Dreams - A Dress Rehearsal For Parts Of Our Lives?

[Dan Goodwin]

I've had the belief for a long time that in the realm of our dreams we can test out choices, opportunities and situations to see how they feel, before we act on them in waking life.

For example, say you have to make a choice between two jobs you've been offered. You can then try to dream about each in turn to "try them out for size" and give yourself a better impression of how it would be and feel if you took each of these paths.

What are your thoughts about this?

Are there ways we can help ourselves dream more directly about situations like this to give us the added experience we need to make the big decisions?

[Tygur]

I've often had dreams of upcoming events in my life. This usually tells me how I feel about the event, am I excited, scared, or a combination of feelings.

I think that these type of dreams tell us what we are expecting. Maybe our conscious mind doesn't know, but, subconsciously, we are always expecting an event to be a certain way.

[Dan Goodwin]

Tygur, I think to expand on this idea, we do expect things to turn out a certain way and that can actually influence how it does turn out, whether for the better or for worse.

So if we can use our dreams to test out different possible outcomes, we can then tarin ourselves to "expect" the one that works best for us, rather than having already made an assumption on how the event will turn out.

For example, say you're working on a new project about Summer, and your most common creative medium is writing. Then you might assume for the Summer project you'll come up with a piece of writing. But if you dream about different possible projects - maybe a collage, or a painting, or a piece of music - then you may find that one of these media actually fits this particular project far better...

[Lin Neiswender]

Dan, I would try to immerse myself in material about one of the jobs right before bedtime, and also come up with a thee or four word catch-phrase about the job that I would write down and also repeat as I drop off to sleep. Record whatever was dreamt on awakening and examine it for any clues. Repeat the process if more clarification is needed. Once I had the dream, I'd then repeat for the other job.

Here is some good material about the process from http://www.creativethinkingwith.com/Dream-Incubation.html:

The process of dream incubation then is a simple one. First of all, you need to decide what it is you want to utilise the creative thinking abilities of your dreaming mind upon. This can be anything from a business problem or challenge, to the need for a resolution to some personal family crisis. You can use it help you understand yourself, your relationships and your level of success in the world. You can use dream incubation to come up with ideas for novels, screenplays, music, artwork or any other creative artistic endeavours. You can use dream incubation to help you with scientific explorations or engineering challenges or to invent some new gadget, machine or process. There really is no limit to what you can use dream incubation for.

Whatever you decide upon, I'll presume that you have already given it a good deal of conscious thought and study. The more information the mind has, the more threads it can draw upon to weave together the new idea(s). In many historical instances of creative breakthroughs made in dreams, the person had already exhausted him or herself exploring the challenge or problem from every angle. So, incubating your dreams will be easier if you have already given this subject much thought and attention -- for all the conscious level attention will have been noted by and aided by deep unconscious thought about it too.

Before you go to sleep, write in your journal or deam notebook a few lines that summon up your feelings about the challenge and summarise it accurately. Once you've done this, try and further summarise it into one statement or question that you can then repeat over and over as you are falling asleep. This dream trigger statement is one of the most fundamental keys to effective dream incubation.

To give you an example. Perhaps you have a small one person business and you want to find a unique way to drum up more business. You might have tried all the standard ways of marketing your business with limited success. You want a stand-out idea that will really get your little business rocking. You simplify this down to something like: How do I get more and better clients?

You write this down before turning out the light. And then you lie down, close your eyes and drift off to sleep while repeating to yourself over and over, "How do I get more and better clients? How do I get more and better clients?" If you find your mind wanders, just return it to your dream trigger phrase and keep repeating it until you fall asleep.

When you wake up in the morning, immediately grab your dream notebook and begin to write down everything you remember -- whatever you remember. It is essential that you DON'T JUDGE YOUR DREAMS at this point. This is coming out to you in the language of metaphors and you probably won't see how it relates straight away. Some times you do just wake up with the answer in your mind. The dreams just freed you to think with great creativity and its just handed to you upon waking. Sometimes you have to interpret your dream according to your own intuition, understanding and creativity. Sometimes the dream may point to something that is either the answer, the road to the answer of that which is blocking the answer.

Dream incubation though rests on the premise that you get those dreams captured in words, written down to examine at leisure. Now that you've done that you can get up, use the toilet, brush your teeth

[Lin Neiswender]

continued

get a coffee or whatever it is you normally do when you get up.

Perhaps then, over breakfast, you can read over the dreams and look for clues in them to your creative challenge. The metaphorical nature of dreams means that the things in your dream are often alluding to your problem. Your mind is saying such and such an aspect of your creative problem is LIKE this and it shows a particular thing in the dream as representing it. So your difficulty getting more clients for your small business, might be represented in your dream by a brick wall, thick mud, or a person who keeps getting in your way. It could be anything -- only you will know what the things and people in your dreams represent. It's different for everyone and it can change, so just let your intuition speak to you and trust it.

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Interesting. I have never tried directing or controlling my dreams. I do pay attention to the feelings and messages I get from the more vivid and memorable ones. I have had many dreams in the past in which I am unable to see or to act as I want to ... like I'm sleepwalking with my eyes closed, very frustrating, also inability to speak ... I think perhaps those dreams were a wake up call for me and it's been quite a while since I've had a dream like that, so I must be doing something right these days :)

[Lin Neiswender]

Barb, you seem to be moving ahead in many areas of your life now, so perhaps that is why you don't have those paralyzed dreams now, since you ARE able to take action. I used to have repeating dreams and once I finally heeded the message, they stopped.