The Dream Journal

Freud, Jung, Perls, Taylor and Hillman. So many dream experts are old white men. Today we talk about the importance of supporting a movement towards inclusion and diversity within the historically white field of dreamwork. Our guests are brother and sister team Andrusa Lawson and Sahlah Dubel, founders of Divine by Design.

Our guests start out talking about surviving their childhoods in inner city Baltimore including poverty, living with substance abusers and racial violence. We talk about what Obama called “the original sin” of slavery in our country and about how we are working out cultural issues in our dreams as well as own personal psychological issues. We touch on the dangers of Euro-centric thought and barriers to support to people of color including cost, difficulty finding practitioners with similar experience and the priority of survival over growth. We also talk about silence as a catalyst for change, working with intuition and the power of community in creating change. They end by describing their vision for a sacred space dreaming group.

We take a call from Santa Cruz local Ahlene with a dream to share in which she found herself being guided down lengthy dark halls. Sahlah and Andrusa suggest that she pay attention to the feelings in the dream and consider that these are the key gifts of the dream. Perhaps “the seeing is in the doing”: no interpretation needed.

BIO: Andrusa and Sahlah come from a family of exceptional dreamers. Growing up in inner-city Baltimore meant balancing the need for spiritual growth against the realities of homelessness and exposure to substance abuse. Their journeys led to exploring immersive meditation practices (including Tibetan, Jungian, and Amazonian practices), strategies for detoxification, the healing qualities of movement, song, prayer, and the elements of Nature. Andrusa and Sahlah are co-founders of Divine By Design, a social benefit corporation dedicated to supporting the resilience of communities. Their lucid dreaming workshop series entitled, AWAKE, shares practical techniques and tools to navigate dreaming experiences. They are now members of the International Association for the Study of Dreams participating in the 2022 cohort of the Dreams and Ethnicity course.

https://www.divinebydesign.org

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs:  Weightless by Reina Williams, Black is the Colour by Tia Blake, Breathe by Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on April 2, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal.

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Our guest says that she likes to view dreamwork as a kind of puzzle where the goal is to decode what waking life situation the dream is referring to. Layne describes and gives examples for her six point method of dream entry. The points of entry are feelings, plot, word play, symbols, repetition and action: what is the dreamer doing in the dream.

Layne works with one of Katherine’s dreams in which she poops more even though in the dream she said she has already had a bowel movement. Under Layne’s guidance, Katherine realizes that there is more to say to herself around her feelings of shame around liking to be in control.

We take a call from Paula who asks What is the use of old dreams? She shares an old dream that she was curious about in which there are alligators next to her RV. Paula realizes this brings up feelings around her incipient retirement.

Layne is offering a three week dream group starting April 23. Sign up here for that workshop: TheDreamAnalyst.com/private-dream-group/

BIO: Layne Dalfen, author of Have A Great Dream, Book 1; The Overview and Have A Great Dream, Book 2; A Deeper Discussion has lectured at Concordia University in Montreal since 2005. She has a Certificate in Gestalt Counseling and was a Board Member of The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). Besides numerous TV, radio, podcast, and speaking appearances, Layne writes monthly columns at OprahDaily, Psychology Today, and Hampton Sheet. Her goal is to introduce the general public to the value of understanding the language of our sophisticated unconscious mind.

TheDreamAnalyst.com

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs both by James Taylor: Shower the People and Fire and Rain.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on March 26, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

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How dreams help us recreate our own stories is a kind of nighttime narrative therapy. Also the direction that the dreams are leading us is not always where we want to go!

Our guest today Larry Sorkin reads several of his dream-inspired poems and shares some of his life-changing dreams. He also explains why he believes that amplifying dreams (such as creating poetry around them) is preferable to more reductionist ways of working with them.

We take a call from previous guest Gilda Syverson who describes that much of the value in creating a poem comes during its revision and in noticing what is uncomfortable. You can find the show we did with Gilda January 10 at https://ksqd.org/ancestral-dream-poetry-with-gilda-syverson/.

BIO: Larry Sorkin has taken a Jungian and depth psychological approach to dreams for over forty years, strongly influenced by the work of James Hillman and Stephen Aizenstat. While enjoying a dream group as one way to amplify dreams, his primary approach is through active imagination that comes from writing poetry. He doesn’t so much work with dreams as the dreams work on him, profoundly changing his life. He often holes up on his ridgetop overlooking the North Carolina Piedmont, daydreaming into the fields and onto paper. His poetry book Uncomfortable Minds came out in 2021.

