Dreaming A New World Into Being

By Rosemary Ellen Guiley with Rita Dwyer

c. Visionary Living, Inc.

We often dream of having a better life or being in a better place. Such dreams seem more like wishes than blueprints for action, but we dream them anyway, in our free time, and create in our imagination an ideal life or world. And then we let the dreams go.

But what if we could actually, literally dream a new world into being? Not through idle wishes and fantasies, but through real dreams that we create and experience during sleep?

It’s not impossible. Human beings have been doing it for centuries. Now, a group of members of the International Association for the Study of Dreams have launched a dream activism program for the dreaming community. In this post- 9-11 world, it is more important than ever than we join together to use one of the most important tools of our consciousness – dreams – to change the world for the better. Dream activism builds on ancient dream wisdom and experience.

The manifesting power of dreams

Dreams have always been seen as a direct link to the spiritual plane – a hot line to the gods or God. Since ancient times, dreams have been interpreted for messages of divine prophecy. Pro-active dreaming through incubation has been used as a communications link for petitioning divine intervention in healing and problem-solving. People have used dreams to bring specific changes into the physical world.

Today many people use pro-active dreaming for personal affairs, and for creativity and inspiration. Science, invention and the arts boast many individuals who brought something new into the world as a direct result of their dreams.

Anyone who has had a creative dream breakthrough understands that the dreaming mind has a power we do not experience during waking consciousness. It is not fettered by time or space, or self-imposed limitations. It reaches into the subtle plane of the unmanifest potential, where unlimited ideas and inspirations are born. Our dreams are filled with magic and creativity. What’s more, our dreams charge us up with energy for creating what we dream.

Dreams and the collective order

Dreams are part of our soul consciousness. If we accept the idea that everything is interconnected – in accordance with the fundamentals of mystical philosophy – then the consciousness of every individual is connected to other consciousnesses, which forms a collective. Carl Jung was the first to recognize the collective unconscious and its importance in dreamwork, but it is collective consciousness that is important in everyday waking reality. Our thoughts and intent have the power to affect physical events that play out in the world. If enough people are angry, then war, dissension, terrorism are created. If enough people are peaceful and loving, then harmony is created. It’s order versus chaos, depending on the critical mass we create with our thoughts, emotions and intentions.

This view has been put forth by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the chief proponent of Transcendental Meditation (TM), in which a person achieves transcendental consciousness by meditating upon a mantra. According to the Maharishi, if a minimum of the square root of one percent of the world’s population collectively did TM, the coherence of their brainwaves would result in a drop of crime, illness, accidents and aggression. The Maharishi International University has tested this hypothesis with large groups of thousands of meditators, with significant results.

In July this year the Maharishi announced he is opening centers for TM meditators to practice on world consciousness in order to cancel war and terrorism. Using the theory of “constructive interference,” the Maharishi hopes that local meditation centers will have a collective psi effect to bring peace and elevation to disturbed world consciousness.

Dreaming can be part of this broad effort, too. Like our thoughts and emotions, our dreams have tremendous creative power to shape the world. We dream not just for and about ourselves, but in a larger “dream pool” as well. If we can use our dreams to influence the course of our personal life, then we can use our dreams collectively to influence the course of global life. Group dreaming toward a common theme, such as peace, also can establish a coherence of brainwaves that in turn could affect the physical environment – perhaps by subtly altering the actions taken by individuals.

Precedence for dream activism has already been established. For example, in 1982 Bill Stimson, then editor of the Dream Network Bulletin, proposed an experiment in global dreaming. On the winter solstice, nine groups in the United States and Europe met to discuss dreams they had been incubating on the topic of a World Dream. Each group selected one representative dream to share with the other groups. Author Linda Lane Magallon reports in her book Mutual Dreaming:

The similarity of images in the networking process was impressive. Themes included a recognition of the importance of the era in which they lived, a realization of the choices they faced, and great hope for the future. There were three mentions of animal and intercultural themes; four references to water, five to transformations or new beginnings, and five to flight or upward movement.

It is time once again for dreamworkers around the world to unite, this time in a sustained effort to dream a new and better world into being.

