Light in the Well—A Kaleidoscope of Love
Stories from the Inner Side
A group reentry
The following transcript, transcribed from video, originated in a guided Dream Reentry Healing group at the Dream House in San Francisco. The dreamer, a member of the group, chose a physical symptom to enter during the guided reentry. The text begins with her sharing what she experience during the guided process and proceeds from that point forward.
Fred: Now, tonight, each of you selected a conflict situation for your journey. It appears that everybody here today chose to work on an unresolved issue, symptom or life issue. How many of you, when you did what you chose to do in the final image, or achieved a result?
D: You mean a positive result, some kind of resolution?
F: Yes, something moved forward, or changed Two people, three, how many found you were really stuck, nothing moved at all, three of you. You said both (one group member indicated a mixed outcome).
R: Yeah.
(Group laughs)
F: How many knew what you wanted to do?
D: Well, there was a real problem between knowing the result that I wanted and knowing how to get the result.
F: Okay.
D: I knew the result that I wanted, but I wasn't sure what to try in order to get there. I tried something that didn't work.
S: Mine was just the opposite, I knew what I wanted to try but I didn't know what I wanted to do.
(laughter)
S: When I tried it 1 found something that was very good. So, that was nice.
F: Any other general comments about what you experienced?
M: I felt somewhat that I needed, I couldn't resolve it alone, that I needed to talk with someone else to resolve it.
F: Okay
M: That I could go so far myself. It wasn't a dream. It was a physical symptom.
F: Okay
M: And uh, some kind of knowledge that perhaps this was due to a relationship problem.
F: Okay. And you saw a picture?
M: Yes, uh huh.
F: Okay, good, why don't we work with yours. You went into a symptom. Would you like to tell us what the symptom was?
M.: Yes, the symptom is, it's a place in the middle of my back between my shoulder blades. It's about this large. For a couple of days it’s felt real tense and dense. It went away for like it was gone yesterday. I woke up this morning and it was smack dab there again. I did have a dream last night, but I'm not sure that's related to it at all.
F: It might be. Let's stay with the symptom and the image that came up when you entered it. What did you
see?
M: I saw, uhm, I mean the whole thing feels circular. In the middle of this kind of sphere is kind of this clear space that was the color of the sky, sky blue.
F: Okay. It was clear and it was sky blue in the middle of this dark or emanating place?
M: Almost as if I could pass the whole in the middle of the dark circle.
F: And were you in that scene?
M: No, I saw it.
F: You saw it from where?
M: Well, from behind my eyes.
F: Okay. And what did you want to do9
M: I wanted to dissolve the painful mass.
F: Okay, and you had a sense that you needed to talk to somebody or work with somebody else on that.
M: Probably, yes, I could only go so far in resolving it myself, so maybe that's mistaken.
F: No, that's okay, that's a starting point. That's what you came to. So you felt that you needed to connect with somebody else to help dissolve that mass.
M: Yes, and I also had the feeling that I would like to do as much as I could to dissolve it myself. Perhaps it's an old issue of mine that's coming up, and it doesn't have anything to do with anybody else. I'm just using someone else as the scapegoat so I don't have to deal with my own problem.
F: This is a particular person?
M: Uh huh, I feel like…
F: You don't have to give names. Is this a present person in your life?
M: Yes.
F: Can you see that person right now?
M: Yes.
F: Do you see how they can help you dissolve it?
M: Yes.
F: Okay. Do you know what you would like to tell them about that?
M: Yes.
F: And what happens when you say it?
M: I'm not sure that the person is honest with me and gives me the true facts about what might be bothering me.
F: Okay, would you like to share that feeling with them, that you're not sure that you trust them, that they are being honest9
M: I have, yes.
F: You have in real life?
M: Yes
F: And that didn't work.
M: No, it gets more complicated.
F: It gets more complicated. Okay, so, that doesn't work and you feel like working on it yourself somehow might help, at least deal with some of it.
M: Yes. At least I could come to this person in a clearer way perhaps.
F: Can you be aware of yourself in relationship to that mass?
M: Be aware of myself in relationship to it? Well, I'm around it, it's in me.
F: Okay, and what would you like to do with it?
M: Well, the first thing that I got during the process, was when you said to do something in the picture, I climbed down into the light space.
F: Okay, can you be there now, having climbed down inside?
M: Yes.
F: Are you aware of yourself there?
M: Yes, uh huh.
F: And how old you are9
M: Well, my first reaction is it's my age now.
F: Okay, and what are you wearing?
M: A light sweater and blue jeans.
F: The outfit you are wearing now?
M: Yes.
F: What's it feet like, being there now, in that space, having walked into it?
