EDITORIAL:
Dear Dreamers,
Welcome to DNANZ Bulletin, November 2017. What an exciting issue this will be as we report on our second DNANZ Conference – Dreams, Imagination and Healing! On Thursday 5th October, 2017 to Sunday 8th DNANZ ran our second conference with approximately fifty delegates. Retreat – like accommodation and delicious home-made food was offered at St. Francis Retreat Centre Auckland. In addition, delegates experienced a wide variety of choices of inspirational workshops and engaging keynote presentations such as Elaine Kennis’ Dreams and Visions at End of Life and Death, Mark Skelding’s Earth Dreams and Voices and the final keynote from Clare Caldwell - When Visions Intervene in Life and Art. Seminars and workshops included three to four choices per time slot such as Margaret Bowater’s Paranormal Healing Dreams and Visions on Friday, Nightmares are a Call for Healing on Saturday and How to Interview a Dream Character later that day. Craig Whisker ran a Pyschodrama and Dreams workshop and Margaret Needham presented Working with Active Imagination and there were many more. Spoilt for choice of workshop there were so many brilliant presenters and topics. Breakfast time and one evening were opportunities for dream sharing, afternoons for meditative walks, creative artspace, and circle dance. Saturday evening offered a special treat with Playback Theatre with our dreams improvised in comedy.
I do hope you will enjoy the articles that follow with more detail on the various presentations and seminars.
Lynette Papp, editor.
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REPORTS ON CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
KEY NOTE PRESENTATION 2 - Mark Skelding.
Earth Dream and Voices: The long Dreaming of Earth
I am very happy to report on Mark’s presentation of “Earth Dreams and Voices: Logos and Pathologos at the Turning Point.” Not only was this presentation highly informative but also very engaging and resonant to dreamers with its deep connection to nature.
Mark’s passion for eco-psychology began after a dream he had. He is now a trans-personal pyschotherapist who is very active in helping the evolution of Psychosynthesis South Pacific
Mark’s magnificent carefully researched and poignant slide show depicted images demonstrating that the earth is a living organism. I learned new terminology around physics that made sense of how the living earth reflects the life force of the human being. He explained that there is an interaction of particles from the Big Bang called Fermions that move apart and Bosons that seek to connect constantly moving to form energy. Using the concept of a “psychosphere” included in the atmosphere, Mark also made reference to the way we affect the condition of the earth. He referenced Dan Siegel’s definition of the mind “as an embodied and relational, emergent Self-organising process that regulates the flow of energy and information both within us between and among us.” This was summed up in a quote from Roberto Assagoli ”A person is already in a social context, not as an isolated unit. The same principle applies to an individual’s relationship to nature and the universe…. A person is a part of the universal will and must somehow tune in and willingly participate in the rhythms of universal life.”
As dreamers we are familiar with the symbology of landscapes in our dreams. I left the presentation feeling that my own relationship with nature was not only validated but somehow made more sacred by affirming that our dreams are another way of participating in the evolution of our earth, whether we know it or not.
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Mark’s slides are available from markskeldingthames@gmail.com, or myself jemcgarry@xtra.co.nz
Report by Jennifer McGarry.
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WHEN VISIONS INTERVENE IN LIFE AND ART
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION 3.
CLARE CALDWELL. BFA, Cert in Expressive Therapy
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Clare Caldwell, a free-lance artist with a mystical muse, inspired us in a grand finale with our third keynote presentation Sunday morning. Her Elam art school training has certainly led her in a different direction to most graduates of the school. Clare’s work is the result of several visions, one of which was also auditory. This vision covered in the August 2017 bulletin inspired Clare’s life changing dolphin experience, which eventually led to her work with marginalised, homeless people at Auckland City Mission allowing them to create and express themselves artistically. Most of these people are Maori and their work exhibited at Depot Art Space in Devonport last year. That Green Light Beings vision and others are translated into stunning pieces of art - work that she presented to us in card form with their individual stories.
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Clare’s dreams and visions channelled into her art convey the message that humans must change our current paradigm of greed and hate. She believes her visionary Light Beings align with quantum energy and unconditional love that is imperative for our survival as a species.
Clare believes that art is imperative and the artist’s role one of social responsibility as societal watchdog.
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SOUL COLLAGE WORKSHOP
JENNY JOHNSON, Dip Couns, Cert Soul Collage Facilitator, Cert Poetry Therapy and Journalling, Cert Applied Dreamwork.
Jenny’s workshop provided an opportunity to use creative collage for self-discovery and transformation. Created initially by Seena Frost it combines the potential for spirituality, psychotherapy and transformation. No artistic ability is required.
The process involves choice of one image from each of two collections of magazine cut – outs for collage. One collection of cut - outs depicts various backgrounds and the other has close – ups of people or animals. Participants were asked to allow an unconscious call rather than deliberation in their choice. The two images were then placed on small A6 board, glued and inserted into a plastic cover.
The final product is card-like and designed to activate the unconscious mind. Through stepping into the imagery participants were invited to feel the card’s energy, mood, intention imagining it has a history and a voice. We then engage in a role - play dialogue with the image using the words, “I am the one Who …”
Although the final product of cards can look very appealing as greeting - cards participants were advised to use them only for personal use so as not to infringe on copyrighted work of others.
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DREAMS AND HEALING WORKSHOP 1.
ELAINE KENNIS, Grad Dip Holistic Counselling, Grad Dip Art Therapy (Sydney).
