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
A Nightmare on Elm Street
“What does the nightmare in A Nightmare on Elm Street mean?” asked Steve and Abbey, presenters of the PowerPack breakfast show where I interpret callers’ dreams. I’m a movie lover, but horror is not my genre, and it took a few arm twists before I agreed to download it so I could answer the question. “Don’t watch it alone,” Abbey warned, “I wouldn’t.” So I watched it with my husband, Michael, and son, Euan, and
Camouflage and the facts of life
I was looking through the window, settling into blog-writing mode while watching the play of sunlight and shade move across a particularly beautiful rock, when I realised that part of the rock wasn’t rock at all. It was a large, sunbathing, frilled lizard. I tried shifting my gaze in an effort to blend him back into rock, but I couldn’t do it. Camouflaged one instant, revealed forever the next. My world shifted. The rock solid
Samsara Alchemy
I saw the movie Samsara yesterday, and awoke this morning with a New Year alchemy idea for you to do. I’ve called it Samsara Alchemy, and as I type those words something deep within jumps to attention and formulates a concept for a book by that title, so I take a note to self. In Sanskrit, Samsara means continuous flow, the repeating cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth – impermanence, the ever turning wheel
Dream Alchemy ebook published by Hachette today!
I’m delighted to announce that Hachette have just published my book, Dream Alchemy, in Kindle edition. PS 2018: Dream Alchemy was updated and retitled as The Dream Handbook, published by Hachette in Australia and by Little Brown in the UK. You can buy it at the above link. Ask Jane Teresa about a dream
Singing with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant
Have you ever met and deeply related with a celebrity or well-known public figure in a dream? How did you feel when you woke up and recalled the dream? Did you feel as if you really made contact, as if it were more than a dream? Did you feel inspired, or energised in some way? Earlier this week, I was called onto Sydney’s Mix106.5 Rosso and Claire breakfast show to comment on Rosso’s dream. “I
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nightmares: a cure?
Are dreams always symbolic? What about recurring nightmares in which the dreamer relives an actual traumatic experience, over and over again, sometimes several times a week, often for decades? This can be the case for people with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder, a type of anxiety disorder following a traumatic experience). How can these replay nightmares be stopped? Can dream alchemy be applied to transform these kinds of nightmares and their underlying issues? Nightmares disrupt