Dreamwork: The 5 Important Lessons of Dreams & How to Learn Them
by SixWise.com

Part 6

In the first two parts of this article you learned the five important lessons our dreams can teach us and the three key questions to ask about the dreams you remember, and you learned the importance of numbers and of colors in your dreams. But ...

Are your dreams really that important?

The ability to dream is an inborn apparatus, just like respiration, digestion, and illumination. Since every inborn function has proven to be essential to our very survival, it is only logical to conclude that dreaming also has its purpose for our survival as a species.

While the inborn physiological functions assure our physical survival, the inborn mental functions such as will, imagination, and dreaming help us to survive emotionally and socially.

Kilton Stewart characterizes the Sinoi People of Malaysia, who view dreams as guidance from the inner realm to the waking life, as a society with "absence of violent crime, armed conflict, and mental and physical disease."

For Sinoi the characters and forces in a dream are real. First and foremost they are reflective of different qualities of one's own Self. When the images in the dream are threatening, the dreamer must fight with them. If the dreamer succeeds in winning the dream battle, the spirit of the adversary becomes a servant or an ally.

In Talmudic literature people are also advised, "If one had a dream that caused him anguish, one must go back, and turn it to good." Similar understanding of dreams can be found in virtually every culture, though not all have kept up with the tradition of "attending" the dream.

Repetitive Dreams

Sometimes the issue or issues in our inner life are so important that our unconscious sends messages over and over again. This is when we have repetitive dreams. The messages are often an invitation to deal with an issue.

For example, if you find yourself getting lost in many dreams, you may be consciously unaware of the need to make a decision or "to find your way." If you dream of doing something tedious, you may like wise be unaware that it's time to move on. If you dream that you speak on the phone but can not hear the person with whom you speak, the message may be that you are not listening or can not hear what the world is telling you. And yet, it also may be a message that you are developing a problem with your hearing. When the dream involves any problems with bodily functions simply notice how you feel. Trust your intuition. Remember that a repetitive dream is only a call for attention.

Nightmares

A nightmare is another call for attention, but with greater urgency. Something frightening is happening in your inner life whether or not you are consciously aware of it. There is a conflict that must be addressed. The questions to ask upon awakening are:

• "What qualities of myself do I see?"

• "How do they relate with each other?"

• "If this dream was a story, what title would I give it?"

If you can answer these questions you may get insight into the issues you are facing in your inner life at the time of the dream. But even if you do not understand the full meaning of the dream it is still beneficial to make a "correction" of a disturbing dream.

Remember, a night dream is not only a reflection of what has been happening in your life till the moment of dreaming, but also a blueprint of what is to unfold in your life in the days to come. Do you like what you see? If you do not, make a correction! You have an opportunity to chart your life from within your inner world. Understanding of a dream is only half of work. The other half is making a correction if needed.

Making a "Correction" from Dreams

To make a correction, sit quietly in an upright position, close your eyes, and mentally state your intention for the exercise. For example, if in the dream you were lost in a dark tunnel, you state: "I am doing this exercise with the intention to find the way the light."

Then, see numbers 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, see 0 elongating and becoming a tall mirror. Step into the mirror and into the dream at the moment of greatest distress and use your will to make a resolution to your liking.

After completion of the correction, go out of the mirror, look back and see in the mirror the last scene of your triumph, and open your eyes. In the example above of being lost in a dark tunnel you can make a torch, break the walls of the tunnel, or bring a helper -- someone you trust -- to guide out of the maze.

Never preplan how you will act before the beginning of the exercise. Do what feels right in the moment. Remember, in the world of imagination everything is possible. By finding a solution to a conflict in your dream you chart the course to problem solving in your waking life.

Part 7

The Particular and Fascinating World of Children's Dreams

Researchers find that children begin to dream as early as at the age of three. These dreams are generally very short, and other characters carry out most of the dream activity while the dreamer remains a passive observer.

There is an opinion that before the age of six a child's inner world is intricately connected with the emotional world of his/her mother. The child's often interrupted sleep and frightening dreams may be reflective of mother's emotional distress.

