Dreaming: Imagination in Action (About) Four months ago, I had a series of synchronicities over a period of a couple of days that brought me to one word: Dreaming. I started to get a feel for something ‘I do,’ my gift, my way of showing up that I couldn’t not-do, it is so deeply embedded in my way of being in the world. Many different threads in study, life, and practice started coming together, all focused on this one word: Dreaming. I began to try and articulate it to some people close to me, write out some of the insights, and as I did it became clear that I had some kind of proto-methodology, a way of working with people that might be something valuable, helpful. So I set up an experiment to see if I could figure out just what I was on to. TL;DR: I do seem to have something quite powerful on my hands. It’s an empowering orientation to life and practice, an individual (spiritual) practice, a coaching methodology, an interpersonal and relational practice, and a group awareness and organizational practice, all-in-one. It’s flexible, multi-faceted, quick, effective, and powerful, and has become much more so as I’ve been experimenting with it. It’s an Integral Practice: something which embraces any facet of life we wish to work with, something that brings together the most practical, moment-by-moment actions we take to do something in the ‘real world,’ as well as the greatest contexts and visions we can access. Dreaming is Imagination in Action. It’s also accessible to anyone who may already be interested in working consciously with their lives. There are no ‘prerequisites,’ other than having some access to a basically adult sense of self. (I think there are potentials beyond this as well, but was not offering this to any one else in this phase for obvious reasons.) At the heart of Life is one ‘Activity.’ You are that activity, as am I, as is everything. It’s a practice of Identity: Almost chiefly so. Dreaming brings us to the places where our Identities restrict our possibilities in the world, without vilifying, asking us to deny, or in any way alter those Identities. By focusing on how our Identities are constructed, are activities, we gain some measure of being able to act on them, rather than being defined, and confined, by them. It’s a practice of World-Making, energized by the inquiry/ies: “What is Possible?” “What World Do You Want to Live In?” and “What Can We Make Together?”, among others. The following is an account of some of the things I’ve learned over the past four months about Dreaming — I intend it as a bit of a record, a mile-marker of sorts. The ritual closing of a space of experiment. Or, as Dreaming is constantly iterative, at least a particularly explorative phase of experimentation. The Experiment I got the sense that if I wanted to really know what I had, and to begin to have a grasp on how to lead people through it, I’d have to do about 50 sessions. I decided early on to make these completely free, without even so much as the hint of a sales pitch or so. In hindsight what was probably most helpful about this is that I freed myself of the compulsion to need to ‘do’ something during the sessions, something which still occasionally got in the way and showed up in very subtle layers. I don’t think I’d have been able to see this dynamic that clearly if I’d tried to find paying clients at the get-go. So 50 sessions. I then asked, how many people would I have to reach out to to get 50 actual sessions? How many people would I have to reach out to who would 1) read my invite, 2) be interested, 3) still be interested after receiving further information, 4) actually schedule a session, and 5) show up and participate? I guessed about 200, and so I put 200 Euro pennies in a little jar next to an empty jar, as well as 50 50 Euro-cent pieces in a little jar next to an empty jar, and began transferring the coins. One penny for every invite sent, one 50cent piece for every completed Dreaming session. The number 200, though it was arbitrary, turned out to be just about right (a shade too many, actually, but better than the other direction.) It also freed me up from the fear of rejection. After all, what I was after was just 50 sessions, so I could get 150 rejections and still be alright. I didn’t get that many, of course, but I did get quite a few, as well as a large number of ‘rejections-by-default.’ What Dreaming is: Dreaming says: at the heart of life, the universe, reality, there is really one ‘activity.’ You are that activity, as am I, as is… well — everything. I’m not interested in naming that activity, or even necessarily coming to some kind of final understanding of it. What I am interested in doing, is playing with it. Inhabiting it. Embodying and emanating it. Taking it for a spin. In Dreaming together, we try on a few simple and fundamental places of resting awareness, and see what comes up. The different ‘places’ bring us almost immediately to some of the basic boundary lines that we use to construct our sense of identity, what is real and what is not, etc. etc. Finding these lines and exploring these places has been immensely powerful for myself and those who participated in these original experiments. Focusing on how our Identities are constructed, are activities, we gain some ability to act on them rather than being defined, and confined, by them. From that initial intersubjective investigation, we can move in any of a number of ways. The participants simply lean in and listen for the direction of insight, greater openness, greater curiosity → or simply: the direction of deeper Dreaming. But wait — what is Dreaming in the first place? Why am I being so round-about about it? It’s difficult to describe, and partially that’s because it means several veryinterconnected, but helpfully differentiated things.
