After Philly

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you from my living room, sitting in my red chair, watching the changing evening light of an early northern spring. It has been several weeks since a group of us from North of Eden, drove, flew or rode the train to the conference in Philadelphia I wrote about in my first blog entry called, 'The Gift of the Dream: A Transformative Conference.' We went to speak of Archetypal Dreamwork with our colleague, Rodger Kamenetz,  and show a little of how we work with the dreams using a form of psychodrama called  String Therapy. It was an experiment for us and an adventure. How do we take this work on the road and show the depth of the dream? It was a first to be a part of the larger dream community.

We learned a lot. We took some hits from some people in the audience who had problems with aspects of the work and/or the way that we presented it.  It was interesting to watch the projections and reactions at work. It was a new challenge for us to meet criticism and attack without reacting ourselves. As always it was fascinating to see how people reveal themselves at the edge of their own reactivity. The depth of the work triggered some hot spots for different people. Other people stayed in their seats, riveted all day, responding with tears, clearly moved by the stories told by various members of our community, of the ways their lives had changed by doing this dreamwork. We made some mistakes. We were learning. 

Some of those participants told us that they had never felt so moved by a conference, that the essence of the work stayed with them, in the days and weeks that followed. So we are still learning. This work is not for everyone. How best can we convey its power to those who are looking for it? Do we simply accept that powerful truth-telling and deep feeling will evoke strong responses in both directions? That there will be those who are longing to be met with the truth of who they are even when it is challenging and uncomfortable while others will react dramatically to personal revelation and disclosure. In May, we will present the work in Hanover, New Hampshire. It  will be a different day. We will have all grown and changed by then. Marc will speak more about the process of the dreamwork before plunging into the raw beauty of the Strings. I will comment more on the process that is occurring and provide more of a contextual framework. We will find more ways to bridge the distance between the audience and the intensity of the inner realm revealed by opening up the unconscious through the psychodrama of the dreams. It will be a different moment, reflective of the way each one of us who shows up on the day has continued to grow into becoming more of who we really are. Who we are, that is, as humans growing closer in relationship to our selves and to the numinous being-ness that some call God.