Conference 18 Abstracts
Association for the Study of Dreams
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Dream Odyssey
UCSC Santa Cruz, California, USA
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ABSTRACT
Title of talk: Using Hypnosis to Work with
Your Dreams
Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Deirdre_Barrett@hms.harvard.edu
Deirdre
Barrett, Ph.D. is author of The Committee of Sleep: How Artists,
Scientists, and Athletes Use Their Dreams for Creative Problem
Solving—and How You Can, Too. (Crown/Random House, 2001), The
Pregnant Man and Other Cases from a Hypnotherapist's Couch (Random
House, 1998), and editor of
Trauma and Dreams (Harvard University Press, 1996). Dr. Barrett
is Editor-in-Chief of DREAMING, Past-President
of ASD and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.
Summary of presentation:
Hypnosis is a state of consciousness with many similarities to
that of dreaming, especially lucid dreaming.
This workshop will present ways of combining hypnosis and
dreamwork including inducing hypnotic dreams, working with nocturnal
dreams during hypnosis, and
hypnotic and self-hypnotic suggestions to
aid general dream recall and incubate specific dream content such
as dream lucidity. There
will be opportunities for participants to experience several of these
techniques.
Learning
Objectives.
1)
To describe differences between hypnotic dreams, night dreams,
and day dreams
2)
To describe how hypnosis can be used to work with night time
dreams
3)
To describe how hypnotic dreams can be used in therapy or
self-exploration
Evaluation questions for continuing education
credit program:
1)
List three differences between the content of Hypnotic dreams and
Nighttime dreams
2)
List three differences between the content of Hypnotic dreams and
Daydreams
3)
Describe a typical hypnotic suggestion to enhance dream recall
ABSTRACT
Using Hypnosis to Work with Your
Dreams
Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
There are a variety of ways of combining hypnosis and dreamwork
for the mutual enhancement of each.
One can use hypnotic suggestions that a person will experience a
dream in the trance state--either as an open ended suggestion or with
the suggestion that they dream about a certain topic-- and these
"hypnotic dreams" have been found to be similar enough to
nocturnal dreams (Barrett, 1979) to be worked with using many of
the same techniques usually applied to nocturnal dreams.
One can also work with previous nocturnal dreams during a
hypnotic trance in ways parallel to Jung's "active
imagination" techniques to continue, elaborate on, or explore the
meaning of the dream.
Research by Charles Tart (1964) has found that hypnotic
suggestions can be used to influence future nocturnal dream content, and
Joe Dane (1985) demonstrated that hypnotic suggestions can increase the
frequency of laboratory verified lucid dreams.
Many people have also utilized hypnotic and self-hypnotic
suggestions for increased dream recall.
The workshop will cover all of these techniques and include
experiential exercises with several of them.
It would be appropriate for both individuals interested in
working with their own dreams and for professional therapists interested
in acquiring more techniques for helping clients to explore their
dreams.
REFERENCES
Barrett, D.L. The Hypnotic Dream: Its Relation to
Nocturnal
Dreams and Waking Fantasies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, p. 584-591.
Dane, J. A
Comparison of Waking Instructions and Post-Hypnotic
Suggestions for Lucid Dream Induction.
Dissertation, 1985,
Georgia State University. (Univ. Microfilms Int.
#8503800)
Tart, C. T. A comparison of suggested dreams
occurring in
hypnosis and sleep.
International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis, 1964, Vol 12.
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