The Dream Extraction Process

Dreams saturate our brains nightly with fairy-tale contrivances: tilted worlds, odd characters, magnified emotions, and rude taboo. Upon waking, a dream might burn with some hazy meaning, but, unless 'caught' on a page, fades with the light of the day. With dream interpretation we are creating a bridge to the unconscious, but the "unconscious" doesn't exist as a tangible, unified 'thing.' Rollo May's definition of the unconscious as "the potentialities for awareness and action," is perhaps more fitting. It's these potentials that we're attempting to tap. 

For some background on the science of dreams, and their connection to ancient prophecy, the unconscious, and how we can use them to access our personal myth, go here.

When you begin to work with your dreams, they become more vivid and numerous. You will gain fluency in their meaning and symbolic language. Keep in mind that some dreams are about the places where your identity or persona chafe against cultural norms and family systems. Others are complex, and involve bigger, more mythic themes that transcend your personal history. 

The most potent form of dream interpretation comes from within, and happens when you rely on - and trust - your own associations and understanding. From these you will be able to engage with your dreams effectively and extract their meaning and wisdom. The magic of this process comes from free-association and allowing things to bubble up from the unconscious.

The caveat for this process is repetitive dreams about a traumatic event. One of the markers of PTSD is chronic, persistent nightmares about the trauma, or dreams that carry a similar theme and activate the same emotions. If this is your experience, there is really nothing to be distilled from the dream. Better to seek help from a therapist than try to mine the dream for some special meaning. A frequent nightmare about a shocking/painful/distressing event is evidence of a traumatised psyche stuck in a loop; for this you need love, helpful counsel, therapeutic techniques and empathy - not your analytic powers. 

I've included both a short and long version of the dream extraction process, depending on how much time you have. Try to give it 15 minutes. The more often you do this, the more quickly you will move through the process. The long version will feel a bit unwieldy at first, but becomes more streamlined with each entry. 

To prepare:

a. The night before, put paper and pen by your bed. It's preferable to take analog notes, but if you just can't, make sure voice notes on your phone is easily accessible. 

b. Before going to sleep, tell your subconscious that you will remember your dreams in the morning. This just means that as you are drifting off to the land of nod, simply say (inwardly) "Tomorrow morning I will remember my dreams." 

c. The next morning, when you wake or soon after, quickly record everything you remember from the dream, even if you have only a flash of an image, a snatch of dialogue, a character, a landscape, a room. Resist the urge to describe your dream to someone else before you've processed it. Record whatever you can. Then, when you can give it your full focus (better sooner than later), try the following:

Long-form:

1. Write out the raw content of the dream: what happened and who was there. This is not the time for analysis. Your mind will immediately try to 'make sense' and contain the dream in some logical flow of both event and feeling. That's not useful; it will simply keep you in the uppermost layer of your conscious mind. We want to enter the dream on its own terms. Narrate the dream like you would a movie, in an impartial way. Be sure to write down any objects, colours or shapes that seem especially salient, even if you wouldn't be attracted to them in your waking life. Stay sensitive to perspective; at times you will be 'yourself' and in your own body and/or watching yourself  perform in the dream. Or you could be in another body, or playing a different character. Record, if you can, how you perceived yourself in the dream. 

2. Pay particular attention to your emotions, the emotions of other characters, and the general feeling/atmosphere of the dream. Emotions are often incongruous or different from what you would feel in a similar situation in your waking life. You could be nonchalant in a hair-raising situation, have a sexual attraction to someone you usually find repulsive. Try to enter and honour the dream emotion instead of what you think you should have been feeling. 

3. Now re-read what you've written and underline phrases, words and details that feel most compelling to you. (I like to use a red pen for this part) Try to keep your analytical mind at bay, and respond instinctively to what's on the page. Underline the stuff that feels charged, moves you or otherwise 'grabs you by the collar.' Be totally honest with this. No matter how silly or mundane or inexplicable, if (and only if) it holds a charge, then underline it.

4. Make a list of  5-6 (more if you have time) of the most compelling phrases or words you've underlined. Try to do this quickly and instinctively. With some experience, you may find that some of these charged elements are repetitive or similar, an echo of each other. To save time, you can choose the most significant one and use it as a composite. 

5. Write out the dominant emotion of the dream. Keep this simple; let it come from your gut. This will refresh the visceral/sensory/affect-laden part of your memory so you don't get too heady and conceptual.

6. Now go back to your list of underlined phrases, and the emotion of the dream and free-associate on each word or phrase. What does it remind you of, bring you back to? What resonance does it hold? Do any images arise, any memories? Do any characters from your past come in to focus? You don't have to write a paragraph, just a few, brief associations that the words hold for you. Be as open and allowing as possible, even if what comes doesn't entirely make sense to you. Draw pictures if this deepens your experience. 

