As members and guests munched on snacks, music played in the background, setting the stage with \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me,\u201d sung by Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang, followed by Robert Goulet singing \u201cDream the Impossible Dream – The Quest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tanya Atwood-Adams introduced our topic. Dreams are the succession of thoughts, images, sounds or emotions that our mind experiences while we are sleeping. Dreams can bring new insights to apply to our lives or to clarify our life goals and aspirations. Some people wake up laughing after a dream. Others are like artist M. C. Escher, who commented that he did not use drugs because his dreams were frightening enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tanya\nreminded us that dreams are common to peoples of all cultures and religious\ntraditions, but that each society views dreams in different ways. Some feel\nthat dreams are powerfully significant; others do not. Some regard dreaming as\ndivine; some regard it as demonic. Still others perceive dreams as simply a\ncuriosity. Tanya then called on eight audience members to read short\ndescriptions of the views held by various cultures: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa<\/strong>: the Gola artists of Liberia\ncredited dreams with artistic inspiration, and the Ashanti of Ghana hold that\ndreams have more reality than the waking life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ancient\nRome<\/strong> viewed\ndreams as divine messages; Greece<\/strong> viewed dreams as a source of healing\nand as a way to communicate with spirits and ghosts; the Orient <\/strong>viewed\ndreams as messages from the Creator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nIndia<\/strong>, three thousand years ago, the Hindu scripture, The Upanishads<\/em>,\ndescribed dreaming as a higher state of consciousness than the waking state.\n\u201cTrust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.\u201d \u2013 Kahlil Gibran <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nKalapato Indians of Central Brazil<\/strong> place great importance on their\ndreams, and acknowledge that profound changes occur in dreams as a result of\npsychological changes and stress in a person\u2019s life. They believe that dreams\nreveal an individual\u2019s life, motivations, and fears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Native\nAmericans<\/strong>,\nin general, give dreams credit for creative inspiration and spiritual guidance,\nand acknowledge that unconscious desires are expressed in dreams. Dreams of\nshamans and warriors were considered vital for predicting future events. The\nOjibwe considered dreams to be actual experiences, not just fantasies created\nin the mind, and they link dreaming to specialized occupations such as healing.\nThe Cree of North Quebec rely on dreams for creative inspiration. The Zuni of\nNew Mexico only share good dreams when they come true, often many years later.\nMost of their discussion of dreams is about bad dreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tibetan\nculture<\/strong>\nholds that dreams can be analyzed in different ways – for religious purposes,\nfor divination, or for medical purposes. Traditionally, dream studies include\npractices to purify and strengthen the chakras. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthe Qur\u2019an, the Jewish Torah, and the Christian New Testament<\/strong>, dreams\nserve as a vital medium by which God communicates with humans. Dreams offer\ndivine guidance and comfort, warn people of impending danger, and offer\nprophetic glimpses of the future. Although the three religions differ\ndramatically on many other topics, they find substantial agreement on this\nparticular point: Dreams are a valuable source of wisdom, understanding, and\ninspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanya summed up these diverse attitudes by saying that ideologies separate us; dreams and anguish bring us together. Then she introduced our first speaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deborah is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, Board Certified Dance Movement Therapist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor in private practice at the Full Circle Center for Creative Arts Therapy and Mental Health Counseling. She is also a Dance Therapist at the Hutchings Psychiatric Center. In addition to individual, couples, family and group psychotherapy with a Jungian orientation, her work emphasizes creativity and connecting with the unconscious through dreams and the arts. Throughout her more than 30-year career, Deborah has conducted many workshops, seminars, and celebrations on themes including experiences of the sacred, yoga, and healing from trauma. Deborah\u2019s favorite dance partners these days are her young grandsons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deborah\nsaid she appreciated Tanya\u2019s readings, because she had intended to give this\nbackground but now she did not have to! Deborah does not want to divide dreams\ninto good or bad; dreams are dreams, and some people believe that they may or\nmay not hold meaning and value. However, it is generally accepted that dreams\nconnect us to a deep part of ourselves, the unconscious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcel\nProust said that if dreams seem to be dangerous, the cure is not to dream less\nbut to dream more, to dream all the time. Dreaming can happen all the time;\nsleeping dreams and waking dreams are both real and valuable. However, the ego\nis less active during sleep, making the workings of the unconscious seem more\ndistant from who we believe ourselves to be in waking life. And, though\ndreams are symbolic, they are a clear connection to the unconscious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Freud\nheld that dreams are \u201cthe royal road to the unconscious.