The Many Dimensions of Dreams
Social, Trans-Generational, and Transcendent Realities
NOW CLOSED
This webinar was recorded and is now available as a Talk on Demand. Click here for more details.
Saturday 23 April 2022
A live webinar or in-person event with Robin E. Sheriff, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, and Laurie Slade
CPD Credits: 3 or 5 hours
- Attend online afternoon talks (3 hours) OR in person social matrix + talks (5 hours) at Confer’s premises (Please see our FAQ)
- Includes a subtitled recording of the talks and a transcript with access for a year (14 days post the event)
- Bookings close at 9:00am BST Wednesday 20 April
Freud saw dreams as fundamentally an expression of the inner world of the dreamer. Contemporary therapies and dream science have tended to follow him in this (to the extent that dreams are allowed any significance at all). But Westernised cultures are relatively unique in insisting that dreams are intra-subjective. Indigenous cultures, historically and to this day, have seen dreams as reflecting social, trans-generational and transcendent realities.
READ MORE...What does it say about our basic cultural assumptions, that we view dreams in such an individualistic way? How might it affect the way we work with dreams, to view them as multi-dimensional?
We will start by exploring experientially the interface between the personal and the social in dreams, through a social dreaming matrix, private reflection, work in pairs, and communal processing. This will prepare the ground for us to hear more about multi-dimensional approaches to dreaming in indigenous cultures, from Dr Robin Sheriff and Dr Lewis Mehl-Madrona, with time for discussion. In a final plenary session, we will reflect with our speakers on where these explorations take us.
The social dreaming matrix will be available for 50 participants to attend in person, the afternoon lectures are open to all and will be available in person for those attending the matrix and online for those joining us for the afternoon of lectures and discussion. Dr Sheriff and Dr Mehl-Madrona will be participating online.
FULL PROGRAMME
Chaired by Laurie Slade
13.30 BST
Introductions
13:40
Robin E. Sheriff
Indigenous Dreaming: Challenging the Atomistic Self
Western dream theories posit that dreaming is a private, atomistic affair, produced by and staged within an individual’s mind. While the “unconscious” may be truth-bearing in some sense, dreams are understood to be ontologically distinct from “reality,” and are, thereby, often dismissed. In this talk, Robin will discuss some of the dramatic challenges to this view offered by indigenous dream theories shared by native consultants with anthropologists. Emphasis is placed on the widespread insight that dreams gesture outward and not merely inward and are community resources—resources that are deeply integrated with the perceptual, conceptual, and practical dimensions of relational lifeworlds and that are brought to bear in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.
14.30
Q&A
14.50
Break
15.20
Lewis Mehl-Madrona
An Indigenous Perspective on Dreams in Community and Parallel Realities
In much of indigenous North America, when we dream, what happens is viewed as real in that dimension, including the worlds where spirits dwell. However, dreams can serve as metaphors for we can carry what we learn and experience in these other dimensions back to our own. Dreams can be for other people. We can enter into others’ dream-dimensional space and bring back information for them. This is why dreams are shared and discussed in larger circles than just the dreamer’s. The interpretation of dreams is usually consensual and may involve an iterative process with elders.
16.10
Q&A
16.30
Chaired group discussion and reflections on the day
17.00
End / Drinks Reception (in person only)