Uprooted Plants
11.02.16
Dream Narrative
Many repetitive images of plants being uprooted. However, some remain, with multiple stems. These seem to be a problem, as if they are supposed to be pulled out, like weeds, but remain. I don’t like how I feel in this dream or that I am confused…
My associations to this dream are…
I pull weeds all the time at our lake cabin in Kähnsdorf. The assumption here is that the plants need to go. But is that correct? Do I think some aspects of my life need to be removed that in fact are useful, important or want to remain? This dream motif seemed to repeat multiple times during the night.
Three fundamental life issues
• Clarity in consciousness in general, particularly while meditating
• Building IDL community
• Improving respectful interaction in dreams and recall
Predictions:
Most preferring: (DC); ground
Most rejecting: Plants
Most preferred character: Stems
Most rejected character: DS
Most preferred action: resisting
Most rejected action: uprooted
Most preferred feeling: –
Most rejected feeling: confusion
Dream Sociomatrix Commentary
“The reason I like, like (a lot, love, dislike, dislike a lot, hate, don’t care about, or am accepting toward) (dream element) is…” “What I liked/disliked most about being in this dream is…”
Dream Self: I don’t like myself in this dream because I seem uninvolved and confused. I like the plants and the multiple stems were curious to me. I did not have any preferences toward the action in the dream, implying I was an observer rather than a participant. I did not like feeling confused.
What I like most about being in this dream is…nothing.
What I dislike most about being in this dream is feeling confused and disliking it.
Plants: We don’t care about Dream Self one way or the other. We like ourselves but no more because we are powerless in this dream. We like the Stems as well. We love the ground that nurtures us and out of which we grow. We don’t like at all that we are uprooted because without the ground we can’t grow. We love that at least one of us is resisting getting uprooted. We like a lot that Dream Self dislikes this dream because maybe he will remember it and pay attention to us. We would prefer it if he got clear, so we dislike his confusion.
What we like most about being in this dream is growing.
What I dislike most about being in this dream is getting uprooted.
Stems: We have the same preferences as Plants but are a bit stronger in some of them.
What we like most about being in this dream is resisting being uprooted.
What we dislike most about being in this dream is all of these plants being uprooted for no understandable reason.
Ground: I like the dreamer; he’s trying to understand what’s going on. I like the plants and stems a lot and love myself. I do not care that they get uprooted; life comes and goes in me; I am here to support it, not to care. However, I like a lot that the Stems resist being uprooted. I take it as something of a complement, of my desirability. It is good that Dream Self dislikes this dream; it will help him remember it! I even like his confusion because that increases his motivation to get unconfused by understanding what is going on.
What I like most about being in this dream is being remembered.
What I dislike most about being in this dream is nothing.
Dream Consciousness: I like all the characters a lot. After all, I created them! I am ambivalent about the uprooting; on the one hand, it helped Joseph remember this dream; on the other, I know the plants care and they don’t like it, so I empathize with them. The dislike and confusion are both good, because they helped Joseph remember this dream.
What I like most about creating this dream is getting Joseph’s attention.
What I dislike most about creating this dream is nothing.
What surprises me about what I’ve heard is…
That everybody liked that Dream Self experienced dislike!
Dream Commentary
“If I could change this dream in any way, would I change it? If so, how?”
Plants: We would stay in the ground!
Stems: Agreed!
Ground: Since there was no reason given for all this uprooting then I agree with the Plants and Stems.
Dream consciousness: It would have been better if Dream Self had been involved in something beneficial, like gardening or even clearing land for some purpose, but since he was not, I agree with the others.
Dream Self: I agree. I would much prefer to have been involved in some purposeful activity.
Dreamage
(A rewrite of the dream based on a consensus of dream group member recommendations. If there is no consensus, there can be no dreamage. A synthesis group dream is usually its own dreamage. Read it over before sleep as an affirmation of a higher pattern of internal integration and healing.)
I am gardening, which means that some plants are being uprooted, but it is all in the context of a larger, constructive plan and purpose.
Dream Summary Commentary
(“What part of this dreamer do you most closely personify?
