DREAMHEALING
[An ASKLEPIA FOUNDATION Book]
Chapter 9
DREAM JOURNEY GUIDELINES:
THE PRACTICE OF DREAMHEALINGABSTRACT: Here is the "how to" instruction for dreamhealing. As well as the basic directions, we have included suggestive phrases for each phase of the journey. These phases include entry, initiating and guiding, sharing, feeling, releasing, accepting, deepening, intensifying, amplifying, healing, integrating, and returning. These guidelines (found at the end of this chapter) are meant to help you come up with your own way of guiding, rather than providing a canned "script". We hope they help you make the process your own. Use the crib notes initially, but get rid of them as soon as possible. You will be a far more fluent guide when the process becomes internalized and spontaneous.
You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin' as it flows.
And the dreamer's just a vessel
that must follow where it goes.--Garth Brooks
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
When you are learning to become a dream guide there are probably going to be times you feel lost within the process. This is why signposts, milestones, and landmarks are useful. You may go down a blind alley into the client's belief system or go awry some other way. For example, a client with a new age belief system worked with an apprentice. She had a "nice" session, wandering around idealized utopian landscapes with light beings from her own cosmology, but nothing happened in terms of dreamhealing. The apprentice was sucked into her confabulated world.
It is impossible to reduce dreamhealing into a typical process with pre-set specific stages. However, once again it is possible to provide some guidelines which may help orient you within that process so you can determine where to go next. In the above example, simple deepening procedures would have taken her below her belief system constructs.
The "Dream Journey Guidelines" contained here are only meant to provide you with some rudimentary cues for conducting the process. As you practice you will develop your own phrases and style. When you come upon a new phrase that works well note it down for future use. In this way you form a repertoire of responses, a therapeutic language which is ready for you to draw from intuitively. Keeping your language neutral or "clean" allows the client to remain immersedin the process. It insures that your guidance is congruent with their perceived experience.
Some aspects of the dream journey we will cover include the following: entry, or beginning the journey; initiating and guiding; sharing experience as it is happening; feelings, visceral, and kinesthetic response; releasing or surrendering (letting go); accepting; intensifying; deepening levels or states of consciousness; amplifying; healing; integrating the experience; and returning or re-entry.
THE BASIC DIRECTIONS BEGIN BY HAVING THE DREAMER RECOUNT THE DREAM. Then have them re-tell it in the present-tense. Have them "walk you through the dream" as if it is happening now. Those familiar with Gestalt dreamwork will recognize this method, from which dreamhealing grew.
This experiential way of re-entering the dream sets the process of co-consciousness in motion, as the therapist begins to see through the eyes of the dreamer. Have them repeat the dream as many times as you need to get a "feel" for it.
Watch for the images which attract you, check the source of that attraction, and direct the dreamer to enter the dream through the doorway you are intuitively drawn toward. Check the authenticity of that draw within yourself. Invite the dreamer to become some aspect of the dream, or let dreamers grant themselves permission to experience something unpleasant from the dream unfolding in a scary or undesirable way. Remember to stay in the present tense--these scenes did not happen--they are HAPPENING, right now.
For example, a threatening snake scares the dreamer. Invite them to let it go ahead and begin biting them. What happens next? Or the dreamer is falling and falling, and finally hits bottom. What happens next? Or, the monster that is chasing the dreamer finally does catch them. Then what? As guide you help carry the action forward, but not too quickly.
Just invite the dreamer to "be that aspect X," or to "go ahead and let X happen," and the journey begins. Of course, they can close their eyes and take a few deep breaths to induce relaxation and enter a natural trance state. Instruct them, if they don't do it spontaneously.
This inner focus creates a natural trance or non-ordinary state of consciousness. If feels very much like a guided visualization, hypnosis, or waking dream. Yet it requires no formal induction or script. It is deeper than a daydream. Ideally, imagination is happening TO the dreamer. The dreamer is not constructing a story consciously. Rather, they enter or immerse themselves in the on-going stream of consciousness. Their surprise at the fluid imagery indicates its authenticity.
