Ode To A Diamond

Abstract

In this article, the author recounts his first meeting with Philip Bromberg and then focuses on a session of dream work done in a group demonstrating the method of embodied imagination. The dream describes a place of filth where a diamond is found. By holding both states—filth and diamond—simultaneously, an alchemical sublimation process is triggered that combines the healing effect of the diamond and the filth that is paradigmatic for the patient’s cancer. It is discussed how through mimesis, the dreamer can shift into the various states in the dream, and that holding them simultaneously in the body engenders a circulation process called sublimation. This refines the dream states until they become so subtle that they can interpenetrate and cause a salutary shift in problematic embodied conditions.