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MacColl, Teresa
Dream Wayfinding: Navigating Our Way Through Earth Changes
In this workshop, we will explore “dream wayfinding” as a technique for navigating through this time of prophesied earth changes, to the place of the Fifth Hoop and the heart, where we will “dream the earth” as the earth dreams us. The workshop will be presented in the form of a dream ceremony, with opening and closing prayers, honoring of the ancestors, the directions, and All My Relations. Through a guided dream journey, we will find our place of “balance”, so that we may dream that place of balance into the world.
Indigenous dreaming cultures believe that the earth dreams us as we dream her, and the earth is dreaming our reality. Indigenous wisdom, from the Earth, advises if we want to be healthy, if we want to be healers, we must go to the places where the health exists.
Ancient stories tell of the time when the peoples of the world are reunited and their gifts bring a new world into being. It is said that there will be a time when the gifts of the four sacred colors, red, white, black, and yellow, will come together from the Four Directions and combine to create something new that has not been seen since the beginning of time. It is said that only when humans are open enough in the heart will there be the deep reconnection that allows a true sharing of the sacred and secret teachings. These teachings from the Four Directions come in the form of the four sacred elements—earth, air, fire, and water. The Hopi Wisdomkeepers call this the World of the Fifth Hoop where the four sacred colors will reconnect. The Navajo call this time the Fifth World.
Mesoamerican calendars and indigenous oral traditions identify 2012 as a watershed moment in these great cycles of time and nature. Tradition holds that humanity must make a choice and live that choice. Choices that accommodate the ways of the Earth will lead to survival; choices that continue the postmodern dissociation will lead to destruction. The Elders say: “Nothing is created outside until it is created inside first.”
In this workshop, trained shamanic dreamer and healer Valley Reed will guide us on our “dream wayfinding” journey, to provide us with tools to navigate through these times of prophesied earth changes, to the place of the Fifth Hoop and the heart. The workshop will be presented in the form of a dream ceremony, with opening and closing prayers, honoring of the ancestors, the directions, and All My Relations, facilitated by Teresa MacColl, who practices and teaches indigenous tribal dreaming, indigenous science, and dream ceremony. Through our guided dream journey, we will visit our places of health, and we will find our place of balance, so that we may dream that place of balance back into the world. We will learn to “dream the world, as the world is dreaming us”.
Alfio Maggiolini, PhD
The Typical Content of Dreams in Adolescence and Young Adulthood
One way of understanding how dreams work and “think” is the analysis of their typical themes. The study investigates the specificity of the contents of dreams during adolescence and young adulthood. A dream and a waking episode were collected from each subject (500 males and 500 females, between the ages of 11 and 25) according to “the most recent dream” method, also applied to “a recent life episode”. Both kinds of narratives have been analyzed with the Hall-Van de Castle System (1966), a Typical Content Analysis, a compendium of the most important typical dream taxonomies and a Self-Awareness Scale.
The typical situations of dreams involve the dreamer trying to perform some physical actions, most frequently involving difficulties in mastering a task. Affective relationships and hostile interactions with an enemy are shared by both narratives, while cognitive activities are uncommon in both cases. Sexual content initially increases with age, with a peak at 18 years, then it decreases; instead, attack content constantly decreases. Spatial confusions, gravity content and physical hindering characterize dreams, while friendship situations are more frequent in waking narratives. Females are more focused on interpersonal relationships (e.g., friendship, sexuality, nursing), while males tend to be more involved with relationships involving an ability of the body (e.g. a performance, an exam, some transformations involving the body). Themes including sexuality, performance and attack are more widespread amongst adolescents’ dreams, compared to young adults’ narratives.
The typical content detected by this method is partially different from the themes investigated by Nielsen et al. (2003) through the Typical Dreams Questionnaire.
Kirsten Maier, MA, RCC
Jungian Dreamwork and Common Factors Theory: An Evidence-informed Psychotherapy Practice
Dreamwork as a source of information and a therapeutic technique for change is a time-honoured tradition. Jungian dreamwork has been used for almost 100 years with many different populations to explore the lives of individuals and communities. It can be argued that historically, Jungian analysts have not placed a strong emphasis on creating outcomes research. As the field of psychology has pushed for more evidence-based practice, this has lead to an unfortunate rift between Jungian work and the field of psychology as a whole, to the detriment of both the latter and those seeking psychotherapy. Common Factors theory and research provides a current evidence-informed base in which to situate Jungian dreamwork. This presentation will outline a theoretical framework for the integration of the two. To this end, commonalities and limitations will be described. Clinical aspects will also be discussed to explore best practices in psychotherapy. The development of a strong therapeutic relationship using this framework will be explored both from the point of view of the therapist and the client. This presentation is offered as an addition to the ongoing discussion of combining research and practice.
Michelle Mangini, B.A.,SLPA
Creating with the Dreams of the Earth: An Experimental Workshop Using Guided Imagery to Inspire Visual Works of Art
This workshop will provide a brief explanation of current earth dreaming theories being studied by the presenter. Examples of how dream imagery is used in visual artwork to find connection of human spirit with the earth will also be discussed. The workshop will then move into a hands-on activity. Participants will listen to a guided meditation designed to begin the creative process. Then, they will be encouraged to allow intuition, vision and dreaming experiences to lead and inspire them! Participants should be prepared to explore various earthy materials, including bark, stone, charcoal, wood, shells, sand, etc. Paint, scissors, pencils and paper will also be available.
Uma Jill Markus
Drawing the Dream Awake
Drawing the Dream Awake is an artistic journey into the dream world of the artist to renew her life. The images unfold on a PowerPoint presentation as the artist narrates in person a 30-minute story followed by a question/answer discussion with the audience.
Four years ago the artist could no longer ignore the forces that were speaking through her dreams. Over and over they were warning her that all was not right. She finally turned to them as her deepest source of truth about herself and her life. She retreated into her studio and began to draw her dreams in storybook form. Each dream became a sequence of three to six images drawn in colored pencil. During the hours, days and weeks of drawing the imagery, the dream came alive again and surrendered its wisdom in a way that she had never experienced before. Sometimes when the artist finished drawing a dream, a final image would emerge in her imagination that wanted to be drawn. This image often resolved the conflict of the dream and acted as a bridge between the message of the dream and the remedial action called for in her waking life. This process of Drawing the Dream Awake became a compelling healing quest for the artist, carrying her back to half buried early childhood issues involving incest and abandonment. With the crucial help of a psychotherapist, she used her artistic imagination to integrate and transform the deep archetypal imagery that was surfacing in her dreams.
This is the heroine’s journey. She leaves the castle of denial and dark secrets and sets out into the untamed world of the dream to dig up what was stolen and buried, to retrieve and reintegrate the lost parts and to finally find her way home to her own heart. Animals and the natural world feature strongly in the story and particularly in the beginning and in the end. They bring her down into the journey and are there again to help her re-emerge. It is a uniquely personal story experienced and expressed deeply so that the themes and archetypes are universal which should touch everyone.
Katrina Martin Davenport
The Owl and the Pussycat: Animal Visitations in Dreams and Waking Life
When Katrina Martin Davenport enrolled in a class entitled “Spirituality, Symbols, and Dreams” at her university, she had little idea how powerful the class would be for her. On the first evening, the class worked her dream, titled “Cathawk,” for one-and-a-half hours. The instructor focused on deep dreamwork that pushed past projections and typical dream-symbol interpretations to tap into the collective unconscious and the students’ souls. Once the class was over, Martin Davenport sat stunned: she knew her life had changed. She just wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it.
Not to worry: the universe has ways of showing us what we cannot or do not want to see. Over the course of the next five weeks, Martin Davenport experienced synchronicities, interactions with animals, and further dreams that illuminated her path and gave her a clear message: she is an artist who communicates with nature in order to illuminate the soul that resides in the wild. Her lesson was to come to her artwork from a place of spirit, rather than ego. This would be the key to fully embracing and living her path.
Follow Martin Davenport’s amazing journey as she dreams of and interacts with owls, hawks, and cats and unearths her inner artist.
Adrian Medina-Liberty
Toward a New Theory of Dreams Interpretation
Since the seminal work of Freud, numerous theories and models have been proposed to explain and understand dreams. Although these approaches are diverse, few of them are oriented to the interpretation of dream content. In general, theoretical models are oriented toward the neurobiological basis of sleep and dreaming or toward the detail scoring of quantitative aspects of dream. This presentation aims to construct a new theoretical framework for dreams interpretation within the boundaries of sociocultural psychology (i.e., Vygotsky, 1962; Bruner, 1990; Wertsch, 2006; Medina-Liberty, 2007)).
We maintain that child development is closely related to the process of orienting oneself within cultural systems of meaning, a process known commonly as “enculturation”, “socialization”, “situated—development”, among other terms.
Our main goal, thus, was to illustrate how the cultural milieu and specific social activities children are involved in (rather than only subjective or cognitive individual states), are primordial determinants of how dream content is constituted.
Basically, our method consists of three general steps: 1) Recollection of the Dream & First Inquiring, 2) Categorizing and Seizing Dream Content, and 3) Reflecting on the Dream & Linking to Previous Experiences. We interpreted dreams by using Burke’s Pentad (Burke, 1969). Burke’s Pentad can be used as an analytical device to examine dream’s “ways of framing” as indicative of the unity forged within a dream of diverse children’s personal concerns.
For interpreting dream’s meaning, for instance, we tried to find answers to five main questions; What was done? (Act), Who are performing actions? (Agent), What are the circumstances in which it occurred? (Scenario), What means, objects or instruments were used? (Agency), and Why was it done? (Purpose).
This approach is exemplified with preliminary data from 21 children attending a private middle-class preschool in Mexico City (ages four to nine). Dreams were collected on a weekly basis and were audio-recorded. Concurrently, direct observations and in-depth interviews were conducted, not only for better understanding of dream content but also to gather information about children’s typical day, family and school activities, favorite films and TV shows, gender differences, if any, friends, frequency and type of games played.
Our preliminary results show that younger children (four to five) more often experience dreams that include actions and physical objects while older children experience more complex dreams where meaning becomes the main factor that organizes their content. We represent this process with the following ratio, Action/Meaning. This means that action begins as the numerator. As the child grows, however, this ratio is inverted and meaning becomes the numerator, Meaning/Action. When this happens, meaning becomes an essential dimension of analyses. This suggests that as children grew older (six to nine) they experience more complex oneiric narratives. It is assumed that as cognitive abilities increases dreams become more complex and adult-like (Cfr.: Foulkes, 2002).
References
Bruner, J. (1990) Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Burke, K. (1969) A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Foulkes, D. (2002) Children's Dreaming and the Development of consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Medina-Liberty, A. (2007) Pensamiento y lenguaje. (Language and Thought). Mexico: McGraw-Hill.
Vygotsky, L. (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wertsch, J. (2006) Voices of the Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Dennis L. Merritt, PhD
Dreams of the Earth and Its Seasons
The workshop will explore how dreams of the land and its weather and seasons can help place the soul and connect us to the environment. Personal and clinical dream material will be used to illustrate how one can work with such dreams for personal development and in a clinical setting. A 15-minute video, “Seasons of the Soul,” will illustrate the archetypal, mythical and spiritual dimensions of weather and the seasons, particularly as experienced in the Midwest. Participants will break into groups to share and discuss relevant dreams and personal connections to land, weather and the seasons.
