Dream work provides an opportunity to get to know the different aspects of yourself. As a complex system, the human psyche, is not only identified by one state, but consists of multiple states simultaneously with an underlying hidden order. According to Robert Bosnak, what we experience as ourselves is, ‘A brewing together of disparate ingredients’, with these multiple inner perspectives often holding opposing values. Bosnak refers to dreams as ecosystems in which we are deeply connected to the presences we encounter.
He suggests an active imagination activity with the people, elements or even the landscapes in your dreams. This involves you stepping into the dream, becoming the figure or whatever other element showed up, such as a bridge. Like an actor getting into character, become identified the character, copying their posture and mannerisms. Allow yourself to be taken over by dream figures, but keep connected to your own perspective in a kind of dual awareness or consciousness. What does it feel like to be a helpful or scary character? This practice of holding and feeling different states in yourself is similar to when you are watching a movie and identifying with one of the characters. Have you ever played around with this? Try and identified with several different characters in a movie, even those you wouldn’t usually associate with and may even repulse you. Feeling into different dream elements is a way of accessing different states within.
Dream presences have the potential to open our imagination in expansive ways. Stephen Aizenstadt sees the appearance of dream figures as a visitation and believes that we need to host these figures rather than interpret them. He approaches dreams with the question: “Who is visiting?”, rather than “What does it mean?”. His approach is to be curious, ask questions and listen to their stories. Aizenstadt sees these living images or imaginal presences as “soul companions”, embodied representations of Soul, which are indeed psychic entities of our own inner life and internal community. If we can form a relationship with these different parts of ourselves and get to know them, we can know and dialogue with our Soul.
Written for @jungsouthernafrica
Source: The Jung Platform Dream Summit January 2021 https://jungplatform.com/summit/dreams-and-your-personal-journey
Image credit: Rob Gonsalves
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