6 Magic Questions to Help You Decode Your Dreams

Using a Gestalt approach to dreams, developed by Robert Hoss (http://www.dreamscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Protocol_for_Exp…), we are asked to let go of the need to analyze the isolated dream as a stand-alone entity, but to look for its meaning as it relates to your own current reality. The different aspects of the dream represent the contradictions and inconsistencies that we all possess. Thus, we “project” pieces of ourselves onto the objects and people in the dream. The following activity is based on the belief that every single part of a dream is a projection of an aspect of the dreamer.

6 Magic Questions for Individual Dream Work

As you reflect on your dream, choose the object/person/setting that contains the most “energy” for you – what stood out the most in the dream? This may be a bizarre object, something frightening, or the most powerful image. Take a moment to reflect fully on that item and even sketch it out, if you enjoy drawing.

Next, keeping in mind your identity as the object, answer the following 6 questions:

As a ________________________________________,

1. My purpose is ____________________________.
2. My goal is ________________________________.
3. My biggest fear is __________________________.
4. I love ____________________________________.
5. I hate ____________________________________.
6. I desire/wish ______________________________.

Reflect on what your answers might represent about the hidden desires, fears, aspirations, or struggles you are currently facing. For what aspect of your life or identity or relationships are you perhaps being given guidance or solutions?

For instance, if the image that stood out most was a huge, wonky clock that was running backwards, and you know that you are running through life too fast or missing out no things because you feel like you are always running late, you might have answers such as the following:

As a huge, wonky clock that runs backwards,

1. My purpose is to help you slow down and think twice about how you use your time.
2. My goal is to help you take more time to be present in your life.
3. My biggest fear is that someone is going to correct my time to make me do what every other clock does – to make me do what others want me to do with my hours.
4. I love that I can direct you to slow down and not always feel like you have to move forward.
5. I hate that everyone wants to be the same and move in the same direction at the same speed.
6. I wish for you to notice how big a role time plays in your life – see, even in your dreams, I take up a huge amount of space – and I wish for you to slow down and pay more attention to the world around you.

Let your imagination take you where your dreams are trying to get you to go!

According to Fritz Perls, founding father of Gestalt Theory, our dreams represent unfinished situations that offer us existential messages regarding our current identity and our current struggles. For more information, you may want to check out Bob Hoss' excellent website, www.dreamscience.org.

What might your dreams be telling you?