Unlock Your Dreams – The Ultimate Guide to Analysing and Tracking Dreams with AI and Notion
Learn how to track, analyse, and interpret dreams using AI tools and Notion templates. Unlock hidden meanings and achieve deeper self-discovery through dream journaling.
Introduction: Unveil the Secrets of Your Subconscious Through Dreams
What if the key to your deepest self-growth and insight was hidden in your dreams? Across cultures and time, dreams have been regarded as powerful tools for transformation, revealing subconscious truths that shape our waking lives. In this guide, I’ll show you how to unlock those insights using Jungian techniques, AI tools, and my pre-built Notion templates—making dream interpretation easier than ever.
Why Dream Journaling Works: The Jungian Approach as a Gateway to Your Subconscious
The Jungian method of analytical psychology incorporates direct feedback from dreams, seeing them as a gateway to the subconscious. This gateway provides a peep hole to the raw unconscious material of your psyche and by interpreting the symbols that come up out of it, insights can be constant and abundant. If you are interested in exploring how dreams and the unconscious operate, please see my previous article where I take a deep dive:
Dreams and the Unconscious
In the wide landscape of psychological theory, Carl Jung’s mystical insights into the human psyche stand as towering landmarks. His revolutionary understanding of the complex interplay between our conscious awareness and the mysterious depths of the unconscious mind continues to influence p…
Tackling the subconscious can be tricky. I have found the most difficult part of interpreting one's dreams is that, without aid, it requires a lot of time and practice, and often seeking a professional Jungian Analyst can be expensive.
So, that got me thinking whether I could take advantage of the most recent AI tools and train them to become ones personal Jung dream guide. The goal was to refine the bot so that it is able to respond to the user with full knowledge of Carl Jung’s work which he gained during a lifetime of clinical practice interpreting other peoples dreams.
I myself have employed the help of a Jungian Analyst for the best part of a year to great effect, but alongside this I also have developed my own custom ChatGPT tool to further augment my analysis. So for those who do not wish to spend the money on an analyst, I believe the custom GPT tool does a cracking job at providing personal subconscious insights specific to your current state of mind.
Using AI, I have drastically sped up my rate and quality of interpretation and have successfully tracked themes I may have missed otherwise. This blend of technology and psychology made dream journaling truly effortless.
AI-Powered Dream Analysis: A New Approach to Self-Discovery
The custom ChatGPT tool that I have created is trained on Jungian literature, and takes its interpretation framework from the prominent Jungian scholar Robert A. Johnson.
Johnson sets out a four step system in his book Inner Work to effectively work through dreams systematically, taking the seemingly random and chaotic material of dreams and producing an orderly and easy to follow step-by-step system that makes for easy analysis.
What's more, the last step of the system recommends real life rituals that one can undertake to concretise the process in waking life; a conscious hat tip towards the thing that the dream was hinting at.
Step 1 is to provide the GPT with one of your dreams. It will then pick out each symbol in the dream for you and ask you for your associations on that symbol. Associations are deeply personal to each person, and this direct personal feedback is what makes the process bespoke to each person.
The best associations are the ones that come straight to mind when you think of the symbol in question. The extra juicy associations are the ones you judge yourself for thinking, and the ones that you disregard straight away for whatever reason. Providing the GPT with these natural aversions to certain topics or thoughts is precisely the gold dust that will progress your analysis quickly.
I’d say pick four or five associations for each symbol. But, the gold is when you get an association that ‘clicks’ with the symbol. This feeling of the association clicking is that it just feels right, and you know deep down that the symbols was pointing to this. Its hard to comprehend how this click occurs or what drives it, but it is a real feeling and can be harnessed to great effect. If you have an association that clicks, only enter that association for the symbol and disregard the rest.
Then, once you have given associations that have come up, the GPT will prompt you for Step 2 - Inner Dynamics. Given the symbols and the associations you have now presented, how do these relate with dynamics occurring in your life right now? Spend some time thinking about how these themes may correlate with the ins and outs of your live and input them into the GPT.
I will now provide a couple of examples of symbols, associations, and inner dynamics so the framework is easier to follow:
Example 1
Dream: You’re climbing a steep familiar mountain but keep slipping.
Symbol: Mountain – Generically represents ambition, struggles, or spiritual ascent.
Association: Personally, the mountain may be one you are familiar with, perhaps you went on holiday to this specific mountain with your family lots when you were younger, and so you may associate it with family, happiness, childhood.
Inner Dynamic: Perhaps, the slipping part mirrors your real life struggle to stay in contact with your family. So, through a Jungian lens, the dream might reflect a subtle inner resistance to contacting your family, or perhaps it is just highlighting a blind spot, an inner need to reestablish a connection with them.
Example 2
Dream: You look into a mirror and see your teeth falling out, one by one.
Symbol: Teeth Falling Out - Generically teeth represent confidence, control, and personal power.