Dennis L. Merritt, PhD
Dreamweavings of Science, Spirituality and Nature
Dreams can provide the images, narrative base, and guiding allure for a symbiotic integration of science, spirituality and nature. Science and spirituality share the basic tenet of order in the universe. The proper perspective and recognition of the parameters of each domain are necessary for a healthy interaction and dreams can facilitate this development. An experience of the Self and a connection with nature often comes through an extended immersion in nature, especially in natural environments suggested by Dig Dreams. Hillman’s delineation of cosmos versus universe, Callicott’s call for an educated ecological awareness, and Hogenson’s application of dynamic systems theory to basic Jungian concepts, highlight the mutual importance of science, knowledge and spirituality in deepening our relationship with nature.
Paco Mitchell, MA
Dreaming Planet
Conventional science of the past few centuries has worked hard to remove all traces of subjectivity, or mentality, from our understanding of the world, on both microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. A new paradigm is emerging, however, and from within the scientific enterprise itself, that allows for the re-introduction of subjectivity and mind into our science-driven worldview. This surprising development has not only undermined the materialistic bias framing our notions of reality; it has also moved our understanding of evolution from an Earth-bound, biological context to a holistic, cosmic context. These new ideas will have profound implications not only for science, but also for culture, religion, art, ecology, psychology and philosophy.
Scientific theory, however, is only a starting point for this presentation, which is essentially devoted to an imaginative, poetic view of our situation. For what we need most urgently is a new story, a grand narrative with new ways of imagining ourselves and our place in the universe, new visions of what it is to be human, what it means to share this planet with other creatures and forms of life.
Science, religion and art must each accommodate the other’s viewpoint in a collective visionary effort, in order to form new ideas, attitudes, beliefs and images.
There is no doubt that this new vision is coming, though it may take decades, or even centuries, to reveal its full dimensions. But the outcome of this visionary process may well determine the feasibility of the human experiment on Earth. At the moment we can only see fragments of that vision. But every effort to re-think fundamental questions, every attempt to give form to the images surging up from the unconscious, will add to the visionary crescendo. With this new vision, we may survive. Without it, we may not.
The notion that a planet can dream must seem far-fetched to many, relying as they do on current, reductive ways of thinking and seeing. But an ardent few still scan the darkness of the unknown, seeking even dim outlines of the future that is already coming our way. The premise of the Dreaming Planet may hopefully provide an imaginal container within which to cherish the bits of gold that occasionally flicker in the turbulent stream of our day-to-day experience.
Robert Moss, MA
The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination
In this fun, high-energy workshop we'll learn techniques for empowering and healing our lives, every day, through dreams, coincidence and imagination.
Dreaming, we have access to rich sources of healing and creativity. In our dreams, we are coached on how to handle challenges and opportunities that lie in the future; we become time travelers and communicate with spiritual teachers and allies. We’ll play the Lightning Dreamwork Game, a fast and fun way to open a safe space to share inner experiences, develop the art of storytelling and receive helpful feedback and guidance for action.
Coincidence may be a signal from a deeper world, and a chance encounter may be an amazing opportunity. By monitoring the play of coincidence, we awaken to a hidden logic of events, and gain access to extraordinary counsel. We’ll learn how to use synchronicity as a homing beacon.
Through the practice of imagination, we can help to heal our bodies and move towards the manifestation of our heart’s desires. Inspired by Joan of Arc and the ancient tree seers, we’ll develop and grow a personal place of vision we can re-enter at any time to restore our inner compass, scout out the possible future, and connect with deeper sources of guidance and self-healing.
We’ll play these games in dyads and smaller groups, and will journey through the Tree Gate with the help of shamanic drumming.
We’ll learn the practical truth of Tagore’s observation, “the stronger the imagination, the less imaginary the results.”
Eva Murzyn
The Colour of Dreams: Influence of Age, Media Experience and Visual Imagery Abilities
Previous research has suggested that there might be pronounced age differences in the rates of reported colour and greyscale dreaming. I will present three studies that looked for the possible sources of this disparity. In study 1 I found that people who had early access to black-and-white media reported significantly more greyscale dreams than people without such access, regardless of age. An analysis of memory quality across different dream types also revealed that people with early black-and-white media access recall greyscale dreams with more detail than people with no such access. Study 2 investigated the relationship of greyscale dreaming frequency (estimated with a questionnaire) and visual imagery. Two age groups were compared on measures of general visual imagery ability (OSIQ and VVIQ), colour imagery and memory for presence of colour. The percentage of reported coloured dreaming was positively correlated with Object Imagery score, but not with memory for colour, which suggests that to some extent the reported colour of dreaming could be related to imagery generation mechanisms. Study 3 was designed to compare age and sex matched colour and greyscale dreamers on measures of colour imagery, colour memory and media experience and to relate aspects of dream content, such as dream detail and specific visual detail to visual imagery styles and measures of reflectiveness and meta-cognition in the dream. Finally, I will relate the conclusions of these studies to the current models of dreaming and visual consciousness and propose new avenues for research.
Lana Nasser, MA
Desert Dreaming
Multimedia performance: a synthesis of dreams incubated and collected in the Jordan Desert, exploring the interplay between dreams, mythology, and place.
The dreamer asks:
In the earth, is there stored a memory of civilizations past; do old hymns linger in sacred sites; and could dreams help us to remember them? And what of imagination?
Combining video footage, dance, signing, and the spoken word, the performance is about a journey through landscape and dreams in search of forgotten stories. In it, the dreamer sleeps near Petra, where the deities of ancient Arabs were once venerated. Meditating on the myths that influenced that time, and those they influenced, the dreamer incubates and records her dreams. She inquires about the dreams of others--those participating in her travel-workshops and those whom she may meet: locals, travelers, Bedouins. To share her research findings, she writes a story and creates a performance.
Geoff Nelson, DMin
Safety in Dream Groups: The Clearness Committee as Model
Safety in dream groups is of paramount concern for those who participate in dream groups, particularly those new to dream work and dream groups. This concern for safety is echoed in the opening sentences of the IASD ethics statement. Various dream workers, dream group leaders, and dream group participants themselves would benefit from the insights about safety and respect that are found in the Quaker Clearness Committee. The more the IASD can spread the word about the value of dreams and the safety that can surround working with dreams, the more readiness there may be in our culture to pay attention to dreams.