You can contact him at his webpage LarrySorkin.com

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: Imagine a World of Harmony, Album by Bechtler Ensemble

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on March 19, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

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Have you found success but not fulfillment? We speak to Dreamworker Lera Chacon who has experienced that we can be blocked by trauma that is unhealed and even unremembered. We talk about her soul-centered approach to dreamwork which heals trauma and reconnects us with exiled parts of ourselves.

She describes how she started paying attention to dreams when her twin sons had bad nightmares when they were young. We talk about how dreams helped her discover her trauma and how that helped her to find more of a sense of purpose and joy in life.

Lera worked a dream with Katherine about a woman who finds her house full of opinionated women that look like her. We also take a call from August from Washington who shared a dream about bubbles with only top halves and seeing images of two churches in the sky.

BIO: Lera Chacon succeeded as a school psychologist, as a customer service manager and as an entrepreneur and still felt unfulfilled. What she was looking for, really, was not success but the healing of an unrecalled trauma at age two. She became a Reiki Master and Teacher in 1998 and began to heal her body’s reactions to the trauma. At the same time she began working with her dreams to heal her heart. In 2009, she began deeper work with a dreamwork community and a personal facilitator. Her radiant two-year-old self now feels seen, heard and loved, and there is an end to seeking. As a natural extension of her own healing and training, Lera is now a Dreamwork Facilitator, helping others toward their own healing and fulfillment.

You can find Lera at SoulCenteredDreamwork.com

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: “I Will Never Leave You” by Jim Meyer and “You Can Relax Now” Performed and written by Susan McCullen.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on March 12, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

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What would the world be like without shame? Today’s guest Santa Cruz sculptor Maren Sinclair Hurn describes a dream in which she sees that her daughter has nails piercing her eyelids. This dream inspired her to create faces that helped her come to terms with her own shame of sexuality.

You can find pictures of her sculpted faces below and on the episode page. You can also visit Maren’s studio at the Tannery on First Friday art nights.

Maren begins by talking about some early dreams including one in which an old woman tells, “You should go to art school!” She has been an sculptor artist every since with art degrees from Cabrillo College, UC Davis and Montana State Univ.

We talk about Carlos Santana and his suicidal shame around sexual molestation and about the difference between guilt and shame.

We take a phone call from Jan from Santa Cruz who shares what she calls “a relieving dream” about calling to a black dog, “Katrina, Katrina, Katrina!” and the dog running joyfully towards her.

BIO: Maren Sinclair Hurn. We came close to losing musician Carlos Santana to suicide because of his unresolved shame around being molested as a child. With witness, he became whole again and shared his story with the world. Understanding her own shame began a few years ago when Maren dreamed of a 5-year-old girl eagerly flashing her eyelids. Each lid had been pierced with a nail. This dream was a disturbing image that she could not ignore and helped her get in touch with shame around her own sexuality. Maren will soon be sharing her sculptures in middle schools where she hopes they will inspire frank discussions around shame.

marensinclairhurn.com

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: Mamuse, Strange and Wonderful and Santana, Oye Como Va.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on March 5, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here: ksqd.org/the-dream-journal.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

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Jennie starts off by sharing her dream from age 3 in which a wolf bites off a chunk of her head. She has found dream work to be a process of reclaiming her body and setting free her voice. She reads three of poems centered on her dream work (or as she terms it “dream discovery”) around the Earth Goddess, otherwise known as the Bird Goddess.

We talk about the “odd and precise counsel” that dreams provide, and Jennie describes how she uses the labyrinth that she created in her backyard to deepen to impact that dreams have.

BIO: Jennie Meyer is a certified dreamwork professional (Institute for Dream Studies, 2021). Jennie’s experience teaching yoga and meditation lend an embodied and centered approach to her dreamwork. Her Masters of Divinity (Harvard Divinity School), Buddhist studies, and passion for spirituality, including the ways of the Earth Goddess, allow her to be an open receiver for each individual’s dream. A published poet, Jennie is versed in the world of symbol and metaphor, the language of dreams. Her poetry is published in Tide Lines: An Anthology of Cape Ann Poets (2021), and numerous poetry journals.

 www.thedreamnest.co

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: “Night Ride Across the Caucasus” by Loreena McKennitt and “Storm Comin’” by the Wailing Jennys.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on February 26, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

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Dreams can reveal moments from the future. Our guest argues that precognitive dreams are most likely to predict moments of our personal future and those that have strong feelings that are double valanced. For example there’s a disaster but we are okay. He cautions that we can’t distinguish precognitive dreams from metaphor except in hindsight.

