helpful  to  give  our drawing  to someone  else  and,  not
telling  them  the  dream, ask  them  to  make  up  a  story
about  the  drawing.  The   other  person  will  unwittingly
pick up on the clues our hands have left behind and these
clues will influence the story that  unfolds. The  person's
story  may  not particularly resemble the dream, but  that
doesn't   matter.  If  we  are  attentive  to  our   emotional
reactions  to  the story as it  is  told, we  might  find  that
parts of  the  story,  the words used,  the themes  and  the
descriptions  of  the  characters  will  trigger  flashes  of
recognition of the meanings in our dream.
      That's  the  theory. Here's  how  it's done  in  practice.
The idea came originally from Fred  Davidson during  an
Atlantic University session  on  dreams. We  have  since
played the  dream  drawing  story  game  in  a  variety  of
settings and have found that it combines a lot of fun with
some valuable insights about the dreams.
      The  game begins by having each person  in the  group
make   a   drawing   of   a   dream. We  allow   perhaps  15
minutes  for  this,  stressing  that  the  purpose  is  not  to
create a work of art, but rather to express the theme,  the
action or the  mood of the dream. The instructions are to
make a  single  picture, not  a  series  of  cartoon  frames.
The  picture  may  be  representative of  the dream to  the
last detail or simply an abstract expression of  the dream.
More important, however, is that people  make  drawings
to suit themselves and not be concerned about how other
people will react to  them. Persons  worried  about  their
lack of  "drawing ability"  can  be  honestly reassured that
it  won't  matter—they'll  have just  as  much fun  and  get
just as much out of it as the "artist."
      While  the  dreams  are  being  drawn,  it  is helpful if
people are quiet, so that they can focus more energy into
the drawings. It  is  also important that no one discuss  or
reveal the nature of the dream that is being drawn.
      The  finished drawings are collected and  placed  face
down  in  the   middle  of   the  group. Then   each  person
receives   someone    else's   drawing   without   knowing,
ideally,  who  the  drawing  belongs  to. If  the identity  of
the artist  is  known, we  simply ask that  this information
be ignored.

175