The Quaker Clearness Committee offers a model which can help set the tone for a dream group that is trustworthy and safe. The Clearness Committee should not be copied word for word, but it should be looked at as offering models of the kinds of boundaries that might be set up around each dreamer and participant. Those of us working with dreams in groups have encountered a variety of people and responses to dreams. This model, when used as inspiration to set the ground rules for dream groups, allows both the freedom of the dreamer and the respect for the dream that can further the aims of the group.
This presentation introduces the Clearness Committee and gives historical background. The Clearness Committee began in the 1660’s as a specific method for discernment when facing a decision. The Clearness committee has seen a renewal of interest among the last generation or two of Quakers, as well as those seeking a model for group spiritual direction. It is this use of the Clearness Committee in-group spiritual direction that brings its relevance into the area of dream groups. The Clearness Committee provides specific guidelines for the focus person, as well as for the other participants in the Clearness Committee. In the crossover to dream groups, the guidelines for the focus person become applied to the dreamer who is sharing their dream, and the guidelines for the participants are applied to the other members of the group. The specific wording of the Clearness Committee will be changed in such a way as to clarify its applicability to dream groups.
Geoff Nelson, DMin
Dream Work in Early America
Dream work was very active during the days of Early America. There is ample historical evidence that dream dictionaries were being published, church groups were doing dream work, and popular literature had ample dream coverage. Dream work was more “mainstream” than it has become in our day. What has happened to dream work in the last two hundred years? This paper presentation will explore the literature about dream work in Early America and posit some speculative analysis about why dream work is not as popular now as it seems to have been in the earlier days of our country.
Various religious groups used dream work as part of their daily life and as sources of inspiration. This can be seen most clearly among Quakers, both in the British Isles and in the American colonies. This presentation will examine the influence of Quaker dream work upon the people and places where the Quakers were active. The Revolutionary War brought changes in society and in social perceptions and we will examine these in the light of the dream work of the time.
American society has seen many changes and pressures in terms of racial differences and movements towards equality throughout its history. Dreams have helped this movement towards greater equality, assisting some groups to pave the way into new territory, into greater enlightenment. Dreams were also used in the various daily challenges of life, such as illness, loss of meaning, making decisions, etc. Dreams have been used in these ways throughout history, and Early American was not much different.
The styles of working with dreams have also changed. The standards held by IASD are not universally accepted nor are they practiced. Some of the different uses that dreams have been put to will be explored in this presentation. This paper hopes to show that the current dream work movement, typified by IASD, is not that radical nor as a historical as we might believe.
Valdas Noreika, MSc; Katja Valli, PhD; Antti Revonsuo, PhD
Early-Night Serial Awakenings as a Paradigm for Studies on NREM Dreaming
A new experimental paradigm called “Early-Night Serial Awakenings” (ENSA) was explored to find out its strengths and weaknesses for psychophysiological studies of NREM sleep dreaming. Five participants spent 20 experimental nights in the laboratory, and were awakened 4-12 times each night during NREM sleep, resulting into 164 awakenings as a total. Results show that ENSA produced homogeneous EEG samples that did not differ in spectral power. Similarly, dream recall frequency remained relatively stable. We conclude that ENSA could be utilized in psychophysiological studies of early-night NREM dreams.
Chris Olsen, Kira Sass
Wake Up: Exploring the Potential of Lucid Dreaming
This documentary presents a general overview of the topic of lucid dreaming. Several prominent authors, researchers, and speakers in the lucid dreaming community share the experiences and insights they’ve acquired while exploring the frontiers of dreaming and consciousness.
Themes covered in this film include the definition and history of lucid dreaming, as well as the topic’s relationship to creativity, overcoming trauma, and psycho-spiritual growth. The popular misconception of lucid dreaming as dream control is also addressed. Several well-known dream researchers not primarily identified with the lucid dreaming community discuss their perspective on the significance of lucid dreaming. Kira Sass and Chris Olsen, the creators of the documentary, will answer questions following the viewing.
Chris Olsen, MA
The Forgotten History of Lucid Dreaming
The history of the lucid dreaming concept in the nineteenth and early twentieth century is widely regarded as scarce and insubstantial. Traditional historical accounts normally include Hervey de Saint-Denys, (1867) book Dreams and How to Direct Them, Van Eeden’s (1913) paper ‘A Study of Dreams’, and a handful of scattered references. This paper will present research that challenges the received history of lucid dreaming. The research was conducted in conjunction with first historiographic dissertation on lucid dreaming which the author is currently completing.
The emergence of lucid dreaming will be situated within the historical framework developed by Henri Ellenberger in his classic work, The Discovery of the Unconscious. Ellenberger’s Discovery is widely regarded as the most comprehensive history of the precursors, origins, contributors, concepts, theoretical systems, and socio-cultural contexts associated with the emergence of modern dynamic psychology. Many forgotten historical references to lucid dreaming were centrally related to an era of psychological history that Ellenberger referred to as the first dynamic psychology, which primarily focused on trance states.
Through its unprecedented scope and admirable methodological rigor, Ellenberger’s seminal book stimulated an entire tradition of research over the past several decades focusing on rediscovering psychology’s neglected historical sources to determine their relevance to contemporary research. This paper proposes extending this tradition to the field of lucid dreaming in order to determine ways in which a fuller understanding of lucid dreaming’s neglected historical origins may contribute to addressing the challenges facing contemporary lucid dreaming research.
