Gestalt Dream Therapy Process

[13 Twirling Triskeles]

Sometime during the early ’90’s, I became interested in doing dreamwork therapy. I borrowed 2 books from a friend — both by Ann Faraday. I believe it was “The Dream Game” that I liked best. Her other book, “Dream Power” focused more on the technical aspects of REM (Rapid Eye Movement).

From the book, “The Dream Game” I learned about using a process called Gestalt therapy.

Wow! Just now I looked at Wikipedia’s entry for Gestalt therapy. It is so confusing and convoluted, I would never have attempted to use this method if I’d read that definition first.

The actual process is so amazingly simple, I can hardly believe it’s been made out to be so complicated. It’s like reading a bunch of gobble-de-gook that makes my brain hurt just reading it.

Forget Wikipedia. I’m going to simplify it.

The Theory: The conscious, rational, linear, logical, analytical mind works with words and concepts -- and, I’m guessing here, probably mathematics. The literate mind.

The sub-conscious mind includes the dream mind - the imagination mind - the body mind (soma mind) - the literal mind. It seems to use pictures — images — rather than words to communicate. It’s more like a child’s mind before the child’s analytical, logical mind comes into use - usually around 7 years of age — approximately.

Listening to the logic of a 4 year old is an interesting experience. It makes a certain kind of sense. Not the same sort of sense an adult’s logic makes. But a definite type of sense that leaves adult logic sounding almost weird in comparison — and contrariwise.

The same child logic applies to dreams and how the body mind “thinks”.

And the odd thing about the dream-imagination-body mind is that “sounds” are senior to “words”. What I mean is that in English we have many words which “sound” the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Examples: whole and hole. Mail and male. Two, too, and to.

For instance, the dream mind may dream about going to the mail box. But the meaning may have more to do with a “male” than a letter arriving in the post.

I discovered this one day when I began using that phrase — “Oh, what a trip that is”. Or — “isn’t that a trip?” Well, I found myself physically stumbling/tripping on the sidewalk — and I don’t normally do that.

So, I realized what was happening, and I talked to my body-mind and said, “Oh, I see. You think I’m talking about physically tripping with my feet. No. I’m talking about a “mental” trip, ok?” Once I explained to “her” what I was referring to when I used the word “trip”, she understood and I didn’t trip or stumble over my feet in the street again.

But I digress. Back to Gestalt Theory — as I understand and practice it. The theory is that any people, animals, or objects (PAO’s) within a dream are considered “aspects” of one’s own Psyche. These PAO’s are symbolic representations — archetypes — which the sub-conscious mind can use to create various scenarios that demonstrate some dynamic interaction between or amongst all these little “i’s”.

It’s possible to find out what our sub-conscious/dream mind is telling us via the scripts, scenes, movies, and pictures that mind creates.

OK - so that’s all the “theory” part. Now for the practicing part.

Step One - Recording the Dream:

Upon waking from sleep, I immediately write down the details of the dream along with all the feelings and reactions and responses and thoughts I had — both during the dream — and after awakening from the dream.

Step Two - The Environmental Set-Up for the Conversation:

When I have the time and opportunity to do the process, there are a couple of methods I can use.

1. Place 2 chairs facing each other; or
2. Write the conversation in my Journal.

Either way works for me.

Step Three - The Conversation:

Conversation between me and one of the persons, animals, or objects in the Dream.

If I use the 2 chairs method, the point of having 2 chairs is this: I am going to be “me” while sitting in Chair A and I will imagine one of my dream characters sitting in Chair B - listening to “me” speaking.

When I have finished speaking as myself, I will get up from Chair A and sit down in Chair B — and pretend that I am now that dream character — speaking back to “me” sitting in Chair A.

Some people might wish to use a stuffed animal to sit in Chair B to represent the dream character — while using some other object to represent themselves sitting in Chair A when they switch chairs. It’s pretty open as to whatever suits your needs or makes it feel more “real” for you.


I begin by addressing the imaginary being, animal, or object. Referring to Laura’s Knowledge and Being Video methods of Spirit Release Therapy, it might be a good idea to first ask the imaginary being, animal, object its name. I didn’t know to do this at that time, so my first question was, “Who are you, and what is it you have to tell me?”

