Asklepia Foundation Archive
Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Heart of Your Dreams"
THE ART OF DRUMMING
and Consciousness Restructuring
Graywolf Swinney, ©2001
"Journey to the Heart of Your Dreams"
THE ART OF DRUMMING
and Consciousness Restructuring
Graywolf Swinney, ©2001
Introduction
Drumming is a very powerful tool that can alter the consciousness of individuals or large groups. For example, consider the profound impact on our culture of the rock beats of the fifties, sixties and seventies. Drumming has roused and marched soldiers into battle, and yet can soothe the angry mob. Shamans have long used the beat of the drum to alter consciousness, and to induce healing or evolutionary visions. In fact, to the shaman the drum is a horse or a canoe that carries us on the trails or in the rivers of consciousness into other realms or dimensions of reality. It is the oldest form of music that our ancient ancestors discovered, presumably when one of them noticed the hypnotic and pleasing effect of rhythmically beating a hollow log with a stick.
Our species has been vastly enriched by the rhythms and vibrations initiated on that long ago day. Not limited to our species, new born animals of all species are soothed by the repetitive rhythms of the beating of their mothers' hearts. It is suggested that new puppies be put into their beds with a ticking clock to help them adjust to their new home. In fact, it may arguably be our first awareness of the sense of hearing, one that we experience in the womb as we entrain ourselves to the beating of our mother's heart.
The rhythms of the beating drum can take us back to those early beginnings of our sentience, back to the womb like consciousness patterns that underlie our being and sense of self and world. In fact, reality itself, at the most basic level, is nothing more than the cosmic rhythm of energy waves arising from the plenum. It is a complexity of rhythmic waves interacting to create the interference patterns that underlie our illusion of reality. In our explorations of shamanic practices and techniques, drumming became one of our preferred activities.
The issue of the success of drumming to effect conscious change is not in question, but the answers to questions about how to drum, and what beats and patterns of rhythm can induce what states of consciousness and with what effects are of considerable interest. Intuitively we realize that, for example, slow beating calms and slows us down and rapid, lively beating can enliven us and call us to action, but god is in the details. This essay will explore these questions and offer directions suggested to us in our explorations of healing process and the beating of the skin. We will begin by exploring some of the techniques, will include explanations or theories of how and why we think they work, and conclude with examples of how we have used drumming in altering or restructuring consciousness.
The Beat Goes On
I want to start with what I consider to be the most important notion for the mentor of the CRP. The most beneficial drumming is, as with the journeys in the Consciousness Restructuring Process, a shared or co-conscious process. This means that rather than imposing some rhythm on the listener, the rhythms are largely determined from a shared consciOusness state; one shared by the drummer and the listener(s). This is even possible with large groups as will be illustrated later. This is critical to the process and is what makes the CRP mentor's drumming different from, for example the ore traditional shamanic drumming, such as the Harner method.
The CRP is largely driven by the mentored one, so too is the drumming. The following argument is presented: With the CRP process, the mentored is, in reality, considered to the only one who can create the consciousness dynamics that will most benefit him. It is arrogant to think otherwise, that one outside and aware of only what is evident can determine with the same precision what the organism needs. They are the only ones who know precisely what is needed for his healing or transformation, and this knowing or wisdom comes not from mental or intellectual process but comes rather from a deeper transpersonal self, or what might be considered the spirit, soul, or our inner divinity.
In the shared state of co-consciousness, the mentor also senses this inner pulse and it is what controls her hand as it caresses the skin of the drum to create the rhythms of transformation. This is truly an art form, and can be viewed in much the same way as sculptors or other artists describe their muse. "The image is in the medium and I merely release it." So with the CRP drumming, "the rhythm is in the listener(s) and I merely help them express it." It is this "spirit" view which firmly aligns the mentor with shamanic realms of healing.
Common to all shamans throughout the world is the fundamental healing philosophy, the notion that illness or sickness is the result of the soul being stolen or lost, and that healing is accomplished through the recovery and return of the soul or spirit. (I prefer the term spirit in this context as it is more free of religious connotations). It is our notion that spirit cannot really ever be lost or destroyed, but that it can be unavailable or tied up and buried in our disease dynamics. These take the form of diseased, fixed and repetitive neural firing dynamics that displace or bury the more complex dynamics of creativity. These theta repetitive cyclical neural dynamics trap the mentored in this vortex of their disease.
We do consider that the unbound or free consciousness flow is the essence of our spirit, the source of our creativity and is the seat of the divine within us. It also manifests as a process of health and free evolution, which are indeed the same thing. The resolution to this situation of frozen, trapped, or bound consciousness is to free or transform the bound energy into a complex, creative and free flowing consciousness dynamics that fund evolution and help create the processes of health.
As noted earlier, this comes primarily from within the mentored. It is also the embodiment of the admonition to "march to the beat of your own drum!" and is the crux of our individuality and creativity. It is also core to CRP Drumming and the drum is indeed one of the vehicles through which this may be attained.. First a few words about co-consciousness: The process of co-consciousness is felt by the mentor as a deep inner sensation, or it just may be that he notices what his hands are doing as he beats the drum for the most part giving up intellectual control. It is not a state that can be attained through effort or by means of will or planning, but rather is entered through a personal process of emptying the mind and relaxing into it. It is a state of flow rather than effort. Its sense when it is operating is one of profound rightness.
It is the state that one notices when synchronistic events are occurring, or when one is "in the groove." If the intellectual ego or desire is present, these senses may be mimicked, but once it has been experienced, the mimicry cannot be mistaken for the real dynamics and experiences of co-consciousness. There are some characteristics that seem to be present in the beating and rhythms of co-consciousness drumming. For one thing the rhythm is not regular, but has dysrhythms or chaotic and unexpected disruptions in the rhythms. The beating may be rapid or fast at one point, but slow or complex in the subsequent beats. They may vary in loudness and contain extra loud, or missing beats where one is expected. In other words there is built in complexity or chaos in the rhythms.
It is known in the field of hypnotherapy that such disruption to the rhythm of the trance induction deepen the trance. There is an explanation for this as follows. We have speculated from our research into brainwaves and CRP theory that this occurs when the brain is in its most complex firing patterns and when the waves have built within them the most complexity. The frequency is most varied and unpredictable within the limits of the defined brain wave pattern when old patterns of neural activity are dissolved and new neural circuitry is formed. This state of complexity is also associated with creativity and in particular is a characteristic of REM activity. Awake REM activity is associated with spiritual visionary and other mindbody sensory phenomena. The visions come from the imaginal process rather than a fantasy process.
Fantasy is characterized by an expected or predictable cause/effect type imagery flow. Imaginal process is unpredictable with bifurcations or unexpected twists of the flow of the imagery and other senses. It is indicative of chaotic consciousness (unbound or free-flowing consciousness) and the imagery is more like a reiterating fractal than a story line in its nature. We usually introduce a drum journey with the suggestion or notion that those who will be journeying should begin by contemplating the symptoms that reveal their disease to them. Then, as the drumming starts, to let go of that and any expectations and to just notice what comes to them. It may be discomfort, or an image, or body sensations that are experienced during the drumming.
They are invited to not question this or try to guess what it may indicate to them, but instead to allow it to flow and explore where this doorway takes them. The journey is then shared with the mentor following the drumming, who uses the symbols to initiate a CRP journey in the same fashion as he would dream images. It is important that the mentor realize that the images are formed, as are dream images and stories, by the deep consciousness patterns and dynamics that shape the mentored, both physically and mentally.
In this way the completion of the drumming is just the first step in a CRP journey, just as the dream provides the opening or doorway for a dream journey. This too sets the CRP drummer apart from more traditional views which require the shaman or to give meaning or interpret the symbols or story encountered. Rather the mentor uses the imagery to explore the deep consciousness structures that gave rise to the symbols. This is done as outlined in the body of literature explaining the CRP process.
And the Beat Goes On...
However we have also found that sometimes the drum journey, and what is experienced during it, seems to induce the healing experience. People come back from the journey reporting that they feel better, more free, less stressed than when they started it. There are several factors involved with this. This is not unlike dreams, some of which seem complete in that the healing is experienced in the dream and doesn't require any further exploration. We have found, however, that exploring further may broaden or deepen the healing experience.
We can also consider another effect that drumming may have to help explain other forms of drum healing. As noted, drumming creates sound waves, vibration of the environment in which the drumming occurs. Everything in the immediate area will also vibrate with the rhythms of the drumming. This includes the flesh, mind and bodies of the listeners. It has been postulated that every illness has its own vibrational frequency. I am not sure that I agree that it is a single frequency, rather I expect it has its own complex interference pattern from the interaction of several frequencies and waves.
Some set frequency is involved with the structure of the disease. One of the theories of drum healing journeys is that one can produce with the drum frequencies and harmonics which set up resonance with the structure of the disease. The notion is that this resonance over energizes the illness structure and cause it to dissemble or literally shake it self apart.
We don't need to look far to see examples of this in other areas. Lately it has been demonstrated that the purring of cats makes their bones so strong and resilient. The effects of purring or rhythmic resonance have been proposed as treatment for osteoporosis. It is said that the great opera star Mario Lanza could shatter a glass by singing a note that was of the same frequency as the glass.
Another example is that when marching soldiers across a bridge, soldiers are generally told to break cadence and not march in step. It is well documented that a bridge which happens to have resonance with the frequency of the cadence of the march will begin sympathetic vibrations and may eventually collapse. This is a well known phenomena to engineers who must take this into account when designing bridges, tall buildings, towers and other similar structures.
So it seems reasonable to assume that by creating a drum beat's frequencies and overtones to resonate with the particular frequencies of the disease structure, they will over-energize the structure and cause it to shake itself and vibrate in resonance. As with the glass or the bridges, so too will the holographic structure of the disease disintegrate or collapse.
Whether the disease is the mass of a cancer, or a particular neural or nervous system firing frequency, by matching or resonating with it, this effect could change the hologram of the disease, thereby transforming the disease itself. If the drumming is happening in the co-consciousness state it creates a feedback effect much like a microphone in front of a speaker magnifies the frequency coming from the speaker to produce a feedback squeal, which left to continue could increase and blow the speakers. This is another argument that reinforces the notion of co-consciousness drumming.
POUNDING HEALING RHYTHMS IN MY BRAIN
Following are some accounts of CRP drumming and the reported effects. One woman who had a rectal cancer and was participating in one of my groups reported her experience of a drum journey. She was in considerable pain from the tumor, but had so far refused to take any pain medication of any type for relief. The drumming was offered to the group as a demonstration. Following the drumming she reported that the pain in her tumor had considerably lessened. She reported that the pain in her tumor had considerably lessened. She reported that going into and during the journey she had felt the beat of the drum seeming to resonate in her uterus (which was in close proximity) and her her tumor.
There were times when the sensations in the area bordered on pain, but for the most part she said that she actually felt sexually stimulated. When the drumming had stopped, she reported feeling more free of pain than she had for months. And this effect lasted for several hours. Since she was then residing at the retreat, drum journeys became a regular part of her pain control, and she reported that they most often seemed to help her with the pain. Several years ago, another woman came for a weekend retreat following a visit to her doctor during which he had informed her that she had uterine cancer and would require immediate surgery. While on retreat she wanted to work on the cancer using alternative healing.
She was relatively young and wanted to have children and surgery would have taken that option from her. During a sweat we did one evening, I had felt a strong intuition to drum and did so, holding the drum about six inches over the tumor. She reported feeling "something moving or shifting down there." Along with other work and a dream journey that had been stimulated by the drumming, she worked on the tumor throughout her two day stay.
When she left I did not hear from her again, but a couple of years later I met her mother at a presentation I was giving. She came up and identified herself. When asked about her daughter, she reported that she was now living in Alaska. When she had returned to the doctor during the week following her retreat, the tumor had apparently disappeared and the doctor apologizing to her claiming to her claimed it must have been misdiagnosed, or that perhaps he had been looking at another patient's test results. Was it the drumming or had she indeed been misdiagnosed? I certainly don't know.
LA DE DA DE DI
Another drum journeyer reports the following: "I really like the Drum Journeys. It's the way I feel or sense the experience which I find significant. I don't recall stories or visions from my several drum journeys, except in the sense of feeling you are the drum. Sensing, my body being the drum; hollowed out; stretched; vibrating and resonating. In some ways it reminds me of the feelings I get when intoning the Chakras. The drum's song has many tones and rhythms. Where some of the tones and rhythms resonate in my throat, others rumble through my belly. Or deep tones vibrate in the base of my spine.
Graywolf creates overtones when he drums, so at times the sensations split and become dissonant. Then, the intensity may begin to harmonize, say in my forehead and heart. Then there is the breath - rhythm for rhythm, coming in and out of focus and syncopation, with the internal and the external drum. And I am ready; there is an anticipation for the drum to stop. Final beats signalling the end and bringing me back.
LA DE DA DE DA
Drumming is a very powerful tool that can alter the consciousness of individuals or large groups. For example, consider the profound impact on our culture of the rock beats of the fifties, sixties and seventies. Drumming has roused and marched soldiers into battle, and yet can soothe the angry mob. Shamans have long used the beat of the drum to alter consciousness, and to induce healing or evolutionary visions. In fact, to the shaman the drum is a horse or a canoe that carries us on the trails or in the rivers of consciousness into other realms or dimensions of reality. It is the oldest form of music that our ancient ancestors discovered, presumably when one of them noticed the hypnotic and pleasing effect of rhythmically beating a hollow log with a stick.
Our species has been vastly enriched by the rhythms and vibrations initiated on that long ago day. Not limited to our species, new born animals of all species are soothed by the repetitive rhythms of the beating of their mothers' hearts. It is suggested that new puppies be put into their beds with a ticking clock to help them adjust to their new home. In fact, it may arguably be our first awareness of the sense of hearing, one that we experience in the womb as we entrain ourselves to the beating of our mother's heart.
The rhythms of the beating drum can take us back to those early beginnings of our sentience, back to the womb like consciousness patterns that underlie our being and sense of self and world. In fact, reality itself, at the most basic level, is nothing more than the cosmic rhythm of energy waves arising from the plenum. It is a complexity of rhythmic waves interacting to create the interference patterns that underlie our illusion of reality. In our explorations of shamanic practices and techniques, drumming became one of our preferred activities.
The issue of the success of drumming to effect conscious change is not in question, but the answers to questions about how to drum, and what beats and patterns of rhythm can induce what states of consciousness and with what effects are of considerable interest. Intuitively we realize that, for example, slow beating calms and slows us down and rapid, lively beating can enliven us and call us to action, but god is in the details. This essay will explore these questions and offer directions suggested to us in our explorations of healing process and the beating of the skin. We will begin by exploring some of the techniques, will include explanations or theories of how and why we think they work, and conclude with examples of how we have used drumming in altering or restructuring consciousness.
The Beat Goes On
I want to start with what I consider to be the most important notion for the mentor of the CRP. The most beneficial drumming is, as with the journeys in the Consciousness Restructuring Process, a shared or co-conscious process. This means that rather than imposing some rhythm on the listener, the rhythms are largely determined from a shared consciOusness state; one shared by the drummer and the listener(s). This is even possible with large groups as will be illustrated later. This is critical to the process and is what makes the CRP mentor's drumming different from, for example the ore traditional shamanic drumming, such as the Harner method.
The CRP is largely driven by the mentored one, so too is the drumming. The following argument is presented: With the CRP process, the mentored is, in reality, considered to the only one who can create the consciousness dynamics that will most benefit him. It is arrogant to think otherwise, that one outside and aware of only what is evident can determine with the same precision what the organism needs. They are the only ones who know precisely what is needed for his healing or transformation, and this knowing or wisdom comes not from mental or intellectual process but comes rather from a deeper transpersonal self, or what might be considered the spirit, soul, or our inner divinity.
In the shared state of co-consciousness, the mentor also senses this inner pulse and it is what controls her hand as it caresses the skin of the drum to create the rhythms of transformation. This is truly an art form, and can be viewed in much the same way as sculptors or other artists describe their muse. "The image is in the medium and I merely release it." So with the CRP drumming, "the rhythm is in the listener(s) and I merely help them express it." It is this "spirit" view which firmly aligns the mentor with shamanic realms of healing.
Common to all shamans throughout the world is the fundamental healing philosophy, the notion that illness or sickness is the result of the soul being stolen or lost, and that healing is accomplished through the recovery and return of the soul or spirit. (I prefer the term spirit in this context as it is more free of religious connotations). It is our notion that spirit cannot really ever be lost or destroyed, but that it can be unavailable or tied up and buried in our disease dynamics. These take the form of diseased, fixed and repetitive neural firing dynamics that displace or bury the more complex dynamics of creativity. These theta repetitive cyclical neural dynamics trap the mentored in this vortex of their disease.
We do consider that the unbound or free consciousness flow is the essence of our spirit, the source of our creativity and is the seat of the divine within us. It also manifests as a process of health and free evolution, which are indeed the same thing. The resolution to this situation of frozen, trapped, or bound consciousness is to free or transform the bound energy into a complex, creative and free flowing consciousness dynamics that fund evolution and help create the processes of health.
As noted earlier, this comes primarily from within the mentored. It is also the embodiment of the admonition to "march to the beat of your own drum!" and is the crux of our individuality and creativity. It is also core to CRP Drumming and the drum is indeed one of the vehicles through which this may be attained.. First a few words about co-consciousness: The process of co-consciousness is felt by the mentor as a deep inner sensation, or it just may be that he notices what his hands are doing as he beats the drum for the most part giving up intellectual control. It is not a state that can be attained through effort or by means of will or planning, but rather is entered through a personal process of emptying the mind and relaxing into it. It is a state of flow rather than effort. Its sense when it is operating is one of profound rightness.
It is the state that one notices when synchronistic events are occurring, or when one is "in the groove." If the intellectual ego or desire is present, these senses may be mimicked, but once it has been experienced, the mimicry cannot be mistaken for the real dynamics and experiences of co-consciousness. There are some characteristics that seem to be present in the beating and rhythms of co-consciousness drumming. For one thing the rhythm is not regular, but has dysrhythms or chaotic and unexpected disruptions in the rhythms. The beating may be rapid or fast at one point, but slow or complex in the subsequent beats. They may vary in loudness and contain extra loud, or missing beats where one is expected. In other words there is built in complexity or chaos in the rhythms.
It is known in the field of hypnotherapy that such disruption to the rhythm of the trance induction deepen the trance. There is an explanation for this as follows. We have speculated from our research into brainwaves and CRP theory that this occurs when the brain is in its most complex firing patterns and when the waves have built within them the most complexity. The frequency is most varied and unpredictable within the limits of the defined brain wave pattern when old patterns of neural activity are dissolved and new neural circuitry is formed. This state of complexity is also associated with creativity and in particular is a characteristic of REM activity. Awake REM activity is associated with spiritual visionary and other mindbody sensory phenomena. The visions come from the imaginal process rather than a fantasy process.
Fantasy is characterized by an expected or predictable cause/effect type imagery flow. Imaginal process is unpredictable with bifurcations or unexpected twists of the flow of the imagery and other senses. It is indicative of chaotic consciousness (unbound or free-flowing consciousness) and the imagery is more like a reiterating fractal than a story line in its nature. We usually introduce a drum journey with the suggestion or notion that those who will be journeying should begin by contemplating the symptoms that reveal their disease to them. Then, as the drumming starts, to let go of that and any expectations and to just notice what comes to them. It may be discomfort, or an image, or body sensations that are experienced during the drumming.
They are invited to not question this or try to guess what it may indicate to them, but instead to allow it to flow and explore where this doorway takes them. The journey is then shared with the mentor following the drumming, who uses the symbols to initiate a CRP journey in the same fashion as he would dream images. It is important that the mentor realize that the images are formed, as are dream images and stories, by the deep consciousness patterns and dynamics that shape the mentored, both physically and mentally.
In this way the completion of the drumming is just the first step in a CRP journey, just as the dream provides the opening or doorway for a dream journey. This too sets the CRP drummer apart from more traditional views which require the shaman or to give meaning or interpret the symbols or story encountered. Rather the mentor uses the imagery to explore the deep consciousness structures that gave rise to the symbols. This is done as outlined in the body of literature explaining the CRP process.
And the Beat Goes On...
However we have also found that sometimes the drum journey, and what is experienced during it, seems to induce the healing experience. People come back from the journey reporting that they feel better, more free, less stressed than when they started it. There are several factors involved with this. This is not unlike dreams, some of which seem complete in that the healing is experienced in the dream and doesn't require any further exploration. We have found, however, that exploring further may broaden or deepen the healing experience.
We can also consider another effect that drumming may have to help explain other forms of drum healing. As noted, drumming creates sound waves, vibration of the environment in which the drumming occurs. Everything in the immediate area will also vibrate with the rhythms of the drumming. This includes the flesh, mind and bodies of the listeners. It has been postulated that every illness has its own vibrational frequency. I am not sure that I agree that it is a single frequency, rather I expect it has its own complex interference pattern from the interaction of several frequencies and waves.
Some set frequency is involved with the structure of the disease. One of the theories of drum healing journeys is that one can produce with the drum frequencies and harmonics which set up resonance with the structure of the disease. The notion is that this resonance over energizes the illness structure and cause it to dissemble or literally shake it self apart.
We don't need to look far to see examples of this in other areas. Lately it has been demonstrated that the purring of cats makes their bones so strong and resilient. The effects of purring or rhythmic resonance have been proposed as treatment for osteoporosis. It is said that the great opera star Mario Lanza could shatter a glass by singing a note that was of the same frequency as the glass.
Another example is that when marching soldiers across a bridge, soldiers are generally told to break cadence and not march in step. It is well documented that a bridge which happens to have resonance with the frequency of the cadence of the march will begin sympathetic vibrations and may eventually collapse. This is a well known phenomena to engineers who must take this into account when designing bridges, tall buildings, towers and other similar structures.
So it seems reasonable to assume that by creating a drum beat's frequencies and overtones to resonate with the particular frequencies of the disease structure, they will over-energize the structure and cause it to shake itself and vibrate in resonance. As with the glass or the bridges, so too will the holographic structure of the disease disintegrate or collapse.
Whether the disease is the mass of a cancer, or a particular neural or nervous system firing frequency, by matching or resonating with it, this effect could change the hologram of the disease, thereby transforming the disease itself. If the drumming is happening in the co-consciousness state it creates a feedback effect much like a microphone in front of a speaker magnifies the frequency coming from the speaker to produce a feedback squeal, which left to continue could increase and blow the speakers. This is another argument that reinforces the notion of co-consciousness drumming.
POUNDING HEALING RHYTHMS IN MY BRAIN
Following are some accounts of CRP drumming and the reported effects. One woman who had a rectal cancer and was participating in one of my groups reported her experience of a drum journey. She was in considerable pain from the tumor, but had so far refused to take any pain medication of any type for relief. The drumming was offered to the group as a demonstration. Following the drumming she reported that the pain in her tumor had considerably lessened. She reported that the pain in her tumor had considerably lessened. She reported that going into and during the journey she had felt the beat of the drum seeming to resonate in her uterus (which was in close proximity) and her her tumor.
There were times when the sensations in the area bordered on pain, but for the most part she said that she actually felt sexually stimulated. When the drumming had stopped, she reported feeling more free of pain than she had for months. And this effect lasted for several hours. Since she was then residing at the retreat, drum journeys became a regular part of her pain control, and she reported that they most often seemed to help her with the pain. Several years ago, another woman came for a weekend retreat following a visit to her doctor during which he had informed her that she had uterine cancer and would require immediate surgery. While on retreat she wanted to work on the cancer using alternative healing.
She was relatively young and wanted to have children and surgery would have taken that option from her. During a sweat we did one evening, I had felt a strong intuition to drum and did so, holding the drum about six inches over the tumor. She reported feeling "something moving or shifting down there." Along with other work and a dream journey that had been stimulated by the drumming, she worked on the tumor throughout her two day stay.
When she left I did not hear from her again, but a couple of years later I met her mother at a presentation I was giving. She came up and identified herself. When asked about her daughter, she reported that she was now living in Alaska. When she had returned to the doctor during the week following her retreat, the tumor had apparently disappeared and the doctor apologizing to her claiming to her claimed it must have been misdiagnosed, or that perhaps he had been looking at another patient's test results. Was it the drumming or had she indeed been misdiagnosed? I certainly don't know.
LA DE DA DE DI
Another drum journeyer reports the following: "I really like the Drum Journeys. It's the way I feel or sense the experience which I find significant. I don't recall stories or visions from my several drum journeys, except in the sense of feeling you are the drum. Sensing, my body being the drum; hollowed out; stretched; vibrating and resonating. In some ways it reminds me of the feelings I get when intoning the Chakras. The drum's song has many tones and rhythms. Where some of the tones and rhythms resonate in my throat, others rumble through my belly. Or deep tones vibrate in the base of my spine.
Graywolf creates overtones when he drums, so at times the sensations split and become dissonant. Then, the intensity may begin to harmonize, say in my forehead and heart. Then there is the breath - rhythm for rhythm, coming in and out of focus and syncopation, with the internal and the external drum. And I am ready; there is an anticipation for the drum to stop. Final beats signalling the end and bringing me back.
LA DE DA DE DA
GRAYWOLF: ON PSYCHOTHERAPY, CONSCIOUSNESS, HEALING AND CHANGE....
Tam: You wrote in, "Beyond the Vision Quest: Bringing it Back" that for much of your youth you'd been preoccupied with success, science and technology. How did those preoccupations shape your life?
Graywolf: I was always fascinated with science and math and in grade school it was the science demonstrations and lessons that challenged my mind and kept my interest. I had heard about Einstein and wanted very much to be able to contribute to science as he had. He became immediately (and still is) one of my heroes, along with Superman, the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid. (Add Freud, Perles, Berne and Bohm to that list now)This was in the late forties and early fifties. When I reached high school (in Toronto Canada) I was mostly drawn to my ninth grade chemistry and physics classes, and just put up with the other stuff because I had to.
The magic moment of total dedication came as follows: I was considering what seemed to me to be the most likely future problems that science might solve (meaning me) and the one most likely to provide me with fame and fortune. I saw that what we were very dependent on and what most supported our civilization was gas and oil. I reasoned that there was only so much buried under the ground and that it would eventually be all used up. In this I saw my chance. I decided to devise a synthetic replacement for it.
I took these considerations to my ninth grade science teacher (I even remember his name, Mr. Pickering) and asked him what career I should aim for to accomplish this. He advised me that becoming a chemical engineer would be best. That was it for me. From that point on my academic work was all directed to that end.
I was not a nerd, I was also very active as an all star football player and on the track team, president of the photography club, second in command of the school cadet corps, photography editor then editor in chief of the school yearbook, Piper and drummer in the Pipe band etc. etc. and I also played base guitar and sang in the first Toronto Rock Group. In this I was a revolutionary (which figures in my later willingness to also be so in psychology) since rock was considered the music of the devil back then.
My two favorite fairy tale heroes were the little boy in the Emperors New Clothes and David of David and Goliath which also speaks to my fundamental scripting. I also became an atheist or perhaps more correctly an agnostic in keeping with my quest to become a pure scientist.
I struggled to be as objective as I could in all circumstances and to a very large degree suppressed my feeling and emotional side. Consequently I was very susceptible to them and they would pop out much to my consternation. So I would work even harder to suppress them. Later, in the sixties, Mr. Spock of Star Trek represented my ideal (along with Scottie.) By then I had graduated from college as a Chemical Engineer (1963) and was working for a rubber and plastics raw material producer. I turned out a number of patents and was rising rapidly as a technical service and development engineer. I was working in the field of golf balls since we were developing synthetic rubbers to replace the natural ones used in their production. I dedicated myself to this and soon developed a reputation in the industry as a whiz kid. I soon moved to the U.S. (1966) where I designed and built a golf ball production factory for Ben Hogan. I continued on totally dedicated to my career and engineering, getting ahead very rapidly. By 1969 after several career moves I was appointed general manager (at age 29) of the Golf Ball division of Wilson Sporting goods. The position had much to offer, money, notoriety, country club membership, power, (lunches with people such as Jerry Ford shortly before he was president), connections to the white house (I made all the golf balls for the Nixon Administration).
Since I had succeeded in shelving all my emotions and feelings and was virtually a Mr. Spock, I had succeeded well in business but was failing miserably in my personal life.
My original goals of making a vital contribution to humanity had been lost along with my emotions and feelings. I was a robot and doing things (such as firing a close personal friend because we had to reduce overhead by 15%) which did not sit well with my humanity and the revolutionary in me. It set up an inner conflict of which I was not aware. I saw, as was required of good managers, the world as a function of the bottom line, and operated as a machine. The inner conflict and failure in my personal life had resulted in me being overweight (I ate to stuff the pain) and having a very driven (type A) personality.
My preoccupation led me to neglect my personal health and I had developed several executive syndrome disorders. I had hypertension, hypoglycemia, a fast developing ulcer, and my e.k.g. showed that I had already suffered from one or more heart attacks. There were indications of damage to one of the valves. I was overweight and well on my way, if not already, an alcoholic. I smoked about one and a half packs of cigarettes a day. I had missed the pain of the mild heart attacks through my ability to stuff my feelings and sensations. My sports career had also taught me how to do that. (I didn't mention that in college I was the intercollegiate wrestling champion in my freshman year and later became the player-coach of the team. I had won the championship match with torn ligaments in my right knee from an earlier match. I was on crutches for months after that. I was really good at stuffing stuff.)
However from my preoccupation with science I also leaned many positives: That world views can change when the old theories are replaced by new ones. That theories are at best models of reality and not the real thing. That one can often learn more from the failure of an experiment than if it had succeeded. And that many of the important breakthroughs in science came from the cracks, the nagging little things that the current theories didn't quite cover. From engineering I learned that you have to be adaptable in reality as nothing ever goes exactly as planned. That the theories of pure science are at best approximations, not to trust them completely nor take them as gospel, and finding what actually works is more important than holding on to a favorite theory or practice.
I also learned that I solved far more of my technical and management problems when I was asleep and dreaming than with my technical expertise, although I didn't admit that to anyone. I also noted that dreams were prominent in fundamental scientific breakthroughs. So to a large degree I was fascinated with the nature of dreams, and pursuit of this interest was a major part of my desire to become a psychologist after I left my career in engineering.
Tam: In 1971 you were informed by your doctor that you'd be dead within three years. I was hoping that you might share what impact his warning had on you?
Graywolf: I had been going through some particularly tricky management issues (i.e. contract negotiations with the Teamsters union) and technical problems at the factory. I had developed a headache that had lasted for three weeks and my usual remedies helped not at all. My wife at that time was a nurse, was worried and so set up an appointment for me with a doctor to which I reluctantly went. I was shocked when the doctor immediately scheduled me for a number of tests at the local hospital.
I put it out of my mind until a couple of days later when the results were available. He took me into his office and gave them to me. I was in shock. My mother had died of many of the things that he was saying afflicted me. I asked how serious it was and he told me that he expected I would be dead within three years. He went on to cite my life style, work pressure, marital problems, as contributing causes along with my genetic background, and reiterated that I would be dead within three year without treatment and addressing some of these issues. And it might not work; I was in pretty bad shape mentally and physically.
My shock continued walking out of his office. I had a very strict diet in hand, a prescription or two, and was to report for checkups regularly. But I was terrified. I was only 32 years old and had watched my mother die young as I might myself.
I didn't tell my wife and I didn't sleep that night. I called in sick for the first time next morning and stayed in bed and thought. I re-evaluated my priorities. That evening was when I told my wife about my condition. I decided, at the very least if I only had a little while to live, to start having fun and doing things that I had always wanted but never found the time for. Unfortunately many of these things she wasn't willing to share with me such as going dancing, learning to ski, reactivating my passion for music and playing the rock guitar. I decided that doing them might be more important than my marriage, so did then with her disapproval. Her idea was medication and a strict regimen of abstinence to heal me.
I began to leave my work at the plant and have fun evenings and weekends. I even began attending a non-denominational liberal church in town. I began to assess where I was and where I was going relative to my childhood ideals. I was falling far short of them. Soon my wife left me and I was in great pain over that. Her parting words were that I was going through a second childhood and she wanted nothing to do with it. I was in a major self identity crisis.
At that point neither my career nor my personal life satisfied me. The fun was fun but my health was still poor. Headaches, shortness of breath, etc. A concerned friend and business colleague took me out to lunch one day and recommended counseling for me. I wasn't too open to it so he told me to show up on Friday evening at a certain church. It turned out to be empathy training for perspective crisis phone line workers. I reluctantly started the three day training and became a convert by the time it was over. I rediscovered my emotions and sensitivity. I soon dedicated all my off work hours to this and to another program, drug crisis intervention work. Between the two I was spending all my off work hours in the alternative community. I took an introduction to TA at the free university. It described my life and offered hope. By then I had dramatically resigned my job. (That is an interesting story in itself.) and had free time. I started training in TA and in my own analysis discovered the patterns that had trapped me and how they contributed to my Type A personality and health problems. I lost about forty pounds and began to get into shape. I soon was totally dedicated to understanding healing from both psychological and medical perspectives. I wanted to become a healer and in the process heal myself. I also began to study dreams through the gestalt therapy and began attending all workshops on dreamwork at the psychology conferences I attended.
Tam: You've also indicated that during your studies and in your practice as a psychotherapist you came to believe that for the most part current psychotherapy models "didn't really address the full human condition" in your clients or yourself. Would you elaborate on that?
Graywolf: I had completed TA and Gestalt training by 1975. I had, as part of that, studied psychology in considerable depth including Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, Behavioral and Reichian models, theories and practices as well as a number of fringe practices and several approaches to body work. I also studied medical models of healing with a thought of attending medical school. In these studies I encountered two phenomena that captured my interest, the Placebo Effect and Iatrogenic illness. The former became my interest and ideal for a healing model. However I could find no operational explanation of how they worked.
On returning from my written and oral exams in TA I met with my supervisor. I recall asking her "Is this all there is?" because I couldn't believe that this was the end state of psychological science. "What is beneath scripting?" I asked her along with other similar questions. She replied that I had all the basics, understood all the theories and practices and was fully qualified. "It's not enough." I told her. Engineers take pride in their tools and the ones I had mastered didn't seem enough.
However, I practiced for several years putting my concerns in context within myself. They are:
a.) Psychology and medicine ARE quite sophisticated in diagnosing and categorizing the various illnesses, but healing techniques are woefully inadequate and ineffective.
b.) Trained in hard sciences and working as an engineer I had experienced the limits of Newtonian science. I had expected that psychology and healing arts would have developed specific theories that would explain or deal with the complexities and synergy of the human condition. But all I saw was an attempt to make people fit into this mechanistic and reductionistic approach (Newtonian Mechanics) that didn't work all that well even with inert objects.
I even started developing a practice that I called "Relativity Therapy" based on Einstein's implications that all measurements depend on the frame of reference. I knew that this relativity theory was a better model than the Newtonian one and I found this approach more effective. (It basically involved not defining any absolutes of either health or proper functioning but understanding the client's frame of reference and working within that.) By the mid seventies I was also re-exposed to Quantum theory through "The Tao of Physics" and "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and began to speculate and explore how these theories might also be more applicable to the human condition and healing it.
During this time I also had my wolf experience which slowly opened me up to spiritual considerations. I found myself returning in some of my sessions to the state of consciousness of that experience. I soon discovered that the wolf state far more helped people to define and solve their issues than all my psychotherapy training accomplished. This was the beginnings of my co-consciousness model in which the therapist rather than being objective and separate from the client enters into co-consciousness with them.
c.) Although many of my colleagues and clients considered me to be a brilliant therapist, I didn't feel that we were really getting much fundamental healing done with conventional therapies. Client's would linger on, continuing on long after we had met their therapeutic contracts. "There's still something missing," they would say. I had to agree with them. Most of my most effective therapy interventions happened in the last minutes of a session when I might make some off hand remark seemingly entirely out of context. The client would return the next week marveling at how that remark had helped them to change dramatically.
d.) That was driving me along with the unanswered questions I had about the placebo effect. I was interested in how it worked and the implications from it; how intimately the mind, consciousness and body are bound in healing and wellness. Psychology and medicine had nothing to offer on this. Another factor was that I was also beginning to explore an emerging sense of my own spirituality through my Graywolf experiences. Although I wouldn't have labeled it as such then, I was feeling a deeper transpersonal self and connection.
e.) I continued my studies of psychology in Graduate school obtaining a Masters degree in it but chose to pursue shaman's studies rather than continue for a Doctorate. The Masters work was quite unsatisfying and Doctoral work looked like just a continuation of the same pap. I had specialized in schizophrenia and wrote my masters thesis on it. I was told by my advisor that it was worthy of being my Doctoral Dissertation with some minor additional work. But I didn't learn anything from that exercise in futility except to confirm how little is understood about the condition.
My own work in the field with schizophrenia taught me much more about it and my notion was that the important elements of it were ignored. The hypersensitivity of schizophrenics, the often extrasensory and psi experiences weren't addressed except to label them as pathology, hallucination or delusion. The very spiritual nature of the condition (religious fascination and fixations). Yet "Psychological Science and Medical Science ignored all this and presented dry mechanistic models of the condition. I also left out these considerations in my thesis on the advice of my advisor.
f.) I was attending two or three psychology conferences a year and many, many workshops. There was nothing new in them, just the same old theories and models warmed up and repeated using different words. That's still happening: codependency is just what we used to work with under the name symbiosis and then enabling; inner child work is a warmed up excerpt from TA, etc. etc.
g.) Humanistic psychology drew my interest because of the fundamental difference of philosophy. If you want to understand health you must study healthy people. I even became deeply involved with the AHP acting as an unofficial advisor to the Board and helping organize and manage conferences. I lost interest when the AHP began mainstreaming itself and seemed to lose its exploratory bent.
h.) Psychology seemed for the most part to ignore the full range of human experience. It ignored psi experiences, yet from personal experience I knew them to be facts. Its explanation of phenomena such as Deja-vu was trite and didn't really capture the flavor of it. Psychology was unable and seemed unwilling to explore and explain such things as love and intimacy, yet I knew them to be important in healing work, both as a support system and coming from the therapist.
i.) Exposure to fringe theories and practices made me aware of several other problems. For example "Radical Psychiatry" pointed out the inability of psychology to address social change.
j.) But the main issue was that psychology and its science had made no inroads to understanding or exploring the nature of consciousness. That seemed to me the most important element in understanding both the human condition and healing it. It seemed to be the basis of natural healing phenomena such as the placebo effect. It also seemed fundamental to an understanding of the foundations and perception of reality itself. Psychological science seemed for the most part to be withdrawing from exploring and understanding consciousness in favor of drug, behaviorist and emotional cathartic therapies. On the other hand leading edge physics was hot on the trail of consciousness.
I was drawn to Shamanic studies, in part because shamans seemed better versed in using and understanding consciousness. There was a twenty to fifty thousand year background of empirical studies and experience in it. I chose to study this rather than go on for my Doctorate degree. In the process I connected with Dr. Stanley Krippner as a mentor (and now colleague and close friend. I started a doctoral program with him as advisor but soon dropped it, with his full blessings, as irrelevant to my aims.
During this time I worked on what I called the Shaman-Therapist model. I still have an uncompleted book on the topic in my old abandoned computer. Its fundamental notion was that to have greater depth in healing you need two models or world-views operating simultaneously, much like you need two eyes for depth in visual perception. One eye is that of the scientist, analyst, therapist. The other eye is that of the shaman, mystic, spiritual healer. Both need to be operating at the same time for this depth to realize. This distinguished it from the methods I had seen practiced in Transpersonal Psychology which were like alternately opening one eye and then the other.
I could go on with the many other details but the above should give you a fairly complete idea of my concerns about psychological science and current treatments, and my discontent with them. At the conclusion of my shaman studies I went through a similar process with shamans practice. This led to my discovery of and development of the Chaos-REM Process of Natural Healing.
Tam: I'm struck by your adventurous spirit and both the professional and personal risks you've taken in your life. I'm wondering what in retrospect you might consider your greatest risk thus far to have been and what lessons the experience has taught you.
Graywolf: At the time I was "taking risks" they didn't seem like risks at all. In fact they seemed like the most reasonable thing to do at the time. In retrospect I see that they did appear to be risky but if I were to remain true to myself they were directions I had to follow. While going through them, it was often as though I were watching myself do what I was doing. It didn't feel like dissociation or denial so much as being guided and watched by a powerful and loving presence within which was a deeper and wiser self. Given that disclaimer I offer the following.
My dropping out as a business executive and engineer was very risky. I had an assured future but the cost of that assuredness was too high. Better to live on poor than to die soon wealthy and successful.
My venture into the North Woods of Canada where I met Graywolf was risky and life threatening. But it seemed less so than living with insecurity within myself about my ability to survive.