\u201d We connect to this\nunconscious in various ways. The ego tends to think that the unconscious is the\nenemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nC.G. Jung, the Self is the experience of wholeness, the totality of the\npsyche, unity, that connects us to a higher level of being that many consider\nto be God. It is this wholeness that is being brought to our attention in\ndreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many\ncultures consider dreams a connection to the divine – not just a personal\nexperience but something from outside ourselves that connects our humanness to\nthat which is beyond us. Dreams can give information, messages, or orders.\nSometimes dreams foreshadow or predict future events. This is not necessarily\nbad, but gives the dreamer information. Dreams can be forms of wisdom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dreams are symbolic, but we must connect these symbols to our own experience, and if possible to the collective – that is, to our larger culture or world, and to the archetypes that are universal and beyond time. Dreams may be subjective, the unconscious working through the day, and may give symbolic information about repressed feelings. Common archetypal symbols such as flying, falling, being attacked, and sex are known to happen throughout the ages and people of the world. Dreams are a way that we connect to each other, to humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis possible to invite dreaming through meditation, prayer, or guided imagery.\nThis moves us closer to daytime dreaming or active imagination. Because the ego\nis nervous about letting the unconscious have its way, a conscious effort may\nbe necessary. This can be done in four steps. First, we lower the control of\nthe ego by creating a sense of safety and trust in which to address the\ncontents of the unconscious. Second, we invite the unconscious to come forward.\nThird, we give the unconscious a form through drawing, dancing, or any other\nartistic endeavor. Then we invite the ego back to ponder the worth of what has\nbeen revealed. Fourth, the hardest and most important step, we assimilate the\nmaterial into ordinary life. We must determine what the message was, and what\nmust be done to accommodate this information in our lives. Thus, we transcend\nthe boundaries that exist within ourselves, between the conscious and the\nunconscious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christine is a graduate student in Engaged Humanities at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where her focus has been on mythology and depth psychology. She is also a Victim Advocate at Vera House. Christina\u2019s primary interests are in dream work, creativity, ritual, and modern applications of mythology, particularly as they relate to trauma and suffering. She also has an extensive background in the arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina\nsaid that she was excited to be with us. First, because she has loved dreams\nsince she was a child. She would tell her father her dreams and he would share\nhis own dreams with her. Christina said that this was unusual because so many\nin the Western culture ignore dreams, but her father validated hers. She was\nalso excited because she began to connect with Deborah. They shared their\nbackgrounds and began to weave their presentations together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina\nsaid that Depth Psychology has roots in mysticism and shamanism, and was first\nformulated and popularized in the West by Freud and Jung. A more modern\ntheorist, Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, wrote Dream Tending<\/em>. He advocates\nkeeping the dream in the present tense and developing a relationship with the\nimages in the dream. This is not a logical process because dreams can\u2019t be\nanalyzed. He counsels us to meet our dreams, to open our awareness of the\ndetails of the dream, to become present in the dream, and to connect with our\nbody\u2019s responses to its events and images. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina\nexplained that Depth Psychology\u2019s view of how to work with our dreams has\nprogressed from Freud\u2019s emphasis on Association, through Jung\u2019s concept of\nAmplification, to the current emphasis on Animation, which retains the first\ntwo elements but adds to them a direct confrontation with the unconscious. To\nmake this clearer, Deborah and Christina led us through an exercise. First we\nwere to think of an image from one of our dreams, preferably an image that\nrecurs over time. We were to connect with this image in a spirit of\nnot-knowing, and explore the dream for five minutes. Deborah helped us to lower\nour ego consciousness and get comfortable. We were to shift closer to a dream\nstate and gaze inward. As we noticed sensations in our bodies, we were to\nwelcome what is. Christina advised that as we focused on our dream image, we\nshould make connections with events or ideas in our lives, and let scenes from\nour lives emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next,\nChristina guided us in the state of Amplification where we were asked to\ncorrelate this image and the related experiences to universal or cultural\nexpressions, old sayings, or metaphors. We did this for five quiet minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we were asked to animate the image, interact with it and give it a life of its own. In this stage, we let the dream image connect with our reality. We brought our attention back to our bodies and noticed how the experience has changed us – what it made us want to do