Some dreamworkers would suggest that you write down what happened during the day in a summarized format before you go to sleep. This might give clues if the dreams are a reworking/processing of day residue, a compensation of waking attitudes which are one-sided or creative solutions to the questions we are living.

This process has similarities to the Shamanic procedure of ‘recapitulation’ as described in the books of Carlos Castaneda, which involves a recounting of events that have taken place. A detailed recollection of minutiae is required to hone one's capacity to remember. This recollection entails getting all the pertinent details, such as the surroundings where the event took place and paying special attention to any relevant physical configurations. If, for instance, the interaction took place in a restaurant, practise remembering the floor, the ceiling, the doors, the walls, the windows, decorations, the tables, the objects on the tables, everything that could have been observed in a glance and then forgotten. A regular practise of recapitulation will improve both ordinary as well as dream memory.

Another way to think about day experiences is to view it ‘as-if-a dream’, or otherwise known as ‘waking dreams.’ Certain experiences lend themselves more easily to the concept of waking dreams such as time spent in Nature, for example a walk on the beach at sunset or climbing a mountain at dawn, or encounters with wild animals. There is a dream-like quality to experiences such as long hikes following wildlife pathways through long grasses… it takes us back into what Jung calls the phylogenetic roots of our specie where we are in a participation mystique with our surroundings. I am talking about life as a dream - our ability to look at whatever comes up in our field of perception as a dreamlike symbol, even in the city streets.

We are living a dream. Are we awake in the dream? Through resonance with Nature (even in the heart of a city) as an extension of our highest Self, or what Jung called the archetype of the Self, we expand our consciousness through a deep awareness of our embeddedness in our surrounding world. We are not separate.

Image Credit: Vladimir Kush - Fiery Dance

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