A 10-week course on dream interpretation is currently being organized with weekly meetings in the Southeast quadrant of Portland, OR. The classes will be two-and-a-half hours each, and the dates, times and locations of each class will be decided by the participants. Classes are scheduled to begin in November or early December 2015. The cost for the course is $60, plus purchase of the book "Always Dreaming" which will be used as a text. The instructor will be dream analyst, David Rivinus.
While learning the principles and techniques of dream interpretation, participants will work on their own dreams in a psychologically safe and congenial atmosphere. The ultimate class goal will be for each participant to successfully interpret his own dreams. By the end of the course, he should be able to: 1) Recognize an important dream that comes into his life. This includes not only the dreams that he experiences during sleep, but also the dream-like events of waking life that Rivinus calls “waking dreams.” 2) Isolate the most significant symbols represented. 3) Go through the process of interpreting the symbols as metaphors. 4) Assemble the various, seemingly-disjointed symbols into a cohesive, instructive story-line. 5) Know how to probe into his own life to discover the personal relevance of the dream.
“Of course it’s nice if you have someone who can help you interpret a dream,” explains Rivinus, “but it’s far better if you can learn to do this yourself.” Rivinus feels that even the most common dream symbols are overlain with a perspective that is unique to each dreamer. “Suppose someone dreams about a car,” he says. “The most generalized symbolic meaning of a car would be that it is a vehicle of some sort.” In that sense the meaning can be generalized to dreamers as a whole. “But each dreamer is going to have a unique experience with cars, and that will lead to a completely personal attitude about them,” he says. Rivinus believes that the personalized attitude of each dreamer must be taken into account when the dream is interpreted. “In our classes we will work hard to make certain that this concept is understood.”
David Rivinus is a dream analyst with over three decades of international experience. He is the author of “Always Dreaming” from Ozark Mountain Publishing. For more information, visit www.teacherofdreams.com.