1

WORKSHOP ON “DREAMS”

BRUCE BONNETT

I. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAM INTERPRETATION Content of Dream Divide content into 2 columns: “Literal” and “Symbolic”

Emotions What emotions does the client have about the symbols?

Summarize back to client

Ask client and explore what triggered dream What recently happened in client’s life that might have caused the dream?

2

II. Other Issues Related to Dreams (just for you to think about…) A. The half hour to one hour before sleep is the “magic time” when a person’s mind is overloaded so they are in a natural state of hypnosis. 1. Good time to do affirmations, visualization 2. What we think about during this time, the mind “works on” while we sleep Article: “Quiet: Sleeping Brain Work” by a Harvard Medical School Professor and the chief of the sleep division at Massachusetts General Hospital.

3

https://panet.andover.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/SCIE/SCIE/science%20490/brain%20development/quiet%20sleeping%20brain%20at%20work.pdf Stanford baseball player example

B. Hypnosis to Stop Nightmares

1. See: “Stop Recurring Nightmares after one Hypnosis Session” https://hypnosis.edu/articles/nightmares

2. Remind clients bad dreams can mean they have worked

through issues – so can be a good sign 3. Suggestion: Pull curtain down at end of dream, so you do

not have to consciously remember it -- like at the end of a play or musical

4

C. “Night Terrors” “Sleep terrors are episodes of screaming, intense fear and flailing while still asleep. . . . During a sleep terror episode, a person might: Sit up in bed Scream or shout Kick and thrash Sweat, breathe heavily and have a racing pulse Be hard to awaken, but if awakened be confused Be inconsolable Stare wide-eyed Get out of bed and run around the house Engage in aggressive behavior (more common in adults)” ” http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/night-terrors/basics/definition/con-20032552

“Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day. Night Terror or Nightmare? Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. Most people enter the REM stage of sleep sometime after 90 minutes of sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the sleeper, who

5

usually will wake up with a vivid memory of a long movie-like dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during a phase of deep non-REM sleep usually within an hour after the subject goes to bed. . . . .During a night terror, which may last anywhere from five to twenty minutes, the person is still asleep, although the sleepers eyes may be open. When the subject does wake up, they usually have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear. This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing.” http://www.nightterrors.org/ D. Insomnia/Problems Falling Asleep or Getting Back To Sleep 1. Relatively easy to address with hypnosis 2. Sleep Tips (cover clock, stare at ceiling eyes strained, put thoughts in an imaginary file or drawer) 3. A few hypnotic suggestions (you didn’t have to learn how to sleep, everything works better when we relax, imagine playing miniature golf, a mind like yours goes a million miles a minute and therefore can be a million miles away in dream in less than a minute, you only need one or two good 90 minute sleep cycles)

4. Studies indicate that if a person is not getting enough sleep, the person thinks he/she is awake – but actually various parts of the brain take turns shutting down temporarily to recharge!!! Kind of scary—you can think you are awake and alert, but a key part of your brain is not active. How many poor choices do you think have been made when a person is in this mode? http://news.health.ufl.edu/2008/8363/multimedia/health-in-a-heartbeat/lack-of-sleep-can-cause-brain-%E2%80%98shutdown%E2%80%99/ https://www.wired.com/2011/04/sleep-deprivation/

E. Lucid dreaming

“Even though the term "lucid" means clear, lucid dreaming is more than

6

just having a clear dream. To have a lucid dream you must know that it’s a dream while you’re dreaming. That's it. It doesn't require that you can control anything in your dream, though control is what beginning lucid dreamers often aim at. People get attracted to lucid dreaming because they want to be able to do things they could never do in waking reality, for example, taste fire or fly to the sun. More and more experienced lucid dreamers are realizing the benefits of lucid dreaming. You can use it to explore the boundaries of your own agency and the limits of the universe.”

III. Examples of Some “Interesting” Dreams1 Question: Can you imagine interpreting these? A. “I dreamed that I was helping Dora the Explorer find her toothbrush. I fell into a trap door under the couch, where I ended up floating around in the sky. I looked over and saw a man floating with me, but his limbs were cut off. Everything ended well when I fell into a pudding factory.”

B. “Michael Jackson and I met in a McDonalds where you have to walk down a runway to place your order. We both ordered a number two with a Coke (soulmates), and then we got married. He eventually broke up 1 These were submitted by members of the public and published at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/danmeth/your-weirdest-dreams-in-cartoon-form?utm_term=.qoYDoAVx8#.domMon0K4 and https://www.buzzfeed.com/kaylayandoli/alan-rickman-yelling-from-a-fishing-boat?utm_term=.jyzlgyjN5#.xd59GJ2Md

7

with me and told me: “We are always going to have cheeseburgers.” What does this mean?” C. “I won a contest and got to eat dinner at P!nk’s apartment with my two best friends; as we were eating, we found out P!nk was a vampire. Every couple of minutes she would lunge across the table at me, then she’d return to her meal acting completely normal and eventually lunge at me again. The situation escalated and I was running around her apartment while she chased me, bared teeth. I couldn’t get away fast enough so I ran outside, only to find it was raining. Just when I thought I was done for, my friend cut her head off. We tied it up in a bag and threw it in the river, then went on the run, presumably for the rest of our lives.”

D. “I heard noises outside of my room; I got up and saw a trail of mice walking into my parent’s room. All of the mice had weapons and the leader had glasses like my dad! I followed them into my parent’s room and watched as they climbed up the bed and cut off my dad’s head, which they then put on the dresser (surprisingly my dad was still breathing). Needless to say, I’ve never wanted a mouse for a pet.” E. “Once I dreamed I was made out of bread. I broke my arm, and had to go to a bakery to get it replaced with a baguette.” F. “I once dreamed penguins made bumper stickers. I woke up laughing because, you know, penguins can’t make bumper stickers. Silly penguins.”

8

G. “One time I won the Miss U.S.A. pageant against Mariah Carey by singing “With You” by Jessica Simpson. Mariah got angry, and stabbed me to death with a carrot.” H. “Recently I had a very stressful dream where I was in a Lego building competition, but all of the judges were dolphins. I was supposed to be building a train/steam engine, but I couldn’t understand what they wanted because they kept squeaking and flapping their fins. The last thing I remember before waking up was turning towards the other contestants, holding my unfinished Lego train, and yelling: “IS THIS IT?? IS THIS WHAT THE DOLPHINS WANT??” Weirdest. Dream. Ever.” I. "I dreamt about the people who had waffles for heads and someone took a giant bite out of the top of one of them so he died and they had a funeral for him. I woke up crying." J "At a scary red restaurant where they made kids sit on the floor, giant macaroni noodles came out of the ground and started eating people. We escaped, though." K. "I once dreamt a sloth was doing my nails and kept telling me that I should invest in the stock market."

9

L. "I was running through a maze and all of a sudden Kermit the Frog jumped out with a knife. I kept running until Dustin Hoffman rose from the ground and shot Kermit."

M. "I flick on the light to see Bruce Springsteen (in complete "Born in the USA" get-up) going through my sock drawer and stealing all my good pairs of socks. When I actually did wake up I had to check the drawer, just in case."

N. “I had a dream I was stranded in the middle of the ocean in a small boat with Pinnochio, and all we had to eat were Froot Loops. For whatever reason, this dream terrified me so I still remember it years and years later."

O. "Me being chased by velociraptors in tutus and football helmets through a grocery store. All while I had to balance a teacup on my head."

10

IV. Some Cartoons About Dreams (just to make you smile; when we smile, we give off a more attractive and attracting energy)

11

12

13

14

KEEP PRACTICING!