Freudians see this work as free association, Jungians look at it as active imagination. It is also a deeper form of Gestalt dreamwork. It has much in common with Ericksonian hypnosis. In fact, in teaching dreamhealing to a variety of practitioners, they all seem to find an amplification of their favorite techniques in the procedures. It has universal appeal in many schools of thought.
If the client should appear to be making up a story, invite them to go deeper within, into the experience of themselves, deeper into the essence of that experience. Then use guiding suggestions to move on, from one inner space to another. For example guide the client from looking at an image, to becoming it, to becoming a color, to becoming even more fundamental or primal. Guiding is also used to bring the dreamer back to the surface of the dream to enter another aspect of the original dream. REMEMBER ALL ASPECTS OF THE DREAM IMAGE ARE THE DREAMER, INCLUDING THE BACKGROUND.
To explore all the symbols and background of only one dream might be done over weeks. However, this is not necessary, as consecutive new dreams will bring the same issues to light in a different, evolving way. All roads lead to Rome in dreamhealing. The conflicts will be expressed in a variety of characters, dramas, and themes. Sometimes the story stays the same, and there is a recurrent dream.
Simply keep your suggestions neutral in tone or specifics, and permissive or inviting in style. Emotional inflection or variety in your voice could influence the client's mood and feeling in the journey. It might be totally incongruent with their emotions at that point in the process. So keep your tone somewhat "flat." As you are in the act of responding to their last comment, their process will continue to flow forward, and may not match your words.
Because the process is a flow with many non-verbal times in it, there are time you may not know what is happening within the client. Use your extrasensory talents here, but do reality checks on yourself. The way to find out neutrally is to ask them to share what they are experiencing or what is happening.
Once again, always use clean language that keeps the process in the present tense, as if it is always NOW. That is why you ask, "what is happening," not "what happened." If the client is in the visual mode, seeing something inside, you can usually tell by the flickering in their eyes which indicates they are in a R.E.M. state. This rapid eye movement is characteristic of dream states, and shows you they are visualizing.
Not all clients are experiencing the imagination through visualization all the time. If you tend to be a visionary, remember the importance of other representational systems. They may be in another "channel" just perceiving a feeling, or listening to, or smelling something.
Under these circumstances, if you ask them what they are seeing you pull them into another, totally different experience. SO BE SURE YOUR INTENT MATCHES YOUR GUIDING SUGGESTIONS. If they are incongruent with the client's experience you may divert them from an important path. Even if this happens, the issue will probably tend to reappear in other forms until it is worked out.
It is also important in the dream journey that the mental abstractions be linked with the body for a total experience and grounding. This is the kinesthetic aspect of perception. It includes feelings and visceral responses. IT IS ON THIS LEVEL THAT YOU WILL EITHER GAIN OR LOSE YOUR CLIENT'S TRUST. Part of the way humans "know" what they know is through visceral or gut-reactions.
The mind and body are indissolubly linked so that thoughts and emotions manifest simultaneously in the body. Part of how you know what you know and feel what you feel results from physiological changes in muscle tension, heartrate, breathing rate and volume, and hormone levels. People can interpret changes in their bodies in a variety of ways. For example, the quickened heartbeat and shallow breathing of one person may get interpreted as anxiety, by another as excitement, and by a third as sexual arousal.
When a client shares a feeling from the process never add your own modifiers to it. Never assume it feels either "nice" or "bad" to them. Even a very positive feeling can be uncomfortable to a client if it is alien or unfamiliar to them.
To get deeper in touch with a feeling ask them where they feel it in their body. On occasion it may seem to be located outside the body, such as an alienated heart. The body area they refer to may be symptomatic. It may even be the presenting problem if they are seeking pain management help for psychosomatic disease. The spot may become spontaneously tender, revealing a deep tissues memory that would like to find a voice. Some gentle physical pressure applied to the spot may intensify the experience or imagery for the client. Use your judgement about touching them. Always let them know verbally before you do it.
Once frozen feelings thaw, the client is faced with having to deal with or accommodate those feelings in their life. Now that it is up, what do they do with it? There are many things within us that we know, but don't know we know. When they come to the surface, they require many adjustments as they impact our coping mechanisms.
