Free Acting Your Dreams: Using Acting Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams by Ben Tousey Page A

think about—which is love. Love is the
premise by which all truth stands or falls. The best description I have for
love is that love will do what it can for the good of all parties represented, including
the sacrificing party. If I love you, then I will stand by you. I will offer to
help you. I will allow myself to be inconvenienced for you. All truth must be
presented in that state of love. For instance, if I tell you something I feel
is “wrong” about you, but there is no love there, then all I have done is
criticized you. There is no truth in criticism. There is no such thing as
criticism in love, which means that there will be no criticism in truth. That
doesn’t mean that the truth won’t shock us like a cold shower, but it does mean
that whatever truth says to us will be said only so that we can reverse our
sails back into the winds of truth, stop fighting it, and start flowing with
it.
     
    So How Does
Myth Play Out in all of This?
    We assume that
the word myth means “false,” or “a made up story,” or worse, “a lie.” The
reality is that the word myth actually means “truth.” Myth refers to a
traditional story of presumably historical events. These stories serve to
reveal part of the worldview of a people, or explain a practice, belief, or
natural phenomenon. In other words, myth is used to represent an aspect truth
in the common language of the people.
     
    Your dreams
rely heavily on myth because myth is such a powerful form of communication. Any
dreamer interested in understanding his or her dreams should be aware of this. Your
dreams will draw on fantastic creatures and symbols. The Dreamwright has to
communicate eternal truth to a finite mindset and all indications are that
there is no easy way to do this. So the Dreamwright makes use of the one
element that works: what we call myth.
     
    Carl Jung recognized
this when he traveled the world. He noticed that in every culture, in every
language, in every ethnicity, in every social group, and in every human, there
were certain common dream images and dream stories, as well as common
dreamscapes. He talked about images such as the Mandala, flying, falling,
serpents, and other forms of mythology. These symbols go back as far as
recorded history, and humans have struggled to understand them since they first
became conscious.
     
    Myth is the
result of this process. Because humanity has been limited in their vocabulary,
and because they have been unable to put into words things that are so far
above them, they tied their truth to the symbolism of myth. Each symbol
represented an aspect of truth, and as their understanding of the world around
them changed, so did their symbols.

In Conclusion:
     
    The steps we’ve
gone through in no way represent an exhaustive look at what an actor will do to
prepare for a role, but they should be just what you need to get you started opening
yourself up to your Dreamwright.
     
    Beware of the
tendency to overanalyze a dream, especially as a beginner. If you get the “Aha”
then you’ve succeeded and you needn’t beat the dream to death trying to glean every
ounce of understanding from it. In my work with creativity I’ve learned that
perfectionism is not a trait that enhances creativity but one that destroys it.
Perfectionism robs us of the joy of creating and then watching that creation
evolve into whatever it chooses to become. Consider this, “Where would any of
us be if God were a perfectionist?”
     
    I remember
after my first book, “The Warrior,” was released, one reader told me how a particular
section of the book affected him. He found such insight in one passage. I never
put his ideas into the story but that’s what he saw when he read the book. I
tell you that because the same is true with your Dreamwright. It is possible to
put more into the story than was originally intended. When this person told me
about his insight I never told him what I revealed to you. The reason was that
I was honored