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THE TECHNIQUE OF PERSONAL PROJECTIONS If it was my dream...   Elaborated in the Seventies by the american psychiatrist Montague Ullman, the analysis of dreams in small groups by the technique of personal projections is a recent form of dream exploration which tends to give back to the dream its collective and social dimension by avoiding the interpretative interferences related to the theoretical positions and the authority of individual interpreters. The role of the group is to bring an help to the dreamer while preserving his personal authority on his dream. Initially developed in Sweden and mainly popularized by the American Pasteur Jeremy Taylor, the projective technique was largely practised in the United States by groups of dreamers who sprung up in the Eighties. It appeals essentially to our intuitive faculties. Its principle is simple : clarify the dream of the other in making it your own and in proposing our own points of view on a dream then shared (our personal projections). Unlike the traditional dream interpretation methods, freudian and junguian, the projective technique is not strictly a "therapeutic" approach even if, because of its social dimension, it is very often the case.   THE FOUR MAIN STAGES OF THE PROJECTIVE EXPLORATION   First stage (subjective and individual level), the dreamer is brought to report his dream, at present tense (a short and recent dream, preferably). The group listens attentively to the dream account. In order to grasp the dream well and to take it over in an imaginary way, the members of the group can ask questions on its content, not on its waking state context. Second stage : the group take over the dream which has just been just shared and each participant is invited to tell his personal projections on the different parts of the dream (subjective and groupal level). Each one projects freely and spontaneously his points of view, feelings, associations and personal intuitions on a dream then considered as his own. "If it was my dream, I think that..." Put aside, the dreamer listens and takes note of the offered projections. Allowing for exceptions, he does not intervene in the work of "brain-storming" carried out by the group. Third stage : the dream is given back to the dreamer and the dialogue can take place again with the group. The dreamer answers to the questions of the participants about the waking state context of the dream (objective level) and he gives his opinion on the given projections. Fourth stage : the group helps the dreamer to relate to the waking state context of his dream the projections which clarified its content (interjective level). Two essential rules : - Confidentiality of the personal information given during the exploration of the dream. - The dreamer keeps his dream under control. He is free to answer or not to the questions which are asked on the waking state context of his dream. He can decide at any time to end the exploration work.

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LUCID DREAM INDUCTION To be lucid in dreams, it is just to dream being aware to live a dream... Unlike the common dreamer, the lucid dreamer takes his dream as it is : an hallucinatory/inner experience lived in a dream state and not an inner experience lived in waking state. To reach self-awareness in dream, you can use the proven method described underneath, based both on the Mild method described by the american Stephen Laberge in his book Lucid dreaming and the reflexive technique elaborated by the german Paul Tholey. The method puts together three types of exercises : during the day, before sleeping and after a nocturnal awakening. Exercise in waking state 1. Before formulating your intention to dream lucidly, and as often as possible (at least three times a day), ask yourself the question : «Am I dreaming ?» Test the stability of your current perceptions. - Observe an object noticing its characteristics, then look elsewhere; observe it again. Is it the same ? For example, does the room keep the same shape and the same dimension ? Check the good functioning of your memory ? - Back up mentally the course of the events you just lived. Are you prone to be forgetful ? 2. After this meticulous "reality test", imagine as intensely as possible that you are really dreaming. Imagine yourself in a dream in which you are conscious to dream. 3. Then, say to yourself with determination : Next time I am going effectively to dream, I absolutely want to remind that I am dreaming It is advised to choose in advance certain opportunities to practice the exercise in waking state. For example, you could ask the question to yourself the question «Am I dreaming ?» when you use the key of your house or the one of your car... The visualization helps to remind the circumstance associated with the question. If you have the intention to test the reality when you are using a key, imagine yourself at that time reminding your intention and effectively carrying out this verification. Exercise before sleeping 1. Into bed, take some minutes to completely relax and appeal to one or the other of the following methods : - Yoga or other exercises of relaxation, among which the swedish gymnastic. - The progressive relaxation. During ten seconds or more, tighten and successively relax shoulders, hands and arms, feet and legs, pelvis, abdomen, neck, cheeks, jaw and brow muscles. 2. Try to forget your daytime worries. Deeply breath and let enter in yourself calming and peace at each expiration. 3. Remember a recent dream. - Imagine yourself in this dream and notice any unusual thing that identify it as a dream. - Think the next night to pay attention to such anomalies, considered as indications of your dream state. For example, if you speak to an animal, think to notice the strangeness of this conversation, and say to yourself : That's strange, animals don't speak. I must be dreaming With determination, say to yourself : In my next dream, I will be conscious that I dream It is better be to repeat it. Nocturnal exercise (after an awakening from a dream). It is important to practice this exercise after each awakening, otherwise it reduces the worth of the other exercises. 1. Do not move a muscle during a minute or two in order to facilitate the dream recall. 2. To awake completely. Rinsing ones eyes with a wash glove can be sufficient to awake you enough to practice this night exercise. 3. Carefully memorize everything you can recall of the dream. Examine it in detail and remember as clearly as possible the feelings that you experienced. 4. Switch on the light and devote yourself to reading or meditation during five or ten minutes, so as to awake you completely and to make work at full capacity your mental faculties. 5. When you are going to fall asleep again, tell yourself : "During my next dream, I will be conscious that I dream." 6. Then, as intensively as possible, visualize your sleeping body lying on the bed. Imagine yourself in the reminded dream, realizing that you are dreaming. The most you will repeat this visualization the better it would be. 7. Tell yourself again : "In my next dream, I will become aware that I am dreaming."   N-B : This night exercise of synchronization of the cerebral hemispheres seems the one which gives the best results. Its principle is to associate by a concomitant functioning our right brain (linked with the analogical mental processes of the dream during which we "reason") and our left brain (linked with the logical mental processes of the waking state during which we "resonate"). This is why reading or any other exercise calling upon our reason is advised after the end of the dream.