2025 Dream Group: Opening Doors, Opening Hearts

Sunday was the first session of the 2025 Dream Group, and it moved me more than I expected.

People from different parts of the world, different cultures, different lives—all in one virtual room. And for ninety minutes, none of that mattered. Because we all share the same language: we dream. Every one of us. And when you bring dreams into a room, the barriers dissolve.

The method we use is Montague Ullman’s “If this were my dream…” approach. It’s deceptively simple. One person shares a dream. The rest of us respond as if the dream were our own. No interpreting someone else’s dream for them. No telling them what it means. Just: if this were my dream, here’s what I’d notice.

The first dreamer shared a recurring dream. The group listened—not just to the details, but to the emotions underneath. People asked questions. They offered their own associations. And gradually, the dreamer started focusing on one image: a door.

At first it seemed ordinary. A door. So what? But as we sat with it, the symbolism unfolded. A door opens and closes. It protects and exposes. It offers safety or freedom. It lets people in or keeps them out. And what happens when a door stays shut too long? The handle rusts. The hinges freeze. It becomes a wall. And walls, unlike doors, can’t be opened.

“If this were my dream,” I said, “I’d see the door as a message: open up. Be vulnerable. Let others in.” And I felt the truth of those words settle in my chest. I thought about the times I’ve kept my own doors shut—tried to protect people from the storms I carry. But a closed door doesn’t protect anyone. It isolates everyone.

That’s what happened in ninety minutes with a group of people who’d mostly never met. A dream about a door became something personal for every person in the room.

Dreams aren’t just for the dreamer. They’re for all of us. They’re mirrors, showing truths we’re too busy or too afraid to see when we’re awake.

What might your dreams be telling you? What door are they asking you to open?