Letting go and releasing is an important part of the process in many forms. The client can let go of old outworn attitudes and behaviors during the dream journey. They may be guided to just let go of a train of thought or awareness by the guide. They may be instructed to let go of the last image, or even to let go of body or form itself. "LETTING GO" IS THE INSTRUCTION FOR SHIFTING FROM ONE IDENTIFICATION TO ANOTHER.
This sense of release leads directly to the opportunity for acceptance. Unlike shock, disbelief or denial, accepting means allowing, surrendering, just being, trusting, flowing. It lets what was formerly unacceptable happen. Physiologically it means a deep physical and mental relaxation which automatically takes the process deeper.
When there is nothing left to fight or flee the body just turns loose and consciousness dives even deeper. Blocks to letting go and accepting manifest physically as jerking or unstressing motions of muscles in conflict, working against themselves. When the conflict resolves the relaxation is profound. Chronic emotional trauma frequently stores in this way as deep muscle tension.
The process of deep relaxation allows the client to descend another level of the consciousness map into themselves. This is a good time to consider if you are following the consciousness map by leading down through the successive layers. Pop out of co-consciousness into your rational mode if you feel frustrated or stuck in the process. Become your neutral self once again and immerse yourself in the journey once more.
There are many different suggestions for deepening the client directly or indirectly. You may simply request the deepening, or ask the dreamer to change sensory modes, or get them slightly confused. For example, you may ask them to "taste" a color, or some other form of sensory-melding or ask them to become a color they have mentioned. In any event the journey is into the "center of the earth," the very core of their being.
You can intensify the experience for your client in several ways. You can validate their experience by feeding back what they have said last with no editorial changes in content or inflection. Some people missed this mirroring and validation as infants. Now they can feel heard, acknowledged, and OK.
This rapport is important because while you intensify them, they are becoming willing to enter close to the pain and the fear which surrounds the primal image. They must trust you to go into the chaos with no guarantee or control Reassure them that you will be there all the way through the whole process, and it is OK since you have been there many times.
But before things get better, they usually get worse in the process. To help that become ultra-real to the client, you can amplify their experience by evoking more detail. Let them create their own virtual reality. What you ask may determine which aspects of the image they focus on. The more they notice, the more real it becomes. However, don't get bogged down in an endless cataloguing of details. Let your intuition and their responses guide you here.
Many times they just need more time; convey to them that they will have all the time they need to explore, and that they may return in the future. If you are puzzled over what to ask concerning a given image simply ask, "What could be a question I could ask about that?" Many times they will disclose a vital aspect.
In general, try to evoke a multi-sensory report about the experience. Sometimes though, they may be just a disembodied mind floating in a void, or even be overwhelmed by swirling imagery. You are heading toward chaos consciousness if that is the case.
Both of you are letting go and dissolving into the chaos. LET IT HAPPEN. Give them plenty of time before you ask for any verbal description or report. If you have been there in your own sessions, you have a fairly good idea what the experience is like, but it can vary tremendously.
Some must learn to navigate through the chaos, while others take to it like a duck to water. What attitude do you experience when you find yourself there as dreamer or guide? If you cannot navigate this region, both you and your client may flounder here. But, if you just let go and trust the process, you will come out the other side of this psychic "rapids" having already begun the process of healing change.
THE HEALING IS VERY FREQUENTLY FELT AS A TINGLING SENSATION, OR AN EFFERVESCENCE. It may be located in a specific region or generalized. Frequently it feels very pleasant. It may be expressed as a new primal image that is seen, heard, or perceived in a deeply felt way.
The healing manifests as a new emergent order. What was implicate deep within, becomes explicate. It occurs at the shift from chaos to the new, unfolding order. It is a new perception of self and one's relationship to the whole. But it still needs to be integrated with one's other experiences.
Integration of what is learned on the journey is essential to grounding the experience within the fabric of ordinary life. For example, if in your dream you are being suffocated by oppressive males, you might reflect on how that is occurring in your daily life. The process of integration continues after the dream journey, sometimes for many months as the natural consequences unfold.