M: Actually, it feels a little bigger and more expansive, like there's more room to move around.
F: Okay, would you like to move around, and look around?
M: (physically moves and stretches)
F: And when you do that, what do you see?
M: Well, I see more light actually. It's like being in a cave, yet there's a lot of light in the cave.
F: Okay, can you see the cave, see the walls in the cave? See where you are in the cave? How's it feel, being in that cave?
M: It feels a little scary.
F: Okay.
M: Awesome.
F: Okay.
M: Uncertain.
F: Can you describe the cave?
M: It's like a rock cave.
F: Okay, kind of scary.
M: I think.
F: Awesome.
M: It's hard to see the walls of the cave because of the light.
F: Okay, what would you like to do with that?
M: It would be great if I could make the light go all the way out and dissolve that, what I still feel in my back.
F. Okay, so can you get in touch with that light and what you might need to do within the dream in order to move that light out.
M: There's a feeling of wanting to like GAAH!! GLAH!! (gestures of pushing walls away) break out of it physically with my body, with my arms and my legs. Whirl around or make it go away.
F: So, you can do that in your body, or you can do it in the scene. See yourself in the cave?
M: Yes.
F: Would you like to do that? In the dream scene, just do that, move your body as fully as you want to, to just really expand it.
M: (moving around)
F: What happens when you do that?
M: I somehow feel tight in my body, like I need my body along with my imagination to ...
F. Okay, so would you like to move your body? See the cave. Do whatever comes naturally to you about that. You can have the room to do that if you want.
M: Yes, I find myself running sideways and throwing myself, with my shoulder against what might be the side of the cave to collapse it, or something.
F: What happens when you do that?
M: Well, I'm not hurt. I don't feel jarred.
F: What's the result of that, throwing yourself against the cave wall?
M: Now, I want to turn and run against the other side (laughing)
F: Okay, what's happening?
M: I'm throwing myself around the cave, trying to get at all the comers.
F: What's happening to the light as you do that0
M: Well, the light seems not as intense, but it has not gone away
F: Do you want it to go away?
M: No, it's good company.
F: Can you see the source of the light?
M: Not really, it's just all around.
F: What do you feel about the light9
M: I'm grateful that it's there. The light is like a friend, a presence that I welcome.
F: Can you ask the light how it can help you, with this thing in your back, with this cave, with these walls?
M: Yes.
F: And what's its' response?
M: It's always there, it responds that it's always there.
F: How does that feel?
M: It feels very comforting. Now I feel a lot of tears.
F: Okay.
M: Sadness.
F: Okay, get in touch with where those tears are coming from.
M: Like they're coming from the middle of my back.
F: So, let's go to where the tears are coming from. What do you see there as you enter that space of tears, what do you see? Just let them flow . Let them come.
M: I feel a little bit inhibited
F: Okay.
M: I feel like this mass has formed a well. It goes down further.
F: Okay, good. You don't have to share anything that you don't want to, okay, but you can take a journey there and tell me what the results are. So, the well is going deeper. Do you see the water level? Is there water in the well, or is there...?
M: It's at the bottom, there's water at the bottom.
F: And are you there someplace?
M: Yes, I'm trying to avoid getting to the bottom.
F: Would you like to not go to the bottom?
M: I feel like I'd like to not go to the bottom right now, but I know where to go,
F: Okay, good, now that feels like what you need. Okay, good. You know what you would like to do with it. What do you need right now from us?
J: (a group member) How about a hug? J__ and M__ hug. There are a lot of tears and feelings well up for
M___
F: It's okay, keep breathing.
(Fred and M____ hug)
M: (Deep sobbing and release) Whew!..
R: Your back is really hot (touches M's back)
M: (laughs) It's funny, I had a dream early this morning. I was flying through space at an incredibly fast pace, like outer space. I came upon a group of people. I'm not sure who they were. I can't remember that much, but as soon as I got to the group of people I woke with just a start. My whole body just jumped in bed. I was just on the point of shattering, but then later when I woke up, I sort of sat up in bed to look at the clock, or something like that. It's like the tightness in my back... I don't know if it's connected or not, but it must be.
F: Do you recognize the group of people?
(every one laughs in recognition)
M: Yes, it was a group about this size.
F: Okay, you were flying through space and you were afraid you'd shatter. Can you stay in that dream and see what happens, instead of waking up?
would have been a joyful
M: Right now?
F: Just momentarily.
M: If I had continued the dream, it would have been a joyful reunion. I was feeling fantastic as I was flying through space at this incredible speed.
