Bettering the World through Dreamwork with Christian Gerike

Can doing your personal dreamwork really improve the world? Our guest this week, Christian Gerike, believes that the more people pay attention to their dreams, the better they will be, and thus the better the world will be. Christian considers himself a dream generalist and is committed to spreading enthusiasm for dreamwork. He argues that working with your dreams helps you learn to look beneath appearances in the world both dreaming and awake. He shares a dream of his in which a mouse needs his help because it is wrapped up in an electronic cord. Throughout this episode, we cover a wide range of important dream fundamentals including the value of dream groups and the “if it were my dream” approach, dream puns, animals in dreams, associations, amplification, and archetypes as well as manifest vs latent content.

After the break we take a call from Cynthia from Sebastopol, CA who shares a dream about being kidnapped and taken to a retreat center which she discovers relates to her recent job loss. Christian then recommends Freud’s book, On Dreams, written for the lay audience, and he talks about how we here in the global West could learn from the many cultures that find much more value in dreaming than we do. He ends by argues that paying attention to your dreams can enhance your natural intuition.

BIO: Christian Gerike writes and teaches in the field of dream studies. He taught dream psychology for several years at Sonoma State University. Recent publications in the IASD DreamTime magazine discuss dream circles and metaphors. In June he co-presented a workshop at the IASD conference in the Netherlands. This fall he will teach dreamwork at Marin College.

Find our guest on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/christian.gerike. He also has a very active group page called California Dreaming which you can find at https://www.facebook.com/groups/679465678853225

This show, episode number 267, was recorded during a live broadcast on July 13, 2024 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz.

Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for the phones.

 

SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on FB and IG @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms released the Monday following the live show. The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal/