Tracks in the Wllderness of Dreaming

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Summary: A masterful perspective on dream interpretation
Review: Tracking the Dream StorySometimes the most simple, obvious statement contains the most profound truth. Case in point: A dream is a story. It1s a simple idea, almost obvious when you think about it. Dreams have the drama of powerful stories. Have you ever wondered why, if dreams are supposed to be 3messages2, that they usually come in the form of stories, rather than in the form of explanations or instructions? I1m sure you1ve wished, 3If my dreams are trying to get a message across to me, why don1t they do it more directly?2 Have you ever considered that, maybe, the story is the most direct method? We all enjoy stories. We respond to them more directly than we do to dry, intellectual explanations. We are now just beginning to understand, in a dry intellectual, scientific way, how people understand stories and grasp their meaning. Responding to stories is so natural, we never wondered how we do it. Carl Jung pointed out the dramatic structure of dreams and began the study of how stories affect us. Edgar Cayce used the theme of the dream1s story as a basis of his dream interpretations. That method is now a cornerstone of modern dream interpretation. If story is such an important way of learning, it would seem natural to teach about dreams by telling stories about them. Of all the dream experts I know, the one who does the best job of this style of teaching is Robert Bosnak. A Jungian analyst originally from the Netherlands, Bosnak first came to national attention with his book, Dreaming with an AIDS Patient. In this book (that became the basis for a stage play), he told us the story of his involvement with a person who was very much alive as well as terminally ill. At the same time he taught us a lot about dreams and dreamwork, using both his patients and his own dreams. In an earlier book, titled, A Little Course on Dreams, he told us stories about himself and his patients to illustrate the life of dreams and the attempts to find meaning in them. Bosnak1s latest book, Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreams (Delacorte Press), is a story within a story, and an important new contribution to dream interpretation. At one level, the story is about his visit to Australia where he exchanges professional trade secrets with Aborigenee healers. At another level, it is Bosnak1s own story of his dreams helping him reconcile with his father1s death. Within these two personal accounts we learn how to work with dreams in the Bosnak mode. An important dimension of his creative style of dreamwork is attending to the emotional atmosphere of a dream. Much of the value of a dream is in revealing emotional realities normally hidden from the dreamer. Bosnak illustrates how the emotional atmosphere in a dream story is a psychic field in which others can participate. Yet I1ve found that the story doesn1t even have to be told for its emotional field to have communicative power. Eleven years ago in this magazine (Sept/Oct, 1985), I described an exciting new dimension in dreamwork. It began at A.R.E. Camp when some youngsters told me dreams they had about other young campers who were sleeping in my 3dream tent2 incubating visionary dreams. These unexpected 3bystander2 dreams seemed to seek vicarious participation in the healing experiences of the incubating tent dreamers. It was serendipitous discovery, that one person could 3dream about2 someone else, and it led to the creation of the 3dream helper ceremony.2 In this procedure, a group of people 3donate2 their dreams to help a stranger in distress who is dealing with an unexpressed dilemma. What happens (perhaps your local study group has attempted this healing ritual) is that even though no one knows in advance the nature of the focus person1s problem, most everyone1s dreams proves to connect to it! That in itself is amazing. Yet even more, each person1s dream also relates to the dreamer1s own personal version of that problem. What1s going on here? By intuitively recognizing and uncovering the hidden emotional reality underlying the focus person1s problem, the dream 3helpers2 seem to be reminded of a related emotional reality in their own life. Each human story has universal elements. A psychic 3field2 is created by the focus person1s story and the community of helpers collaborate on tracking down a healing solution for a dilemma by reflecting upon their own lives. The dreams tamed the wilderness of the unknown and the stranger in distress became a part of a healing family. Bosnak calls this kind of communication we observe in the Dream Helper ceremony 3symbiotic communication.2 We come to understand the emotions of another person by participating in them. This intuitive link between people, evident in the empathic experience, is a key to dreamwork. Just as we better understand a person by empathy than by analysis, so we better understand a dream by empathy. A story naturally evokes empathy. If we can empathize with a person1s story without even hearing it, as in the 3Dream Helper Ceremony,2 it suggests that the realm of stories is beyond space-time, existing in a transpersonal, fourth dimensional realm. Dreams are stories our souls tell to elicit our empathy. Listen to them!