JF Pagel, MS, MD
The Bizarre and Hallucinatory REMS Dreams of Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy, an illness as strange as epilepsy or schizophrenia, presents with symptoms of extreme sleepiness during the psychologically and sexually stormy years of adolescence. Narcolepsy occurs in association with dream-like epiphenomena including bizarre hallucinations, sleep paralysis and cataplexy. The association between narcolepsy and dreaming has altered the definition of dreaming. Psychoanalysts have stretched the definition of dreaming to include the REMS associated states of narcolepsy, defining dreams as bizarre, hallucinatory mental activity that can occur in either sleep or waking.
Historically, the extraordinarily bizarre dreams of narcoleptic patients provided fertile ground in support of the psychoanalytic therapy for the illness. In 1964 Rechtschaffen and Dement determined that in patients with narcolepsy associated with cataplexy, both sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations occurred in association with REMS periods. This finding led to their hypothesis that consciousness could best be described as occurring during three relatively independent neurophysiological states – wakefulness, sleep, and the paradoxical state of REMS. REM sleep theoretically came to be equated with the presence of dreaming, with the symptoms of narcolepsy equated with dreaming due to their association with REMS. The dreams reported from narcoleptics during sleep onset REMS periods were utilized as a model for the psychological and physiological characteristics of the dream state.
This association of narcolepsy with REM sleep epiphenomena has been integrated and applied in forming the conceptual framework for some of the most widely accepted neuro-scientific theories of consciousness. Theorists have extended the postulate that dreams are bizarre, hallucinatory mental activity, into the theory that dreams are a form of visual hallucination. The conception of REM dreaming as bizarre and REM sleep as a psychodynamically primitive state of CNS activation parodying the psychoanalytic “Id” persists in modern versions of Activation-Synthesis theory including AIM.
Wendy Pannier, BA and Tallulah Lyons, MEd
Working with Healing Dream Imagery
This morning dream group is based on the work that Tallulah Lyons, MEd and Wendy Pannier do with cancer patients through their workshops and ongoing dream groups. The work is relevant to anyone interested in the healing potential of dreams and how dream work can be used with other forms of integrative medicine.
After using the projective techniques of Ullman and Taylor, work with dream imagery falls into two primary categories: 1) facilitating the evolution/transformation of disturbing dream experience (e.g., those from nightmares) and 2) facilitating the integration of the evolved positive imagery and also the integration of positive imagery from spontaneous healing dreams. Participants are encouraged to embody and integrate their personal dream imagery through a variety of relaxation and meditative visualization techniques. Imagery work is based on processes developed by Belaruth Naparstek and Martin Rossman, MD.
The group is primarily experiential. After brief introductory remarks the first morning, teaching points are used only to help the dreamer in his or her exploration of the dream and its imagery and to offer possibilities for incorporating work with the dream imagery into waking life beyond the dream group. These could include art, movement and a variety of meditative activities.
Basis for Work: Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) research has confirmed the impact of the mind and emotions on the immune system, and also provides evidence for the role of dreams in healing. Biophysics and physiology researcher Candace Pert discovered neuropeptides, which she calls the “molecules of emotion,” that connect all systems of the body—including the immune system. At the level of neuropeptides, the body and mind are neurologically connected. Every emotional state involves the release of neuropeptides and other biochemical messengers. Our emotions are thus connected to our physiology. Pert emphasizes that for maximum functioning of the immune system, it is important to free blocked emotions and to find constructive expression for all emotions.
Dream work is a process for achieving that goal and pairs well with other integrative medicine practices.
Stephen Parker, PhD
Prodromal Dreams: Utilizing Dreams for Understanding Illness and Healing
“Prodromal Dreams” will be a slideshow presentation of dreams that preceded illness, accompanied with images and art related to the dreams. It will include a review of the historical antecedents of the use of dreams for diagnosis, a review of the major literature on prodromal dreams, and reports from individuals about dreams that preceded their illness. Characteristics of prodromal dreams will be outlined.
Dr. Parker, who has utilized dreams in thirty years of clinical practice, experienced a dream of a red plane with a four-cylinder engine leaking oil, crashing and burning three months before almost fatal heart problems; the dream made him sit bolt upright in the middle of the night, and he instantaneously knew he had heart problems. His doctor found no symptoms of heart disease, no intervention was made, and he ended up in a life-threatening emergency situation.
All of the doctors subsequently involved in the case quickly dismissed the idea that the dream provided any kind of information, nor did they have any interest in furthering their own understanding of the possibility that dreams might be of use in medicine.
After he recovered, he was puzzled by how both he and the doctors had ignored the information provided by the dream, and how the medical world continues to ignore the evidence of prodromal dreams. For the last three years he has been researching how dreams can indicate the presence of illness; he hopes this information can assist doctors and patients in their medical journeys.
Roberta Pashley, PhD
Jung’s Metapsychology: Implications of The Dream for the Future of Science
C. G. Jung recognized that human thought takes many forms. Science, according to positivism, is the systematic study of the real world, while the dream is an imaginary and involuntary experience. However, both science and the dream ultimately begin in consciousness as an inner image.
When Jung took into account the relationship of psychology to life, his position required a broader perspective for science than that supplied by positivism. Jung described a metapsychology from a superordinate philosophical overview that is characterized by two dichotomous aspects. Jung asserted that his psychology followed scientific methodology and was foundational to all sciences. He also maintained that his psychology provided a means of personal transformation.
From 1932 to 1956 Jung corresponded with Wolfgang Pauli, who in 1945 received the Nobel Prize in quantum physics for the exclusion principle. One of the many topics they discussed was the relationship between depth psychology and quantum physics. As a result, Jung proposed a new law of science, synchronicity, an acausal connecting principle. Pauli, who closely followed the development of his own dream images, wrote an essay, in the language of depth psychology, on the relationship between sense perception and scientific concepts in the work of Kepler.
Both Jung and Pauli understood that a closer union between psychology and physics would be important to the future development of science. Each man paid close attention to his own dream images, and each man also produced unique scientific concepts. Is it fair to say that The Dream holds the future of science?
