The Dreamwork Handbook by Nicholas Heyneman

Author:Nicholas Heyneman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781848992597
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Exercise: How to co-dream with a friend

This exercise demonstrates how to use one person’s dream to inspire and clarify the symbols of their partner’s dream. It takes the form of sharing and interweaving both dreams.

Begin with each person choosing a dream they have had recently. Pick dreams that you feel have some overlap, either symbolically, emotionally or simply with an intuitive sense of coherence.

You describe your dream in detail as if you are sharing a story, paying particular attention to any symbols that provoked the strongest emotions. Tell your friend which images you chose as the dream’s primary and secondary symbols, and why.

While listening, your friend tries to absorb the details and nuances of your dream experience. During pauses, your friend may ask open-ended questions such as,“How did you feel …?” or “Who might the stranger have been?” Keep listening and asking questions until the two of you have built up a composite of the dream’s symbols and emotions.

Now repeat the same process but with roles reversed: your friend now presents their dream while you listen and question.

Now that you have an expanded knowledge of both dreams, look for overlaps or commonalities between them, recalling the reasons why the two of you chose these dreams in the first place. Include symbolic and emotional overlap, not just factual overlap. Notice if anything from one person’s dream complements the other’s or sheds new light on how to view its symbols. It is helpful to include a shared free association to common elements of the two dreams. For example, if both dreams feature sunflowers this may spark associations such as Van Gogh, art, canvas, cloth, paper, cutting and so on. See where this leads and if it generates any words that feel significant or that increase the overlap between your dreams.

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