My abandoning my practice and career as a psychotherapist was also risky as was taking the name Graywolf. However I was drawn strongly to this path and knew it was the best thing for me to do to further my interests and studies of healing process.
I suppose, looking at my answers so far, I could summarize. I was always moving on to something more interesting and exciting in my life and was able to let go of the past very easily because of this draw. I was generally done with what I was leaving behind and the draw seemed to be coming from deep within (intuitive). I later found a guiding principle given me by Al Huang. He told me that the Chinese cipher for crisis is made up of two ciphers: one meaning danger, the other meaning opportunity. I guess also that I have a pretty deep level of self confidence that tells me "no matter what you can handle it!" So in all they weren't really risks at all but the only reasonable thing to do to get where I needed to go.
As for lessons this has taught me? I suppose I have always been adventuresome. From defying authority to play Rock Music in the fifties to taking on the task of changing the basis of healing sciences, I have always tended to follow the truth, as did the little boy in the Emperors New Clothes. And taking on giants is no problem for little David, he toppled Goliath with a small stone put in the right place. The main lesson is that this is a very viable and satisfying way to live one's life, and authority means nothing more than having power, it doesn't imply correctness or truth.
Tam: Recently you've managed it seems to combine your experience and training as an engineer, as a psychotherapist, and your ventures in the wilderness and utilize them in some fascinating ways in the study of consciousness. I would love to hear more about where this particular venture is leading you.
Graywolf: In a sentence it is leading me into REM studies, Holographic theory, combined with consciousness explorations. For example I am about to embark an a project to develop the mathematics of consciousness. I am attaching my two most recent articles which will provide more details.
I do offer comment on the important concepts in my work.
Tam: You wrote in, "Beyond the Vision Quest: Bringing it Back" that for much of your youth you'd been preoccupied with success, science and technology. How did those preoccupations shape your life?
Graywolf: I was always fascinated with science and math and in grade school it was the science demonstrations and lessons that challenged my mind and kept my interest. I had heard about Einstein and wanted very much to be able to contribute to science as he had. He became immediately (and still is) one of my heroes, along with Superman, the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid. (Add Freud, Perles, Berne and Bohm to that list now)This was in the late forties and early fifties. When I reached high school (in Toronto Canada) I was mostly drawn to my ninth grade chemistry and physics classes, and just put up with the other stuff because I had to.
The magic moment of total dedication came as follows: I was considering what seemed to me to be the most likely future problems that science might solve (meaning me) and the one most likely to provide me with fame and fortune. I saw that what we were very dependent on and what most supported our civilization was gas and oil. I reasoned that there was only so much buried under the ground and that it would eventually be all used up. In this I saw my chance. I decided to devise a synthetic replacement for it.
I took these considerations to my ninth grade science teacher (I even remember his name, Mr. Pickering) and asked him what career I should aim for to accomplish this. He advised me that becoming a chemical engineer would be best. That was it for me. From that point on my academic work was all directed to that end.
I was not a nerd, I was also very active as an all star football player and on the track team, president of the photography club, second in command of the school cadet corps, photography editor then editor in chief of the school yearbook, Piper and drummer in the Pipe band etc. etc. and I also played base guitar and sang in the first Toronto Rock Group. In this I was a revolutionary (which figures in my later willingness to also be so in psychology) since rock was considered the music of the devil back then.
My two favorite fairy tale heroes were the little boy in the Emperors New Clothes and David of David and Goliath which also speaks to my fundamental scripting. I also became an atheist or perhaps more correctly an agnostic in keeping with my quest to become a pure scientist.
I struggled to be as objective as I could in all circumstances and to a very large degree suppressed my feeling and emotional side. Consequently I was very susceptible to them and they would pop out much to my consternation. So I would work even harder to suppress them. Later, in the sixties, Mr. Spock of Star Trek represented my ideal (along with Scottie.) By then I had graduated from college as a Chemical Engineer (1963) and was working for a rubber and plastics raw material producer. I turned out a number of patents and was rising rapidly as a technical service and development engineer. I was working in the field of golf balls since we were developing synthetic rubbers to replace the natural ones used in their production. I dedicated myself to this and soon developed a reputation in the industry as a whiz kid. I soon moved to the U.S. (1966) where I designed and built a golf ball production factory for Ben Hogan. I continued on totally dedicated to my career and engineering, getting ahead very rapidly. By 1969 after several career moves I was appointed general manager (at age 29) of the Golf Ball division of Wilson Sporting goods. The position had much to offer, money, notoriety, country club membership, power, (lunches with people such as Jerry Ford shortly before he was president), connections to the white house (I made all the golf balls for the Nixon Administration).
Since I had succeeded in shelving all my emotions and feelings and was virtually a Mr. Spock, I had succeeded well in business but was failing miserably in my personal life.
My original goals of making a vital contribution to humanity had been lost along with my emotions and feelings. I was a robot and doing things (such as firing a close personal friend because we had to reduce overhead by 15%) which did not sit well with my humanity and the revolutionary in me. It set up an inner conflict of which I was not aware. I saw, as was required of good managers, the world as a function of the bottom line, and operated as a machine. The inner conflict and failure in my personal life had resulted in me being overweight (I ate to stuff the pain) and having a very driven (type A) personality.
My preoccupation led me to neglect my personal health and I had developed several executive syndrome disorders. I had hypertension, hypoglycemia, a fast developing ulcer, and my e.k.g. showed that I had already suffered from one or more heart attacks. There were indications of damage to one of the valves. I was overweight and well on my way, if not already, an alcoholic. I smoked about one and a half packs of cigarettes a day. I had missed the pain of the mild heart attacks through my ability to stuff my feelings and sensations. My sports career had also taught me how to do that. (I didn't mention that in college I was the intercollegiate wrestling champion in my freshman year and later became the player-coach of the team. I had won the championship match with torn ligaments in my right knee from an earlier match. I was on crutches for months after that. I was really good at stuffing stuff.)
However from my preoccupation with science I also leaned many positives: That world views can change when the old theories are replaced by new ones. That theories are at best models of reality and not the real thing. That one can often learn more from the failure of an experiment than if it had succeeded. And that many of the important breakthroughs in science came from the cracks, the nagging little things that the current theories didn't quite cover. From engineering I learned that you have to be adaptable in reality as nothing ever goes exactly as planned. That the theories of pure science are at best approximations, not to trust them completely nor take them as gospel, and finding what actually works is more important than holding on to a favorite theory or practice.
I also learned that I solved far more of my technical and management problems when I was asleep and dreaming than with my technical expertise, although I didn't admit that to anyone. I also noted that dreams were prominent in fundamental scientific breakthroughs. So to a large degree I was fascinated with the nature of dreams, and pursuit of this interest was a major part of my desire to become a psychologist after I left my career in engineering.
Tam: In 1971 you were informed by your doctor that you'd be dead within three years. I was hoping that you might share what impact his warning had on you?
Graywolf: I had been going through some particularly tricky management issues (i.e. contract negotiations with the Teamsters union) and technical problems at the factory. I had developed a headache that had lasted for three weeks and my usual remedies helped not at all. My wife at that time was a nurse, was worried and so set up an appointment for me with a doctor to which I reluctantly went. I was shocked when the doctor immediately scheduled me for a number of tests at the local hospital.
I put it out of my mind until a couple of days later when the results were available. He took me into his office and gave them to me. I was in shock. My mother had died of many of the things that he was saying afflicted me. I asked how serious it was and he told me that he expected I would be dead within three years. He went on to cite my life style, work pressure, marital problems, as contributing causes along with my genetic background, and reiterated that I would be dead within three year without treatment and addressing some of these issues. And it might not work; I was in pretty bad shape mentally and physically.
My shock continued walking out of his office. I had a very strict diet in hand, a prescription or two, and was to report for checkups regularly. But I was terrified. I was only 32 years old and had watched my mother die young as I might myself.
I didn't tell my wife and I didn't sleep that night. I called in sick for the first time next morning and stayed in bed and thought. I re-evaluated my priorities. That evening was when I told my wife about my condition. I decided, at the very least if I only had a little while to live, to start having fun and doing things that I had always wanted but never found the time for. Unfortunately many of these things she wasn't willing to share with me such as going dancing, learning to ski, reactivating my passion for music and playing the rock guitar. I decided that doing them might be more important than my marriage, so did then with her disapproval. Her idea was medication and a strict regimen of abstinence to heal me.
I began to leave my work at the plant and have fun evenings and weekends. I even began attending a non-denominational liberal church in town. I began to assess where I was and where I was going relative to my childhood ideals. I was falling far short of them. Soon my wife left me and I was in great pain over that. Her parting words were that I was going through a second childhood and she wanted nothing to do with it. I was in a major self identity crisis.
At that point neither my career nor my personal life satisfied me. The fun was fun but my health was still poor. Headaches, shortness of breath, etc. A concerned friend and business colleague took me out to lunch one day and recommended counseling for me. I wasn't too open to it so he told me to show up on Friday evening at a certain church. It turned out to be empathy training for perspective crisis phone line workers. I reluctantly started the three day training and became a convert by the time it was over. I rediscovered my emotions and sensitivity. I soon dedicated all my off work hours to this and to another program, drug crisis intervention work. Between the two I was spending all my off work hours in the alternative community. I took an introduction to TA at the free university. It described my life and offered hope. By then I had dramatically resigned my job. (That is an interesting story in itself.) and had free time. I started training in TA and in my own analysis discovered the patterns that had trapped me and how they contributed to my Type A personality and health problems. I lost about forty pounds and began to get into shape. I soon was totally dedicated to understanding healing from both psychological and medical perspectives. I wanted to become a healer and in the process heal myself. I also began to study dreams through the gestalt therapy and began attending all workshops on dreamwork at the psychology conferences I attended.
Tam: You've also indicated that during your studies and in your practice as a psychotherapist you came to believe that for the most part current psychotherapy models "didn't really address the full human condition" in your clients or yourself. Would you elaborate on that?
Graywolf: I had completed TA and Gestalt training by 1975. I had, as part of that, studied psychology in considerable depth including Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, Behavioral and Reichian models, theories and practices as well as a number of fringe practices and several approaches to body work. I also studied medical models of healing with a thought of attending medical school. In these studies I encountered two phenomena that captured my interest, the Placebo Effect and Iatrogenic illness. The former became my interest and ideal for a healing model. However I could find no operational explanation of how they worked.
On returning from my written and oral exams in TA I met with my supervisor. I recall asking her "Is this all there is?" because I couldn't believe that this was the end state of psychological science. "What is beneath scripting?" I asked her along with other similar questions. She replied that I had all the basics, understood all the theories and practices and was fully qualified. "It's not enough." I told her. Engineers take pride in their tools and the ones I had mastered didn't seem enough.
However, I practiced for several years putting my concerns in context within myself. They are:
a.) Psychology and medicine ARE quite sophisticated in diagnosing and categorizing the various illnesses, but healing techniques are woefully inadequate and ineffective.
b.) Trained in hard sciences and working as an engineer I had experienced the limits of Newtonian science. I had expected that psychology and healing arts would have developed specific theories that would explain or deal with the complexities and synergy of the human condition. But all I saw was an attempt to make people fit into this mechanistic and reductionistic approach (Newtonian Mechanics) that didn't work all that well even with inert objects.
I even started developing a practice that I called "Relativity Therapy" based on Einstein's implications that all measurements depend on the frame of reference. I knew that this relativity theory was a better model than the Newtonian one and I found this approach more effective. (It basically involved not defining any absolutes of either health or proper functioning but understanding the client's frame of reference and working within that.) By the mid seventies I was also re-exposed to Quantum theory through "The Tao of Physics" and "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and began to speculate and explore how these theories might also be more applicable to the human condition and healing it.
During this time I also had my wolf experience which slowly opened me up to spiritual considerations. I found myself returning in some of my sessions to the state of consciousness of that experience. I soon discovered that the wolf state far more helped people to define and solve their issues than all my psychotherapy training accomplished. This was the beginnings of my co-consciousness model in which the therapist rather than being objective and separate from the client enters into co-consciousness with them.
c.) Although many of my colleagues and clients considered me to be a brilliant therapist, I didn't feel that we were really getting much fundamental healing done with conventional therapies. Client's would linger on, continuing on long after we had met their therapeutic contracts. "There's still something missing," they would say. I had to agree with them. Most of my most effective therapy interventions happened in the last minutes of a session when I might make some off hand remark seemingly entirely out of context. The client would return the next week marveling at how that remark had helped them to change dramatically.
d.) That was driving me along with the unanswered questions I had about the placebo effect. I was interested in how it worked and the implications from it; how intimately the mind, consciousness and body are bound in healing and wellness. Psychology and medicine had nothing to offer on this. Another factor was that I was also beginning to explore an emerging sense of my own spirituality through my Graywolf experiences. Although I wouldn't have labeled it as such then, I was feeling a deeper transpersonal self and connection.
e.) I continued my studies of psychology in Graduate school obtaining a Masters degree in it but chose to pursue shaman's studies rather than continue for a Doctorate. The Masters work was quite unsatisfying and Doctoral work looked like just a continuation of the same pap. I had specialized in schizophrenia and wrote my masters thesis on it. I was told by my advisor that it was worthy of being my Doctoral Dissertation with some minor additional work. But I didn't learn anything from that exercise in futility except to confirm how little is understood about the condition.
My own work in the field with schizophrenia taught me much more about it and my notion was that the important elements of it were ignored. The hypersensitivity of schizophrenics, the often extrasensory and psi experiences weren't addressed except to label them as pathology, hallucination or delusion. The very spiritual nature of the condition (religious fascination and fixations). Yet "Psychological Science and Medical Science ignored all this and presented dry mechanistic models of the condition. I also left out these considerations in my thesis on the advice of my advisor.
f.) I was attending two or three psychology conferences a year and many, many workshops. There was nothing new in them, just the same old theories and models warmed up and repeated using different words. That's still happening: codependency is just what we used to work with under the name symbiosis and then enabling; inner child work is a warmed up excerpt from TA, etc. etc.
g.) Humanistic psychology drew my interest because of the fundamental difference of philosophy. If you want to understand health you must study healthy people. I even became deeply involved with the AHP acting as an unofficial advisor to the Board and helping organize and manage conferences. I lost interest when the AHP began mainstreaming itself and seemed to lose its exploratory bent.
h.) Psychology seemed for the most part to ignore the full range of human experience. It ignored psi experiences, yet from personal experience I knew them to be facts. Its explanation of phenomena such as Deja-vu was trite and didn't really capture the flavor of it. Psychology was unable and seemed unwilling to explore and explain such things as love and intimacy, yet I knew them to be important in healing work, both as a support system and coming from the therapist.
i.) Exposure to fringe theories and practices made me aware of several other problems. For example "Radical Psychiatry" pointed out the inability of psychology to address social change.
j.) But the main issue was that psychology and its science had made no inroads to understanding or exploring the nature of consciousness. That seemed to me the most important element in understanding both the human condition and healing it. It seemed to be the basis of natural healing phenomena such as the placebo effect. It also seemed fundamental to an understanding of the foundations and perception of reality itself. Psychological science seemed for the most part to be withdrawing from exploring and understanding consciousness in favor of drug, behaviorist and emotional cathartic therapies. On the other hand leading edge physics was hot on the trail of consciousness.
I was drawn to Shamanic studies, in part because shamans seemed better versed in using and understanding consciousness. There was a twenty to fifty thousand year background of empirical studies and experience in it. I chose to study this rather than go on for my Doctorate degree. In the process I connected with Dr. Stanley Krippner as a mentor (and now colleague and close friend. I started a doctoral program with him as advisor but soon dropped it, with his full blessings, as irrelevant to my aims.
During this time I worked on what I called the Shaman-Therapist model. I still have an uncompleted book on the topic in my old abandoned computer. Its fundamental notion was that to have greater depth in healing you need two models or world-views operating simultaneously, much like you need two eyes for depth in visual perception. One eye is that of the scientist, analyst, therapist. The other eye is that of the shaman, mystic, spiritual healer. Both need to be operating at the same time for this depth to realize. This distinguished it from the methods I had seen practiced in Transpersonal Psychology which were like alternately opening one eye and then the other.
I could go on with the many other details but the above should give you a fairly complete idea of my concerns about psychological science and current treatments, and my discontent with them. At the conclusion of my shaman studies I went through a similar process with shamans practice. This led to my discovery of and development of the Chaos-REM Process of Natural Healing.
Tam: I'm struck by your adventurous spirit and both the professional and personal risks you've taken in your life. I'm wondering what in retrospect you might consider your greatest risk thus far to have been and what lessons the experience has taught you.
Graywolf: At the time I was "taking risks" they didn't seem like risks at all. In fact they seemed like the most reasonable thing to do at the time. In retrospect I see that they did appear to be risky but if I were to remain true to myself they were directions I had to follow. While going through them, it was often as though I were watching myself do what I was doing. It didn't feel like dissociation or denial so much as being guided and watched by a powerful and loving presence within which was a deeper and wiser self. Given that disclaimer I offer the following.
My dropping out as a business executive and engineer was very risky. I had an assured future but the cost of that assuredness was too high. Better to live on poor than to die soon wealthy and successful.
My venture into the North Woods of Canada where I met Graywolf was risky and life threatening. But it seemed less so than living with insecurity within myself about my ability to survive.
My abandoning my practice and career as a psychotherapist was also risky as was taking the name Graywolf. However I was drawn strongly to this path and knew it was the best thing for me to do to further my interests and studies of healing process.
I suppose, looking at my answers so far, I could summarize. I was always moving on to something more interesting and exciting in my life and was able to let go of the past very easily because of this draw. I was generally done with what I was leaving behind and the draw seemed to be coming from deep within (intuitive). I later found a guiding principle given me by Al Huang. He told me that the Chinese cipher for crisis is made up of two ciphers: one meaning danger, the other meaning opportunity. I guess also that I have a pretty deep level of self confidence that tells me "no matter what you can handle it!" So in all they weren't really risks at all but the only reasonable thing to do to get where I needed to go.
As for lessons this has taught me? I suppose I have always been adventuresome. From defying authority to play Rock Music in the fifties to taking on the task of changing the basis of healing sciences, I have always tended to follow the truth, as did the little boy in the Emperors New Clothes. And taking on giants is no problem for little David, he toppled Goliath with a small stone put in the right place. The main lesson is that this is a very viable and satisfying way to live one's life, and authority means nothing more than having power, it doesn't imply correctness or truth.
Tam: Recently you've managed it seems to combine your experience and training as an engineer, as a psychotherapist, and your ventures in the wilderness and utilize them in some fascinating ways in the study of consciousness. I would love to hear more about where this particular venture is leading you.
Graywolf: In a sentence it is leading me into REM studies, Holographic theory, combined with consciousness explorations. For example I am about to embark an a project to develop the mathematics of consciousness. I am attaching my two most recent articles which will provide more details.
I do offer comment on the important concepts in my work.
- The science that currently drives the healing professions is out of date and not really appropriate to complex systems. New science provides far better models for the human condition. I.e. relativity, quantum, chaos and holographic theories.
- Healing and disease are matters that involve senses more than mind and are matters of consciousness and its structures.
- Complex systems are self regulating (homeostasis principle) and will generally do so given the opportunity.
- Healing depends far more on the connection between the practitioner and client than it does on the particular practice.
- Symptoms are at their base attempts by the organism to solve problems. As such their isolated eradication can result in further symptoms arising in answer to the unsolved deeper issue.
- There are only self-healers, the best one can do is find and encourage that process in another.
- Consciousness prevails throughout all reality and is a basic field that is part of all structure in the space time continuum.
AMPHORA 2001 Online Newsletter Holographic Healing
Placebos and Consciousness Restructuring through REM
©1999 by Graywolf Swinney
This paper first appeared in DREAM NETWORK; reprinted with permission.
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are two of the most powerful yet discounted healing phenomena known in the healing arts and sciences. Such healing occurs with any or all illnesses, yet nothing, no treatment or substances, has been administered that can account for it. In studies of new treatments, as a control, the placebo consistently brings about symptomatic remissions 30-50% of the time. If a test drug performs in the 60% range (as many, if not most, do) the placebo was also at work in the test group and accounts for at least half or more of the effectiveness of the test treatment. The proponent of the treatment generally prefers to claim it to be the entire 60% effective.
The half or more that is accountable by the placebo effect is ignored and illusions created about the drug's effectiveness. The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are consciousness events, and more specifically events in which consciousness and matter interact to naturally change or transform diseased structures into healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even an interaction, it is a reality in which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are virtualities not committed to either condition, yet the potential of both. It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality.
Quantum theory describes the state of reality in which something, for example, light simultaneously displays the properties of being both matter and pure energy waveform. Here, sudden shifts of state, quantum shifts, instantaneously occur, all is interconnected and uncertainty reigns. We too exist on this level, part of this natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels where outer structure is only a passing reflection of this continuing deep inner evolution. Dreams are our personal experience of REM consciousness and very much embody the quantum reality described above. There are a number of interesting facts that have come to light from scientific studies of REM that suggest it is probably the mechanism or consciousness-state which underlie the healing power of the placebo. There are clues from these studies that suggest that REM-Consciousness may also help in forming the roots of our diseases.
The Chaos-REM Process of Natural Healing The CRP (Chaos-REM or Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing) is a healing process that resembles the placebo effect. Studying of its mechanisms has led to understanding how placebos may operate. This process (CRP) uses imaginative sensory imagery in wakened REM state to follow dream symbol or action to its root consciousness structure. This structure, stored deep in the subconscious, is a primal, existential, sensory self-image and it defines personal reality both inner and outer. It is a personal existential hologram that underlies perceptions of self and world. This deepest sense of self is imprinted on the brain as neural firing patterns which, as suggested by Karl Pribram, create the interference wave pattern of this self-hologram. Our disease structures are incorporated within it. Reaching this root image and activating it while in REM draws it into implicate or chaotic consciousness field, and at this pre-quantum level of reality, it dissolves.
A quantum shift occurs and from free or unstructured chaotic consciousness a new, more easeful image forms and becomes a transformed existential hologram except minus the disease structure. The shift is deeply felt on sensory and pre-sensory levels. One model of how the brain operates is that any action or behavior is first imaged in the brain, e.g. to turn this page one first creates an image of doing so and the hand then conforms to the image. The healed image is externalized in this way.
Access to the consciousness dynamics (hologram) that underlie our self and diseases is best accomplished in the Consciousness State associated with their formation. In the CRP, we have found that this requires working in wakened REM consciousness. We have also found that the basis of many disease structures is in consciousness structures formed while still a fetus. REM Consciousness in Disease and Healing How REM helps form disease at fetal levels is implied in the work and findings of several scientists studying REM. Dr. Allan Hobson, a noted sleep and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, states that, "REM may stimulate immature brains while they're in utero."
Dr. Mark Manhowald of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center states that: "The fetus is in REM consciousness during most of its term in utero. Because the new baby's brain begins development with only the basics, like a new computer, the life process, [REM], programs the brain with capabilities in each developmental state and continues doing so after birth."
Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Montague Ullman, in their work at Maimonides Dream Laboratory, demonstrated that REM consciousness is a psi-conductive state. They demonstrated that two people in REM could share common dream experiences, even when separated by walls and space. All this suggests that a fetus in REM shares its parent's dream states and is preprogrammed by them. Dreams are known to be necessary for dealing with waking traumas and events. Through REM sharing a fetus is therefore exposed to the past and present traumas and experiences affecting its parents' lives. In this way programming the fetal development is determined by both parents, and the events in their lives that require dream (REM) processing. This is in addition to physiological conditioning through the chemical environment created in the womb by the mother's personal life choices.
Through REM, the fetus taps not only into co-consciousness with the parents, but also into the collective consciousness of the species. These experiences ae imprinted into the neural network and developing cells of the fetus and form the basis of its existential self-hologram. (Physicist Amit Goswami believes all structure in the Universe is based in consciousness). This mechanism continues after birth, except also incorporates the post natal life experiences of the individual. All the above affects both biology and mind. REM is associated with womb experience such as the generation and development of the nervous system and tissue-cells. Nervous system and personality developments are very susceptible to mood and experience. These are matters with which depth psychiatry and psychology deal. Tissue and cell formation and functioning are also associated with mood and experiences.
Dr. Carl Simonton demonstrated this in relation to the development of cancer and its remission. For example, many cancers develop within two years of a major loss such as death of a relative or loss of one's career through retirement. He also identified a psychological profile based on childhood experiences that are associated with cancer. He found that remission of cancer was very much facilitated by visual imagery combined with other informational and therapeutic psychological techniques.
Norman Cousins demonstrated that healing was induced through laughter, peace of mind and positive attitude. The Role of Chaos in Natural Healing Process We know from chaos theory that any complex system is very much influenced by minor perturbations or differences in its initial conditions. This is known as the "butterfly effect." The human organism is certainly a very complex system and so very much influenced in its formation by influences in its earliest developmental conditions. Early conditions of REM consciousness in the womb greatly influence our future physiology and personality. We suggest that the potential for our future illnesses is programmed into our consciousness structure and also our neurological and tissue structure during these sensitive initial conditions. It is incorporated into the person existential hologram into outer reality creating the somatic and psychic presentations inherent in it. Returning to these consciousness structures in the REM state in which they were formed allows restructuring of this hologram. We suggest this restructuring occurs in REM sleep, for example, when a placebo has been administered and expectations for its effectiveness are held. This is also the consciousness-state required for the profound self-healing observed in the CRP Journeys. Further validation of the healing powers of REM comes from dream deprivation studies which show that the mind, the nervous system and eventually the body and physiology deteriorate when the organism is deprived of REM sleep. Also, it has long been an observation in medical therapy that sleep is regenerative, and that people recovering from illness or surgery need more sleep and thus REM than usual.
Studies in neurofeedback addressing the interface of chaos with the brain and its role in the brain's functioning also provide validation. Although measurements of brain waves result in their division and categorization into certain frequencies or states such as the alpha state, the theta state, and delta, etc, such is not really the case. The frequencies of the brain waves vary randomly within a given state. The distance between peaks is highly variable and disordered around the average.
When these varied frequencies are used to program a fractal (the mathematics describing chaos theory) it becomes possible to measure the degree of chaos or complexity in the brain's functioning. These degrees of complexity are known as dimensions and the higher the dimensionality, the more complex or chaotic the neural firing patterns. Lower dimensionality is associated with such dysfunction of the brain as epilepsy, comas and strokes. Similarly, dysfunction such as obsessive compulsive behavior may be associated with linearity or lower dimensionally. On the other hand, high dimensionally is associated with healthy brain functioning.
Chaos theory itself implies that the more complex a system is, the more self-correcting it is. This is because disruption to a linear system will throw the whole system off, but only affects a portion of a complex system, which soon adjusts to "fill in the gap." In a way this is the reverse of the butterfly effect and operates in the complex system once past its initial conditions. It emphasizes the need to deal with illness at formative levels, i.e. at the organism's initial conditions. However, the important data to note here is that the highest level of dimensionality, complexity, or chaos measured in the brain, a dimensionality of nine, occurs only in REM consciousness.
The Chemistry of Natural Healing
Changing the neural firing patterns (hologram) of the brain through the aforementioned REM-chaos process affects the body's chemistry and the existential perceptions of the entire organism. Since the brain is known to operate holographically, change to any part affects the whole. Chemistry is modified through the pineal and pituitary glands, parts of the brain itself. These glands affect the release of neurotransmitters, which control mood, and the hormonal chemicals which control how our various organs function throughout the body.
Messages sent to and received by the brain throughout the entire nervous system are also affected. Fundamental perceptions of self and reality change. Outer soon follows inner. Somatic and personality presentation changes. In CRP journeys, we infer that this chaotic, implicate or complex (REM-Chaos) consciousness is the state in which the healing chemical transformations are initiated by changes in the primal existential hologram. This model suggests a similar process for placebos. Implications of REM-Chaos Natural Healing Process Spontaneous healing is closely associated with REM. These clues all imply the mechanism through which dreams, placebos, and the CRP do their healing and regenerative work.
Chaos is always associated with change and is usually seen as its aftereffect. Chaos is actually the mechanism of the change itself. REM-Chaos consciousness is the most chaotic or complex state of dynamics in the brain. It is the state that most supports its self-correction (the homeostasis effect) and the natural transformation of any organism to healthy flow. It is the state that supports profound self-healing. This information also implies a major change in the way we can view illness and healing.
Seen from a consciousness viewpoint and consistent with the new physics of quantum holographic, and chaos theories, illness and wellness are more a matter of basic consciousness structure than mere chemistry. Chemical change are an effect rather than a cause, an associated phenomenon. We can no longer view illness as merely the invasion of the body by carcinogens or germs and viruses and healing as the mechanistic or chemical correction of these conditions. Natural healing happens at quantum-implicate levels of reality. Accessing it through the REM-Chaos state brings about subsequent changes in brain chemistry and may be the mechanisms by which placebos heal. The CRP is an awakened means of doing this in REM-Chaos consciousness.
Placebos and Consciousness Restructuring through REM
©1999 by Graywolf Swinney
This paper first appeared in DREAM NETWORK; reprinted with permission.
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are two of the most powerful yet discounted healing phenomena known in the healing arts and sciences. Such healing occurs with any or all illnesses, yet nothing, no treatment or substances, has been administered that can account for it. In studies of new treatments, as a control, the placebo consistently brings about symptomatic remissions 30-50% of the time. If a test drug performs in the 60% range (as many, if not most, do) the placebo was also at work in the test group and accounts for at least half or more of the effectiveness of the test treatment. The proponent of the treatment generally prefers to claim it to be the entire 60% effective.
The half or more that is accountable by the placebo effect is ignored and illusions created about the drug's effectiveness. The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are consciousness events, and more specifically events in which consciousness and matter interact to naturally change or transform diseased structures into healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even an interaction, it is a reality in which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are virtualities not committed to either condition, yet the potential of both. It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality.
Quantum theory describes the state of reality in which something, for example, light simultaneously displays the properties of being both matter and pure energy waveform. Here, sudden shifts of state, quantum shifts, instantaneously occur, all is interconnected and uncertainty reigns. We too exist on this level, part of this natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels where outer structure is only a passing reflection of this continuing deep inner evolution. Dreams are our personal experience of REM consciousness and very much embody the quantum reality described above. There are a number of interesting facts that have come to light from scientific studies of REM that suggest it is probably the mechanism or consciousness-state which underlie the healing power of the placebo. There are clues from these studies that suggest that REM-Consciousness may also help in forming the roots of our diseases.
The Chaos-REM Process of Natural Healing The CRP (Chaos-REM or Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing) is a healing process that resembles the placebo effect. Studying of its mechanisms has led to understanding how placebos may operate. This process (CRP) uses imaginative sensory imagery in wakened REM state to follow dream symbol or action to its root consciousness structure. This structure, stored deep in the subconscious, is a primal, existential, sensory self-image and it defines personal reality both inner and outer. It is a personal existential hologram that underlies perceptions of self and world. This deepest sense of self is imprinted on the brain as neural firing patterns which, as suggested by Karl Pribram, create the interference wave pattern of this self-hologram. Our disease structures are incorporated within it. Reaching this root image and activating it while in REM draws it into implicate or chaotic consciousness field, and at this pre-quantum level of reality, it dissolves.
A quantum shift occurs and from free or unstructured chaotic consciousness a new, more easeful image forms and becomes a transformed existential hologram except minus the disease structure. The shift is deeply felt on sensory and pre-sensory levels. One model of how the brain operates is that any action or behavior is first imaged in the brain, e.g. to turn this page one first creates an image of doing so and the hand then conforms to the image. The healed image is externalized in this way.
Access to the consciousness dynamics (hologram) that underlie our self and diseases is best accomplished in the Consciousness State associated with their formation. In the CRP, we have found that this requires working in wakened REM consciousness. We have also found that the basis of many disease structures is in consciousness structures formed while still a fetus. REM Consciousness in Disease and Healing How REM helps form disease at fetal levels is implied in the work and findings of several scientists studying REM. Dr. Allan Hobson, a noted sleep and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, states that, "REM may stimulate immature brains while they're in utero."
Dr. Mark Manhowald of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center states that: "The fetus is in REM consciousness during most of its term in utero. Because the new baby's brain begins development with only the basics, like a new computer, the life process, [REM], programs the brain with capabilities in each developmental state and continues doing so after birth."
Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Montague Ullman, in their work at Maimonides Dream Laboratory, demonstrated that REM consciousness is a psi-conductive state. They demonstrated that two people in REM could share common dream experiences, even when separated by walls and space. All this suggests that a fetus in REM shares its parent's dream states and is preprogrammed by them. Dreams are known to be necessary for dealing with waking traumas and events. Through REM sharing a fetus is therefore exposed to the past and present traumas and experiences affecting its parents' lives. In this way programming the fetal development is determined by both parents, and the events in their lives that require dream (REM) processing. This is in addition to physiological conditioning through the chemical environment created in the womb by the mother's personal life choices.
Through REM, the fetus taps not only into co-consciousness with the parents, but also into the collective consciousness of the species. These experiences ae imprinted into the neural network and developing cells of the fetus and form the basis of its existential self-hologram. (Physicist Amit Goswami believes all structure in the Universe is based in consciousness). This mechanism continues after birth, except also incorporates the post natal life experiences of the individual. All the above affects both biology and mind. REM is associated with womb experience such as the generation and development of the nervous system and tissue-cells. Nervous system and personality developments are very susceptible to mood and experience. These are matters with which depth psychiatry and psychology deal. Tissue and cell formation and functioning are also associated with mood and experiences.
Dr. Carl Simonton demonstrated this in relation to the development of cancer and its remission. For example, many cancers develop within two years of a major loss such as death of a relative or loss of one's career through retirement. He also identified a psychological profile based on childhood experiences that are associated with cancer. He found that remission of cancer was very much facilitated by visual imagery combined with other informational and therapeutic psychological techniques.
Norman Cousins demonstrated that healing was induced through laughter, peace of mind and positive attitude. The Role of Chaos in Natural Healing Process We know from chaos theory that any complex system is very much influenced by minor perturbations or differences in its initial conditions. This is known as the "butterfly effect." The human organism is certainly a very complex system and so very much influenced in its formation by influences in its earliest developmental conditions. Early conditions of REM consciousness in the womb greatly influence our future physiology and personality. We suggest that the potential for our future illnesses is programmed into our consciousness structure and also our neurological and tissue structure during these sensitive initial conditions. It is incorporated into the person existential hologram into outer reality creating the somatic and psychic presentations inherent in it. Returning to these consciousness structures in the REM state in which they were formed allows restructuring of this hologram. We suggest this restructuring occurs in REM sleep, for example, when a placebo has been administered and expectations for its effectiveness are held. This is also the consciousness-state required for the profound self-healing observed in the CRP Journeys. Further validation of the healing powers of REM comes from dream deprivation studies which show that the mind, the nervous system and eventually the body and physiology deteriorate when the organism is deprived of REM sleep. Also, it has long been an observation in medical therapy that sleep is regenerative, and that people recovering from illness or surgery need more sleep and thus REM than usual.
Studies in neurofeedback addressing the interface of chaos with the brain and its role in the brain's functioning also provide validation. Although measurements of brain waves result in their division and categorization into certain frequencies or states such as the alpha state, the theta state, and delta, etc, such is not really the case. The frequencies of the brain waves vary randomly within a given state. The distance between peaks is highly variable and disordered around the average.
When these varied frequencies are used to program a fractal (the mathematics describing chaos theory) it becomes possible to measure the degree of chaos or complexity in the brain's functioning. These degrees of complexity are known as dimensions and the higher the dimensionality, the more complex or chaotic the neural firing patterns. Lower dimensionality is associated with such dysfunction of the brain as epilepsy, comas and strokes. Similarly, dysfunction such as obsessive compulsive behavior may be associated with linearity or lower dimensionally. On the other hand, high dimensionally is associated with healthy brain functioning.
Chaos theory itself implies that the more complex a system is, the more self-correcting it is. This is because disruption to a linear system will throw the whole system off, but only affects a portion of a complex system, which soon adjusts to "fill in the gap." In a way this is the reverse of the butterfly effect and operates in the complex system once past its initial conditions. It emphasizes the need to deal with illness at formative levels, i.e. at the organism's initial conditions. However, the important data to note here is that the highest level of dimensionality, complexity, or chaos measured in the brain, a dimensionality of nine, occurs only in REM consciousness.
The Chemistry of Natural Healing
Changing the neural firing patterns (hologram) of the brain through the aforementioned REM-chaos process affects the body's chemistry and the existential perceptions of the entire organism. Since the brain is known to operate holographically, change to any part affects the whole. Chemistry is modified through the pineal and pituitary glands, parts of the brain itself. These glands affect the release of neurotransmitters, which control mood, and the hormonal chemicals which control how our various organs function throughout the body.
Messages sent to and received by the brain throughout the entire nervous system are also affected. Fundamental perceptions of self and reality change. Outer soon follows inner. Somatic and personality presentation changes. In CRP journeys, we infer that this chaotic, implicate or complex (REM-Chaos) consciousness is the state in which the healing chemical transformations are initiated by changes in the primal existential hologram. This model suggests a similar process for placebos. Implications of REM-Chaos Natural Healing Process Spontaneous healing is closely associated with REM. These clues all imply the mechanism through which dreams, placebos, and the CRP do their healing and regenerative work.
Chaos is always associated with change and is usually seen as its aftereffect. Chaos is actually the mechanism of the change itself. REM-Chaos consciousness is the most chaotic or complex state of dynamics in the brain. It is the state that most supports its self-correction (the homeostasis effect) and the natural transformation of any organism to healthy flow. It is the state that supports profound self-healing. This information also implies a major change in the way we can view illness and healing.
Seen from a consciousness viewpoint and consistent with the new physics of quantum holographic, and chaos theories, illness and wellness are more a matter of basic consciousness structure than mere chemistry. Chemical change are an effect rather than a cause, an associated phenomenon. We can no longer view illness as merely the invasion of the body by carcinogens or germs and viruses and healing as the mechanistic or chemical correction of these conditions. Natural healing happens at quantum-implicate levels of reality. Accessing it through the REM-Chaos state brings about subsequent changes in brain chemistry and may be the mechanisms by which placebos heal. The CRP is an awakened means of doing this in REM-Chaos consciousness.
Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
THE EMPTY MEDICINE BAG
Graywolf Swinney, ©1990
This age that is drawing to a close, what we now consider the old age, seems filled with hucksters offering us an assortment of way to enhance our lives and to obtain power: the right car, the right deodorant or toothpaste. And the hucksters of these power objects are only exceeded in number by those eager to pay their money to purchase them. The ether is more than filled with the emanations of disembodied images speaking through the channels of television and radio sharing with us the wisdom of Madison Avenue and the opinion sampler-makers who tell us how to be popular and what image it is currently fashionable for us to assume. We have yielded our power to the technology of science and its ideology which has fostered the illusion of power over and separation from natural forces and it leaves us unnatural, ungrounded, and alienated from our spirit.
"Cure me! Make me better! Give me the new wonder pill treatment to make my problems go away!" We cry to doctors, nurses, and psychiatrists. And indeed they accept this power that we hand to them and from it create the illusion of healing us. It is said that we are now entering the "New Age," but I haven't yet figured our how this so called new age is going to be any different from the old we are supposed to be leaving behind.
The new age too seems filled with hucksters offering to help us fill our medicine bags with all assortments of power objects: crystals, amulets, bracelets and so on, all supposed to empower or heal us. These salesmen of power are only exceeded in number by those eager to pay their money to purchase these self same power objects. And the ether is more than filled with the emanations of spirits and alien beings speaking to us through a host of channels, sharing with us their disembodied wisdom, telling what is in store for us and what images and ways of being we are required to assume in preparation.
We delegate our power to the magic of psychic science as we alienate ourselves more and more from the material world and enter into pure spiritualism becoming increasingly unnatural and ungrounded in the process. "Heal me! Make me better! Give me the magic elixir/spell to make my problems go away!" we cry to the shamans, witches and healers. And indeed they accept this power that we hand to them and from it create the illusion of healing us. "Yes, how is it different?" I ask myself "this 'new age' and the 'old age?"
The essential core has not changed in the slightest. All that is different are the names and guises used by those who would accept power over us and our destinies, and our mad rush to give it to them. But then that has been the weakness of all revolutions, changing one set of despots for another who claim to be better but eventually assume the same power that was held over us by the old regime. Why do we always insist on giving our power over to others, the power to heal ourselves and to effect our own destinies, the power of the gods and goddesses?
