Dreaming A Story

Photography may be a beautiful way to enter the world of dreaming. When I put on my "photographer's lenses", I look for patterns, for images that I ignore with my regular attention. I use my third eye when I shoot landscapes and nature and, I see beyond the ordinary. I see patterns that reveal the spirits of nature!

I remember reading one of the first books by Carlos Castñeda back in the late '70s and early '80s. Don Juan, his teacher was telling him to see, not simply look. In the dreaming course that I'm taking with my mentor Robert Moss, two participants have shared journeys in which one or both eyes were removed, yet they could see. 

How do we see then? With our third eye… and with Imagination.

We use imagination everyday, yet we dismiss it as irrelevant, a distraction, a waste of time! For being such a waste of time though, we may spend a lot of it imagining, and in the case of many people who see me as a RN in mental health, it fuels their anxiety or depression. Many technologies trigger our imagination: TVs, computers and smartphones. We're not conscious of that though. So we're not aware of it, we're not mindful and as a result, we are controlled by our imagination instead of using it as a tool. If I wanted to dominate the world, the message I would transmit is that imagination is not worth it.

Activities like photography, painting, sculpting, poetry are a good beginning steps to nourish the imagination because they are widely (and perhaps wildly) acceptable hobbies. But we can go further. Doing guided imagery is a beautiful next step. We can listen to them on YouTube and other media. Then, we can graduate to our own meditation in the imaginal realm by simply sitting down and remembering a beautiful story from our life or one that we read and continue the story beyond where we left it off. Add drumming to this meditation and you're off on a journey!

You can also dive directly into the practice of Active Dreaming. Simply start with an image or an intention, follow your breathing, close your eyes and… dream a story. Make one up… like you did when you were a child. Difficult? Close your eyes and see your inner child. Go to a tree or imagine one… and have her or him tell you a story. Combine audio and visual with drumming and a photo to help you on your adventure. There you are: awake and dreaming a story!