During the dreamhealing, integration simply means letting that new image become a felt experience by consciously and subconsciously realizing it. It may be an alienated, frozen, lost, or forgotten part of the self. As you re-own this part, you experience a new sense of wholeness, which is synonymous with integration. This is another phase of the healing process. Healing and wholeness are equivalents.
Integration after the session can include learning the cultural and mythical meaning of some of the dream symbols. This amplification isn't necessary for healing, but some people are drawn to it. This information can come from the guide and be supplemented by the client's own search.
No meaning for the dream symbol is imported. It is not to be extracted from its dream context. Only an expanded awareness of its meaning across cultures is found. Integration also goes on for months and can be expressed as a series of "a-ha" experiences which give feelings of deeper meaning and value. You begin to see how the whole experience fits into and describes your life.
The returning or re-entry phase provides a sense of re-orienting to the here and now of ordinary consciousness, yet somehow changed. It is well to inform the client it is approaching the time to come out of the inner process. But do not abort their journey in mid-stream. Ask them if they are ready, or let them know it will soon be time. Give them the chance to come to some sense of closure for the process. Then have them take some deep breaths and let their eyes open.
Give them a few moments, watch what they do (stretch, rub a body part, look away, etc.). Then ask them to tell you about the process while it is still fresh. This de-briefing is important. They will be more verbally fluent and accurate about what went on at this point than any other.
It is much like recounting a dream immediately upon awakening. You can compare notes about your co-conscious experience and find if indeed you were tracking together. Talk about what this journey means in their daily life, both how they feel, and what they think. Some people will want to record their experience in their journal at this time.
DREAMHEALING SIGNPOSTS
We've already spoken of some of the dreamhealing signposts. They include both empty and full voids, monochromatic imagery, spirals and whirlpools. Another variation of the spiral motif is the vortex, tornado, or cyclone. These images seem to recur spontaneously in this work in their infinite variation. In the WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy entered the chaotic land of Oz through the spiraling winds.
These, and other elemental images, are some of the clues along the journey, which help the guide to orient and determine how to proceed further. A select group of images have proven useful indicators of the right direction. They seem to be doorways to a very primal level of response from deep within the essence of the traveller. Primarily these include the elements of nature, various kinds of snakes, and the experience of various colors and their combinations.
If EARTH, AIR, FIRE, OR WATER appear prominently in a dream, or arise on the journey, this can be an interesting experience to explore. As in other guiding, invite the dreamer to become one of the elements, to identify with it and let it begin describing "its" experience and reality from within that consciousness.
If an element is being experienced in its benign or fury form, let that experience intensify and follow the process to find out "what happens next." A tidal wave, ravaging fire, great wind, or earthquake may lead through to a place of calm and regeneration. Follow it through the chaos and out the other side.
Since Freud, "snake dreams" have been viewed with the pseudo-knowledge that they are probably all phallic symbols and somehow relate to sexual maladjustment. In Asklepian dreamhealing, we look at SNAKE DREAMS quite differently, since the serpent was sacred to the cult. It is ridiculous to assign all snakes in dreams to penis envy or some other reductionistic view. Even viewed positively what does it mean to call a snake "emergent female wisdom?" One needs to experience that particular dream snake, become it, "grok" it.
Snakes have always played a prominent role in the history of mysticism since ancient times. There is the Egyptian Uraeus, sacred serpent of wisdom. This cobra was a symbol of sovereignty. The Greeks revered the symbol of Hermes's caduceus with its intertwined serpents. They symbolized balanced force, the union of opposites leading to a state of higher awareness and healing power.
The serpent Ouroboros, the snake eating its tail, is a glyph for the circular eternity of the cosmos. Half dark and half light, it symbolizes passive and active energy in motion, like the Chinese YIN AND YANG. The serpent in the Garden of Eden brought the knowledge of good and evil. Pre-columbian America worshipped the feathered-snake, Quetzalcoatl.
A great serpent challenged Buddha. Yogis speak of the Kundalini serpent power which rises through the spine and culminates in enlightenment. In India and Burma there are snake cults. And in the U.S. there are those whose religion dictates that they "take up serpents" to show their faith and receive healing.