“My strengths are…
“The reason why I am in this dream is…”
“This dream group came together to…”)
Plants: We most closely personify perspectives that are alive and growing. My strengths are that we are multiple and resilient. The reason why I am in this dream is to awaken these qualities within Joseph. This dream group came together to help him develop more objectivity about what he nourishes and throws out of his life.
Stems: I most closely personify the same. My strengths are that I have more resilence, strength and persistence. The reason why I am in this dream is to support the development of these qualities within Joseph. This dream group came together to awaken Joseph to these choices and qualities.
Ground: I most closely personify the substrate of support for growth both internally and externally. My strengths are that I provide support, nurturance and sustenance. The reason why I am in this dream is to enhance Joseph’s identification with my qualities. This dream group came together to support him in developing greater objectivity, to carry clear purpose into the dream state, to get him more in touch with his resilence, strength, persistence and grounding.
Dream Consciousness: I most closely personify the context that both creates this dream, all dreams and all waking experience. My strengths are my objectivity and creativity. The reason why I created this dream is to wake Joseph out of reactions of dislike and confusion. This dream group came together to help Joseph to wake up.
Dream Self: I am hearing these perspectives less interested in the actions of the dream and more interested in me internalizing their characteristics and clarifying my own purposes.
Waking Commentary
As (this dream group member), if I were living this dreamer’s waking life, how would I live it differently? Would I handle this dreamer’s three life issues differently? If so, how?
• Clarity in consciousness in generally, particularly while meditating
• Building IDL community
• Improving respectful interaction in dreams and recall
Plants: Be more in touch with a sense that you are alive, growing, versatile (you have multiple choices) and resilant. Regarding clarity in consciousness, building IDL community and improving espectful interaction in dreams and recall, focus on amplifying these qualities.
Stems: Yes! Resilence, strength and persistance! Regarding clarity in consciousness, building IDL community and improving respectful interaction in dreams and recall, focus on amplifying these qualities.
Ground: An ongoing sense of underlying support, both while awake and dreaming. Not only a sense of being supported, nurtured and sustained but that he himself is supportive, nurturing and sustaining for others. Regarding clarity in consciousness, building IDL community and improving espectful interaction in dreams and recall, focus on amplifying these qualities.
Dream Consciousness: Become me to enhance your objectivity and creativity.
Dream Self: The perspectives and characteristics of these characters and my internalization of them is more important to them than the dream drama or my goals. Reminds me of Tibetan Deity Yoga.
Identification Commentary
If I could designate specific occasions in the dreamer’s waking life when I would recommend that he imagine that he is me, what would those occasions be?
Plants: Becoming us is a good antidote for apathy, indecision, confusion and rigidity.
Stems: Yes, and for powerlessness and aimlessness.
Ground: Become me when you want to feel supported, nurtured, grounded or to personify those qualities for those who need them, like clients and your audience.
Dream Consciousness: Become me when you are lost in subjectivity or lack creativity.
Dream Self: So this is about strengthening characteristics that these perspectives think I need or lack.
Action Plan
(All of the above recommendations for waking life application are not of equal importance. You have to decide how you wish to prioritize them and what you want to do with them. But take some action! It is a way of demonstrating that you take your inner direction seriously. If you have it wrong, future dream groups will cybernetically correct your course.)
There are no specific recommendations in this group. Rather, they seem most interested in me internalizing their qualities.
Sociogram Commentary
Overall Pattern: This is an oppositional pattern with a rejecting perspective (Dream Self), a significantly ambivalent emotion (confusion) and opposition on the acceptance axis among the only two actions in the Dream Sociomatrix. This opposition appears to be mostly due to my confusion, both during the dream(s) and afterward, in attempting to understand them.
Acceptance Axis: Support and nurturance, in the form of all interviewed characters and DC, is strong. The characters even personify these qualities. That underlies the fundamental message: “Be aware of and integrate a sense of underlying and intrinsic support and nurturance!” The only reason there is conflict here is due to delusional misperceptions on the part of Dream Self. Plants and Stems are redundant, surrogates of one another.
