Thoughts About Dreamwork with Central Alberta Cree
C. Dreamwork in the Classroom
When I am teaching a longer section on dreams I try dreamwork techniques both in and out of class. I would say in general that they are either lost about how to do the technique or resistant. For instance, in one guided imagery technique where they worked individually after the first few steps the level of classroom buzz elevated making it apparent that this was not something with which they were comfortable. I closed the technique early and when reading the dreams and what they had written about them I found that they quite understood how to do the technique but that the sensitive personal issues were much closer to the surface than I had ever experienced before with this technique.
In another class I was able to get further with the technique. The dream of LM illustrates the potential effectiveness of this technique for helping the dreamer bridge cultural beliefs to an interpretation of the problem. LM writes of her dream and immediate reaction to it:
A couple of months ago I had a dream that the mushum's [Cree for grandfathers] were telling me that they were going to take my son, Conrad, away from me. I asked them why, but they would not answer and the dream ended. I keep praying to them to tell me why they were are going to or let me know what they mean. But nothing has happened. Now I worry constantly about my sons.
As part of the technique she rewrote the dream from the point of view of the grandfathers:
I am a grandfather, in the spirit world. I watch over people that need guidance. I am worried about Conrad, because he's really feeling left out or neglected and I have to let his mother know. I shall warn her in her dream. If I say taking away her son, she then might pay attention to his feelings of neglect. It will help guide her through this phase of his life.
It turned out that she had recently had a second son and was concerned that her first son, who was 16 when the baby was born, was feeling neglected. She wrote to me about this in a later assignment:
Then in class when I wrote about it. [I] had another dream that night. This time telling me that I've done everything to make my son happy. I have not neglected him and I think in a way, that since having a new family and a baby, he felt left out.
I also tried a problem solving dream task in another class using dream incubation. This last seemed more successful perhaps because the students were able to work on the material at home on their own. Several straight forward resolutions of their problem occurred including one where a student was concerned about getting a job on her reserve. In doing the incubation activity she realized, via a dream, that a job on a nearby reserve would be fine and would move her out of the band politics. Her incubation question was, "How come I have to go through such a hard time to get employment on my reserve, when nonband members get hired right away?" She dreamt she was working in a happy setting elsewhere. She interpreted it as:
The Enoch Band office is not the only place to work, but because it is convenient travel wise, this is why I am pursuing the issue. But I now realize that there are other places close by where I could seek part-time employment and where I will feel relaxed and welcomed.
In general when Natives give me a dream to "read" they want an interpretation of the message it is conveying. Thus they defer to my authority on dreams as they would to an elder or another dream "reader". They also ask many people what they think of the dream and do not reject these interpretations. In contrast the newest thinking on dreams in our culture is that the dreamer is the owner and final authority on their own dreams (Ullman & Zimmerman, 1979).
I try to bridge these two belief systems by offering some interpretation in the form of questions which seem generated from the dream imagery. In this way the answers remain with the dreamer and I have served as a gentle guide who nudges them to consider it from another perspective. This on occasion leads to a dialogue especially when the dream has had a very powerful impact on the dreamer. In any interpretations/discussion I never shy away from transpersonal interpretations. So if a dream of a deceased relative, which almost universally is seen as a visit I honor and go to what message does he/she have for the student.
It quickly became apparent to me that some belief systems, views of "reality", are best left in place. I in no way accept that my ontological position is correct or true and am a quite adamant with my students about the arbitrariness of white cultures view of reality as bounded, separate and linear. In fact, my own private ontology is very consonent with Natives so the shift to dreams of dead are always visits with messages rather than unprocessed deep unconscious stuff bounded in the individual psychic was quite easy for me to accept.
I do not want to characterize my dream work on say dreams of the dead as not without the influence of my own culture. I do emphasize that it's the message that is most important and don't engage in arguments of ultimate reality of its source. But this ontological shift I am undergoing by being with them is most deeply reflected in my personal involvement which I will now discuss.
Go to: Personal Involvement
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