After you speak to whichever person, animal, or object you choose to address first — you are then supposed to get up out of the first chair and sit down on the second chair and imagine yourself as that dreamed person, animal, or object — speaking back to yourself — whom you now imagine occupying the first chair. As that person, animal, or object, you answer yourself - whom you imagine occupying the first chair.

It sounds more complicated in written words than it is actually doing the process.

The conversation may feel a bit silly, fake, or stilted at first until you become more comfortable — then the conversation simply flows.

At any rate, I have used this process to reveal what my dreams mean to me — sometimes with startling revelations.

It is also a technique I was taught in Hypnotherapy training several years later, and proved to be quite easy and helpful to use for many purposes — during a hypnotherapy session — for dream work therapy — helping a client to use his/her imagination in order to access various “i’s” of the psyche — in order to resolve conflicts between various inner “i’s” such as Top Dog vs. UnderDog.

I don’t always use this technique, but I do find it quite helpful when I do.

So far, the answers come so swiftly, I don’t even get the chance to get out of my chair to sit in the other chair.

This conversational technique has also proved useful while writing or journaling instead of conversing verbally.

Since this technique has worked so well for me, I thought I would put it out here for anyone in the Forum who wishes to experiment with it.

Also, it might help if I post a few dreams of my own where I’ve used this method of interpreting dreams — so you all can see an example of how this type of conversation can proceed.

 

[Archaea]

I had a go at trying to the two chair exercise about two days ago, but I couldn't get past the feeling that it was silly, fake or stilted like you mentioned. I think this comes down to my problems with communicating, in that I had the same problem "talking" to my subconscious that I do talking to other people.

It did make my feel that I have some deep seated emotional pain though. A while ago I occasionally had some dreams where I would feel like something horrible had happened, it felt intense, but when I woke up I'd feel fine, and I'd feel for the rest of the day. It hasn't happened in a while and I thought it had gone away or I had dealt with it, but doing this exercise made me feel like maybe it's still there.

Also, I don't record my dreams, is that important to the exercise? I've read around on the forum that recording dreams in a journal is a good idea, but to me it just seems like a disaster waiting to happen socially, when some inconsiderate person reads it and tells everybody else.

Thanks for posting. :)

 

[13 Twirling Triskeles]

I had a go at trying to the two chair exercise about two days ago, but I couldn't get past the feeling that it was silly, fake or stilted like you mentioned. I think this comes down to my problems with communicating, in that I had the same problem "talking" to my subconscious that I do talking to other people.

It did make my feel that I have some deep seated emotional pain though. A while ago I occasionally had some dreams where I would feel like something horrible had happened, it felt intense, but when I woke up I'd feel fine, and I'd feel for the rest of the day. It hasn't happened in a while and I thought it had gone away or I had dealt with it, but doing this exercise made me feel like maybe it's still there.

Also, I don't record my dreams, is that important to the exercise? I've read around on the forum that recording dreams in a journal is a good idea, but to me it just seems like a disaster waiting to happen socially, when some inconsiderate person reads it and tells everybody else.

Thanks for posting. :)

Hi Archaea

LOL - Yes. I think I understand your dilemma. It came up for me initially, and for others I’ve worked with as well.

I’m guessing here, but could these conversations with aspects of ourselves seem “silly, fake or stilted” because our conscious, rational, logical minds consider it so?

In a way this process is like “pretending” or “imagining”. Like we did when we were children and weren’t judging ourselves or worrying about others judging us. We knew we were just pretending and it was about having fun.

In order to pretend or imagine requires a certain level of “surrender” I’m thinking. And I suspect the rational mind resists and digs in its heels at the thought of surrendering, pretending, or imagining. It doesn’t want to lose control of any situation or look silly or fake or ridiculous.

Maybe these sort of processes work better if we don’t take them terribly “seriously”. My own attitude is that I’m just playing around and seeing what happens. I don’t have any pre-conceived ideas about the process or the result. For me, it’s all just a sort of game I’m playing with myself.

In a way it’s similar to how I create art or dress myself or decorate. I just play around until I achieve something I’m satisfied with. I may have a general idea of a goal or a look or a feeling I’m aiming for, but I don’t always know before hand how it will all come out. Some of my friends operate that way preparing food and creating interesting new tasty treats.

