In the following interview a group character that appeared in many dreams in many forms over many years is interviewed. This demonstrates how you can use IDL to interview a group character.
In this dream interview Gladiola struggles with whether it is “only a dream” to hope for peace and freedom in her life or whether to affirm, grasp, and build that potential. If she doesn’t, then the dream of her life, which is in some ways a nightmare, will continue to crowd out the beautiful dream of her potential.
Gladiola’s struggle is our struggle, and when she awakens her potentials, we all gain. When she succumbs to the cultural and familial dream of her life scripting, we all lose.
What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?
1.Food less important
2.I would like to treat my husband well and not put him into a drawer!
3.Money
Tell me a dream you remember. It can be an old one, a repetitive dream, a nightmare, or one that you’re sure you understand.
I repetitively dream about different apartments that I have actually lived in. They are fantasy apartments and are very strange. For instance, they will have showers when you enter the department! When I wake up I wonder “How is it possible that I don’t know that I don’t own this apartment? Who pays the rent?” I am always so surprised that I have forgotten that I own this apartment. I wonder what sort of apartment it is.
I dream I have to go back to this small apartment. Sometimes I am alone but sometimes my family is there, including my parents. In those dreams I have to stand up for myself: Do I get my space or not? I am always very relieved when I wake up and know my parents haven’t actually moved in.
I also dream of an apartment I find very interesting but I know that as soon as I enter it I will be kept hostage. I always think about having to remember my way out of the building in case I have to escape. I wake up before I become a hostage.
Why do you think that you had this dream?
I started having this dream when I was fifteen. Then I didn’t have it for some time and then I have started having it again. It is a repetitive dream that returns in variations. I have moved very often in my life. We moved from a very tiny apartment into a house when I was a teenager. My parents and I built a house together. When they came moving in it was a horror because they brought so many things. That is a variation of my dream that they will move into my apartment and totally overload and cramp my apartment.
What is this dream about? I somehow believe that there are other places in my life other than the conscious space in which I live.
If this dream were playing at a theater, what name would be on the marquee?
“My Forgotten Homes”
If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?
The apartments
Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor? It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your dream and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind. If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!
Apartments, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?
In all these dreams we are always interesting!
What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?
We like that we are interesting! That invites people to come and see us! We are always colorful and there’s always a front door that you can lock. We don’t let just anybody in!
What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses? What are they?
We are not always tidy! We don’t really care! We hope that we will always be there, that someone will always pay the rent.
But you are dream apartments! Does someone have to pay the rent?
Somebody needs to pay dream rent or we wouldn’t exist. Apparently someone is paying that dream rent because we do exist.
Who?
Maybe someone who respects us.
Apartments, you are in Gladiola’s life experience, correct? She created you, right? Apartment, what aspect of Gladiola do you represent or most closely personify?
Possibilities!
Apartments, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change? If so, how?
We would love to change! We would have wheels and be mobile!
Cool! So what would you look like?
We would have wheels and be a bit like a motor home. Everything is very practical. No gold, unnecessary luxury. Gladiola could drive us around! Inside there’s everything you need! We would like her to take us to the Isle of Rügen! We would like to go to the cliffs above the water and watch both sunrises and sunsets! Gladiola would have to be there. Family could come and visit!
Motor Home, how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing? Why?
(Starts to cry…) Gladiola has some feelings coming up right now. What’s she feeling?
Her longing for this peace! We would like to give it to her!
Aren’t you right now, at this moment, giving it to her?
Yes, but it’s not real!
Didn’t you say you personify possibilities as Apartments, Motor Home?
Yes…
Are you crying here on the cliffs of Rügen too?
Yes, we are sad too!
Why?
Because Gladiola isn’t there!
Why not? Why can’t you have Gladiola in you on the cliffs of Rügen right now?
No. We know her calendar!
We aren’t interested in Gladiola’s calendar! You’re imaginary!
OK. She’s here in me! It feels very good! She’s back again! She had left for quite awhile. Busy taking care of things…
Why didn’t she come to you earlier, Motor Home?
She wanted to but she couldn’t!
Isn’t she inside of you now? Couldn’t she do that at any time?
Yes, but she forgets!
Confidence: 9 Everything is here! We are stable. Nothing can happen to us!
Compassion: 9 We want to always offer what everyone needs!
Wisdom: 8 We are very good at being at the right place at the right time!
Acceptance: 9
Inner Peace: 10 All the other motor homes are envious!
