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The following are questions you can ask yourself, a client or a friend to help explore the meaning of a dream. You may find the dreamer better able to answer your question if you first ask him to pretend that you come from another planet. This way, when you ask him, "Who is Bob Hope" he won't simply answer, "You know who Bob Hope is!" and miss the opportunity of discovering his own specific association to the man. So often, what a dreamer assumes to be general knowledge or fact about a given figure or event is really a very personal web of attitudes beliefs and associations. Furthermore, the words the dreamer uses to describe a dream image will be the best ones to repeat to him in order to trigger relevant associations to his current life situation. Use the interviewer's aid after the dreamer has told you the dream in the first person, present tense, as if he were reliving it. Initial Questions 1. When you re-experience the feelings you had in the dream, do they remind you of anything in your current life? 2. Describe the opening setting of the dream: place, mood, feelings. 3. Does this remind you of anything? Does the location, mood, or these feelings remind you of anything in your life? Ask this about each setting in the dream. 4. Who is "X"? Ask the dreamer to tell you who each person in the dream is. He will respond best if you remind him that you come from another planet and do not know a thing about Earth life. If you avoid asking what does "X" mean to you", you can bypass pre-mature interpretive efforts and help the dreamer better explore and experience the reality of the image. Later questions should then reveal the meanings with less effort as the descriptions make correspondences to life situations evident. 5. What is "X" like? This will encourage the producer to tell you what he thinks of "X", and he will usually supply associations automatically. Another way to phrase this question is to ask what kind of person "X" is. Encourage the dreamer to give you his impressions of the dream person as he is in waking life and not to worry about being accurate or objective. If "X" is a person unknown to the dreamer, ask "What kind of person would you imagine "X" might be like?” 6. What is "X" like in your dream? What is "X" doing in your dream? By asking this sort of question you can find out what sort of "X" aspects are emphasized in a particular dream, as well as how these qualities help or hinder the dreamer. 7. Does "X" remind you of anything in your life? By repeating to the dreamer the description he has just given you (using the same adjectives and tone) the dreamer will often be able to link the description to someone close to himself. If not, you can ask. 8. Is there some part of you which is like "X"? You may meet with resistance here, especially if the dreamer has just described someone he strongly dislikes. While you may see some of "X's" characteristics in the dreamer, timing is all important. An offended producer will not talk much. The part of us that becomes offended is usually a child like component of our psyche. The child must step aside, as it is a higher part of us that interprets dreams. You can always return to this or any question later when the interview has warmed up a bit. 9. What is your waking relationship with "X" like? With this question you are trying to discover the nature of the relationship—intimate, casual, troublesome, enriching, etc. The dreamer will often supply interesting anecdotes of the history of the relationship if given the chance or the encouragement. 10. What is a "Y"? Ask the producer to define each of the major objects in the dream and tell you what it is used for and how it works. Remind him that you come from another planet and have never seen nor heard of a "Y". Re-assure him that you are interested not in scientific accuracy but in his ideas or understanding of what a "Y" is and how it works. If you ask "What does a "Y" mean to you?", you usually get a pre-mature interpretation---get a definition first. 11. What is the "Y" in your dream like and what does it remind you of? When the producer describes his dream objects, he may also add some associations, which you may or may not want to explore further. 12. Describe the major action or events in the dream and tell me what they remind you of in your waking life. With practice, a flexible use of these questions will help to unlock the meaning of a dream. Often you will have to follow-up with questions specific to the given dream. You can use the following to establish a frame work for the interview process. Record the information relative to each of these components on a piece of paper under the following headings. Opening setting:
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