Cynthia Pearson
Long-Term Journal Keeping: Living and Learning
Panel participants: Patricia Garfield, David Ginsberg, Sandy Ginsberg, Gloria Sturzenacker and Robert Waggoner
When the first panel on long-term journal keeping met at ASD-13, chair Dennis Schmidt noted: "…In the tradition of the naturalists whose patient observations prepared the ways to elegant understandings of physics, chemistry, and biology, home journal keepers record and discover events and regularities that astonish and enlighten…the personal journal is a uniquely sensitive instrument that may enlighten not only the individual dreamer but the whole field of dream study."
Since then, journalers have met at every IASD conference to discuss long-term record keeping and continue our cross-fertilization. In 2009 the theme will be "Living and Learning," featuring presentations by journal keepers who have learned things from their dreams they would not otherwise have known.
In "Dreams of a Lifetime: Highlights from A Sixty-Year Journal," Patricia Garfield will ask, "Can long term dream journaling support life’s outstanding transitions?" At age fourteen, she made her first entry in a sixty-year dream journal, April 15, 1949. In this paper, Garfield will cite seven life-changing dreams from different stages of existence (schoolgirl, maiden, wife-mother, lover, worker, spiritual seeker, widow) and discuss their repercussions.
Husband and wife team David and Sandy Ginsberg will present "Dream Journaling in Relationship," describing how living together has provided a wonderful opportunity for dreamworking. When couples attend to their dreaming by journaling, they can be exceptionally helpful to one another when it comes to understanding dreams, and enhance their opportunities for a deeper appreciation of their dreams, their relationship and their inner lives. Dave and Sandy will share thoughts about their journaling over the years, and examples which illustrate the value of actively using their journals together.
In "Dream Words, Dream Meanings," Gloria Sturzenacker will describe how long-term journal-keeping allowed her to discover a meaning thread connecting three dreams widely spaced across time. Each contained a different foreign word that, pursued out of curiosity, led to a deep spiritual meaning.
Robert Waggoner will present "Abyssinian Dreams: What My Cat Taught Me," relating how his precocious Abyssinian cat, Penny, appeared in his dreams and made requests of him. When Robert acquiesced to these requests, he began to re-think the possibilities of animal communication. Thus began a new level of experimental interaction with his cat and a new respect for animal life forms.
Cynthia Pearson will moderate the panel and facilitate discussion with audience members following the presentations.
Meg Pierce MA, MFT
Four Perspectives on Soul-Making: Reanimation of Self and Planet
The sleeping brain has eyes that give us light – Aeschylus, The Eumenides
Two years ago our group presented “Four Perspectives on Soul-Making: The Religious Function of the Psyche” at the ASD “Spirit of the Dream” Conference. Since then we have been meeting regularly, discussing our dreams and soul-making with an orientation taken from the work of C. G. Jung.
This year our panel, inspired by the conference theme, explores the link between the telos of the human psyche and our relationship to the earth. We are interested in how, both personally and as a culture, we objectify the material world, using up our resources and discarding that which we perceive as useless. This objectification of matter blocks the process of soul-making, which we experience as a process of opening to and becoming aware of spirit permeating matter. In working with dreams we see that what the ego casts off as useless or toxic (e.g. unwanted emotions, thoughts) the larger psyche and the body experience as necessary to a greater inner ecology. Dream work, then, serves the reanimation of the psyche by awakening senses that have lain dormant and thus enabling perception of the material world as ensouled. Each of us utilizes dreams as a primary way to re-establish wholeness, to alchemically transform the blight of disavowed psychic material and re-vitalize the interconnectedness with Self, others, and with material existence.
Meg Pierce MFT: “In the Midst of Death We Are in Life: Dreaming Through the Deadness of Depression”
The willing descent into deadness is one way, paradoxically, to find that animating dynamic that can invigorate us. Meg will explore this revitalization of soul and its restoration to the World.
Dawn Matheny MA, PhD: “The Young and Wounded Male: The ‘Other’ Within”
Dawn will share her self-study of men and male energy in her dreams over a several year period. Relating and working to understand the inner, disavowed “other” is reanimating and essential to those on a path of wholeness.
Winnie Piccolo MA, MFT: “Confronting the Dream of Apocalypse”
Images of chaos, terror, and destruction visit many of us in the night. Winnie will speak on the issue of personal responsibility for the dark, persecutory energies within. Consciousness of our impact on the world is served when we confront the dream of inner apocalypse.
Robert Tompkins PhD, MFT: “Dreams As Harbingers of Soul-Making”
Dreams can chart paths of separation from the old and forge a new experience of self, teaching us the radical acceptance and fiery will needed to navigate this re-opening of soul’s loving, embodied relation to an ensouled world.
Meg Pierce MA, MFT
Dream Amplification: Meaning, Image and Emotion
But when a dream is calling you,
There's just one thing that you can do
you gotta follow that dream wherever that dream may lead
sung by Elvis Presley
With the advent of the Internet, one is able quickly to research dream images across cultures and find time for their many and varied meanings. History and art are available at the click of a mouse. The difficulty is in knowing what a specific dream means to us personally. And then there are those dreams that have no central image. The interpretation of a dream then must come from a complex combination of amplification and the emotional tone, valence, and associations of the dreamer.
Meg uses examples from her personal dreams to illustrate image amplification, emotional amplification, and a variety of personal associations.
Mena E. Potts, PhD
Diverse Applications of Montague Ullman’s Lifetime of Seminal Dream Research, Findings, Insights, and Experiential Dream Group Process
Symposium participants: Mena E. Potts, PhD, Chair; Stanley Krippner, PhD; Marcia Emery, PhD; Gloria Sturzenacker, BS, MS; Dominic J. Potts, Esq, JD
Montague Ullman is internationally recognized for his seminal dream research and Experiential Dream Group Process, which produced major paradigm shifts and culminated in the international, grass roots movement in dreamwork.
During his lifetime Ullman delved into the deepest recesses and farthest reaches of the dreaming mind. The depth and breadth of his research endeavors included past (psychohistorical), present, and future (psi) dream explorations.
