Gather friends and start a Dream Campfire!
Nighttime dreams are portals into the realms of the unconscious mind. Paying attention to them brings us to a higher level of consciousness, and can give profound guidance for our lives. This suggested group format is based on the work of psychotherapist Jeremy Taylor . This approach understands that the elements of dreams do not have fixed, universal meanings or significance. One element that appears in multiple people's dreams can have as many meanings as there are people who have experienced it.
A group of up to eight people, meeting for a few hours weekly over a period of several weeks, can make profound discoveries about their inner lives together in a Dream Campfire.
Participants are asked to keep a dream journal and to maintain confidentiality about what is shared in the group. Circle around a virtual campfire on a smart phone or computer screen - a video of a campfire that can serve as the background for your conversation.
The first person shares a dream. Then participants can ask questions of the dreamer. The questions should be honest – open-ended, not round-about ways of giving opinions or making judgments. Then allow 3 min of silent mindful meditation on the dream. Then, going clockwise around the campfire circle, each person answers: “If it were my dream, this is the significance it would have for me….” Again, after each person speaks, all the others can ask that person questions.
When circle is complete, then the dreamer can share their discoveries from the responses of the others to their dream.
And then the next dreamer shares a dream, following the same process... until all have participated.