I just keep playing and trying different things and moving things around — adjusting and revising — and not worrying about whether something will work or not. I won’t know whether it will work until I try it out first. Lots of times what I thought would be just the perfect addition or revision turns out to be a definite “No”. Ok. No problem. Cool. That didn’t work like I imagined it would. So I try something else. I just continue playing until the final goal is reached. And I know when that happens because I feel a sense of total satisfaction.

Regarding your comment about having problems talking to both your subconscious mind and to other people. I would be very surprised if studies and statistics showed otherwise for the majority of the world’s population.

I, too, used to feel this way. However, what changed that for me was taking a communication course back in 1977. The end result was gaining the ability to communicate with anyone, about anything, at any time — which was a huge improvement for me.

It may be emotionally based, as you say. It could be as simple as gaining some communication skills in order to give you enough self-confidence in order for you to feel more at ease communicating.

I also suspect that age plays a role in feeling more at ease when communicating with others. It’s one of the greatest benefits of aging in my view. We simply don’t worry as much about what other people think of us. Not like we used to when we were in our teens, 20’s and 30’s. We get over ourselves and how we’re perceived by others. We don’t feel such a need to fit in with our peer groups or any other groups for that matter. We relax and have more fun and aren’t so concerned about making faux pas or mistakes or making idiots or fools of ourselves. We can laugh at ourselves.

I say “we” because all my older friends say they feel the same way — and that we are sooooo glad we are older now. None of us would want to be younger. We love being old. It’s actually a lot more fun than being a child. It’s something to look forward to. But I digress.

As for recording your dreams — yes, I think that part is important. Not only the dream scenes, but also your own feelings, sensations, emotions - both during the dream and upon awakening.

You can do the process or conversation part at any time. You may notice that in my Blond Violinist dream, I wrote down the dream and my feelings immediately after the dream - on February 28, 2013. But I didn’t do the process/conversation/journal writing until October 20, 2013 — nearly 8 months after recording the dream. And I learned even more about the meaning of that dream 5 months later - on March 6, 2014.

Why it’s important to record dreams immediately upon awakening is because one is more likely to recall more of the dream details while the dream experience is still fresh.

Keeping a notebook, pen, and soft light close at hand makes it much easier to record the dream. If you have to get up, search for a pen and paper, turn on a bright light, the dream details - and sometimes even the entire dream - can more easily disappear down the memory hole. And it’s just more effort to go through all that. If you make it as effortless as possible for yourself, you’re more likely to record your dreams, yes?

Quote - Archaea -- "I've read around on the forum that recording dreams in a journal is a good idea, but to me it just seems like a disaster waiting to happen socially, when some inconsiderate person reads it and tells everybody else." End Quote

I’m sorry Archaea - I had to laugh out loud at this. Mostly because I can so relate to that thought. I used to not want to write down my most private thoughts and feelings in case someone else might read them too.

I don’t know what changed for me, (see ** below) but I just don’t mind what others think about me like I used to when I was younger. Maybe I’ve made “peace” with my ugly, horrible, bratty, vain, self-important little i’s in that I don’t judge them or think I’m a bad or horrible person because of my programs or buffers or lapses. It could be that I feel less inclined to “hide” those i’s - from myself or others. I’m less afraid, embarrassed, or ashamed of these brat i’s so it’s more difficult for someone - or even myself - to attempt to make me feel guilty about their existence.

In the 80’s I was reading and working a lot with the inner-child. According to that “philosophy”, there’s toxic guilt and toxic shame and healthy guilt and healthy shame. Healthy guilt and shame arise from transgressing or violating our own internal sense of ethics of what is right or wrong. Toxic shame and guilt are imposed on us by our cultural standards. Sometimes cultural and personal standards match — sometimes not.

Yes, I think it’s important to discipline these bratty little i’s - like we would a child or a pet, but we don’t need to be so vain and self-important that we worry about other people finding out how vain and self-important we are. I think maybe we don’t want to suffer the pain of “humiliation” or being “laughed at” or have other people pointing their fingers at us.

**It just occurred to me as I am typing this that a major change occurred in my attitude because of a long-term relationship with a friend from 2000 to 2006.

