Dreaming Woman in Twilight Meadow with Mystical Vision – Symbolic Illustration of Sleep an

Robert Johnson's method of dream work

Robert Johnson's dream work method is a great way to explore the symbolic language of dreams. By delving into personal mythology, amplifying symbols, and engaging in active imagination, unlock profound insights and embark on a path of self-discovery and personal growth.

Exploring the depths of the unconscious

Robert A. Johnson was a prominent Jungian analyst who developed a direct and practical version of Jungian dream work. He laid out his four-step approach in his book Inner Work.

Of all the ways to interpret dreams, I feel that Johnson's produces the best results. This is because it enables you to communicate with your subconscious mind through symbolic language.

Before you proceed, be aware that this method requires a lot of work. However, once you've done it a few times and discovered the incredible power of understanding your dream symbols, you will feel that it is well worth the effort.

Symbols have power because they connect us to the deepest parts of ourselves. They take us to the places we've longed to visit but never could.

Step One: Association

Every image in a dream has a specific meaning. In step one, your task is to connect each part of your dream to a possible symbolic meaning.

Start by going through your dream and writing out every association that you have with each dream image. For example, if you dreamed you were in a sailboat floating on a blue ocean, then you would need to look at each image separately: the ocean, the sailboat, the color blue, the sound of the waves, the smell of the sea, and so on.

Write down the first image that appears in the dream and then ask yourself:

How do you feel about this image?
Which words come to mind?
What ideas come up?
Do any memories pop up?
Is anything else connected to the image?

Every image will generate several associations. Write down each one, then go back to the image and see if even more associations come to mind. Keep returning to the dream image until you've written down all the associations you can think of. Then go to the next image and repeat the process.

To produce associations, you can draw on personal experience, mythology, folk tales, idioms and expressions, and colloquialisms. Here are some examples for the sailboat image.

Your unique association

A particular image will mean different things to different people. Blue might represent clarity for one person, peace and quiet for another, and depression for yet another.

In this stage of dream work, you simply gather information from the unconscious, so it doesn't matter how farfetched your associations seem. You are, in effect, asking the unconscious what the personal meanings of the images are, not what someone else tells you they ought to be, according to some book or some theory of psychology.

Making direct associations

Each time you make a connection, be sure it is directly connected to the original dream image. Be careful to avoid chain associations: you make your first association, then you make another one, and then another one, until you have a whole chain. Here's an example:

BLUE - cool - my brother - his car - fast

Does it click?

Now that you've made all of these associations, the question is how do you choose the one that will lead you to a correct interpretation.

Jung had a very straightforward answer: He said that one of the associations would "click"!

As you go through your associations, one of them might generate a lot of energy in you. It may fit together with other symbols in the dream. It might touch a spot in you where you are wounded and confused. It might make you see something in yourself that you had never noticed before.

Although this method sounds simplistic, it is reliable. You see, dreams are created out of energy, and the best way to find the essence of a dream symbol is to go where the energy is. Every symbol is calculated to rouse us, to wake us up. It is organically tied to energy systems deep in the substrata of the unconscious. When you make a connection that is very close to the energy source, sparks fly.

Step Two: Dynamics

In the second step, you want to tie the dream to specific events, feelings, emotions, inner conflicts, personalities, moods, attitudes, or other dynamics in your life.

To do this successfully, it is essential that you actually write your examples down on paper. You can't just think of them. When you physically write something down, the connections with your dream become clear and definite.

Deal with each image, one at a time. Sit down with a pen and paper, and for each image, write down the answers to the following questions:

What part of me does the image reveal?
Which part of me feels or behaves like that?
Where have I recently observed the image functioning in my life?

Suppose you are working with the sailboat image in the dream, and the phrase that clicked for you was "miss the boat." Now, during the second step, you look for the "miss the boat" quality inside you:

Where did I miss the boat? What is the missing the boat quality in me? What part of my personality tends to miss the boat?

When you question yourself like this, you begin to notice how the image relates to an actual part of you, and then the answer may come to you: "I'm not proactive at work, so I missed an opportunity for promotion."

The key is to find a specific example. You are not finished with this step until you find an actual example from your life that corresponds to the events in the dream.

Step Three: Interpretation

The interpretation of your dream ties together all the meanings you have drawn from the dream into a unified whole. Ask yourself:

What is the dream communicating?
What is it advising me to do?
What does it mean for my life?
What is the overall picture?

Write a short essay answering these questions, and then end by stating the one idea that the dream communicates.

When you begin to interpret your dream, don't expect your interpretation to come out in coherent form on the first try. Just write down your ideas about how you think the entire dream fits together and the meaning that it has in your life. Keep working at it until it makes sense and fits with the overall pattern of events in the dream.

A good dream interpretation should sum up the meaning of your dream in a nutshell. Let's use the sailboat on the blue ocean as an example:

In my dream, I'm enjoying a leisurely day, letting time pass without much purpose. However, beneath this carefree attitude, I feel unsettled. The boat is adrift, not going anywhere. It seems that although my life is comfortable, I have missed opportunities, and now it's time to take action. The sailboat's blue color symbolizes depression for me, representing how I have gradually become depressed in my comfort zone. I was overlooked for a promotion last year and again last week. I turn 40 next week; it's time to set a course, raise the anchor, and embark on a new journey.

A reasonable dream interpretation provides a specific way to apply the dream's message to your life.

Although my current company is excellent, I understand that I won't be able to achieve my ambitions while working here. As a result, I've decided to update my resume and explore opportunities to work on an organic farm. It's always been my true passion in life.

Step Four: Rituals

Now that you've analyzed your dream, it is time to do something physical. This step is vital because it helps you integrate the dream into your waking life.

Your dream will usually produce a message; for example, you need to start exercising, you must end a bad relationship, or it's time to stop procrastinating.

But before you start making any big changes to your life, you need to do a small ritual. If, for instance, your dream tells you that you work too hard, you could make the ritual a walk in the park or a trip to the beach.

Johnson gives an example of a young college student who, after analyzing a dream, realized that his lifestyle was superficial and empty. When looking back at his dream, he felt that the phrase, "junk food," captured the essence of his dream and of his life.

So, for his ritual, he went to a hamburger stand and bought a cheeseburger. He then buried it in his backyard with high, solemn ceremony. With this symbolic act of renunciation, he ritually affirmed his intention to give up the superficial life. The dream and ritual had a profound effect on him, and he began to live in a much more fulfilling way.

Johnson advises us that the most powerful rituals are the small ones, the subtle ones. Don't do big things or expensive things. Don't clean your entire house in a day because you had a dream that told you to get better organized. It's counterproductive. Small is best.

Don't involve all your friends or family. The ritual is a physical representation of your inner attitude, and when you try to explain it to people, you put the whole experience back on an intellectual level. Solitary is best because it registers most deeply with the unconscious.

Doing a ritual sets up a connection between the conscious and the unconscious, between the head and the hara. It provides us a way of taking principles from the unconscious and impressing them vividly on the conscious mind.

But rituals also have an effect on the unconscious. Doing a ritual sends a strong message back to the unconscious, causing changes to take place at the deep levels where our attitudes and values originate. It's like taking a seed from a plant that has sprouted and replanting it back into the soil from which it grew.

Inner Work

I've read a lot of books on dream work and Inner Work by Robert Johnson is certainly the best: (1) it's practical and easy to follow (2) Johnson thoroughly understands dream work so you are getting your information from a master (3) he uses captivating examples and personal anecdotes to turn a complex subject into an engaging read.