Dream Work as Shamanic Archeology of the Mind

Barbara had a dream called "Charlie-Brave Boy" in which a puppy named Charlie returned to her and she "took it up into her arms" feeling filled with love. This marked the return of a lost part of her mind-body energy that disappeared during a trauma shortly after her birth. While her father, a naval officer, held his beloved infant in his arms a doctor used dry ice to burn a large birthmark from her upper arm. The burning or "singeing" of the skin (which appeared in the dream as people "singing" in church) and the smell of her burning flesh (in the dream she was surrounded by "pews") activated traumas he had acquired in witnessing the violent death and burning flesh of his sailors during enemy attacks. He passed out cold. You might have too.

In primal cultures around the world, traditional shamans travel to the invisible realms, often using the drum beat as the vehicle of vibratory travel, to retrieve lost parts of a person's soul. Dreams perform this function for all of us, whenever we are ready for the reintegration. The consciousness that Barbara had lost during this traumatic medical procedure returned to her six decades later in the form of a puppy in the present dream. She felt great love (for her own prodigal self now returning) and while the energy returned and she "took it up into her arms," she cradled her dream puppy in those same arms. At the very moment that Barbara was initially being traumatized as an infant--her father's already-existing war trauma was being re-activated. The old shamans would say soul fragments of both made the journey together to the invisible realms.

The next time Barbara's father was singed was at his own cremation only a handful of years later. Barbara witnessed the spreading of his ashes from a rooftop and suffered a second undigestible, or traumatic, experience in her young life. Both father-linked traumas were being healed by the same modern dream. "Every dream comes in the interest of health and wholeness" says dream worker Jeremy Taylor.

But were those the only traumas involved? Barbara's family line has included naval captains and war heros for many generations. This same dream triggered her memory (or association) of a beloved family story: her great grandfather was once taken too ill to captain his own ship through a terrible storm, so he put his first mate in charge. The interim captain, had to lash Barbara's willful-child of a grandmother to the mast to keep her from falling overboard while he guided the ship through troubled waters. The story lived on since grandmother remained "a real piece of work," (in Barbara's words) and quite a handful all her life; the grandchildren cherished this image of grandma lashed to the mast.

Dream symbols are multidimensional vessels of condensed meaning; each image carries many layers of meaning. This story from Barbara's outer life--which can also be interpreted as if a "waking dream"-- evokes ancient mythic themes and also hints at the terror and trauma that may have continued for many generations within this one family... possibly part of why grandma was such a handful. The mythic component in this story re-images Ulysses having himself lashed to the mast so he could hear the Sirens' call but be restrained from being able to follow it. His crew, with wax in their ears navigated past the danger without his help.

This is essentially what trauma does for us. Undigestible or destabilizing experience which would misdirect and endanger the ship of the psyche, can be lashed to the mast of the unconscious where it can no longer directly influence our waking choices and behavior. This is done by the psyche at considerable cost, as losing the guidance of a ship's captain suggests, but it helps us avoid madness from hearing our own Sirens' call.

Barbara's father experienced a reactivation of his existing war-time trauma while Barbara was receiving her first medical trauma in his arms. Like the passing of a baton in a relay race, the undigested burdens of the father may be passed to the next generation. How many generations has this baton been passed within this one family? History, said Shakespeare, is the story of the death of fathers. What ancient forces still operate beneath our "modern" consciousness?

I once worked with a delightful, educated, mother of three who suffered terrible waves of negative thoughts and images. At that time I was practicing mind/body treatments that involved two or three of my staff palm-healing the client (akin to Reike or Therapeutic Touch) while we all worked on their dream's interpretation. Much of everyone's unconscious content is mapped across the physical body and the results of this mind/body double intervention were as dramatic in this case as in most others. Almost invariably, the client attained profound insights and also got up from the massage table looking genuinely transformed, enriched and tranquil. We even installed a mirror so clients could witness the visible transformation in themselves. In this case, the results were the same, except, each session she returned buzzing with invisible energies and dark thoughts. We accelerated to two and then, briefly, three sessions a week with no resolution.

Her condition was so atypical that I finally asked her if there was some terrible secret we really ought to know about. Did she have a drug or drinking problem?  Was she engaging in some dangerous or high stress activity that could account for her uniquely rapid recurrence of symptoms. Since she knew of no such source of stress and negativity, I asked her to request a dream to explore the topic. The next session she brought the following dream:

"I am the caretaker of an old stone church (she was an actively religious person). As I am weeding the lawn things begin looking better and better. However, when I begin watering the flower beds next to the building the water washes away the earth to reveal a growing pit or cavern which has been concealing a 14th century grave yard with corpses strewn all about."

We lowered the intensity and frequency of the sessions lest the energy flow of the dream work plus group palm healing (the water in the dream that helps most people to flower?) too rapidly unearth ancient destructive forces. We proceeded with a measured "weeding" of her present life issues and carefully avoided digging up too many old skeletons: her treatment progressed much more successfully.

There are many possible interpretations for any dream, many of which simultaneously true. If you believe in reincarnation, you might conclude that she had a past life issue and depth work was permeating a psychic boundary that was the interface between two lives of a single soul. Alternatively, you might wonder if she was still wrestling with some dark issues and "death energies" that had originated in the 14th century?  Was this the result of her personal family inheritance, passed down through so many generations? Or was her current church involvement touching upon some ancient collective shadow accruing to the institution?

Whether our dreams lead to the healing joy of soul retrieval as imaged by Barbara's prodigal puppy--or to ominous warnings when to step lightly and avoid Send a Comment to Author of this Story

Ron Masa, Ph.D wrote columns on dreams while in private practice for 25 years. Dr Masa has taught psychic development, Jungian psychotherapy, shamanism, and (for Naropa University) the I Ching and Dream Work. He and Debbie Hart co-lead University of Yourself.com: "Helping You Hear the Guide Inside."