Ullman’s prodigious discoveries and insights left a fertile field for future researchers and practitioners to explore. As this symposium demonstrates, the scope of his work is so comprehensive that his findings and the Experiential Dream Group Process he developed can be utilized by varied populations and practitioners for diverse and creative applications.
Our panel will present five diverse applications of Ullman’s seminal research and process; however, in so doing we are just scratching the surface of what he began. Many more possibilities remain untapped and we invite you to join in this exploration.
Our exploration begins with Stanley Krippner’s presentation, Perchance to Dream Telepathically, where he takes us into the Maimonides Dream Laboratory where he and Ullman made history by conducting the first scientifically-controlled psi-dream experiments.
He describes his first meeting with Ullman and the long and endearing professional relationship that developed: “When Montague Ullman invited me to become director of the Dream Laboratory he founded at Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center, I had a comfortable position at a state university where I was on the tenure track. Monte and I stretched the funding for our telepathic dream studies into ten years, producing over 100 articles, a monograph, and a book (Dream Telepathy) along the way. In addition to our close professional relationship, we developed a friendship that was mutually gratifying as we congratulated each other during periods of triumph and consoled each other during periods of loss. This was truly a ‘dream relationship,’ one that changed my life forever.”
In her presentation, Revisiting Astrological Indicators of Precognitive Dreams, Marcia Emery describes how vivid precognitive dreams have visited her since 1970, and how her curiosity over these phenomena led her to do a series of exploratory research studies she conducted and presented at IASD conferences from 1987 to 1992. In her fifth study on “The Relationship Between Astrology and Precognitive Dreaming,” Marcia tested the astrology hypothesis and found it significant for the precognitive dreams of Alan Vaughan, a research participant at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory and co-author of Dream Telepathy. Marcia will revisit the astrological indicators for validating precognitive dreams during the symposium.
Montague Ullman’s private practice as a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist convinced him that ordinary people can help each other understand dreams. Gloria Sturzenacker, in The Ullman Method of GroupDreamwork: Influential and Often Misunderstood, will discuss Ullman’s life dedication to “extending dreamwork beyond the consulting room.” The Ullman Method is widely known in name, but not, as Gloria will point out, widely known in essence. Gloria will address the indispensable safety and discovery factors that result when dreams are unfolded in carefully delineated stages of Ullman’s dreamwork process.
Dominic Potts, a retired medical-legal trial attorney and published author, with a background in classical rhetoric, dialectics, and forensics, will present The Dialectical and Rhetorical Role of Language in Montague Ullman’s “Language of Dreams.”Montague Ullman’s monumental legacy to dream aficionados was the “Language of Dreams,” which he bequeathed to dream workers everywhere. Beneath Monte’s urbane, erudite, genial exterior lay a dialectical mastery of self-expression that imbued his work with vividness, clarity, and puissance, culminating in his unique “Language of Dreams.” Dom will provide illustrations and distribute handouts of Ullman’s deft, dialectical language selection, masterful phrasing, and artful sequencing we can emulate in order to sharpen our own communicational acumen.
Mena E. Potts, Symposium Chair, in her presentation: Psychohistorical Dreamwork: A New Methodology Applying Ullman’s Experiental Dream Group Process, willintroduce the comparatively new field of psychohistorical dreamwork which applies Ullman’s Experiential Dream Group Process. Paul H. Elovitz (Pelovitz@aol.com), psychoanalyst, historian and editor of Clio’s Psyche, together with Donald Hughes, historian, developed this methodology as a tool for exploring the dreams of deceased historical figures. Mena will present steps in the psychohistorical methodology and will distribute handouts for participants.
Victoria Rabinowe with Freya Diamond and Uma Jill Markus EdM, MA
Taboo: What Goes on Behind Closed Doors
Entertaining, unconventional and innovative, this presentation is a guide for professional dream practitioners and dreamgroup participants who wish to explore the themes of elimination with expressive techniques. In an atmosphere of respectful, gentle humor and safety, we will replace feelings of shame and guilt with a sense of liberation and empowerment.
We all have a tendency to avoid feelings once the imagery gets too intense, too disturbing or too painful, but if we deny parts of ourselves that we do not want to acknowledge, hidden layers of protection become more complex with time. Unfortunately, some of the best parts of ourselves get hidden away as well.
Dreams of elimination have a distinctive style, form and content that is sometimes painful, often frustrating and rarely sweet. Stinky, foul, upsetting, disgraceful, toxic, humiliating, and mortifying situations overflow into our nights. These dream narratives express universal issues of holding back or letting go of old patterns, hurts, habits, beliefs, problems and prejudices. Getting rid of toxins, releasing repressed material, opening blockages, searching for privacy are often symbolized by taboo images that burst open with an uncontrollable urge to unload emotional buildup.
Guided techniques in The Art of the Dream allow these embarrassing, scurrilous and scandalous dreams to dish the dirt with images of comedy and tragedy. This multimedia presentation will demonstrate creative tools to offer release and relief from issues of control, waste, grief and vulnerability. We will elaborate upon the messes we all get into in life, how to deal with the unwanted private stuff, and what we keep inside that needs to come out. The dream provides a mirror image of this shadowy realm with all its treasures. New perspectives in modes of authentic expression will provide an understanding of the alchemical transformation that occurs when enlightenment flows from the darkness of the unconscious. When we learn to let go, shift happens.
ODE TO MY COMMODE
by Freya Diamond
Oh the joy, the utter relief of finally finding you
Of relaxing into your welcoming embrace
Being able to let go completely
And surrender all that begs to empty out of me
Bringing me the peace and freedom
From the burden I’ve been carrying.
