The Dream Interview
In this episode, with the help of celebrity rewilder Penny Scout, I provide a real life, unabridged example of the Dream Interview, as Penny and I walk step by step through her dream. I didn’t edit it at all, because I wanted to communicate the very real struggle that even a (somewhat) experienced interviewer undergoes. If you pay attention, you’ll notice the hallmarks of the Dream Interview process, as I ask essentially the same questions over and over: “What is this? Who is that? I’ve never seen/heard/experienced that/them before. Tell me what it is?” [sic]. By doing so I elicit the Dreamer’s own words, which illuminates the metaphors by which they experience the world. Also, Penny’s dream follows the familiar three Act structure. I mention the “bridge question” in this episode several times, a question you ask when you have just enough of the Dreamer’s language that you want to see if you can identify a piece of the dream’s correspondence to waking life. It often sounds like, “in your waking life, is there a situation where [insert dreamer’s language]?” [sic]. Bridge questions make the dream come together. At the end, we then go over the whole dream to see if the answers to the bridge questions still make sense.
Also check out the extensive blogging I’ve done on this topic:
Dreams, Aha!’s, and “I think I know what it means”
Dream Interpretation for Anarchists
The Subtle Task of Helping Dreamers
The Dreamtime, MythicSpace, and ‘the Time Before History’
Resources:
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