Creativity: Why “Creativity?” Creativity is a word that neatly encompasses the two hands of Dreaming: the Visionary/Imaginary, and the Practical/Manifesting. To be a Creator is to be able both to see what is not yet present, and to bring it into being. The Universe (or Life, or what have you) is Creativity, in both the unmanifest potentiality (the Godhead, the pregnant void) and in Creation, the manifest world. This experience — open, joyful, excited, creative — this experience of Dreaming, it’s not just for some peak-experience, practice setting, weekend workshop: it’s your heritage and birthright as a human being. Life can be like this. You are this as well, you are no different than this. You have some kind of a sense of the free being that you are, that is your birthright. From the perspective of the personality, it may seem like the difficulties in life, the things you tie yourself in knots around, are blocks to the flow of creativity in your life. From the perspective of Dreaming, however, even these ‘blocks’ arean expression of unlimited Creativity in this world and in your life. This also allows us to give some respect to our difficulties. They are an expression of intelligence and Creativity, not some random personal curse. I do not think we’ve seen or are really prepared for being able to express this depth of Creativity, especially as we move into a Collective ability to anchor experience and awareness in Dreaming. My own learning:
Besides what I learned about Dreaming itself, as a bit of a report-card I thought I’d also include two ways in which the sessions I was giving have ‘gone off the rails.’ As flexible as Dreaming is, ‘going off the rails’ is not disastrous; but there were sessions that were more and less powerful experiences. First, I have a tendency to be a bit chatty, to engage on an intellectual level, rather than an experiential one. The need to set context and introduce perspectives and orientations on what we were doing when there may have been none previously exacerbated this. Adjustment 1: I decided to do a series of context-setting videos for people both to get a sense of what Dreaming is all about when they first hear about it, and to send to someone before a session, so we’re not spending too much time on the things that I find myself saying in a majority of sessions to help set context. Adjustment 2: I’ve started catching myself if I’m trying to ‘explain’ something, and return to the direct experience. This is a balance, as sometimes the explanation is extremely helpful, but I think with context-setting videos the need to do this when it’s been getting in the way should be reduced. Second, I had difficulty at times with my ‘Approval’ seeking social self. (According to line of thought, everyone is either basically seeking ‘approval’ or seeking ‘power’ as a persona in every move they make in the world.) This would pop up particularly with intelligent women with some access already to their own awareness. Adjustment: Without getting into the whys in my own Dreaming for this happening, I did start to notice this after the second time it happened, around session 10. I have become aware of this again after this session, but have been able to let it go as it arises. If needed, I can also divulge that this is present in my Dreaming, since if it’s there it will be creating a dynamic in our session. And, as I’ve seen this be powerful now over and over again, as I’ve received glowing feedback and stories of genuine change and opening from people I’ve worked with, I’ve had less of a need to ‘prove’ to myself or the other that the method is powerful — ‘prove’ and ‘approval’ being closely etymologically linked by the sense of testing something’s worth. And so, this has naturally begun to ebb as I’ve done more and more sessions. (Another reason for doing 50 before entering a stage of reflection.) And Finally, I’ve gotten some feedback that the sessions themselves were almost always surprisingly powerful and insightful, but that support for after the sessions on integrating these insights into daily life was thin. This is partially to be expected — after all, there’s only so much integration you can do in two hours. It’s not really the purpose of an introductory call to fully integrate an insight into your life. This was also not exactly my focus during this time. Adjustment: I have already been sending people practices and suggestions for working with the material of the sessions afterwards. Like the first adjustment, though, I’ve decided to put a series of videos together to help with the most common practices I ask people to continue with in addition to sending them focused, bespoke practices to work with. The Qualities of Dreaming Dreaming is an experience (though not exclusively, see “Dreaming and View”), and that experience has several qualities that I’ve discerned in my own experience and in working with others. They all reflect on a ‘whole’ experience, as different instruments play together in one symphony. This metaphor can extend easily: there are ‘groups’ of experiences that are closely allied, like rhythm and woodwinds. Where the metaphor breaks down is that the grouping that I’m doing here is far looser than in an orchestra. And each person, essentially, is his or her own symphony. These are the qualities that I’ve discerned so far, it is not a final list, and you may experience and name these qualities in a different way. This is also very preliminary in itself. But with that said, here are the qualities of Dreaming: The Expansive Qualities: Openness; Expansiveness; Freedom. Openness: Wide-open space, the ability to be present with what arises, a sense of having room to take in what life is giving in this moment. Expansiveness: You could fill out all time and space, because you do. Freedom: At the heart of Dreaming lies the realization and experience: you are unlimited Creativity. You