In Norwegian ”tine” means “melting!

A Short History