For Those Who Don’t Dream, Invite Waking Dreams
If you are someone who doesn’t recall many dreams, and yet would like to engage with your dream life more deeply, there are a couple of solutions. I typically offer tips for improving dream recall but another option is to cultivate waking dreams. If you are persistent with this practice, you could even start your own ‘Red Book’ by crafting a record of your inner process.
I recently hosted a webinar on Active Imagination. I began by leading participants in an imaginal journey designed to create a rich, experiential and dream-like sequences. (A recording is available if you missed it.) I asked for a few to share their experiences and what emerged were surprising, helpful and deeply-moving scenarios, as evocative as any dream. (This imaginative process is also great for those who do recall dreams and want to engage further with them.)
Jung himself said that the products of active imagination are identical to dreams: “Image and meaning are identical; and as the first takes shape, so the latter becomes clear.” (Jung on Active Imagination, 1977.)
Jung on How To Cultivate Active Imagination
Those who don’t recall dreams may also find it hard to allow imagination to flow. This comes with practice and by making the most of the initial wisps of image that arrive in your mind’s eye, fleshing them out and inquiring into them. You could try Jung’s advice from his “Letters to Mr. O” about how use any image as a leaping-off place for your imagination, whether it be from a dream, memory or fantasy:
“Start with any image, for instance just with that yellow mass in your dream. Contemplate it and carefully observe how the picture begins to unfold or to change. Don’t try to make it into something, just do nothing but observe what its spontaneous changes are… note all these changes and eventually step into the picture yourself, and if it is a speaking figure, then say what you have to say to that figure and listen to what he or she has to say.”
As you let the dream image flow forward, don’t worry if it feels like you’re making it up – that’s what imagination is! Just do your best to give the image its autonomy. You will know you’re on the right track when what emerges surprises you.
Imaginal Dialogue as a Writing Exercise
Another great way to have a conversation with an image is by writing from both sides of the conversation. This way you also have a written record of it that you can reflect upon further. I treat it a bit like writing a poem – I find if I write a line, the next one tends to arrive on its own if I am patient and open enough.
In the Imaginal Dialogue practice, prepare by settling in your mind and body, create a sense of calm and safety that you can return to if needed. Write your name, a colon and then an opening greeting to your image. On the next line, write the name or descriptor of the character you want to engage with, then visualize the dream image in detail and wait for it to respond. You may see them speaking in your mind’s eye, hear a voice in your head, or just ‘know’ what the image says.
Here is an example using a classic intruder nightmare:
Dreamer: Can I ask you some questions?
Bandit: Make it quick, I’m in a hurry, and I don’t want to get caught here.
Dreamer: But you’re breaking into my house! What are you looking for?
Bandit: I’ve lost my family, lost my mind, trying to find a way home…
Dreamer: Do you think you will find it in my house?
Bandit: There was a warm glow from the window, I could hear laughter….
It’s not unusual for a threatening dream figure to open up and soften as was beginning to happen in this example. It can be a way to befriend an apparently hostile dream character. However, the process is hard to predict, so I always recommend starting with a calm mind and body and a sense of positive intention. Let the dialogue flow to a natural stopping place. Pick it up again if desired.
Jung had long, ongoing conversations with his imaginal figures, artfully recorded in his now-famous Red Book. He suggested his patients make their own version, capturing their inner life in words and images with care and beauty. A patient of his recalled Jung saying such a book “will be your church, your cathedral – the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal.”
Does This Process Have a Purpose?
A woman in the webinar asked me if we have a goal in mind as we engage with active imagination. I said no, it’s best to leave the end-game open and let the implicit unfold without directing it. Having a goal presumes the destination before we let our inner life speak. Our imaginal characters may have an alternative set of priorities that could be woven into our own in a way that changes our trajectory. The process creates shifts, but not the logical or predictable ones associated with goal-setting.
If not a goal, then, Active Imagination can have a purpose, one that has the potential to connect us with our own greater purpose. The images that come in contemplative moments speak to us across time and drop us deep. This can be an antidote to the barrage of instant messaging and 60-second sound bites that prevail in modern media, distracting us from our depths.
Jung told his patient not to listen to anyone critical of her personal red book project: “If you listen to them, you will lose your soul – for in that book is your soul.”
For more about how to work with active imagination, the full 90-minute webinar is available here. This is the third in three-part series that include finding help in a dream, and embodying dream elements. Recordings are available for all 3 sessions for a nominal fee.