I have a very simple way to work with dreams that I think anyone can use. I call it the MovieMethod of dream analysis: Consider your dream as though it were a Hollywood movie. Simply layout the basics of the film script and then decide what improvements to make. You will get remarkable insights by transposing the dream into celluloid.

First, decide who would play you: Sandra Bullock? Susan Sarandon? Hilary Swank? Brad Pitt? Sean Connery? Frank Sinatra? You have hundreds of stars to choose from. Let your intuition cast the actor or actress that would fit for you. Feel free to be choosy: ''I'd like to be played by a combination of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and Madonna in ‘A League of Their Own.''' Add supporting actors in other roles as you wish.

It's important to know that this is your movie. Let me spell that out: You do not play a supporting role. You are not the victim, the villain, the best friend, the village idiot or the school nerd. This is not a tragedy because tragedy is what happens to other people. You are the hero or heroine.

Now that you have cast the main roles, consider the storyline. Your dream may look like raw film script, but it is just a starting point. All scripts go through many rewrites before they are ready for production. Typically, the rewrite of a dream requires a better ending (if the dream even had an ending) and it needs a stronger role for the lead.

Kathleen's dream:

I dream I ''wake up'' to find that there is a stranger, a tramp, in my bed. He is lying next to me. I am incredibly afraid and wake up in a cold sweat.

When Kathleen first told the dream, all she could focus on was the fear so we tried a MovieMethod analysis.

When I asked who would play Kathleen, she laughed and said Angelina Jolie would be perfect. In Kathleen's dream gone Hollywood, the Angelina Jolie character notices that the tramp is asleep. Cold sweat shows on her face and the audience feels tense as it watches. But then, cool as a cucumber, Angelina tiptoes out of the room. Kathleen now knows at least one thing she could have done differently during her dream.

Having found one solution, ideas flowed: Angelina can call for help. Brad Pitt happens to be passing by. Or she can be the hero herself getting a rope and tying up the tramp. After this warmup, Kathleen/Angelina has nerves of steel. She can wake the tramp and order him out of her bed. Then things relaxed considerably. The dreamer changed the cast and went back to the 1950s with Doris Day and Rock Hudson in a romantic comedy.

You can take any dream – even one which may seem unfilmable at first – and play with it in different ways. Change the location, alter the dialogue, bring in new characters, there are no limits. You are finding alternatives that empower the dreamer.

Why MovieMethod Analysis Works:

MovieMethod analysis works because we all already understand the conventions of movie logic.

While dreams often take you to your worst moments and leave you stranded, in movies, we are primed to expect stars to transcend difficult situations. For two hours, Indiana Jones will face death every three minutes but you know things will turn out fine for Harrison Ford. No matter what goes wrong, Julia Roberts will always get her man. The hero/heroine has to get into and out of tough situations because that's the nature of commercial films. Forget Freud, think Hollywood.

If you think about it, in a curious way, we give away a great deal of our own power to fictional heroes. The MovieMethod technique is a way to reclaim these abilities.

So, to get started: Who would play you?

Dream of the Week is an experimental email from David Jenkins. It has the goal of explaining the benefits of this unique way of working with dreams to as wide an audience as possible. Each email shows one of the many techniques I use and is intended to show the reader how I worked with a particular dream. Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. (And unsubscribing information is at the bottom of the email.) If you have any feedback for me about Dream of the Week, please send me an email.

Best wishes