This topic leads us into a conversation which ranges from the unconscious (which he argues has one foot in the future), the specialness of time compared to the other three dimensions, intuition, time paradoxes, free will and photons.

We take listener emails about deja vu and about how our actions in the present affect our past. We end with Eric describing three steps you can use to identify precognitive elements in your own dreams.

BIO: Eric Wargo is a science writer, paranormal researcher, and futurist in Washington, DC, and he has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Emory University. His main interests are in precognition (seeing and feeling the future), precognition’s role in dreams and creativity, and the physics of time travel. He is the author of the books Time Loops and Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self, and is currently working on a book about precognition in the lives of artists and writers. In his spare time, Wargo writes about science fiction, consciousness, and parapsychology at his popular blog, The Nightshirt.

You can reach Eric Wargo at TheNightshirt.com

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: Beatles A Day in the Life and Ernst Rejseger’s soundtrack for Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the track “Shadow”.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on February 19, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

George starts by sharing a dream in which he is shot in the head and dies but still has awareness. This dream heralded some major changes in his life path as dreams sometimes do. We talk about “death in the dream world” and the transformation of caterpillar into butterfly as symbols of major personal growth.

We also talk about shadow work, dream enactment, ethical dream sharing and what spiritual practices that George has found to increase dream recall. George describes principles from Gestalt practice including present-ification and vivification. We end with a conversation around anima figures.

BIO. George Leute is a psychologist living and working outside of Philadelphia. He has a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and has worked as a psychotherapist for over 40 years. In 2003, he graduated from the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Philadelphia and finds that Gestalt Therapy provides a sense of adventure and aliveness. George is also a 2008 graduate of the Haden Institute’s two-year Dream Group Leadership training program. He currently serves as Co-Chair of IASD’s Ethics Committee. Studying world religions and contemplative approaches has been an ongoing pursuit for George and he has been especially interested in the relationship between spiritual exercises and dream quality and recall.

We play clips from the following two guest-selected songs: Dos Oruguitas from the soundtrack of Encanto and Over The Rainbow by Israel Kamakawio’ ole.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.

Show aired on February 12, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

Where have you experienced the presence of God today? Where have you pushed God away? We start off by talking about St. Ignacious and the Examine. Where do we feel consolation in our everyday lives, where do we experience desolation? Chris shares personal examples of opportunities for discernment ranging from letting himself getting too busy to financial issues. Chris shares a dream showing what he describes as the one-two punch in which we feel bad then feel bad about feeling bad.

We speak about spiritual direction which is also known as spiritual companioning. Chris is in training at the Haden Institute offers any listener a free session with him. Please contact either Chris or Katherine about this if you are interested. We also talk about what it means to be a “recovering Catholic” as a gay man who still goes to Mass and how the Church as an institution falls short of the promises of Jesus.

The authors Chris mentions include Robert Johnson, Bob Haden, Richard Rohr and Jim Martin.

Bio. Raised in a traditional Roman Catholic home in Canada, Chris Thomas felt a call to the Catholic priesthood but was led by circumstances to study architectural history and preservation. He is best known for his study of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Near the end of his career as a university teacher and researcher, Chris became fascinated with dreams and dreamwork and, in 2009, began to work on his dreams with Bill St Cyr. Since then, Chris has returned to the study of theology and its relationship to what we are shown in dreams. He is currently enrolled in the program in spiritual direction and dreamwork of the Haden Institute of Asheville, NC which trains spiritual directors and dreamworkers committed to seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance along lines proposed by Carl Jung.

You can contact Chris at [email protected]

Here is a link to his previous Dream Journal appearance: https://ksqd.org/dreams-and-catholicism-with-christopher-thomas/

Information about Haden Institute can be found at HadenInstitute.com

We play clips from the following two guest-suggested songs: Canadian Sunshine, and St. Louis Jesuits playing Sing, All the World.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for answering the phones.

Show aired on February 5, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher

Katherine reads excerpts from her in-progress book including her ideas about The Treasure Hunt as a way to approach dreaming and also some passages describing her personal life and how her dreams have woven throughout them.

We take calls from Lucille from Cambria who talks about her dreams of finding a place of belonging and from Sally from Atlanta who talks about how her dreams about bugs have been evolving.

We play clips from the following two songs: Dreams by Beck and Dreams by the Cranberries.

Ambient music created by Rick Kleffel new every week. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for answering the phones.

Show aired on January 29, 2022.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at [email protected].

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify