creative approaches to dream exploration: January 18, 2 p.m. @ Jason's Deli in Dunwoody

Hi Dream Collective ATL! 

I hope you are all having a wonderful and dreamy holiday season. During our last meeting in November, we decided to try something creative for our next meetup on January 18th 2 pm in Dunwoody. Everyone will bring crafts, markers, paper, magazines, or anything that helps you get into the creative flow! Depending on the dream, you may want to honor it a different way.  Below are some ideas that we can do as a group, or individually. Come join us if you're in the area, share a dream and get crafty :) 

Ways to work with dreams creatively: 

Color Exploration

• Write down all the colors within the dream you are exploring:
• Re-read the dream and recall as many colors as you can.
• Include colors that are not written in your dream journal, but that you are aware of. (You may know that a house was white, but may not have recorded it.)
• Is one color predominant in the dream?
• What meanings do the dream colors have for you? What are your associations to those colors?
• Refer to outside information about meanings attached to various colors. Do any of them help you connect to the dream?
• How does the color amplify the meaning of the image to which it is associated? Share with the group any insight you have gained.

Individual Collage
Working with collage moves the dream to a deeper visual and emotional level. It allows the member to look at the dream in a new way.  Often a dream image is understood in a new way when it is represented through a similar image. The dreamer's perspective widens as they move beyond the dream image to "this picture reminds me of my dream" or "this picture reminds me of the feeling of my dream."

• • Give each member a blank piece of paper, scissors, and glue. In addition to magazine and calendar photographs, you might offer feathers, string, buttons, and other objects.
• Encourage members to close their eyes and imagine their dreams before beginning the collage. 
• Remind the group that this collage is to be a representation-not a replica of the dream. Use your intuition in making the collage.
• Suggest that each member put the collage where they will see it often at home so that they will continue to gain new insight and amplification of the dream.

Group Collage
The members of the group bring pieces and parts of a dream like pieces of a quilt. Each member offers his own creative piece. His piece embellishes the beauty of the whole quilt. Each offering is unique to the individual member. The miracle of the dream is how these pieces fit together through our collective unconscious, with each fragment helping the other members uncover the meaning of their dreams.

This exercise allows dreamers to see their individual dreams as segments of a collective dream. It allows each member to reflect on his dream as part of a larger picture (both literally and in life.) Often the images one member brings to the collage relate to another member's dream, expanding the meaning and impact of his personal dream. 

• Each group member chooses one of her dreams to honor.
• Members choose the magazine images that remind them of their dream, then tear and glue their images to their portion of the poster board.
• Encourage the group to share their dream story represented by their individual images.
• Encourage the group to look at the whole poster board as if it were a depiction of a collective dream.
• Ask the group, "How do the images relate?" Does one part of the collage lead to solutions for problems posed by another part?

Draw the Dream
Drawing a dream reveals much that words cannot express. We can gain additional information about a their use dream by drawing it, sometimes through our choice of colors, placement on the page, dominant images, etc.

Suggest that group members use their non-dominant hand. By using the non-dominant hand we more easily access the right brain-the creative side that is involved in creating dream images. Our non-dominant hand does not operate according to the same critical rules that direct our dominant hand (which we have been taught to use "correctly" as we draw or write).

There are no rules of how this is done; it may be a drawing of all or part of the dream. A member may choose to draw only one image or might make an abstract drawing. Once the drawings are complete (or the 10-minute period is up), ask the group to look at their drawings as if they are on a treasure hunt, looking for clues:

• Are there any predominant colors? Did you use only one color or many? Did you choose not to use color?
• Do you recognize any of the characters in the drawing?
• Look at the placement of the objects in the drawing. What is in the center of the page?
• What is the largest object in the picture?
• Are you surprised by the inclusion or exclusion of any dream images?
• Is anything incorporated into the drawing that was dream? not written in your
• Where are you in the drawing? Are you inside or outside of the action? Are you observing or participating?
• What part of the page does the drawing occupy? Did you extend the drawing to the edges of the paper?
• Who else is in the picture? Are the other characters depicted in your drawing actually people whom you know in waking life?
• Are there any symbolic designs in the drawing: circles, triangles, spirals, crosses, stars, etc.?

Allow time for each member to share one thing he learned by drawing the dream. Allow time for each member to show their drawing and have each of the other group members make one comment about it.

Draw a Picture of Another's Dream
I was first introduced to this exercise by Alan Siegel at an International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) Conference. I had used the idea of drawing my own dream often, but never had drawn another person's dream. This group was a gathering of participants from various countries and cultures; I found this very interesting in broadening the group's understanding of the dream's possibilities and illuminating the images of the dream for the entire group, as well as for the dreamer sharing the dream. It is interesting to see how group members interpret a dream as it is told before the dreamer clarifies his own connection to certain details in the dream.

• Ask a member to share a dream. Then ask the entire group, including the dreamer, to draw a quick picture of the dream. Ask the other group members to share their pictures before the dreamer shares theirs
• Ask the dreamer to share their picture, providing information about the details of the dream. Allow the group to discuss the differences and similarities between their drawings and the dreamer's view of the dream.

This exercise allows the dreamer to see their own dream in new ways and allows the members to really make the dream their own. It shows clearly how we interpret the dream "text" in different ways, depending on our personal experiences.

Three-Dimensional Scene
It is often difficult to express the dream experience in words. By creating the scene in three dimensions and moving through the action of the dream, a member often gains insights that are not available in talking about the dream. It is a significant experience for the other members for they can actually see how the action occurred and can clarify aspects of the dream. This one is more time consuming but beneficial when someone has difficulty making connetions in the dream

• Prepare a diagram of the dream scene "space" on paper or poster board
• Gather objects to use on the dream platform or make them from paper
• Tell the group the story using the objects and posterbord scene
• Experiment with changing and reenacting segments of the dream. 

Work with Clay
Work through the emotions of the dream with the clay. The end product is not the important part of the activity. Instead the dreamer is encouraged to put the feelings of the dream into the clay. Working with clay reflects the need to incorporate the unconscious into dreamwork. This exercise is an excellent way to begin to free the energy of the dream.

Source: 
Lasley, J. (2004). Honoring the dream : a handbook for dream group leaders (1st ed). DreamsWork.


See you in 2025! :) 


Amina