Adventures from the Healing Hut: Dreamwork
By Kristin (Wayan) Morrison
If you think the Bali Spirit Festival is only about yoga and music you haven’t been to the Healing Hut. Got issues? Questions about your life path?
Spiritual practitioners of all types are at the Healing Hut at the Bali Spirit Festival and ready to help. It’s easy. You simply schedule your session,
pay the nominal fee and show up for your session.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 11:00-11:30am: Dreamwork Session
For the last week I’d been hearing about Jane Carleton’s transformative Monday afternoon dream group from various expats in Ubud so when I saw Jane on the roster at the Healing Hut I decided to set up a session.
“Pick a dream that you want more clarity about,” she said.
I told her a dream that I’d had three weeks prior when I was in India:
I am at the airport with my 3-year-old daughter Sophie and we are headed to Bali. Sophie is dark-skinned and quiet. I’ve decided not to have my parents care for Sophie but instead to take her with me on my trip. I’m excited to show her my favorite place in the world.
“Tell me what you would title this dream if it were a book or a movie,” Jane said.
I thought a minute.
“Sophie goes to Bali,” I said.
She then asked me what was true in my waking life within the dream and what was not true.
“The only truth in my waking life is that I was heading to Bali when I had that dream. I don’t have any children,” I said.
“How did you feel when you woke up from the dream?” Jane asked.
“I felt great. I loved my daughter. She was precious. I was excited to show her Bali. I was surprised that I could be a mom and travel to my favorite destination.”
“So this could be a premonition dream or it could be symbolic. Do you want kids?”
“I’m not sure. I’m still trying to figure that out,” I replied.
Jane said, “When we look at this symbolically it could have to do with you bringing your inner 3-year old to Bali. Bali for me evokes my inner 10-year old. I see the Balinese kids running around and it fills me with joy. There’s so much to delight the childlike senses here. Or this 3-year-old could be symbolic of something that happened to you at age three. Perhaps you are ready to heal by bringing that part of you to Bali. We are doing soul work here when we are doing dream work.”
(Readers: there is something significant that happened to me at age 3 so that brought something unconscious to light and it was quite powerful for me.)
Jane and I talked a little more about my dream and I gained even more insight.
The last part of the session involved my taking an action to honor the dream.
“You can write a poem or draw a picture that represents the dream or anything else that you think would help to process the dream even more.”
In spite of my trepidation of drawing in public I decided to draw a picture of Sophie and me at the airport:
“Stick figures are fine,” Jane said.
(Oh good.)
“And one final question: what would the title of this picture be if you had to name it?” Jane asked.
I thought for a minute and then said: “Freedom and responsibility can co-exist for me,” I said.
I thanked her and left feeling more awareness about how to analyze my dreams and clarity about what this dream, in particular, represented to me.
Jane E. Carleton, G.G., M.A. leads dream groups and conducts private dream sessions in Bali. She can be reached at [email protected] or on her Bali cellular phone: 08214446827.
Kristin (Wayan) Morrison is an entrepreneur, author and world-traveler. She lives in Bali and California. Kristin can be reached at: [email protected]