Because of that experience, I decided to look-up “psychopath” online. The information I read put a name to her behavior and her impact on myself and our circle of friends.

What happened is that because I refused to “see” her behavior for what it really was — unethical, criminal, abusive, narcissistic, destructive — because I defended her against others’ accusations and observations, I ruined my own reputation within the community. Well, when your reputation is ruined, there’s not much further down you can go within a group or community.

However, it was also a weirdly liberating experience as well. It sounds bizarre but it freed me from worrying about what others thought of me because I realized I could have been a saint and still others could see me negatively.

That realization basically freed me from having to “defend” myself. When you don’t need to defend yourself, you can admit your failures and you don’t need to hide them from others — or feel that because you made an error that you ARE an error.

I hope my response has answered your questions or concerns and been of some help to you, Archaea. Please feel free to ask for clarification if my reply is more confusing than helpful.

Wishing you the best of luck in discovering what your sub-conscious mind is attempting to communicate to your conscious mind.

Cheers!

 

[Archaea]

Ahhh... I didn't think of my inability to communicate as an imposition of my self importance. This reminds me of something weird I noticed a little while ago, I'm not able to tell myself that I'm self-important in the mirror, it's a real struggle for some reason. I think this is true for a lot of other "negative" truths about myself as well, but I can lie to myself in the mirror all day long.

Do you think that the gestalt dream therapy technique and talking to yourself in the mirror could be related somehow? I've been thinking that before trying to talk to people, animals and objects from my dreams, I could try just talking about anything to myself, but without the filters. Or try just making random sounds without thinking about them and see if my sub-conscious has anything to say.

Do you think doing any of this would help with loosening up so that I could try talking to the POA from my dreams? Or am I over complicating things?

 

[obyvatel]

The Gestalt Dream Therapy process as described seems like the application of a general technique of communicating with the unconscious. Carl Jung used the term "active imagination" to describe the process in which one enters into a dialogue with various aspects of the unconscious by personifying them.

One of the chief difficulties of engaging meaningfully in this process is feeling silly - and this affected Jung, who studied and described - even pioneered such techniques as well. So Archaea, you are not alone in this. Jung recommended that

[quote author=Jung]
Critical attention must be eliminated. Visual types should concentrate on the expectation that an inner image will be produced. As a rule such a fantasy-picture will actually appear— perhaps hypnagogically— and should be carefully observed and noted down in writing. Audio-verbal types usually hear inner words, perhaps mere fragments of apparently meaningless sentences to begin with, which however should be carefully noted down too. Others at such times simply hear their “other” voice. There are, indeed, not a few people who are well aware that they possess a sort of inner critic or judge who immediately comments on everything they say or do.
[/quote]

The judge/inner critic can be distinguished and personified as a suitable figure. If this figure becomes a dominant factor, then a dialog can be set up with him instead of taking the judge/inner critic as the "self" or "I". Such a figure can even act as a guard keeping other unconscious contents repressed from reaching the consciousness.

Jung wrote that the unconscious contents that try to get the attention of the conscious mind through dreams or other ways are usually either weak in terms of energy content to cross over the threshold of consciousness or are repressed because they are by nature incompatible with the consciously held beliefs and attitudes. Thus the unconscious contents attempting to break through the repression are often unwelcome and unexpected - even irrational at first glance. It is painful and difficult for the mind to recognize such contents as part of one's own psyche.

On one hand one can have too strong a conscious ego which keeps unwanted unconscious content repressed out of sight thereby preventing integration and growth. On the other extreme, if the conscious ego is too weak, getting deep and serious about dialogues with the unconscious can result in unconscious contents overwhelming the conscious mind. It is for this latter reason Jung advised caution while using such methods like active imagination. Working with a qualified therapist makes the process safer. Otherwise, networking and feedback from others seems like a safer approach towards uncovering aspects of the unconscious.

My 2 cents

 

[Archaea]

The Gestalt Dream Therapy process as described seems like the application of a general technique of communicating with the unconscious. Carl Jung used the term "active imagination" to describe the process in which one enters into a dialogue with various aspects of the unconscious by personifying them.