A plan for dream activism

The core of the dream activism plan is a central dream affirmation to be meditated upon and incubated on the same night every month by as many dreamworkers as possible. The affirmation is directed to benefit something on a large scale – the collective good. Its intent is to stimulate thought on a collective level to inspire people with ideas, initiatives and drive to manifest real and positive change in the world through their specific interests and activities.

The dream activism affirmation s:
“Tonight I dream the awakened heart… Today I awaken the dreaming heart.”

In recognition of the impact of the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, we set the night of the 11th every month as the time for dreamworkers everywhere to incubate this affirmation with the focused power of the collective dreaming mind. However, on the first practice the following month, many in the group felt that the night of the 10th is more appropriate, for it allows the healing messages to come forth on the day of the 11th. Dream activists can use either or both nights, as well as any other time that seems appropriate.

The affirmation is used in the following manner. Sometime during the day of the 10th, or prior to sleep that night, the dreamer thinks of a specific goal for the common good that he/she would like to help realize. It may be for freedom, for the relief of hunger, for education, for cessation of war – whatever powerfully moves the dreamer. Intensity of emotion is important in order to create and manifest, so the dreamer must choose something about which he/she has strong feelings.

As an alternative, the dreamer can use the affirmation as a way of receiving a call to a specific action.

Prior to sleep, the dreamer concentrates on the central affirmation, “Tonight I dream the awakened heart,” inviting guidance, inspiration and ideas to be presented in dreams. The following day, dreams are recorded and interpreted with the help of meditation on the second part of the affirmation, “Today I awaken the dreaming heart.”

In this fashion, our dreams – one of our best connections to the spiritual realms and to our own inner wisdom – will show us what we need to do, as individuals and as groups, in order to bring about the harmonious world we envision.

It is important to be open and not have set expectations about results. Major change can take place with many small steps. We may be guided to do small things in our own personal spheres of life. The awakened heart affirmation assumes a faith in spiritual guidance as it needs to be given. In that respect, the affirmation is like a dream prayer.

Don’t be surprised if you dream the affirmation dream a night or two before or after the 10th. The ASD Dream Activism group experienced a range of dreams before and after the actual night of incubation. Dreams are outside of time and space.

The effects of dream activism

For our first effort, the dream activism affirmation stimulated a lot of dreaming among the participants. Some themes that emerged concerned group cooperation, the assertion of people for their rights, renewal and rebirth, identification of global needs, sharing of abundance, the overcoming of fear, funding for peace and the emergence of new projects of a healing nature. Discussion of our dreams in turn stimulated more dreaming.

Rita dreamed of a process called “The Tree of Life”:

I am at a meeting with many others and there is a place where on a table people leave food as if in offerings to others. Much of it is fruit or single portions of finger food, and I pick up a beautiful luscious peach and place money in a container, sort of an honor-system arrangement. We can take what we want and pay what we want, or nothing at all, for what is left is with no expectation of monetary return. It’s just left as a gift to the others. Those who have funds to pay leave something for the privilege of eating what is there, and that money in turn is used for those in need in some way in which money is essential. A kind of loop…the process is called The Tree of Life….

Curt Hoffman reported several dreams over several nights, including the following:

I am with a group of esoteric workers, very possibly this group, in a city (possibly NYC). We are discussing ways of alleviating conditions of political repression in various parts of the world. One of our number shows us a political cartoon which they have drawn and had published in a newspaper. It shows four people representing the oppressed rising up and demanding their rights. One is a Tibetan; one is a Chinese peasant in a coolie hat who was displaced by the Three Gorges Dam Project; one is a central Asian peasant displaced by a trans-Asian gas pipeline project, and the fourth is a tall blond American with arms folded over his chest, with a sign around his neck which says, “Victim of Fear, 9/11″. There is a strong sense of courage as the group views this scene.

Benefits of dream activism

There are three primary benefits to collective dream activism:

1. Our dreams show us what we as individuals can realistically do to make positive change for the world. The creative process initiated by dreams continues in the intuition and waking consciousness. Changes can include shifts in attitudes and social consciousness; greater identification with, and empathy for, peoples around the planet; and specific ideas for action.