This is the most important step, because you are creating a bridge between the raw unconscious material and your conscious mind. It will activate the hyper-associative and creative parts of the brain. The magic is in the free-association.  As Rollo May said, "The unconscious seems to delight in breaking through  - and breaking up - exactly what we cling to most rigidly in our conscious thinking. A dynamic struggle goes on within a person between what he or she consciously thinks  and the insight or perspective struggling to be born." 

With free association, you can engage your conscious mind, but also say 'yes' to and flow with what the unconscious is giving you. You won't be resisting or attempting to make it 'fit' within the bounds of your waking mind.

7. Read your free-associative writing. Bring the memory of the feeling into what you've written in your free-association. Now ask yourself:

If I were to trust that the dream is here to help me heal and grow, then what is it  really about? What does it seem to be communicating?

Take a moment to write a 1-3 sentence summary of your understanding. There is no right or wrong here, no good or bad. This is about you trusting your own logic and intuition. You'll know you're on the right track when the "message" feels like truth: clear, grounded and supportive. Never judgmental or punitive.

This is the 'extraction,' the meaning you've mined from the dream that you can take in to your waking life.

The distillation requires the most discernment and creativity on your part. However, you may find that the meaning naturally arises from the free association. Things will click into place and you'll have an 'a-ha!' moment. 

8. If you felt like the dream was especially negative, charged or left you disoriented or bewildered in some way, then look at what you've written and ask yourself: What belief animates this dream story, and its set of ideas and feelings? What would I have to believe for this scenario to be true?

Write this down, then ask: What is the opposite or healing belief? or: What would I have to believe to change the story? 

Write this as an affirmation, a supportive thought or intention. Make it a strong, declarative sentence - and take it with you into the day. 

Long-form Summary:

1. Write out the events and details in an impartial way.

2. Note the emotions or dominant emotion.

3. Underline the most compelling content/language/phrases.

4. List them and briefly free-associate on each.

5.  Read your free-associations.

7. Distill and summarise. 

8. What would I need to believe to change this story?  

The 'short-form' of the process skips the full telling of the dream and simply lists out the most memorable, compelling images or events. You then jump into the free-association process, and from there, distill. When you're short on time, this will at least allow you to connect with the dream in a substantive way. 

Short-form Summary:

1. Quickly jot down a few salient or compelling images or moments from the dream. 

2. Free-associate on each.

2. Read back and distill. 

An example from my own dream journal:

I had a dream that I accidentally took two wallets one big, one little, from a folding table, and as I carried them away, felt an enervating fatigue. 

The background of the dream was a kind of apocalyptic city-scape. I was wearing a short, almost transparent skirt that I had to tug down to properly cover my hips. I had no defined shelter. The dominant feeling of the dream was of poverty, lovelessness and shame, of resignedly taking what I deserved. My 'husband' was there, but expressed no warmth or tenderness toward me. He was eager to leave me and move on. There was, in fact, a total lack of empathy and care from the male figures in the dream, a profound coldness and detachment. I made myself return to the table and give back the wallets to a female figure while a male figure looked on disapprovingly. But as I walked away from the table and faced the broken city, I had a new thought: I didn't have to accept all this needless suffering. I could have and choose something better.    

In the free association I discovered that the two figures at the table, and the two wallets (one big, one little) reminded me of my mother and brother, and the environment recalled a strong sense I had as an adolescent of the lack and rootlessness of our material reality, and the shame it engendered. Though it wasn't 'mine,' one of the wallets held my old I.D. card, in which I was almost unrecognisable; I looked like a faint and far-removed version of myself. Younger, but vacant. A contrived smile. The skimpy dress also brought back a feeling of vulnerability, and an absence of appropriate 'cover,' of not having protection, as did my 'husband's' rejection, something I've never felt from him in my waking life.

When I reviewed what had been revealed in the free-association, and layered in the dominant feelings of the dream, something became clear: the resources (wallets) and 'identity' (outdated ID) I'd been given by my family of origin (mother and brother) were no longer relevant or useful and wouldn't serve me as I moved forward. I would, in fact, experience them as a burden. I would need to find other currency, different resources. I also couldn't fall back on the love of my 'husband,' but would have to generate nurturing love and compassion for myself. I couldn't carry this attachment to an old identity or my family's 'values' (valuables) with me. Walking away imbued me with a sense of choice, of 'lightness' and integrity and freedom.

Remember that the meaning of your dream will be particular to you, your past and emotional memory. There is no formula here, only what emerges from a creative and open engagement with the dream.  

So in this process, we are taking time to riff on the symbols, and unravel them a bit. Even in personal, psychological dreams some images will be so potent that they're branded on our brains all day. As Joseph Campbell wrote: 

"Think how the symbols operate on you. By bringing your own imagination into play in relation to these symbols, you will experience the symbols' power to open a path to the mysteries."

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