Why do we lack so much faith in ourselves that we look to others and to outside objects and forces to give us that which is really within us all the time? I remember back to my own introduction as a disillusioned scientist and business executive in the early seventies to the first stirrings of the 'new age.' Back then it wasn't even called the new age but its seeds were sprouting in the human potential movement and the love generation. We were an enthusiastic and eager lot as we broke loose from the strictures of the old science, technology, and moralities that had ruled our lives. I gladly exchanged the yoke of the oppressive limits of reasons, structure, and rationality for the apparently unlimited infinities of unfettered mystical and magical thinking.
My then new profession as a practicing psychotherapist allowed me this leeway while allowing me to still maintain and use the earlier scientific training I had received as an engineer. But by the early eighties the scientist in me was hiding in disgrace as I surrounded myself with crystals, feathers, prayer sticks and a host of other power objects in my relentless pursuit of the power path of shamanism. I attached myself with breathless expectation to the words of my guru-teachers looking for the power that they would someday bestow on me. Those around me, my clients and friends were awed by my changes and intrigued by the power I was reflecting and began to call me, too, shaman-guru-teacher.
I, too, began to spew forth the words of wisdom as my followers began to look to me for the power that I would someday bestow upon them. And my medicine bag was rapidly filling as I groped for the ultimate in power objects and techniques, the ones that would fulfill the un-named dream. It was right about then that I was to address a group of healers in Portland. This address was to take place at an early morning breakfast meeting, so we had made the five hour drive to Portland the night before and stayed at a friend's house near the restaurant.
The back of our car was Filled with the contents of my medicine bag wrapped in my powerful coyote skin, and that night night I was too tired to carry it all in. But they would be safe; after all, who would date to steal a shaman's medicine bag or his power objects? I arose early the next morning and with about ten minutes to make the five minute drive to the restaurant, I approached my car. The door was open, the contents of the glove compartment strewn over the front seat. With a heavy lump of lead forming deep in my gut I looked into the back storage area where my precious medicine objects had been stored and the horror became truth.
THEY WERE GONE! THEY WERE ALL OF THEM GONE!
An electric tingling sensation that began at the crown of my head began to make its way into my body through my spine. My ears were ringing and I began to feel light headed, and the light-headedness, too, followed the tingling and infiltrated my whole body. Words entered my awareness and I spoke them as if in a trance. "It feels like spring house cleaning," I overheard myself say to Jeannie Eagle and the others present and gradually awareness caught up to my voice. The feeling of lightness was like unfettered flying! I had let go and was free.
That moment began a transformation in my life that has paled most others into insignificance. Burdens began to lift from my shoulders. I felt as if I had been left with nothing except myself. The last time that had really happened had been eight years earlier when I had gone into the wilderness of northern Ontario alone with only my canoe and met Graywolf. So maybe it wasn't so bad.
Crisis in the Chinese written language is a combination of the ciphers for both danger and opportunity, and thus was feeling very much like it could also be an opportunity. And my drum, which is seen as a vessel or carrier like the canoe, according to some Native American shaman teachings, was safe because I taken it into the house with me to keep warm and tight so that I could use it in my presentation. So there I was again, as with my meeting Graywolf, alone in the wilderness with nothing but a canoe.
Last time I had met the wolf who had changed my life and led me to develop an intuitive and mystical side of myself. What would the universe hand me this time? Now free of the bonds of my medicine objects I began to notice things. For instance, it was the people who were looking to me for power who gave me the greatest feelings of power, and those to whom I looked for power who left me feeling most disempowered. And it all felt like an illusion. I noticed that in my work with people, I was drawn m ore and more to my old standby as a psychotherapist, their dreams. And as I worked with these dreams I sensed that there was a hidden depth far deeper in the dream than the symbols and the story line.
The few times I strayed deeper into this dream reality, the most bizarre and interesting things would happen and we all came away feeling empowered and somehow more healed. I began to contemplate that my own real power had come from a wolf vision and I had never been entirely sure whether that had been a dream within a dream - a product of my imagination and fear, or a real wolf. It didn't seem to matter. And so I began to refill my empty medicine bag first with dreams. I began to explore deeper and deeper into my clients dreams, past the plot, past the symbols and into the deeper energies that had thrust these symbols and stories into their awareness.
The symbols, I recalled from my earlier training in psychology, were meant to fool the ego with censored energies and material from the unconscious. "What was this unconscious material-energy?" I wondered. I learned how to guide my clients deeper into their dreams and past the symbols to directly experience the realms of the unconscious and we found among many other remarkable things, healing. They would feel things: tingling sensations, body rushes and emotional states which brought much ease to their dis-eased minds and bodies. The journey is into the fear and pain because the pain shows where the healing energy is needed and the healing force is right there inside the pain. The scientist in me, reawakened by my curiosity, returned to grace and began working, now in cooperation with the mystic.
I developed consciousness maps and new models of the ego to understand these new phenomena and they seemed more complete and explained more of the full nature of humanness than the older models from either my psychological or shamanic training. As I did this I became aware that it was not I who was the healer, but the energy in the dreams and the dreamers themselves. Gratefully, I retired from healer into the role of guide and mentor. In doing so I felt more empowered, as did my clients.
Some of the states of consciousness we found within the dreams even began to sound like what is described as God, Nirvana, or the Tao. From these states my clients would return deeply changed. For example, one client was unable to talk or form words for almost thirty minutes after returning and then could only break the initial silence by laughing. Prior to this journey he had been in deep depression for several months.
AND THIS DEEP GODLIKE PLACE WAS ALREADY THERE, DEEP INSIDE EACH OF THEM!
I continued to notice things and soon found that imagination was another path into these deeper realities, what I now recognized as seep and unusual states of consciousness, states that exist in each of us and that are beyond the structure and limitations of space and time. My canoe/drum had begun opening these doorways and I soon found I could dispense with the drum. Imagination was all that was needed and so it, too, was added to my medicine bag.
My ego and consciousness maps became even deeper and more refined and generalized. I have now dropped the name or title of healer or shaman entirely, although people usually get healed when we journey together an I am now just a guide or mentor for the inner journey to self empowerment and healing real-ization. The journeys inside that lead people to this state of the realization of their own healing, power, and goddness are usually scary, just like someone's first trip with a river guide in the white water rapids of the lower Rogue River.
But the river flows and even if you get tossed our in the middle of Tyee or Wildcat rapids, the current still carries you past the rocks and into the next calm. And the river guide is there to teach you and keep you safe until you learn how to ride the current on your own. Each journey is unique and a product of our mutual creative energy. It is a terrain in which emotions may be colors, pain a giant yellow sun about to explode, and shadows may be filled with light.
The journey is into the fear and pain because the pain shows where the healing energy is needed and the healing force is right there inside the pain. But we usually surround the pains we experience with fear and that is what keeps us away from them and the healing that is within them. We give our power to our fear and so our power is held hostage by that which we fear, and these fears direct our lives. To get our power and lives back, we must face the fears and move through them.
Thus, in exploring, the expanding yellow sun of pain releases the pressure/pain and the middle back and neck problem eases. And the lighted shadow side reveals not demons, but inner allies who light the way with their wisdom and guide us to our power. It is a path directed by love, trust and faith in ourselves and what we really are. The essence of what I have learned on this path, then, is that there is an immense and limitless source of power in all of us. We don't really need to look outside for what we are needing for our empowerment, healing, and evolution; it is right there inside of each of us all the time.
This healing god-force is founded in, and emanates from that part of ourselves we call our creativity. And that makes a lot of sense; every religion I know about or have studied has one common denominator, one of the main aspects of the god definition is always the role of creator. Within us, that personal force of creation or God seems to express itself most profoundly, vividly, and realistically through our dreams and our imagination. And no matter how deeply buried that is something we all have. That is why my medicine bag is really quite empty, because all we need to heal and empower ourselves is just that, dreams and imagination, and they don't take up any space at all.
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
THE EMPTY MEDICINE BAG
Graywolf Swinney, ©1990
This age that is drawing to a close, what we now consider the old age, seems filled with hucksters offering us an assortment of way to enhance our lives and to obtain power: the right car, the right deodorant or toothpaste. And the hucksters of these power objects are only exceeded in number by those eager to pay their money to purchase them. The ether is more than filled with the emanations of disembodied images speaking through the channels of television and radio sharing with us the wisdom of Madison Avenue and the opinion sampler-makers who tell us how to be popular and what image it is currently fashionable for us to assume. We have yielded our power to the technology of science and its ideology which has fostered the illusion of power over and separation from natural forces and it leaves us unnatural, ungrounded, and alienated from our spirit.
"Cure me! Make me better! Give me the new wonder pill treatment to make my problems go away!" We cry to doctors, nurses, and psychiatrists. And indeed they accept this power that we hand to them and from it create the illusion of healing us. It is said that we are now entering the "New Age," but I haven't yet figured our how this so called new age is going to be any different from the old we are supposed to be leaving behind.
The new age too seems filled with hucksters offering to help us fill our medicine bags with all assortments of power objects: crystals, amulets, bracelets and so on, all supposed to empower or heal us. These salesmen of power are only exceeded in number by those eager to pay their money to purchase these self same power objects. And the ether is more than filled with the emanations of spirits and alien beings speaking to us through a host of channels, sharing with us their disembodied wisdom, telling what is in store for us and what images and ways of being we are required to assume in preparation.
We delegate our power to the magic of psychic science as we alienate ourselves more and more from the material world and enter into pure spiritualism becoming increasingly unnatural and ungrounded in the process. "Heal me! Make me better! Give me the magic elixir/spell to make my problems go away!" we cry to the shamans, witches and healers. And indeed they accept this power that we hand to them and from it create the illusion of healing us. "Yes, how is it different?" I ask myself "this 'new age' and the 'old age?"
The essential core has not changed in the slightest. All that is different are the names and guises used by those who would accept power over us and our destinies, and our mad rush to give it to them. But then that has been the weakness of all revolutions, changing one set of despots for another who claim to be better but eventually assume the same power that was held over us by the old regime. Why do we always insist on giving our power over to others, the power to heal ourselves and to effect our own destinies, the power of the gods and goddesses?
Why do we lack so much faith in ourselves that we look to others and to outside objects and forces to give us that which is really within us all the time? I remember back to my own introduction as a disillusioned scientist and business executive in the early seventies to the first stirrings of the 'new age.' Back then it wasn't even called the new age but its seeds were sprouting in the human potential movement and the love generation. We were an enthusiastic and eager lot as we broke loose from the strictures of the old science, technology, and moralities that had ruled our lives. I gladly exchanged the yoke of the oppressive limits of reasons, structure, and rationality for the apparently unlimited infinities of unfettered mystical and magical thinking.
My then new profession as a practicing psychotherapist allowed me this leeway while allowing me to still maintain and use the earlier scientific training I had received as an engineer. But by the early eighties the scientist in me was hiding in disgrace as I surrounded myself with crystals, feathers, prayer sticks and a host of other power objects in my relentless pursuit of the power path of shamanism. I attached myself with breathless expectation to the words of my guru-teachers looking for the power that they would someday bestow on me. Those around me, my clients and friends were awed by my changes and intrigued by the power I was reflecting and began to call me, too, shaman-guru-teacher.
I, too, began to spew forth the words of wisdom as my followers began to look to me for the power that I would someday bestow upon them. And my medicine bag was rapidly filling as I groped for the ultimate in power objects and techniques, the ones that would fulfill the un-named dream. It was right about then that I was to address a group of healers in Portland. This address was to take place at an early morning breakfast meeting, so we had made the five hour drive to Portland the night before and stayed at a friend's house near the restaurant.
The back of our car was Filled with the contents of my medicine bag wrapped in my powerful coyote skin, and that night night I was too tired to carry it all in. But they would be safe; after all, who would date to steal a shaman's medicine bag or his power objects? I arose early the next morning and with about ten minutes to make the five minute drive to the restaurant, I approached my car. The door was open, the contents of the glove compartment strewn over the front seat. With a heavy lump of lead forming deep in my gut I looked into the back storage area where my precious medicine objects had been stored and the horror became truth.
THEY WERE GONE! THEY WERE ALL OF THEM GONE!
An electric tingling sensation that began at the crown of my head began to make its way into my body through my spine. My ears were ringing and I began to feel light headed, and the light-headedness, too, followed the tingling and infiltrated my whole body. Words entered my awareness and I spoke them as if in a trance. "It feels like spring house cleaning," I overheard myself say to Jeannie Eagle and the others present and gradually awareness caught up to my voice. The feeling of lightness was like unfettered flying! I had let go and was free.
That moment began a transformation in my life that has paled most others into insignificance. Burdens began to lift from my shoulders. I felt as if I had been left with nothing except myself. The last time that had really happened had been eight years earlier when I had gone into the wilderness of northern Ontario alone with only my canoe and met Graywolf. So maybe it wasn't so bad.
Crisis in the Chinese written language is a combination of the ciphers for both danger and opportunity, and thus was feeling very much like it could also be an opportunity. And my drum, which is seen as a vessel or carrier like the canoe, according to some Native American shaman teachings, was safe because I taken it into the house with me to keep warm and tight so that I could use it in my presentation. So there I was again, as with my meeting Graywolf, alone in the wilderness with nothing but a canoe.
Last time I had met the wolf who had changed my life and led me to develop an intuitive and mystical side of myself. What would the universe hand me this time? Now free of the bonds of my medicine objects I began to notice things. For instance, it was the people who were looking to me for power who gave me the greatest feelings of power, and those to whom I looked for power who left me feeling most disempowered. And it all felt like an illusion. I noticed that in my work with people, I was drawn m ore and more to my old standby as a psychotherapist, their dreams. And as I worked with these dreams I sensed that there was a hidden depth far deeper in the dream than the symbols and the story line.
The few times I strayed deeper into this dream reality, the most bizarre and interesting things would happen and we all came away feeling empowered and somehow more healed. I began to contemplate that my own real power had come from a wolf vision and I had never been entirely sure whether that had been a dream within a dream - a product of my imagination and fear, or a real wolf. It didn't seem to matter. And so I began to refill my empty medicine bag first with dreams. I began to explore deeper and deeper into my clients dreams, past the plot, past the symbols and into the deeper energies that had thrust these symbols and stories into their awareness.
The symbols, I recalled from my earlier training in psychology, were meant to fool the ego with censored energies and material from the unconscious. "What was this unconscious material-energy?" I wondered. I learned how to guide my clients deeper into their dreams and past the symbols to directly experience the realms of the unconscious and we found among many other remarkable things, healing. They would feel things: tingling sensations, body rushes and emotional states which brought much ease to their dis-eased minds and bodies. The journey is into the fear and pain because the pain shows where the healing energy is needed and the healing force is right there inside the pain. The scientist in me, reawakened by my curiosity, returned to grace and began working, now in cooperation with the mystic.
I developed consciousness maps and new models of the ego to understand these new phenomena and they seemed more complete and explained more of the full nature of humanness than the older models from either my psychological or shamanic training. As I did this I became aware that it was not I who was the healer, but the energy in the dreams and the dreamers themselves. Gratefully, I retired from healer into the role of guide and mentor. In doing so I felt more empowered, as did my clients.
Some of the states of consciousness we found within the dreams even began to sound like what is described as God, Nirvana, or the Tao. From these states my clients would return deeply changed. For example, one client was unable to talk or form words for almost thirty minutes after returning and then could only break the initial silence by laughing. Prior to this journey he had been in deep depression for several months.
AND THIS DEEP GODLIKE PLACE WAS ALREADY THERE, DEEP INSIDE EACH OF THEM!
I continued to notice things and soon found that imagination was another path into these deeper realities, what I now recognized as seep and unusual states of consciousness, states that exist in each of us and that are beyond the structure and limitations of space and time. My canoe/drum had begun opening these doorways and I soon found I could dispense with the drum. Imagination was all that was needed and so it, too, was added to my medicine bag.
My ego and consciousness maps became even deeper and more refined and generalized. I have now dropped the name or title of healer or shaman entirely, although people usually get healed when we journey together an I am now just a guide or mentor for the inner journey to self empowerment and healing real-ization. The journeys inside that lead people to this state of the realization of their own healing, power, and goddness are usually scary, just like someone's first trip with a river guide in the white water rapids of the lower Rogue River.
But the river flows and even if you get tossed our in the middle of Tyee or Wildcat rapids, the current still carries you past the rocks and into the next calm. And the river guide is there to teach you and keep you safe until you learn how to ride the current on your own. Each journey is unique and a product of our mutual creative energy. It is a terrain in which emotions may be colors, pain a giant yellow sun about to explode, and shadows may be filled with light.
The journey is into the fear and pain because the pain shows where the healing energy is needed and the healing force is right there inside the pain. But we usually surround the pains we experience with fear and that is what keeps us away from them and the healing that is within them. We give our power to our fear and so our power is held hostage by that which we fear, and these fears direct our lives. To get our power and lives back, we must face the fears and move through them.
Thus, in exploring, the expanding yellow sun of pain releases the pressure/pain and the middle back and neck problem eases. And the lighted shadow side reveals not demons, but inner allies who light the way with their wisdom and guide us to our power. It is a path directed by love, trust and faith in ourselves and what we really are. The essence of what I have learned on this path, then, is that there is an immense and limitless source of power in all of us. We don't really need to look outside for what we are needing for our empowerment, healing, and evolution; it is right there inside of each of us all the time.
This healing god-force is founded in, and emanates from that part of ourselves we call our creativity. And that makes a lot of sense; every religion I know about or have studied has one common denominator, one of the main aspects of the god definition is always the role of creator. Within us, that personal force of creation or God seems to express itself most profoundly, vividly, and realistically through our dreams and our imagination. And no matter how deeply buried that is something we all have. That is why my medicine bag is really quite empty, because all we need to heal and empower ourselves is just that, dreams and imagination, and they don't take up any space at all.
Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
HEALING IN THE HEART OF YOUR DREAMS
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
c1997, Asklepia Foundation
In 1984 in my therapy groups, I was using primarily Gestalt process in working with dreams. One morning, rather than following the usual Gestalt practice of exploring the relationships and conflicts between symbols and parts of the dream as is usual Gestalt practice, a client and I ventured more deeply into the experience and being of one of the dream's symbols. We journeyed together into the heart of the dream itself, and found a healing state of consciousness that was profound in its impact and implications. As with the belief of the the ancient Greek Asklepian dream healing myth, where the healing god Asklepios worked his healing magic from with the dream itself, this healing state, too, was buried deep in the dream far beyond its outer manifest form and any interpretation or surface manipulation.
In the dream, my client, strapped to a platform, was being drawn feet first into a wheel of rapidly rotating razor-edged knives. I had been exploring shamanic philosophy and practice for several years because of my discontent with the limits of psychological science and practice, and in keeping with this bent, rather than have her become the knives and begin a dialogue, I suggested she let herself be pulled into the whirling blades.
I had in mind the shamanic principle of having her face directly in the dream what she most feared. In truth, it was also a moment of strong intuition and curiosity as I felt myself drawn inexorably into the flashing, spinning blades. She reported being slashed and cut into tiny bits with blood and flesh splattering and scattering all directions, but strangely, the predominant sense she experienced and reported was a sensation of the icy coldness of the blades. I encouraged her to pursue it, to give in to that sense-image of icy coldness. As she did, she soon became a layer of ice, frigid, rigid, and very, very hard and cold.
My interest intensified since in a sensory sentence this was the therapeutic issue that had brought her to seek therapy: she was a very hard, very cold, and a very frigid woman. I knew from our previous sessions that her condition stemmed from early and continued molestation by her several older brothers. In two years of therapy, although we had attained much insight as to the origins of her problem and had even made several emotional cognitive breakthroughs, we had not reached a place of deep healing with which either of us were satisfied. Nor in truth did it seem likely that we would.
This shared experience of incompleteness was typical and was the reason for my interest in other healing practices. "Stay with it," I urged. "Go even deeper into this sense of cold, become it." As she did, and as I encouraged her to go even further, she reported first a sensation of falling into bottomless, dark absolute zero cold, then entering and becoming the water beneath the ice and feeling warmer as she did so. She reported, in this state, a deeply felt sense of flowing, flexible, and wave-like boundaries.
I watched her rigid body deeply relax and soften, changing before my eyes. I encouraged her to remain in this state for as long as she needed and sat back and watched the unfolding a new body language. When eventually she came back from that state of consciousness, she was a different woman--flexible, flowing and a softer self. Her deeper spirit shone through and in time her behavior and self-image began to change. This new sense of self was deep and continued to evolve.
The work itself had been like Dr. Simonton's and other similar guided imagery work I practiced then, but was also somehow different in a way I couldn't yet define. I began exploring this shaman-therapist technique, and the more I explored, the more remarkable the process seemed. Physical as well as emotional and mental diseases yielded to new and profound senses of self and relationship with the outer world. The changes that took place were most often deep and continued to evolve long after he journeys ended.
In my search to evolve and describe the process I was exploring, I eventually encountered Chaos Theory and in a moment saw the perfect fit. In conjunction with quantum and relativistic notion I had already been studying, I finally had a model to explain the Creative Restructuring Process that I have described in various article. Although much of it is presented as metaphorical, I the notion that the relationships between chaos, creativity, new science, spirituality, and therapeutic effects may be more than just a metaphor.
These relationships may reveal the mystery of the connections of consciousness, chaos and creativity in the natural healing process, and may identify the nature and processes of the mind-body connection. One might also substitute the phrase "placebo effect," or "spontaneous remission," for natural healing process in this context. And it is a healing process that exists within each and every dream we have. The idea that healing takes place within the dream itself is both old and new: The ancient Greek and Roman healing paradigm was based in this notion both spiritually and in practice.
Dreams were never interpreted in the original dream temples. According to myth the mortal-god Asklepios, who was the illegitimate son of Apollo and an earthly mother became such a powerful healer in mortal form that the Gods in Olympus petitioned Zeus to remove Asklepios from the earthly realm. It seems he was stealing souls from them. Zeus complied and slew Asklepios with a thunderbolt. However, the agony and pain that erupted from mortals over the loss of this great healer evoked compassion on the part of the Gods.
Asklepios was allowed to return and continue healing mortals but he was only allowed to do so in their dreams. Greek and Roman healing practice served this paradigm.. Practitioners were known as therapeutes. The physicians or Asklepiads used a variety of herbs, physical treatments, and various incantations acting as the earthly hands and minds of Asklepios. However, when these ministrations did not work it was taken as a sign that the healing was to be performed directly by the god himself. Therefore the patient was sent to an Asklepian Dream Healing Temple.
After confession, purification, and other means of inducing healing dreams, the patient was allowed to sleep on the Kline or divine couch for the healing dream. When the Priests awakened the dreamer to share the dream, there was no interpretation or analysis offered; the priests only looked for signs that the god had indeed visited the dream. If so, healing was assumed. The success of this paradigm was attested by the Priests of hundreds of Asklepian Temples. These Temples proliferated throughout the Greek and Roman Empires. Hundreds of thousands of documented instances of profound healings were recorded by the supplicants and stored in the Temples' archives. Modern research, too, has revealed the healing nature of dreams.
Experiments have shown when people are deprived of dream-time, even though allowed sleep, after about a week, hallucination and mental/emotional problems begin to appear and intrude. Within a couple of weeks, the immune system weakens and there is greater proneness to illness and fatigue. Even an unremembered dream heals; we need dream activity during the night to heal and process the day's traumas. The power of dreams is not limited to just this.
Dreams are altered states of consciousness in which we transcend space and time as we know them, states in which such phenomena as clairvoyance and prognostication occur. These phenomena cannot be explained satisfactorily by linear cause and effect, though they are consistent with non locality in Quantum Physics and the nested realities of complexity and Chaos Theory. Deep healing is a sensory phenomenon and so are dreams. Our senses let us know when we are sick.
Senses show us we are well. Mind and intellect can't do it. A dream begins as unstructured or chaotic consciousness energy (creative potential) that becomes shaped by the deeper consciousness structures that exist deep within the psyche. As this energy filters to the surface, its shape is in turn further refined and shaped by the structures in the mind until it appears as the remembered dream. But just as it is revealed, these consciousness structures of the psyche and mind, that shape the essence of our character and personality and indeed also somatic essences, the shape and content of the remembered dream, too, is determined by these consciousness structures.
Since the roots of dis-ease, both somatic and mental-emotional reside in these deeper structures, they influence the shape of the dream, which is in essence a map of the self. But, the map is not the territory. Reading a map does not get us anywhere! We have to enter into the territory to experience it. So to identify the surface manifestations of the disease structure in the dream, and follow the sensory path that leads to the roots is to come face to face with the essence of disease.
One step further and we return to the unstructured or chaotic consciousness that precedes all structures. Some might call this spirit or soul, or perhaps even God. Dissolution into the chaos brings new and healed structure into being. This is the realm of matter-energy-cconsciousness and is the domain of quantum reality and chaos theory; the realm in which reality is recreated from moment to moment and all possibility exists simultaneously. It is here, in this state, that healing occurs. And it is in our dreams.
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
HEALING IN THE HEART OF YOUR DREAMS
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
c1997, Asklepia Foundation
In 1984 in my therapy groups, I was using primarily Gestalt process in working with dreams. One morning, rather than following the usual Gestalt practice of exploring the relationships and conflicts between symbols and parts of the dream as is usual Gestalt practice, a client and I ventured more deeply into the experience and being of one of the dream's symbols. We journeyed together into the heart of the dream itself, and found a healing state of consciousness that was profound in its impact and implications. As with the belief of the the ancient Greek Asklepian dream healing myth, where the healing god Asklepios worked his healing magic from with the dream itself, this healing state, too, was buried deep in the dream far beyond its outer manifest form and any interpretation or surface manipulation.
In the dream, my client, strapped to a platform, was being drawn feet first into a wheel of rapidly rotating razor-edged knives. I had been exploring shamanic philosophy and practice for several years because of my discontent with the limits of psychological science and practice, and in keeping with this bent, rather than have her become the knives and begin a dialogue, I suggested she let herself be pulled into the whirling blades.
I had in mind the shamanic principle of having her face directly in the dream what she most feared. In truth, it was also a moment of strong intuition and curiosity as I felt myself drawn inexorably into the flashing, spinning blades. She reported being slashed and cut into tiny bits with blood and flesh splattering and scattering all directions, but strangely, the predominant sense she experienced and reported was a sensation of the icy coldness of the blades. I encouraged her to pursue it, to give in to that sense-image of icy coldness. As she did, she soon became a layer of ice, frigid, rigid, and very, very hard and cold.
My interest intensified since in a sensory sentence this was the therapeutic issue that had brought her to seek therapy: she was a very hard, very cold, and a very frigid woman. I knew from our previous sessions that her condition stemmed from early and continued molestation by her several older brothers. In two years of therapy, although we had attained much insight as to the origins of her problem and had even made several emotional cognitive breakthroughs, we had not reached a place of deep healing with which either of us were satisfied. Nor in truth did it seem likely that we would.
This shared experience of incompleteness was typical and was the reason for my interest in other healing practices. "Stay with it," I urged. "Go even deeper into this sense of cold, become it." As she did, and as I encouraged her to go even further, she reported first a sensation of falling into bottomless, dark absolute zero cold, then entering and becoming the water beneath the ice and feeling warmer as she did so. She reported, in this state, a deeply felt sense of flowing, flexible, and wave-like boundaries.
I watched her rigid body deeply relax and soften, changing before my eyes. I encouraged her to remain in this state for as long as she needed and sat back and watched the unfolding a new body language. When eventually she came back from that state of consciousness, she was a different woman--flexible, flowing and a softer self. Her deeper spirit shone through and in time her behavior and self-image began to change. This new sense of self was deep and continued to evolve.
The work itself had been like Dr. Simonton's and other similar guided imagery work I practiced then, but was also somehow different in a way I couldn't yet define. I began exploring this shaman-therapist technique, and the more I explored, the more remarkable the process seemed. Physical as well as emotional and mental diseases yielded to new and profound senses of self and relationship with the outer world. The changes that took place were most often deep and continued to evolve long after he journeys ended.
In my search to evolve and describe the process I was exploring, I eventually encountered Chaos Theory and in a moment saw the perfect fit. In conjunction with quantum and relativistic notion I had already been studying, I finally had a model to explain the Creative Restructuring Process that I have described in various article. Although much of it is presented as metaphorical, I the notion that the relationships between chaos, creativity, new science, spirituality, and therapeutic effects may be more than just a metaphor.
These relationships may reveal the mystery of the connections of consciousness, chaos and creativity in the natural healing process, and may identify the nature and processes of the mind-body connection. One might also substitute the phrase "placebo effect," or "spontaneous remission," for natural healing process in this context. And it is a healing process that exists within each and every dream we have. The idea that healing takes place within the dream itself is both old and new: The ancient Greek and Roman healing paradigm was based in this notion both spiritually and in practice.
Dreams were never interpreted in the original dream temples. According to myth the mortal-god Asklepios, who was the illegitimate son of Apollo and an earthly mother became such a powerful healer in mortal form that the Gods in Olympus petitioned Zeus to remove Asklepios from the earthly realm. It seems he was stealing souls from them. Zeus complied and slew Asklepios with a thunderbolt. However, the agony and pain that erupted from mortals over the loss of this great healer evoked compassion on the part of the Gods.
Asklepios was allowed to return and continue healing mortals but he was only allowed to do so in their dreams. Greek and Roman healing practice served this paradigm.. Practitioners were known as therapeutes. The physicians or Asklepiads used a variety of herbs, physical treatments, and various incantations acting as the earthly hands and minds of Asklepios. However, when these ministrations did not work it was taken as a sign that the healing was to be performed directly by the god himself. Therefore the patient was sent to an Asklepian Dream Healing Temple.
After confession, purification, and other means of inducing healing dreams, the patient was allowed to sleep on the Kline or divine couch for the healing dream. When the Priests awakened the dreamer to share the dream, there was no interpretation or analysis offered; the priests only looked for signs that the god had indeed visited the dream. If so, healing was assumed. The success of this paradigm was attested by the Priests of hundreds of Asklepian Temples. These Temples proliferated throughout the Greek and Roman Empires. Hundreds of thousands of documented instances of profound healings were recorded by the supplicants and stored in the Temples' archives. Modern research, too, has revealed the healing nature of dreams.
Experiments have shown when people are deprived of dream-time, even though allowed sleep, after about a week, hallucination and mental/emotional problems begin to appear and intrude. Within a couple of weeks, the immune system weakens and there is greater proneness to illness and fatigue. Even an unremembered dream heals; we need dream activity during the night to heal and process the day's traumas. The power of dreams is not limited to just this.
Dreams are altered states of consciousness in which we transcend space and time as we know them, states in which such phenomena as clairvoyance and prognostication occur. These phenomena cannot be explained satisfactorily by linear cause and effect, though they are consistent with non locality in Quantum Physics and the nested realities of complexity and Chaos Theory. Deep healing is a sensory phenomenon and so are dreams. Our senses let us know when we are sick.
Senses show us we are well. Mind and intellect can't do it. A dream begins as unstructured or chaotic consciousness energy (creative potential) that becomes shaped by the deeper consciousness structures that exist deep within the psyche. As this energy filters to the surface, its shape is in turn further refined and shaped by the structures in the mind until it appears as the remembered dream. But just as it is revealed, these consciousness structures of the psyche and mind, that shape the essence of our character and personality and indeed also somatic essences, the shape and content of the remembered dream, too, is determined by these consciousness structures.
Since the roots of dis-ease, both somatic and mental-emotional reside in these deeper structures, they influence the shape of the dream, which is in essence a map of the self. But, the map is not the territory. Reading a map does not get us anywhere! We have to enter into the territory to experience it. So to identify the surface manifestations of the disease structure in the dream, and follow the sensory path that leads to the roots is to come face to face with the essence of disease.
One step further and we return to the unstructured or chaotic consciousness that precedes all structures. Some might call this spirit or soul, or perhaps even God. Dissolution into the chaos brings new and healed structure into being. This is the realm of matter-energy-cconsciousness and is the domain of quantum reality and chaos theory; the realm in which reality is recreated from moment to moment and all possibility exists simultaneously. It is here, in this state, that healing occurs. And it is in our dreams.
REMEMBERING REM
by Graywolf Swinney
Do you remember REM? To review, REM stands for rapid eye movement and it is associated with dreaming. But I don't mean do you remember the last dream you had, I'm referring to the early fetal REM. It was a long time ago, in fact, it was so early that you were only forming into a being. In developing the Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing, (which has been discussed in several articles in Dream Network Journal), which uses the awake side of REM as the consciousness state for the inner journey, I noticed several interesting things. One of these was that inevitably we would return to fetal sensory memories, and in fact to the even earlier pre-fetal consciousness memories of conception in order to find the fundamental consciousness structure that held the dis-ease state.
I intuitively knew that REM consciousness was crucial to attaining these memories, and to the subsequent healing dynamics that resulted from these encounters. Seems my intuition was right on, and has been verified by recent findings in science about REM. More about that later. First, however, a brief description of the CRP will help set the context. The Consciousness Restructuring Process is a means or process by which one can engage the homeostasis principle, or the body's own natural healing propensity.
Starting with a dream symbol or a symptom of the disease, or even a feeling, one explores the sensory-consciousness patterns underlying it to its root pattern or structure, which we have labeled as the primal existential sensory self image. This self-image contains all the consciousness structures of self, including those of our diseases. Use of imagination is encouraged in the journeys; fantasy and attempts on the part of the journeyer to "fix things" are discouraged. This is because it is the ego mind that wants to fix things, and the ego mind covers only a limited and narrow band of the consciousness spectrum. Fantasy is also an ego-controlled process and only serves to preserve the ego's existing structure. Imagination, however, is a voice of one's creative spirit and a close relative of REM.
REM consciousness provides a more sensory body and neurally oriented pattern of the dis-ease, a truer and more fundamental experience of it. It further gives access to pure fundamental consciousness memories and structures. We consider consciousness to be an energy form arising from an infinite and universal consciousness field, or implicate consciousness. Consciousness energy can take on structure to form energy and matter configurations. It is the basis of all structures, of the universe itself. Using the imagination, this sensory pattern is followed to the roots of the symbol or the symptom, which are really the same things.
The dream is, at its base level, no matter whatever else it may also be, a manifestation of the self. All parts of the dream (no matter how strong our denials) are in reality formed by the deep consciousness structures that also form our personality, behaviors and somatic self. The dream is thus another experience of the self, except more primal and less ego controlled; it is much like an impressionistic self portrait. At some point in this inner journey process the awake side of REM engages, and why this is important will soon be apparent. When this root pattern or primal existential sensory self-image is reached, it is fully identified with, and taken one level deeper into transpersonal and undifferentiated consciousness.
This next level of undifferentiated consciousness is at the quantum level of reality, where the stuff of self has not yet committed to being either energy (mind) or matter (body) and it is at the very edges of infinite possibility or chaos (complexity). It is also where the wave fronts that eventually become reality emerge and interact to form the standing waves that are the hologram that is self. It might also be considered to be the "implicate order" of self.
The term implicate order was coined by physicist David Bohm to describe the field from which the hologram of reality emerges into spacetime. The next step is to take this image of dis-eased self into the chaotic consciousness (implicate consciousness), and in this alchemical universal solvent, the image and the dis-ease within it dissolves. Then as chaos theory predicts, from the chaos or implicate order emerges a new structure, which becomes the new felt self.
This new primal existential sensory self-image begins to reform our body chemistry, muscle and organ functions and our personality presentation. This occurs through changing the neural firing patterns that form and hold this disease image in the brain and nervous system. This in turn affects or changes the entire brain and nervous system, including the hypothalamus, pituitary and pineal glands, which are an integral part of it, and thus the mechanical functioning of the body and the mind.
The neural structure mirrors this consciousness process and becomes chaotic before assuming the new more healed and flowing pattern. Eventually this new image filters up to somatic and personality levels of consciousness structure and the organism recreates or heals itself from this very primal level, from the inside out. In fact, this is how the brain works with the body, creating images to which the somatic and behavioral self conform. For example, in moving one's arm to turn a page, the brain creates an imaginary image of the action, which the body duplicates.
Thus inner process leads outer process. We noticed when we first began using this journey process that our clients were creating very profound healing in themselves, both somatic and psychological in nature. Among the more notable remissions reported were: diabetes, cancer, scoliosis, chronic back problems, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, multiple personality, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and a host of other partial or less dramatic remissions.
The question of how this CRP process aided in these remissions became my quest of the past twenty years. It has led to the ancient Aesculapian Dream Healing practices, as well as into Relativity, Quantum and Chaos theories. Most recently it has also suggested Holographic theory which is remaining a viable model. However, through all this, I was intrigued by the fact that the Journeys took place in the awake side of REM consciousness, and unless this state was involved, the depth and integrity of the healing was diminished.
Recently data about REM consciousness has been put forth, which provides hard data supporting the CRP, the theories about its probable mechanisms, and the role of REM in it. To begin, Dr. Allen Hobson, a noted sleep and dream researcher, states that, "REM may stimulate immature brains while they're in utero." It has also recently been suggested by Dr. Mark Manhowald of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center that: "The fetus is in REM consciousness during most of its term in utero. Because the new baby's brain begins development with only the basics, like a new computer, the life process, [REM], programs the brain with capabilities in each developmental stage and continues doing so after birth."
My view is that it is probably an entrainment phenomenon that is the mechanism for this. Entrainment is the phenomenon in physics in which two periodic wave systems close in frequency to each other, soon become synchronous, that is oscillate with completely the same frequency. It is the principle behind the automatic fine-tuning on an FM receiver, by which, if you get close to the frequency of the sending signal, the tuner automatically tunes in to it exactly. However that may be, this data offers much food for many interesting speculations.
FIRST: This means that if we want to reach the fetal memories which are so important in the development of both our body's physical and personality structures, then our best shot at reaching them is in the consciousness state in which they were fed or programmed into our being. REM consciousness is critical then to the remembering of these earliest experiences.
Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Montague Ullman, while at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory, suggested in their early worked that the [REM consciousness] was a psychic state. They, for example, demonstrated that two people in REM were capable of picking up on, or sharing dream experiences, even when separated from each other by walls and space.
So from this we can postulate that a fetus in REM is quite probably capable of picking up on mother's dream states, and quite possibly father's, even while separated. Since dreams are also known to be necessary in dealing with waking traumas and events, the fetus is exposed to all of the experiences of the mother's and father's waking life through their dreams. Thus the earliest programming of the fetus is very much determined by both of the parents, their life styles, emotional conditions, and events occurring in and requiring dream processing from their waking lives.
That is, of course, in addition to the physiological conditioning through the chemical environment created in the womb by mother's experiences. In a very large sense, through REM, the fetus is tapping into co-consciousness with the parents and perhaps even into the collective consciousness of the species for programming its earliest fetal development.
This, as suggested by Dr. Manhowald, continues on after birth. One very poignant example of this is offered from a client suffering multiple personality disorder. Her mother also suffered from this disorder, and my client's experiences as a fetus were of having no set personality model from which to program her personality, nor of a stable chemical environment in the womb. The mother was also having love affairs, which the father knew of, and he was greatly disturbed by them. The mother had been raped prior to my client's conception, and was still affected by this. In working with my client and hearing the stories about her own early life and experiences, it was apparent that she had literally come forth from the womb already afflicted by this disorder. We had to go back well into the earliest fetal and prefetal consciousness structures for her to release and heal her disorder rather than merely putting a superficial fix on it. She carried both her parents' burdens into birth and to her present. Reaching these mechanisms through REM consciousness and the journey process was critical to her being able to reach, release and transform them.
Using the awake side of REM was crucial to the process for several reasons. Her dreams were superficially not about either these earliest or consciousness structures. Dreams, on the surface level, most often reflect recent experiences and only through deeper work in the structure of the dream itself touch on the earliest consciousness structures, which in turn determine our reactions to these recent experiences. Thus to work at the surface level only, as for examples with dream interpretation or analysis, which operates at intellectual levels, or gestalt dream work, which works at the emotional-experiential levels, or lucid dreaming which works at ego-experiential levels, is insufficient to reach the early experiences and structures needing release and transformation.
In awake REM consciousness, using the imaginative sensory nature of the journeys, with the help of a mentor she was able to reach the primal consciousness that formed the basis of her multiple personality structure. The ego minds (there were twelve in all) were able to follow the process without directing or controlling it to allow the eventual emergence of one whole self. This was also necessary in order to transform the coping mechanism of creating other personalities when in pain or threatened, the coping mechanism she had been programmed with in the womb.
SECOND: REM consciousness is associated with womb experiences such as the generation and development of the nervous system and tissue formation. The nervous system and personality development, we know, are very susceptible to the mood and experiences of the organism. These are the matters with which much of psychiatry and psychology deal. And tissue formation is also associated with mood and experiences.
For example, Dr. Carl Simonton demonstrated this in relation to the development of cancer and its remission. In one example, he demonstrated that many if not most cancers developed within two years of a major loss such as death of a spouse or loss of one's career through retirement. He also demonstrated that remission of the cancer was very much facilitated by visual imagery combined with other informational and therapeutic psychology. Norman Cousins demonstrated that healing could be induced through genuine good feeling such as laughter and peace of mind, and positive attitude. He healed his own cancer in this way.
