At the International Study of Dreams Conference in June this year, at Asheville, Nth Carolina, Jodine Grundy (who visited us last December) took up the role of President of the Association. In her inaugural address she described a visionary dream she had recently experienced, in which she was with a group of people going to the Conference. She leads them under a black arched wrought-iron gateway with a design of flowers and leaves, entitled "University of Padua 1500"; then through an ancient medicine garden with a profound sense of the spirits of the great old plants, and some awareness of water; then towards the old buildings, past another patch of ground showing brilliant coloured patterns...
Waking from the dream in awe, Jodine googled the University of Padua, and found that although it was founded in 1222, the second oldest in Europe, its medicine garden was established in 1545 - the world's oldest continually cultivated medicine garden! And the entry is indeed a black arched gateway of wrought iron embellished with flowers and leaves; and furthermore, four different paths lead to a central fountain! So the dream contained astonishing psychic elements. Jodine also discovered that Padua University had been very open-minded from the start, and had produced the first woman to graduate from a university. It was indeed a remarkably apt symbol for the IASD, as an open, inclusive, "archetypal university "of healing, art, creativity and scientific exploration - a vision for growth, with deep roots and enormous potential.
Here in NZ we have at least 200 people, mainly counsellors, who have been attending Dreamwork training in the last 3 years, in Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Dunedin; and new workshops being planned for Nelson, New Plymouth, Christchurch.... About 14 people regularly attend my Dreamwork Certificate graduates' group in Auckland, and another dozen are currently working through the requirements. Around the world there are IASD Regional Contact Persons in over 40 countries, helping the movement to spread; and new courses in Dream Studies being developed in universities, mainly in Psychology Departments.
"Inception": An unexpected boost of interest in dreaming has occurred with the recent release of the film "Inception," a sci-fi action thriller, in which industrial espionage is undertaken by a team of specialists in lucid dreaming, led by Leonardo Di Caprio. (Lucid dreamers are able to become aware that they are inside a dream, and therefore able to control what happens.) Teenage males will enjoy all the shoot-em-up car-chasing chaos, but underneath lies a set of assumptions with much deeper relevance to our society: could invaders really use new technology to break into our subconscious minds, steal our ideas, plant their own ideas? Small examples of these things do actually happen by means of suggestion or telepathy, but the story here, in sci-fi style, takes the process to an extreme level.
In the film, tension is maintained not only by the split-second timing of the action, but also by the deepening exploration into the leader's own traumatic memories, which are also accessible through dreaming. The Director, Chris Nolan, is apparently a lucid dreamer himself, and knows how to play with the edges between reality and fantasy. This is a fascinating film, but brace yourself first to detach from the violence, so that you can think about the philosophy!