Of course, the snake, in particular the python, was the sacred animal of the Asklepian healing cult. Here the snake symbolizes the raw life energies, in fact, pure energy itself. The nature of snakes is that they must shed their old constricting skins many times in order to grow. This and other metaphors of its existence and essence make it a pregnant symbol.
In dreams, snakes take on many aspects like their sinuous movement, underground life, and associations with other aspects of nature. Is there one snake, or many in the dream? Is it benign, or threatening? If snakes threaten, let that occur and see what happens next. Does the snake inhabit the woods, the water, or the desert?
"Snakes are the guardians of the springs of life and of immortality, and also of those superior riches of the spirit that are symbolized by hidden treasure," according to Cirlot's DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS. They appear in the myths and religions of almost all societies, in different roles. Because snakes live under rocks or in holes, they are associated with the underworld, the dead, fertility, and the unconscious mind. Because they shed their skin, they are connected with rejuvenation and longevity.
There is a great mystery about snakes that strikes deep into the reptile brain of a human being at the most primal level. Even though we have a genetic revulsion to them from our ancestral memory, they are not always forces of destruction to be loathed or avoided. The snake is automatically associated by its nature with the feminine principle and flow. To the extent that we reject this in ourselves, we fear the snake and fear its appearance in ordinary life or in our dreams.
What does the snake do in the dream? Shedding its skin may symbolize resurrection. If it is coiled it may indicate stored dynamic energy waiting to be unleashed. Does it want to bite, or do something supernatural? How vicious is it? In snake cults, people even kiss snakes. Snakes can both kill or cure, act negative or positive. Much depends on your relationship to the snake energy, especially as it reflects on your physical health.
IN THE ASKLEPIAN CULT, JUST THE APPEARANCE OF A SNAKE IN THE DREAM SIGNALS AN EPIPHANY WITH THE GOD AND HERALDS THE HEALING PROCESS. It requires no interpretation, and neither do dreamhealing symbols. However, cultural amplification can strike some deeper, mythic chord. Sometimes this satisfies the conscious mind and brings it into the process, but after the session only.
The Gnostics noticed an obvious relationship between the snake and the spinal cord of the central nervous system, as did the yogis. It is central, with the brain to the skeletal structure and nervous system, and helps form a structural core for the body, the point of origin for most operational signals.
As an agent of the parasympathetic system, it lets the subconscious regulate and act upon the body in many ways which bypass rational thought or direction. It is the core of our emotional reactions through biochemistry. This internal snake can also be an image of inner strength.
THE ELEMENTS OF NATURE
Nature has a spontaneous healing effect. Just take someone from the city to a splendid wilderness vista and they can have a mystical experience of awe and expansion of self. We respond to Her beauty and power from deep within. Therefore, the elements of nature are important symbols to enter in dreamhealing. They are the metaphorical building blocks of our universe, and irreducible to more fundamental symbols.
EARTH stands for solid material existence, WATER for all liquids, AIR for gaseous matter, and FIRE for the transformation of matter. There is no need to interpret the elements for yourself or the dream journey client. But it is useful to have some knowledge of their archetypal meaning. If you've studied astrology, or shamanism you may already be aware of their essence. Always bear in mind with the elements that the context in which they appear modifies them considerably. With time and experience you can expand on these thumbnail sketches of the elements.
EARTH: Earth symbols come in many forms like soil, mud, clay, dust, rock, sand, and minerals. A client may enter the earth through another symbol like sinking down through the roots of a tree. They may sink deeper through the layers of the earth's crust, experiencing themselves as lava, or the whole planet itself.
Earth may be experienced as the floor of a house, or the general background of a dream image. Qualities of the earth include grounding, the pull of gravity on every fiber and atom of your being, stability, endurance, rootedness, and reality. It can be a metaphor for the body. Earth may be barren, or fallow, or fruitful. It reflects on material need, survival issues, and consumption.
Keywords: pragmatic, concrete, stable, physical, material, sensual, reliable.
