by Mabon Dane

Created on: February 19, 2010

Last night I was dreaming.  In fact there is nothing better than having a conversation with yourself in a dream.  To dream, entering that strange bizarre world in your head a few times each night, peopled with all manner of people, creatures and monsters that talk to you, chase you, or attack you is an intimate and often highly emotional experience.  To have a conversation with some dream part of myself is a sign things are looking good; when they are attacking me as occasionally the vampires, poltergeists and ghouls in my mad dream world occasionally do, then it will be one of those frantic nights when I would rather be having a conversation with a lamp post.  At least the lamp post will not bite my head off.

The problem with talking with lamp posts, that apparently to the neutral observor does not talk back, is that people think you are a raving nutter.  At least in a dream, there is that possibility that a lamp post will talk to you, and nobody will know about it. That is the joy of dreams, apart from the undead creatures with bad attitude, you can talk to yourself, and people will never think you are mad.

I have discovered from personal experience that there are two of me: there is that person who is writing this article; there is the other one, that some call the inner child, who I call the Orphan. My relationship with the Orphan is not good, at least as far as dreams go. Last week he came to me rather lonely and ill, and I ignored him.  Last night my relationship with the Orphan sank to a new low when I was looking to eat him, and he drowned.  My dream experiences as far as my inner child goes is a total disaster, I have been educated.  I will do better, like not trying to eat my inner child for dinner for a start.

Having an inner conversation is healthy, and is good for your mental wellbeing.  Generally, there is only one person you will be dealing with, which is your inner child.  If you are dealing with more talking selves (except in dreams) you are probably moving into the area of schizophrenia.

So what is the inner child? Carl Jung calls him the "Divine Child"; others call him the "Wonder Child"; the Orphan is what I call him.  He can appear in many forms: baby, child, teenager, animal, girl, boy; monster; doll; cartoon; demon.  If you have a poor relationship with your inner child he will appear sick, small, shadowy.  The inner child will also appear in a manner you may feel about

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