2. Our dreams inspire us to act, and without action there is no manifestation. Dreams also help us feel empowered in a good process.

The following dream reported by Curt occurred on July 1, but has a bearing on dream activism:

I turn on the TV news in my car, at the intersection of I-495 and Route 140 in Franklin, Massachusetts. Evidently, Bush has recently given a speech about the need for funding peace projects in the Middle East. A series of young reporters repeat sections of this speech, alternating male and female, one after another. Bush said that he was so concerned about the prospect of young Americans being sent off to war — his own sons included — that he has donated $500,000 of his own money to this cause, and he urged all Americans to do likewise. I react to this with a mix of cynicism and hope: I know that very few Americans, after all, could afford to give that much; but it is an “act of international wonder”!

Curt commented: “It is obvious to me that little knots of people are forming all over the world who are bringing forth a transformed consciousness, getting together in groups to share dreams and other activities, generally leaderless and independent, almost like al-Qaeda cells, with one crucial difference: It is our mission to perpetrate acts of international WONDER!!!”

3. The collective dreaming lifts collective consciousness up to a nobler level, which in turn influences the level of waking consciousness, and shifts more weight toward the positive critical mass, a point at which physical reality shifts in response.

The dream activists quickly saw how the group’s dreams related to their own dreams, and also influenced their dreams. The July 1 dream shared by Curt was an influence on Janice Ryalls’ “awakened heart” dream, which occurred on the night of July 24. “I was thinking about Bush’s contribution and request for each of us to give $500,000,” said Janice, who serves as scribe for the dream activist group. “To me the number five is the number for ‘change’ and zeroes are like exclamation marks. So, if it were my dream, I would be realizing that for peace to take place in the Middle East, there has to be major change and we are all invited to be a part of it!” Here are the highlights of Janice’s dream:

I’m with a group of people who are showing President Bush around a house. Bush does not look like Bush – he is taller and more handsome, definitely charismatic. Amongst the people are reporters and others who feel like family. We are now in the basement, which is a family room set up with chairs for everyone to sit in. Three chairs are set up at the head of the room and then there are 3 rows of other chairs along one wall for everyone else.

Everyone there has been asking him question after question during the tour, all politically oriented, which is something he puts up with day in and day out. I have had an opportunity during the tour to speak with him also, but rather than ask him political questions, I have spoken with him more heart to heart as if he were a friend.

I now take a seat at the end of the front row of chairs… [There follows a scene with puppies and baby sea turtles whose hairy spider-like legs look like three stairs from the sides.]  Now I look up to see President Bush looking right at me. He is gesturing for me to come sit right next to him on his right side, which surprises me! I feel honored and accept his invitation. Once next to him, he looks at me and says, “I’ve sent peace to three people here and you are one of them.” He has sent the peace to us through his eyes. I feel a lot of healing energy in my heart when he tells me this! He then gestures with his head towards a co-worker of mine intimating that he is one of the others he has sent peace to. He doesn’t share with me who the third person is.

In the last part of the dream, Janice shares the Bush dream with Rita. The number three is prominent in it, and Rita says three occurs frequently in her dreams, too.

Become a dream activist

Sigmund Freud’s book Dreams: the Royal Road to the Unconscious guided dreamers of the 20th century into explorations of their own inner spaces through personal dreamwork. In this 21st century, we invite you to join us in new explorations of ways to use our dreams for the collective good. If enough of us unite in consciousness, we can make dramatic changes. The collective is only as powerful, as strong and as good as the contributions made to it by individuals. Whether we unite to create chaos or order – terror or wonder – depends on each one of us.

To participate in Dream Activism, email asd-dream-activism@yahoogroups. com.

A special thanks goes to Curt Hoffman for assisting with this article, and to the international Medford Dream Activism planning team: Jean Campbell, Cathy Evans, Curt Hoffman, Athena Lou, Holly Paiva, Wendy Pannier, Janice Ryalls, Nancy Truluck, Carol Warner, Craig Webb, Gerda Williams-Kalt, Linda Yates, Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Rita Dwyer.

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First published in Dream Time, the quarterly magazine of the IASD. Visit the ASD website at http://www.asdreams.org.