Rewiring the brain with Dream Alchemy
Imagine you have a dream about climbing an endless staircase, one that doubles back on itself just when the last step is in sight, or one that twists like a mobius strip, or tricks the eye like an Escher print. It’s quite a common dream, and, like all unresolved dreams, it reflects an unresolved situation in waking life. It might be as simple as a creative problem you can’t resolve at work, or as complex
Interpreting dreams on The Morning Show, Channel 7
Here’s the video from my segment on The Morning Show (Channel Seven, national) this morning, with presenters Kylie and James. We look at video clips of people filmed in the street yesterday describing their dreams, and discuss what they mean and how we can apply the insight we gain from looking into dreams to make our life experiences better. (Sorry, video no longer available.)
Purple haze or How things change
Picture this: You look into the mirror at three years old and recognise yourself. The next day the mirror tells the same story. And the next and the next. Okay, so one day a tooth falls out and your mirror picture shows you without your tooth, but otherwise nothing has changed. Day by day, year by year, the mirror tells the same story, “Yep. This is you. Much the same as yesterday really.” Roll on
A year of dreams
Every morning for a year, Seattle conceptual performance artist Amy-Ellen Flatchestedmama Trefsger recorded her dreams to video. Bleary eyed, yawning, and honouring her commitment for arts sake not to look in the mirror before recording, she notched up over 170 dreams across 52 weekly videos. She titled her project, Sharing My Subconscious, and asked me to review and analyse the dreams and make a response video to complete the work. Here’s Amy Ellen, followed by
Beyond cure and prevention
What drives you to consult a doctor, therapist, or counsellor? Do you book an appointment when you’re sick, suffering, stressed, blocked, or faced with a conflict or problem you can’t solve? Do you book seeking a cure for your ills, physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual? Do you also consult when you are feeling well, seeking guidance on maintaining your health and wellbeing, investing in prevention? If you practised as a medical doctor in China in
What does dreaming of losing teeth mean?
“My recurring dream is gross. I lose all my teeth,” said Chloe, calling into the dream segment on the PowerPack Breakfast show. “How common is this type of dream, and what does it mean?” I’ve been doing this segment long enough now for the show’s presenters, Steve and Abbey, to kick off with good questions. They know that our dream symbols are personal. “Do you grind your teeth?” asked Steve. “Do you have kids around
Does my dream mean bad luck?
“I dreamed I was jousting on horseback, and my opponent stabbed me in the chest with his lance,” said Mike, who called the PowerPack Breakfast show last week to ask me about his dream. “I fell out of bed with the impact,” he laughed. “What does it mean? Am I going to have bad luck? As Mike was telling me about his dream, I was reminded of Alfred Maury, a 19th century French scholar and
Dream Alchemy in Phnom Penh
I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last month, giving a workshop on Dream Therapy to creative arts therapists, which attracted Phoenix Jay of Phnom Penh’s The Advisor to interview me for their cover story. It’s a broad ranging yet deep interview, which includes a discussion of trauma, Jung, Freud, and an interpretation of Phoenix’s recurring dream and her response. I’ve picked out some extracts for you as a taster: Extract Jane Teresa: If someone comes
The power of taste
Maybe I should open a patisserie. I had tasted the most delicious concoction of a cake in a dream. Architecturally it was a stand-out, a creamy white abstract puff atop a stack of four dried figs. I passed the cake around for everyone to taste. On closer examination, I noticed the figs weren’t figs after all. They were biscuits shaped like figs. Freud might have taken a sexual approach to interpreting my dream – a
Dream drummer
“Three times this week I dreamed I was the new drummer for American band Blink 182,” said Brad, calling PowerFM’s PowerPack Breakfast show where I was interpreting dreams. The drums were bike powered, and the faster Brad peddled, the better the drums sounded. Although he can’t play the drums in waking life, he was a brilliant drummer in his dreams, and the crowds loved it almost as much as he did. There was no performance