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Chapter 1 The
storyline method The best way to learn the art of
dream interpretation is to work with your own dreams and follow the
step-by-step instructions given in each chapter of this book. If you have a
recurring dream you will gain most insight from working with this first. If you
don’t have a recurring dream, choose a dream that was very vivid, one that
really made an impression on you. This book is designed as a
step-by-step practical guide to dream interpretation, so resist the urge, if
you can, to read ahead! You will gain maximum benefit from going with the
process! Okay, let’s go! STEP
1 Choose a dream, ideally a
recurring one, and write it down. Dreams are often remembered as
stories, complete with a beginning, middle and end. As with the best of
stories, there’s a ‘once upon a time’ beginning to set the scene, then there’s
a lengthy middle part usually involving a conflict, question or task of some
kind, followed by an ending which is either a happy resolution or a sobering
conclusion. We don’t always remember the
whole storyline of a dream. Sometimes we just remember part of a dream and
think it is the whole dream. Have a look at the dream you’ve chosen. Does it
seem to have a beginning, middle and end? If not you will still find following this
method enlightening, but you may prefer to choose a more complete dream for
this method, and keep your first one for another chapter. STEP
2 If you wish to choose a second
(more complete) dream to work with, write it down now. STEP
3 Dreams, like stories, need
titles. Choose a ‘gut reaction’ title for
your dream and write it down. You will be working through your
dream, or dreams, in a step by step fashion, using Alex and Mary’s dreams and
workings as a guide. Alex and Mary are fictitious characters, whose dreams are
based on common dream themes collected from hundreds of people over the years. STEP
4 Read through Alex’s dream. Think
of it as a story rather than a dream. What you feel you know about Alex from
reading this dream story? Alex’s
recurring dream ‘The
extra room’ I am
living in a small cottage and I’m quite content, looking around the house,
admiring the way I’ve set out the old furniture in the rooms. I’m proud of the
way I have used the small space to advantage, selecting just the right pieces
of furniture so that we can feel comfortable. Then I discover a door I’ve never
seen before and I’m really surprised. I open it and walk into a huge room. It’s
unbelievable that this enormous room could exist in the middle of our small
cottage! It’s filled with light and space and looks arty. I think it’s strange
that there is so much space and so little furniture. It’s such a contrast to
our other little rooms all so carefully measured out and meticulously
furnished. I’m surprised how much I like the light and space in this room and
at how expansive and free the modern arty look feels. Suddenly my old rooms
seem cramped. I’m worried that if I leave this room I may not be able to find
the door again. I see a beautiful cat sitting on a window seat. I pick her up
and carry her into the old cottage with me knowing that if I can’t find the
door again by myself, the cat will certainly lead me to it. I look around the
old familiar cottage rooms and think it’s time to throw out some of the old
furniture and refurbish more in the style of the extra room. Alex’s dream has a fully recalled
storyline. For this method of dream interpretation the dream story needs to be
broken down into four parts. These are: Part 1: The situation (Once upon a time) Part
2: The problem or question (What needs to be solved) Part
3: Taking action (The attempt to solve the problem or question) Part
4: The resolution (How the story ends) STEP
5 Read through Alex’s dream again
and see if you can break it down into these four parts. Compare your results with mine. The
Extra room Identifying
the four parts The situation (Once
upon a time) I am living in a small cottage
and I’m quite content, looking around the house, admiring the way I’ve set out
the old furniture in the rooms. I’m proud of the way I have used the small
space to advantage, selecting just the right pieces of furniture so that we can
feel comfortable. The problem or question (What needs to be
solved) Then I discover a door I’ve never
seen before and I’m really surprised. I open it and walk into a huge room. It’s
unbelievable that this enormous room could exist in the middle of our small
cottage! It’s filled with light and space and looks arty. I think it’s strange
that there is so much space and so little furniture. It’s such a contrast to
our other little rooms all so carefully measured out and meticulously
furnished. I’m surprised how much I like the light and space in this room and
at how expansive and free the modern arty look feels. Suddenly my old rooms
seem cramped. I’m worried that if I leave this room I may not be able to find
the door again. Taking action (The attempt to
solve the problem or question) I see a beautiful cat sitting on
a window seat. I pick her up and carry her into the old cottage with me knowing
that if I can’t find the door again by myself, the cat will certainly lead me
to it. The resolution (How the story
ends) I look around the old familiar
cottage rooms and think it’s time to throw out some of the old furniture and
refurbish more in the style of the extra room. STEP
6 Now look at your chosen dream and
see if you can break it up into four parts in the same way. Don't worry if one
of the parts seems to be missing: just leave it out if that is the case. The
exercise will still work for you as you will discover. Stay with it!
