Frontiers of the Dream - Conference
29 September 2015
Some 50 explorers of consciousness came to participate in the Dream Network's mini-conference at the St Columba Centre in Ponsonby, Auckland on !7th-18th June, 2016.
We began on Friday at 6 pm with the AGM of the Dream Network, followed by my stimulating presentation on the mystery of Precognitive Dreaming. I used a dozen vivid examples, showing the range from random pre-glimpses of public disasters to precisely targeted warnings of a death in the family. In such cases, it may still be possible for the dreamer to take action that may mitigate the event. What does this tell us about Fate and the future?
On Saturday morning we used video clips from the Internet of Dr Eben Alexander discussing his tremendous Near-Death-Experience during a 7-day coma caused by a rare, severe, attack of meningitis. As an academic neuro-surgeon himself, he was able to analyse the medical impossibility of his NDE being created by his own brain; and challenges the medical profession to acknowledge the existence of the human soul/consciousness as capable of existence in an alternative reality beyond death. This generated intense discussion in small groups.
A further video presented a discussion of Mystical Experience among 3 leaders of their respective faiths: a Sufi teacher, a Jewish rabbi and a Benedictine monk. They agreed that visionary experiences lie at the roots of all major faith-traditions, and point in the same direction towards Love as a core value.
In the afternoon we shifted to a focus on the possibility of Reincarnation. Margaret Needham spoke briefly about her own past-life dream-experiences, and how to distinguish them from current dreams. She was followed by Gabriella Almassy, a regression hypnotherapist, who described some of her work with people who were able to recall what they did in the zone between lives, preparing for the next one. This of course was followed by a lengthy session of controversial discussion!
Many participants expressed their enjoyment of the opportunity to discuss these "edgy" topics in an atmosphere of open enquiry and sharing of personal experience. The Network is likely to offer a similar day next year.