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A book report for the by by Robert Johnson "Inner Work: Using Dreams and Creative Imagination" which spoke to me along my journey for individuation.
I want to start this book report with a dream that I had before beginning “Inner Work.” The reason is because the dream was synchronistic in its ability to describe some of the key issues, which I later read about.
Dream: I was in an office of a chiropractor who is also a girlfriend of mine. It night and we decided y to go to sleep there in her office. At 1:00 AM, I was awakened because the other chiropractor (another female) was just beginning her office hours. She adjusted clients who needed night hours.
In attempting to learn from this dream, I started with word associations for Chiropractor: adjustment, straightens, alignment unblocks flow of energy, healer, energy worker, and backbone is the structure of life. Alignment of the worlds of consciousness and unconsciousness. Alignments are in the deep interior of the structure of the bone structure that keeps the organs in place and provides structure for humans to walk upright. The blockage related to my ego and the adjustment would bring balance in who I am in relationship to the who I think I am. The 2 friends are female and one I knew the other was possibly shadow material. The hour of awakening is 1:00 AM, which might mean wholeness. Night may represent there is work in my unconscious that is awakening. 1:00 AM is also the first hour of a new day. It is just past the North (12 midnight) moving toward the East (spiritual).
“Inner work” is a book about seeking the unconscious in order to resolve the conflicts and challenges that life presents. Johnson writes on P.21, “Just as the unconscious gives off charges of energy in the night that create patterns on the screen of the dream-mind, the unconscious also functions during the waking hours. It emits a continual stream of energetic pulses that find their way to the conscious mind in the form of feelings, moods, and, most of all, the images that appear in the imagination.” This statement reminded me of my dream. Johnson mentions multiple times how the dreams and the images therein are energy systems.
Using Johnson’s 4 step approach to my dream:
The first step was to make associations to the dream images. Examples of this I have presented above.
The second step is to connect dream images to the inner part of myself that is symbolized in the dream images. I ask myself “What part of me is like that?” The second Chiropractor is meeting the needs of her clients where they are. She is a healer. She works at night. She surprised me by her appearance in the dream sequence, as I am surprised when new insight spontaneously enters my awareness. I do not know if the symbol of chiropractor is an archetype, but “healer” certainly is. My shadow, represented by the night chiropractor, is interesting. How do I work in the shadows? Am I hiding? Or is it that as a dream facilitator, I am working in and with the interior of others and myself?
Step three, is to tie together al the important messages gathered from the dream into one unified picture. I see this dream as both an affirmation of the dream work that I am doing individually and as a facilitator of four groups and two individual sessions.
Johnson gives many other examples of questions to ask of yourself and he gives many examples from his personal experience working with clients.
The fourth step is to put is tangible form the message of the dream. Johnson suggests a ritual that symbolizes and gives honor to the dream. He believes that by doing something there will be a profound affect in ones life.
The second half of his book, Johnson explores the basic concepts of Active Imagination, he gives examples, and he lays out a four-step plan for doing your own active imagination. This is called active because the ego actually goes into the inner world, walks and talks, comforts and argues, makes friends with or fights with the persons it finds.
The first step is to be in a comfortable place and to invite the unconscious for a dialogue remembering to allow it to speak freely. It is not the conscious, who is to speak for or have an agenda for the unconscious.
The second step is to begin the dialogue. This is a spontaneous expression of communication. What ever surfaces is part of the unconscious, important in the unification of the conscious, and unconscious.
The third step is to clarify the ethical, moral, or the conflicts that surface.
The forth step is again to ritualize the meaning of the new insight. Again, the ritual honors the value of the subconscious.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
How I will apply the message of the book
I saw a movie the other night that left me disturbed and unsettled. I was having a difficult time shaking off the emotions that were surfacing before I could go to bed. I decided to use Active Imagination and treat the movie as a dream. I picked several images and began to dialogue with them individually. To my delight and surprise the disturbance that was in my subconscious had as outlet to express herself. I had never thought of using Active imagination in this way.
More stories like this one can be read about in my book ”Dream Symbols In Waking Life" which can be viewed and ordered through the website... blurb.com/books/783979. Enjoy.
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"A story about strange and mysterious dreams."
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