Intention in Dreams

Paying attention to or intending dreams is important to dream functioning. If I give myself a suggestion as to dream content before I go to sleep, I dream more precisely with less random content and fewer references to events that happened during the day.

When I focus my dreaming self to follow a certain scenario, such as when I do a dream experiment, I am successful in organizing the dream events to follow the pattern, perhaps not closely but there is definitely accord between my goal and the dream. However if I think nothing about what my dream content will be before I go to sleep, it is often unpleasant or negative. Sometimes my dreams are wonderful but less so unless I ask for something wonderful. There’s an aimless quality to the dreams otherwise.

For the past several months I’ve participated in dream experiments in an interest group on www.theintentionexperiment.ning.com. The group is open and free, so join it if you want to participate.

The group, led by Bill Schuh, uses the following procedure: Bill chooses a key holder from a group of volunteers and decides the date of the experiment. The key holder decides the key. The night of the experiment, participants from around the world try to dream the identity of the key. Then, the participants post their dreams to the website. After a few days, the identity of the key is revealed.

My turn as key holder has been very interesting. I chose a plaster cast of the letter M because of its associations to words like mother, mentor, miracle, mystery. You can see the key and my instructions at www.tobyheathcotte.com/fivewaysout.htm.

Here’s a summary of dreamers’ replies: Two people actually cited the letter M. Some tried to describe images like double triangles that were obviously impressions of the letter. At least five people guessed a pomegranate or apple as the key. That seemed an odd reference until some research discovered the pomegranate is used as a symbol for the divine feminine, a goddess especially Persephone, the Goddess, or Mother Mary.

I too dreamed that night, what at first seemed a humorous tangent:

First Grotto Dream – the night of the experiment

In my dream I went alone to a grotto in a woods where I laid a printed copy of the agreement about the experiment. I was aware in the dream that it was not my dining table area that should be the site of the key. I was also aware of my clothing, a long white gown that flowed past my feet like a medieval dress. However I don’t think I needed to walk as I was hovering over the ground, flying low. I went away and then returned to the grotto to find the agreement printed and sealed inside of the grotto. I considered this magic or a miracle as it was not possible in the dream environment to go into the grotto. One could only view it from outside. Some other teachers arrived and we started trying to figure out what caused the miracle of the sealed document and also why and how the dream location changed. The dream subject was an illogical dream sign.

When ideas about the Goddess kept coming from the participants, I searched on Yahoo for the word grotto. Many photos came up of grotto formations in nature. Many other photos showed either natural or manmade grottos honoring female deities, Mother Mary as well as Greek and Celtic goddesses.

Second Grotto Dream – twenty days later – I intentionally tried to dream about the grotto again and was successful.

I awoke with an image of the icon in the grotto. It appeared to transform so it was hard to tell, but I thought of the iris flower with stem and leaves, a cobra’s head and neck, a swan with fluttering wings and curved neck – all three images looked similar in shape and seemed to flash in sequence. Then I saw the same review of the iris, cobra, and swan on the right side of the grotto. On the left appeared faint images like copies of checks the bank sends, three checks in all to match the three images.

I believe the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, Mother Mary, whatever you want to call Her, visited me that night and directed my energy to the real image. She also visited many of the other dreamers to show them the pomegranate, a symbol of Her to make us all more aware of Her truth in our lives.

This insight about dreaming intentionally is new to me. I believe intending dreams might be a step up in consciousness for humanity. If human life is about becoming more conscious and more consciously in control of creating our reality, both literally and symbolically, then dreaming intentionally would be more productive and revelatory than dreaming randomly or as a reaction to daily functioning.