Introduction

Throughout history and across cultures one point has always been agreed on by all mystical schools, all the legendary metaphysicians and by all religions that sought to bring the neophyte closer to his or her God, that is simply: the way to truth lies inside and it is this journey that needs to be undertaken if you want to know the truth.

Trust me when I tell you that no one else other then you posses the truth. For I speak with the authority of a thousand wise men who have delivered this central message.

The best expression of this comes from Jesus Christ,

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

This is the great secret. You are the truth and the way; find this truth and the kingdom of heaven is yours. The journey to this inner light takes different forms in the different traditions, meditation (Eastern tradition) and prayer (Western tradition) being amongst the most common, but by no means exclusively, the ways are as varied as the schools who teach them.

The greatest contemporary exponent of the inner journey to wholeness is the founder of analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung. Jung taught different ways of undertaking the journey including play, active imagination, enacted imagination, dance, art and the analytical relationship between analyst and analysand. Central to these and perhaps the crown jewel is dream work.

A Very Brief History

The father of modern depth psychology and for a time Jung’s mentor, Sigmund Freud was the first to identify dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious.” His ground breaking book The Interpretation of Dreams being published in 1900, was what first brought him to Jung’s attention and led to their collaborative work together.

Ultimately Jung and Freud parted ways in that they chose to interpret the contents of the unconscious differently. The nature of this difference is not something I will enter into here, except to say that it can be understood very simply as a analytic-causal approach designed to identify and resolve unconscious trauma (Freudian) and synthetic-teleological approach designed to understand where the unconscious content is going, what expression it seeks.

Today’s analysts whether they be Freudian or Jungian although still expressing a classical bias to the respective founders are more eclectic borrowing from both methods.

My principal method of dream analysis is Jungian which aims at the realisation of meaning rather than pure functional adaptation, although I too borrow heavily, and am influenced, by Freud.

 

Advantages of Dream Work

•  They have an objectivity to them which is difficult to find in other contemplative methods. The question that plagues every sincere neophyte on the journey is: is this real or am I making it up?  Whatever ideas, thoughts, inspirations and visions appear the subject always wonders as to the objectivity or reality of these. This is normal and is only transcended by a very experienced practitioner, a master of the art.Dreams have this quite unique advantage; no one doubts the content of his or her dreams. Whilst there meaning may frequently be hidden, the content itself has a wonderful objectivity. Rarely do people say well I think I dreamt this, I’m not sure…, and usually people are quite confident of the content of their dreams.

• Dreams are spontaneous; you don’t need to go hunting for them. You sleep every night, and from time to time during that period of sleep you will dream. The frequency and intensity of the dreams will vary from person to person and are also influenced by the circumstances you find yourself in at any particular time. But almost everyone does dream and as such these dreams are available to us as the voice of the unconscious, the inner friend or God depending on your philosophical orientation.

• They are a direct communication from the unconscious, unmediated by consciousness in their production. Consciousness only comes into the picture when you record and interpret, but the dream itself is a pure product of the unconscious.

• They are honest, sometimes to the point of being cruel, but honest nonetheless.

• They point out what consciousness is unaware of, the conscious blind-spot, so to speak.

•  They come when they are needed. Dreams are a form of psychic homeostasis, they regulate the psyche. Dreams are visited upon us for a reason; it is at this time that we need to become aware of something. This could be a variety of different reasons but dreams are always meaningful they serve a purpose, like everything else in your body and in nature, they are functional and intentional. The reasons could vary from pointing out something critical you are missing in a situation you are currently engaged in, a warning or the suggestion of an auspicious outcome, unconscious contents which need to become conscious which are exerting pressure amongst the psyche and many other reasons.

 

Challenges of Dream work

•  It takes time. In a world where time and attention have become our most valuable commodities this can be quite challenging.

• Our attention is usually turned outwards, the world and everything in it is designed to draw us out of ourselves and into extroverted engagement with it. Paying attention to our dreams means diverting a portion of that attention inwards towards our centre, not always an easy thing to do.

•  Can be quite a difficult enterprise to undertake on your own, or outside an analytical relationship. A trusted friend or dream partner is invaluable in the process. Dreams point out blind spots, blind spots are so called because naturally they avoid conscious detection by us, however infuriatingly J, and often our friends have got them in full view!

