Dreams. They are a universal experience. Stories, images and scenarios our minds create as we sleep. For centuries, cultures have pondered their meaning, these emotional and sensory occurrences that have even been credited for critical inventions or discoveries. There is no cognitive state so extensively studied, yet so misunderstood, says Medical News Today. It’s a subject that has fascinated Pam Rhea since she was 12 years old.
While still a preteen, Rhea decided she was going to read every book in Columbus’ public library. She began with books in the Dewey Decimal System Class 100 and kept going from there. That reading binge, one could say, may have planted more than a few seeds for the course her life would eventually take.
“I started with the 100s and made it to the 300s,” she says. “The 100s are mostly psychology and philosophy; the 200s were religion.”
So, it may come as no surprise that Rhea, at one time, wanted to become a psychologist. That wasn’t to be. She is, however, an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi and spiritual director, serving The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Columbus and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen. The Rev. Deacon Rhea also holds an accounting degree and a master’s degree in spirituality, is business manager of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library where her reading quest began, and is a certified dream leader trained by The Haden Institute of Flat Rock, North Carolina.
The ultimate push to pursue the last came during a church-related retreat after her ordination.
“During the retreat they stressed at one point that you have to take steps to do something for yourself,” she remembers. “I went right back to the room and enrolled in Haden. … I had been yearning to know more about dreams and how they relate to us as spiritual beings.”
Structured training
The institute’s two-year dream leader training is for therapists and professionals who want to enhance therapeutic skills; clergy, lay leaders or parishioners who wish to lead church dream groups; and community leaders who hope to learn dream group skills.
Through six four-day Intensives in North Carolina and online coursework, candidates study individual and group dreamwork methodology, history and practice, and basic Jungian psychology (so named for psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung) as it relates to dreamwork.
Participants come from all regions of the country and Canada and from all traditions — Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist and those who are spiritual, but not religious.
“The first time I attended one of the intensives, I felt like I was where I belonged,” says Rhea. “I was just fascinated by the lectures and classes and being in a dream group with 11 other people for two years.”
Dreams can be a path to explore and examine our unconscious life, says Rhea, who has “worked dreams” for many people.
“They are our unconscious telling us something we haven’t acknowledged; they can help us process emotions, conflicts and anxiety. They tell you something new,” she adds. They come in the service of promoting healing and wholeness, speaking in the language of metaphor, symbols and imagery.
When it comes to interpretation, there is no standardized key to say “this” always means “that.” Dreams are personal and can have different meanings for different people.
“Every object, every thing, everybody is some aspect of you, the dreamer — your personality or psyche,” Rhea notes.
Recall and record
Anyone sincerely interested in dreamwork, in exploring dreams for interpretation, can take some specific steps.
The single most important one to improve dream recall is deciding you want to remember your dreams, Rhea says.
Record dreams. Although most dreams are rapidly forgotten when we wake — up to 95 percent, according to Medical News Today — tendrils of dream memory can remain behind. And sometimes, we have “big dreams,” dreams we are able to retain, even for the rest of our lives. Decide to record everything possible and how you intend to do it. Journal? Tape recorder? Place the items needed within reach of where you sleep, so that even half-asleep you can record what you remember. If you awaken with a dream memory, take notes or record a few key phrases. Usually this is enough to help fully recall the dream in the morning.
If you awake without recalling any dreams, try moving into habitual sleep positions, which may help trigger dream memory. Other possible aids can be running the faces of people you have a strong, emotional response to when awake through your mind. You might also check your diet for B vitamins. Regular intake of B-6 tends to enhance recall ability.
Working a dream
Rhea, who has worked dreams remotely and in face-to-face sessions, usually asks the individual to write the dream down in first person and present tense. Give it a title; the title chosen can often be a telling factor. She “maps” the written narrative, noting four parts all dreams are composed of: landscape, plot, conflict or culmination/resolution. She studies action, people and emotions.
In one-on-one situations, she asks a sequence of questions and explores associations before sharing thoughts on interpretation she hopes offer insight.
“My dreamwork sessions with Pam were enlightening,” says Lindsey Beck of Columbus. “I learned how much our subconscious can work through our dreams to help us navigate the issues we stress out about in our waking lives.”
Most people too readily dismiss their dreams, Beck continues, but “taking time to work with them can change the way we perceive situations and ourselves.”
Rhea emphasizes that she is not a professional therapist. If ever she feels an individual seeking her out would benefit from seeing one, she readily recommends they do.
Beck says, “But just being able to talk with someone like Pam who is educated on the symbolism and different ways those symbols can manifest very concrete things in our lives … well, that’s something you just can’t do yourself by googling and then trying to fit the pieces together.”
Honor a dream
Dreamwork can be illuminating — and also fun, says Rhea. It allows us to know ourselves better and can be a means of connecting with the divine and with one another.
“I consider it to be very spiritually fulfilling,” she says.
A few days after a four-layer strawberry cake made an appearance in one of Rhea’s dreams, she baked one. When a blue butterfly figured prominently in a dream, she put out butterfly-friendly plants. Such acts are called honoring a dream, acknowledging that the dreamer received it. It is a tangible way of growing the garden.
“The more attention one pays to dreams, the more vivid they will become,” Rhea says. “Dreams are a garden. They need to be tended and cultivated, cherished and cared for, and they will grow and grow and grow.”
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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