I recently started reading books by a guy called T. Lobsang Rampa, which I found in a bookstore which is literally right next to where I work, but still managed to forget about. After running a search on the forum for any info about these books I found this snippet, from Session 5 January 1995:

Q: (L) What about the case of the individual known as Lobsang Rampa? Was Lobsang Rampa a walk-in?

A: No.

Q: (L) What was the source of the material Lobsang wrote about in his books?

A: An active imagination.

Q: (L) So, Lobsang's books were basically his imagination and were not channeled in any way?

A: Open.

Q: (L) Is there a possibility that he channeled some of that information?

A: Yes.

I thought that was interesting.

Another thing that I thought I'd mention was what I think the subconscious might be. A couple of nights ago I was getting ready to go to bed, but the dog decided he was going to start playing with my socks and biting my feet, and it hurts. As I was arranging my stuff the way I wanted it, I stepped back and stepped on his paw "accidently", and he yelped.

I think the reason I did this was because I was suppressing the anger into my subconscious and it decided it was going to get revenge before the intent could gain enough "force" to enter consciousness, because then I'd stop myself.

Afterwards when I was thinking about what happened and what was going on in my brain, I became convinced that it was my subconscious acting out and not an accident. This made me think that our consciousness is made up of lots of little sub-consciousnesses which all perceive at a faster rate than the normal consciousness, which has more energy, but perceives slower.

From this I think I can understand the idea of all these little i's and even the idea of shifts in the whole personality depending on a person's internal and external environments. Although this assumes that not all of the sub-conciousnesses are present in the normal conscious at any one time.

I just thought I'd add that here...

I think the idea of a judge which guards elements of our sub-conscious is interesting. Would this mean that a goal of the work would be to slowly and systematically eliminate this judge, in such a way to not mentally damage oneself, in order to become fully integrated?

Could this be considered as reaching the totality of oneself?

 

[obyvatel]

Another thing that I thought I'd mention was what I think the subconscious might be. A couple of nights ago I was getting ready to go to bed, but the dog decided he was going to start playing with my socks and biting my feet, and it hurts. As I was arranging my stuff the way I wanted it, I stepped back and stepped on his paw "accidently", and he yelped.

I think the reason I did this was because I was suppressing the anger into my subconscious and it decided it was going to get revenge before the intent could gain enough "force" to enter consciousness, because then I'd stop myself.

Afterwards when I was thinking about what happened and what was going on in my brain, I became convinced that it was my subconscious acting out and not an accident.

I think you are on the right track here with the observation and the analysis.

[quote author=Archaea]
This made me think that our consciousness is made up of lots of little sub-consciousnesses which all perceive at a faster rate than the normal consciousness, which has more energy, but perceives slower.
[/quote]

From what is known from psychology and cognitive science, the unconscious perceives and processes a lot of information. Only a small portion of that unconscious perception has enough energy or charge to rise to the level of our conscious awareness. Have a look at the Adaptive Unconscious thread.

[quote author=Archaea]
From this I think I can understand the idea of all these little i's and even the idea of shifts in the whole personality depending on a person's internal and external environments. Although this assumes that not all of the sub-conciousnesses are present in the normal conscious at any one time.
[/quote]

Carl Jung's model of the psyche described briefly here may be useful in this regard.

[quote author=Archaea]
I think the idea of a judge which guards elements of our sub-conscious is interesting. Would this mean that a goal of the work would be to slowly and systematically eliminate this judge, in such a way to not mentally damage oneself, in order to become fully integrated?

Could this be considered as reaching the totality of oneself?
[/quote]

Before considering elimination, it is important to understand what is being protected or judged. The unconscious has its own intelligence and its own reasoning. Have a look here regarding a possible role of the judge/protector and its relationship with others aspects of the psyche.

 

[Archaea]

Thanks for the links obyvatel, I'll give them a read. :)

 

[13 Twirling Triskeles]

Thank you obyvatel for your clarification.

I'm thinking this process may not be suited for everyone. It seemed to work for me and others I know - which is why I outlined the method in this thread for others to use if they feel so inclined.

Thank heavens there are a multitude of therapies to choose from so that when any specific form of therapy which works for one type of person, doesn’t work for other types, other types also have therapy models which do work for them.

I bolded the portions of your quote that stood out for me.

Thank you for your input and well-stated observations. Particularly with regard to strong and weak ego structures.