We know from chaos theory that any complex system is very much influenced by minor perturbations or differences in its initial conditions. This is known as the "butterfly effect." The human organism is certainly a very complex system, and so very much influenced in it development by events in its earliest developmental conditions. Thus in these early conditions of REM consciousness in the womb, our future physiology and personality are greatly influenced by our experiences as a fetus.
Our future illnesses are quite probably programmed into our consciousness structure, and thus also our neurological and tissue structures, during these sensitive initial conditions. Return to these consciousness structures in REM consciousness could very well allow us to rewrite our past, and to do so in the state that is associated with the formation of the nervous system and tissue development. Since this consciousness is associated with the development of new tissue and the nervous system, it stands to reason that we can most probably also regenerate them from this state.
Further evidence of this is: that this is the consciousness state in which we have noticed such profound self-healing in the CRP Journeys with our participants. We also have validation of that from dream deprivation studies, which clearly show that the mind, the nervous system and eventually the body and physiology deteriorate when the organism is deprived of REM sleep. It has long been an observation in medical therapy that sleep is regenerative, and that people recovering from illness need more sleep and thus REM than usual. This further points to the importance of working directly in REM consciousness.
THIRD: Several pieces of data from various sources suggest the use of awake REM consciousness that allows us to fully experience transformative experience and affect our long term memory. It is known that while in REM consciousness, the muscles are buffered the nervous system, that is we can be running in our dream yet the leg muscles may only twitch slightly. This allows the brain then to input much inner information without engaging us in outer activity. It has also been postulated in the field of Neuropsychology that one's psychology is incapable of distinguishing between dream experiences and outer experiences.
We note here that it is our experience that programs us, and becomes the neural circuitry that shares both our personality and body chemistry (through the pineal and pituitary glands both of which are part of the brain's structure). Dreams have very little impact on long term memory; however, the awake side of REM consciousness, as used in the CRP Journeys, does impact long term memory. Putting these data together, we can in REM consciousness, re-experience our very earliest trauma's from a virtual reality-like perspective without involving our musculature, and also experience very deep shifting of our energy and consciousness structures while retaining this in long term memory.
In the journeys, REM facilitates functional neural plasticity. Thus the journey process can permanently affect the brain and its neural firing sequences and thus the operation of the pineal and pituitary glands. Further, we can retain the memories of these healing and transformative experiences as new neural patterns. We establish and exercise new 'circuits.' FOURTH: From studies in the field of Neurofeedback, and the interface of chaos with the brain, and its role in its functioning, a number of researchers have reached some tantalizing conclusions. Although measurements of brain waves have resulted in division and categorization of them into certain frequencies or states such as the alpha, theta, beta, and delta generation, and this appears ordered, such is not really the case.
The frequencies of the brain waves vary randomly within a given state; that is, the distance between peaks is highly variable and disordered. When these frequencies are used to program a fractal program (the mathematics describing chaos theory theory) it becomes possible to measure the degree of chaos or complexity in the brain's functioning. These degrees of complexity are known as dimensions and the higher the dimensionality, the more complex or chaotic are the firing patterns of neurons in the brain. The highest dimension of complexity measure in the brain has been nine. Lower dimensionality is associated with illness and dysfunction of the brain, for example epilepsy, comas and strokes. (Some forms of meditation are also associated with lower dimensionality or linearity). Similarly dysfunction such as obsessive compulsive behavior may also be associated with linearity or lower dimensionality. On the other hand high dimensionality is associated with healthier brain functioning.
The highest levels of dimensionality are associated with processing and assimilating new information, and creativity. Chaos theory itself implies that the more complex a system is, the more self-correcting it is, . This is because disruption to a linear system will throw the whole system off course, but only affects a portion of a complex system, which soon adjusts to "fill in the gap." In a way this is the reverse of the butterfly effect and operates in the complex system once it is past its initial conditions.
The important data to note is that: The highest level of dimensionality measured in the brain, that is a dimensionality of nine, occurs on in REM consciousness! In the CRP Journeys, we observe that chaotic consciousness was the state in which the healing transformations occur to the primal existential sensory self image, or at the initial conditions of the system, and that REM consciousness is necessary to the process. This has been reported in several previously mentioned DNJ articles by the author. In even more general considerations, this gives reason or in part implies the mechanisms through which dreams do their healing and regenerative work.
Chaos is always associated with change but is usually seen as an aftereffect. This information implies that chaos, as we have maintained, is actually the mechanism of the change itself. REM consciousness is the most chaotic or complex state of dynamics measured in the brain. So do you remember REM? You should! It could change your life. It could be the basis of your healing and evolution. It is possibly the most important and yet one of the undervalued consciousness dynamics available to you. And it is with you every time you go to sleep in every dream you have.
Suggested Reading:
The Holographic Universe: Michael Talbot
Wholeness and the Implicate Order: David Bohm
The Journal of Mind Technology: Using Chaos to Control Brainwaves: Michael S. Hefferman
Dream Telepathy Experiments in Nocturnal ESP: Montague Ullman and Stanley Krippner
Chaos, the Making of a New Science: James Gleick
Getting Well Again: Carl and Stephanie Simonton
by Graywolf Swinney
Do you remember REM? To review, REM stands for rapid eye movement and it is associated with dreaming. But I don't mean do you remember the last dream you had, I'm referring to the early fetal REM. It was a long time ago, in fact, it was so early that you were only forming into a being. In developing the Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing, (which has been discussed in several articles in Dream Network Journal), which uses the awake side of REM as the consciousness state for the inner journey, I noticed several interesting things. One of these was that inevitably we would return to fetal sensory memories, and in fact to the even earlier pre-fetal consciousness memories of conception in order to find the fundamental consciousness structure that held the dis-ease state.
I intuitively knew that REM consciousness was crucial to attaining these memories, and to the subsequent healing dynamics that resulted from these encounters. Seems my intuition was right on, and has been verified by recent findings in science about REM. More about that later. First, however, a brief description of the CRP will help set the context. The Consciousness Restructuring Process is a means or process by which one can engage the homeostasis principle, or the body's own natural healing propensity.
Starting with a dream symbol or a symptom of the disease, or even a feeling, one explores the sensory-consciousness patterns underlying it to its root pattern or structure, which we have labeled as the primal existential sensory self image. This self-image contains all the consciousness structures of self, including those of our diseases. Use of imagination is encouraged in the journeys; fantasy and attempts on the part of the journeyer to "fix things" are discouraged. This is because it is the ego mind that wants to fix things, and the ego mind covers only a limited and narrow band of the consciousness spectrum. Fantasy is also an ego-controlled process and only serves to preserve the ego's existing structure. Imagination, however, is a voice of one's creative spirit and a close relative of REM.
REM consciousness provides a more sensory body and neurally oriented pattern of the dis-ease, a truer and more fundamental experience of it. It further gives access to pure fundamental consciousness memories and structures. We consider consciousness to be an energy form arising from an infinite and universal consciousness field, or implicate consciousness. Consciousness energy can take on structure to form energy and matter configurations. It is the basis of all structures, of the universe itself. Using the imagination, this sensory pattern is followed to the roots of the symbol or the symptom, which are really the same things.
The dream is, at its base level, no matter whatever else it may also be, a manifestation of the self. All parts of the dream (no matter how strong our denials) are in reality formed by the deep consciousness structures that also form our personality, behaviors and somatic self. The dream is thus another experience of the self, except more primal and less ego controlled; it is much like an impressionistic self portrait. At some point in this inner journey process the awake side of REM engages, and why this is important will soon be apparent. When this root pattern or primal existential sensory self-image is reached, it is fully identified with, and taken one level deeper into transpersonal and undifferentiated consciousness.
This next level of undifferentiated consciousness is at the quantum level of reality, where the stuff of self has not yet committed to being either energy (mind) or matter (body) and it is at the very edges of infinite possibility or chaos (complexity). It is also where the wave fronts that eventually become reality emerge and interact to form the standing waves that are the hologram that is self. It might also be considered to be the "implicate order" of self.
The term implicate order was coined by physicist David Bohm to describe the field from which the hologram of reality emerges into spacetime. The next step is to take this image of dis-eased self into the chaotic consciousness (implicate consciousness), and in this alchemical universal solvent, the image and the dis-ease within it dissolves. Then as chaos theory predicts, from the chaos or implicate order emerges a new structure, which becomes the new felt self.
This new primal existential sensory self-image begins to reform our body chemistry, muscle and organ functions and our personality presentation. This occurs through changing the neural firing patterns that form and hold this disease image in the brain and nervous system. This in turn affects or changes the entire brain and nervous system, including the hypothalamus, pituitary and pineal glands, which are an integral part of it, and thus the mechanical functioning of the body and the mind.
The neural structure mirrors this consciousness process and becomes chaotic before assuming the new more healed and flowing pattern. Eventually this new image filters up to somatic and personality levels of consciousness structure and the organism recreates or heals itself from this very primal level, from the inside out. In fact, this is how the brain works with the body, creating images to which the somatic and behavioral self conform. For example, in moving one's arm to turn a page, the brain creates an imaginary image of the action, which the body duplicates.
Thus inner process leads outer process. We noticed when we first began using this journey process that our clients were creating very profound healing in themselves, both somatic and psychological in nature. Among the more notable remissions reported were: diabetes, cancer, scoliosis, chronic back problems, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, multiple personality, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and a host of other partial or less dramatic remissions.
The question of how this CRP process aided in these remissions became my quest of the past twenty years. It has led to the ancient Aesculapian Dream Healing practices, as well as into Relativity, Quantum and Chaos theories. Most recently it has also suggested Holographic theory which is remaining a viable model. However, through all this, I was intrigued by the fact that the Journeys took place in the awake side of REM consciousness, and unless this state was involved, the depth and integrity of the healing was diminished.
Recently data about REM consciousness has been put forth, which provides hard data supporting the CRP, the theories about its probable mechanisms, and the role of REM in it. To begin, Dr. Allen Hobson, a noted sleep and dream researcher, states that, "REM may stimulate immature brains while they're in utero." It has also recently been suggested by Dr. Mark Manhowald of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center that: "The fetus is in REM consciousness during most of its term in utero. Because the new baby's brain begins development with only the basics, like a new computer, the life process, [REM], programs the brain with capabilities in each developmental stage and continues doing so after birth."
My view is that it is probably an entrainment phenomenon that is the mechanism for this. Entrainment is the phenomenon in physics in which two periodic wave systems close in frequency to each other, soon become synchronous, that is oscillate with completely the same frequency. It is the principle behind the automatic fine-tuning on an FM receiver, by which, if you get close to the frequency of the sending signal, the tuner automatically tunes in to it exactly. However that may be, this data offers much food for many interesting speculations.
FIRST: This means that if we want to reach the fetal memories which are so important in the development of both our body's physical and personality structures, then our best shot at reaching them is in the consciousness state in which they were fed or programmed into our being. REM consciousness is critical then to the remembering of these earliest experiences.
Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Montague Ullman, while at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory, suggested in their early worked that the [REM consciousness] was a psychic state. They, for example, demonstrated that two people in REM were capable of picking up on, or sharing dream experiences, even when separated from each other by walls and space.
So from this we can postulate that a fetus in REM is quite probably capable of picking up on mother's dream states, and quite possibly father's, even while separated. Since dreams are also known to be necessary in dealing with waking traumas and events, the fetus is exposed to all of the experiences of the mother's and father's waking life through their dreams. Thus the earliest programming of the fetus is very much determined by both of the parents, their life styles, emotional conditions, and events occurring in and requiring dream processing from their waking lives.
That is, of course, in addition to the physiological conditioning through the chemical environment created in the womb by mother's experiences. In a very large sense, through REM, the fetus is tapping into co-consciousness with the parents and perhaps even into the collective consciousness of the species for programming its earliest fetal development.
This, as suggested by Dr. Manhowald, continues on after birth. One very poignant example of this is offered from a client suffering multiple personality disorder. Her mother also suffered from this disorder, and my client's experiences as a fetus were of having no set personality model from which to program her personality, nor of a stable chemical environment in the womb. The mother was also having love affairs, which the father knew of, and he was greatly disturbed by them. The mother had been raped prior to my client's conception, and was still affected by this. In working with my client and hearing the stories about her own early life and experiences, it was apparent that she had literally come forth from the womb already afflicted by this disorder. We had to go back well into the earliest fetal and prefetal consciousness structures for her to release and heal her disorder rather than merely putting a superficial fix on it. She carried both her parents' burdens into birth and to her present. Reaching these mechanisms through REM consciousness and the journey process was critical to her being able to reach, release and transform them.
Using the awake side of REM was crucial to the process for several reasons. Her dreams were superficially not about either these earliest or consciousness structures. Dreams, on the surface level, most often reflect recent experiences and only through deeper work in the structure of the dream itself touch on the earliest consciousness structures, which in turn determine our reactions to these recent experiences. Thus to work at the surface level only, as for examples with dream interpretation or analysis, which operates at intellectual levels, or gestalt dream work, which works at the emotional-experiential levels, or lucid dreaming which works at ego-experiential levels, is insufficient to reach the early experiences and structures needing release and transformation.
In awake REM consciousness, using the imaginative sensory nature of the journeys, with the help of a mentor she was able to reach the primal consciousness that formed the basis of her multiple personality structure. The ego minds (there were twelve in all) were able to follow the process without directing or controlling it to allow the eventual emergence of one whole self. This was also necessary in order to transform the coping mechanism of creating other personalities when in pain or threatened, the coping mechanism she had been programmed with in the womb.
SECOND: REM consciousness is associated with womb experiences such as the generation and development of the nervous system and tissue formation. The nervous system and personality development, we know, are very susceptible to the mood and experiences of the organism. These are the matters with which much of psychiatry and psychology deal. And tissue formation is also associated with mood and experiences.
For example, Dr. Carl Simonton demonstrated this in relation to the development of cancer and its remission. In one example, he demonstrated that many if not most cancers developed within two years of a major loss such as death of a spouse or loss of one's career through retirement. He also demonstrated that remission of the cancer was very much facilitated by visual imagery combined with other informational and therapeutic psychology. Norman Cousins demonstrated that healing could be induced through genuine good feeling such as laughter and peace of mind, and positive attitude. He healed his own cancer in this way.
We know from chaos theory that any complex system is very much influenced by minor perturbations or differences in its initial conditions. This is known as the "butterfly effect." The human organism is certainly a very complex system, and so very much influenced in it development by events in its earliest developmental conditions. Thus in these early conditions of REM consciousness in the womb, our future physiology and personality are greatly influenced by our experiences as a fetus.
Our future illnesses are quite probably programmed into our consciousness structure, and thus also our neurological and tissue structures, during these sensitive initial conditions. Return to these consciousness structures in REM consciousness could very well allow us to rewrite our past, and to do so in the state that is associated with the formation of the nervous system and tissue development. Since this consciousness is associated with the development of new tissue and the nervous system, it stands to reason that we can most probably also regenerate them from this state.
Further evidence of this is: that this is the consciousness state in which we have noticed such profound self-healing in the CRP Journeys with our participants. We also have validation of that from dream deprivation studies, which clearly show that the mind, the nervous system and eventually the body and physiology deteriorate when the organism is deprived of REM sleep. It has long been an observation in medical therapy that sleep is regenerative, and that people recovering from illness need more sleep and thus REM than usual. This further points to the importance of working directly in REM consciousness.
THIRD: Several pieces of data from various sources suggest the use of awake REM consciousness that allows us to fully experience transformative experience and affect our long term memory. It is known that while in REM consciousness, the muscles are buffered the nervous system, that is we can be running in our dream yet the leg muscles may only twitch slightly. This allows the brain then to input much inner information without engaging us in outer activity. It has also been postulated in the field of Neuropsychology that one's psychology is incapable of distinguishing between dream experiences and outer experiences.
We note here that it is our experience that programs us, and becomes the neural circuitry that shares both our personality and body chemistry (through the pineal and pituitary glands both of which are part of the brain's structure). Dreams have very little impact on long term memory; however, the awake side of REM consciousness, as used in the CRP Journeys, does impact long term memory. Putting these data together, we can in REM consciousness, re-experience our very earliest trauma's from a virtual reality-like perspective without involving our musculature, and also experience very deep shifting of our energy and consciousness structures while retaining this in long term memory.
In the journeys, REM facilitates functional neural plasticity. Thus the journey process can permanently affect the brain and its neural firing sequences and thus the operation of the pineal and pituitary glands. Further, we can retain the memories of these healing and transformative experiences as new neural patterns. We establish and exercise new 'circuits.' FOURTH: From studies in the field of Neurofeedback, and the interface of chaos with the brain, and its role in its functioning, a number of researchers have reached some tantalizing conclusions. Although measurements of brain waves have resulted in division and categorization of them into certain frequencies or states such as the alpha, theta, beta, and delta generation, and this appears ordered, such is not really the case.
The frequencies of the brain waves vary randomly within a given state; that is, the distance between peaks is highly variable and disordered. When these frequencies are used to program a fractal program (the mathematics describing chaos theory theory) it becomes possible to measure the degree of chaos or complexity in the brain's functioning. These degrees of complexity are known as dimensions and the higher the dimensionality, the more complex or chaotic are the firing patterns of neurons in the brain. The highest dimension of complexity measure in the brain has been nine. Lower dimensionality is associated with illness and dysfunction of the brain, for example epilepsy, comas and strokes. (Some forms of meditation are also associated with lower dimensionality or linearity). Similarly dysfunction such as obsessive compulsive behavior may also be associated with linearity or lower dimensionality. On the other hand high dimensionality is associated with healthier brain functioning.
The highest levels of dimensionality are associated with processing and assimilating new information, and creativity. Chaos theory itself implies that the more complex a system is, the more self-correcting it is, . This is because disruption to a linear system will throw the whole system off course, but only affects a portion of a complex system, which soon adjusts to "fill in the gap." In a way this is the reverse of the butterfly effect and operates in the complex system once it is past its initial conditions.
The important data to note is that: The highest level of dimensionality measured in the brain, that is a dimensionality of nine, occurs on in REM consciousness! In the CRP Journeys, we observe that chaotic consciousness was the state in which the healing transformations occur to the primal existential sensory self image, or at the initial conditions of the system, and that REM consciousness is necessary to the process. This has been reported in several previously mentioned DNJ articles by the author. In even more general considerations, this gives reason or in part implies the mechanisms through which dreams do their healing and regenerative work.
Chaos is always associated with change but is usually seen as an aftereffect. This information implies that chaos, as we have maintained, is actually the mechanism of the change itself. REM consciousness is the most chaotic or complex state of dynamics measured in the brain. So do you remember REM? You should! It could change your life. It could be the basis of your healing and evolution. It is possibly the most important and yet one of the undervalued consciousness dynamics available to you. And it is with you every time you go to sleep in every dream you have.
Suggested Reading:
The Holographic Universe: Michael Talbot
Wholeness and the Implicate Order: David Bohm
The Journal of Mind Technology: Using Chaos to Control Brainwaves: Michael S. Hefferman
Dream Telepathy Experiments in Nocturnal ESP: Montague Ullman and Stanley Krippner
Chaos, the Making of a New Science: James Gleick
Getting Well Again: Carl and Stephanie Simonton
Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
DISRUPTION: LIFE BEYOND THE CIRCLE
Graywolf Swinney, ©1989
Devolution:
"Devolution: Retrograde evolution. Transference from one individual to another; delegation or conferral to a subordinate." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
"Devolution is continuation of the old, uninteruption. It is a system, species or individual folding back in on its self; a journey to what once was." Graywolf
The shaggy, bearded shaman stalks about the fire at the center of the large circle, his right hand stroking and thrusting at the drum clenched in his left fist. Within the shaman's smaller inner circle, near the fire, a white furred skin has been laid out on the ground and covered with glowing crystals, feathers and various other mysterious objects that in the flickering firelight seem to have a life of their own. Across the fire and skin, mirroring every move that he makes, and always remaining exactly opposite, moves a beautiful, slender dark haired woman. The shaman and his counterpart stealthily circle each other, the skin and fire between them, always the same, and yet forever opposite. Their feet move in sympathy with the throbbing beat of the drum and the sound echoes and re-echoes around them. Their eyes are locked into each other's and energy shimmers in the space between them.
The larger outer circle is made up of their people. Feet moving in time to the beat of the drum, the people file past each of the four guardians protecting the circle. Each person patiently waits to receive a gift and a blessing, a symbol from each of the guardians. It seems as if the ceremony, like the circle, stretches into eternity both past and future. Inside, the shaman's mind is momentarily troubled. These are times of crisis. His life and training has been devoted to acting in times such as these, to leading the rituals and ceremonies that reunite his people with the favor of the deities, the powerful spirits of creation. He knows that the tribe holds him in esteem and relies on him to provide leadership and guidance at special time such as these. He was led to and given this role by the elders and those self same deities and spirit who he now represents.
This gathering will soon be over and gifts he is giving his people through the guardians will let them carry the protection of the spirits invoked by this ceremony home with them. He gazes into the piercing, shadowed eyes of the woman he has selected for his counterpart. The air seems to shimmer in the power created between them. She provides the perfect balance and mirror to his male energy. It is important to get things like this right...things such as making sure that the energies are in balance and that the appropriate power objects, certain of his crystals and feathers are set our and used properly. Else that power could turn back on them...but that doesn't even bear talking about.
The ceremony has been well done as it has been for centuries beyond counting. He can sense that the spirits are pleased and will give their protection to his people and guide them through these difficult times. It is a good feeling to help his people and it fills his heart with warmth and joy that he has been selected for this purpose in life. He soon becomes lost in the throb of his drum and the dance.
The people move on, circling eternally. They gratefully accept the blessings and gifts from the guardians. They sense that the tokens are good and powerful. They will be carried away in their medicine bags to provide protection and to serve as reminders of the power of this eternal and unbroken circle, good for the troubled time ahead. The shaman has once again given to them a fitting and powerful ceremony. The people too become lost in the hypnotic throb of his drum.
Evolution:
"Evolution: A process of change in a certain direction; unfolding...A process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
"Evolution is a break with the old, the creation of something new. It is a disruption to the status quo; an expedition into the unknown." Graywolf
The shaggy, bearded shaman stalks about the fire at the center of the large circle, his right hand stroking and thrusting at the drum clenched in his left fist. Within the shaman's smaller inner circle, near the fire, a white furred skin has been laid out on the ground and covered with glowing crystals, feathers and various other mysterious objects that in the flickering firelight seem to have a life of their own. Across the fire and skin, mirroring every move that he makes, and always remaining exactly opposite, moves a beautiful, slender dark haired woman.
The shaman and his counterpart stealthily circle each other, the skin and fire between them, always the same, and yet forever opposite. Their feet move in sympathy with the throbbing beat of the drum and the sound echoes and re-echoes around them. Their eyes are locked into each other's and energy shimmers in the space between them. The larger outer circle is made up of their people. Feet moving in time to the beat of the drum, the people file past each of the four guardians protecting the circle. Each person patiently waits to receive a gift and a blessing, a symbol from each of the guardians. It seems as if the ceremony, like the circle, stretches into eternity both past and future. Inside, the shaman's mind is momentarily troubled.
These are times of crisis. His life and training has been devoted to acting in times such as these, to leading the rituals and ceremonies that reunite his people with the favor of the deities, the powerful spirits of creation. Suddenly the air is shattered by a bellow from the bearded shaman. "STOP!" he roars, thrusting his right fist to the sky. Silence fills the air with shock and wonder. The moments drag into infinity before he speaks again. "The time has come," he finally whispers, " to let go of the old and embrace the new."
A gathering strength powers his voice and it gradually fills the air. "You walk around in circles like cattle to the beat of someone else's drum and line up for token gifts, symbols that promise protection, wisdom and healing." "But I haven't received my gifts yet!" complains a voice from the circle. "You don't need them!" the shaman retorts. "They're all within you, all the gifts, wisdom and powers that you could ever need are right there in your own hearts and minds. You are held captive by the old ways and your fears and they rob your power. It must be done this way and that way just so, or we will offend the spirits and be punished!
"The protection and guidance, all that you see from me and my ceremonies is really within you; and indeed if the truth were spoken, always have been. The power of the creator and the universe itself is nothing more than a reflection of the creator within you, your own place of creativity. You are one with it all. The power is expressed in your love and courage, not your fear!" The circle of people stands in mute shock at this disruption of their ceremony, this blasphemy of the ancient passed on ways; but within the hearts and thoughts of a few there beats an excitement, a portend of the emergence of a new path. "Come, it is time to move on."
The shaman mutters as he turns and passes out of the circle. In the following confusion and disruption others also quietly leave the circle, responding to a faint and mysterious call as they embrace the chaos of the unknown and enter into the mystic. Revolution: As an engineer, to me revolution means "something going around in a circle"; and as a sometimes student of history, I think that political and most other brands of revolution also fall within my engineering definition. So when I first began writing this article, the scenario I had in mind for illustrating revolution was to start with the same ceremony above, except an aspiring, unrecognized shaman and her supporters break into the circle, dispose of the bearded shaman taking his place, and end up staging essentially identical ceremonies for their people who once again become hypnotized, having awakened only briefly for the momentary disruption of the change in leadership.
But rituals have, after the first or second experience, usually bored me, and after thinking more of circles and revolutions and my experiences of all the above, I came up with the following: Life Beyond the Circle: Moving in a straight line is analogous to one dimensional living, existing with only a linear, cause-effect experience of the world. It is the type of experience I lived in my early years as an engineer-executive fighting my way to the top of the corporate heap. Departure from the straight and narrow, in my case dropping out and exploring psychology, shamanism and other non western healing and spiritual paths, opened me to experience the cyclical nature of reality and added to new dimension to my awareness.
In the new territory that opened up, what had appeared to the "linear me" as an event rising out of causal factors was now seen as part of a larger pattern, endlessly reappearing in my journey around the circle, or through life. The circle path illustrates the essential meaning of Karma. In Karma, one is trapped in an endless repetition of life patterns until its gotten "right" or the until "books are balanced."
Reality assumes a whole different meaning for a circular being as compared to a linear being, the addition of a whole new dimension; but even to the circle being, god, the power of the mystical and of creation itself is still found in "the heavens above," beyond the circle, beyond reach, even beyond comprehension. And going around in a circle is hypnotic and one gets trapped in the reverie.
But what exists beyond the circle? Most shamans, aspiring shamans and indeed many other "new age" gurus I observed during my own explorations of the circle dimension held firm injunctions against breaking the circle, whether it was leaving a prayer or sweat lodge circle; not replicating exactly the traditional or "correct" performance of a ritual or meditation; or not beating the drum just the "right" way. To break these "sacred circles" of tradition was a cause for fear that somehow the powers might recoil and result in hurt, or some other unforeseeable disaster...or at the very least the ritual might be impotent. In a phrase it was a process of devolution through fear rationalized as respect.
Always an adventurer, and seldom if ever bowing too deeply to "authority," it was just a matter of time and self expression until I broke a circle to to see what would happen. Thus the second scenario above is essentially a true report of what happened at the closing ceremonies of our '87 Gathering of Healers, a yearly conference that we organized. It was actually a spontaneous action on my part, a sense of boredom as the ceremony dragged on, leading to a sense of confusion and disorientation and then I was just watching and listening along with the rest, somewhat shocked at what I was doing and saying. Words won't serve, but some concepts from physics might provide an analogy to describe my experience since then beyond the broken circle.
In physics it is known that if you break a circle, or more correctly disrupt the motion of something going in a circle, the force of the disruption in all but two specific instances throws the object into a new motion which takes the form of a helix. This essentially throws the object into another dimension; from two dimensional into three dimensional motion and opens up infinitely more space and possibility for movement, another whole n new infinite universe of possibilities, indeed a higher order structure and universe. A circle being's experience of life is only of going around and around in his or her circle, perhaps being able to speed up, slow down or stop, but limited to two dimensional motion. A helical being adds vertical motion, a third dimensions.
Springs, which are helices, can hold stored or potential energy and in their energy and flexibility can leap from place to place, or like a slinky toy, bend and walk around from place to place on the circle being's two dimensional plane. This makes for its inexplicable and magic appearances into the reality of the circle being. Perhaps it spontaneously disappears and reappears in some new location; or appears in multiple forms in random and inexplicable ways. To some circle beings, the helical being might appear miraculous and seem to move into the realm of the deities and in doing so directly represent them. It might, to other circle beings, be described as magical, synchronistic, or even be written off as coincidence.
But to the helical being who directly experiences this mystical extra dimensional realm, it is only awesome to the part of him that was once a circle being; otherwise it just is the experience or "knowing" of a higher order structure. Of course to stray from the straight and narrow, or break a circle risks censure both mortal and divine and so it usually takes a major impetus or disruptive force to do so. Disruption, or the disruptive forces that push (or draw) us beyond the circle are essentially doorways into chaos. To leave the familiar safety of the circle is to leap through fear into an unstructured and undefined "chaotic" new dimension. It is a fearful leap, yet disruption or chaos is the state out of which all is created and in which all things are possible.
To the religionist chaos is the state from which God created all. In Taoism it is held that our of the basic chaos, that existed before all else, arose the one which became the two, the yin and yang from which all else is created. In Christianity chaos is represented by the darkness from which God created light and then all else. In Hindu it is Kali who destroys to create the chaos that brings about new creation. But it is always God who creates reality from the chaos. To the scientist, chaos is the state from which our perceptions create reality. In brain research, recent experimental evidence suggests that the most creative thinking and ideas occur when the brain's background neural system is firing in a chaotic and unpredictable mode.
In astrophysics, the big bang theory puts chaos as the birth condition at the instant of our universe's creation. In quantum physics, chaos is the base state out of which all reality is realized according to the predictions set by the Schroedinger equations. It is also the basis of a whole new system of mathematics, fractal math, and a new physics theory, Chaos theory, which many proponents feel may help provide answers to many of sciences still unanswered questions about the nature of reality. Chaos theory holds that chaos eventually reveals a new and higher order of structure.
For example when fractal derived programs are displayed on a computer screen they show shapes that depict emerging cloud formations, weather patterns, the formation of coastal contours, or even dividing cells. Although science has been able to describe some of the mechanics of these processes, the chaos based math and physics is able to depict these natural phenomena more wholly than any other theory to date. But fear of chaos keeps us confined to the firm ground of what we already know. The birth pains of the new creation or structure arising from chaos are most usually experienced and defined as disaster, or the powers turning back and hurting us and so in our fear we turn back too. And keep going around and around. And stay hypnotized. It is almost an axiom that history repeats itself again and again.
But if you do break the circle and throw yourself beyond it into chaos, as science predicts the chaos does, eventually a higher order structure is revealed and a new reality takes shape beyond the circle. For me the sense of this new structure has revealed a reality of mystic flow and infinitely flowing-forming-destroying-reforming creation. It is a new dimension outside of space and time in which truly anything is possible; a reality in which fear is merely another manifestation of love, and an opportunity for evolution; and the I, and the not I, and the center are all really just one and the same.
It is the awakening of a higher order and awareness of self in all its manifestations. It is here that words seem to fail because they are linear and at their very best can hint at the cyclical, circular nature of the world. They fail miserably, however, at describing the truly mystical dimensions. Since words and intellect are unable to directly make order of underlying chaos we create mythologies both personal and collective and these are based on deep inner sensory rememberings and images of our experience with this chaos.
Jung described it as our experience of the collective consciousness. Some of these mythologies we call science, others we call religion. Some are very personal. They guide us in creating the illusions and substances of the reality in which we live. Up to now, most mythologies have had one thing in common, they have described a model in which power, the power of creation or the deity, is external to one's self, and therefore something to be sought externally, through trial and struggle, and held onto.
We thus seek power out there: at the very base levels we seek it through knowledge, a new car, the right crystal, some one's approval; or we hope that someone else who has found it can give it to us, or we may even try to steal or west it away from those who we think have it. In our altruism, we might seek it through the giving of our power objects to others, or in our devotion to a life of serving others or a greater power. Since the power over ourselves and our destinies is experienced as external however, we remain uncentered, insecure and more and more desperately try to know this power out there.
It is this myth that supports the fear that this awesome power can turn back on us and hurt us, so it must be handled just so. It is the linear or circular being experiencing the appearance of the slinky in his or her limited world. What about a new model or Myth? As the old bearded shaman says, "The power of the creator and the universe itself is nothing more than a reflection of the creator within you, your own place of creativity. You are one with it all. The power is expressed in your love and courage, not your fear! Come, it's time to move on!" The step beyond the circle just might be the next step in (y)our evolution. You might even notice that you too are god-like creating order out of chaos.
c, Asklepia Publications
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
DISRUPTION: LIFE BEYOND THE CIRCLE
Graywolf Swinney, ©1989
Devolution:
"Devolution: Retrograde evolution. Transference from one individual to another; delegation or conferral to a subordinate." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
"Devolution is continuation of the old, uninteruption. It is a system, species or individual folding back in on its self; a journey to what once was." Graywolf
The shaggy, bearded shaman stalks about the fire at the center of the large circle, his right hand stroking and thrusting at the drum clenched in his left fist. Within the shaman's smaller inner circle, near the fire, a white furred skin has been laid out on the ground and covered with glowing crystals, feathers and various other mysterious objects that in the flickering firelight seem to have a life of their own. Across the fire and skin, mirroring every move that he makes, and always remaining exactly opposite, moves a beautiful, slender dark haired woman. The shaman and his counterpart stealthily circle each other, the skin and fire between them, always the same, and yet forever opposite. Their feet move in sympathy with the throbbing beat of the drum and the sound echoes and re-echoes around them. Their eyes are locked into each other's and energy shimmers in the space between them.
The larger outer circle is made up of their people. Feet moving in time to the beat of the drum, the people file past each of the four guardians protecting the circle. Each person patiently waits to receive a gift and a blessing, a symbol from each of the guardians. It seems as if the ceremony, like the circle, stretches into eternity both past and future. Inside, the shaman's mind is momentarily troubled. These are times of crisis. His life and training has been devoted to acting in times such as these, to leading the rituals and ceremonies that reunite his people with the favor of the deities, the powerful spirits of creation. He knows that the tribe holds him in esteem and relies on him to provide leadership and guidance at special time such as these. He was led to and given this role by the elders and those self same deities and spirit who he now represents.
This gathering will soon be over and gifts he is giving his people through the guardians will let them carry the protection of the spirits invoked by this ceremony home with them. He gazes into the piercing, shadowed eyes of the woman he has selected for his counterpart. The air seems to shimmer in the power created between them. She provides the perfect balance and mirror to his male energy. It is important to get things like this right...things such as making sure that the energies are in balance and that the appropriate power objects, certain of his crystals and feathers are set our and used properly. Else that power could turn back on them...but that doesn't even bear talking about.
The ceremony has been well done as it has been for centuries beyond counting. He can sense that the spirits are pleased and will give their protection to his people and guide them through these difficult times. It is a good feeling to help his people and it fills his heart with warmth and joy that he has been selected for this purpose in life. He soon becomes lost in the throb of his drum and the dance.
The people move on, circling eternally. They gratefully accept the blessings and gifts from the guardians. They sense that the tokens are good and powerful. They will be carried away in their medicine bags to provide protection and to serve as reminders of the power of this eternal and unbroken circle, good for the troubled time ahead. The shaman has once again given to them a fitting and powerful ceremony. The people too become lost in the hypnotic throb of his drum.
Evolution:
"Evolution: A process of change in a certain direction; unfolding...A process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
"Evolution is a break with the old, the creation of something new. It is a disruption to the status quo; an expedition into the unknown." Graywolf
The shaggy, bearded shaman stalks about the fire at the center of the large circle, his right hand stroking and thrusting at the drum clenched in his left fist. Within the shaman's smaller inner circle, near the fire, a white furred skin has been laid out on the ground and covered with glowing crystals, feathers and various other mysterious objects that in the flickering firelight seem to have a life of their own. Across the fire and skin, mirroring every move that he makes, and always remaining exactly opposite, moves a beautiful, slender dark haired woman.
The shaman and his counterpart stealthily circle each other, the skin and fire between them, always the same, and yet forever opposite. Their feet move in sympathy with the throbbing beat of the drum and the sound echoes and re-echoes around them. Their eyes are locked into each other's and energy shimmers in the space between them. The larger outer circle is made up of their people. Feet moving in time to the beat of the drum, the people file past each of the four guardians protecting the circle. Each person patiently waits to receive a gift and a blessing, a symbol from each of the guardians. It seems as if the ceremony, like the circle, stretches into eternity both past and future. Inside, the shaman's mind is momentarily troubled.
These are times of crisis. His life and training has been devoted to acting in times such as these, to leading the rituals and ceremonies that reunite his people with the favor of the deities, the powerful spirits of creation. Suddenly the air is shattered by a bellow from the bearded shaman. "STOP!" he roars, thrusting his right fist to the sky. Silence fills the air with shock and wonder. The moments drag into infinity before he speaks again. "The time has come," he finally whispers, " to let go of the old and embrace the new."
A gathering strength powers his voice and it gradually fills the air. "You walk around in circles like cattle to the beat of someone else's drum and line up for token gifts, symbols that promise protection, wisdom and healing." "But I haven't received my gifts yet!" complains a voice from the circle. "You don't need them!" the shaman retorts. "They're all within you, all the gifts, wisdom and powers that you could ever need are right there in your own hearts and minds. You are held captive by the old ways and your fears and they rob your power. It must be done this way and that way just so, or we will offend the spirits and be punished!
"The protection and guidance, all that you see from me and my ceremonies is really within you; and indeed if the truth were spoken, always have been. The power of the creator and the universe itself is nothing more than a reflection of the creator within you, your own place of creativity. You are one with it all. The power is expressed in your love and courage, not your fear!" The circle of people stands in mute shock at this disruption of their ceremony, this blasphemy of the ancient passed on ways; but within the hearts and thoughts of a few there beats an excitement, a portend of the emergence of a new path. "Come, it is time to move on."
The shaman mutters as he turns and passes out of the circle. In the following confusion and disruption others also quietly leave the circle, responding to a faint and mysterious call as they embrace the chaos of the unknown and enter into the mystic. Revolution: As an engineer, to me revolution means "something going around in a circle"; and as a sometimes student of history, I think that political and most other brands of revolution also fall within my engineering definition. So when I first began writing this article, the scenario I had in mind for illustrating revolution was to start with the same ceremony above, except an aspiring, unrecognized shaman and her supporters break into the circle, dispose of the bearded shaman taking his place, and end up staging essentially identical ceremonies for their people who once again become hypnotized, having awakened only briefly for the momentary disruption of the change in leadership.
But rituals have, after the first or second experience, usually bored me, and after thinking more of circles and revolutions and my experiences of all the above, I came up with the following: Life Beyond the Circle: Moving in a straight line is analogous to one dimensional living, existing with only a linear, cause-effect experience of the world. It is the type of experience I lived in my early years as an engineer-executive fighting my way to the top of the corporate heap. Departure from the straight and narrow, in my case dropping out and exploring psychology, shamanism and other non western healing and spiritual paths, opened me to experience the cyclical nature of reality and added to new dimension to my awareness.
In the new territory that opened up, what had appeared to the "linear me" as an event rising out of causal factors was now seen as part of a larger pattern, endlessly reappearing in my journey around the circle, or through life. The circle path illustrates the essential meaning of Karma. In Karma, one is trapped in an endless repetition of life patterns until its gotten "right" or the until "books are balanced."
Reality assumes a whole different meaning for a circular being as compared to a linear being, the addition of a whole new dimension; but even to the circle being, god, the power of the mystical and of creation itself is still found in "the heavens above," beyond the circle, beyond reach, even beyond comprehension. And going around in a circle is hypnotic and one gets trapped in the reverie.
But what exists beyond the circle? Most shamans, aspiring shamans and indeed many other "new age" gurus I observed during my own explorations of the circle dimension held firm injunctions against breaking the circle, whether it was leaving a prayer or sweat lodge circle; not replicating exactly the traditional or "correct" performance of a ritual or meditation; or not beating the drum just the "right" way. To break these "sacred circles" of tradition was a cause for fear that somehow the powers might recoil and result in hurt, or some other unforeseeable disaster...or at the very least the ritual might be impotent. In a phrase it was a process of devolution through fear rationalized as respect.
Always an adventurer, and seldom if ever bowing too deeply to "authority," it was just a matter of time and self expression until I broke a circle to to see what would happen. Thus the second scenario above is essentially a true report of what happened at the closing ceremonies of our '87 Gathering of Healers, a yearly conference that we organized. It was actually a spontaneous action on my part, a sense of boredom as the ceremony dragged on, leading to a sense of confusion and disorientation and then I was just watching and listening along with the rest, somewhat shocked at what I was doing and saying. Words won't serve, but some concepts from physics might provide an analogy to describe my experience since then beyond the broken circle.