•  The biggest challenge of all is the active creation of meaning from the dreams. Understanding, amplifying and coming to terms with the dream material. I am not going to kid you and say that this is easy, it frequently isn’t, however it is a task where the reward far exceeds the effort. Still this is a challenge and it requires a few critical components, without which it can rarely be achieved: desire (remember all of this is driven by your desire if that is absent then the project is over before it starts), time, a degree of patience and discipline and perhaps most significantly a theory. Ultimately whatever it is you need to settle on a way of understanding the dreams, the way is not as important as a way.

• Usually the unconscious will work with the medium (i.e. the interpretive medium) you provide. This is a little like the I Ching, the unconscious will use and work intelligently with the medium provided.

Naturally some mediums are richer than others and some will suit you better than others. I will provide you with one which I have found to be very effective but it is by no means the only one.

 

The Rewards

Honestly and without seeking to sensationalise it the rewards of dream work are immense. They need to be experienced to be truly appreciated, when the truth becomes your truth then something quite magical takes place.

I will list only a few of the rewards that dream work has given me and a few of the people I have worked with, but by no means intend this as a complete description of the benefits.

• Greater self knowledge and understanding.
• Greater self empathy.
• A connection with an aspect of yourself/God/ the cosmos which is bigger than your ego and this connection is the source of great comfort especially in times of distress.
• Dreams frequently warn against impeding events. Dreams coming as they do from the unconscious are not governed and limited by conscious space-time, hence the famously prophetic dreams of the past. Dreams give an insight into a possible future.
• Opportunities, dreams will show you possibilities where previously you saw none.
• Humility, dreams tend to oppose any one sided condition be it personal inflation or a lack of self belief. Once you take them seriously dreams will always show you the opposite of your conscious one sidedness.
• Meaning, for me the most significant benefit, dreams are a route to accessing greater meaning in your life.
• Psychic hygiene, the great lesson from depth psychology is what we don’t like about ourselves doesn’t disappear into the void, rather it is alive and well in our unconscious. Being unconscious it exerts an influence, often very negative, in our lives. Dreams allow us to retrieve much of this content, bringing it into consciousness which is the only place it can be transformed.
• This brings me to my last point, transformation. Dreams in the final analysis are about transformation. The dream journey is much like the work of the old alchemists it is about finding the ever elusive philosopher’s stone, the stone which when found brings untold treasures to its bearer, dreams are a journey to this goal, the goal of self transformation.

How to go about the Dream Work

There has been quite a bit of literature written on dream work which is available for purchase. Although there is a lot of contemporary writing, personally I would still read the great masters first. Specifically two books I can recommend are: The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud and Jung on Dreams, by C. G. Jung.

To be clear though please understand these are not books which you are going to read and make sense of in a single sitting, they require some study. Still they are very rich and reading them will put the very little I have said into a much much broader and richer perspective.

However to help you to make a start on this invaluable process without setting such a significant barrier to entry as the study of the original texts I have prepared a very simple, easy to follow Users Guide. This is completely free and downloadable from the site, if you would like to have this guide simply enter your name and email address at the bottom of this page.

Lastly a little about my own Dream Journey

Like everyone naturally my journey began as a child and I had a number of vivid dreams which I can recall to this day. However three significant events occurred which took me deeper into the dream space.

The first one was meeting my wife and soul mate Anja, who was in the habit of recording her dreams and occasionally she would discuss them with me. This had the effect of raising my awareness of my own dreams and the attention I paid to them. Mythological speaking which is the language of the dream world, Anja was in the role of the muse or anima, the spirit woman who visits a man in the mythology to make him aware of something he previously didn’t know, to bring him a message from the other side

The second event happened in the year 2 000 when I was introduced to Jungian psychology for the first time. This happened through meeting a most remarkable man by the name of Chatillon Coque. A French aristocrat and Jungian scholar I spent ten years studying Jung with him. He had over a quarter of a century developed   a unique method of dream work which he taught to the “chosen few”.  Mythological this was the encounter with the wise old man both in terms of Jung himself of course being the legendary sage, but also in my case the encounter with Jung through the mentorship of Chatillon Coque.

The third event was a dream I had on the 9 august 2003. This was what we refer to as a Big Dream, meaning it has elements transcending the purely personal realm. This dream had a very significant impact on my psyche and consequently in my life, and I can chart the next seven years of my life as a journey first mapped out by that dream, including the birth of my two sons a number of years later. In mythological language we could describe this as an encounter with the inner guide or guru.

Ah to sleep per chance to dream

With that I leave you, hopeful that this has been of some value to you if you are already actively pursuing dream work or if not that it inspires you to consider this journey. It is one that has proved incredibly rewarding for those who have embarked on it.

Best regards

Stephen Farah

 

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