Form Axis: Interestingly, there is no rejection here, with the group as a whole accepting Dream Self; he is the only group member that rejects him. Therefore, whatever conflict there is in this group is created solely by me, the dreamer. As both a chooser and as a chosen member of the group, ground, and therefore the qualities that it personifies, are most highly accepting/accepted, preferring/preferred. The surrogate nature is again made clear by their close placement by the group on the Form Axis.
Process Axis: The conflict within the group, created by the misperception of Dream Self (DS), manifests as the oppositional placement of “uprooted” and “remain (resistance).” It is the lack of intention by DS, the lack of purpose or context that bring these two behaviors into conflict. Once there is a larger plan, such as creating a garden or clearing land for some use the conflict disappears. So this is a good example of how perception – and in this case the lack of clear intention – creates conflict where none otherwise exists.
There is, however, an important additional aspect. The Plants do not like being uprooted. There will always be perspectives that will resist change. There are generally good reasons for this. Therefore, it is up to us to have a better reason. Once we hear the reasons of the constituent perspectives we may realize our reason is worse or we don’t have any clear intention, goal or plan at all. In that case we may well change our own mind as a result of integral deep listening.
Affect Axis: The bipolarity of feelings here is perhaps the most surprising aspect of this Dream Sociogram. It would never have been observed if both “disliking” and “confusion” had not been listed as elements. Indeed, the first impulse was only to be in touch with the confusion and to allow the dislike to express itself as preferences or choices by the characters. But since it is included we find a wide, unsuspected chasm between “confusion,” which is equally liked and disliked, and “disliked,” which all of the characters except DS prefer a lot! This implies the same kind of mentality that generates dream and waking nightmares: waking up DS is much more important than his feelings and preferences! This type of awareness is a powerful example of how IDL moves waking identity from psychological geocentrism to polycentrism and disidentification with waking preferences and perspectives. This is concrete, functional, not philosophical or abstract transpersonal awareness. It is not primarily about the development of the cognitive line, although there certainly is an advancement in understanding. Rather, it is primarily about the expansion and thinning of the self line through the taking of multiple, diverse and challenging perspectives.
Dream Group Dynamics Commentary
(In which the various dream group members are provided with an opportunity to express their thoughts on their relationships with their fellow dream group members.)
Plants/Stems: This process has given us an opportunity to more fully understand and appreciate our relationship to the ground, to the earth and what it means. It also expresses our dependency upon the world view or perceptual context that DS/Joseph chooses to take. The more he includes us and our priorities in his perceptual context the more likely his perceptions are to be adequate and satisfying.
Ground: I feel more appreciated, understood and incorporated. If you live out of me I won’t let you down.
Dream Consciousness: The conflicts within this dream group are much more manageable when you do not add your own misperceptions and delusions to them. And so it is with life!
DS: Ground scores closest to Dream Consciousness on both the Acceptance and Form axes, strongly implying that it is the “avatar” or “externalization” of Dream Consciousness in form, as personified in this dream.
Predictions:
Most preferring: DC; Ground √
Most rejecting: DS
Most preferred character: Ground
Most rejected character: DS √
Most preferred action: remain (resist) √
Most rejected action: uprooted √
Most preferred feeling: dislike
Most rejected feeling: confusion √
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“What I am saying to myself is…”
Statements from elaborations are rewritten here as “I” statements.
“I can use this to develop more objectivity about what I nourish or throw out of my life.”
“I am being supported in developing greater objectivity, to carry clear purpose into the dream state, to get more in touch with my resiliance, strength, persistence and grounding.”
“I am being woken out of reactions of dislike and confusion.”
“These perspectives are less interested in the actions in the dream and more interested in me internalizing their characteristics and clarifying my own purposes.”
“I am encouraged to be more in touch with a sense that I am alive, growing, versatile (I have multiple choices) and resilent.”
“I am being given a sense of being supported, nurtured and sustained and also that I myself am supportive, nurturing and sustaining for others.”
“By becoming witnessing contexts I will enhance my objectivity and creativity.”
“Becoming alive, growing, versatile and flexible perspectives is a good antidote for apathy, indecision, confusion and rigidity.”
Some of the basic issues addressed by this dream group are:
• Focus on internalization and hence expanding your identity rather than understanding.
• Your perceptions/misperceptions asleep and awake generate your reality.
