Interviewing People, Events, and Objects
People, events, and objects are part of your waking dream. Just as you are sure you are awake while you are dreaming you are even more certain that you are awake right now. The truth is, whatever state we are in at the moment is what is real and “awake;” the states that we are not in at the moment are relatively unreal. This is the intrinsic, inescapable bias of our present perspective. It privileges our present perspective while discriminating against all others.
To say that people, events, and waking objects are part of your waking dream is not to imply that people and events are imaginary or self-created; it is only to acknowledge that all that you can know and experience of people, events, and objects are the assumptions and expectations that have in your own mind, which you assume are accurate and therefore direct your thinking, feeling, and actions, and which you project upon them. While your interpretations are unavoidable, they can be recognized, compensated for, and neutralized. When you do so you take a perspective that transcends and includes the one you previously held. In this respect, you become free. If you are in conflict with a person in your life, treating them as if they were a part of yourself and interviewing your mental image of them can help you not only to understand the roots of your conflict but help you to outgrow it. If you are experiencing nightmarish events like loss of a job, a loved one, or a health crisis, you can resolve it much more rapidly and effectively if you will take a few minutes to interview it using the IDL interviewing protocol. If you wonder why some object is in your life, you can learn more by interviewing it.
One powerful example of a waking interview is to take a repetitive nightmarish daydream or flashback such is common with post-traumatic stress disorder. These experiences are very much waking nightmares from which one cannot easily awaken. They continue to repeat, reinforcing anxiety and feelings of victimization. Interviewing characters in the waking dream tends to break up the fixation on the experience by reframing it from the perspectives of other aspects of ourselves that are heavily invested in the same event. To learn more about the relationship between nightmares, sleep terrors, and post-traumatic stress disorder, see How to End Nightmares for Good.