STEP
7 Take time to summarise the parts
of your dream. The method works best if you write the summaries down. Use
Alex’s results here as a guide: The
extra room The
dream part summaries
The question is "How could this extra
room have been here all this time and why is it so different from the rest of
the house and how will I ever be able to find it
again?" The action is to take the cat from the extra
room into the old space because cats always know their way home. The resolution is that it’s time to throw out
some of the old, familiar stuff and bring in the free, expansive, arty feel of
the extra room. STEP
8 Now turn your four part summaries
into questions and answer them. This sounds confusing, doesn’t it? As soon as you look at Alex’s
example, it will make sense. The point of this step is to
discover how your dream relates to your life. The extra
room How
my dream relates to my life Alex’s situation Q: "In which waking life
situation have I made the most of restricted space, drawing a certain comfort
from the familiarity of this?" A: My financial situation is
restrictive and I’m proud of the way I have adapted to this restriction and
drawn on some of the old thrifty ways I learned from my parents when they went
through tough times. Alex’s problem or question Q: "What is the extra space
that I have discovered and why is it so different and how will I ever be able
to find it again?" A: I have been thinking of
starting a new business - a very creative, art-based enterprise - but I haven’t
told my wife about the idea yet. Looking at this dream has brought back
memories of my childhood when I was good at arty things, but I lost touch with
my dreams when my parents warned me that art would not pay a regular wage. Can
I really get back in touch with that feeling again: the feeling that I can make
money from my interest in art? The effect of Alex’s action Q. "The effect of taking the
cat from the extra room into the old space was to make me feel more confident
that I could find my way back into the extra room again because cats always
know their way home. What is it in my life that I can rely on to help me get
back in touch with the feeling that I have extra room in my life for art, and
that working with art may give me that extra financial breathing space (free,
expansive feeling)? A: Cats are independent creatures:
cats wouldn’t stop to listen to someone else’s account of what’s best for them.
Cats just know what’s good for them, just as they always know their way home.
There is a part of me that is like a cat, that knows what’s good for me, for
creating both extra personal space and extra financial space and it’s time for
me to link up with that inner feeling again (find the cat hiding deep inside in
the inner room?) so that I can get back in touch with my intuitive feelings
rather than follow other people’s recipes for success. Alex’s resolution: Q: "What old familiar stuff
can I throw out to bring in the feel of extra personal space and extra
financial space?" A: I can throw out the old
familiar conditioning from my parents that art and intuition do not pay the bills.
This will open up my extra potential (extra room) to increase our financial
wealth by working with art - perhaps taking the first steps with that business
idea. How did you go applying this same
step to your dream? Did you discover which life situation your dream relates
to? Did you arrive at any other insights
or conclusions? Tip Usually your dreams reflect what
has been going on for you, consciously and unconsciously, in the 24 - 48 hours
prior to the dream. This is really helpful to know if you want to understand a
recurring dream. If you keep a diary of your day to day thoughts, issues and
concerns, you will be able to spot a pattern between recurring dreams and the
recurring life situations which precede them. STEP
9 You may have found that some
parts were missing from your remembered dream storyline. You may also have
discovered that your dream ending was unresolved or messy. Many, many dreams have unresolved
endings because many, many of our life situations are unresolved. Our dreams
look for solutions and often find them, resulting in dreams with great
resolutions. Sometimes it takes a while for our dreams to find solutions, and
sometimes we don’t want to find solutions, strange though that may sound!
Sometimes we feel comfortable with our lives just the way they are because we
fear all the changes we’ll have to face if we find solutions to our problems
and questions. These, then, are some of the reasons why some of our dreams are
unresolved or have messy endings. Do you really want your waking
life problems to remain unresolved or your waking life situations to have messy
endings though? It’s important to find out WHY a particular life situation is
unresolved, and this dream interpretation method is perfect for this. As an example, Mary’s dream is
unresolved. Read through Mary’s dream and the
stages of her work, pausing to ‘have a go’ at her dream yourself before each
next step. This way you’ll learn most Mary’s
recurring dream Missing
the plane I’m going to the airport to go on
holiday, very excited now that I’m finally going overseas. I get to the airport
and queue for a ticket. I don’t have the right cash, so I go off to look for a
bank. I get the cash I need and return to the ticket counter, finding myself
now at the end of the queue again. I wonder if I am going to miss the plane. I
get the ticket but I’m anxiously watching the clock as I queue again to check
in my baggage. I hear the boarding call and I look for my gate, but I can’t
find it. My cabin bag gets very heavy and then I see that it is ripped and my
clothes start falling out, trailing behind me. One of my shoes feels
uncomfortable and now my name is being called over the speaker system. The gate
is now in sight and I can hear the plane engines starting up. To my horror I see
several staircases between me and the gate: lots of ups and downs to get
through before I can get to the gate and onto the plane. I start climbing but
the gate just gets further away. I always wake up before I get there. Missing
the plane Identifying
the four parts The situation I’m going to the airport to go on
holiday, very excited now that I’m finally going overseas. The problem or question I get to the airport and queue
for a ticket. I don’t have the right cash, so I go off to look for a bank. I
get the cash I need and return to the ticket counter, finding myself now at the
end of the queue again. I wonder if I am going to miss the plane. I get the
ticket but I’m anxiously watching the clock as I queue again to check in my
baggage. I hear the boarding call and I look for my gate, but I can’t find it.