AIR: Air is frequently an invisible element. It takes many forms such as wind, breeze, breathing, sneezing, hurricanes, and tornados. Your capacity to breath and smell connects you vitally with air. You may also fly using air as the medium of flight. It can feel like an expression of freedom, and allow a whole new perspective from the heights. A journey through the air may evoke feelings of inspiration. The act of smelling is intimately connected with memory.
According to Cirlot, "air is essentially related to three sets of ideas: the creative breath of life, and hence, speech; the stormy wind, connected in many mythologies with the idea of creation; and, finally, space as a medium for movement and for the emergence of life-processes. Thoughts, feelings and memories concerning heat and cold, dryness and humidity and, in general, all aspects of climate and atmosphere, are also closely related to the concept of air."
Keywords: mental, communicative, verbal, mobile, perceptive, curious, sociable, objective, relational.
WATER: The waters of life circulate throughout existence in the form of rain, sap, milk, lymph, and blood. In modern psychology, it is a symbol of emotions or even the unconscious as the dynamic, motivating female side of the personality, and intuitive wisdom. Birth is associated with water symbolism, and so is rebirth.
There are many kinds of water: clear water, spring water, running water, stagnant water, dead water, fresh and salt water, reflecting water, purifying water, deep water, and stormy water. It is an element of mediation and dissolution. It appears as ocean, sea, spring, river, stream, body fluids, rain, liquids to drink, pools, lakes, and tap water. It cleanses, baptizes, refreshes, blesses, purifies, and sometimes overwhelms. Water carries waves, eddies, and turbulence. Water never rests; it is an image of flow and change, and can also be reflective.
Keywords: mobility, fluidity, adaptability, empathy, sensitivity, psychic, receptive, supportive, subjective.
FIRE: Fire may appear as anything from a flame to the sun or a supernova. It mediates between forms which vanish and forms in creation. It is an image of energy which may be found at the level of animal passion as well as on the plane of spiritual strength.
To pass through fire is symbolic of transcending the human condition. It is the Holy Spirit, that light burning within us. It means immortality, purification, and judgement. We experience fire in many forms such as a campfire, hearthfire, homefires, lava, lightening and electricity, and glowing candlelight. Fire cooks what is raw in both our kitchens and our psyches. Fire throws light on the darkness, and provides warmth and illumination.
Keywords: spirituality, abstract concepts, ideas, intuitive flashes, physical activity, pioneering, taking initiative.
DREAM JOURNEY GUIDELINES
BASIC DIRECTIONS:
Listen to the dream in the present tense; what draws you.
Let imagination flow and emerge organically.
Lead (invite) the dreamer toward the fear and pain with reassurance.
Lead away from fantasy to deepen past belief systems.
Enliven the experience by repeating key elements.
Use "confusion techniques" to short-circuit the rational mind.
Change sensory channels to overcome resistance.ENTRY--BEGINNING THE JOURNEY:
CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW...AND SPEND THE NEXT COUPLE OF MINUTES BREATHING...RELAX YOUR BODY...AND...AS YOU'RE READY, FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE DREAM...BRINGING IT BACK IN AS MUCH DETAIL AS YOU CAN...AND WALK ME THROUGH THE DREAM...THIS TIME...AS YOU ARE EXPERIENCING IT...
BECOME...GO DEEPER NOW.
BECOME THE ESSENCE OF "X"...FEEL IT IN YOUR BODY.
BECOME THAT...EXPERIENCE YOURSELF NOW.
BE THAT "X"...FEEL IT.
BEGIN THIS JOURNEY.
DIVERT A BIT FROM THE DREAM NOW...ALLOW "X" (fear or pain cue) TO HAPPEN.JUST LIE DOWN AND GET COMFORTABLE...START BY JUST BREATHING...RELAX AND ENTER YOUR DREAM...RE-EXPERIENCE YOUR DREAM...AND THEN WHEN YOU'RE READY, WALK ME THROUGH THE DREAM.
INITIATING AND GUIDING:
BECOME...GO DEEPER NOW...
BECOME THE ESSENCE OF "X"...FEEL IT IN YOUR BODY...