In physics it is known that if you break a circle, or more correctly disrupt the motion of something going in a circle, the force of the disruption in all but two specific instances throws the object into a new motion which takes the form of a helix. This essentially throws the object into another dimension; from two dimensional into three dimensional motion and opens up infinitely more space and possibility for movement, another whole n new infinite universe of possibilities, indeed a higher order structure and universe. A circle being's experience of life is only of going around and around in his or her circle, perhaps being able to speed up, slow down or stop, but limited to two dimensional motion. A helical being adds vertical motion, a third dimensions.
Springs, which are helices, can hold stored or potential energy and in their energy and flexibility can leap from place to place, or like a slinky toy, bend and walk around from place to place on the circle being's two dimensional plane. This makes for its inexplicable and magic appearances into the reality of the circle being. Perhaps it spontaneously disappears and reappears in some new location; or appears in multiple forms in random and inexplicable ways. To some circle beings, the helical being might appear miraculous and seem to move into the realm of the deities and in doing so directly represent them. It might, to other circle beings, be described as magical, synchronistic, or even be written off as coincidence.
But to the helical being who directly experiences this mystical extra dimensional realm, it is only awesome to the part of him that was once a circle being; otherwise it just is the experience or "knowing" of a higher order structure. Of course to stray from the straight and narrow, or break a circle risks censure both mortal and divine and so it usually takes a major impetus or disruptive force to do so. Disruption, or the disruptive forces that push (or draw) us beyond the circle are essentially doorways into chaos. To leave the familiar safety of the circle is to leap through fear into an unstructured and undefined "chaotic" new dimension. It is a fearful leap, yet disruption or chaos is the state out of which all is created and in which all things are possible.
To the religionist chaos is the state from which God created all. In Taoism it is held that our of the basic chaos, that existed before all else, arose the one which became the two, the yin and yang from which all else is created. In Christianity chaos is represented by the darkness from which God created light and then all else. In Hindu it is Kali who destroys to create the chaos that brings about new creation. But it is always God who creates reality from the chaos. To the scientist, chaos is the state from which our perceptions create reality. In brain research, recent experimental evidence suggests that the most creative thinking and ideas occur when the brain's background neural system is firing in a chaotic and unpredictable mode.
In astrophysics, the big bang theory puts chaos as the birth condition at the instant of our universe's creation. In quantum physics, chaos is the base state out of which all reality is realized according to the predictions set by the Schroedinger equations. It is also the basis of a whole new system of mathematics, fractal math, and a new physics theory, Chaos theory, which many proponents feel may help provide answers to many of sciences still unanswered questions about the nature of reality. Chaos theory holds that chaos eventually reveals a new and higher order of structure.
For example when fractal derived programs are displayed on a computer screen they show shapes that depict emerging cloud formations, weather patterns, the formation of coastal contours, or even dividing cells. Although science has been able to describe some of the mechanics of these processes, the chaos based math and physics is able to depict these natural phenomena more wholly than any other theory to date. But fear of chaos keeps us confined to the firm ground of what we already know. The birth pains of the new creation or structure arising from chaos are most usually experienced and defined as disaster, or the powers turning back and hurting us and so in our fear we turn back too. And keep going around and around. And stay hypnotized. It is almost an axiom that history repeats itself again and again.
But if you do break the circle and throw yourself beyond it into chaos, as science predicts the chaos does, eventually a higher order structure is revealed and a new reality takes shape beyond the circle. For me the sense of this new structure has revealed a reality of mystic flow and infinitely flowing-forming-destroying-reforming creation. It is a new dimension outside of space and time in which truly anything is possible; a reality in which fear is merely another manifestation of love, and an opportunity for evolution; and the I, and the not I, and the center are all really just one and the same.
It is the awakening of a higher order and awareness of self in all its manifestations. It is here that words seem to fail because they are linear and at their very best can hint at the cyclical, circular nature of the world. They fail miserably, however, at describing the truly mystical dimensions. Since words and intellect are unable to directly make order of underlying chaos we create mythologies both personal and collective and these are based on deep inner sensory rememberings and images of our experience with this chaos.
Jung described it as our experience of the collective consciousness. Some of these mythologies we call science, others we call religion. Some are very personal. They guide us in creating the illusions and substances of the reality in which we live. Up to now, most mythologies have had one thing in common, they have described a model in which power, the power of creation or the deity, is external to one's self, and therefore something to be sought externally, through trial and struggle, and held onto.
We thus seek power out there: at the very base levels we seek it through knowledge, a new car, the right crystal, some one's approval; or we hope that someone else who has found it can give it to us, or we may even try to steal or west it away from those who we think have it. In our altruism, we might seek it through the giving of our power objects to others, or in our devotion to a life of serving others or a greater power. Since the power over ourselves and our destinies is experienced as external however, we remain uncentered, insecure and more and more desperately try to know this power out there.
It is this myth that supports the fear that this awesome power can turn back on us and hurt us, so it must be handled just so. It is the linear or circular being experiencing the appearance of the slinky in his or her limited world. What about a new model or Myth? As the old bearded shaman says, "The power of the creator and the universe itself is nothing more than a reflection of the creator within you, your own place of creativity. You are one with it all. The power is expressed in your love and courage, not your fear! Come, it's time to move on!" The step beyond the circle just might be the next step in (y)our evolution. You might even notice that you too are god-like creating order out of chaos.
c, Asklepia Publications
CREATIVE CHAOS
How the Mind uses Crisis to Make New Connections
Patrick Mazza Interviews Graywolf, Summer 1995
[Reprinted from Reflections]
Does it ever seen like your mind and life are in chaos? You search for solutions and draw a blank? Instead of regarding these as negatives, embrace them as signs you might be on the brink of a breakthrough experience. That is the key tenet of the Creative Consciousness Process [now known as the Consciousness Restructuring Process] developed by thinker-therapist Graywolf of Aesculapia Wilderness Retreat and Asklepia Foundation.
"When the whole system goes chaotic is where have our moments of transformation," the Southern Oregon based healer says. "Chaos and creativity are really synonyms. In creative moments, all of a sudden your mind goes into a blank space when you're thinking about a problem, and out of that nothingness comes a new perception, a new way of ordering everything." This approach is backed by neurological research into brainwave patterns, Graywolf notes. "In creative problem solving, the more difficult and creative the solution to the problem, the more randomized the neural patterns become at the point of solution. A neural pathway is nothing more than a thought, emotion, or image. If there are no neural pathways going on, there is that state of total, timeless blankness."
Graywolf and Asklepia Foundation are deeply involved in studying the relationship of consciousness to healing. He is also documenting how wilderness experiences can be profoundly healing. This is recounted and explored in Dream Healing: Chaos and the Creative Consciousness Process (Swinney and Miller, 1992). Chaos and change are not only normal--they open new doors, the healer says. "Each time a new structure come out of the chaos, it is a self-organizing improvement. No structure is permanent." Reflections Editor Patrick Mazza recently delved into the nature of creative change with Graywolf:
Mazza: Could you please give a brief description of your work?
Graywolf: It's based on the premise that healing is an evolutionary crisis. When we run into a crisis in our lives, whether it's physical or emotional, it's a sign that the organism is incapable of dealing with a problem within its current structure. So essentially it's an opportunity to evolve past what restricts us. We do this through consciousness journeying, similar in some ways to hypnotherapy, similar in some ways to a shaman's journey, but quite unlike either one of them. It shares with them the waking dream, or wakened side of REM. Our illnesses have a structure to them. That structure is held as a consciousness structure. It's also held as a neural structure, as a sensory structure in the sensorimotor cortex. So we use a process of multisensory imagery beginning with a dream or some other way of identifying the pattern that we're looking for. When we follow that pattern down to its very primal level, where it's experienced as nothing more than a sensory response, you'll always find one more gateway, which leads to a pace that I call chaotic consciousness, which seems to follow the rules of chaos theory. One of the rules is that out of chaos comes a new structure. The new structure begins to re-pattern the entire organism. In a nutshell, that's what we do with CRP at Asklepia Foundation.
M: In terms of chaos theory, how does the strange attractor idea play in? (A strange attractor is a point around which information organizes itself. Does the mind organize itself through strange attractors?
GW: Strange attractors, in terms of consciousness work, are experiences. Some of them we have very early, maybe even as early as the moment of conception, or certainly in the womb and in childhood traumas. They are so intense that they essentially define the limits of our organism. Out of that pain and fear, we establish boundaries, essential beliefs about the self. I think consciousness exists as a chaotic field. It organizes into the organism through the strange attractors.
M: It seems a number of therapies, such as Reichian or Rapid Eye Movement, are working on this idea that experiences actually embed themselves within our body/mind and form enduring sources of illness until we deal with them.
GW: My belief at this point is that the body/mind connection is sensory imagery, because it's of both the mind and the body. Those therapies are on the right track. We're a total organism. This is a part of the shamanic model--any problem is going to express itself in all aspects, at all nested levels of the organism. We're basically holographic in nature. Therefore, any part is in the whole, yet reflects less detail.
M: So if we are this holographic bit, reflecting the whole, how does the mind connect to nature; how ware we connected to each other, in less than obvious ways?
GW: I'm looking at consciousness as a universal field. It's an energy form that we haven't been able to measure with any instruments other than the mind. When we go into relatively pure consciousness states, they represent an additional dimension beyond space and time. Jung talked about that with dream spaces. He sought to unite psyche and physics. Dreams exist beyond space and time. Telepathy, clairvoyance and extrasensory phenomena all seem to take place outside of time and space. The rules and regulations of the Newtonian universe are set aside. That's how we connect, on this deep consciousness level, beyond energy and form. It's not a thought level, which is nothing but a symbolic level--the content of thoughts are symbols.
Thoughts themselves are things--the embodiment of psychophysical processes. We all touch into a universal consciousness field. It's one of the basic energy systems underlying all matter, up there with electricity, magnetism, gravity and time. When we dip into this consciousness field, we are interconnected with the entire universe. When we get into that state, we do have connection with nature, with other people, with the furthest reaches of the universe. One of the premises of quantum physics is that every particle in the universe somehow has information what every other particle is doing.
This is the principle of nonlocality. This is also the state that people call the inner wisdom. People go there and come back and know that everything we could possibly need to know is there. M: People have been working on the connection mysticism and science pretty strongly for the last 20 years or so. GW: As human beings we're extremely complex systems. What chaos theory or quantum physics deal with is this extreme complexity. Newtonian science, the premise on which psychology and medical practice is based, is really a very mechanistic model, albeit a useful one. It doesn't come anywhere near approaching the complexity of what we're really dealing with, the human condition with its unexplainable richness of interior life.
M: Reducing our sense of how complex we are does a real damage and disservice to us as human beings, doesn't it?
GW: Of course. That's why we have all of these side effects. We look at one system to the exclusion of others. Here's a medicine or therapy that will take of this. It doesn't, but it affects other systems. It all has to integrate. I think we fit into nature in a harmonious and balanced way. We are nature; we are not separate from that manifestation of universal flow. That's basically my criteria of health--flowing. We resonate with everything around us.
M: But the resonances we seem to achieve in industrial civilization are...
GW: dissonance. M: So what inside is causing that outer dissonance between humans and nature?
GW: The underlying thing is that there's a tremendous level of pain and scare. Something happens. We get hurt. So we immediately begin to compartmentalize and put it off to the side. We develop some defense mechanisms. The other part is that we get attached to structure. The true nature of reality--this is what I'm coming to believe through chaos theory and quantum physics--is that we exist in a twilight zone that is neither structure nor chaos. It is process. Structure evolved and reaches a point where it's no longer useful. It breaks down. Thing go into great disorder. Out of that disorder comes a new structure.
M: Our illness becomes the compost out of which we grow a new garden.
GW: Precisely. M: What we've been talking about, fear, pain and utter complexity, all stand as fairly imposing barriers. How specifically do you help people move beyond the fear and pain and understand the mindboggling complexity of us and the universe?
GW: It's a guided process. I liken it to a trip down a whitewater river. We do a lot of that; I take people on the river. We come up on a set of rapids and those suckers are scary. That river is pounding and roaring. There are thousands of cubic feet of water rushing by every second. It's total chaos. Most people are scared. But if you're a good guide, you take them through the rapids. The inner process is a lot like that. As a guide you go into a co-consciousness state with a person.
By that I mean you're sharing a consciousness state. So you're there in that river with them. You come up on a set of rapids--this is a rough time in their youth. They may not even remember the experience intellectually. But you pick up a flavor of the sensory patterns, and they're very turbulent. You go in there with them. I don't know any guide that would stand on the bank of the river.
This consciousness journey, facing these fears and pains, is very much the same thing. If you're in the boat with a person, they're not going to jump out. If you're not, maybe they're not going to go through them, because they really don't know how.
M: One thing I've learned from the little bit of white water rafting that I've done is that you really to let go into the river and work with it, or else you're just going to get smashed by it.
GW: The river is totally chaotic. If you're in the river, you begin to sense that there are currents and flows--if you catch this current here you miss that big rock down there.
M: What do you do to get at these consciousness states?
GW: We might start with a feeling, symptom, or dream. A dream is basically pure, unstructured consciousness that percolates up to the surface of the mind and gets shaped by what's in the subconscious. The surface of the dream is really like a map that helps me to understand some of these patterns, the interactions and symbols and how they're put together. I'll have the person become different elements in the dream, or yield to different elements of the dream. Eventually we get down to the primal image, the primal sensory pattern. This is a combination gestalt and shamanic soul journeying.
M: What you're talking about is re-connecting a fragmented ecosystem of the mind.
GW: I call it the selfscape of the mindbody.
M: Is it fair to say that the neural roots of illness have a lot to do with holding things away, being disconnected, and that the healing process has very much to do with reweaving relationships in the mind?
GW: That's one way to put it. The healing process is re-perception. It's coming back to a sense of oneness with the self and perceiving the self and the world differently. There's no goal involved in this. Peace and harmony are processes. I really want to emphasize that healing is getting back into a process of flow, not reaching an end-state.
How the Mind uses Crisis to Make New Connections
Patrick Mazza Interviews Graywolf, Summer 1995
[Reprinted from Reflections]
Does it ever seen like your mind and life are in chaos? You search for solutions and draw a blank? Instead of regarding these as negatives, embrace them as signs you might be on the brink of a breakthrough experience. That is the key tenet of the Creative Consciousness Process [now known as the Consciousness Restructuring Process] developed by thinker-therapist Graywolf of Aesculapia Wilderness Retreat and Asklepia Foundation.
"When the whole system goes chaotic is where have our moments of transformation," the Southern Oregon based healer says. "Chaos and creativity are really synonyms. In creative moments, all of a sudden your mind goes into a blank space when you're thinking about a problem, and out of that nothingness comes a new perception, a new way of ordering everything." This approach is backed by neurological research into brainwave patterns, Graywolf notes. "In creative problem solving, the more difficult and creative the solution to the problem, the more randomized the neural patterns become at the point of solution. A neural pathway is nothing more than a thought, emotion, or image. If there are no neural pathways going on, there is that state of total, timeless blankness."
Graywolf and Asklepia Foundation are deeply involved in studying the relationship of consciousness to healing. He is also documenting how wilderness experiences can be profoundly healing. This is recounted and explored in Dream Healing: Chaos and the Creative Consciousness Process (Swinney and Miller, 1992). Chaos and change are not only normal--they open new doors, the healer says. "Each time a new structure come out of the chaos, it is a self-organizing improvement. No structure is permanent." Reflections Editor Patrick Mazza recently delved into the nature of creative change with Graywolf:
Mazza: Could you please give a brief description of your work?
Graywolf: It's based on the premise that healing is an evolutionary crisis. When we run into a crisis in our lives, whether it's physical or emotional, it's a sign that the organism is incapable of dealing with a problem within its current structure. So essentially it's an opportunity to evolve past what restricts us. We do this through consciousness journeying, similar in some ways to hypnotherapy, similar in some ways to a shaman's journey, but quite unlike either one of them. It shares with them the waking dream, or wakened side of REM. Our illnesses have a structure to them. That structure is held as a consciousness structure. It's also held as a neural structure, as a sensory structure in the sensorimotor cortex. So we use a process of multisensory imagery beginning with a dream or some other way of identifying the pattern that we're looking for. When we follow that pattern down to its very primal level, where it's experienced as nothing more than a sensory response, you'll always find one more gateway, which leads to a pace that I call chaotic consciousness, which seems to follow the rules of chaos theory. One of the rules is that out of chaos comes a new structure. The new structure begins to re-pattern the entire organism. In a nutshell, that's what we do with CRP at Asklepia Foundation.
M: In terms of chaos theory, how does the strange attractor idea play in? (A strange attractor is a point around which information organizes itself. Does the mind organize itself through strange attractors?
GW: Strange attractors, in terms of consciousness work, are experiences. Some of them we have very early, maybe even as early as the moment of conception, or certainly in the womb and in childhood traumas. They are so intense that they essentially define the limits of our organism. Out of that pain and fear, we establish boundaries, essential beliefs about the self. I think consciousness exists as a chaotic field. It organizes into the organism through the strange attractors.
M: It seems a number of therapies, such as Reichian or Rapid Eye Movement, are working on this idea that experiences actually embed themselves within our body/mind and form enduring sources of illness until we deal with them.
GW: My belief at this point is that the body/mind connection is sensory imagery, because it's of both the mind and the body. Those therapies are on the right track. We're a total organism. This is a part of the shamanic model--any problem is going to express itself in all aspects, at all nested levels of the organism. We're basically holographic in nature. Therefore, any part is in the whole, yet reflects less detail.
M: So if we are this holographic bit, reflecting the whole, how does the mind connect to nature; how ware we connected to each other, in less than obvious ways?
GW: I'm looking at consciousness as a universal field. It's an energy form that we haven't been able to measure with any instruments other than the mind. When we go into relatively pure consciousness states, they represent an additional dimension beyond space and time. Jung talked about that with dream spaces. He sought to unite psyche and physics. Dreams exist beyond space and time. Telepathy, clairvoyance and extrasensory phenomena all seem to take place outside of time and space. The rules and regulations of the Newtonian universe are set aside. That's how we connect, on this deep consciousness level, beyond energy and form. It's not a thought level, which is nothing but a symbolic level--the content of thoughts are symbols.
Thoughts themselves are things--the embodiment of psychophysical processes. We all touch into a universal consciousness field. It's one of the basic energy systems underlying all matter, up there with electricity, magnetism, gravity and time. When we dip into this consciousness field, we are interconnected with the entire universe. When we get into that state, we do have connection with nature, with other people, with the furthest reaches of the universe. One of the premises of quantum physics is that every particle in the universe somehow has information what every other particle is doing.
This is the principle of nonlocality. This is also the state that people call the inner wisdom. People go there and come back and know that everything we could possibly need to know is there. M: People have been working on the connection mysticism and science pretty strongly for the last 20 years or so. GW: As human beings we're extremely complex systems. What chaos theory or quantum physics deal with is this extreme complexity. Newtonian science, the premise on which psychology and medical practice is based, is really a very mechanistic model, albeit a useful one. It doesn't come anywhere near approaching the complexity of what we're really dealing with, the human condition with its unexplainable richness of interior life.
M: Reducing our sense of how complex we are does a real damage and disservice to us as human beings, doesn't it?
GW: Of course. That's why we have all of these side effects. We look at one system to the exclusion of others. Here's a medicine or therapy that will take of this. It doesn't, but it affects other systems. It all has to integrate. I think we fit into nature in a harmonious and balanced way. We are nature; we are not separate from that manifestation of universal flow. That's basically my criteria of health--flowing. We resonate with everything around us.
M: But the resonances we seem to achieve in industrial civilization are...
GW: dissonance. M: So what inside is causing that outer dissonance between humans and nature?
GW: The underlying thing is that there's a tremendous level of pain and scare. Something happens. We get hurt. So we immediately begin to compartmentalize and put it off to the side. We develop some defense mechanisms. The other part is that we get attached to structure. The true nature of reality--this is what I'm coming to believe through chaos theory and quantum physics--is that we exist in a twilight zone that is neither structure nor chaos. It is process. Structure evolved and reaches a point where it's no longer useful. It breaks down. Thing go into great disorder. Out of that disorder comes a new structure.
M: Our illness becomes the compost out of which we grow a new garden.
GW: Precisely. M: What we've been talking about, fear, pain and utter complexity, all stand as fairly imposing barriers. How specifically do you help people move beyond the fear and pain and understand the mindboggling complexity of us and the universe?
GW: It's a guided process. I liken it to a trip down a whitewater river. We do a lot of that; I take people on the river. We come up on a set of rapids and those suckers are scary. That river is pounding and roaring. There are thousands of cubic feet of water rushing by every second. It's total chaos. Most people are scared. But if you're a good guide, you take them through the rapids. The inner process is a lot like that. As a guide you go into a co-consciousness state with a person.
By that I mean you're sharing a consciousness state. So you're there in that river with them. You come up on a set of rapids--this is a rough time in their youth. They may not even remember the experience intellectually. But you pick up a flavor of the sensory patterns, and they're very turbulent. You go in there with them. I don't know any guide that would stand on the bank of the river.
This consciousness journey, facing these fears and pains, is very much the same thing. If you're in the boat with a person, they're not going to jump out. If you're not, maybe they're not going to go through them, because they really don't know how.
M: One thing I've learned from the little bit of white water rafting that I've done is that you really to let go into the river and work with it, or else you're just going to get smashed by it.
GW: The river is totally chaotic. If you're in the river, you begin to sense that there are currents and flows--if you catch this current here you miss that big rock down there.
M: What do you do to get at these consciousness states?
GW: We might start with a feeling, symptom, or dream. A dream is basically pure, unstructured consciousness that percolates up to the surface of the mind and gets shaped by what's in the subconscious. The surface of the dream is really like a map that helps me to understand some of these patterns, the interactions and symbols and how they're put together. I'll have the person become different elements in the dream, or yield to different elements of the dream. Eventually we get down to the primal image, the primal sensory pattern. This is a combination gestalt and shamanic soul journeying.
M: What you're talking about is re-connecting a fragmented ecosystem of the mind.
GW: I call it the selfscape of the mindbody.
M: Is it fair to say that the neural roots of illness have a lot to do with holding things away, being disconnected, and that the healing process has very much to do with reweaving relationships in the mind?
GW: That's one way to put it. The healing process is re-perception. It's coming back to a sense of oneness with the self and perceiving the self and the world differently. There's no goal involved in this. Peace and harmony are processes. I really want to emphasize that healing is getting back into a process of flow, not reaching an end-state.
Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
What Happened
WHEN COYOTE STOLE THE DREAMS
by Graywolf Swinney, ©1989
One night camped by a river in the wilderness, as I sat by my fire dozing off and on, in that languid state between sleep and wakefulness, I became aware of a figure moving in the shadows across from me. Startled, I fumbled to find my voice and stammered, "Wh-who are you? What do you want?" The figure moved into the light of the fire and I saw it was a wizened old person, so old I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. But the eyes! They were so full of life and they flamed brighter than the fire. Yellow-green, they penetrated through to my spirit. "How did he get here?" I wondered.
"Do you know what happened when the Coyote stole our dreams?" he abruptly asked, smiling broadly, eyes twinkling. "No," I said, now more curious than frightened, and relaxed to the presence of this stranger in my camp. "Well, it is time for this story to be told," and he began: "A long time ago, before there were stars, or the earth, or anything, there was just the grandfather Creator. It was lonely for him, and so he decided to make company for himself. Since there was nothing else to work with, he took his own parts and created all you see about you that is the universe. He created stars from the light in his eyes, rivers from his tears, rocks from his fingernails, mountains from his bones, and on and on. When this was done, he began to create the creatures to fill this vast space. They made the bear people people from his stubbornness, the deer folks from his shyness, the wolf clan from his wisdom, and so on.
"Now the creator is also a trickster, and so created coyote from his trickier self. 'Every creation needs some of these critters to keep things interesting and from getting too set in place,' She said to herself. "All these beings will give me lots of experiences to help me to not be so bored and alone. But there are things left to do. All this needs someone to see to its upkeep.' So she made the humans to act as caretakers. But on surveying her creation she thought, 'There is still something missing.' "After a time the creator saw that these beings must remember that they are all part of her. So she created the night, gave all her creations sleep and filled it with dreams.
'Through their dreams I will talk to them and remind them that they are all children of mind, creators, and in this way they will feel empowered. I can give them gifts in their dreams to help them grow and to help them to solve their problems, and heal themselves, and find their way back to me.' Finally done, the creator sat back to enjoy her creation. "Things went well. When there was a problem someone would have a dream that would solve it. When there was some danger about to happen, someone would dream about it and it could be avoided. When it was time to move the lodges to find new game, a dream would be given about where to go.
All the creatures and beings touched one another and the creator in their dreams, and were empowered from within by this vast touching. "Well, as you know things never go completely smoothly, that is what keeps things interesting and challenging. Disruption helps keep creation strong and viable. This is why the trickster, brother Coyote, was created. So one night, in their manner, some coyotes were looking around to see what mischief and disruption they could cause.
One of them chortled, 'Wouldn't it be fun to see what would happen if we stole the dreams from the caretakers? Bet that would really make things interesting.' All were in agreement and made plans. They sneaked into the lodges of the humans at night and whispered to them. 'It's just a dream...don't pay any mind...it's not important.' And then they sat back to watch what havoc their mischief would cause. "Soon the humans began to believe this message coming to them in their sleep. They began to forget their dreams and to pay little attention to them. Their children were still believers in dreams, but when the elders told them, 'It's just a dream,' and 'Don't pay them any attention,' they obeyed and lost their dreams too. "Well! the old being stopped and sighed, 'When the humans lost their dreams, their connection with the creator, they became weak and insecure...powerless. This was frightening and so they began seeking their lost power outside of themselves.
They looked to many places.' "First they thought that their lost power was in their minds and thinking. So they began to rely on those to solve their problems and give them direction. But the mind is really a small thing in the giant universe and it gave them only small answers to their big questions and problems. The small answers created even greater problems. It also removed them from their hearts and they began to get sick. Heart problems became one of their greatest enemies killing many of them each year. As they relied more and more on their minds and lost connection with their spirits and bodies, they suffered many diseases of spirit and body that their healers could not cure.
"They even tried to understand dreams using mind, and found only shallow meanings and explanations. Some even tried entering into their dreams with mind and changing the messages from the creator when they didn't like them. In doing this they moved even further away from their real power and the meaning of their dreams. "They looked about for power and noticed that father fire was very powerful. So they captured him to gain his power. They put him into metal containers and used him to heat their lodges and drive their machines to cure their aloneness. It didn't work very well.
Father fire is always very hungry and needs much food. He also didn't like being captured and confined. So he demanded more and more food. He consumed it at such a rate that they had to strip the earth of its minerals and metals. All this rich food made fire belch uncontrollably and his gases polluted the air, soil, and waters of the earth. It was getting difficult for people to live in this pollution but they were afraid to give up his power even though he was destroying their home.
"Soon the people found an even greater fire. It was contained in the smallest of particles in the universe, the atoms. They captured this atomic fire, too. It promised them that it didn't need food like father fire, but it didn't tell them that the wastes it left behind could last for thousands of years and poison them and their home even more severely than fire. "They also invented money as a symbol of power so that everyone would know who had the most. But this resulted in people hoarding this symbol and trying to keep it from others. Soon people were stealing this symbol from one another for the power it represented. Because of this, war, crime and poverty became even greater beings.
"Some realized that the creator was the source of the power and so began to set themselves up to represent this power. Thus, priests formed religions and held out the promise of connecting people to the creator if only they would give the priests the power over their lives. They soon began wars and fighting over which group of priests had the true connection with this power.
"The humans were destroying themselves and their home. All this because coyote had stolen their dreams. They forgot that they were all part of the creator and had true unlimited power inside themselves. "Well, the creator didn't like this trick that brother coyote had pulled, so he asked the wolf who was created out of his wisdom, to intervene.
"The wolf clan met and began searching to find the answer to this dilemma. Finally, the oldest and wisest wolf among them spoke. 'We can't solve this for them because if we do that, we also will be taking power from our brothers. We must gently sing to them at night to remind them of their dreams.' And with this he began howling a song to the moon and the stars.
'All hearing this will be reminded of their dream,' he said. 'We must sing it at night.' The whole clan joined in this siren song of sadness and hope. It resounded throughout the world." Silence ensued, and I eventually broke it. "What happened? Did it save the people? Did it bring them back to their dreams?" I demanded. "I'm not wise enough to know that," said the old being. "We'll just have to wait and see." And with that he too lifted his muzzle to the sky and began singing the wolf's song. With a sudden start I awoke. Or did I? All I know is that I must now tell this story.
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
What Happened
WHEN COYOTE STOLE THE DREAMS
by Graywolf Swinney, ©1989
One night camped by a river in the wilderness, as I sat by my fire dozing off and on, in that languid state between sleep and wakefulness, I became aware of a figure moving in the shadows across from me. Startled, I fumbled to find my voice and stammered, "Wh-who are you? What do you want?" The figure moved into the light of the fire and I saw it was a wizened old person, so old I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. But the eyes! They were so full of life and they flamed brighter than the fire. Yellow-green, they penetrated through to my spirit. "How did he get here?" I wondered.
"Do you know what happened when the Coyote stole our dreams?" he abruptly asked, smiling broadly, eyes twinkling. "No," I said, now more curious than frightened, and relaxed to the presence of this stranger in my camp. "Well, it is time for this story to be told," and he began: "A long time ago, before there were stars, or the earth, or anything, there was just the grandfather Creator. It was lonely for him, and so he decided to make company for himself. Since there was nothing else to work with, he took his own parts and created all you see about you that is the universe. He created stars from the light in his eyes, rivers from his tears, rocks from his fingernails, mountains from his bones, and on and on. When this was done, he began to create the creatures to fill this vast space. They made the bear people people from his stubbornness, the deer folks from his shyness, the wolf clan from his wisdom, and so on.
"Now the creator is also a trickster, and so created coyote from his trickier self. 'Every creation needs some of these critters to keep things interesting and from getting too set in place,' She said to herself. "All these beings will give me lots of experiences to help me to not be so bored and alone. But there are things left to do. All this needs someone to see to its upkeep.' So she made the humans to act as caretakers. But on surveying her creation she thought, 'There is still something missing.' "After a time the creator saw that these beings must remember that they are all part of her. So she created the night, gave all her creations sleep and filled it with dreams.
'Through their dreams I will talk to them and remind them that they are all children of mind, creators, and in this way they will feel empowered. I can give them gifts in their dreams to help them grow and to help them to solve their problems, and heal themselves, and find their way back to me.' Finally done, the creator sat back to enjoy her creation. "Things went well. When there was a problem someone would have a dream that would solve it. When there was some danger about to happen, someone would dream about it and it could be avoided. When it was time to move the lodges to find new game, a dream would be given about where to go.
All the creatures and beings touched one another and the creator in their dreams, and were empowered from within by this vast touching. "Well, as you know things never go completely smoothly, that is what keeps things interesting and challenging. Disruption helps keep creation strong and viable. This is why the trickster, brother Coyote, was created. So one night, in their manner, some coyotes were looking around to see what mischief and disruption they could cause.
One of them chortled, 'Wouldn't it be fun to see what would happen if we stole the dreams from the caretakers? Bet that would really make things interesting.' All were in agreement and made plans. They sneaked into the lodges of the humans at night and whispered to them. 'It's just a dream...don't pay any mind...it's not important.' And then they sat back to watch what havoc their mischief would cause. "Soon the humans began to believe this message coming to them in their sleep. They began to forget their dreams and to pay little attention to them. Their children were still believers in dreams, but when the elders told them, 'It's just a dream,' and 'Don't pay them any attention,' they obeyed and lost their dreams too. "Well! the old being stopped and sighed, 'When the humans lost their dreams, their connection with the creator, they became weak and insecure...powerless. This was frightening and so they began seeking their lost power outside of themselves.
They looked to many places.' "First they thought that their lost power was in their minds and thinking. So they began to rely on those to solve their problems and give them direction. But the mind is really a small thing in the giant universe and it gave them only small answers to their big questions and problems. The small answers created even greater problems. It also removed them from their hearts and they began to get sick. Heart problems became one of their greatest enemies killing many of them each year. As they relied more and more on their minds and lost connection with their spirits and bodies, they suffered many diseases of spirit and body that their healers could not cure.
"They even tried to understand dreams using mind, and found only shallow meanings and explanations. Some even tried entering into their dreams with mind and changing the messages from the creator when they didn't like them. In doing this they moved even further away from their real power and the meaning of their dreams. "They looked about for power and noticed that father fire was very powerful. So they captured him to gain his power. They put him into metal containers and used him to heat their lodges and drive their machines to cure their aloneness. It didn't work very well.
Father fire is always very hungry and needs much food. He also didn't like being captured and confined. So he demanded more and more food. He consumed it at such a rate that they had to strip the earth of its minerals and metals. All this rich food made fire belch uncontrollably and his gases polluted the air, soil, and waters of the earth. It was getting difficult for people to live in this pollution but they were afraid to give up his power even though he was destroying their home.
"Soon the people found an even greater fire. It was contained in the smallest of particles in the universe, the atoms. They captured this atomic fire, too. It promised them that it didn't need food like father fire, but it didn't tell them that the wastes it left behind could last for thousands of years and poison them and their home even more severely than fire. "They also invented money as a symbol of power so that everyone would know who had the most. But this resulted in people hoarding this symbol and trying to keep it from others. Soon people were stealing this symbol from one another for the power it represented. Because of this, war, crime and poverty became even greater beings.
"Some realized that the creator was the source of the power and so began to set themselves up to represent this power. Thus, priests formed religions and held out the promise of connecting people to the creator if only they would give the priests the power over their lives. They soon began wars and fighting over which group of priests had the true connection with this power.
"The humans were destroying themselves and their home. All this because coyote had stolen their dreams. They forgot that they were all part of the creator and had true unlimited power inside themselves. "Well, the creator didn't like this trick that brother coyote had pulled, so he asked the wolf who was created out of his wisdom, to intervene.
"The wolf clan met and began searching to find the answer to this dilemma. Finally, the oldest and wisest wolf among them spoke. 'We can't solve this for them because if we do that, we also will be taking power from our brothers. We must gently sing to them at night to remind them of their dreams.' And with this he began howling a song to the moon and the stars.
'All hearing this will be reminded of their dream,' he said. 'We must sing it at night.' The whole clan joined in this siren song of sadness and hope. It resounded throughout the world." Silence ensued, and I eventually broke it. "What happened? Did it save the people? Did it bring them back to their dreams?" I demanded. "I'm not wise enough to know that," said the old being. "We'll just have to wait and see." And with that he too lifted his muzzle to the sky and began singing the wolf's song. With a sudden start I awoke. Or did I? All I know is that I must now tell this story.
HOW PLACEBOS HEAL
Dreams, the Placebo Effect, and Creative Consciousness
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
Asklepia Foundation, c1997
Introduction
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are two of the most powerful yet discounted healing phenomena known to the healing arts and sciences. Healing occurs with any or all illnesses, yet nothing, no treatment or substances has been done or administered to the patient that can account for it. In studies of a new treatment, it must always be compared to the placebo and outperform it in order to be considered effective. Even here the placebo effect is pushed into insignificance and discounted.
Consider the following: As a control in studies, the placebo consistently brings about symptomatic remissions and healing for at least 30% of the individuals taking them, often much more. If the test drug performs in the 60% range (as many, if not most, do) and the 30% rate for placebos was also at work with the test group, it accounts for at least half of the effectiveness of the test treatment. The new drug is only working at about the 30% level or no better than a placebo. In most cases, the drug company or proponent of the treatment generally prefers to credit the drug or treatment with all the healing and claim the new treatment 60% effective.
The placebo effect operating in the test group is ignored and illusion created about the drug's effectiveness. The same observation also applies for any treatment: allopathic, naturopathic, homeopathic, shamanic, or spiritually based. For any healing modality, in at least 30% of those treated, the placebo effect is most likely responsible for the healing. Seen from this perspective, the placebo is indeed a powerful healing force, perhaps the broadest and most powerful one known.
In our rush as healers to claim credit for healing and justify ourselves and our profession, it is convenient to take this stance, claim the credit, and discount the placebo effect. To do so, however, is to turn our backs on understanding the body's inherent natural healing capacities and processes and the power of our consciousness and spirit in that. It also, incidentally, disempowers our patients and discounts their ability to self-heal by taking credit for what they have somehow done themselves. When I first entered the healing arts and sciences as a pragmatic engineer and encountered this phenomenon and studied this data, it was my notion that we could not really understand the true nature of healing without understanding placebos.
I was dumbfounded that no explanation of how it worked existed then, and that began my now twenty-eight year search for explanations of how the placebo works. The result is the Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing (CRP). It has been described in several articles, published in Dream Network Journal and elsewhere.
The Science of Placebos Quantum Mechanics:
the Dreams that Stuff is Made of...
The placebo effect is a conscious event, and more specifically an event in which consciousness and matter interact to change or transform a disease structure into a healing process or flow. At this level of reality events in consciousness and matter interact to change or transform a disease structure into a healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even possible to say that it is an interaction. This is a level at which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are a "stuff," for want of a better word, which is not committed to either condition, yet is both.
It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality. Quantum reality describes a reality in which something, for example light, can display properties of being both matter and pure energy as waveform. The laws of quantum mechanics apply rather than the linear cause-effect laws of more conventional science, (including medical science). Sudden changes in state, or quantum shifts, occur instantaneously. It is a reality in which all is interconnected and uncertainty reigns. We are part of natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels where structure is only a passing creation of continuing evolution.
True natural healing takes place at this quantum level where mind and body are the same, transformation is the essence of reality, and reality is created from infinite potential. This level of reality exists on the edges of chaos or infinite complexity/possibility. From this vast potential of infinite possibilities reality is created. There are principles by which this creation emerges out of chaos, known as strange attractors. Strange attractors, as defined in chaos theory, are essentially organizing principles that limit the patterns or structures that manifest from chaos and give them form.
The CRP reveals even more fundamental principles (conscious experiences encountered at the deepest levels of the journeys) identified as "archetypal strange attractors." Not archetypal in strictly the same sense as used by Jung, the term refers to principles so primordial that they underlie the fundamental shaping of all structures from the universe and its galaxies to the most fundamental of sub-atomic particles. These experiences are commonly encountered from person to person and underlie the individual's self structures.
The CRP model identifies this level of experience/reality as the "edges of creation," and at this level self and every element of our being is created, including the structures that manifest as diseases in our physical and emotional being. This level is also the source of the unstructured or chaotic consciousness that passes through us and is shaped in its interactions with our organism and psyche to manifest as dreams. The implication is that our dreams are reflections or symbols of the structures that underlie our beingness and in particular our disease states. In that the placebo effect is a consciousness event, to understand it also requires understanding the nature of consciousness and its dynamics.
What people mean by consciousness is varied. Some mean no more than awake or aware, (conscious), as opposed to asleep or unaware, (unconscious). Some see it as the essence of self-awareness, (i.e. humans have consciousness, and animals don't). However, we have come to understand and define consciousness far more broadly along shamans' lines. It exists in all things and at all levels of being. There is nowhere or nothing in which consciousness is not involved. To be true this implies that consciousness is a field in the way that physics uses that term. Fields exist before energy, force or matter and are the source of these manifestations.
Einstein's life-long quest to explore the nature of space-time and fields and his theories of relativity showed that space itself has structure and is permeated with fields. Electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields have been identified, but our exploration into consciousness dynamics suggest that in addition to those, there are two others: time and consciousness fields. We suggest that the interactions of these fields in various combinations create the physical and energy structures of reality.
Strange attractors influence these emerging structures of consciousness in its interactions with other fields to create the essence of self and reality. A more detailed presentation of this conjecture and its implications is beyond the scope of this particular article and will be presented in a future article. For now, consider it a working hypothesis. The last element of science involves neuroscience or the study of the brain, how it works and, in particular, its role in disease and healing. The brain's extension throughout the body is the nervous system. It connects the brain with every part of the body and nerve impulses control and monitor the functioning of every organ and muscle in the body. Nerve impulses underlie all sensory inputs to provide the fundamental basis for our perceptions of self and reality.
This is all controlled in and by the brain itself and more specifically by synaptic firing sequences or patterns. The pineal and pituitary organs or glands are of the brain and control moods and secrete the hormones that control how we function and our body chemistry. Increasingly the brain is known to operate in a holographic manner, which means that change in any part of the brain affects the whole. In brief, the brain is the basis of the entire body's functioning and of all our perceptions of self and reality, and dysfunction in any part of it affects the entire brain and organism.