My cabin bag gets very heavy and then I see that it is ripped and my clothes
start falling out, trailing behind me. One of my shoes feels uncomfortable and
now my name is being called over the speaker system. The gate is now in sight
and I can hear the plane engines starting up. To my horror I see several
staircases between me and the gate: lots of ups and downs to get through before
I can get to the gate and onto the plane. I start climbing but the gate just
gets further away. Taking action (This part is missing.) The resolution: (I always wake up before I get
there.) Missing
the plane The dream
part summaries The situation is that I’m ready for a
refreshing change. The problem or question is that I am constantly delayed. The action I take no action other than to go
with the flow - or go with the obstacles. The Resolution There is no resolution. The
problem remains unsolved. Missing
the plane How
my dream relates to my life Mary’s situation Q: "In which area of my
waking life am I ready for a refreshing change?" A: Daily routine. I need a change
from talking and playing with my children all day. Mary’s problem or question Q: "What constantly delays
me from getting a refreshing change from my daily routine?" A: I get delayed by the needs of
my children, by the ups and downs of daily routine and by feeling weighed down
with responsibilities. I get delayed because I always seem to be at the end of
the queue - putting myself last. The effect of Mary’s action Q. "Why don’t I take
action?" A: Although I need a refreshing
change, I’m frightened of changing my daily routine with the children. I know
it sounds silly, but I need to be a mother and I need them to need me. I’ve
lost my confidence in being in the world without my children and I’m
uncomfortable with my role in the world beyond motherhood. I realise that I
accept the daily routine because, even though I’m tired and I need a refreshing
break and some adult company, I’m not ready to work out how to ‘be’ in the
world again without having little children with me. Mary’s resolution: Q: "Why is my situation
unresolved?" A: My situation is unresolved
because I am putting obstacles in my way. I will continue to ‘miss out’ and not
get the refreshing change of company I really need until I am ready to face the
fear of lack of self confidence in the world beyond motherhood. STEP
10 You may now wish to go back and
work further on your chosen dream, especially if it seemed to have missing
parts or an unresolved ending, using Mary’s example above as a guide. STEP
11 To consolidate the insight you
have gained about yourself and your life from applying the Storyline Method to
your dream, think up a suitable sub-title for your dream. Keep the original title as it belongs
in the dream world, and add a sub-title which seems to belong more in your
waking world. Be guided by these examples: Alex:
The
extra room Follow
the cat and expand! Mary: Missing
the plane Time
to stop the delaying tactics! Your dream titles and sub-titles act
as powerful reminders of your dream work. Keep a summary of your dream titles
and sub-titles in the back of your dream journal or, if you have printed out
this workbook, add them to the back of your hard copy. By the time you have worked through
the exercises in this book you will be surprised at how much insight you gain
from reading over your summary of dream titles and sub-titles. They will read
as an overview of your life situations, insights and decisions. As for Alex and Mary, all that
remains is to put their sub-titles into action and then watch their dreams for
feedback. Choose suitable sub-titles for
your dreams (preferably active sub-titles, such as Alex’s and Mary’s). Write
them down and start an Index in the back of your Dream Journal or as part of
this workbook. STEP
12 What next step could you take to
put what you have learned about yourself through your dream into action? Write
it down. Consider doing it. If you’re not
sure, put the question of action to your dreams by concentrating on the
question as you fall asleep. Retrieve the dream in the morning and apply the storyline
method to discover more about your conscious and unconscious reactions to the
idea of taking action. Thank you for working through the
storyline method of dream interpretation. It is one of many approaches. No one
method is sufficient for all dreams and this particular one may be more
suitable for some of your dreams and less suitable for others. However, if
you’ve diligently worked through these steps and exercises you will have gained
some insight about yourself and you will have learned a valuable approach
towards practical dream interpretation for your future use. Chapter 2 provides you with a different dream interpretation tool - a
vitally important one – one that uncovers the meaning of OTHER PEOPLE in your
dreams. People you know well, people from your past, people you thought you’d
forgotten all about, and people you’ve never met, all make appearances in your
dreams. Who are they really, why are they there, and what can they tell you
about yourself and your life? STEP
13 In preparation for Chapter 2 make
a list of some of the people who frequent your dreams. © copyright Jane Anderson, www.dream.net.au , 1998, updated 2006
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