Cheers!

The Gestalt Dream Therapy process as described seems like the application of a general technique of communicating with the unconscious. Carl Jung used the term "active imagination" to describe the process in which one enters into a dialogue with various aspects of the unconscious by personifying them.

One of the chief difficulties of engaging meaningfully in this process is feeling silly - and this affected Jung, who studied and described - even pioneered such techniques as well. So Archaea, you are not alone in this. Jung recommended that

[quote author=Jung]
Critical attention must be eliminated. Visual types should concentrate on the expectation that an inner image will be produced. As a rule such a fantasy-picture will actually appear— perhaps hypnagogically— and should be carefully observed and noted down in writing. Audio-verbal types usually hear inner words, perhaps mere fragments of apparently meaningless sentences to begin with, which however should be carefully noted down too. Others at such times simply hear their “other” voice. There are, indeed, not a few people who are well aware that they possess a sort of inner critic or judge who immediately comments on everything they say or do.

The judge/inner critic can be distinguished and personified as a suitable figure. If this figure becomes a dominant factor, then a dialog can be set up with him instead of taking the judge/inner critic as the "self" or "I". Such a figure can even act as a guard keeping other unconscious contents repressed from reaching the consciousness.

Jung wrote that the unconscious contents that try to get the attention of the conscious mind through dreams or other ways are usually either weak in terms of energy content to cross over the threshold of consciousness or are repressed because they are by nature incompatible with the consciously held beliefs and attitudes. Thus the unconscious contents attempting to break through the repression are often unwelcome and unexpected - even irrational at first glance. It is painful and difficult for the mind to recognize such contents as part of one's own psyche.

On one hand one can have too strong a conscious ego which keeps unwanted unconscious content repressed out of sight thereby preventing integration and growth. On the other extreme, if the conscious ego is too weak, getting deep and serious about dialogues with the unconscious can result in unconscious contents overwhelming the conscious mind. It is for this latter reason Jung advised caution while using such methods like active imagination. Working with a qualified therapist makes the process safer. Otherwise, networking and feedback from others seems like a safer approach towards uncovering aspects of the unconscious.

My 2 cents
[/quote]

 

[Flow]

Hi, this is so interesting! Thank you 13 Twirling Triskeles for explanation. It seems to me like a great way for and experiencing myself better. I was wondering, since I rarely remember my dreams, are there maybe some ways or techniques in Gestalt therapy for remembering dreams? Like maybe something before we go to sleep or something? Because my experience is, very often when I wake up in the morning and lying in bed trying to see what's going on, I just don't remember anything. There is no images, parts of dreams, associations, nothing...

 

[lainey]

Hi, this is so interesting! Thank you 13 Twirling Triskeles for explanation. It seems to me like a great way for and experiencing myself better. I was wondering, since I rarely remember my dreams, are there maybe some ways or techniques in Gestalt therapy for remembering dreams? Like maybe something before we go to sleep or something? Because my experience is, very often when I wake up in the morning and lying in bed trying to see what's going on, I just don't remember anything. There is no images, parts of dreams, associations, nothing...

I find when I take melatonin to help me sleep I remember my dreams way more and they are much more vivid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

If you use the search function there are plenty of discussions about it on the forum for you to be able to make up your own mind. The way I understand it is we are stunted in our capacity to produce it naturally because of all the electromagnetic interference we are surrounded by. Here's a little of what the C's had to say:

I want to ask about this dream that our friend had under the influence of melatonin. There has been something of a controversy about it recently as one group claims that melatonin is stimulated in the brain by aliens in order to cause the paralysis that overcomes the victim and thereby enables them to go about their nefarious abducting activity. Is that, in fact, the case? Is melatonin part of the paralysis factor of alien abduction?

A: No.

Q: What chemicals are stimulated in the body to cause this paralysis?

A: That is not the method used.

Q: What IS the method used?

A: Electronic wave diversion.

Q: They are diverting the electronic waves of our brain or our physiology?

A: Closer.

Q: Okay, what about our friend's dream; was this a memory, a dream or an abduction?

A: Etheric body abduction.

Q: What was the purpose of abducting his etheric body?

A: Study.

Q: Who abducted his etheric body?