(Vice President Australian Dream Network) Keynote Speaker with our banner at opening address DNANZ Conference 2017.
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Elaine’s workshop worked with a dream through a group experience (the Rolduc Process). Whilst the group worked with only one member’s dream, it proved to elicit the unconscious of each member. To begin we were to bring to mind a memorable dream, give it a title and volunteer that title to the group. With no idea of dream – content, choose one. The dreamer told the dream in first person, twice. Group members wrote two words that stood out. A scribe wrote each in large bold print, one per page aiming for around sixteen pages. Dreamer placed each word in a square in sequence and stood behind the first word. Other participants were invited to position around the square. The idea was to focus and reflect on each word, step back and breathe then move to the next word each time a bell rang. Finally, we were to choose one particular word to stand with and experience more deeply in a focussing experience where the word was embodied and felt.
Silently we returned to our seats and wrote that word with associations. Allowing the word to guide us we were asked some prescribed questions, dialogued with the word and assessed its impact to see if it held any direction for us. A ten-minute individual creative process using mixed media such as collage, crayon or clay followed. Finally, we returned to the circle to share our work and offer personal feedback related to personal impact. For me this was a deeply personal process opening up an interesting dialogue with my unconscious on the word “intense” and its associations.
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ROLE OF DREAMS IN SUBSTANCE ADDICTION AND RECOVERY WORKSHOP:
JOY CAMPBELL, DAPAANZ, Prov MNZAC
An interactive opportunity workshop by Joy helped us to understand the important role of dreams in the area of substance addiction and recovery. To begin participants were given a card with the name of one drug on it. The task required us to stand on a continuum across the room showing whether, in our opinion, the drug would cause the individual to dream or not. The results were surprising. Some normal prescription drugs like Ibuprofen inhibit dreaming. This is an important consideration in that dreams are markers in addiction recovery. Other substances such as alcohol withdrawal result in intense dreaming and frequency.
Joy also presented research and information such as that Roth (2017) posits that dreams are an important part of the repair for mind and body necessary to addiction recovery. Flowers and Zwben (1998), suggest categories of dreams in recovery: pre-recovery dreams the dreamer recognises their substance use problems (often literally). Early recovery the dreamer may wake disappointed feeling that they have “used” in the dream. Mid-late recovery dreams can also show the substance appearing but not as literal in content and richer in metaphor. Finally in late – recovery dreams may indicate a strong negative response about others “using.”
Joy invites her client to note the feeling that he/she wakes with as an important marker in recovery. She sees the therapist’s role as being important as witness for the dreamer to discover what action steps are suggested by the dream. She cautioned never to impose our view on the dreamer and to normalize dreams as part of recovery.
Reports by Lynette Papp
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Group Poem from the Dream Conference - Auckland October 2017
Emerald Grace
Joyous, hesitant, we draw closer to the mountain
A generative tension - to connect or remain apart
Connections, resonance, challenge of deep wells of feelings
Seeking my passion in the secret space round the proud strong trunk of tree
When I close my eyes I can see you fully
Lucid dreaming
Flowing through the river of life
Exploring new dimensions
Living in a bubble that I can't get inside
Left brain says, compose yourself, the right insists, compost. .
Death is part of life, it can be met with a sense of adventure
Intoxicated. . . gnarled. . . breaks and joins. . . another round!
As lichen grows slowly on rocks and trees,so do my dreams of love and healing
I would love to cover and drape myself in a flowing cape of grey/green lichen
It's in the little things, the orange on the windowsill
Out, under the greening trees
Embraced by an oak tree, breathing as one
Tui sings its delighting in the juice of the karaka flowers
Being and becoming
Free child
Connecting, accepting, supportive compassion
Stay in the truth
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul
Creative life force
Integrative intuition
It's been joy and delight . . . and more learning
Life is full with beauty and joy - thank you
Amazing insights
And they lived happily ever after
Emerald grace
Ubiquitous
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Participants in Margaret Bowater’s workshop at DNANZ Conference, 2017
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Book review On Dreams and Death by Marie-Louise von Franz
(Published by Shambala. Boston and London 1987)
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Marie-Louise Von Franz, a close follower of Jung, focuses on the symbolism of dreams in relation to death and dying using Jungian symbolism to cover a spectrum of life and beyond. She gives many examples of dreams of people in their later life and shortly before death. These show that the ego–Self axis is constantly attempting to separate the ego until it can finally be free to become identified with Self which is inclusive of a transpersonal eternal element of Being.
Von Franz gives many examples of how ancient cultures had an inherent understanding of this process within their physical-religious practices. She compares how Christianity viewed Jesus and his resurrection with the more enlivened Jungian perspective of alchemy. (Jungian Alchemy is a metaphor for transformation). Christian symbols, with no road maps to a life beyond death, are compared to a Jungian alchemical perspective full of symbols that demonstrate a rich and meaningful soul life evidenced in pre-death dreams. However, Von Franz believes that Christianity does come to life in dream symbology in “the philosopher’s stone” as a symbol of Self. She describes the transformative effect on the dreamer in his process of dying when the stone appears in dreams.
Many examples of dreams that explore the deep connection with nature and natural processes are given. The book awakened a sense of inner peace that surprised me. I was not expecting to be uplifted by such a gloomy topic and felt the value of her portrayal of the soul journey beyond death. For a depth exploring, dream-loving person like myself this is definitely a good read.
By Jennifer McGarry
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