BECOME THAT...EXPERIENCE YOURSELF NOW...
BE THAT "X"...FEEL IT...
BEGIN THIS JOURNEY...
DIVERT A BIT FROM THE DREAM NOW...ALLOW "X" TO HAPPEN...
NOW I WANT YOU TO EXPERIENCE "X"...
WHEN YOU'RE READY, MOVE ON...
BECOME THAT COLOR...THAT SHAPE...
I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY IT, BUT ALL AT ONCE BECOME THAT FEELING OR NATURE...
BE WHERE YOU WANT IN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS...
JUST GIVE OVER TO THAT SENSATION OF "X"...
JUST EXPERIENCING...AND TELL ME WHAT YOU NOTICE...
BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO THAT SENSATION OR FEELING...DOES IT HAVE A SHAPE...ANY DISTINGUISHING THINGS YOU NOTICE ABOUT IT...
JUST GIVE OVER TO THAT NOTION...THAT THOUGHT...
JUST STAY WHERE YOU'RE AT...STAY THERE...WHEN YOU DO COME BACK JUST COME BACK TO THE SURFACE OF THE DREAM...AND I WILL MEET YOU THERE BECAUSE THERE IS ANOTHER PLACE I'D LIKE TO TAKE YOU...
SHARING:
SHARE...
TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON...
WHAT DO YOU EXPERIENCE...
WHAT HAPPENS (NEXT)...WHAT'S HAPPENING...
WHAT DOES YOUR IMAGINATION DO WITH THAT...
WHAT DO YOU SEE...
WHAT ARE YOU AWARE OF...
WHAT'S YOUR SENSE OF THAT...
LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'RE READY TO SHARE...FEELING:
WHAT DO YOU FEEL...
FEEL THAT...FEEL YOUR (QUALITY "X")...
FEEL THAT..AS YOU BECOME THAT...AND GO THROUGH THAT...
FEEL IT VISCERALLY...WHERE DO YOU NOTICE THAT IN YOUR BODY...
FEEL YOUR ESSENCE...TRUST YOUR IMAGINATION
JUST EXPERIENCE THAT NOW...FEEL THAT ENERGY...RELEASING:
LET "X" GO...
LET GO OF BODY...LET GO OF FORM...
JUST GIVE OVER TO THAT NOTION...THAT THOUGHT...LET GO NOW OF ANY OTHER SENSE OF SELF YOU HAVE...
AND JUST BECOME THAT "X"...
BECOME NOTHING BUT THAT (KIND OF) "X"...
LET GO OF THE REST NOW AND JUST BECOME THE "X"...ACCEPTING:
ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN...
LET IT HAPPEN...
(RIGHT NOW JUST) GIVE IN TO (THE) "X"...
YIELD TO IT...
LET "X" TAKE OVER...
NOW RELAX INTO IT...
JUST ACCEPT IT...ACCEPT THAT...
LET IT BE...
GIVE IN TO ALL OF THAT VISCERAL SENSATION OF...
(GIVE IN) TO THE SENSATION...THE BODY FEELING...THE SENSE OF BEING "X"...
TRUST THAT ABILITY...ACCEPT...
TAKE IT IN NOW...JUST ACCEPT...ACCEPT IT...
TRUST YOUR IMAGINATION...GIVE OVER TO THAT...FEEL IT...NOW STAYWITH IT...
THERE'S A PRESENCE IN THAT DREAM...A GUIDE...DO YOU FEEL IT?...
JUST LET "X" ENTER YOU...DEEPENING:
GO DEEPER NOW...
GET INTO THAT...
GET INTO ALL THOSE FEELINGS...LET THEM DEVELOP...
STAY WITH IT...DEEPER...DEEPER...FEEL THIS EXPERIENCE...
EXPERIENCE WHERE THAT TAKES YOU...
STAY WITH THE IMAGE...
EXPERIENCE THE VISCERAL FEEL...
STAY WITH THIS (THAT; IT) CONSCIOUSNESS...
FEEL IT VISCERALLY...
LET WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE TAKE YOU WAY DOWN...