to incorporate the self-knowledge that the dream has given us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina\nexplained Jung\u2019s concept of making dream knowledge manifest in daily life. He\nadvocated using rituals or \u201cgestures,\u201d small symbolic acts that connect the\nbody to the unconscious that has been made conscious. In Christina\u2019s personal\nexample, she treated herself to a pampering solo date with dinner and a movie\nin response to a terrifying dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina recommended keeping a dream journal, which may be\ncomposed of sketches, poetry, or reflections. This sets up a relationship with\nthe images and lets something unconscious come out. She recommended that we\nlearn about our own dream language, the threads and themes that run throughout\nover time. In her own dreams, for example, clothing played a key role for a\nwhile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It helps to bring the repeated images back into the\ndream and examine them in the context of the details, all of which are\nsignificant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina\nalso suggests finding a dream partner who can help you reflect on (but not\nanalyze) your dreams. This should not be an intimate partner who may be an\nelement in the dreams. Looking back at dreams over time may also reveal\nmeanings that were not initially clear. Christina advocated curiosity because\nthe more you honor your dreams, the more they can give you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nasked about the sense of flying in a dream, Christina said that physiological\nchanges do occur in the sleeper, contributing to this sensation. These embodied\ndreams seem magical. Another woman asked about very intense dreams that cause\nfear. Deborah said that this fear is real and embodied and we need to go toward\nthat fear, invite it in, and understand it. Christina added that fear is the\nego feeling invaded, and thus it is time to pay attention. Dreams are often\nabout something that one is not consciously ready to address but that the\nunconscious insists must be faced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about prophetic dreams, Deborah said that we must take these seriously, but they are symbolic, not necessarily literal, even though as one participant said, they can \u201ccome true!\u201d It is essential to relate to the dream and to explore its significance in as many ways as we can – for example to recognize such things as the cultural context and gender differences in dream symbolism. As useful as dream dictionaries may be, they are often taken too literally or dogmatically and the personal connection to the symbolic content is ignored or deemed incongruent with the \u201cauthority\u201d of the dictionary. Dreams can alert us to actions, ideas, problems, solutions, needs, and wishes that we didn\u2019t consciously notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Betty\nLamb commented that the term \u201ctending\u201d our dreams was like tending a garden. We\nmust tend ourselves so that we can blossom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deborah read the poem \u201cThe Dreame,\u201dby Ben Jonson,\nthat reflects on the sense of being awakened by a dream: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nclosing, Deborah distributed her bag of colors: large, solid-colored lengths of\nsheer fabric. She asked us to move to the music of \u201cThe Dream,\u201d a vocal form of\nthe Jonson poem featured in the film Sense and Sensibility<\/em>. We twirled\nand fluttered, enacted our dreams and interacted with one another, enjoying the\nfreedom of the unconscious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we listened \u201cThe Power of the Dream\u201d read by Tanya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Resources,\ncompiled by Christina Carney: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aizenstat, Stephen (2009), Dream Tending. <\/em> Many cultures and religions consider dreams to be a connection to a deeper part of ourselves or to something beyond ourselves. Two therapists discussed how they use dreams to help people deal with trauma and suffering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,41],"class_list":["post-7407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-dialogue","tag-spiritual-practices",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7407"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8953,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7407\/revisions\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Deborah J. Welsh<\/strong>, Ed.D.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Christine Carney\ufeff<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Barrett, Deirdre (2001), The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving\u2014and How you can too.<\/em>
Warren, Jeff (2007), The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness<\/em>.
Bosnak, Robert (1986), A Little Course in Dreams.<\/em>
Dumpert, Jennifer – Urban Dreamscape: http:\/\/www.urbandreamscape.com\/<\/a> and Oneironauticum
Estes, C. P. (1992), Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.<\/em>
Harpur, Patrick (2002), The Philosophers\u2019 Secret Fire: A History of Imagination<\/em>.
Hillman, James (1997), Dream Animals.<\/em>
Johnson, Robert (1986), Inner Work: Using Dreams & Active Imagination for Personal Growth<\/em>.
Jung, C.G. (1974), Dreams<\/em>, from The Collected Words of C. G. Jung. <\/em>
LaBerge, Stephen (1991), Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming<\/em>.
Norbu, Namkhai (1992), Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light<\/em>.
Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal (1998), The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"