Dreams and Guidance: Journal
Keepers Report
Cynthia Pearson,
has chaired the "Long Term Journal Keeping" panels for
eight years and presides over
www.Dreamjournalist.com “A Website for People Who
Write Down Their Dreams.” She is the author of several books,
serves on the Board of IASD, and has kept a dream journal since
1979.
Sheila McNellis Asato,
(USA), founder of Monkey
Bridge Arts, LLC, a
center dedicated to the growth, transformation and healing of
individuals and the community through the arts, dreaming and
creative development. She is in the final stages of completing her
MA in Human Development at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Dr. Joan Harthan, a
Research Associate at The University of Nottingham, England, is
the author of Working the Nightshift, How to Understand Your
Dreams, which explains different techniques for dream analysis
and is available through her website
www.docdreamuk.com. Joan presented papers at IASD’s 2004
conference, and her work has appeared in DreamTime.
Dr. Curtiss Hoffman is an
archaeologist and consciousness researcher who has taught in the
Anthropology Department at Bridgewater State College, USA, since
1978. He is particularly interested in Jungian approaches to
dreaming, and has led classroom dreamwork groups since 1997. He is
the host of the 2006 conference.
Janet McCall is an art
historian who recently retired as Executive Director of the
Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, a 35-year-old art
gallery/education center. In 2004 she curated the traveling
exhibition “Perchance to Dream,” and supported IASD in holding a
regional conference, “Dreams, Art and Healing,” at the gallery.
Gloria Sturzenacker
is an editor, writer, and graphic artist. She has developed a
symbol system, Inner Guide Mapping, to track the multilayered
interaction of internal and external experience. She serves on the
Board of IASD.
Abstract
At ASD-13, Dennis Schmidt chaired
the first panel on long-term journaling and framed the personal
dream journal as the fundamental instrument of dream study. His
comments in 1996 served as a mission statement:
"…In the tradition of the
naturalists whose patient observations prepared the ways to
elegant understandings of physics, chemistry, and biology, home
journal keepers record and discover events and regularities that
astonish and enlighten…Scholar and journalkeeper alike need to
recognize that the personal journal is a uniquely sensitive
instrument that may enlighten not only the individual dreamer but
the whole field of dream study."
Since then, journalers have met
at every IASD conference to discuss long term record keeping and
continue our cross-fertilization. In 2006, the theme will be
“Dreams and Guidance.”
In
“Healing Collage & Dreaming – Surprising Connections,” Sheila
Asato will describe guidance that came in the form of unexpected
associations between visual images in her collages and metaphors
in her dream journal. These were not obvious until she looked at
the visual imagery and the verbal text together, and then she
discovered new and surprising connections that helped her attain
both academic and creative objectives.
Joan
Harthan will review a selection of dream divination techniques,
past and present, in her paper, “Divine Comparison.” Starting with
bibliomancy and progressing through such methods as tarot cards,
dream cards and dream oracles, she will be comparing the results
of applying these divinatory methods to her own dreams.
Studying his own and others’ dream accounts, Curt Hoffman has
sought to learn whether dreams during the Mercury retrograde
period contain classic Mercury retrograde elements, including
communication problems, travel restrictions, and difficulties with
finances. In “Mercury Retrograde and its Effects on Dreaming,”
Curt will report on his findings.
Janet
McCall has been recording and illustrating her dreams for years.
By doing so, she has developed her creativity, found her intuitive
voice and obtained guidance that has enriched her life. In “Dream
Journaling: Guidance and the Creative Process,” she will discuss
how her dreams have taught her how to know when she is getting
sick, helped her to obtain solutions for problems and ideas for
new projects, and enabled her to work through personal loss and
grief.
In
"Dreams That Tell You Where to Go," Gloria Sturzenacker will
narrate some of her adventures in following dream guidance. Dreams
often contain signposts to guide inquiry and action – the odd
element that raises curiosity enough to research a new topic, the
hunch that comes with awakening, the echo of a corresponding event
in waking life. While frequently puzzling, these signposts can be
laser-accurate, even when the route they point to twists and
turns.
Cynthia Pearson will moderate the panel and facilitate discussion
with audience members following the presentations.
Year after year, the ultimate
objective of the long term journal keeping panel remains constant
– to stress the importance of journal keeping, and to highlight
the unique and invaluable instrument that is the dream journal.
