Psychonaut

Psychonaut is a term that comes from the Greek words psychē (mind) and naútēs (sailor).  A psychonaut is a sailor of the mind or explorer of the mind.  This is an exploration of the psyche.  It is my personal odyssey of self-realization from initiation to selfhood charting an extraordinary adventure with my unconscious through dream analysis.  It is a voyage of discovery through the mind bringing a modern man into greater relationship with himself, the world, the universe and revealing his true identity.  I have striven for elucidation in this text so that no previous understanding of dream analysis or depth psychology should be required to follow my inner journey.

Individuation is the psychological process of becoming an individual.  It is the drive for psychological maturity, wholeness and selfhood.  Individuation and self-actualization go hand in hand: the more we realize ourself, the more we can realize our potential and fulfil our destiny.  Dreams are produced by our unconscious mind and dream analysis is a means by which we can facilitate our individuation and engage with our unconscious.  Creating art, writing poetry and active imagination etc. are other mediums through which our unconscious can communicate with us and help us to realize our greater selves.  This book is an illustration of my individuation and is what Joseph Campbell described as the hero’s journey.

Prior to this dream series I had dreams like everyone else but never took much notice of them.  Dreams were just something that happened in the background of my mind which were a cause of amusement or unease but were never to be taken seriously as a source of healing, wisdom and guidance from my unconscious.  And some dreams can take years to fully comprehend which may be due to resistance, inexperience of analysis or lack of insight.  Thus there are dreams in this series that I have added some further analysis from the benefit of hindsight.  I made the decision to do this so that my readers can follow my progress and get the maximum import of my dreams from my latter thinking, experience and insight.