Use 3-2-1 on a dream figure or a body sensation

Take a charged image from a dream, or a sensation that keeps calling for attention, through the full written process.

Pourquoi ça marche

The 3-2-1 Process does not need a real person as its subject. Integral Life's module names a dream image or a disturbing body sensation as equally valid starting points, and the book's sample plans describe using the process on dreams with journaling. A dream figure or a sensation arrives already separated from "me", so it is a natural "it" to start from; moving it through "you" to "I" treats the image as carrying a quality of your own rather than as random noise.

Comment faire

1. Write down the dream, or the body sensation, as soon as you can. Pick the single figure, object or sensation with the strongest charge.
2. Face it: describe it in the third person, in as much sensory detail as you can.
3. Talk to it: ask it who or what it is, where it comes from and what it wants, and write its answers.
4. Be it: write a few lines as the figure or sensation in the first person, then end with a statement of identification.

Données probantes

Integral Life's module article lists a dream image or body sensation as a subject for the process, and Integral Life Practice describes reviewing dreams for a charged figure; the book's sample plans include the process done on dreams with journaling. This is a practitioner method, not a tested one. (anecdotal)

Some dream images and body sensations are tied to painful past experience. If an image will not settle, you feel flooded, or you lose your sense of the present, stop and work with a trained therapist rather than alone.

Sources

• Hamilton, Diane Musho (2017, April 17). The 3-2-1 Shadow Process: Face It, Talk to It, Be It. Integral Life (Integral Life Practice module).
• Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard, A., & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. Integral Books.

Erreur fréquente

Interpreting the dream symbol from the outside ("the snake means...") instead of moving through the three perspectives. The process asks you to speak with the figure and then as it, not to decode it.