Dream Path 1: Gestalt: DRAMATIZE
DREAMS
This is a do-it-yourself
dream exploration. Follow the directions and you
will learn something about yourself. Dramatize
Dreams is a Gestalt exercise designed
facilitate dialogue among the parts of you pictured in a
dream.
[Read the instructions
in bold type to a partner. Wait for her or him to respond
when you see asterisks (***). Do not read aloud anything
between the symbols "[" and "]" .
[This Dream Path may
also be read without a partner. Follow the instructions as
though a guide read them to you and respond aloud.]
Sit comfortably. Take ten
deep, relaxed breaths.
Recall a DREAM (or make up a
dream-like story about your main emotion now).
Tell what happened in the dream, as
though it's happening now. As you narrate the dream, see,
hear, feel and live it more fully than you dreamed. ***
[Remind your partner to use present
tense (suggesting, for example, changing her or his sentence,
"The ape chased me up a tree." to "The ape's
chasing me ...").]
[Note all the dream's elements,
background and foreground (ape, tree, ground and teller, in the
example).]
[Choose a background element (example:
the tree).]
[Tell your partner:] Become
the ... [say the name of the background element you selected,
e.g., "tree"]. Use its voice and tell
what you're like in the dream. Start with, "I'm
..." and describe yourself as the ... [name of the
background element]. *** As the ... [name of the
background element selected], talk to ... [Select a
central element, for example, the ape or the dreamer].
***
Shift your body and become the ...
[name of the central element] and reply. ***
Act-out a talk between the ... and
the ... [central and background elements], alternately
gesturing, sounding and speaking as one, then the other. ***
Now be the ... [select a third
dream element]. Say what you are like as the ... [the
3rd element] and speak to ... [select Element 4]. ***
Shift your body and become the ... [Element
4] and reply. ***
Act-out a talk between ...
[3] and ... [4]. ***
One-by-one, speak as each of the
rest of the characters, props and background details you dreamed
and the talks you enact between them. Enact dialogues among
them. ***
Imagine that ... [select
a mysterious dream element like the ape or the tree] has a
zipper on its mask [or a peely bark, in the case of the
tree--make the unmasking metaphor match the symbol].
Imagine unzipping the zipper
[or peeling off the bark]. Who's there? ***
Speak to this person. ***
Become her or him and say what your
life is like and respond to what the dreamer said. ***
Be yourself again. Carry on a
dialogue, alternately playing yourself and the person you
unzipped. ***
Use present tense and continue the
dream-action beyond what you dreamed. ***
Successively become each part of
the dream and give a message to the dreamer. ***
Assuming all elements of the dream
are aspects of you, say what you learned about yourself from this
exercise. ***
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