Had an interesting talk about dreaming with a co-worker last night. We were both chaperoning the senior class trip to a bowling alley. In between our respective frames, we shared childhood dreams and discussed how dreaming is a topic of interest in many spiritual traditions.
She’s been a regular dreamer for most of her life and what was fascinating for me was how quickly she entered into a the discussion and asked the most relevant questions.
This got me thinking about just how much work needs to be done around the collective attitude towards the reality of the dream. What is at the root of our hang up about dreaming? I sense there’s a trillion or so conversations needed to turn the tide. It’s not that daunting a task after this recent conversation…the ten pins were flying.
“A dream never says ‘You ought’ or ‘This is the truth.’ It presents an image in much the same way as nature allows a plant to grow, and we must draw our own conclusions….To grasp its meaning, we must allow it to shape us….Then we understand the nature of the experience.” Jolande Jacobi, Complex/Archetype/Symbol, pg. 196.
That’s how I’m thinking of the #dreamlog, like collecting flowers along the way. Earlier today Wayne noted that #dreamlog has “given a new dimension of meaning to the term “dream-catcher,” and that works too.
The impetus is always there to interpret. As I collect these images many possible “solutions” pop into my head. But without the input of the dreamer, such interpretations are tenuous at best. I refrain from over thinking these self portraits of the psyche as it manifests on Twitter and instead focus on the grammar of the language of dreams.
As Jacobi goes on to say “Every dream is a statement of the psyche about itself.”
Thanks to some sage advice from many of the pro practitioners I’ve been fortunate to study, it’s been clear to me since entering this space that the best way to learn is to dive right in.
Recently I’ve initiated #dreamlog, a hashtag that curates/filters dreams I’m discovering through twitter search. Credit needs to go to @zachbraiker who asked me “how is the collective unconscious getting expressed on Twitter?” and “what’s the symbolic significance of the hashtag?” I didn’t really have an answer but instead set off to find one. #dreamlog is my answer.
Thousands of dreams are contributed into the public reservoir of data each day. I do not know if anyone else currently “tagging” what they find and using the RT protocol in the manner I’ve developed with #dreamlog or not. But I know this, it works. And as the stream builds, others are adding their dreams to the stream as well.
This activity is simultaneously intensely selfish and surprisingly useful for others.
It’s selfish because the opportunity to engage this data with such ease gives me an incredible opportunity to engage the contents of the unconscious. Jungian analysis places an emphasis on dream interpretation, and the hundreds of dreams I process through twitter search each day, as well as the wide array of emotional responses that people share regarding their dream experiences, provides stream of research that is nothing short of a digital dream practicum. As I continue my journey to become a Jungian analyst this practice of sifting the search data, valuing the images, and determining what to share, all this helps me to develop my feel for the language of dreams.
But as I’m digging into that which is most useful to myself it becomes evident that it has value for others as well. #dreamlog has stimulated a Renaissance in my engagement with new folks on twitter that reminds me of my first few months in the space. It’s opened up new relationships, deepened the level of interaction, and led to an increase of back channel interactions. A surprising number of folks have taken the time to let me know they enjoy it.
I think it’s important to point out the bi-polar aspect of successful actions in this space. Many toot the horn of being useful to others, the altruistic side of the equation, while downplaying the more selfish benefits. Be it new business opportunities, increased revenue streams, or just good old-fashioned learning, it’s crucial to find what you need in this space as well. Otherwise you’ll never have the energy to sustain a consistent practice.
Time to go see what else has been delivered to the dream castle I call twitter search…
Jung teaches that dreams have both a compensatory and a prospective aspect.
“But when the individual deviates from the norm in the sense that his conscious attitude is unadapted both objectively and subjectively, the – under normal conditions – merely compensatory function of the unconscious becomes a guiding, prospective function capable of leading the conscious attitude in quite a different direction…” Carl Jung, General Aspects of Dream Psychology, CW VIII, par. 495.
When working with a dream it’s useful to consider how the same images might be expressing either of these perspectives. Often the very thing that people will term crazy or odd about a dream is that it points to something that consciousness is missing, and in the effort to render an image of what is not understood, the results seem preposterous. But only at first.
The compensatory aspect of a dream can be thought of as the unconscious attempting to provide a counter-balance to the conscious standpoint. For instance, if one is getting too self absorbed, a dream might demonstrate this by an overly extroverted scenario.
The prospective aspect attempts to provide a plausible outcome to a situation that the conscious standpoint seems to be essentially blind toward. When people respond to the prophetic nature of dreams, it’s this uncanny ability of the unconscious to sense the full dynamics at play in a given scenario that allude consciousness.
In a superficial, superstitious way, this is what folks refer to when they judge a dream as good or bad and let it shape their attitude towards the following day. This common reaction to dreams misses that the dream is actually referring to specifics in the dreamers life. Without taking the time to ask questions of the images, this approach only measures the emotional reaction to the dream as it either promotes or detracts from conscious desires. When such a reactionary practice is in play, it’s important to ask “but what is the dream saying?”
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