There are times when we come out of the dreamscape and we remember only a fragment of our dream. Or we’re jolted awake by a dream that frightens us. Dreams are real experiences and their full meaning is inside the dream itself. So, it’s the dream experience rather than the memory of our dream which holds the insights and energy we’re looking for. The best way to fill in the gaps and access the guidance, or to overcome nightmare fears, is to go back inside the dream using the technique of dream re-entry. When we learn how to re-enter our dreams, we will be able to:
- Explore dreamscapes and gather useful information
- Talk to dream characters, who may be our spirit guides
- Go beyond nightmare terrors to find healing and resolution
- Find doorways to other worlds (for example, parallel or past lives)
- Have fun and adventure in a deeper reality
Going back inside a dream is one of the easiest ways to become a conscious dreamer and set out on adventures in dream travel. Dream re-entry can be done alone or in a group. When it is done in a group setting, the other members of the group can take on the role of trackers. In this parallel Art of Tracking, we can learn to enter another person’s dream to bring them back helpful information and support them in their own healing. For now, I will share with you the five phases for doing a dream re-entry alone.
1) Choose a dream from your dream journal that has some real energy for you, or one that frightened you, and re-read it. Let it come alive on the screen of your mind. Engage all your senses: seeing it, touching it, smelling it, hearing it, tasting it.
2) Ask yourself the following 2 questions and write down short answers in your dream journal:
- What do I want to know?
- What do I intend to do, once I’m back inside my dream?
The first question sets a general intention, e.g. What’s the message on the card, or what happens next? The second one establishes a travel plan, e.g. I’m going to speak to that person, or see what is behind that closed door.
3) Then relax on your back and follow the flow of your breathing until you feel yourself becoming loose and comfy in your body. If you have a drumming track, you can play it now. Otherwise, simply follow your breath and allow yourself to drift off into a lucid dream state.
4) When you come back from the dream journey, write down some notes or make some drawings in your journal, adding anything else that came through.
5) Finally, come up with some specific steps you will take to honour the guidance you received from re-entering the dream, which you will put into action now.