Many Layers of
a Dream
Maria Volchenko, PhD,
(Philosophy, Logic), is a certified member of the International
Board for Regression Therapy. She teaches dreamwork to students of
psychology in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She is author of two
books on dreamwork and a number of papers (more at
www.dream-art.ru).
Abstract
Re-entry and analysis of dreams
recorded in the course of 30 years of dream practice gave me the
idea of a multi-layers approach to the understanding of dream
content. The ability to see dream meaning more deeply is directly
connected to the development of memory. My work with students
proved that different people pass through the same stages in
understanding dream content and developing memory. The process of
developing dreamer skills begins with exfoliation of fragments of
different dreams that stick together at the moment of wakening.
Then a dreamer restores a dream fragment. It becomes quite a
logical story, and its meaning might differ a lot from the
original setting of some dreams. At this stage, the dreamer begins
to get a new idea of dream space geography and dimensions.
Considering these dreams together helps to reveal another layer of
their meaning. The next stage of dream memory development leads to
memorizing short dreams that connect 'main' dreams into a
continuous flow. In my experience, these short 'connecting' dream
images come directly from recent day life and give an additional
layer of meaning. When one is able to keep many dreams in one's
memory, then one can see dream events, characters, and objects
that connect dreams into chains. The most interesting cases are
dream chains with intervals of some years between dreams. Analysis
of this kind of chain of dreams leads to another layer of the
dream meaning, when dream content is highly correlated to waking
life events. It is getting close to some shamanic ideas of dream
understanding. Finally, experienced dreamers can see another layer
of dream understanding connected to signs of past and future. The
idea of a multi-layer approach to dream analysis is illustrated by
a chain of dreams.
