ABSTRACT

Activating The Food Dream Image to Feed the Subtle Body

Dr. Jean John has a PhD in psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and a MS degree in nutrition and is a registered dietitian. She directs of the Psychesoma Center devoted to nourishing soul and body through experiential and expressive therapeutic work focused in the areas of diet, dream work and dance.

Summary of Presentation

Food dream images may be activated to feed the subtle body, the realm bridging psyche and soma. Three activated food dreams will be presented as viewed through the cycle of life archetype, "food dream images as life", "food dream images as death" and "food dream images as regeneration".

Learning Objectives.

1. To activate the reader’s conscious awareness of the image of food in a dream.
2. To discuss it’s potential to activate the subtle body, and in turn nurture the personal psyche and soma and the psyche and soma of the world.
3. To suggest a method for furthering the individuation of the food image.

Evaluation questions:

1. How can food imagery become a means of aligning a client with the cycle of life archetype, rather than being possessed or split-off from it?
2. How can a food dream be activated to feed the subtle body?
3. Describe a method for furthering the individuation of the food image.

Abstract 

ACTIVATING THE FOOD DREAM IMAGE TO FEED THE SUBTLE BODY

The food dream image has a purpose or telos in our dreams that when activated is given a life of its own through the dreamer. The individuation of the food dream image creates a powerful transformational tool to open the door to the realm of the imagination, the subtle body, bridging psyche and soma. The activation process is the cooking, ingesting, digesting and embodying of the image, giving renewed life to the image within the dreamer. Giving life to the food dream image, its individuation nourishes the subtle body, which thereby feeds the personal and transpersonal soma and psyche.

How can the image of food in our dreams be activated to nourish the subtle body, which in turn feeds the personal psyche and soma and the psyche and soma of the world? Theoretically, any image may be activated to stimulate the subtle body. However, dream images of food and food consumption are unique, in that they are able to feed the imagination through metaphoric consciousness, the language of myth and dream. Metaphoric consciousness is invaluable for healing in the work of psychotherapy, because images act as transformational agents making it a felt experience in both the psyche and soma of the personal and collective unconscious.

To eat, be eaten, and thus be transformed, is the essence of the cycle of life archetype—life, death and regeneration. The cycle of life archetype provides a structure through which the food dreams may be perceived and activated. To activate the food dream image is to stimulate the archetype to reveal itself somatically or psychically. The archetypal perspective of the cycle of life archetype speaks to the vitality of life, the sacrificial and the regenerative nature of the food dream image. It represents a source of vital life, raw matter rising from the vegetable soul, that may be ingested, sacrificed, dismembered, and scattered and finally cooked in the passionate fires that transform death into regeneration. Regeneration intimates that the food dream image is re-membered in a new form and, as such, is a process that furthers the individuation of the food dream image. Individuation of the food dream image offers the image a life of its own.

Three food dreams will be presented, and the activation process discussed for each. The three dreams present examples of "food dream images as life", "food dream images as death" and "food dream images as regeneration". The food dream images were activated through mythologizing, painting, movement and poetry.

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