J: (group member) I wonder if there was an analogy there, in that, if you had stayed in the cave and gone to the depths of the well, you might have experienced something joyful, rather than something that you were afraid to encounter. I see a kind of similarity between the dream and what you experienced right now. You know, there's something that we are afraid of. We don't want to get to that place. But something beautiful...
M: (laughing) Forgiving, (laughing) Oh, I feel a lot better now, whew. A lot of the ...
F. I'd like to ask if you'd like to stay (M__ had indicated that she needed to leave early.)
S: (group member). Spread it around ... You spread it around. I got so intent on watching you that I got a stiff neck from it.
(general laughter)
S:. Now I feel better.
J: Send him some light.
(laughter)
F: Can you see your dream, the dream you had last night? See yourself flying through the air?
M: Yes
F: And you're approaching the group.
M: Yes
F: Now, this time don't wake up, what happens?
M: Well, I have a, I have a more gentle, what do you call it, coming to earth.
F: Landing.
M: Landing, and uh, I, I just had this great experience everybody.
(general laughter)
M: Out in space, and I want to share it with you.
F: All right.
M: And I love you all.
F: We love you too.
M: Thanks.
F: And you didn't shatter this time.
M: No.
F: Then, quickly just to touch in. Do you see the well?
M: Yes.
F: And where are you, now, in that scene? You still don't have to go down if you don't want to, I just wanted to check in on the scene.
M: No, I feel much safer about traveling up and down through the well and in and out of the well.
F: Okay, feel that safety.
M: Yeah.
F: What happens as you go down
M: Well, I'm sort of pulling the light down with me
F: Good.
M: Yeah, come on light, let's shine around in a few of these dark corners here.
F: Okay,good.
M: Warm up the water at the bottom
F: Okay.
M: (laughter and breathing with relief)
F: Okay, now, check in on your back.
M: My back feels like it's warm and sort of full of energy. And the feeling is not, is not entirely gone, there's a little bit left. It feels like it's sort of vibrating out.
F: Check in on that place that's not out yet. What's it look like?
M: It's just a little, a little piece left.
F: What's it made of?
M: It's made out of dark, something dark, obsidian.
F: You see that piece of obsidian?
M: Yeah.
F: What would you like to do with it?
M: I'd like to shatter it.
F.: Can you do that?
M: (laughter) I can try, whew! (breathing)
F: What's happening?
M: Well, I'm seeing little pieces of obsidian flying around.
F: Okay.
M: It's sort of like I'm looking through a kaleidoscope.
F: What do you feel about those pieces of obsidian flying around?
M: Well, I put them in the kaleidoscope because I thought they were going to hurt people.
F: Okay, good.
M: I feel like it's in movement.
F: And it's okay?
M: Yeah.
R: (group member) A collide a scope.
M: Isn't that one of those little things you turn with all those little pieces?
R: It's also a great pun, a collide a scope.
F: How's it a pun?
M: Well, the little pieces aren't going to collide with anybody.
F. Oh, collide.
(general laughter)
M: Yes, I feel much warmer and more alive in my whole back area.
F: Okay, now, a little chapter two here. Without telling us what you don't want to tell us, with that new energy, can you see the person you were thinking of before? How is that scene different?
M: I'm more in control. I feel more power in the situation.
F: Okay, and you can see how you can deal with the situation.
M: Yes, I do actually, yes.
F: Good.
M: What is it? There's nothing to fear except fear itself, or something like that?
R: I'd like to look at your collide a scope
(laughter)
J: That's great.
S: Glad you could stay late.
R: So can we ask now? She said two or three things that really stuck with me.
F: Okay
R: One was in the dream you had this morning, one of the things you said about it was that you were, you had the sensation, and then you were going to shatter. And now, just now in this dream with this dark spot, after going through the reentry and feeling a little more comfort with going up and down the well, and before coming down to earth and having a safe landing. Then, the sensation you were having in your back was this dark spot of obsidian. What you came up with that you would want to do with it was to shatter it. To me that's significant. One was the fear of shattering, and then to get rid of this blockage, you chose to shatter.
J: It's almost like the dream suggested the way in which to get rid of the problem. The dream suggests that, well, I don't know if it suggests, but you are afraid in the dream that you are going to be shattered. That may have brought the thought into a way to heal what needed to be healed was actually through shattering.
F: And that the way through ...
S: The solution is in the problem. The answer is in the problem,
F: And what's on the other side is that, if I really get there, it will be joyful.
J: Mm hmmm.
R: Yeah, which is what remains when you collect the shattered bits into a kaleidoscope, it becomes something fascinating.
J: A miracle.
F: So it's okay to shatter.
J: Mm hm.
