The Hidden Lives of Dreams
What They Can Tell Us About Ourselves and How They Can Change Our World
Melinda Powell is a psychotherapist and co-founder of the Dream Research Institute UK, so she is very well-placed to explain the world of dreams and how we can best creatively engage with our own hidden depths. The book is informed by the current science on sleep and dreams, but also by the author's own extensive experience with many significant dreams quoted and explained within the text. For her, dreams have played an important role at key moments of decision and crisis, and it is evident that we also need dreams for their imaginative possibilities at this time. Melinda takes things further by introducing the context of the Imaginal Mind that can often represent the creative wisdom of the spirit within. Symbols are the language of dreams, and these include the sea and trees with their roots in the earth. In this book, Melinda contextualises dreams within the natural world and in relation to our daily lives where dreams represent another aspect of the reality of the dreamer – here readers are invited to interact themselves with dreams related in the book.
Dreams introduce us to a larger realm of meaning that can impart guidance at critical moments, as the author herself recounts. This alone should encourage readers to follow suit. Chapters are arranged thematically, decoding the language of rocks, stones and minerals as well as that of light, the colour blue, and the geometry of dreams in relation to dimensions of consciousness. Later chapters address the power of healing presence in dreams and the journey from fear to freedom potentially represented by nightmares. Then there is an interesting discussion of lucid dreaming, of which Melinda has extensive experience, and where she introduces her notion of Lucid Surrender involving a radical form of trust that opens up a deepening process so that we can 'become more at ease with the unknown and mystery of life', realising that we are embedded in a deeper reality. The book ends with a poignant story of a widow's dream of being swept along in a storm and being told to take hold of a rope (representing reconnection) and to hold it 'firmly but easily' – a beautiful metaphor for trusting life to unfold for our creative development. This is a wise and well-informed book to help you awaken consciousness and the heart.