1 Cracking the Dream Code by Patti Allen Lesson, Week 7 a Shamanic

Cracking the Dream Code

By Patti Allen

Lesson, Week 7

A Shamanic approach to dreaming is very different from the psychological understanding of dreams, but as “Raiders of the Lost Arts”, we take the best of all available custom and knowledge and use them in service to the Dream. In

Holographic DreamworkTM our approach is that dreams are “both/and” not

“either/or” meaning they are about our psychological, inner world, but also can carry information and warnings for the future, contact with our guides and so much more. So any given dream may be about your issues with self-esteem and about a situation you are facing in waking life and you may have been astral traveling and having a conversation with a departed loved one. Both/and.

Anthropologists brought the term “shaman” to the West and we see similar beliefs in many aboriginal cultures around the world. Shamans are highly trained individuals who can move in the spirit world for healing, divination, and communication. The shamanic approach to dreaming is one in which the philosophies and knowledge about the spirit world are primary and dreams are considered just as real, though different, as waking life. Dreams are encounters or communication from the spirit world and we all have the potential to experience the unseen realm, through the vehicle of our dreams. In core

Cracking the Dream Code 1 Copyright © 2011 by Patti Allen shamanic beliefs, this is not without danger and a trained shaman should accompany you into these realms. Robert Moss and others have brought many of these techniques into the mainstream and many dreamers use them successfully to navigate in their dream world, without the guidance of an experienced shaman.

Working With Your Dreams

How would you approach your dreams from a shamanic perspective? First, this way of working with dreams isn’t a “technique” so much as a philosophy. A shamanic approach to dreams is part of a larger approach to all of life and how it works. So your first step is to regard the dream as true, not “made up”, and possibly showing you the future. Ask yourself if the dream might actually happen? Could the dream have been showing you a possible future? If the dream setting is a setting that you know, filled with people that you are familiar with, then it is more than likely. But even when you don’t recognize the places or the people, it is still possible.

In the shamanic way of understanding dreams, there are everyday dreams and there are “Big” dreams. Only the big dreams are worked with and they are considered to be messages from the spirit realm to be taken literally. One’s spirit guide or power animals may appear, but in any case, the dream will feel very vivid and real. A Big dream that is a warning is not analyzed as in Western psychology; instead it is reenacted. Michael Harner, writing in his book “The Way

Cracking the Dream Code 2 Copyright © 2011 by Patti Allen Of The Shaman” says, “The dream is not symbolic, but your enactment of it is.” If one cannot change one’s fate, it is considered that reenacting the dream will help prevent it from manifesting in a serious way. In one’s Big dreams the messages from one’s guardians may also be positive and these can be enacted as well, through dance or play. Harner writes that we should not ignore these as our power animals may not feel appreciated and may leave us. You can integrate this way of looking at the dream into your own dream philosophy and experiment with reenacting the dream. At the very least, this approach to dreams, practiced the world over, can encourage us to take our dreams seriously, and possibly literally!

Things That Go Bump In The Night: Parasomnias

The term “parasomnia” refers to a whole host of sleep/arousal disorders including the more common nightmares, sleepwalking (somnambulism) and sleeptalking

(somniloquy) and night terrors (Pavor Nocturnus), Sleep Paralysis (SP) to the less serious teeth grinding, snoring (sounds made when inhaling), Catathrenia

(sounds made when exhaling) and Restless Legs Syndrome and others.

Nightmares: Bad dreams may be disturbing but nightmares are dreams whose content disturbs us to such an extent that our physiology changes and we generally wake ourselves up. Psychological in nature, they are considered to show content reflecting emotional issues that our psyche wants us to deal with,

Cracking the Dream Code 3 Copyright © 2011 by Patti Allen whether repressed memories and emotions or anything that is challenging to face. These are not to be confused with “night terrors” which is a neurological event (see below). Generally, healthy children will have more nightmares than healthy adults and they diminish with age. Prescription medications can occasionally cause nightmares. If you are experiencing ongoing nightmares and are taking medications, check with your doctor and pharmacist.