Motor Home, are you sure that Gladiola deserves to have inner peace? Shouldn’t she be taking care of her family?
She can learn to do both!
I can see how you would deserve it, but shouldn’t Gladiola be busy instead?
No!
Witnessing: 9 We are very good at leaning back and letting the drama pass by but we are also good at recognizing it by putting our lights on!
Motor Home, if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different? If so, how?
No.
How would Gladiola’s life be different if she naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?
She’s not very good at staying in one place and witnessing and putting her headlights on. She could be a lot better at that. She wouldn’t be so entangled in so many things. Her life would be completely different! Perhaps it would be different but perhaps boring…
Is your life boring, Motor Home?
No! We always have something different to look at…
If you could live Gladiola life for her, how would you live it differently?
She would go about things differently. She would have more time to do things that she is personally interested in. She would learn to play boogie woogie on the piano! We would immediately grow a little so she could bring her piano with her! She would have her piano on wheels so it could move between the beach and me! Now she’s playing boogie woogie on the beach…and playing everything else too! We want her to play like Constantine Wecker!
Other life changes if you were in charge…
Yes, there would be more, but we don’t know exactly what. We know more what to stop, what not to do…
What?
We would like to find out about all the other things she wants to do so we can support her!
If you could live Gladiola’s waking life for her today, would you handle her three life issues differently? If so, how?
1.Food less important: We don’t think that’s such an important issue!
2.I would like to treat my husband well and not put him into a drawer! We can’t help her with that!
3.Money We would be interested to earn money by asking Gladiola if it’s all right to be rented out so we could make money.
But as a dream motor home, what do you need money for?
We need money to stay as beautiful as we are!
Are these Euros or are these dream dollars?
Dream dollars!
How much dream money would you like to have, Mobile Home?
50.000 Euro a year is enough. It’s stored in a drawer inside me! We like looking at that money, too!
What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of her life?
1. Independence. That we can do what we want!
2. That we can share our own beauty that is inside us with others!
3. Inner peace! It’s so important! All is so hectic! If you have peace and time it makes all the difference!
Motor Home, in what life situations would it be most beneficial for Gladiola to imagine that she is you and act as you would?
When everybody wants something from her! I would rattle all my windows and doors and I would flash my lights! Then her family members would all stop and find out what’s going on here!
Why do you think that you are in Gladiola’s life?
We are a part of her dreams. We keep coming back. Our message for her is for her to rattle her windows, flash her lights, rattle her doors, and honk her horn!
Her family would all be surprised because this would not be the Gladiola they know. But we like it! She should do it?
But shouldn’t she feel guilty because her family now would think she’s crazy or selfish?
It’s good for them to be surprised! It would make them think! It would be good if that happened!
Motor Home, how is Gladiola most likely to ignore what you are saying to her?
No, we think she’s carefully listened. She is already trying to figure out what she can do to get noticed…
What do you recommend, Motor Home?
……..It’s difficult!
Maybe she can go to sleep tonight thinking about you and you can come to her in her dreams and help her problem solve about how best to make herself known to her family…?
We’re for that!
Thank you, Motor Home!
Gladiola, what have you heard yourself say?
Inner Peace! It’s the main thing. Everything else is hectic!
If this experience were a wake-up call from the most central part of who you are, what do you think it would be saying to you?
There are many possibilities!
“This is about you recognizing that most people think their dreams can’t come true today, so they never realize them. This is about making your dreams come true in your consciousness today, now, in the midst of your hectic life.”
Notice that Gladiola became sad when she felt the loss of her dream of being free and at peace on the Isle of Rugen. She had snapped out of being Motor Home and it was no longer her reality. Instead she was locked back in the dream of her everyday reality.
The question and challenge for Gladiola, as it is for all of us, is, “Which dream do I want to feed? The one that feels real but is a nightmare or the one that feels like a fantasy but reflects my potentials and fondest hopes?” Can the two co-exist? Can you feed your dreams without ignoring or pretending that everyday reality is not there? This is a basic division among people. If you say that you can’t, then IDL is not for you, because it’s only for “dreamers.” If you say that you can, then you are choosing to become your potentials, despite what your family, culture, scripting, or experience may tell you is real, true, and possible.
Notice that Motor Home doesn’t have answers for all Gladiola’s life issues. Self-aspects aren’t all-knowing gods, but they have definite strengths, like freedom and inner peace, that we need to claim as our own and grow into.