A: Orion STS. Melatonin only serves to make one more aware of processes in this context.

Q: So, lots of people are being abducted, physically, etherically, or in other ways, and simply are not aware of it at all?

A: More often etherically.

Q: Most abductions are etheric, but people are not aware. The melatonin is what enables them to be aware of what is happening by removing the blocks the aliens put in place?

A: Precisely.

Q: And, by becoming aware, do they have some chance of stopping the abduction process by their awareness?

A: Or more importantly, limiting the damage. Knowledge protects.

Sweet dreams! :)

 

[Flow]

Thank you, lainey. I will surely search more about that.

 

[13 Twirling Triskeles]

Hi, this is so interesting! Thank you 13 Twirling Triskeles for explanation. It seems to me like a great way for and experiencing myself better. I was wondering, since I rarely remember my dreams, are there maybe some ways or techniques in Gestalt therapy for remembering dreams? Like maybe something before we go to sleep or something? Because my experience is, very often when I wake up in the morning and lying in bed trying to see what's going on, I just don't remember anything. There is no images, parts of dreams, associations, nothing...

Hi Flow --

In the beginning, I, too, rarely remembered my dreams. So, I followed the advice given in the dream book I read -- which is based on the idea that our dream cycles are approximately 90 minutes long. Here's what I did.

Set an alarm clock for 90 minutes. Take a nap. Alarm goes off and I awaken. Nearly always, when the alarm woke me up, I was in the midst of a dream. And I was able to remember and recall the dream sequence. Then I wrote out the dream in a notebook -- as well as how I felt emotionally during the dream and upon awakening.

The most important factor is to immediately write the dream on paper. You can do the gestalt dream conversation work at any time -- even years later. The most important part is writing all you can recall of the dream immediately after awakening -- because dreams have a habit of wafting off into memory holes and are more difficult to reconstruct and recall the more time passes after awakening.

I did this several times on week-ends so that I could confirm for myself that I did indeed dream. Once I assured myself that I do dream, I then gave myself suggestions before falling asleep at night. I used the "past tense" for this In other words, I made my suggestions as if they had already occurred. For instance, I would suggest to my sub-conscious/dream mind that I had recalled & remembered any dreams I had during the night -- that I awakened at the end of any dreams I had -- and that I wrote them down immediately after waking.

What seemed to work best for me, however, was to ask myself the same question I ask myself when using the I-Ching or the Tarot -- "What do I most need to know now?" or "What do I most need to focus on now?" Now being the operative principle for that mind. It operates in "Now" -- not in future time, or past time. It's always "present" time to the dream mind/sub-conscious mind. At least, that is my current understanding of how that mind works. If other Forum Members know differently, I would appreciate being corrected. Thank you.

I don't know if this will work for others -- it's just a suggestion for you to try if it indicates or resonates for you, yes?

I wish you good luck with recalling and writing down your own dreams, Flow. Also hope that using the gestalt conversation method will be of some benefit for you in accessing and learning about your own inner psyche and the many little "i's" wanting your attention. They're sort of like little children who need to express what's up with them. Once they feel heard and acknowledged, they seem to feel relieved and don't feel "compelled" to try to take over and run roughshod over our waking lives in more covert ways.

There's also another dynamic which I neglected to mention and which can occur -- both in dreams and during hypnosis sessions. It's called, "Top Dog vs. Underdog". I can make a separate post about that because that phenomenon can sometimes get into a war-like stand-off with each side wanting to be the "winner".

What most amazed me was that so many "nightmare" type dreams turned into so many "Wow!" and "Aha!" moments -- actually making me laugh out loud at the creativeness of my sub-conscious mind. I consider her my very good friend and enjoy her communications to me -- albeit in symbolic language pictures rather than logical word language.

Cheers -- and Aloha Blessings.

 

[13 Twirling Triskeles]

Hi, this is so interesting! Thank you 13 Twirling Triskeles for explanation. It seems to me like a great way for and experiencing myself better. I was wondering, since I rarely remember my dreams, are there maybe some ways or techniques in Gestalt therapy for remembering dreams? Like maybe something before we go to sleep or something? Because my experience is, very often when I wake up in the morning and lying in bed trying to see what's going on, I just don't remember anything. There is no images, parts of dreams, associations, nothing...

