While I don’t feel particularly heroic in making this short journey across the streets (and hills) of San Francisco, this dream does contain all of the elements of Campbell’s mythic narrative. There was the beginning, with me sitting on the bench on the West Side of San Francisco. And then there was the harrowing journey on the streets, across the rooftops, and over the hills of this city. I faced adversaries, was tempted sometimes by an excursion into a bar, and ended up in a place of beauty and serenity. My goal ended up being appreciation for the architecture, sculpture, and design of an intricate baroque façade. The dream suggested that I value beautiful things (which is an accurate assessment of my values in life). And that I can even appreciate the way in which I can produce beautiful things in my dreams. While I am not an artist in my waking life, I cherish my ability to be an artist in my dreams. It is worth the harrowing journey in my dreams to arrive at this place of beauty.
This dream has been transformative in that it has repeatedly pushed against my current sense of self. It has challenged me to attend more to my creative side—and perhaps even my long-neglected (and even denied) artistic side. In my dream, I am willing to take risks and confront my fears (especially of heights) on behalf of this important desire to find beauty and perhaps even create beauty in my life. I am gently encouraged to move from my current “bench” to a new “bench” where I have an opportunity to be a somewhat different person.
Bill Bridges provides another portrayal of the Transformational journey. In his books concerning transitions (Bridges, 1980; Bridges, 2001), Bridges identifies a multi-stage process that resembles that offered by Joseph Campbell. Bridges describes the push away from our current state (endings), a journey through a state of ambiguity and ambivalence (neutral zone), and the entry into something new and energizing (beginnings). One of the many insights to be offered by Bridges concerns a “requirement” while dwelling in the neutral zone to come to terms with what we have terminated. This means acknowledging the positives in what we have left behind. We must mourn the old before we can fully come to terms with what we are about to embrace. My colleague, Agnes Mura, and I have portrayed this three-stage transition as pushing off in a boat from the shore, the travel on a turbulent sea in dense fog, and the glimmering light of a new land to which we travel (Mura and Bergquist, 2020). We related this journey specifically to the collective struggle in the early years of this decade with COVID-19.
The images that Agnes Mura and I used to describe transitions come partially out of our own dreams during the years of COVID-19. For me, in particular, I had dreamt of taking a journey on a boat through seas that were quite threatening to me, with the prospect of monsters emerging from the depths of the sea to devour me and my fragile boat. In the distance, I could faintly see the light emerging from what I assumed to be a lighthouse. I was never quite sure if I could depend on this faint light for guidance; the light might just be my imagination or a light being cast by some malevolent being. I was frightened in my dream but determined to move forward. I then woke up. The dream was incomplete, and my journey failed me. I never arrived on the other shore, nor even gained a clear view of this new shoreline. The incomplete outcome of this dream motivated me to work with Agnes, when awake, on ways to best envision and achieve arrival at the new shore.