For those who travel to the unseen realms in sleep, nightmares can be from disturbing energies, external and not originating with the dreamer. In ancient times people believed evil spirits or demons created these dreams, or that too much eating and drinking could bring on nightmares, which then caused a physical imbalance. While those with scientific backgrounds no longer blame bad dreams on spirits, it might be fun to test out the food connection by eating an excessive amounts of challenging but delicious foods (spicy foods, sugary foods, caffeine, etc.) and seeing how they affect your sleep, but you probably already know what you should avoid eating and it would likely be an uncomfortable experiment! Some dreamers swear that this is true, i.e. that certain foods will cause bad dreams, and they avoid certain food (meat and cheese chief among them) or drink before bed, especially if they want to catch a dream. Sometimes called the “Pepperoni Pizza Effect” (Hartmann), this is not necessarily true for all dreamers. Finding out what helps or hinders your nightmares is an important aspect of your dream health to explore.

Cracking the Dream Code 4 Copyright © 2011 by Patti Allen For the ancients, the gods could also be implicated in a nightmare. In our time, this might be translated into the following: the sacred is within us, so a harmonious body-mind-spirit is the best way to get a good night’s sleep and avoid nightmares, but that includes doing your inner work to avoid having the suppressed material that would give us a nightmare. In any case, it cannot be

100% guaranteed, but striving for a balanced and conscious life does help diminish nightmares. Nevertheless, today’s modern dream workers believe that there is no such thing as a bad dream! We hold that all dreams come in service of health, balance and wholeness.

Why do we have nightmares? Metaphorically, nightmares are considered to be the equivalent to yelling at someone who has been ignoring you, in order to get their attention. The more you ignore your inner emotional life, the more likely you are to have nightmares. Yet, what is frightening to one dreamer is not necessarily frightening to others; our nightmares and tailor-made for each of us. From a physical standpoint, a recent study points to unpleasant smells triggering nightmares, and pleasant smells lessening them (Hurd), so setting the stage for pleasant dreams that we discussed earlier can further aid your dreams.

Those who are energetically sensitive should consider dreaming with psychic protection in place. This may take the form of prayers, calling in guardian angels,

Archangels, or surrounding oneself with talismen that helps one feel secure.

Feng Shui involving the creation of sacred space and balanced energy in the

Denise Linn, particularly on the subject of dreams, space clearing and Feng Shui.

A “recurring dream” isn’t always a nightmare, though they frequently are. Typical dreams in this category are dreams where we are back in school and we can’t find our locker, or remember the combination, or we can’t find the room that we’re supposed to be in. Or a dream where we are trying to call for help, and we can’t seem to “dial” 911 or the phone doesn’t work and so on. If we return to the analogy of yelling to get our attention, a recurring dream would be repeating the message-or the screaming-to get the attention of a dreamer who stubbornly refuses to listen. “Recurring dreams signal recurring situations and often indicate that we are stuck in a rut in our personal or work life.” (Delaney) Recurring dreams may also be recurring “themes” where there are similar settings or issues, but the action or the details differ.

Lucid dreaming is a helpful technique for facing these challenging and recurring dreams and both children and adults can benefit from this practice. Rather than waking oneself up from a scary dreams, when having a nightmare, one can become aware of the fact that they are dreaming and choose stay in the dream and interact differently with the scary object, character or story line. The dreamer can also bring in allies to help deal with the nocturnal challenger or scary situations.

When nightmares and recurring dream need some professional help would be in the following circumstances (Delaney):

• Constant intense, recurring dreams or nightmares

• Dreams of sexual coercion or being threatened with bodily harm

• Dreams that confuse or blend sexual imagery with images of

aggression (this is to be taken in context with other dreams).

• Depression, anxiety, dissociation, somatization, sexual dysfunction,

low self- esteem and difficulty in maintaining healthy intimate

relationships esp. when combined with nightmares and/or recurring

dreams.

