Sometimes it pays not to think too hard when writing about your dream in your journal, recording it in audio, or recounting it to a partner or friend. Let loose a little with your handwriting or typing, speed it up and don’t worry about spelling mistakes, grammar, or typos. When telling someone about your dream, don’t think about tidying it into a story, or adding humour. Instead, let it tumble out without edit. Why?
When you’re not focussing on ordering your thoughts, your dream flows more naturally and you’ll find yourself remembering parts of the dream you had forgotten. More important though, is that when you let go and let flow, you’ll find slips of the tongue (Freudian slips) and typos reveal clues about its meaning.
Dreams tell their stories in the language of the unconscious, so when you are talking or writing about a dream, or describing its symbols, the language of your unconscious is already on your fingertips or lips.
You might look back on your notes and see you wrote ‘heal’ instead of ‘heel’, for example.
Talking about dreams provides the best of slippery conditions for birthing a telling Freudian slip, making interpretation easier.
Look at these examples.
1. “He drenches my thirst.”
Rather than being satisfied (quenched), this person feels she is drowning in her lover’s attentions.
2. “She’s past her use me date.”
He meant ‘past her use-by date’, but his slip reveals he felt used by her.
3. “I have to deal with huge clouds of people in my job.”
The issue wasn’t about crowds of people. It was about their negativity that clouded his day.
So write or talk about your dream at speed to create a slippery surface for your fingertips or tongue. Then write down any typos or Freudian slips and ask what your unconscious mind was really saying about your dream.
[Extract from 101 Dream Interpretation Tips, Jane Teresa Anderson]
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