Magic Happens When Eternity Meets Linear Time in Dream Work

By: Ron Masa, Ph.D.
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:27:00
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Even if you're speeding around town, frantically running late, your dog in the back seat is perfectly on time; centered in the Now.

I once thought "eternity" meant: Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. forever. Until a wise mentor suggested eternity was more likely a timeless state of presence or "now-consciousness." Dreams are like our dog in the back seat: Dreams are always on time. Originating in the cosmic NOW, every dream is in perfect synch whenever it is examined. That's because dreams come from the timeless side of the psyche where our personal unconscious meets the collective region of the invisible realm (or possibly just down the street from there; how precise can we be in such matters?).

I discovered long ago that dreams recorded weeks, years, even decades before we worked on them, synchronized with the issues of the moment and predicted upcoming events. "How?!" I wondered. One client worked on a dream from 12 years earlier that was perfectly in synch with the issues of her current life, and predicted synchronous encounters on the street and comments from books and television in the weeks following each segment we examined. In the middle of the several sessions allocated to this dream, she vacationed a month in Europe. On returning, the issues that arose on her trip were symbolized in the very next segment of the dream.

One evening in a dream group which invariably raced to sit on the luxurious couch, no one happened to sit there. In the dream we explored that night, one character kept asking "What's wrong with the couch?" until we all realized--with a jolt--that the dream had anticipated that no one would sit on the couch for the first time in years. "How do they do that?" we wondered with awe.

In Sonny's dream a character asks "What time is it?" and another character replies "It's 7:38." When we interpreted this dream in a 2-hour telephone dream group we discovered many important layers of meaning of "What time is it?" Like, what time of our life's cycle are we in, and what is it time to do or be, and much more. In the middle of all this, Sonny exclaimed in amazement, "I'm looking at my clock and it's 7:38 right now!! So being present in the Now was part of the dream's magical lesson none of us can forget; but How does a dream from weeks earlier anticipate to the minute when we will arrive at that sentence?

In yesterday's telephone dream group another illustration emerged. The dream read: "I'm very confident, articulate, relaxed and personable." To which the dreamer said she used to be all those things in a former job role, but as an entrepreneur lacked and longed for those qualities. I reassured her these were real qualities of hers being experienced once again in the dream. And that to acquire them in an institutional role was a fine achievement, but to reclaim such mastery as an independent practitioner was a much greater challenge, one the dream was predicting would occur.

To clarify the hidden impact of job roles and contextual factors, I cited several psychology experiments, lapsing atypically into a mini-lecture mode from when I taught graduate school (before becoming independent myself). When done, I laughed and said, "Well, end of lecture, no quiz today," and progressed to the very next sentence in the dream which read: "When I'm done with my presentation..."! I burst out laughing at the dream's anticipation of my rare shift from discussion-facilitator to the "presentation" mode.

That inspired me to tell the group how I was originally trained by the dreams themselves using just such "magical" interactivity. When I would try to cover too much dream content in a session (lest clients think I was dragging things out) the dreams would include images like a driver stepping on the brakes and finally one day a Stop Sign appeared right where I was supposed to stop! "That's the day I realized the dreams were communicating with me in real time," I explained to the group.

The very next sentence in yesterday's dream read: "Immediately I see Bradley cringe along with all the others, and he puts his hands up trying to stop me." At which time I checked my watch and discovered we had just run out of time... so I obeyed this latest dreamy Stop Sign.

Get the free 8 part email class "Discover Your Dreams: A Beginners Guide to Dream Interpretation" and newsletter: http://www.UniversityofYourself.com/DiscoverYourDreams_a.html

DreamTalk is a low-cost dreamwork email group which Dr Masa, Debbie Hart and Dr Marjorie Miles co-moderate. Submit dreams for analysis and help others too. Info: http://www.UniversityofYourself.com/DreamTalk_a.html

Ron Masa, Ph.D. wrote columns on dreams while in private practice for 25 years. Dr Masa has taught psychic development, Jungian psychotherapy, shamanism, and (for Naropa University) the I Ching and Dream Work. He and Debbie Hart co-lead the University of Yourself: "Helping You Hear the Guide Inside." http://www.UniversityofYourself.com

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