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Senoi Dream Technique

© Florence Cardinal

This is number three of the Dream articles written by Lauri Jean Crowe.
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The first expression of Senoi dream theory was espoused by Kilton Stewart, an American psychologist and adventurer who developed the Senoi Dream Technique, which is directed toward spiritual development through the use of dream control and manipulation. This technique was said to be based on Kilton's expeditions in Malaysia in the 1930s working with the Senoi tribe of hunters and gatherers whose modern-day descendants are known as the Senoi Temiar.

Kilton's work described the dream tribe as being happy, disease-free, and having no mental illness among them which he attributed to their morning dream sharing and extensive dream control techniques (similar to what is today known as lucid dreaming). Outside of psychologist Calvin Hall's work on dream content analysis, this approach to dreamwork was relatively unknown and until transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart brought Kilton's work to the Esalen Institute in the late '60s and early '70s, it was not actively put to practice as a valid method of dreamwork. In fact, many researchers such as Ann Faraday still question its validity based on the fact that further expeditions and study of the Senoi Temiar do not support the evidence put forth in Kilton's earlier work, or the many clinics which have cropped up utilizing the technique since that initial work. However, the fact remains that for some, utilization of Senoi dream theory does work to bring about results in their personal consciousness.

Involved in dream research since the early 1960's psychologist G. William Domhoff, one strong critic of Senoi dream theory, summarizes the basic principles of the technique in three steps:

1. Always confront and conquer the danger in your dreams. If a bear is attacking you in the woods, go toward the bear rather than running from it. If a person strikes you in the dream, fight back. In other words, combat and conquer your monsters rather than feeling them.

2. Always move toward pleasurable experiences in your dreams. If you find yourself flying in a dream, relax and let yourself float on the wind. If you are attracted sexually to an individual in a dream who in the waking world would be a taboo for you (your wife's mother, etc.) let yourself enjoy the experience rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of the situation.

3. Always make your dreams have a positive outcome and exact a creative product from them. Seek the poem, painting, song, or other material that can be extracted creatively from the dream. Look for the gift within the imagery.

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