This was supposed to be a "correction" to my previous post. And then I noticed that I'd reached the "magic" post number of 50 posts -- so I could modify/correct/edit that post myself. Glory Hallelujiah!

Many apologies for the confusion. It's almost 10:00 pm. Maybe I need to head off to dream land myself right about now since I seem to not be alert enough to know to whom I'm supposed to be responding.

Sayonara -- Zzzzzzzzzz

 

[Flow]

Hi Flow --

In the beginning, I, too, rarely remembered my dreams. So, I followed the advice given in the dream book I read -- which is based on the idea that our dream cycles are approximately 90 minutes long. Here's what I did.

Set an alarm clock for 90 minutes. Take a nap. Alarm goes off and I awaken. Nearly always, when the alarm woke me up, I was in the midst of a dream. And I was able to remember and recall the dream sequence. Then I wrote out the dream in a notebook -- as well as how I felt emotionally during the dream and upon awakening.

Thank you, I will definitely try to do it today.

The most important factor is to immediately write the dream on paper. You can do the gestalt dream conversation work at any time -- even years later. The most important part is writing all you can recall of the dream immediately after awakening -- because dreams have a habit of wafting off into memory holes and are more difficult to reconstruct and recall the more time passes after awakening.

I did this several times on week-ends so that I could confirm for myself that I did indeed dream. Once I assured myself that I do dream, I then gave myself suggestions before falling asleep at night. I used the "past tense" for this In other words, I made my suggestions as if they had already occurred. For instance, I would suggest to my sub-conscious/dream mind that I had recalled & remembered any dreams I had during the night -- that I awakened at the end of any dreams I had -- and that I wrote them down immediately after waking.

What seemed to work best for me, however, was to ask myself the same question I ask myself when using the I-Ching or the Tarot -- "What do I most need to know now?" or "What do I most need to focus on now?" Now being the operative principle for that mind. It operates in "Now" -- not in future time, or past time. It's always "present" time to the dream mind/sub-conscious mind. At least, that is my current understanding of how that mind works. If other Forum Members know differently, I would appreciate being corrected. Thank you.

I don't know if this will work for others -- it's just a suggestion for you to try if it indicates or resonates for you, yes?

It seems very interesting to me, really. And reminds me of something I also do, movement or dancing. What I try to do is, to move or dance with my sensations and emotions, and whatever emotion come, I just try to put it in motion, move it, and just experience it and see what's going on. It looks and feels sometimes very silly, but it gives me so much joy. I feel more connected to myself and started to have that inner feeling that everything is gonna be good. Also it gave me some inner "space" of support and nourishment for myself. It seems for me like kind of moving meditation or something.

Also I think it's just amazing how many different ways of Work and learning there are!

I wish you good luck with recalling and writing down your own dreams, Flow. Also hope that using the gestalt conversation method will be of some benefit for you in accessing and learning about your own inner psyche and the many little "i's" wanting your attention. They're sort of like little children who need to express what's up with them. Once they feel heard and acknowledged, they seem to feel relieved and don't feel "compelled" to try to take over and run roughshod over our waking lives in more covert ways.

There's also another dynamic which I neglected to mention and which can occur -- both in dreams and during hypnosis sessions. It's called, "Top Dog vs. Underdog". I can make a separate post about that because that phenomenon can sometimes get into a war-like stand-off with each side wanting to be the "winner".

Great, I would like to know more about that. Thank you. :)

What most amazed me was that so many "nightmare" type dreams turned into so many "Wow!" and "Aha!" moments -- actually making me laugh out loud at the creativeness of my sub-conscious mind. I consider her my very good friend and enjoy her communications to me -- albeit in symbolic language pictures rather than logical word language.



Cheers -- and Aloha Blessings.

Wow, amazing. I hope that I'll be there some day too. :D For now, I sometimes have that one sleep paralize where something pushes me and I can't breath. And the first reaction is to run away and wake up, but I can't do it. But there is that voice that says that I shouldn't do that, I should just be there, see what's going on and stup running away. Because it seems like I'm running for my fears, and I have that feeling that it's time to let them be and it's time for me to know them better.

Cheers, 13 Twirling Triskeles, and thank you so much!