What I Learned at the International Dream Conference

What I Learned at the 29^th Annual International Dream Conference by Lorrie Kazan

Friday evening opening ceremony was light and humorous.  Rita Dwyer, tiny behind the podium, joked about her hair and many others’ now being grey.  She was glad that younger people were joining the association and carrying the work forward.  Younger people could also mean anyone under 60.

This is the largest, most prestigious dream association in the world, open to anyone from anywhere.

Many first-time attendees this year.  450 attendees in all.

Founders: Patricia Garfield, Jeremy Taylor and Gayle Delaney were given Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Jeremy Taylor is known for the phrase: “In my imagined version of the dream,” initiating the “If it were my dream” template.

“I’m a Martian; describe a sword to me,” is a dream interpretation phrase associated with Gayle Delany.

Keynote Speaker: Fred Alan Wolf, Phd (physician, writer, lecturer, 17 bks & audio cds.  Featured in “What the Bleep” and “The Secret, National Book Award winner)

Notion is truer now that there is a god dreaming this universe.

What we call the dream is going on right now.  Reality is less real than the dream world.

Re-thinking the second wave function – even experts don’t know what it is.

Ontology means out there, epistemology means in there.  Quantum physics scrambles these – observer influenced.

“Why does electrically hydrogenated matter (your brain) dream?”

We dream to create a self.

What isn’t dream? Waking reality – we don’t know what’s going on.  Dreaming reality may be stronger: brings in imagery of what was, is and will be.

How do we dream? Superimposing images.

Self & non-self split.  All influenced by Freud – psychoanalytic mind.  Freud was first and made mistakes.  But Freud believed imagery was an ancient language.  Imagery lays down the crocodile and the angel in one vision.

Jung said dream is the small hidden door.

Early humans held dreams to be the voice of god.

For Jung dream was a teacher and guide to wholeness.

Overlap of realities can take place in the mind.  Energy is quantum, it goes one place or another. Both ways occur sometimes, confirmed by experiments.

Late version of photon interferes with earlier version of itself.  Self is being born from this processing (id). Time plays no role.  Creating the self – fetus has 15 hours/day REM.

Dream yoga – dream something into existence.  Buddhists (ulpas?) meditate on an image until clearly seen in the mind.  Then projected outward where others see it.

Aboriginals say we are the dreamer and the dream.

Matter forms out of an idea.

From my morning dream group:  What question is the dream asking?

Finding the dream theme.  Ex: What is the basic theme of being naked or well dressed in a dream? How I’m seen.

How can I apply the theme to my waking life?  Where in my waking life am I feeling this?

If you ignore an issue it will keep coming back, even as a nightmare.

Look up Bob Hoss and his 6 Magic Questions.  Sarah Weisman also mentioned.

Referenced Von Franz’s Lectures on Jung’s Typology.

Jung had a color code applied to dreams.  Ex: Red pen in a dream indicates introversion, green/brown indications sensation.

(To be cont'd)