Dreams are the myths of the psyche. So begins the
first line of a poem by Hallie Austen Iglehart as she looks
to the world of dreams for clues to the meaning of existence
in these nihilistic postmodern times. Women at this month's
session agreed with her that an imbalanced emphasis on
rational, analytical, scientific modes of thought results in
an "estrangement from our inner selves."
Dreaming
is one of the few ways many Westernized people ever
experience nonlinear realityand even that is
compromised. Boxed into nine-to-five regimens, alarm clocks
(the domestic version of the factory whistle) rudely disrupt
our dreams and make morning reflections on them a weekend
luxury.
One woman called our attention to an article she read
about an Amazonian tribe who began each day by sharing their
dreams and applying the ethereal insights to their
"waking" reality. Then television arrived, and
overnight its fabricated reality displaced the
communal coherence dreamtime dramas had brought to these
indigenous people's lives.
In a similar vein, she added,
listeners of contemporary music used to conjure their own
dreamscapes. With the arrival of eMpTV, however, synthesized, assembly-line
visuals are now mass programmed and imaginations short
circuited.
One woman lamented that "we have lost our
personal poetry." Given television's capacity to
undermine creative thinking, some women wondered to what
degree it also invades our dreaming. To counter the maw of
ever more potent technologies (such as virtual reality),
women acknowledged that nurturing dreamtime is essential.
Recognizing today's spiritual bankruptcy, several women
viewed collective dream interpretation as part of a global
healing process. As Iglehart suggests, "When we share
our dreams with one another, we reach a closeness that
transcends the usual physical, psychological, and social
separations." Appropriately, each of us shared a
memorable dream and welcomed the group's commentary.
One
woman wondered how to properly interpret our dreams since our
thoughts have been so distorted by patriarchal constructions
of reality. For example, we're told that snakes symbolize
phallic sexuality, yet for thousands of centuries snakes were
considered sacred goddess images. Regardless of the
interpretations attached to dreams, Iglehart believes the
goal of dream work is "to integrate [our] conscious and
unconscious selves into a free, healthy whole."
One
woman who studies Zen questioned any separation of the
conscious from the unconscious. She explained that most
earth-based peoples do not conceptualize reality in such
divided terms. Another woman marveled at how accessible the
unconscious is to non-industrialized cultures. The door to
their dream world seems wide open; the Westernized one barely
ajar.
Our discussion of dreams inevitably turned to other
examples of altered states of reality. Women shared their
personal adventures with deep breathing, rebirthing,
meditation, clairvoyance, shamanism, guided meditation, and
out of body experiences. One woman brought up the intriguing
work of Terence McKenna, the ethno-botanist philosopher. He postulates
that ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms by pre-Paleolithic
humans expanded the consciousness of our species. He claims
these "trips" helped account for a cerebral
evolution of colossal proportions leading to our dramatic
divergence from other primates.
Another woman once read that
animals are also known to consume substances to alter their
consciousness: horses seek out locoweed; robins, juniper
berries; and cats, catnip. Several women were opposed to
using substances merely to get high. Although they expressed
a greater acceptance when used for ritual or spiritual
purposes, they still felt that foreign
substancesorganic or otherwiseignore the power of
the human body. We've barely begun to tap its miraculous
potential to induce altered states of consciousness.
Most
women felt that ecofeminists instinctively embrace the dream
worlds, recognizing them as legitimate and awe-inspiring.
Iglehart writes that since ancient times women have been
associated (rightly or not) with the night, the moon,
darkness, the netherworld, emotions, intuition, and the
psyche. So, hey sisters, unplug those alarm clocks and TV
sets. . . . It's dreamtime!
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