M: Even in the dream there was a certain, I mean, I know that it would have been safer and more graceful if I had landed on my two feet, or whatever. But there was a certain joy, for some reason in the dream knowing that I was schew, going to shatter upon arrival. It wasn't unpleasant to wake up. I mean my body jarred dramatically as I woke up. That's what woke me up, was that I felt the impact. I didn't have a bad feeling. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling.
F: What we've done is that we've gone through and reprocessed the material without any interpretive work other than what you've done discussing the symbols at the end. Okay, in terms of looking at the symbols and how they relate, it's also a valid thing to do. It's not necessary in terms of what we did to resolve the symptom. It is also beneficial in terms of, on some cognitive level, to do some looking at those symbols to see how they connect into our life. How they are metaphors and so forth, for us as another dimension. You can do it both ways. You can do some symbol work and then go into the reentry, or you can do reentry and then go into the symbol work. The healing takes place from actually going through it. On another level of making that connection, I'm sure you will be living with the process. Whenever you feel that tightening now, or whatever the issue is, that's a signal to you. You can use the process you have just gone through as a pathway to resolve it. Every time it comes up, call up that image and say, I know what happened. I know what the symptom was. I know how to find it. I also know what I did with it. Then you can replay that inner video whenever that comes up. I doubt that it will ever come again in the same way. I'm sure it will come up again, however. Now you will have another pathway to deal with it. Thank you.
M: Thank you.
F: Do you need to leave now?
M: Yes, I do.
F: Let's be in touch.
F: Does anybody else have a piece of work you would like to work on?
Group Reentry: A Dream Transformed: Power on Parade
S: I had an interesting change from a dream. I went back to a dream I had a couple nights ago. I was at a parade and I was down town and I had to get away from there because there were spies or police agents who were out to get me. They were in the neighborhood. This is related to some earlier dreams. My problem in the dream was getting away and going home.
F: Okay.
S: Without going through the dream, when I saw myself go back in it, as you
walked us through our own dreams, I was at first at the edge of the parade. I was part participant and part observer. There was this flow of a parade and it had a lot of power in it. There was a group of people down town, crowding the streets. It was China town. Then, what did I need to do to become more active, or something. I needed to do something to get into the flow of the parade. I needed a banner. All of a sudden I had a flag, you know a staff. It was gray. I don't remember what was on it, nothing vivid except there wasn't any wind. I got that banner and I went right into the parade. Then I was in the middle of it. Somehow, I was driving the parade, I mean, I wasn't the leader, I wasn't in front, with people following me, but I was in the middle and we were all going together. It was a tremendous excitement that I wanted to have this crowd in my control, in a sense. Not to do anything with them, but to feel my strength with this banner and we were all going, but I'm a key figure because I have the flag.
F: All right.
S: So, that turned out to be an opposite feeling from the dream as I had it, where I had to get away from the parade because the spies were out to get me. Here I was a force in the parade. The spies just go away. So, that was a very interesting switch. The reentry just changed the whole character of it, of my whole relationship to the situation.
F: So, you can see in a way that the dream mirrors my fear and then when I reenter it, I can choose how I want to be. It changes the whole power that's there and we can do that in our lives to. Once I have that experience, wherever I feel that fear, where I want to get away from the crowd, I can choose to say wait. I can grab my banner and I can get right in there and be the center. You can apply that to your waking life, good.
S: That would be a good trick, anyway, it's a great entertainment.
F: It will be a good trip.
(laughter)
F: Okay, anybody else?
R: One interesting thing was, she said she was in a cave, in part of her reentry. That was interesting for me because I was also in a cave. I couldn't come up with a dream image that I've had but I have been reading this latest book by Carlos Casteneda. In the book he goes with his benefactor Don Juan to a cave. They sit inside this cave and Don Juan tells Carlos these sorcerer stories. I like that whole chain of books that he's written. In the reentry, I imagine myself going to this cave. The only problem was that there was no sorcerer to tell me the stories.
(laughter)
R: So part of it was, I think you were asking us what we felt in the situation or how we'd like to change it. In the reentry, I was sitting in this cave all alone wishing or hoping that it would be nice to know someone like Don Juan or Carlos who could tell me these incredible far out stories about the sorcerers. There were two things. One was the sort of conflict that I felt because I could do this in my imagination quite handily. Then I started to notice this sensation in my heart that was more like a heart ache, or a sadness or a disappointment, or something along those lines. So, when you asked us to do something that could affect a change, what I did was to stand up and walk outside of the cave onto the ledge. I was, I guess, I was calling or shouting, not so much for help, it was just are there any sorcerers out there. I was just sort of calling out for someone to appear to tell me a story.
(end of tape)