Association: The image of teeth falling out for you may bring up feelings of anxiety, aging, or a loss of influence in social or professional settings. Feelings of showing up and being seen may be threatened by loss of teeth.
Inner Dynamic: This dream might point to insecurity about losing status, beauty, or control in some area of life. The mirror may suggest a confrontation with self-image and how others perceive you.
The above examples are precisely why Jungian dream symbol dictionaries cannot be effective. Symbols are so personal to the individual, that they could be indicating something very different to what would normally be associated with a mountain, for example.
So, after you have given the GPT your inner dynamics for each symbol, it will then provide you with a detailed interpretation. This, I find, is where the AI comes into its own. It is often difficult to follow the unintuitive train of symbols, how they relate to each other and stack into a meaningful interpretation.
What ChatGPT does so well is that it follows lines of logic that humans may miss. It is able to take on more data than a human and present it in a very digestible way. I have found that often the end product is a clear and precise interpretation that is very well structured, a miracle given the chaotic mix of data you presented it with.
Use this interpretation given by the GPT to hone in on what exactly the dream was trying to get across to you, or if not exact meaning just the general theme.
Finally, as a sort of response to the message, the GPT will offer some rituals that you may like to undertake. These rituals are a great sign of commitment to the dream interpretation process, and often have spooky consequences.
As for all of this, there is limitations to the ChatGPT tool. What it gives to you should always be used as advice and not treated as gospel. It is good practice to write your own interpretation before it gives you it’s version.
Sit with whatever information it gives to you and decide for yourself whether it resonates with the true frequency of the dream. Also, I think it is a great idea to come up with your own rituals, and just use the ones it gives you as recommendations.
Now that you have your completed interpretation, you are ready to store it away for later. For this, I think Notion is the best tool for the job. Notion provides easy and intuitive database set up, and can store a lot of data for free.
Having a good stack of dreams over a long period of time can provide the user with heaps of data which can be then re-analysed by ChatGPT to pick up patterns and trends in personal growth over time.
My Journey: A Year of Tracking Dreams with AI and Notion
I have been tracking my dreams for over a year now, and I have uncovered some staggering insights, insights that have been much augmented by the use of AI tools.
Time is what a lot of people don’t have nowadays, and proper Jungian inquiry takes a lot of time. But the use of AI tools have allowed me to refine my interpretation and storage capabilities of my dreams in a very efficient and cost effective manner.
When one starts dream analysis, one's dream content is often confrontational and not very conducive to integration. My own dreams have traced a journey of psychological growth and self-discovery, moving through phases of challenge, transformation, and ultimately integration, but it all started with more confrontational themes.
Early on, my dreams highlighted struggles with fear, chaos, and insecurity—symbols like dark cupboards, fights with strangers and underground trials reflected my need to confront hidden fears and patterns of avoidance.
As my dreams evolved, they began to show themes of balance, structure, and self-mastery. Symbols like caves and free diving represented my descent into the unconscious and the need to trust myself in navigating unknown depths.
Encounters with my grandfathers and public speakers pointed to integrating wisdom and finding my voice, while taxis symbolised transitions and taking control over my direction.
More recent dreams have emphasised rituals, devotion, and protection, with symbols like white laundry, churches, and pilgrimages reflecting cleansing, commitment, and a movement toward inner harmony. These dreams marked a shift toward integrating fragmented parts of myself and solidifying my sense of purpose.
Looking back, recurring patterns and themes suggest a movement from relying on external validation and authority to developing internal guidance and mastery.
Throughout the ongoing dream interpretation process, archetypes like the shadow and the anima come up frequently. More can be learnt about these in my previous article, but they are basically the most important guides in the dream landscape.
My progression reveals increasing psychological maturity, resilience, and the ability to channel inner energies productively. Through interpreting these dreams, I have learned how facing fears and embracing different parts of myself has brought clarity, confidence, and a deeper connection to my unconscious.
Dream Templates and AI Tools: Start Unlocking Your Subconscious Today
Dream journaling has the power to transform your understanding of yourself, and getting started is easier with the use of free technologies such as ChatGPT and Notion.
I have created tools and templates designed to simplify the process, whether you’re just starting out or ready to take your dream interpretation to the next level.
Download My Pre-Built Notion Dream Journal Template: Skip the setup and start tracking your dreams right away with my customisable template.
Access the Jung ChatGPT Dream Guide: Get instant insights into your dreams using my custom AI tool—exclusive to paid subscribers.
Subscribers can also look forward to monthly bonuses including new templates for specialised dream tracking, updated symbol guides, and exclusive tutorials on advanced techniques such as Active Imagination.
You'll also gain access to future guided meditations, AI script updates to advance automation, and access to the discord community to deepen your understanding and refine your approach.
Whether you’re a beginner or someone experienced in dream work, these resources will save you time and help you unlock deeper meanings hidden in your dreams.
Ready to begin? Subscribe today to access these tools and start your dream transformation journey!