are already freely creating your life, and always have been. The Energetic Qualities: Excitement; Aliveness; Electricity; Wonder/Magic; Joyfulness. Excitement: What’s there not to be excited about? Aliveness: Can you feel Life, at this very moment? Can you feel your participation as Life, right now? Can you sense this not only in your body, or your energetic field and self, but in everything? Electricity: High Voltage, running through you. Wonder/Magic: In awe of the mysteries of Life, witnessing and dancing in an enchanted world. Joyfulness: Natural, flowing, radiating joyfulness. The Grounded Qualities: OKness; Groundedness; Home; Serenity; Peacefulness; Pleasure OKness: Everything, everything, everything is OK. Groundedness: All that fantastic energy: when you feel grounded in your body, experience, and awareness, instead of it pulling you up and out, it flows through you. Home: Not ‘Thanksgiving Dinner Awkward Political Conversation’ home, or “my issues with my mother’s protectiveness” home, but HOME. Where you belong, in life, in yourself. Home. Serenity: Equanimity. Unshakability. Calm and peaceful; even as the storm rages around you. You are the eye. Peacefulness: Yes, even chaos is peaceful. Even coursing electricity. Pleasure: What a wonderful experience to explore the textures of our lives! How pure the expression of pleasure in simply feeling our hands run across the grain of our desks, to feel the slight pressures our expanding musculature creates to fill us with breath. Simplicity: all our myriad complexifications met at the root and source of this moment, this life. The Relational Qualities: Curious; Grateful; Will; Celebration; Playfulness; Being-In-Love; Possibility; Turn-On/Attraction/Passion Curious: And just what is happening now/next! Grateful: Touched, appreciative. Present. Will: The quality, not of desire, but of the fullness of our power as creative beings moving inexorably towards completion. Celebration: Life as the grandest party possible, the playground of Krishna. Playfulness: Leeched of the life-and-death seriousness that we carry with us in what is essentially unimportant, we can play with life again. Being-in-Love: A quality of love-of and love-with. In love with our own life and fate, in love with our conversational parter, in love especially with what we find most difficult, what we wrestle with in creating. Possibility & Potency: Possibility, not mathematically, where a roll of the die might land on ‘6,’ but the open possibility of applied life and energy. Potency: the ownership of Power, applied towards the possible. Turn-on/Attraction/Passion: Sexual and sensual, but not ‘sexualized,’ our whole lives lived as foreplay — orgasm especially. The ‘Whole Experience’ Qualities: Surrealness/Realness/Ordinaryness; Freshness; Lucidity; Nourishment; Wholeness; Remarkable. Surrealness/Realness/Ordinaryness: How could these three be put together? What feels like ‘surreality’ to some, comes across as simply being ‘real’ to others. What feels different is the sense of the completely ordinary. Freshness: Each moment, each breath new. An entire lifetime, an entire universe. Now, and now, and now again. Lucidity: Self-reflexively aware, sharp in senses, you know that you are Dreaming, right now. Nourishment: Allowing the clouds to move on, and the sun to shine directly on your leaves. Wholeness: Only this everywhere; no parts without partaking (taking part). Remarkable: Something is here. Something we are not accustomed to, and yet that feels familiar. Perhaps impossible to name explicitly, the experience is nonetheless remarkable, uncanny. Presence: The quality of being-here. The Christmas Morning Experience: A client recently gave a beautiful example of how beginning to access Dreaming regularly in experience can bring these different tenors of life back into awareness — she said it felt like she was having a “Christmas Morning Experience” continuously; an experience that combined a sense of excitement and anticipation with curiosity, aliveness, celebration, joyfulness and possibility. The moment when you wake up, before you’ve opened your presents or even seen them wrapped under the tree, when everything is possible and the moment, the moment you’ve finally been waiting for is here. Except, of course, the moment itself, life itself is the gift. That anticipation doesn’t have to deflate with the unwrapping, the collapsing of possibility. In a sense, it’s an invitation to anticipate what is already present. At the Core, you could use any number of phrases to quickly capture the essence of the state: open, grounded curiosity. Serene, spacious play. Relaxed, focused Creativity. The Marriage of Opposites: The experience of Dreaming often brings about apparently contradictory feelings — how can a coursing electricity be experienced as peaceful? I’ve had (several) people say something to the effect of “I feel… I don’t know how to say it… I feel both light and heavy at the same time.” Dreaming is an experience that unveils the myriad boundaries that we draw our experience with, and it shouldn’t be surprising then that we gain access to experiences that are difficult to categorize dualistically. Dreaming. This experience — open, joyful, excited, creative — this experience of Dreaming, it’s not just for some peak-experience, practice setting, weekend workshop: it’s your heritage and birthright as a human being. Life can be like this. Our Identification — our social self, our ego — is largely a way of shutting this down— our social self, our ego. In a Dreaming Session we work towards unveiling these activities of self- and social-self construction to reveal the Dreaming underneath. Dreaming is your birthright as a human being. _________ For you Medium-readers, all of the articles published here are cross-posted to the Be Dreaming publication on Medium.
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