At the age of five and six, dreams double in length and there is an increase in physical and interpersonal activities within the dreams, though the dreamer most of the time remains passive. Around this age children begin to report dreams with animals, monsters, and frightening figures which threaten their life and or lives of their relatives.

Just like adults, children's dreams are "mirrors of the soul" that reflect child's emotional development. They are also a stage upon which different qualities of the dreamer are displayed. And finally, they are an opportunity for parents to look into the drama of their child's inner development and to be a gentle teachers and guides.

We are born with some character qualities and some we develop through our interaction with our environment. Regardless of whether one believes in genetic predisposition or experience that comes with us from our past lives, the fact remains that children are different from the very first days of their lives. All these qualities, impulses, and beliefs unfold in the child's inner life: night dreams.

A "Place" to Observe Our Potential

Contrary to the common perception of dreams as always being reflective of one's waking life, the waking life, in truth, is often a reflection of inner life of which night dreams are a part. That is, first we may have an opportunity to observe our potentials in a night dream, and then they are "lived out" in our waking life.

So, when children encounter a monster in a dream, it is their own fears or impulses they are facing. If a disturbing dream wakes them up parents should not dismiss the experience as "Oh, it's not real, it's only a dream."

The best way to transform the frightening images and fears of the dream into life enhancing forces is to teach a child how to make corrections within the disturbing dream. By utilizing will within imaginary exercise children are practicing the "muscle" of will and imagination for addressing issues in their waking life.

Alex, a six-year-old son of an eight-months-pregnant woman, reported a reoccurring nightmare in the last three months. Since the nightmares started Alex began wetting his bed and acting out in school. In the dream, Alex and his mother were attacked by a monster who was trying to open his mother's belly and to take away the baby. Alex's favorite cartoon character happened to be Spider Man. I told Alex that in the world of images anything was possible. He practiced first by imagining that he was ten feet tall and that by becoming Spider Man he could make his way to another building without an elevator. Then, I asked Alex to close his eyes, become Spider Man, and go back into the dream with an intention to protect his mother. Alex defeated the monster, put him in a cage, and sent the cage by UPS to prison. The nightmares never came back.

Who was the monster in the dream? Was it Alex's own fear of loosing his mother to the new baby, was it his unconscious desire to destroy the newcomer, was he sensing his mother's vulnerability and did not know how to protect her? Was it none or all of the above? We do not know. We do know that as he defeated the monster and sent him to prison the quality of his waking life changed drastically. Alex's behavior in school improved and he stopped wetting his bed.

See Installment 1 of Dr. Reznik's Dreamwork Article Now: The 5 Important Lessons of Dreams & How to Learn Them

Read Installment 2 of Dr. Reznik's Dreamwork Article Now: The Importance of Numbers and of Colors in Your Dreams

Dr. Peter Reznik Biography

Dr. Peter Reznik is a new SixWise.com contributing editor whose insightful articles, like the one below, will appear routinely in the free SixWise.com e-newsletter. Dr. Reznik is a staff member of the Schachter Center for Complementary Medicine, and a faculty member of the American Institute of Mental Imagery. A former director of the Petrie Institute of Hypnosis, and consultant to the American Health Foundation, he has practiced psychotherapy and conducted wellness seminars for twenty-five years in the former USSR, Israel, France and the United States.

Dr. Reznik is a recognized specialist in the fields of mind/body integrative therapy, behavior modification, mental imagery, dream work, clinical hypnosis, and holistic counseling.

He holds Master degrees in linguistics and social work and a
Doctorate in health and human services. He received his post-graduate training at the American Institute of Mental Imagery.

Dr. Reznik has conducted wellness programs for such corporations as Conde Nast Publications, Lilco, Smith Barney, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Con Edison, Gray Advertising, and Estee Lauder. He has been interviewed by such popular magazines as "New York", "El", "Mirabella", "Sassy", "B.E.", "Style", "Detail", "Organic Style", and "Harper's Bazaar". Most recently, he appeared as a guest on National Public Radio, on Fox Five News and BBC, and on WBAI's "Natural Living with Gary Null."