Victoria Rabinowe with Freya Diamond
The Genius of the Night Mind – New Tools, Tips and Techniques for Multi-disciplinary DreamGroups
This series of evening dreamgroup sessions will explore inventive practices for entering the landscape of dreams with new and unusual methods. Shifting frames of reference during each meeting, the group will explore dream symbolism from personal, collective, archetypal, allegorical, mythical, religious, medical and spiritual dimensions.
Each session will be filled with surprises and insights as the group unravels the multi-dimensional worlds of paradox, allegory and metaphor. When dreams are re-entered by a group, the collective mind becomes a creative entity. When dreams are worked from a variety of perspectives, the mysterious realms of absurdity, ambiguity, enigma open their secrets. Universal themes of Judgment, Boundary, Identity, Calling and Grace will be juxtaposed by investigations of archetypal themes of Wounded Healer, Trickster, Shadow, and the Mythic Journey.
Dreams are the connection to our deepest, authentic creative source. To make sense of a dream, we need to learn how to shift away from our usual strategies for finding answers. The Art of the Dream techniques invite an understanding of the dream as opposed to an analysis. This method does not categorize dreamwork as therapy, new age or pseudoscience. The focus is not analytical or clinical. The group will not attempt to tell dreamers what their dreams mean. An atmosphere of respect, curiosity and gentle humor will support a framework for self-discovery. For this reason, The Art of the Dream techniques will appeal to dreamers of diverse education, environments and traditions: psychoanalysts, spiritual guidance counselors, writers, artists, educators, health care providers, caregivers and dreamers from all backgrounds.
Raymond E. Rainville, PhD and Lorenda Rush
Using Content Analysis to Identify Structure and Content Categories
A variation on the Hall and Van de Castle content method was applied to eighty dream diaries (2500 dreams) all of which were collected over twenty-five years of teaching an undergraduate advanced psychology course on Sleep and Dreams. Ten undergraduate researchers were trained to apply the content analysis coding system to their eight dream diaries (four females and four male dream diaries). Each diary remained an integrated unit which provides for a methodological advantage. Preliminary results indicate that these diaries are completely consistent with preexisting Hall and Van de Castle results. The important variation on the Hall and Van de Castle strategy, was to assign two types of observations to the content analysis technique which allowed for both structural and content sub-types of dreams to be identified and described which were not previously acknowledged.
Structural properties and dream imagery include dreams which distinguish between anonymous and recognizable imagery and are described in content analysis terms as significant distinct types; therefore they are interpreted to represent a distinct class of cognitive functioning within the dream. Additionally, dreams which are primarily autocentric in their imagery, as opposed to dreams which are primarily allocentric in their imagery, are described from a content analysis perspective to represent clearly distinct significant types which are interpreted to represent two different types of underlying cognitive processes. Because each researcher achieved a high degree of familiarity with the dreams in each of their 8 diaries, they were able to use content categories which occurred with high frequency to be characteristic of this peer groups dreams. These content categories were more script-like to the character of the dream than the original Hall and Van de Castle categories. Many of them were gender-differentiated subjects: male dreams involving competition, explicit sexuality, territorial defense, and aggression; female dreams which involved shopping, wedding, pregnancy, and dress.
Each of these subtypes is described as distinguishable from a content analysis perspective as significantly different from other content types and is interpreted from an evolutionary point of view. A third set of sex content categories which are not gender-differentiated but are significantly different include dreams which contain food sharing, pets, mating potential, death, and philosophy. These are described in content analysis terms and interpreted in evolutionary terms.
Melanie Rosen BABFA, MA, PhD candidate at Macquarie University, Sydney
The Anti-Experience Thesis of Dreams
In this paper I wish to propose a view that supports Norman Malcolm and Daniel Dennett’s rejection of the received view of dreaming. In an attempt to discredit the received view, which states that dreams are experiences we have during sleep, Norman Malcolm, in his book Dreaming, argues for a verificationist theory of dreams. Rather than assuming that dreams are sleeping experiences we have during sleep, we should instead accept that dream reports told upon waking are the sole criteria of dreams. Malcolm argues that dreams are logically dependent on such reports, and since sleep-experiences are unverifiable, we should remain agnostic as to whether one can experience anything during sleep. We can only verify that we have the tendency upon waking to tell tales as if we had such experiences. Dennett, in support of Malcolm, suggests a cassette theory of dreams, in which dreams are memories stored like cassettes which are replayed upon waking. Both Malcolm and Dennett’s arguments that dreams are logically dependant on waking impressions have been outmoded, but I will attempt to establish a more convincing thesis for this conclusion by moving away from verificationism. I will present what I call the anti-experience thesis of dreams. This thesis states that dreams are logically dependent on waking impressions because if we do have sleep-experiences, they require such a high level of interpretation and narrative formation that they are far removed from our waking impressions of them. Whatever experience occurs during sleep is most likely too incoherent to describe or remember without such interpretation. This thesis has three alternatives: a strong, moderate and weak thesis, of which I shall support the weak thesis.
Richard Russo, MA
Dreaming of Barack Obama: Using Dream Theater to Explore the Cultural Meaning of Dreams
This presentation will be divided into four parts:
Part One
A brief account of how the play, “Dreaming of Obama,” grew out of the monthly Culture Dreaming sessions conducted at the Dream Institute of Northern California. Dreams about Obama were collected at the Dream Institute, culled from the Internet, and donated by friends and associates. The challenges faced in selecting which dreams to use, and how to turn them into a play, will be described, as well as the reasons for doing it.
Part Two
Excerpts from video footage shot at all three public performances of the 30-minute play will be shown.
Part Three
The reaction of the public will be described, with some direct quotes from audience members. Concluding remarks will discuss the cultural meaning of dreams, the significance of the Obama dreams presented, and the use of dream theater to convey the relevance of dreaming to the general public.
Part Four
In keeping with the philosophy and spirit of the performances themselves, there will be time for the audience to share reactions to the play and to the presenter’s comments, as well as to discuss the significance of the dreams presented, and perhaps to share some additional dreams about Barack Obama.
