Preface
Sages tell us
life itself is a dream
and the life of an individual is
“a dream into a dream.”
A nighttime dream might then be
“a dream into a dream into a dream.”
And yet: Could it be
that since all of these modes
derive from one great Source,
all are sacred?
I.
Bear with me, reader.
This can’t be told in a few words.
Five months now I’ve been
in a monthly Dream Group on Zoom,
four of us from different parts of the U.S.
taking turns presenting dreams
after which we spend an hour offering
our insights, intuitions and questions.
II.
This month it was my turn.
Here’s my dream:
I’m in a dark motel room
with my wife and a friend.
No clue where we are
or where we’re going.
Suddenly, the room enlarges
to include, without a separating wall,
the motel office and an Indian manager—
a heavy-set man with a bushy mustache—
sitting in a chair beside his desk.
The motel office is lit
and its walls are orange wood.
Between his chair and where “our room” starts
is a strip of wall on which
three rifles are mounted vertically.
I look at the Manager and ask,
“Why do you have guns on the wall?”
He looks at me as if to say,
“Guns?”
and when I look again
I see not rifles but musical instruments:
a mandolin with inlaid wood,
a viola and a violin.
III.
In part of the ensuing discussion
the members of our group ask me questions.
One asks, “What role has India played in your life?”
I answer succinctly and honestly.
“Mother India” and her Sages have played a huge role.*
As we amplify the dream—
a bit like a weaving a quilt together—
it gradually becomes clear
that with his glance,
this “humble Indian motel manager”
has transformed in my perception of
the aggression represented by the rifles
into the androgynous beauty of the instruments.
This has been
the story of my life.
And everyone in the group
seems to get that.
IV.
All the details of the dream
reinforce its theme.
The manager is wearing a plaid shirt.
One companion remarks,
“Plaid has a blend of colours.
That’s what plaid is!”
I say, “It reminds me of the madras
we used to wear in high school.
“Made in India,” a member chimes in.
And our dark motel room?
“On the Path, dark night of the soul,”
but with dear and trusted companions.
One member looks in her Dream Dictionary:
“The number two represents conflict, duality.
Three represents resolution.”
Interesting, at the very least.
V.
I had a thrilling mystical dream not long ago.
In these group sessions our dreams,
unwrapped by persistent, loving focus,
all seem by the end of the hour
to have been “veiled mystical dreams.”
I come away each month feeling
every dream is now mine—
no matter whose head it took place in.
The Dream Group mentioned is through the auspices of the Dream School of “This Jungian Life.”
*Anyone wondering about the author’s “India influences” may go to this article, and a second article to which it’s linked at its end: COMING TO BABA: My 43-Year Romance With Meher Baba»
image: Max Reif