• Feeling in dreams of being terrified, trapped, frightened and

helpless

• Dreams of abused or neglected small animals or children

• Vampire dreams that turn bloody and violent

• Dreams of sexually intrusive parents

• Being held hostage or prisoner.

Here is what is key: What are the feelings that accompany the dream? One could have dreams like these, but have very positive emotional responses to them so these dreams have to be taken in the context of the dreamer’s day (remember you are writing day notes!), the dreamer’s life and dreamer’s dream history as well as the current situation the dreamer is in.

Night Terrors

Night terrors are mostly associated with young children but can happen to older children and adults as well. They differ from nightmares in many ways and are not, in fact considered to be dreams at all. Night terrors happen in the early part, i.e. the first one to two hours of one’s evening sleep cycle; dreams and nightmares happen later. Your child will not awaken easily even if their eyes are open and they may reject contact with you or your attempts to comfort them. With a nightmare, your child will respond to your attempts to waken them, to your touch, and to your comfort. With a night terror, they will appear terrorized or agitated, possibly screaming or crying, with the physiological responses that are typical of this state; respiration, racing heart, perspiration all increase. When they do wake up, they will not be able to recount a dream. They most commonly appear between the ages of three and seven (some say 2 to 6 years) and there seems to be a familial tendency, with the probability increasing in children who also suffer from sleepwalking/talking. Some researchers consider sleep terrors to be the result of an immature and developing nervous system, but that doesn’t explain the occurrence in teenagers and adults. What most experts seem to agree on is that night terrors are exacerbated by stress. Giving your child (or yourself) some quiet downtime before bed, a comfortable sleeping environment and a relaxing bedtime routine, will do a lot to reduce night terrors. However, if it relates to an immature nervous system, then waiting until they are outgrown is required. You don’t have to panic along with your child. Offer them a soothing

Cracking the Dream Code 8 Copyright © 2011 by Patti Allen and calm presence, knowing that they will not likely remember any of it in the morning. Pressing them for details in the morning, or telling them what they were doing, will likely make them feel bad and should be avoided.

Sleepwalking & Sleep Talking

Somnambulism, commonly called “sleepwalking”, finds the dreamer in deep

“slow wave” sleep (stage four) but the “muscle atonia” or paralysis, one of our three REM signatures, is somehow not engaged. Complex activities and behaviors may occur and the dreamer may not fully remember their nocturnal activities the next morning. The behavior may not last long, up to thirty minutes, and it seems to run in families. Sleeptalking, called “somniloquy” is similar to sleepwalking however it can happen during either NREM or REM sleep. What one says in this state does not seem to correlate to any dream content; approximately 20% of the population experiences talking in one’s sleep.

Sleep Paralysis (SP)

Sleep Paralysis is an inability to move or speak just before falling asleep or waking up. SP may or may not be accompanied by hallucinations and are usually experienced in the boundaries between sleep cycles. When we seem to be waking up (or at the onset of sleep) but our body is still experiencing muscle atonia, our mind can play tricks on us convincing us that we are paralyzed with dream-like scenarios that can be quite frightening. Ryan Hurd wrote a book

For Next Week

If you are having nightmares, or a child in your house is having them, go back to the instructions in Lesson One and create a calming space for dreaming.

Empower yourself to remedy an imbalanced sleep setting naturally before taking prescription or over the counter drugs for your sleep problems. Eliminate late night eating or drinking of alcohol (which interferes with your REM cycles), take the TV out of the bedroom, introduce some calming aromatherapy to the room as well as some pre-sleep calming practices. Then, choose any of the types of dreams discussed this week that you have experienced yourself. Whether a dream that told you the future as in a shamanic Big dream, or a nightmare or recurring dream that you have had and can recall. Then pick any of the ways of working with dreams and see if you can uncover the meaning of your dream. If we just read about dreams and don’t actually do the work necessary to understand out dreams, then it will remain in the realm of intellectual curiosity.

Become the dream traveller and feel free to ask questions in the group forum if you feel stuck.