EXPLORE...EXPLORING YOURSELF...
BREATH DEEP...
JUST GO A LITTLE BIT DEEPER NOW...AND FEEL THE ENERGY THAT YOU RADIATE...INTENSIFYING:
EVEN THOUGH IT SCARES YOU, LET IT HAPPEN...
RIGHT NOW STAY WITH "X"...
BE THE ESSENCE OF "X"...
I'LL GO WITH YOU INTO THE PAIN...COME WITH ME INTO THE PAIN...
I'LL BE WITH YOU...AMPLIFYING:
EXPLORE THAT NOW...EXPLORE THAT A LITTLE WHILE LONGER...
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT...AN ENERGY...
WHERE DO YOU FEEL "X" WHEN YOU FEEL IT IN YOUR BODY...
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THAT..ABOUT THAT "X"...
ANY SOUNDS...SMELLS...TEXTURES...
WHAT'S IT LIKE...WHAT KIND...
DOES IT HAVE A SHAPE OR SIZE (also COLOR, TEMP, WEIGHT, MOVEMENT)...
AND IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THAT "X"...
AND WHAT COULD IT BE MADE OF...
AND TAKE SOME TIME TO KNOW ABOUT "X"...AND ALL THE QUALITIES OF "X"...AND WHAT "X" IS DOING...
AND WHAT COULD BE A QUESTION I COULD ASK ABOUT THAT...
AND WHAT WOULD "X" LIKE TO HAVE HAPPEN...
AND WHAT WOULD "X" LIKE TO DO...HEALING:
ENJOY IT...
THAT'S THE HEALING ENERGY...
ENJOY THIS...
THIS IS ONE OF THE GIFTS OF THE DREAM TO YOU...IT'S A HEALING PLACE FOR YOU...
JUST ALLOW THAT TO BE...LET THAT WORK ON YOU...THAT'S THE HEALING...IT COMES FROM WITHIN...
THAT'S THE HEALING...JUST STAY WITH IT NOW...STAY WITH IT...AND FEEL IT AS LONG AS YOU NEED...INTEGRATING:
LET IT BECOME A PART OF YOU NOW...
IT'S JUST AS MUCH YOU AS ALL OF THE OTHER EXPERIENCES...
FLOW WITH IT..TAKE IT IN...
NO ENERGY INSIDE OF YOU IS NOT OF THIS "X"...
STAY WITH AS LONG AS YOU WANT...
BRING "X" TO THE SURFACE WITH YOU...
FEEL IT AS LONG AS YOU NEED...WHEN YOU ARE READY TO COME BACK...BRING THE HEALING WITH YOU...RETURNING:
TAKE A COUPLE OF DEEP BREATHS AND RETURN BY LETTING YOUR EYES OPEN (WHEN READY)...
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS JUST TAKE THREE DEEP BREATHS AND LET YOUR EYES OPEN...BUT DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU'RE READY...
ARE YOU READY TO GO BACK UP TO THE SURFACE OF THE DREAM NOW...COLORS AND CHAKRAS IN DREAMHEALING
Colors of all types come up frequently in the dreamhealing process. Depending on the journey, some of these colors are pure, but many times they are in combination. It is commonly recognized in psychology that there is a relationship between colors and feelings or states of mind.
Pink, for example, is calming, while yellow tends to make people argumentative. Mystics noticed the relationship between colors and states of consciousness centuries ago. One of the primary systems relating color to the mind and body is the chakra network from yoga.
This system not only relates to color, it echoes the Asklepian myth of a healing serpent power. In yoga, the Kundalini, or serpent power, resides as coiled energy at the base of the spine. When awakened it surges upward through the seven spiritual centers, culminating in enlightement.
This network is an important group of signposts in dreamhealing. Since each chakra is associated with a color, the appearance of these colors in the journey can be an indication of where blocks in the energy flow and psychology may lie.
For a complete description of colors and chakras in dreamhealing, see THE SHAMAN/THERAPIST.
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CHAPTER 10 of DREAMHEALINGCLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE ASKLEPIA FOUNDATION HOME PAGE
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