Dream Work and Spiritual Coaching
In early 2023, I turned my long-time practice of working to understand my own dreams (and those of friends), into a service.
Having recorded over 1,200 of my own dreams since 1995, and having earned a PhD in Mythological Studies (2017), I am a confident guide into the mystery and magic of your dreams.
As a long-term student of meditation I am trained in the art of “holding space” for others. You may wish to schedule a single session, or to schedule a block of sessions to look at multiple dreams in light of your spiritual evolution. (We may also reference your astrological natal chart for this more in-depth work.)
Use the contact form to ask questions and to schedule a session. (I will email you an invoice for payment upon receipt and approval of your appointment request.)
Our Work Together
- $90 per one hour session (includes my pre-session research into your dream symbols, and post-session notes).
- Use some simple techniques to reveal multiple levels of meaning, with a special emphasis on the spiritual dimension.
- Option to continue one-on-one sessions across multiple dreams to build a personal “dream dictionary.”
Contact
Dreams are perhaps our most underutilized “natural resource.”
My Dream Philosophical Background
Dreams are the platform through which people enmeshed in a materialistic ontology are nevertheless engaged in metaphysical experiences every single day (or, night). As such, dreams are a key touchstone for fostering “softening” of the materialistic worldview. While many report that they don’t remember their dreams, it is challenging to find someone who has never had even a single dream that he or she can remember. Most people have had a least a few in their lifetime that stuck with them, and when you get even “unspiritual” people to discuss their dream experiences, their shift toward the numinous is palpable, touching, and I believe, significant.
Software
I have found the PersonalBrain software to be quite useful for cataloging dreams and related symbols and events.
About My Primary Dream Worker Influence, Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor was an amazing, brilliant, insightful, walking encyclopedia of mythology, symbolism and dreams. He worked across groups, counseling people from prisoners, to church officials, to your “average Joe.” His ethos of “dreams as activism” struck a deep cord in me and many others. Jeremy has explained that dreams are a great leveler between completely disparate groups of people. A prime example was his work in San Quentin, discussing how when conducting dream groups with prisoners, inevitably the posted guards would become fascinated by and engaged in the dream work as well. This shared experience had a profound healing effect on how the guards viewed the humanity—or lack thereof—inherent to the prisoners. Through this lens, promotion of dreams as a valuable resource in social activism is extremely important. (A reference to this point can be found in Jeremy’s book, The Wisdom of Your Dreams, pgs. 125 to 136.)
Books
Taylor, Jeremy. The Wisdom of Your Dreams. Tarcher/Penguin, New York, 2009.
Taylor, Jeremy. The Living Labyrinth. Paulist Press, New York, 1998.
Lucid Dreams
The potential of lucid dreaming is far, far beyond what we can imagine. This is because lucid dreaming a portal into the vastness of the universe, manifest and unmanifest.
That said, our human minds are only equipped to handle so much reality. (If you are a long-time meditator your chances of pushing the known boundaries through lucid dreaming are much greater.)
But while meditation and contemplative practice compliments a lucid dream practice, don’t let anything stop you! There are no prerequisites here, except perhaps a little preparation and a lot of experimentation.
How to prepare? Check out these resources below.
Books
Waggoner, Robert. Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self. Moment Point Press, Needham, Massachusetts, 2009.
Out of Body Experiences (OOBEs)
In the summer of 2009, while at a meditation intensive, I had an experience which spelled out very clearly that the sleep paralysis I had occasionally suffered since my teenage years was actually related to out of body leanings. What was happening was that I was having unconscious panic attacks—causing the paralysis and suffocation—when my mind was still awake to witness the natural stages that unfold when one falls asleep. Now, while I occasionally experience the panic version, usually I can see it coming and instead go directly into sleep, or consciously open to the experience of falling asleep while still conscious. The later leads to what is called “out of body” experiences, or “astral travel.”
Books
There are some great books that speak to this phenomenon, and which help to normalize it for those of us who are otherwise pretty much totally freaked out by it.
- Rogo, D. Scott. Leaving the Body: A complete guide to astral projection. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1983.
- Monroe, R. A. Journeys Out of the Body. London: Souvenir, 1972.