The Disease Model
Work with CRP has led to certain speculations about how consciousness interacts with the brain to influence its operations to, in turn. shape our personality and physicality. To illustrate this, consider the following case study: Sonja is a health professional who suffers from relatively debilitating slow progressive multiple sclerosis. During the course of several dream-based journeys, we encountered severe states of restriction on a sensory level, experienced for example as kinds of crushing pressures.
Following one particularly intense journey, both her mother and son called later the same day to complain of feelings that Sonja had experienced in her journey. Their experiences had happened at the same time as Sonja's. Moreover, in chatting, uncharacteristically her mother offered unsolicited information about conditions surrounding Sonja's conception and birth, which confirmed our speculations during re-entry. Her mother had been feeling extremely restricted in her life and Sonja was conceived to provide meaning and purpose in this restriction. Another factor was that Sonja was ready to be delivered on Christmas Day, but because both the doctor and mother did not want to interfere with their families' Christmas celebrations, mother was instructed to "sit on a pillow" and hold Sonja back, which she did.
Moreover, the onset of Sonja's disease followed a plea, or prayer she herself had expressed while trapped in an abusive, physically demanding and restrictive marriage. "I pray for something to happen that will free me from this and all that he expects me to do," she begged, and very soon thereafter was afflicted with her disease, which did. This thread of restrictiveness that weaves throughout Sonja's life was present during her conception, birth, up bringing and further manifested in her first marriage and subsequent disease. Restrictiveness defined her world and imprinted in her consciousness and neural structures to shape her organization of self and world from her earliest beginnings. In essence it was a strange attractor.
As a consciousness structure present in her parents at her conception it influenced the mix of genes coming from them. It influenced how the consciousness field interacted with the other fields to create the essence of her body and mind out of all the infinite possibilities. It imprinted itself in her neural structure both in the fetal stage and as a baby-child. It evolved into a specific "neural organ" or pattern of synaptic firings that defined a very deep primal sensory existential image of self. Now stored in the brain it influenced how her nervous system functioned and how her personality developed.
Sonja's mind and body in taking on this primal image and consciousness structure eventually manifested it as multiple sclerosis, which restricts and suppresses the flow of nervous energy throughout the body by affecting the sheath, which surrounds the spinal nerve bundles. In this way, her inner senses of self created the same in her outer world. (One model of brain functions holds that for every movement we make, for example, moving our hand to scratch our nose, the brain creates an image and sequence of synaptic firings, and the hand conforms to this model.. T
he outer reflects the inner). In quantum reality, the beginnings of the structures that form the universe appear as wave fronts arising out of infinite possibility to form electrons and other subatomic particles that interact to become the structure of matter. Neural firing patterns are hybrid chemo-electro phenomena that are in essence consciousness wave fronts arising out of infinite possibility.
They are ordered in part, as implied in the preceding paragraph, by environmental consciousness structures and events acting as strange attractors to shape the neural firing sequences that define self-image and influence the functioning of the entire organism. These patterns or sequences are stored in the brain experientially as fundamental primal sensory self-images defining the nature of self and reality. They shape our perceptions of self and world out of the raw flow of sensory input. It is why eight people will have eight different perceptions of the same event.
The CRP suggests six zones and characteristics of consciousness dynamics that stem from these images and eventually manifest as physical and behavioral functioning as self. These are described in chapter 12 of CLINICAL CHAOS: A Therapist's Guide to Nonlinear Dynamics and Therapeutic Change," edited by, Chamberlain and Butz, Taylor and Francis Pub.
The Healing Model
Since healing's a matter of mind over matter,
And matter's a matter of mind,
In matters that matter, when healing's what matters,
Chaotic's the transforming mind. Healing is an ongoing process of ever evolving consciousness energy flow, as opposed to disease which is consciousness energy bound in unchanging and unadaptable structures. Fundamental healing involves reaching these levels of primal disease consciousness structure to release the bound energy. To do this we begin with a surface manifestation of the disease, usually a dream image although not necessarily limited to that. Dreams begin as chaotic consciousness energy.
In its journey through our organism and psyche this consciousness energy is influenced to take on the shapes of deeper aspects of self. On the aware or dream level these shapes become the plot and symbols in our dreams but whatever else they are, built into them are the roots of our deeper self, including the roots our disease states. Using a Gestalt method and encouraging the imaginative process of the client, we invite them to imagine and yield ever deeper into these consciousness structures and dynamics.
We encourage sensory rather than just visual or auditory imagery, and it is a process of "becoming." The discomfort is followed since this represents the dis-ease state, and in the journey the fears and pains encountered are embraced to fully identify with them. To help, the mentor enters a state of co-consciousness and shares the experience, in a sense modeling the way. It is in this becoming and identification that the fundamental image or neural firing pattern becomes activated.
The client is fully identified with it and experiences it as self. This self-identification is important as will be seen shortly. The experience at this level is now even beyond the sensory. It is a reality filled with the elemental structures of the archetypal strange attractors, which shape our personal, and the general universe. It is the level of quantum reality in which distinction between matter and energy is not clear. It is a zone that on one side is experienced as the primordial patterns of sensory flow that define self, and on the other, pure complexity and chaos....undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness...infinite possibility. We invite the client, now fully identified with the disease structure, to let go into this infinite universal solvent, to yield to it and become it.
The disease pattern dissolves and from the chaos a new self image emerges. On the neural level, the synaptic firing pattern that holds the disease structure loses coherency and randomizes, or becomes non-linear and complex. From this complexity emerges a new firing pattern that represents the healed sense of self. This new self -image gradually affects the entire organism, The new synaptic firing pattern defines a more healed self and shapes the sensory inflow differently, influencing the whole brain to operate more appropriately.
Sense of self and the world is more easeful. Hormonal secretions are changed and mood is improved. Through this, eventually the body and mind take on a new configuration.
For Sonja, her journeys have brought her to a more flowing and free sense of self. There is ease and peace in this new primal existential image. She is experiencing tingling and sensations in her legs, which for many years were numb. A bladder problem associated with her MS has gone into about 95% remission. She is walking more easily without her canes and seems to need them less often now. All this began happening after her first journey at which time she also stopped taking any medication for her condition.
Endings and Beginnings
Placebos do not work in the linear world of mechanistic science, and this is one reason medical science and psychology, which are based in this model, have failed to understand or honor this powerful healing force. Placebos operate in the realms of consciousness dynamics, which are far more adequately described and modeled by quantum, relativity and chaos theories.
Dreams, imagination and other creative consciousness processes provide doorways into these realms, and the primordial images and neural structures that define our sense of self, world, and dis-ease. At this deep level the transformations that reshape our entire organism occur. And the beauty of it is that it is the imaginative self that creates this miracle of healings. And it is from here that we begin to really live. This article was first published in Dream Network Journal, Vol. 16; No. 4.
Dreams, the Placebo Effect, and Creative Consciousness
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
Asklepia Foundation, c1997
Introduction
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are two of the most powerful yet discounted healing phenomena known to the healing arts and sciences. Healing occurs with any or all illnesses, yet nothing, no treatment or substances has been done or administered to the patient that can account for it. In studies of a new treatment, it must always be compared to the placebo and outperform it in order to be considered effective. Even here the placebo effect is pushed into insignificance and discounted.
Consider the following: As a control in studies, the placebo consistently brings about symptomatic remissions and healing for at least 30% of the individuals taking them, often much more. If the test drug performs in the 60% range (as many, if not most, do) and the 30% rate for placebos was also at work with the test group, it accounts for at least half of the effectiveness of the test treatment. The new drug is only working at about the 30% level or no better than a placebo. In most cases, the drug company or proponent of the treatment generally prefers to credit the drug or treatment with all the healing and claim the new treatment 60% effective.
The placebo effect operating in the test group is ignored and illusion created about the drug's effectiveness. The same observation also applies for any treatment: allopathic, naturopathic, homeopathic, shamanic, or spiritually based. For any healing modality, in at least 30% of those treated, the placebo effect is most likely responsible for the healing. Seen from this perspective, the placebo is indeed a powerful healing force, perhaps the broadest and most powerful one known.
In our rush as healers to claim credit for healing and justify ourselves and our profession, it is convenient to take this stance, claim the credit, and discount the placebo effect. To do so, however, is to turn our backs on understanding the body's inherent natural healing capacities and processes and the power of our consciousness and spirit in that. It also, incidentally, disempowers our patients and discounts their ability to self-heal by taking credit for what they have somehow done themselves. When I first entered the healing arts and sciences as a pragmatic engineer and encountered this phenomenon and studied this data, it was my notion that we could not really understand the true nature of healing without understanding placebos.
I was dumbfounded that no explanation of how it worked existed then, and that began my now twenty-eight year search for explanations of how the placebo works. The result is the Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing (CRP). It has been described in several articles, published in Dream Network Journal and elsewhere.
The Science of Placebos Quantum Mechanics:
the Dreams that Stuff is Made of...
The placebo effect is a conscious event, and more specifically an event in which consciousness and matter interact to change or transform a disease structure into a healing process or flow. At this level of reality events in consciousness and matter interact to change or transform a disease structure into a healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even possible to say that it is an interaction. This is a level at which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are a "stuff," for want of a better word, which is not committed to either condition, yet is both.
It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality. Quantum reality describes a reality in which something, for example light, can display properties of being both matter and pure energy as waveform. The laws of quantum mechanics apply rather than the linear cause-effect laws of more conventional science, (including medical science). Sudden changes in state, or quantum shifts, occur instantaneously. It is a reality in which all is interconnected and uncertainty reigns. We are part of natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels where structure is only a passing creation of continuing evolution.
True natural healing takes place at this quantum level where mind and body are the same, transformation is the essence of reality, and reality is created from infinite potential. This level of reality exists on the edges of chaos or infinite complexity/possibility. From this vast potential of infinite possibilities reality is created. There are principles by which this creation emerges out of chaos, known as strange attractors. Strange attractors, as defined in chaos theory, are essentially organizing principles that limit the patterns or structures that manifest from chaos and give them form.
The CRP reveals even more fundamental principles (conscious experiences encountered at the deepest levels of the journeys) identified as "archetypal strange attractors." Not archetypal in strictly the same sense as used by Jung, the term refers to principles so primordial that they underlie the fundamental shaping of all structures from the universe and its galaxies to the most fundamental of sub-atomic particles. These experiences are commonly encountered from person to person and underlie the individual's self structures.
The CRP model identifies this level of experience/reality as the "edges of creation," and at this level self and every element of our being is created, including the structures that manifest as diseases in our physical and emotional being. This level is also the source of the unstructured or chaotic consciousness that passes through us and is shaped in its interactions with our organism and psyche to manifest as dreams. The implication is that our dreams are reflections or symbols of the structures that underlie our beingness and in particular our disease states. In that the placebo effect is a consciousness event, to understand it also requires understanding the nature of consciousness and its dynamics.
What people mean by consciousness is varied. Some mean no more than awake or aware, (conscious), as opposed to asleep or unaware, (unconscious). Some see it as the essence of self-awareness, (i.e. humans have consciousness, and animals don't). However, we have come to understand and define consciousness far more broadly along shamans' lines. It exists in all things and at all levels of being. There is nowhere or nothing in which consciousness is not involved. To be true this implies that consciousness is a field in the way that physics uses that term. Fields exist before energy, force or matter and are the source of these manifestations.
Einstein's life-long quest to explore the nature of space-time and fields and his theories of relativity showed that space itself has structure and is permeated with fields. Electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields have been identified, but our exploration into consciousness dynamics suggest that in addition to those, there are two others: time and consciousness fields. We suggest that the interactions of these fields in various combinations create the physical and energy structures of reality.
Strange attractors influence these emerging structures of consciousness in its interactions with other fields to create the essence of self and reality. A more detailed presentation of this conjecture and its implications is beyond the scope of this particular article and will be presented in a future article. For now, consider it a working hypothesis. The last element of science involves neuroscience or the study of the brain, how it works and, in particular, its role in disease and healing. The brain's extension throughout the body is the nervous system. It connects the brain with every part of the body and nerve impulses control and monitor the functioning of every organ and muscle in the body. Nerve impulses underlie all sensory inputs to provide the fundamental basis for our perceptions of self and reality.
This is all controlled in and by the brain itself and more specifically by synaptic firing sequences or patterns. The pineal and pituitary organs or glands are of the brain and control moods and secrete the hormones that control how we function and our body chemistry. Increasingly the brain is known to operate in a holographic manner, which means that change in any part of the brain affects the whole. In brief, the brain is the basis of the entire body's functioning and of all our perceptions of self and reality, and dysfunction in any part of it affects the entire brain and organism.
The Disease Model
Work with CRP has led to certain speculations about how consciousness interacts with the brain to influence its operations to, in turn. shape our personality and physicality. To illustrate this, consider the following case study: Sonja is a health professional who suffers from relatively debilitating slow progressive multiple sclerosis. During the course of several dream-based journeys, we encountered severe states of restriction on a sensory level, experienced for example as kinds of crushing pressures.
Following one particularly intense journey, both her mother and son called later the same day to complain of feelings that Sonja had experienced in her journey. Their experiences had happened at the same time as Sonja's. Moreover, in chatting, uncharacteristically her mother offered unsolicited information about conditions surrounding Sonja's conception and birth, which confirmed our speculations during re-entry. Her mother had been feeling extremely restricted in her life and Sonja was conceived to provide meaning and purpose in this restriction. Another factor was that Sonja was ready to be delivered on Christmas Day, but because both the doctor and mother did not want to interfere with their families' Christmas celebrations, mother was instructed to "sit on a pillow" and hold Sonja back, which she did.
Moreover, the onset of Sonja's disease followed a plea, or prayer she herself had expressed while trapped in an abusive, physically demanding and restrictive marriage. "I pray for something to happen that will free me from this and all that he expects me to do," she begged, and very soon thereafter was afflicted with her disease, which did. This thread of restrictiveness that weaves throughout Sonja's life was present during her conception, birth, up bringing and further manifested in her first marriage and subsequent disease. Restrictiveness defined her world and imprinted in her consciousness and neural structures to shape her organization of self and world from her earliest beginnings. In essence it was a strange attractor.
As a consciousness structure present in her parents at her conception it influenced the mix of genes coming from them. It influenced how the consciousness field interacted with the other fields to create the essence of her body and mind out of all the infinite possibilities. It imprinted itself in her neural structure both in the fetal stage and as a baby-child. It evolved into a specific "neural organ" or pattern of synaptic firings that defined a very deep primal sensory existential image of self. Now stored in the brain it influenced how her nervous system functioned and how her personality developed.
Sonja's mind and body in taking on this primal image and consciousness structure eventually manifested it as multiple sclerosis, which restricts and suppresses the flow of nervous energy throughout the body by affecting the sheath, which surrounds the spinal nerve bundles. In this way, her inner senses of self created the same in her outer world. (One model of brain functions holds that for every movement we make, for example, moving our hand to scratch our nose, the brain creates an image and sequence of synaptic firings, and the hand conforms to this model.. T
he outer reflects the inner). In quantum reality, the beginnings of the structures that form the universe appear as wave fronts arising out of infinite possibility to form electrons and other subatomic particles that interact to become the structure of matter. Neural firing patterns are hybrid chemo-electro phenomena that are in essence consciousness wave fronts arising out of infinite possibility.
They are ordered in part, as implied in the preceding paragraph, by environmental consciousness structures and events acting as strange attractors to shape the neural firing sequences that define self-image and influence the functioning of the entire organism. These patterns or sequences are stored in the brain experientially as fundamental primal sensory self-images defining the nature of self and reality. They shape our perceptions of self and world out of the raw flow of sensory input. It is why eight people will have eight different perceptions of the same event.
The CRP suggests six zones and characteristics of consciousness dynamics that stem from these images and eventually manifest as physical and behavioral functioning as self. These are described in chapter 12 of CLINICAL CHAOS: A Therapist's Guide to Nonlinear Dynamics and Therapeutic Change," edited by, Chamberlain and Butz, Taylor and Francis Pub.
The Healing Model
Since healing's a matter of mind over matter,
And matter's a matter of mind,
In matters that matter, when healing's what matters,
Chaotic's the transforming mind. Healing is an ongoing process of ever evolving consciousness energy flow, as opposed to disease which is consciousness energy bound in unchanging and unadaptable structures. Fundamental healing involves reaching these levels of primal disease consciousness structure to release the bound energy. To do this we begin with a surface manifestation of the disease, usually a dream image although not necessarily limited to that. Dreams begin as chaotic consciousness energy.
In its journey through our organism and psyche this consciousness energy is influenced to take on the shapes of deeper aspects of self. On the aware or dream level these shapes become the plot and symbols in our dreams but whatever else they are, built into them are the roots of our deeper self, including the roots our disease states. Using a Gestalt method and encouraging the imaginative process of the client, we invite them to imagine and yield ever deeper into these consciousness structures and dynamics.
We encourage sensory rather than just visual or auditory imagery, and it is a process of "becoming." The discomfort is followed since this represents the dis-ease state, and in the journey the fears and pains encountered are embraced to fully identify with them. To help, the mentor enters a state of co-consciousness and shares the experience, in a sense modeling the way. It is in this becoming and identification that the fundamental image or neural firing pattern becomes activated.
The client is fully identified with it and experiences it as self. This self-identification is important as will be seen shortly. The experience at this level is now even beyond the sensory. It is a reality filled with the elemental structures of the archetypal strange attractors, which shape our personal, and the general universe. It is the level of quantum reality in which distinction between matter and energy is not clear. It is a zone that on one side is experienced as the primordial patterns of sensory flow that define self, and on the other, pure complexity and chaos....undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness...infinite possibility. We invite the client, now fully identified with the disease structure, to let go into this infinite universal solvent, to yield to it and become it.
The disease pattern dissolves and from the chaos a new self image emerges. On the neural level, the synaptic firing pattern that holds the disease structure loses coherency and randomizes, or becomes non-linear and complex. From this complexity emerges a new firing pattern that represents the healed sense of self. This new self -image gradually affects the entire organism, The new synaptic firing pattern defines a more healed self and shapes the sensory inflow differently, influencing the whole brain to operate more appropriately.
Sense of self and the world is more easeful. Hormonal secretions are changed and mood is improved. Through this, eventually the body and mind take on a new configuration.
For Sonja, her journeys have brought her to a more flowing and free sense of self. There is ease and peace in this new primal existential image. She is experiencing tingling and sensations in her legs, which for many years were numb. A bladder problem associated with her MS has gone into about 95% remission. She is walking more easily without her canes and seems to need them less often now. All this began happening after her first journey at which time she also stopped taking any medication for her condition.
Endings and Beginnings
Placebos do not work in the linear world of mechanistic science, and this is one reason medical science and psychology, which are based in this model, have failed to understand or honor this powerful healing force. Placebos operate in the realms of consciousness dynamics, which are far more adequately described and modeled by quantum, relativity and chaos theories.
Dreams, imagination and other creative consciousness processes provide doorways into these realms, and the primordial images and neural structures that define our sense of self, world, and dis-ease. At this deep level the transformations that reshape our entire organism occur. And the beauty of it is that it is the imaginative self that creates this miracle of healings. And it is from here that we begin to really live. This article was first published in Dream Network Journal, Vol. 16; No. 4.
THE FOUR DIRECTIONS OF HEALING
The Medicine Wheel and CRP
by Graywolf Swinney, 2001
Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling way in the middle of the air.
A wheel within a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air.
And the big wheel ran by faith, and the wheel ran by the grace of God,
Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air.
The four directions of healing is one model or organization that can be used to describe the steps in healing processes in general. It does not drive the processes, but is a means of organizing four key steps or stages in healing, and most specifically relates to natural or spiritual healing. It directly applies to the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and derives from the medicine circle, or wheel used by aboriginal tribes throughout the world but, most particularly the Americas.
The particular version of the wheel described in this article comes from Central America as described by shaman Don Edwardo who was studied and his work chronicled by Dr. Alberto Villaldo, a well known psychological anthropologist, (author of Healing States with Stanley Krippner). We have added our own notions about the way that the wheel relates to the more contemporary healing processes and specifically the CRP.
All healing processes involve passing through each of the four directions of the wheel, and each direction represents a principle that applies to life in general, as well as healing. Each of the four directions has a guide or totem that represents this principle. Each of the four directions also represents a cardinal compass point. In native American teachings, it is stated that one constantly travels around this circle and in so doing attains harmony and balance, and comes full circle.
This may indeed be the purpose of any or all diseases, to provide an evolutionary opportunity for an individual organism to evolve. I derived this model in a brief flurry of panic under the following circumstances: I had been invited to address an early breakfast meeting of a large group of healers of all persuasions. The talk was to be on Shamanism, and in particular to discuss the contents of medicine bag, how they had come to me and how I used them. That morning when I went to get into my car, it had been burglarized and my medicine bag had been stolen. I was due to talk in about ten minutes and now had no topic, or at the very least had lost my props.
The following model is what I presented. It seemed that by just speaking and listening to what I said, the following notions came forth. This event is chronicled in my article The Empty Medicine Bag.
The East
The first of the four directions is the East. It is where the sun rises and comes back into our sight and awareness each day. It is the direction that brings light into the world so that we can see what is about us. It represents the beginning of each day when we re-awaken to the seeing and sensing of the outer world. The teacher or totem of the east is the Eagle and the lesson it brings to us is that of the "eagle's eye."
The eagle can spot a tiny mouse in a field from great heights and swoop down to feed on it. It is this acuity of vision that represents the lesson of the east. The healing principles involved are about seeing or sensing. The first step in healing is to see or sense that we have a disease, the nature of it, and that healing is needed. For us personally, this is the stage when we become aware of the symptoms either directly or though our dreams.
We must sense or see that we do indeed have a disease and understand its nature. The symptoms alert us to a condition that needs attention. Indeed in all forms of healing we must identify what it is that needs to be changed, physical, mental, or spiritual. In medical practice this is the stage at which the diagnosis is made. Only by making a valid diagnosis can the physician provide treatment according to medical criteria or protocol. In psychological healing we must realize that we have a condition that needs to be resolved.
The joke about "How many psychologists are needed to change a light bulb?" is germane here. The answer is "Only one, but the bulb has to want to be changed." Spiritual malaise is often much more difficult to identify. We often only realize it through our physical or mental symptoms. The first step when one goes to an allopathic doctor is for the doctor to diagnose the illness.
It is only after knowing what the illness is, that the doctor can undertake a treatment. Added to this, the comment made by Sir William Ostler is applicable, "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of a disease a patient has." One needs to see the patient as a full person rather than as only a disease. In this much more holistic and humanistic approach, one still needs to see or sense the nature of the condition and come to know the nature of the one with the condition before treatment can be administered.
With respect to the CRP, this stage of the East involves identifying the nature of the problem in its many manifestations. This is done in partnership with the patient. For example a client shows up suffering from great discomfort of being in confined spaces. The psychologist might get more specific information but has probably already formed a tentative diagnosis of claustrophobia. He would probably ask questions to confirm the diagnosis and perhaps explore the etiology of the condition.
The mentor, however, would further pursue the matter by asking about how the condition may present physically or spiritually as well. In this he might also discover that the patient has fibromyalgia and in further questioning may find that the person also feels restricted in their marriage and occupation. They may be feeling the limitations of their religion or lack of it. (See Fibromyalgia and CRP by Swinney and Kuehn, Chaosophy 2000).
Thus the fundamental nature of the illness is seen to be a factor much broader than merely a psychological disorder, and to manifest in many aspects of the patient's life. It weaves a thread throughout the tapestry of their experience of life. It is this sense of being restricted that is more fundamental to the disease, and that manifests as many other symptoms. This is to be discovered and revealed in the phase of the East. During treatment the mentor and the mentored may revisit the east many times as the layers of the disease reveal themselves.
Dreams have within them the ability to help us to sense or diagnose that there is a problem long before it manifests as an actual disease. This has been a recognized characteristic of dreams since the dawn of human presence on the planet. In the CRP journey process, the journey itself often addresses this stage of healing. What might identify such a journey is an apparent lack of resolution, and being left without completion. However, both the mentor and the mentored have had a fuller experience of the disease or discomfort and may find that the information presented by the unconscious during the journey gives a fuller and more multi-dimensional experience of the issue, and provides information about its etiology.
One client, for example, bolted out of a journey and was unwilling to resume the process. He had encountered a deep blackness that scared him. This was consistent with one of his diagnoses, paranoia. On re-entry, he stated that the blackness had triggered thoughts of a Black Widow spider. His mother had considered herself as such and had even signed notes to her family as the "Black Widow." He had been over controlled and the life taken out of him by this woman. The journey was in and of itself complete in that it revealed this heretofore unknown data at a very visceral level and demonstrated its effect on the patient. This image of the female as a black widow had adversely shaped his attitudes and perceptions of relationships with women his whole life, and proved to be necessary to his future work and evolution. In other senses, all CRP journeys may incorporate this as one component of the process.
We can not begin to heal until we know that healing is needed and understand the nature of the crisis. This is the lesson of the east. For example, when one encounters the experience of the Primal Existential Sensory Image, this is a profound insight into the dynamics or nature of the self and the disease's dynamics. In that most journeys reach the level of experiencing the primal existential sensory image, they reveal the primal sensory pattern of the disease. This is the last stage in which the ego is involved and leads to the next step of the healing process, and entering into the transpersonal. This happens in the South.
The South
The medicine wheel is based on the circle of the sun. When the sun is seen to be in a given direction, in this case the south, it is characterized by what happens there in the southern sky. When this is the case, it is the time of winter. It is cold, not much happens outside and most of our activities take place in the shelter of our buildings or lodges. What leads or brings into the south or winter is the fall or autumn, when the trees let go of their leaves and cold takes its grip on the earth.
Echoing this natural pattern the CRP is almost entirely a process of letting go and becoming; of entering into the cold or blackness of the void. In the cold, things become still; they do not grow. Indeed, even the very motion of the atoms ad molecules is slowed down. Things become brittle and shatter easily, losing their form as they break or dissolve into the chaos of many scattered pieces. The guide of the south is the Snake. The snake grows by shedding its old brittle skin. Once new, soft and flexible, it protected and defined the snake. The skin, eventually, however, becomes old and brittle and confining.
The snake becomes confined by this old skin and cannot grow inside it but must shed it to develop a new larger and more flexible skin. So too the diseases we incorporate were once solutions to problems we faced, and these solutions protected and defined us. As times evolve and our lives change, these old solutions become brittle and confining to us, so we must shed them. The problem is that we often become attached to the old skin, and are unwilling to let it go, so the next stage of healing is to be willing to let the disease go. It is not always easy to do.
Many who seek psychological help have the agenda of wanting the therapist to magically change those who they consider to be their problem. For example, the paranoia of the client about the Black Widow nature of women was very protective for him. It also defined who he was around women. He had developed his body strength and muscle through rigorous daily workouts with weights, however his obsession with this had created a stiff and inflexible body, which was contributing to fibromyalgia or arthritic like muscle pains.
He was strong but brittle, and could not flow. Moreover, he kept asking and plotting how to get his current girlfriend(s)) to change. The skin he had developed to help him survive with his mother, who was likely insane, was now no longer serving him, and in fact was the basis of his physical and mental afflictions. As a child he had come to believe that only by being very strong and tough could he survive his mother. The idea of giving up that protective skin was terrifying to him and he fought to hang on to it. He was as a snake, not wanting or willing to lose its skin and become vulnerable and sensitive. His evolution was stuck.
The task of the south is to let go of the disease, as the snake sheds its skin. This exposes our sensitive inner being to the world, and makes us vulnerable. Many failures in healing stem from this stage. Often the patient will discontinue or stop treatment if it looks about to succeed. For example, an other mentoree suffered from multiple sclerosis. It had manifested in response to a prayer in a particularly abusive relationship and eventually got her out of it. This disease, however, now identified her and largely defined her relationship with her new husband. It allowed her leisure, space and safety which had been lacking in both her family of origin and her first marriage.
When the MS appeared to be going into remission, this threatened her relationship with her new husband, which was based in her illness and his need to have someone ill in his life, and also threatened her identity. These factors caused her to discontinue her healing work on it, at least with me. Letting go of the disease takes us away from what has grown to be familiar and casts us into the chaotic maelstrom of the unknown. Yet it is a necessary step. It is in this chaos and vulnerability that the old forms dissolve or die so that we can be reborn.
We must let go into chaotic consciousness and trust or have faith in our organism's ability to heal or self regulate. ("The big wheel rang by faith..."). In my own recent brush with death I recall as I was being wheeled into emergency surgery, letting go and putting my faith into the process I was experiencing. I am convinced that this was very crucial to my surviving the ordeal. In the journey process, this going into a death experience is integral to the process. Otherwise we are only putting a superficial patina down to cover the disease.
The old must die in order for a true rebirth to occur. The energy of the illness must pass into the cold of winter and death to be shattered and transformed into the renewed life and energy that emerges with spring. This is the lesson of the south and carries us around the wheel into the west.
The West
When the sun travels into the western sky, it brings the night. During the night we are still inside our lodges and it is in this time that we find release in the little death of sleep. In this little death we encounter our dreams.
Night is the time of darkness, and in the darkness our senses are enhanced. This too is in the nature of dreams, this enhanced sensitivity and also the ability to see or imagine what is yet to become, to dream. The totems of the west are the black bear, the wolf, the panther, creatures of the evening and night who are familiar with finding their way through the darkened landscape, in this case the selfscape. They do so through their enhanced senses. Dreams too, through their enhanced sensitivity, guide us through the darkness, but dreams also provide us with occasional glimpses of the future, tell us what is to be. It is in the west that the new image of who we are to become emerges from within us. This is the next stage of healing.
After shedding the old skin, entering the chaos of loss of self to become unbound Self, ("And the little wheel turned by the grace of God..."). We must find within this realm of spirit, the image of our new self. It is a case of creating the seed image that will grow to become what we may be, that will provide the new image that will shape us, and let us experience what we may become. It takes place in REM and we have hypothesized elsewhere ("Remembering REM," and HOLOGRAPHIC HEALING), that REM may indeed be the consciousness in which we restructure both physiological and mental dynamics into healthy process. In the CRP, this is experienced as the emergence from the chaotic consciousness or the unbound Self of a new sense of self. In the CRP, the old image, the primal image dissolves into chaos and from this emerges a new and different sense of self; it is a creative, self-organizing process.
The organism begins to take on this new image but it is formed in the chaos and creativity of our REM or dream consciousness. This is the lesson of the west. It is the gift of REM. It is the newly born self, a gift from the Self. When we experience, embrace and indeed become this new sense of self, it provides the blue print for the eventual presentation of new behaviors and body structures. This takes place in the completion of the circuit around the wheel, to the direction of the North.
The North
As the sun moves into the northern sky, it brings with it the warmth and rebirthing of spring. When the sun reaches the northern sky it becomes the time of summer, the time when the seeds planed become mature, and the fruits and seeds ripen to feed and sustain us. These are the healing principles of the journey into the North. Once we have experienced the birth and inner presence of the new sense or image of self, we must let it grow and mature, much as the fruits and seeds need to mature in the summer heat or become useful to us in our lives.
The totem of the North is the Owl, and Owl guides us "through the valley of the shadow of death." Indeed each healing journey is the death of something within us, a mental problem, a cancer or an ulcer, or millions of viruses, to allow our continued evolution. In this way the north and the owl see us throughout the entire circuit around the medicine wheel.
In the CRP this follows after the inner journey and represents the bringing out of the new self image. It begins during the re-entry process as the mentor and mentored dialogue about the journey and how to allow this new image of self to express in daily life. It continues on for months or years after the journey, providing new insights into the healing and revealing new skills expressed in behavior, attitudes and perceptions of life. Indeed it is the emergence of a new wisdom about the self. This wisdom is another characteristic that we have imparted to the owl, the image of the wise old owl.
This coming to wisdom brings us to a new enlightenment about the self and allows us to see ourselves in a new light which in its turn brings us back to the East, and the next healing journey around the medicine wheel. In this way the the wheel is seen to be wheels rotating within wheels, spirals of evolution bringing us to every increasing maturity, health and wisdom. May the circles be unbroken and lead one into the next. c, 2001, Asklepia Foundation
The Medicine Wheel and CRP
by Graywolf Swinney, 2001
Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling way in the middle of the air.
A wheel within a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air.
And the big wheel ran by faith, and the wheel ran by the grace of God,
Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air.
The four directions of healing is one model or organization that can be used to describe the steps in healing processes in general. It does not drive the processes, but is a means of organizing four key steps or stages in healing, and most specifically relates to natural or spiritual healing. It directly applies to the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and derives from the medicine circle, or wheel used by aboriginal tribes throughout the world but, most particularly the Americas.
The particular version of the wheel described in this article comes from Central America as described by shaman Don Edwardo who was studied and his work chronicled by Dr. Alberto Villaldo, a well known psychological anthropologist, (author of Healing States with Stanley Krippner). We have added our own notions about the way that the wheel relates to the more contemporary healing processes and specifically the CRP.
All healing processes involve passing through each of the four directions of the wheel, and each direction represents a principle that applies to life in general, as well as healing. Each of the four directions has a guide or totem that represents this principle. Each of the four directions also represents a cardinal compass point. In native American teachings, it is stated that one constantly travels around this circle and in so doing attains harmony and balance, and comes full circle.
This may indeed be the purpose of any or all diseases, to provide an evolutionary opportunity for an individual organism to evolve. I derived this model in a brief flurry of panic under the following circumstances: I had been invited to address an early breakfast meeting of a large group of healers of all persuasions. The talk was to be on Shamanism, and in particular to discuss the contents of medicine bag, how they had come to me and how I used them. That morning when I went to get into my car, it had been burglarized and my medicine bag had been stolen. I was due to talk in about ten minutes and now had no topic, or at the very least had lost my props.
The following model is what I presented. It seemed that by just speaking and listening to what I said, the following notions came forth. This event is chronicled in my article The Empty Medicine Bag.
The East
The first of the four directions is the East. It is where the sun rises and comes back into our sight and awareness each day. It is the direction that brings light into the world so that we can see what is about us. It represents the beginning of each day when we re-awaken to the seeing and sensing of the outer world. The teacher or totem of the east is the Eagle and the lesson it brings to us is that of the "eagle's eye."
The eagle can spot a tiny mouse in a field from great heights and swoop down to feed on it. It is this acuity of vision that represents the lesson of the east. The healing principles involved are about seeing or sensing. The first step in healing is to see or sense that we have a disease, the nature of it, and that healing is needed. For us personally, this is the stage when we become aware of the symptoms either directly or though our dreams.
We must sense or see that we do indeed have a disease and understand its nature. The symptoms alert us to a condition that needs attention. Indeed in all forms of healing we must identify what it is that needs to be changed, physical, mental, or spiritual. In medical practice this is the stage at which the diagnosis is made. Only by making a valid diagnosis can the physician provide treatment according to medical criteria or protocol. In psychological healing we must realize that we have a condition that needs to be resolved.
The joke about "How many psychologists are needed to change a light bulb?" is germane here. The answer is "Only one, but the bulb has to want to be changed." Spiritual malaise is often much more difficult to identify. We often only realize it through our physical or mental symptoms. The first step when one goes to an allopathic doctor is for the doctor to diagnose the illness.
It is only after knowing what the illness is, that the doctor can undertake a treatment. Added to this, the comment made by Sir William Ostler is applicable, "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of a disease a patient has." One needs to see the patient as a full person rather than as only a disease. In this much more holistic and humanistic approach, one still needs to see or sense the nature of the condition and come to know the nature of the one with the condition before treatment can be administered.
With respect to the CRP, this stage of the East involves identifying the nature of the problem in its many manifestations. This is done in partnership with the patient. For example a client shows up suffering from great discomfort of being in confined spaces. The psychologist might get more specific information but has probably already formed a tentative diagnosis of claustrophobia. He would probably ask questions to confirm the diagnosis and perhaps explore the etiology of the condition.
The mentor, however, would further pursue the matter by asking about how the condition may present physically or spiritually as well. In this he might also discover that the patient has fibromyalgia and in further questioning may find that the person also feels restricted in their marriage and occupation. They may be feeling the limitations of their religion or lack of it. (See Fibromyalgia and CRP by Swinney and Kuehn, Chaosophy 2000).
Thus the fundamental nature of the illness is seen to be a factor much broader than merely a psychological disorder, and to manifest in many aspects of the patient's life. It weaves a thread throughout the tapestry of their experience of life. It is this sense of being restricted that is more fundamental to the disease, and that manifests as many other symptoms. This is to be discovered and revealed in the phase of the East. During treatment the mentor and the mentored may revisit the east many times as the layers of the disease reveal themselves.
Dreams have within them the ability to help us to sense or diagnose that there is a problem long before it manifests as an actual disease. This has been a recognized characteristic of dreams since the dawn of human presence on the planet. In the CRP journey process, the journey itself often addresses this stage of healing. What might identify such a journey is an apparent lack of resolution, and being left without completion. However, both the mentor and the mentored have had a fuller experience of the disease or discomfort and may find that the information presented by the unconscious during the journey gives a fuller and more multi-dimensional experience of the issue, and provides information about its etiology.
One client, for example, bolted out of a journey and was unwilling to resume the process. He had encountered a deep blackness that scared him. This was consistent with one of his diagnoses, paranoia. On re-entry, he stated that the blackness had triggered thoughts of a Black Widow spider. His mother had considered herself as such and had even signed notes to her family as the "Black Widow." He had been over controlled and the life taken out of him by this woman. The journey was in and of itself complete in that it revealed this heretofore unknown data at a very visceral level and demonstrated its effect on the patient. This image of the female as a black widow had adversely shaped his attitudes and perceptions of relationships with women his whole life, and proved to be necessary to his future work and evolution. In other senses, all CRP journeys may incorporate this as one component of the process.
We can not begin to heal until we know that healing is needed and understand the nature of the crisis. This is the lesson of the east. For example, when one encounters the experience of the Primal Existential Sensory Image, this is a profound insight into the dynamics or nature of the self and the disease's dynamics. In that most journeys reach the level of experiencing the primal existential sensory image, they reveal the primal sensory pattern of the disease. This is the last stage in which the ego is involved and leads to the next step of the healing process, and entering into the transpersonal. This happens in the South.
The South
The medicine wheel is based on the circle of the sun. When the sun is seen to be in a given direction, in this case the south, it is characterized by what happens there in the southern sky. When this is the case, it is the time of winter. It is cold, not much happens outside and most of our activities take place in the shelter of our buildings or lodges. What leads or brings into the south or winter is the fall or autumn, when the trees let go of their leaves and cold takes its grip on the earth.
Echoing this natural pattern the CRP is almost entirely a process of letting go and becoming; of entering into the cold or blackness of the void. In the cold, things become still; they do not grow. Indeed, even the very motion of the atoms ad molecules is slowed down. Things become brittle and shatter easily, losing their form as they break or dissolve into the chaos of many scattered pieces. The guide of the south is the Snake. The snake grows by shedding its old brittle skin. Once new, soft and flexible, it protected and defined the snake. The skin, eventually, however, becomes old and brittle and confining.
The snake becomes confined by this old skin and cannot grow inside it but must shed it to develop a new larger and more flexible skin. So too the diseases we incorporate were once solutions to problems we faced, and these solutions protected and defined us. As times evolve and our lives change, these old solutions become brittle and confining to us, so we must shed them. The problem is that we often become attached to the old skin, and are unwilling to let it go, so the next stage of healing is to be willing to let the disease go. It is not always easy to do.
Many who seek psychological help have the agenda of wanting the therapist to magically change those who they consider to be their problem. For example, the paranoia of the client about the Black Widow nature of women was very protective for him. It also defined who he was around women. He had developed his body strength and muscle through rigorous daily workouts with weights, however his obsession with this had created a stiff and inflexible body, which was contributing to fibromyalgia or arthritic like muscle pains.
He was strong but brittle, and could not flow. Moreover, he kept asking and plotting how to get his current girlfriend(s)) to change. The skin he had developed to help him survive with his mother, who was likely insane, was now no longer serving him, and in fact was the basis of his physical and mental afflictions. As a child he had come to believe that only by being very strong and tough could he survive his mother. The idea of giving up that protective skin was terrifying to him and he fought to hang on to it. He was as a snake, not wanting or willing to lose its skin and become vulnerable and sensitive. His evolution was stuck.
The task of the south is to let go of the disease, as the snake sheds its skin. This exposes our sensitive inner being to the world, and makes us vulnerable. Many failures in healing stem from this stage. Often the patient will discontinue or stop treatment if it looks about to succeed. For example, an other mentoree suffered from multiple sclerosis. It had manifested in response to a prayer in a particularly abusive relationship and eventually got her out of it. This disease, however, now identified her and largely defined her relationship with her new husband. It allowed her leisure, space and safety which had been lacking in both her family of origin and her first marriage.
When the MS appeared to be going into remission, this threatened her relationship with her new husband, which was based in her illness and his need to have someone ill in his life, and also threatened her identity. These factors caused her to discontinue her healing work on it, at least with me. Letting go of the disease takes us away from what has grown to be familiar and casts us into the chaotic maelstrom of the unknown. Yet it is a necessary step. It is in this chaos and vulnerability that the old forms dissolve or die so that we can be reborn.
We must let go into chaotic consciousness and trust or have faith in our organism's ability to heal or self regulate. ("The big wheel rang by faith..."). In my own recent brush with death I recall as I was being wheeled into emergency surgery, letting go and putting my faith into the process I was experiencing. I am convinced that this was very crucial to my surviving the ordeal. In the journey process, this going into a death experience is integral to the process. Otherwise we are only putting a superficial patina down to cover the disease.
The old must die in order for a true rebirth to occur. The energy of the illness must pass into the cold of winter and death to be shattered and transformed into the renewed life and energy that emerges with spring. This is the lesson of the south and carries us around the wheel into the west.
The West
When the sun travels into the western sky, it brings the night. During the night we are still inside our lodges and it is in this time that we find release in the little death of sleep. In this little death we encounter our dreams.
Night is the time of darkness, and in the darkness our senses are enhanced. This too is in the nature of dreams, this enhanced sensitivity and also the ability to see or imagine what is yet to become, to dream. The totems of the west are the black bear, the wolf, the panther, creatures of the evening and night who are familiar with finding their way through the darkened landscape, in this case the selfscape. They do so through their enhanced senses. Dreams too, through their enhanced sensitivity, guide us through the darkness, but dreams also provide us with occasional glimpses of the future, tell us what is to be. It is in the west that the new image of who we are to become emerges from within us. This is the next stage of healing.
After shedding the old skin, entering the chaos of loss of self to become unbound Self, ("And the little wheel turned by the grace of God..."). We must find within this realm of spirit, the image of our new self. It is a case of creating the seed image that will grow to become what we may be, that will provide the new image that will shape us, and let us experience what we may become. It takes place in REM and we have hypothesized elsewhere ("Remembering REM," and HOLOGRAPHIC HEALING), that REM may indeed be the consciousness in which we restructure both physiological and mental dynamics into healthy process. In the CRP, this is experienced as the emergence from the chaotic consciousness or the unbound Self of a new sense of self. In the CRP, the old image, the primal image dissolves into chaos and from this emerges a new and different sense of self; it is a creative, self-organizing process.
The organism begins to take on this new image but it is formed in the chaos and creativity of our REM or dream consciousness. This is the lesson of the west. It is the gift of REM. It is the newly born self, a gift from the Self. When we experience, embrace and indeed become this new sense of self, it provides the blue print for the eventual presentation of new behaviors and body structures. This takes place in the completion of the circuit around the wheel, to the direction of the North.
The North
As the sun moves into the northern sky, it brings with it the warmth and rebirthing of spring. When the sun reaches the northern sky it becomes the time of summer, the time when the seeds planed become mature, and the fruits and seeds ripen to feed and sustain us. These are the healing principles of the journey into the North. Once we have experienced the birth and inner presence of the new sense or image of self, we must let it grow and mature, much as the fruits and seeds need to mature in the summer heat or become useful to us in our lives.
The totem of the North is the Owl, and Owl guides us "through the valley of the shadow of death." Indeed each healing journey is the death of something within us, a mental problem, a cancer or an ulcer, or millions of viruses, to allow our continued evolution. In this way the north and the owl see us throughout the entire circuit around the medicine wheel.
In the CRP this follows after the inner journey and represents the bringing out of the new self image. It begins during the re-entry process as the mentor and mentored dialogue about the journey and how to allow this new image of self to express in daily life. It continues on for months or years after the journey, providing new insights into the healing and revealing new skills expressed in behavior, attitudes and perceptions of life. Indeed it is the emergence of a new wisdom about the self. This wisdom is another characteristic that we have imparted to the owl, the image of the wise old owl.
This coming to wisdom brings us to a new enlightenment about the self and allows us to see ourselves in a new light which in its turn brings us back to the East, and the next healing journey around the medicine wheel. In this way the the wheel is seen to be wheels rotating within wheels, spirals of evolution bringing us to every increasing maturity, health and wisdom. May the circles be unbroken and lead one into the next. c, 2001, Asklepia Foundation
AMPHORA 2001 Online Newsletter
Vol. 1; No. 2 THE QUANTUM BODY-MIND by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller
Asklepia Foundation, c2000
ABSTRACT: Where does a thought or an emotion come from? How is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and sometimes we find ourselves seeing things differently and thinking about them differently than ever before--a burst of creativity. How does this happen? This could be a description of spontaneous emergence through complex dynamic processes at the quantum level. The quantum body-mind exists on the creative edge of spacetime reality. It is a self-organizing, emergent force of consciousness which arises from the formless level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. The primordial consciousness field patterns and conditions our primal existential self. Chaos is the transformative process by which outmoded structures dissolve and new ones create themselves. The quantum mind-body floats on an ocean of undifferentiated potential or chaotic consciousness. It draws on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. Our ordinary reality forms just this side of the Unbound Self--our state of Godness. Consciousness does exist and operate at the quantum level of reality and affects the nature or course of reality just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality. Individual consciousness may be abstracted from an underlying pool of consciousness, in the same way as the observed quantum wave packet is collapsed from an overall wave function.
A basic unit of consciousness is described as a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle of consciousness but is the potential for both. Conscioutrons are fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter arising from the consciousness field. They are the basis of all our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Out of infinite possibility, out of the constant flux of infinite possibilities, a quantum shift can create a different reality, a healing shift, a creative restructuring of the whole person.
KEYWORDS: consciousness, quantum physics, biophysics, chaos theory, complex dynamic systems, psychotherapy, healing, spirituality, self-organization, dreams, REM, shamanic psychotherapy, transpersonal psychology, Graywolf Swinney, Asklepia Foundation, David Bohm, quantum mechanics, Zero-Point Field (ZPF), shamanic consciousness journeys, new physics
Physicist H.P. Stapp states that, "The recent resurgence of interest in the foundations of quantum theory has led increasingly to a focus on the role of consciousness in the unfolding of physical reality. It has become clear that the revolution in our conception of matter wrought by quantum theory has completely altered the complexion of the relationship between mind and matter."
Quantum physics describes a fundamental or primal level or zone of reality formation. It is the level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. It is the level at which this matter-energy stuff arises (is created) from an infinite field of possibilities. If these are the fundamental dynamics from which the universe is being created, then these dynamics must also exist and express within each of us and must also be the basis of each of us. We will coin the phrase "the quantum body-mind," to use when referring to this level of the self. The quantum body-mind exists on this creating edge of space-time reality.
On one side of this zone or level lies a vast complexity of formlessness, or unrealized infinite potential, the complex forces and dynamics that underlie the creation of reality. It is the implicate order defined by physicist David Bohm. On the other side of it are the structures that we perceive as our personal reality, the experiences and forms of self and environment that structure the existential perceptions that are our experience of self, environment and the relationship between the two. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. It is where the processes of the Creator work in each of us to produce an experience of reality and personal evolution. (See Figure 1).
Structure and formlessness embrace on this line and dance to the rhythms of creative processes. On the one hand the dance solidifies the patterns that are experienced as our primal existential Self. On the other hand the old structures and rhythms or patterns that need transformation dissolve in this dance to ever evolve into new expressions of physical and mental self. In the most fundamental sense, it is the eternal evolutionary dance of the Hindu God, Shiva.
The old and outmoded structures dissolve--die--and new ones create themselves. It is here that space-time reality starts and evolution is the everlasting, ever-present and ongoing process of reality. It is at this level where the conception of a thought and the birth of a cell are just different presentations of the same dynamic consciousness processes. Both cell and thought emerge from the same underlying stuff that expresses itself as either matter or energy. At this level of quantum reality, the undifferentiated stuff has the potential to be both, and perhaps even more than that. The quantum mind-body floats in this ocean of undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness. It draw on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. It is just this side of the unbound self or our state of Godness. The consciousness dynamics of the quantum body-mind, or what we label "quantum consciousness" is different than the "chaotic consciousness" identified in other writings, (Swinney, 1999).
To understand this difference we must first explore the nature of consciousness. Figure 1: Quantum Continuum We propose the hypothesis that Consciousness, too, operates at the quantum level. It exists as energy-matter, and at its most basic or primal level is a field. Field processes can be described either in terms of fields or particles. We further presume that the natural processes describing field phenomena in general (such as electric or magnetic fields) as they manifest and operate in the reality of the space-time continuum also apply to consciousness field as it too emerges into space and time. In fact, we speculate that consciousness field may actually be the unified field or the basis of all fields that Einstein was seeking throughout the last half of his life.
The Case for Consciousness Field:
We suggest that a consciousness field exists because there are certain observable and well-documented phenomena that are best or most simply and elegantly explained by the existence of a consciousness field. We know that fields exist in general because they interact with and affect matter and energy, through such means as polarization. In fact, all fundamental fields known to physics correspond to specific vacuum polarization-states. It seems likely that cosmos and consciousness are interconnected by a continuous information-conserving and transmitting field, as suggested by Bohm's implicate order.
This flow is what determines the geometrical structure of space-time. These observable effects are what imply the existence of a field. For example, when we pass a wire close by a magnet (and through its field), this induces the flow of electricity in the wire. This implies the existence of a magnetic field producing an observable and measurable space-time phenomenon in the form of an electric current. These phenomena are best described and understood by quantum physics, the physics that describes the reality of microcosmic events. However, as with electricity, their effects are also observable in the macro world of human experiences.
One of many examples of this with respect to consciousness is the experience of synchronicity. As the term, coined by Jung, is currently used synchronicity occurs when events mysteriously line up to create an effect on matter or influence events' outcomes or directions. There is a meaningful coincidence at the level of both psyche and matter simultaneously. For example, I need to find an obscure reference and am not sure where to start looking, or where I had first encountered it. I unexpectedly receive a phone call from an old friend who hasn't contacted me for several years. In our conversation recalling old times together, without prior reference to it, he casually mentions the missing data and its source. Often we are thinking of a friend, and as we go to pick up the phone to call, it rings and they are on the line. Synchronicity or psi?
Spontaneous healing, a mind-body phenomenon, is another example. All things are simply connected, through a fundamental pattern: the information-conserving and transmitting universal holofield. Although classical science has tended to explain these types of events away as coincidence or accidental chronistic alignments, we tend to think that Einstein's contention that "God would not play dice with the universe," is more likely true. There seem to be, in our experience, just too many such synchronicities that occur to seriously consider statistical chance as the only or even the best explanation for them.
Quantum Theory itself suggests that consciousness exists at the levels of quantum reality, and in fact may ultimately be responsible for quantum level events. "How," the physicists ask, "does an electron know what its pair partner is doing unless they are connected or conscious of one another?" This refers to the theory that for every electron with a positive spin, there is another electron, its pair partner, with a negative spin. Physicists have demonstrated this experimentally. By changing the spin on one electron they are able to measure the complimentary change in the spin on its pair partner even though the two electrons are separated in space.
Another example is the double slit experiment. An electron arriving at one slit and passing through it must have consciousness about another electron arriving at the other slit in order to produce the observed interference pattern beyond the slits. The simplest and most direct answer to these questions suggests that the electrons are exchanging information and each is "conscious" of the dynamics of the other. This consciousness or connection suggests among other things that a consciousness field is operating on or influencing events in the universe just as do magnetic and gravity fields. Non-locality is one way that this characteristic is often labeled in quantum physics, but this label does not exclude consciousness field -- it elaborates it and can help us define it. Inherent in this is the notion that consciousness, in the broadest sense, may in part be information or awareness about the state of beingness has of itself, and the rest of the universe. That is certainly one way we can define human consciousness: the awareness of self and the environment.
Another example of consciousness field operating is the phenomenon of entrainment. As it operates in either non-living or living systems, it has never really been explained by classical physics. Both types of system display the ability to become synchronous with other similar systems when their frequencies are close to one another. Some examples of entrainment we experience are observing two swinging pendulums slightly out of phase come into phase on their own with no known external connection or mechanism operating. Electronic circuits do the same (the automatic fine-tuning feature of FM radios), or women's menses becoming synchronous when living closely together or in close relationships.
When each system is in proximity to another similarly periodic system, they soon match up. We believe this too suggests the existence of a consciousness field operating in and affecting the material universe at the fundamental level of information. This notion of consciousness field can also explain widely reported ESP phenomena such as remote viewing, which classical science cannot. In fact, it generally ignores such phenomena because it has rejected and excluded consciousness from all its considerations and models.
Henry P. Stapp (1995), a theoretical physicist, states it well. He notes that, "Classical mechanics arose from the banishment of consciousness to find that the readmission of consciousness requires going beyond that theory." We also suggest that it is far simpler to go beyond the limits of classical science in these instances and to posit the existence of a consciousness field to explain the aforementioned, and many other similar phenomena. It is much more elegant to do so than to embrace the many convoluted contentions of chance, coincidence, fraud or other non-answers and denials usually offered by classical science when it considers such phenomena.
The point here is that consciousness does exist and operates at the quantum level of reality, and it does seem to affect the nature or course of reality through minor perturbations in the flow of microevents, just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality. The Nature of Quantum Reality: Consciousness Field and the "Conscioutron" One can conceive of fields as potential energy-matter existing on the edges of space and time. In this quasi field phase, neither matter nor energy yet exists. A field is potential for such. A magnetic field has no substance. It is only potential matter or energy.
When influenced by a magnetic field, electrons (quanta of electricity) are influenced to flow through a conductor as an electric current. This current is an event and measurable in the reality we sense and perceive and it is what tells us that the electro-magnetic field exists. The electron is the basic unit of energy-particle or the quantum that is created from the field. It is the primal or initial way that the underlying field manifests into the space-time universe. Similarly a photon is a quantum of light and graviton is a quantum of gravity.
Light expresses itself as energy or wave patterns, or in its solid form, as photons of matter. Physicist and author Fritjof Capra (1981) states that, "independent of my mind, my conscious decisions about how to observe say an electron will determine the electron's properties. If I ask it a particle question, it will give me a particle answer, if I ask it a wave question it will give me a wave answer. The electron does not have objective properties."
Which aspect is manifested depends on the observer and what is being studied. These types of dynamics are what define the level of quantum reality and its inherent anti-intuitive strangeness, which doesn't conform to the observable mechanics of ordinary experience. The same process goes on in the body-mind at subtle levels. Deepak Chopra (1989) points out that, "Thanks to messenger molecules, events that seem totally unconnected--such as a thought and a bodily reaction--are now seen to be consistent.
The neuro-peptide isn't a thought, but it moves with thought, serving as a point of transformation. The quantum does exactly the same thing, except that the body in question is the universe, or nature as a whole." Thus, thoughts are somehow connected to hidden processes that transform nonmatter into matter, by going directly to the source of the body-mind's existence in space-time. A journey into this mysterious zone can have amazingly positive results; the transformation must occur here or the rest of the cascading events will not happen. What makes DNA mysterious, according to Chopra "is that it lives right at the point of transformation, just like the quantum. Its whole life is spent creating more life...constantly transferring messages from the quantum world to ours."
Matter and energy come out of the primordial state as a "singularity," the compression of all the expanded dimensions of the universe. When a mental event needs to find a physical counterpart, it works through the quantum mechanical human body, molecules that are "smart" instead of inert. We again invoke physicist David Bohm's (1980) notion of an "invisible field" that holds all of reality together, a field that inherently possesses the property of knowing what is happening everywhere at once. Like the thought and the neuro-peptide, light cannot be a wave and a photon at the same time; it is either one or the other. Light is one small band in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The amount of electromagnetic energy that makes up a particle of matter is described by Einstein's famous equation that Energy equals mass times the speed of Light, squared. But this quantitative equation only tells us the amount of energy associated with the particle. It does not, however, describe how the energy and matter coexist and manifest as reality. Bohm's theory is that the waves of energy created or emerging from the infinite potential or implicate order form an interference pattern or hologram that we perceive as the solid universe.
This holonomic theory provides the basis for all the material phenomena in the universe, with solidity, substance and motion being added by interactions of electromagnetic, gravity, and time fields, (Swinney, 1999). Similarly we suggest that consciousness field exists as a potential throughout all the space-time universe and operates by the same principles. The basic quanta of consciousness might be called a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle but is the potential for both. Both our physical substance and our psyche's energy are continually forming at this level. The realms of mind and matter are complementary aspects of the same transcendental reality.
This transcendental realm is the subquantum virtuality of the vacuum potential (Zero-Point Field, ZPF), a field which has the properties of a superfluid. Objects move through this fluid without encountering resistance as in ordinary flow-states. The quantum vacuum is a universal torsion wave carrying medium. All objects, from quanta to galaxies, create vortices in the vacuum. The vortices created by particles and other material objects are information carriers, linking physical events quasi-instantaneously. Since not just physical objects, but also the neurons of our brains create and receive torsion-waves, not only particles are "informed" of each other's presence (as in the EPR experiments), also humans can be so informed and integrated in the cosmic Whole, or universal holofield.
Our brain is a vacuum-based "torsion-field transceiver," (Laszlo, 1996). This suggests a physical explanation not only of quantum non-locality, but also of synchronicity, telepathy, remote viewing and other psi effects. The quantum body-mind is the level of our organism in which conscioutrons operate. Just as electrons are the smallest energy-particle of electricity, conscioutrons are the fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter rising from consciousness field. How many conscioutrons it takes to make up, say a protein, a thought, an emotion or a sensation is open to speculation. The flow of conscioutrons is the basis of all consciousness just as the flow of electrons is the basis of electricity.
Conscioutrons are the basis of all of our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Electricity is most readily detected when it flows as a current and it is when it is flowing that it directly influences or effects the material world. In an analogous manner consciousness flow is the way consciousness field affects the material world and is what we usually refer to as being conscious. We can conceive of consciousness field as being a primal sea of chaotic or undifferentiated consciousness.
Emerging from this sea of consciousness are conscioutrons which define the quantum level of consciousness or quantum consciousness. Thus, quantum consciousness operates by the same principles that define the quantum level of reality. There are many texts and popular books defining the dynamics and principles that operate in and define this quantum level of reality (see References). The quantum view is a surrealistic view of reality, one which is not based on some fundamental particle or building block. Instead substance arises out of apparent nothingness, or disappears into nothingness to perhaps reappear in some other location or form. Here, between space-time, and the oceans of chaos and infinite possibility, wave fronts or energy clouds appear that have not yet committed to being matter or energy. They are somehow both and yet neither.
When we observe something in this primordial "soup" it seems to assume either matter or wave configuration but unobserved remains uncommitted energy-matter virtuality, known as quanta. One physicist, Nick Herbert, comments about this and the quantum reality that he sometimes imagines is behind his back as "a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup." When he turns around and tries to see it, his glance instantly freezes it, and turns it back into ordinary reality. In this quantum reality, time itself is far more than the inevitable linear ticking of a clock. Particles can travel backwards or forward through time (precursor or "pilot" waves). They appear out of seeming nothingness, moving through time and disappearing into the past or the future.
Here, it is not possible to merely observe an event; the act of observation itself actually shapes or influences the event. It is also a reality of uncertainty, where you can't really pin anything down. The more one focuses on and learns about one aspect of an event, the less one can know about the rest of it. This is known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We cannot measure an electron's position in space and its speed or dynamics simultaneously. The more we know about its velocity, the less certain we are about where it is. Reality is in constant flux arising momentarily out of the infinite possibility, and in the next moment, too short to even be time, a quantum shift can create a different reality. An electron cloud shifts from one energy state (orbit) to another, and the atom becomes more, or less reactive. All reality is changed.
The Quantum Mind
This is also true of what creates body-mind and the level of the quantum body-mind also operates in this fashion. In other words, each of us is a part of reality and is formed at the quantum level by the same principles that form the rest of reality. Nature is our healer, because we are Nature. It is this flow that defines or operates in the quantum mind. We can change like quicksilver, transforming or healing spontaneously, because the flowing quality of life is natural to us. The material body is a river of atoms, the mind is a river of thought, and what holds them together is a river of intelligence--what has been referred to as the stream of consciousness--consciousness which informs the entire holomovement.
We are all navigators in the stream of consciousness. If there is not a flow, if all the conscioutrons are tied up in rigid structures, we are disconnected from the flow of universal evolution and thus in a state of stress or disease. The disease may present itself as mental or physical dissonance, or symptoms, whose forms repeat at all levels of organization. This notion of the fractal reiteration or repetition of structures is an important aspect of Chaosophy, this definition of disease and health. We consider disease as stagnation and the stress caused by a structure's opposition to free consciousness flow and evolution--a stuckness.
Health is the flow and evolution of both our physical structure and mentality. An excellent analogy is that of a river. The rocks or obstructions in the river are what creates the rapids. The bigger the rocks and the faster the flow, the more dangerous are the rapids. Similarly, we are constantly creating self at the quantum level, drawing on the consciousness potential to create the flow and substance of our body and mind. This potential exists as a field dispersed throughout and indeed underlying all of known space and time. The rocks are analogous to fixed and highly structured consciousness patterns or dynamics. The bigger the fixations and the faster the flow, the more dangerous the disease.
Continuing with the water analogy, picture an ocean of water. It is analogous to the field underlying reality. As the sun evaporates or draws water from the ocean, it becomes humidity in the air. As the winds blow and encounters with geographical features move the humid air about, raising it, cooling it, etc., the water vapor takes the forms of clouds, then rain and finally becomes the lakes and rivers that flow back into the ocean, and in doing so shape the geography or topography. This cycle ultimately shapes all the landmasses of the planet. In the context of this analogy, we, our personal experience of self and reality, are analogous to the river.
Quantum reality is represented by the evaporation into the air of the ocean water. It is neither water (matter) nor vapor (energy), but has the potential to be either. It is uncommitted. As this moist air flows in the winds, it encounters a land mass and the flow is altered. It rises and cools, and in doing so very tiny particles of water form suspended in the air mass and become clouds and mists. These micro particles of water (mists or clouds) eventually join or unite into globules or drops of water from the turbulence (non linear or chaotic dynamics) in the moving air. At the quantum level, physicists claim that an electron is more like a cloud distribution about a nucleus, rather than being a discrete particle. The drops eventually condense, as rain, fall to the ground where they continue to unite and flow until they become streams and eventually rivers.
The shape of the river is determined in part by the existing terrain, but at the same time it is also modifying the terrain, shaping the river valleys and dissolving even the greatest of mountains. Analogously, we are constantly drawing consciousness out of its field form (ocean).
At the quantum level conscioutrons are formed, the smallest dynamic structures or patterns of consciousness. As this encounters our organism (landmass) these conscioutrons blend, mix and unite to produce the substance of our body (the cells, bones, and tissue) and mind (thoughts, emotions, etc.). As with the rain, the drops unite and become water flowing eventually as a river shaped by and shaping the terrain through which it flows. So too the pattern of the consciousness flow is determined by the existing energy and matter structures in our organism and creates our conscious flow through life. It is our personal river of life and a well-used metaphor. The quantum level is equivalent to the water evaporating from the ocean and becoming a quasi-liquid. So too we draw on, or perhaps more accurately consciousness is drawn from the field level as water evaporates from the ocean. Even the particles of our existence "evaporate" into existence from the ocean of pure potential. It can become the substance of our body (the water of the river) or the energy of our mind that flows and is both shaped by and shapes our experiences of life reality.
It shapes our perceptions and existential self-image. The point we are making is that at the level of the quantum mind our self is formed both physically and mentally in one seamless movement. It is at this level that the characteristics that define us, including our diseases are dynamic patterns or clouds of consciousness quanta (conscioutrons) that arise out of potential, and it is from here that the most profound changes to both mind and body must originate. We allege that CRP consciousness Journeys perturb this system to facilitate spontaneous psychophysical healing. It is more than mere coincidence that we heal when we focus our attention deeply within, reconnect with our primordial Source, and allow that cosmic creativity to restructure us and emerge in a new, rejuvenated form.
We know about the quantum reality through inference and experimentation, and we can also experiment on ourselves by looking within. We suggest that similarly the quantum mind is not directly experienced except through its influences. We can facilitate our healing by intentionally entering the flow through the Journey process. For example, where does a thought or an emotion come from; how is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and we find ourselves seeing things or ourselves differently than ever before. We call this spontaneous emergence creativity, but how does this happen? This could be described as how things operate at the quantum level which is governed by spontaneous self-organizing emergent processes.
When this process is unblocked we experience psychophysical well-being or health; when blocked we experience dis-ease. Conversely, dissolving the old, outworn structures, forms, or patterns leads to spontaneous healing. At the very least, this is the mechanism sought after in the psychotherapy professions. How do we effect fundamental changes in the functioning of the mind? We also suggest that it will soon be the overriding question in physical healing as well.
Does a drug or a pharmaceutical change the mind or even the general physiology at this level? Usually not. For example, psychotropic drugs take over for the body and eventually further decrease its ability to produce it's own healing or feel-good chemistry. In what way does the administration of a medicine bring about a change at this more fundamental level? Most often the medicine is also poisonous at some level. The cure can be worse than the disease, though its negative effect may be delayed in time. Indeed, how does it cure at all; or is such healing an endless chasing of the end of a rainbow?
References
Bohm, David (1980); Wholeness and the Implicate Order; New York: Ark Paperbacks.
Capra, Fritjof (1981); The Turning Point, New York: Bantam Books.
Chopra, Deepak ((1989); Quantum Healing; New York: Bantam Books.
Laszlo, Ervin (1996); "Subtle Connections: Psi, Grof, Jung, and the Quantum Vacuum,"
http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsych
Stapp, H.P. (1995); "Why Classical Mechanics Cannot Naturally Accommodate Consciousness, but Quantum Mechanics Can," PSYCHE 2 (5) May 1995.
Vol. 1; No. 2 THE QUANTUM BODY-MIND by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller
Asklepia Foundation, c2000
ABSTRACT: Where does a thought or an emotion come from? How is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and sometimes we find ourselves seeing things differently and thinking about them differently than ever before--a burst of creativity. How does this happen? This could be a description of spontaneous emergence through complex dynamic processes at the quantum level. The quantum body-mind exists on the creative edge of spacetime reality. It is a self-organizing, emergent force of consciousness which arises from the formless level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. The primordial consciousness field patterns and conditions our primal existential self. Chaos is the transformative process by which outmoded structures dissolve and new ones create themselves. The quantum mind-body floats on an ocean of undifferentiated potential or chaotic consciousness. It draws on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. Our ordinary reality forms just this side of the Unbound Self--our state of Godness. Consciousness does exist and operate at the quantum level of reality and affects the nature or course of reality just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality. Individual consciousness may be abstracted from an underlying pool of consciousness, in the same way as the observed quantum wave packet is collapsed from an overall wave function.
A basic unit of consciousness is described as a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle of consciousness but is the potential for both. Conscioutrons are fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter arising from the consciousness field. They are the basis of all our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Out of infinite possibility, out of the constant flux of infinite possibilities, a quantum shift can create a different reality, a healing shift, a creative restructuring of the whole person.
KEYWORDS: consciousness, quantum physics, biophysics, chaos theory, complex dynamic systems, psychotherapy, healing, spirituality, self-organization, dreams, REM, shamanic psychotherapy, transpersonal psychology, Graywolf Swinney, Asklepia Foundation, David Bohm, quantum mechanics, Zero-Point Field (ZPF), shamanic consciousness journeys, new physics
Physicist H.P. Stapp states that, "The recent resurgence of interest in the foundations of quantum theory has led increasingly to a focus on the role of consciousness in the unfolding of physical reality. It has become clear that the revolution in our conception of matter wrought by quantum theory has completely altered the complexion of the relationship between mind and matter."
Quantum physics describes a fundamental or primal level or zone of reality formation. It is the level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. It is the level at which this matter-energy stuff arises (is created) from an infinite field of possibilities. If these are the fundamental dynamics from which the universe is being created, then these dynamics must also exist and express within each of us and must also be the basis of each of us. We will coin the phrase "the quantum body-mind," to use when referring to this level of the self. The quantum body-mind exists on this creating edge of space-time reality.
On one side of this zone or level lies a vast complexity of formlessness, or unrealized infinite potential, the complex forces and dynamics that underlie the creation of reality. It is the implicate order defined by physicist David Bohm. On the other side of it are the structures that we perceive as our personal reality, the experiences and forms of self and environment that structure the existential perceptions that are our experience of self, environment and the relationship between the two. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. It is where the processes of the Creator work in each of us to produce an experience of reality and personal evolution. (See Figure 1).
Structure and formlessness embrace on this line and dance to the rhythms of creative processes. On the one hand the dance solidifies the patterns that are experienced as our primal existential Self. On the other hand the old structures and rhythms or patterns that need transformation dissolve in this dance to ever evolve into new expressions of physical and mental self. In the most fundamental sense, it is the eternal evolutionary dance of the Hindu God, Shiva.
The old and outmoded structures dissolve--die--and new ones create themselves. It is here that space-time reality starts and evolution is the everlasting, ever-present and ongoing process of reality. It is at this level where the conception of a thought and the birth of a cell are just different presentations of the same dynamic consciousness processes. Both cell and thought emerge from the same underlying stuff that expresses itself as either matter or energy. At this level of quantum reality, the undifferentiated stuff has the potential to be both, and perhaps even more than that. The quantum mind-body floats in this ocean of undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness. It draw on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. It is just this side of the unbound self or our state of Godness. The consciousness dynamics of the quantum body-mind, or what we label "quantum consciousness" is different than the "chaotic consciousness" identified in other writings, (Swinney, 1999).
To understand this difference we must first explore the nature of consciousness. Figure 1: Quantum Continuum We propose the hypothesis that Consciousness, too, operates at the quantum level. It exists as energy-matter, and at its most basic or primal level is a field. Field processes can be described either in terms of fields or particles. We further presume that the natural processes describing field phenomena in general (such as electric or magnetic fields) as they manifest and operate in the reality of the space-time continuum also apply to consciousness field as it too emerges into space and time. In fact, we speculate that consciousness field may actually be the unified field or the basis of all fields that Einstein was seeking throughout the last half of his life.
The Case for Consciousness Field:
We suggest that a consciousness field exists because there are certain observable and well-documented phenomena that are best or most simply and elegantly explained by the existence of a consciousness field. We know that fields exist in general because they interact with and affect matter and energy, through such means as polarization. In fact, all fundamental fields known to physics correspond to specific vacuum polarization-states. It seems likely that cosmos and consciousness are interconnected by a continuous information-conserving and transmitting field, as suggested by Bohm's implicate order.
This flow is what determines the geometrical structure of space-time. These observable effects are what imply the existence of a field. For example, when we pass a wire close by a magnet (and through its field), this induces the flow of electricity in the wire. This implies the existence of a magnetic field producing an observable and measurable space-time phenomenon in the form of an electric current. These phenomena are best described and understood by quantum physics, the physics that describes the reality of microcosmic events. However, as with electricity, their effects are also observable in the macro world of human experiences.
One of many examples of this with respect to consciousness is the experience of synchronicity. As the term, coined by Jung, is currently used synchronicity occurs when events mysteriously line up to create an effect on matter or influence events' outcomes or directions. There is a meaningful coincidence at the level of both psyche and matter simultaneously. For example, I need to find an obscure reference and am not sure where to start looking, or where I had first encountered it. I unexpectedly receive a phone call from an old friend who hasn't contacted me for several years. In our conversation recalling old times together, without prior reference to it, he casually mentions the missing data and its source. Often we are thinking of a friend, and as we go to pick up the phone to call, it rings and they are on the line. Synchronicity or psi?
Spontaneous healing, a mind-body phenomenon, is another example. All things are simply connected, through a fundamental pattern: the information-conserving and transmitting universal holofield. Although classical science has tended to explain these types of events away as coincidence or accidental chronistic alignments, we tend to think that Einstein's contention that "God would not play dice with the universe," is more likely true. There seem to be, in our experience, just too many such synchronicities that occur to seriously consider statistical chance as the only or even the best explanation for them.
Quantum Theory itself suggests that consciousness exists at the levels of quantum reality, and in fact may ultimately be responsible for quantum level events. "How," the physicists ask, "does an electron know what its pair partner is doing unless they are connected or conscious of one another?" This refers to the theory that for every electron with a positive spin, there is another electron, its pair partner, with a negative spin. Physicists have demonstrated this experimentally. By changing the spin on one electron they are able to measure the complimentary change in the spin on its pair partner even though the two electrons are separated in space.
Another example is the double slit experiment. An electron arriving at one slit and passing through it must have consciousness about another electron arriving at the other slit in order to produce the observed interference pattern beyond the slits. The simplest and most direct answer to these questions suggests that the electrons are exchanging information and each is "conscious" of the dynamics of the other. This consciousness or connection suggests among other things that a consciousness field is operating on or influencing events in the universe just as do magnetic and gravity fields. Non-locality is one way that this characteristic is often labeled in quantum physics, but this label does not exclude consciousness field -- it elaborates it and can help us define it. Inherent in this is the notion that consciousness, in the broadest sense, may in part be information or awareness about the state of beingness has of itself, and the rest of the universe. That is certainly one way we can define human consciousness: the awareness of self and the environment.
Another example of consciousness field operating is the phenomenon of entrainment. As it operates in either non-living or living systems, it has never really been explained by classical physics. Both types of system display the ability to become synchronous with other similar systems when their frequencies are close to one another. Some examples of entrainment we experience are observing two swinging pendulums slightly out of phase come into phase on their own with no known external connection or mechanism operating. Electronic circuits do the same (the automatic fine-tuning feature of FM radios), or women's menses becoming synchronous when living closely together or in close relationships.
When each system is in proximity to another similarly periodic system, they soon match up. We believe this too suggests the existence of a consciousness field operating in and affecting the material universe at the fundamental level of information. This notion of consciousness field can also explain widely reported ESP phenomena such as remote viewing, which classical science cannot. In fact, it generally ignores such phenomena because it has rejected and excluded consciousness from all its considerations and models.
Henry P. Stapp (1995), a theoretical physicist, states it well. He notes that, "Classical mechanics arose from the banishment of consciousness to find that the readmission of consciousness requires going beyond that theory." We also suggest that it is far simpler to go beyond the limits of classical science in these instances and to posit the existence of a consciousness field to explain the aforementioned, and many other similar phenomena. It is much more elegant to do so than to embrace the many convoluted contentions of chance, coincidence, fraud or other non-answers and denials usually offered by classical science when it considers such phenomena.
The point here is that consciousness does exist and operates at the quantum level of reality, and it does seem to affect the nature or course of reality through minor perturbations in the flow of microevents, just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality. The Nature of Quantum Reality: Consciousness Field and the "Conscioutron" One can conceive of fields as potential energy-matter existing on the edges of space and time. In this quasi field phase, neither matter nor energy yet exists. A field is potential for such. A magnetic field has no substance. It is only potential matter or energy.
When influenced by a magnetic field, electrons (quanta of electricity) are influenced to flow through a conductor as an electric current. This current is an event and measurable in the reality we sense and perceive and it is what tells us that the electro-magnetic field exists. The electron is the basic unit of energy-particle or the quantum that is created from the field. It is the primal or initial way that the underlying field manifests into the space-time universe. Similarly a photon is a quantum of light and graviton is a quantum of gravity.
Light expresses itself as energy or wave patterns, or in its solid form, as photons of matter. Physicist and author Fritjof Capra (1981) states that, "independent of my mind, my conscious decisions about how to observe say an electron will determine the electron's properties. If I ask it a particle question, it will give me a particle answer, if I ask it a wave question it will give me a wave answer. The electron does not have objective properties."
Which aspect is manifested depends on the observer and what is being studied. These types of dynamics are what define the level of quantum reality and its inherent anti-intuitive strangeness, which doesn't conform to the observable mechanics of ordinary experience. The same process goes on in the body-mind at subtle levels. Deepak Chopra (1989) points out that, "Thanks to messenger molecules, events that seem totally unconnected--such as a thought and a bodily reaction--are now seen to be consistent.
The neuro-peptide isn't a thought, but it moves with thought, serving as a point of transformation. The quantum does exactly the same thing, except that the body in question is the universe, or nature as a whole." Thus, thoughts are somehow connected to hidden processes that transform nonmatter into matter, by going directly to the source of the body-mind's existence in space-time. A journey into this mysterious zone can have amazingly positive results; the transformation must occur here or the rest of the cascading events will not happen. What makes DNA mysterious, according to Chopra "is that it lives right at the point of transformation, just like the quantum. Its whole life is spent creating more life...constantly transferring messages from the quantum world to ours."
Matter and energy come out of the primordial state as a "singularity," the compression of all the expanded dimensions of the universe. When a mental event needs to find a physical counterpart, it works through the quantum mechanical human body, molecules that are "smart" instead of inert. We again invoke physicist David Bohm's (1980) notion of an "invisible field" that holds all of reality together, a field that inherently possesses the property of knowing what is happening everywhere at once. Like the thought and the neuro-peptide, light cannot be a wave and a photon at the same time; it is either one or the other. Light is one small band in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The amount of electromagnetic energy that makes up a particle of matter is described by Einstein's famous equation that Energy equals mass times the speed of Light, squared. But this quantitative equation only tells us the amount of energy associated with the particle. It does not, however, describe how the energy and matter coexist and manifest as reality. Bohm's theory is that the waves of energy created or emerging from the infinite potential or implicate order form an interference pattern or hologram that we perceive as the solid universe.
This holonomic theory provides the basis for all the material phenomena in the universe, with solidity, substance and motion being added by interactions of electromagnetic, gravity, and time fields, (Swinney, 1999). Similarly we suggest that consciousness field exists as a potential throughout all the space-time universe and operates by the same principles. The basic quanta of consciousness might be called a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle but is the potential for both. Both our physical substance and our psyche's energy are continually forming at this level. The realms of mind and matter are complementary aspects of the same transcendental reality.
This transcendental realm is the subquantum virtuality of the vacuum potential (Zero-Point Field, ZPF), a field which has the properties of a superfluid. Objects move through this fluid without encountering resistance as in ordinary flow-states. The quantum vacuum is a universal torsion wave carrying medium. All objects, from quanta to galaxies, create vortices in the vacuum. The vortices created by particles and other material objects are information carriers, linking physical events quasi-instantaneously. Since not just physical objects, but also the neurons of our brains create and receive torsion-waves, not only particles are "informed" of each other's presence (as in the EPR experiments), also humans can be so informed and integrated in the cosmic Whole, or universal holofield.
Our brain is a vacuum-based "torsion-field transceiver," (Laszlo, 1996). This suggests a physical explanation not only of quantum non-locality, but also of synchronicity, telepathy, remote viewing and other psi effects. The quantum body-mind is the level of our organism in which conscioutrons operate. Just as electrons are the smallest energy-particle of electricity, conscioutrons are the fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter rising from consciousness field. How many conscioutrons it takes to make up, say a protein, a thought, an emotion or a sensation is open to speculation. The flow of conscioutrons is the basis of all consciousness just as the flow of electrons is the basis of electricity.
Conscioutrons are the basis of all of our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Electricity is most readily detected when it flows as a current and it is when it is flowing that it directly influences or effects the material world. In an analogous manner consciousness flow is the way consciousness field affects the material world and is what we usually refer to as being conscious. We can conceive of consciousness field as being a primal sea of chaotic or undifferentiated consciousness.
Emerging from this sea of consciousness are conscioutrons which define the quantum level of consciousness or quantum consciousness. Thus, quantum consciousness operates by the same principles that define the quantum level of reality. There are many texts and popular books defining the dynamics and principles that operate in and define this quantum level of reality (see References). The quantum view is a surrealistic view of reality, one which is not based on some fundamental particle or building block. Instead substance arises out of apparent nothingness, or disappears into nothingness to perhaps reappear in some other location or form. Here, between space-time, and the oceans of chaos and infinite possibility, wave fronts or energy clouds appear that have not yet committed to being matter or energy. They are somehow both and yet neither.
When we observe something in this primordial "soup" it seems to assume either matter or wave configuration but unobserved remains uncommitted energy-matter virtuality, known as quanta. One physicist, Nick Herbert, comments about this and the quantum reality that he sometimes imagines is behind his back as "a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup." When he turns around and tries to see it, his glance instantly freezes it, and turns it back into ordinary reality. In this quantum reality, time itself is far more than the inevitable linear ticking of a clock. Particles can travel backwards or forward through time (precursor or "pilot" waves). They appear out of seeming nothingness, moving through time and disappearing into the past or the future.
Here, it is not possible to merely observe an event; the act of observation itself actually shapes or influences the event. It is also a reality of uncertainty, where you can't really pin anything down. The more one focuses on and learns about one aspect of an event, the less one can know about the rest of it. This is known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We cannot measure an electron's position in space and its speed or dynamics simultaneously. The more we know about its velocity, the less certain we are about where it is. Reality is in constant flux arising momentarily out of the infinite possibility, and in the next moment, too short to even be time, a quantum shift can create a different reality. An electron cloud shifts from one energy state (orbit) to another, and the atom becomes more, or less reactive. All reality is changed.
The Quantum Mind
This is also true of what creates body-mind and the level of the quantum body-mind also operates in this fashion. In other words, each of us is a part of reality and is formed at the quantum level by the same principles that form the rest of reality. Nature is our healer, because we are Nature. It is this flow that defines or operates in the quantum mind. We can change like quicksilver, transforming or healing spontaneously, because the flowing quality of life is natural to us. The material body is a river of atoms, the mind is a river of thought, and what holds them together is a river of intelligence--what has been referred to as the stream of consciousness--consciousness which informs the entire holomovement.
We are all navigators in the stream of consciousness. If there is not a flow, if all the conscioutrons are tied up in rigid structures, we are disconnected from the flow of universal evolution and thus in a state of stress or disease. The disease may present itself as mental or physical dissonance, or symptoms, whose forms repeat at all levels of organization. This notion of the fractal reiteration or repetition of structures is an important aspect of Chaosophy, this definition of disease and health. We consider disease as stagnation and the stress caused by a structure's opposition to free consciousness flow and evolution--a stuckness.
Health is the flow and evolution of both our physical structure and mentality. An excellent analogy is that of a river. The rocks or obstructions in the river are what creates the rapids. The bigger the rocks and the faster the flow, the more dangerous are the rapids. Similarly, we are constantly creating self at the quantum level, drawing on the consciousness potential to create the flow and substance of our body and mind. This potential exists as a field dispersed throughout and indeed underlying all of known space and time. The rocks are analogous to fixed and highly structured consciousness patterns or dynamics. The bigger the fixations and the faster the flow, the more dangerous the disease.
Continuing with the water analogy, picture an ocean of water. It is analogous to the field underlying reality. As the sun evaporates or draws water from the ocean, it becomes humidity in the air. As the winds blow and encounters with geographical features move the humid air about, raising it, cooling it, etc., the water vapor takes the forms of clouds, then rain and finally becomes the lakes and rivers that flow back into the ocean, and in doing so shape the geography or topography. This cycle ultimately shapes all the landmasses of the planet. In the context of this analogy, we, our personal experience of self and reality, are analogous to the river.
Quantum reality is represented by the evaporation into the air of the ocean water. It is neither water (matter) nor vapor (energy), but has the potential to be either. It is uncommitted. As this moist air flows in the winds, it encounters a land mass and the flow is altered. It rises and cools, and in doing so very tiny particles of water form suspended in the air mass and become clouds and mists. These micro particles of water (mists or clouds) eventually join or unite into globules or drops of water from the turbulence (non linear or chaotic dynamics) in the moving air. At the quantum level, physicists claim that an electron is more like a cloud distribution about a nucleus, rather than being a discrete particle. The drops eventually condense, as rain, fall to the ground where they continue to unite and flow until they become streams and eventually rivers.
The shape of the river is determined in part by the existing terrain, but at the same time it is also modifying the terrain, shaping the river valleys and dissolving even the greatest of mountains. Analogously, we are constantly drawing consciousness out of its field form (ocean).
At the quantum level conscioutrons are formed, the smallest dynamic structures or patterns of consciousness. As this encounters our organism (landmass) these conscioutrons blend, mix and unite to produce the substance of our body (the cells, bones, and tissue) and mind (thoughts, emotions, etc.). As with the rain, the drops unite and become water flowing eventually as a river shaped by and shaping the terrain through which it flows. So too the pattern of the consciousness flow is determined by the existing energy and matter structures in our organism and creates our conscious flow through life. It is our personal river of life and a well-used metaphor. The quantum level is equivalent to the water evaporating from the ocean and becoming a quasi-liquid. So too we draw on, or perhaps more accurately consciousness is drawn from the field level as water evaporates from the ocean. Even the particles of our existence "evaporate" into existence from the ocean of pure potential. It can become the substance of our body (the water of the river) or the energy of our mind that flows and is both shaped by and shapes our experiences of life reality.
It shapes our perceptions and existential self-image. The point we are making is that at the level of the quantum mind our self is formed both physically and mentally in one seamless movement. It is at this level that the characteristics that define us, including our diseases are dynamic patterns or clouds of consciousness quanta (conscioutrons) that arise out of potential, and it is from here that the most profound changes to both mind and body must originate. We allege that CRP consciousness Journeys perturb this system to facilitate spontaneous psychophysical healing. It is more than mere coincidence that we heal when we focus our attention deeply within, reconnect with our primordial Source, and allow that cosmic creativity to restructure us and emerge in a new, rejuvenated form.
We know about the quantum reality through inference and experimentation, and we can also experiment on ourselves by looking within. We suggest that similarly the quantum mind is not directly experienced except through its influences. We can facilitate our healing by intentionally entering the flow through the Journey process. For example, where does a thought or an emotion come from; how is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and we find ourselves seeing things or ourselves differently than ever before. We call this spontaneous emergence creativity, but how does this happen? This could be described as how things operate at the quantum level which is governed by spontaneous self-organizing emergent processes.
When this process is unblocked we experience psychophysical well-being or health; when blocked we experience dis-ease. Conversely, dissolving the old, outworn structures, forms, or patterns leads to spontaneous healing. At the very least, this is the mechanism sought after in the psychotherapy professions. How do we effect fundamental changes in the functioning of the mind? We also suggest that it will soon be the overriding question in physical healing as well.
Does a drug or a pharmaceutical change the mind or even the general physiology at this level? Usually not. For example, psychotropic drugs take over for the body and eventually further decrease its ability to produce it's own healing or feel-good chemistry. In what way does the administration of a medicine bring about a change at this more fundamental level? Most often the medicine is also poisonous at some level. The cure can be worse than the disease, though its negative effect may be delayed in time. Indeed, how does it cure at all; or is such healing an endless chasing of the end of a rainbow?
References
Bohm, David (1980); Wholeness and the Implicate Order; New York: Ark Paperbacks.
Capra, Fritjof (1981); The Turning Point, New York: Bantam Books.
Chopra, Deepak ((1989); Quantum Healing; New York: Bantam Books.
Laszlo, Ervin (1996); "Subtle Connections: Psi, Grof, Jung, and the Quantum Vacuum,"
http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsych
Stapp, H.P. (1995); "Why Classical Mechanics Cannot Naturally Accommodate Consciousness, but Quantum Mechanics Can," PSYCHE 2 (5) May 1995.
LIGHT SLEEPERS Working in Wakened REM Consciousness;
A Collection of Anecdotal Self-Reports from CRP Journeys
"The creative leap occurs when observed facts are correlated; that is, when by perceiving a heretofore unsuspected identity, a conjunctive path or a new order is discovered." --Silvano Arieti
ABSTRACT: Sojourners into the CRP are quite literally Light Sleepers, consciousness travellers working in wakened REM consciousness. These waking dreams present endless and fascinating varieties of inner experiences and carry deep meaning for both the mentor and mentored, since they co-create the process in co-consciousness. This paper attempts to capture the color and range of the journeys through a variety of tales told by those who participated in them. These self-reports are often candid and personalistic, but certain generic themes are reiterated within each journey, each series of journeys, and among different participants. The theory and practice of this self-organizing, unfolding process is the subject of DREAMHEALING: Chaos, Creativity, and Consciousness by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller. The Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) facilitates journeys in REM into the healing heart of our dreams, into the depths where even Self turns into No-Self, or the Unbound Self, where separation dissolves into unification, where natural healing and creative emergence spring forth. The following are self-reports of such Journeys by the participants themselves, exploring what they have found to be continuing benefits of listening to their dreams and moving beyond limitations into the Unbound Self. * * * "The dreamwork I did with you is always with me. It moved me then and it moves me still as a beautiful unveiling of Life the Healer, love of the body, hiding long and deep in the chaos of the human mystery." "I have had many different counselings and therapies. None went as deep as this process; none went deep enough for the healing I desired. The CRP Dream Process did." "As we began to work within my dreams, I found that I had come home. I had begun a remarkable journey into the inner reality of myself, where I came to know a profound strength grounded in a deep personal trust." * *
* The Currents of "Crucifiction" 2/2001, Graywolf Swinney:
I was feeling overwhelmed and depressed. I was not sleeping more than two or three hours a night and feeling hopeless and somewhat helpless about my life and situation. I was also needing to pass through my grieving process over the death of a very close and intimate friend about two months previously. The first anniversary of my own life-threatening challenge, the "triple AAA" (a burst Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm) that had turned around my own life was coming up soon. It had been quite some time since my last journey. I had very little energy for anything and was beginning to feel frozen by fears and inabilities. I don't even remember the dream that opened my journey, but by exploring the beingness of one of its symbols, I found myself catapulted into an earlier dream from about twelve or more years previously during a similar experience of life. In this earlier dream I had hung, suspended from the ceiling of a concrete tunnel, and indoor pistol firing range, by meat hooks piercing my neck, shoulders and arms. When I was invited to become the suspended figure and experience the pain and discomfort of the hooks I became intensely aware of the sensation of falling or tumbling backwards, sliding backwards down the rail or track in the roof of this black tunnel and into the dimly lighten target area.
My imaginal body configuration was of being suspended on the cross of "crucifiction." The wall at the end of the tunnel was covered by a grid made of steel cables and, as I watched and experienced myself sliding into it, I realized that it was highly charged with current of electric power. I slid helplessly into it. I was electrocuted by a vast discharge of electricity accompanied by a brilliant flash of light; a light as bright as that of a nuclear explosion. I heard the sounds of high energy electric current discharge and was magnetized and held to the wall by the current. I was vaguely aware of my body twitching and jerking in real time. This sequence was an internal drama or enactment of how I was externally experiencing life at the time of the original dream, and also in my present circumstances.
I was helplessly falling blindly backwards into a deep, infinite, black void that would somehow engulf and destroy me. These sensations also reminded me of what I had experienced as I was being wheeled on the gurney into the operating room in my medical emergency of the previous year. It was what my life felt like currently, (pun intended). It was the experience of a deep and primal archetypal self and reminded me of Jesus Christ suspended from his cross and sliding into his own crucifixion and destruction. It was a moment filled with all the despair and helplessness for me that He must have been feeling when he cried out nearing the end of his ordeal, "Father! Why has thou forsaken me?" It was this personal archetypal primal image that was embodying my fears and shaping my life's perceptions and experience right then, and perhaps had through much of my life.
It was very disempowering to me. My CRP mentor invited me to yield into this process and as I did, I was immediately drawn into the flash of the brilliant electrical discharge upon impacting the grid. I could feel the current coursing through my body, magnetizing and holding me stuck to the grid. I experienced my death and despair to be very real in that moment, and foremost in my awareness. When the flash of light began to subside, I found myself floating and tumbling in a vast dark void which began to fill with stars, except each star became the node in an infinite three dimensional cubic grid.
Each node was joined by a pipe-like rod creating a vast complexity of interconnected cubes, each cube connected to six other cubes which were connected in turn to other cubes, and this grid extended out to infinity. I was the smallest mote in this three dimensional grid, and at the same time I also sensed being the whole of it. I could be anywhere or everywhere in it. Location didn't matter because in being any part of it I was also all of it. It was a sensory and very real experience of being a holographic interference pattern (negative) and having my self or my image dispersed throughout all of it, yet entirely present in even the tiniest microscopic part of it. It was also a very spiritual and transcendent experience.
I felt a definite shift in my sense of who and what I was, and what I was capable of doing. I was in and of this power-filled grid of infinity. I remained in this expanded state for some time, and eventually returned to this reality when my eyes opened. I felt that a fundamental change or shift had occurred. We went through our re-entry process but the miracle that had happened inside me began to unfold in my life. I went the next day to visit a close and intimate friend and she immediately sensed the shift in me, and has continued to point out persistent differences over the weeks that followed. I felt brighter and lighter, and over the next few days found myself once again returned to enthusiastically and fully joining into life.
I experienced energy and being filled with purpose and power. There was a spring to my step and my depression and helplessness no longer seemed to be present. I began to more fully accept the death of my friend and had both energy and confidence to live my life. I was no longer depressed. There has been much more positive fall out and many realizations that continue to flow from the journey, including moving past a 'writer's block.' But most important, I am once again back on track, (pun intended).
Trusting the Dream & the Dreamer
John Mackenzie is a dreamworker whose avocations include gardening and building stringed instruments; he studied with Graywolf and offers sessions in the Portland area. After a period of several years, I came to a place in my life where I didn't know what was meaningful anymore. I didn't know what purpose my marriage served, or how my work served me and anyone else. Increasingly, what I had believed to be trustworthy was no longer reliable. I wandered through the forest of my psyche in search of meaning and purpose that would connect me to myself and the world. My search led me to a dreamworker in the woods of Southern Oregon, who asked me what I wanted.
Like a prince in a story with one eye on the golden treasure, I answered, "Nothing less than fundamental transformation." He laughed and said, "That would be a good chapter heading for my book, [and you're book of life as well]." As we began to work within my dreams, I found that I had come home. I discovered that I also plugged directly into my body's own consciousness. I had begun a remarkable journey into the inner reality of myself, where I came to know a profound strength grounded in a deep personal trust.
In contrast to other types of dreamwork, I was going inside the frozen depths of my fear and also riding the crest of my joy, exploring trust-anchored body sensations. Focusing on, connecting to and recrystallizing my body's consciousness made the difference for me between living the fullness of life and being generally miserable. I found that this kind of dreamwork connected me to my authentic self, as one on the path of a spiritual warrior, choosing the way to a deeper self-acceptance.
I discovered that effective dreamwork builds trust within the dreamer and guide. By feeling the essence of not controlling, I eventually recognized that what I called "being in control" was actually fear. Personal discovery in a safe trust filled environment, which I experienced with a dreamworker, also became for me a new model for community, freer and more satisfying than I had normally experienced in everyday life. Transformation dream process effectively moves energy, shifts consciousness and produces a new psychic glue that holds together a greater self. These dream regeneration experiences form the basis of new patterns of inner and outer behavior, radiating a deeper level of congruence, making vivid the connection personal and self-trust.
The CRP Journey Process and What It Has Meant In My Life
John Penkert RN, BSN
I became interested in CRP in 1993 when I heard Graywolf speak at a lecture given to nurses. I work for the Veterans' Administration as a psychiatric nurse and certified addictions counselor. I sought him out and asked if I could learn more. He was more than receptive and was developing his mentorship program at that time. I eventually asked to be part of the program. I was an active participant and helped develop the training regime. I feel I fully graduated in 1996. I was then a certified CRP Mentor.
Since that time I have used CRP in my practice when I feel it is appropriate and firmly believe that it is a very workable therapy option. This missive is not about my work but about my journeys. I first came to Graywolf for therapy. I am a recovered Heroin Addict with a centuries old dysfunction in my familial history.
I am a Gypsy and a first generation American. I have been physically and sexually abused as a child. In my 20's I was arrested 7 times in 5 years for drug related and traffic offenses. I spent much time in various therapies after I became clean in 1979. I was at a dead end, feeling that I had used up conventional psychotherapy, when I met Graywolf. What follows is a description of my journey process over the last 8 years.
My first journey was as a guinea pig at a workshop Graywolf was hosting in late 1993 or early 1994. I was unable to commit fully to the process at that time. I have such abuse issues that I have tremendous resistance to therapy. However, I was intrigued and sought out more therapy. Since that time I have taken probably 30 Journeys and all have proved beneficial. I am going to attempt to depict two.
The first I will try to characterize occurred after approximately two years of working with Graywolf on my own therapy and hosting the mentorship program. By this time I had derived some noticeable benefits from therapy and was able to fall into the journey process easily. I had a dream concerning a car trip with many strange attractors (read about the process for definition) including cars going backward, monster in the back seat, cars changing from one make to another and a snow storm. I ended up on a log landing with some unusual logging equipment among which there were two huge cables sheathed in a segmented tunnel.
As I described the dream during a journey, Graywolf (my Mentor at the time) invited me to explore the tunnel (an archetypal image). As I went inside it became a fast flowing river where I was tosed about, narrowly missing rocks and being plunged under the water while traversing rapids. Then I had a vision of one of my favorite spots on the Columbia River where I grew up and at the same time began to go deeper in the water. Finally I came to rest at the bottom of the Columbia River at a depth which felt like many fathoms. It was warm and peaceful in this spot and Graywolf invited me to stay there for a while. When I finally opened my eyes I felt very relaxed and peaceful.
As the weeks passed, I noticed a marked change in the way I dealth with my clients, and how I was able to just feel love for people. The second Journey I will describe happened approximately six months ago. I am able to go into the CRP easily now and this journey happened in about 15 minutes where often they last 1-1 1/2 hours. In most journeys I take, if I am aware of physical symptoms, it usually migrates to my lower back and feels like a steel ball in my back about the size of a softball at 12 vertebrae.
During the journey I was describing a change in a reoccurring dream about my ex-wife when I felt the ball very strongly as a great physical pain. My mentor asked me to concentrate on the ball and see if I could become it. As I did so it seemed to dissipate and I found myself floating in the sky. It was over quickly. The results I have reaped from this are that I am able to understand the futility of anger and I am motivated to work our and enjoy physical exercise. There has not been a journey that I have taken that I have not felt benefits from and when I am able to take my clients on journeys, it is invariably beneficial. I hope this provides some insight into the advantages of CRP.
Dream Healing
An Experiential Non-Interpretive Way into Your Dreams
Patrick Welch wrote about spiritual healers and healing for many years; he is co-author of Between Sky and Earth: Spritiual Healers of North America with Dr. Stanley Krippner by Dodd Mead & Co., NYC. He often interviewed Graywolf in the 1980s. He emphasized that Graywolf's model of Dream Healing centered around going into and then past the experience of the symbols so that we can contact the formative and limitless energies underneath the symbols.
The guided dream journey that I took had Graywolf as a guide or mentor, and my dream as the territory to be explored.
My intention for the journey was that I wanted to heal a tension in my heart and chest area. Like a guide leading a person through the mountains, he suggested directions for me to take within the dream after I had recalled the dream and gone back into the experience of it.
The particular symbol that felt the most drawing to his inner guide, a long wooden rafter shaped like a snake, prompted a journey through various, linked inner spaces that ended up in a place very different from our starting point; first, I explored a feeling of crawling on the ground in the earth, then, I became a particle of dirt; next, I saw a vision of the atomic level of this particle; then I took a leap into the center of the atom, where I had the experience of watching a host of miniature men laboring; and finally, I ended by finding an orange key which I saw floating in a red mist! Upon discovering the orange key, Graywolf suggested that I could use it if I wanted. He asked where the lock was and I said, "Around my heart."
I deliberated about opening the lock hastily, and at last did. My experience was that the opened lock let loose a surge of feeling and tingling sensations in my chest which then travelled out through my arms and torso and down to my legs. Quite literally, they key had opened the lock to a blocked part of me. I felt relieved to have the block away and stayed with this experience for a while, soaking in the feeling of release and my newfound peace. Finally, Graywolf reminded me to thank my dream self and the god Asklepios for sending me this healing dream. All of which I did very gratefully.
I learned from this experience that when someone outside you manipulates you by professing to heal your mind and/or body, that the power of your own inner healer gets handed over to that person. To be empowered, the person seeking healing needs to take an active part in the healing process. With this awareness, Graywolf's approach to my dream journey evolved in the moment to keep pace with where I went inside with the dream symbol. Consequently, I had an active part in the healing process and basically directed the healing experience, as it was my progression of experiences that provided the pathway to my healing. The experience of finding an inner healing state is invaluable as it teaches that the healer is within, that outer healers are only representations of what's already inside.
Graywolf's practice of dream mentoring incorporates but travels beyond the work of Gestalt Therapy founder Fritz Perls. Gestalt Therapy centered on bringing wholeness to the person and actually stayed within the structure of the ego to gain a better understanding of the waking ego's concerns and patterns. Taking a journey into a dream extends the Gestalt idea of becoming the symbol by going past the symbols into the energies that are there beneath it like to the orange key that I found in my journey. This idea of trusting and staying with the experience of the dream rather than interpreting and decoding the symbols actually began in ancient Greece.
The Greeks were staunch believers in dreams as powerful healing forces of nature. The apex of their healing model was centered on the dream experience as a direct form of healing. At the Asklepian Temples, the god Asklepios himself would enter your dreams to bring you the healing that you sought. At these temples, a Dream priest/priestess oversaw the purification rites and ceremonies to prepare you for this direct contact with the god Asklepios, through the process of dream incubation at the sanctuary. The dream priest would look within your dreams for a sign of the god. They did not interpret, as that was considered interfering with the divine work of the god. Asklepios often took the form of a snake, wolf or dog when visiting in dreams; the caduceus, the staff wrapped with two snakes, is still the symbol for the modern medical profession.
Most of us who have paid any attention to our dreams have usually begun by first interpreting the symbols. However, interpreting and analyzing a symbol can only give you a rationalized, detailed description and removed experience of the symbol, like looking at the map rather than entering a territory. Even free-associations are still another form of interpretation or amplification, leading you through the labyrinth of the ego. Interpreting limits your unconditioned experience of the expanded realms beyond.
Understandably, we do not always have healing dreams about snakes, dogs, or wolfs, but every dream offers access to a source of primal, fundamental energy, whether it be a healing space or another deep level of experience. Trusting yourself to let go of the interpretations and associations and to stay with your experience of the dream will allow you to explore the expanded states offered by the dream will keep you in touch with your inner strength and power, which no one can take from you.
Being receptive to the experiences that your dreams offer will maintain your relationship with your inner ally and healer. Dreams give you inner doorways to energies that, when accepted and explored, give you tools for your personal transformation and healing. They can also open you to a deeper knowing of your true abilities and powers as a spiritual being. They can help you find the healer you've always been seeking, YOU!
Sharry Teague, M.A., Counselor:
Over a period of a year I did several dream healing journeys that I believe have been a significant part of my spiritual path. Although these experiences took place over ten years ago I still remember one vividly. I dreamed of a woman with a bloodied face. Through the journeying process this frightening vision transformed within my body/mind. I came to a place of being in a boat holding a pole that went down through the water and into the mud below. This image was not just in my visual field. It was in my total experience of myself, and introduced me to profound depth and balance accessible to me.
Another CRP participant, a fine arts graduate, reports a Dream of Passage: I recall only a short segment of this dream and what I recall is mostly in the form of words. There was a Judge. He was dressed in black robes and sitting in a position, high above me. The Judge was talking about Sentencing. The Judge said, "Death is not the ultimate sentence. In this realm we all die. It's the end we all face. Life is the most difficult sentence -- learning how to be; being with other people; working through your problems and learning how to get along. That, is the hard sentence." I awoke with a start.
A CRP trainee who is a graduate psychologist and Hypnotherapist had the following experiences to report, providing a good internal description of integrating the process work with personal reflection and inner work: Oct. 16, 1990: I THINK THAT I MIGHT HAVE A HANDLE ON A BIT OF MY CORE PROBLEMS. It has something to do with my parents telling me that I was worthy, and could do anything, and should have anything within reason. Others believing that I was terribly spoiled and a big BRAT...worthy vs. not worthy, deserving vs. nondeserving and spoiled; that I could do anything vs. my mother taking over and doing things for me when I wasn't perfect...
Oct. 18, 1990: Had a very good session with GW. He and I both feel that a great deal of healing (I don't know how or what) took place and that now I am in the stage of spiritual growth and emergence. It is still very easy for me to slip back into old habits, patterns, responses, etc. However, it seems to be a little easier to catch myself and rebalance. The new point of balance is still strange and I'm not used to the feeling. I like it, and it feels good, but it is not as familiar as the past imbalance. I feel that I have a lot to learn emotionally, mentally, and even physically.
We worked on the CRYSTAL DREAM. I found the place in my body where the crystal belonged. It belong in my heart chakras (both), yellow end on the thymus and rose end on my heart chakra. The colors at first seemed to fade into the center, but in fact where they met seemed to cause a brilliant glow that surpassed the colors of either end. It created MY SUN...I believe that the ends represent my feminine and masculine parts and the point where they merge is My Sacred Marriage. I don't if that has occurred yet, but, I know it will be soon if it has not already happened. I know that there still needs to be some healing of both.
Last night I did some inner work, and what I learned was some of my own internal mapping. The split between front and back is: front, feminine/soul; back, masculine/spirit; both share the throat. Palms of my hands (f)...Back of my hands (m), strange pattern around my feet, but basically the same. Oct. 29, 1990: Tuesday I had a session and we worked on the dream about the trailers, etc.
The first symbol that was highlighted was the plywood barrier (just had a flash how it might be linked to my Dad, his strength, leadership, energy, stability, fun and positive masculine qualities I remember from my youth). The barrier was a comfortable thing to be. I didn't mind not being a standing tree anymore. I went deeper into the veneer and liked that aspect even better. I was flexible, moist, and most of all wonderfully fragrant. In fact, I liked being peeled.
That process allowed my essence in the form of water and essential oils to be released into the ethers. At first I was more concentrated around the mill, then I could drift anywhere at all. THANK YOU DADDY; I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!! I really needed to remember that aspect of you that was very much a wonderful, positive role model, who was in touch with his own feminine side. The next thing that was highlighted was the metal bolt(s) that supported the plywood. Dark bluish grey material, kind of short and thick, cold and manipulated. First mined from the ground, taken to a mill, melted and then POURED INTO A MOLD, AND COOLED. I didn't like that part very much. It seemed kind of OK being a bolt but it's cold, rigid but/and it helped support the plywood or even other things and that has value. The ORE aspect of the mineral was then explored, being a part of the earth. Not just one place, but all through the Earth, right to her very core. The hot molten core and then to the essence or spirit core with and throughout the earth and beyond. Feeling life and experiencing Her/our breath, moving and being moved by it and in it, with! At our Friday training session I volunteered to work with my TRAILER DREAM.
The orange milk crate was the next to be explored. The color Orange seemed to belong to my stomach or around my 2nd and 3rd chakras...The orange color wants to come to the crate and melt the plastic, it needs to come up in a spiral movement, not linear. It melts the sides easily but it takes more time to melt the top/bottom. As soon as that happens there is rush of JOY and energy, almost immediately to be quenched by a nagging, nasty voice that says, "Just how long do you think that's going to last! Your old habits are so strong that you'll just rebuild that trap/crate!" When the crate melted I became aware of some relationship between it and the tingling in my legs. In fact, I could feel that connection.
I want to explore that aspect of the dream more in the future. . .Fear of energy and its movement -- that's where I go next! [Several sessions followed where she explored feeling unloved and unloveable and her ways of protecting herself from those feelings, visited learning centers within, and explored her caesarean birth experience, a sense of her masculinity through a shadow self, and returns to the theme of her father--Ed.]
NOV. 18, 1990: . . .I look over at the side of the pool where everyone has gathered, and I think that I see my father standing there, very strong and healthy and smiling. I stop what I'm doing and go over to the side of the pool and look up. It is him! I hear someone off to my right saying, "That's her father. He died a couple of years ago." Then they are all very quiet. I look up at my Dad, he's kneeling at the side of the pool now, and then climb out of the pool and kneel beside him and put my arms around him and just hug him. I know that he has something to tell me but the dogs start to bark and I start to loose it. The impression is that he's saying or whispering something like "Stand tall in yourself, or BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!" --NE
Rob Kuehn is a Certified CRP Mentor, practicing in the greater Seattle Area.
He reports the following journey: Diane has used the CRP for about the last three years to overcome such illnesses as Bipolar and Fibromyalgia, neither diease has been present for well over a year. The only medication she uses is for her high blood pressure and she is currently seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist for an injury to her neck caused by an automobile accident. Her doctors have advised her to consider a spinal fusion to repair her neck injury, but this is not an option she wants to consider.
Diane continues to use the CRP to learn more about her subconscious and its self-healing powers. Diane had been abused by her father as a young person. Until our previous session we had not discussed much about this issue. During our meeting she shared her feelings about her father and how she was bothered by his lack of remorse or responsibility for his actions. (Using the CRP it is up to the mentored to determine the areas of healing.)
Towards the end of her last Dream Journey she imagined a yellow and orange flower. Through her imagination she imaged becoming the flower. What she noticed was she became pollen and floated away. The further she floated away the more at ease and emotional she became. She felt a sense of flushing or cleansing. This sequence of events appeared to be the symbiotic connection between father and daughter, a sense of "breaking free from..." Even though it was too soon to tell, I sensed that this journey was not over just yet.
For the next three weeks or so Diane found many emotions that only brought on more questions about her life. She began to see others differently. She noticed games and scripts that others used to survive or manipulate their daily lives. She began to see her own scripts and how annoyed she became with herself for using them. She recognized the part of her as the game player and the other as seeing the truth; most of all she felt the depression. Diane returned to continue her process. She was ready to dream journey into her subconscious as she has so many times before to release that which she must set free and to find her truth. Her dream began with a large blackness and in the center a purple spot. I encouraged her to just notice the color in the center and to focus on her out breath.
She noticed that the color configuration appeared to be that of the Mandelbrot set fractal. She imaged herself in the center of the purple and that the purple was all around her. I asked if the purple had any substance? She noticed the substance was warm flowing purple water. "Can you flow with the water?" "Yes, I am the water, and as I flow I feel as if I am being reshaped, pulled and stretched." After a while, I asked again, "what do you notice?" "I am spinning back and forth as if I was in a washing machine; I still feel as if I am being pulled and stretched in different directions and I'm getting quite warm, even hot. I also notice other shapes around me but I'm not drawn to them."
After the oscillation had stopped she reported she was in a place where everything was still, but noticed something was watching her. "How does that make you feel?" "Fine; it's not threatening." I told her to trust her out breath here and just notice. "It's an owl and it's just watching; I'm being pulled into darkness...very fast. I'm spinning like I am being pulled into a big funnel. The faster I spin, I notice other objects going in the opposite direction." The way she described these events, it was as if she was traveling through a Black Hole and/or a vortex in space. This also is the description of a fractal set called a "Predator-Prey Interaction."
Could this be the blue print of her dis-ease? During this experience she continued to report a sensation of being stretched or pulled in different directions. This really seemed to be a reflection of the conflict of her daily life buried in her subconscious. She also reported she felt she must go in the opposite direction of the other objects because it felt like the right thing to do. This too was a reflection of what she was feeling toward other people in her life, no longer wanting to use her scripts to determine her reality. Another thing that I noticed was each time she would change from one place or motion, her eyes would roll back in her head and there appeared to be some sort of intense physical experience happening.
After she finished her spinning through the "funnel," she found herself in a place of emptiness. The place way dry and warm. She told me she felt like this was a place to "give up." I was confused by her desire to give up, never had she reached this level of her being and wanted to quit. "What do you notice about this desire to give up? Does it have a sense of emptiness to it?" "Yes, it is deep within me and I don't care about anything, most of all about myself."
Because of our co-consciousness I asked if there was a sense of despair. "Yes...really deep sense of despair." I encouraged her to trust her our breath and give into this sense of despair to "become it." Some time had passed and I noticed her face began to change; there appeared to be a struggle. "What do you notice?" I inquired. "There is a thick heavy green blanket being wrapped around me. I feel the heaviness around my shoulders and through my chest. It feels like I am being wrapped in despair."
I encouraged her to trust her out breath and to just notice her process. She began to notice that the blanket was beginning to become a hard shell. I sensed that this was an old shell and after a few minutes she replied, "older than I am." She began to notice a conflict. She found herself trying to free herself by breaking out of this shell, but it didn't feel natural and she believed this was the source of her conflict. I asked her where it did feel natural. Was it to just stay inside the shell? "Yes." I asked if she could stay there. Quietly she replied, "Yes." She continued to relax and let things happen and soon reported that the shell was falling apart. After a few more minutes her face began to relax, color returned to her face and she said it was time to leave the shell that had fallen all around her in the form of ash. "When you leave do you think you should pay homage to it?"
With a wide smile she said that would be important to her. A slight giggle and she said it was time to move on...time to move forward. Diane began to notice warmth and sense of weight being removed. She felt a newness flow through her. When Diane opened her eyes, she said she was incredibly dizzy and felt like she was still spinning through the top of her head. She (without thinking) turned her head from side to side and moved her head back and forth from shoulder to shoulder. "I haven't been able to do that since the car accident."
We both thought this dream was an extension of the last. An unhealthy bond between her and her father, a passing of his heart disease and depression on to her. As this goes to print, it is not yet known what gift this dream has for her. She is sleeping long periods of time, which may indicate that the physical body is in a process of transformation...healing. One interesting thing is, she has noticed there is an Owl living in her backyard that was not there before her journey. Do you think this owl is just keeping an eye on things?
CRP DREAM JOURNEY TESTIMONIALS
"[CRP] therapy is where Psychology is going. It is the future." Dr. Victoria Luviano, Ph.D., Mexico City.
"I got more from one session than five years of therapy." Participant, San Francisco.
"I've never seen anything like this in all my years of therapy. It goes beyond it all." Participant, Chicago.
"Something really profound is happening with this work. You can see and sense it." Dr. Thomas Blakely, Ph.D., Portland, Oregon.
"I've been looking for the next step in my work and development as a therapist, and this is it. It answers my concerns and hopes about counseling and where it is going." Counselor, Chicago.
"I tried this with a client. Not only was there noticeable change during the session, but when he came back the next week he announced it was still working on him and he was ready to begin leaving therapy." Psychiatrist, Oregon.
"The consciousness states reached here are the same as those we saw at the Menninger Clinic when we were studying esoteric healings, and in the most transformative of the LSD therapy experiences. My own experience with it has healed an issue that eluded resolution in almost forty years of personal work with the best of my colleagues." Psychiatrist, Houston, Texas.
"I don't know if it was the dream journeys or not, but since taking them my high blood pressure has dropped and stabilized almost twenty points lower than it was. I'm actually bordering on low blood pressure now." Client, Cincinnati, Ohio.
"Since the work we did, that one session, I just can't go back to the guns and weapons mentality; something in me just won't do it. I keep hearing the crickets." Client, Florida.
"We have all been given an opening with this work, an opportunity to begin a new journey in life." 70+ year old Participant, Mexico City.
A Collection of Anecdotal Self-Reports from CRP Journeys
"The creative leap occurs when observed facts are correlated; that is, when by perceiving a heretofore unsuspected identity, a conjunctive path or a new order is discovered." --Silvano Arieti
ABSTRACT: Sojourners into the CRP are quite literally Light Sleepers, consciousness travellers working in wakened REM consciousness. These waking dreams present endless and fascinating varieties of inner experiences and carry deep meaning for both the mentor and mentored, since they co-create the process in co-consciousness. This paper attempts to capture the color and range of the journeys through a variety of tales told by those who participated in them. These self-reports are often candid and personalistic, but certain generic themes are reiterated within each journey, each series of journeys, and among different participants. The theory and practice of this self-organizing, unfolding process is the subject of DREAMHEALING: Chaos, Creativity, and Consciousness by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller. The Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) facilitates journeys in REM into the healing heart of our dreams, into the depths where even Self turns into No-Self, or the Unbound Self, where separation dissolves into unification, where natural healing and creative emergence spring forth. The following are self-reports of such Journeys by the participants themselves, exploring what they have found to be continuing benefits of listening to their dreams and moving beyond limitations into the Unbound Self. * * * "The dreamwork I did with you is always with me. It moved me then and it moves me still as a beautiful unveiling of Life the Healer, love of the body, hiding long and deep in the chaos of the human mystery." "I have had many different counselings and therapies. None went as deep as this process; none went deep enough for the healing I desired. The CRP Dream Process did." "As we began to work within my dreams, I found that I had come home. I had begun a remarkable journey into the inner reality of myself, where I came to know a profound strength grounded in a deep personal trust." * *
* The Currents of "Crucifiction" 2/2001, Graywolf Swinney:
I was feeling overwhelmed and depressed. I was not sleeping more than two or three hours a night and feeling hopeless and somewhat helpless about my life and situation. I was also needing to pass through my grieving process over the death of a very close and intimate friend about two months previously. The first anniversary of my own life-threatening challenge, the "triple AAA" (a burst Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm) that had turned around my own life was coming up soon. It had been quite some time since my last journey. I had very little energy for anything and was beginning to feel frozen by fears and inabilities. I don't even remember the dream that opened my journey, but by exploring the beingness of one of its symbols, I found myself catapulted into an earlier dream from about twelve or more years previously during a similar experience of life. In this earlier dream I had hung, suspended from the ceiling of a concrete tunnel, and indoor pistol firing range, by meat hooks piercing my neck, shoulders and arms. When I was invited to become the suspended figure and experience the pain and discomfort of the hooks I became intensely aware of the sensation of falling or tumbling backwards, sliding backwards down the rail or track in the roof of this black tunnel and into the dimly lighten target area.
My imaginal body configuration was of being suspended on the cross of "crucifiction." The wall at the end of the tunnel was covered by a grid made of steel cables and, as I watched and experienced myself sliding into it, I realized that it was highly charged with current of electric power. I slid helplessly into it. I was electrocuted by a vast discharge of electricity accompanied by a brilliant flash of light; a light as bright as that of a nuclear explosion. I heard the sounds of high energy electric current discharge and was magnetized and held to the wall by the current. I was vaguely aware of my body twitching and jerking in real time. This sequence was an internal drama or enactment of how I was externally experiencing life at the time of the original dream, and also in my present circumstances.
I was helplessly falling blindly backwards into a deep, infinite, black void that would somehow engulf and destroy me. These sensations also reminded me of what I had experienced as I was being wheeled on the gurney into the operating room in my medical emergency of the previous year. It was what my life felt like currently, (pun intended). It was the experience of a deep and primal archetypal self and reminded me of Jesus Christ suspended from his cross and sliding into his own crucifixion and destruction. It was a moment filled with all the despair and helplessness for me that He must have been feeling when he cried out nearing the end of his ordeal, "Father! Why has thou forsaken me?" It was this personal archetypal primal image that was embodying my fears and shaping my life's perceptions and experience right then, and perhaps had through much of my life.
It was very disempowering to me. My CRP mentor invited me to yield into this process and as I did, I was immediately drawn into the flash of the brilliant electrical discharge upon impacting the grid. I could feel the current coursing through my body, magnetizing and holding me stuck to the grid. I experienced my death and despair to be very real in that moment, and foremost in my awareness. When the flash of light began to subside, I found myself floating and tumbling in a vast dark void which began to fill with stars, except each star became the node in an infinite three dimensional cubic grid.
Each node was joined by a pipe-like rod creating a vast complexity of interconnected cubes, each cube connected to six other cubes which were connected in turn to other cubes, and this grid extended out to infinity. I was the smallest mote in this three dimensional grid, and at the same time I also sensed being the whole of it. I could be anywhere or everywhere in it. Location didn't matter because in being any part of it I was also all of it. It was a sensory and very real experience of being a holographic interference pattern (negative) and having my self or my image dispersed throughout all of it, yet entirely present in even the tiniest microscopic part of it. It was also a very spiritual and transcendent experience.
I felt a definite shift in my sense of who and what I was, and what I was capable of doing. I was in and of this power-filled grid of infinity. I remained in this expanded state for some time, and eventually returned to this reality when my eyes opened. I felt that a fundamental change or shift had occurred. We went through our re-entry process but the miracle that had happened inside me began to unfold in my life. I went the next day to visit a close and intimate friend and she immediately sensed the shift in me, and has continued to point out persistent differences over the weeks that followed. I felt brighter and lighter, and over the next few days found myself once again returned to enthusiastically and fully joining into life.
I experienced energy and being filled with purpose and power. There was a spring to my step and my depression and helplessness no longer seemed to be present. I began to more fully accept the death of my friend and had both energy and confidence to live my life. I was no longer depressed. There has been much more positive fall out and many realizations that continue to flow from the journey, including moving past a 'writer's block.' But most important, I am once again back on track, (pun intended).
Trusting the Dream & the Dreamer
John Mackenzie is a dreamworker whose avocations include gardening and building stringed instruments; he studied with Graywolf and offers sessions in the Portland area. After a period of several years, I came to a place in my life where I didn't know what was meaningful anymore. I didn't know what purpose my marriage served, or how my work served me and anyone else. Increasingly, what I had believed to be trustworthy was no longer reliable. I wandered through the forest of my psyche in search of meaning and purpose that would connect me to myself and the world. My search led me to a dreamworker in the woods of Southern Oregon, who asked me what I wanted.
Like a prince in a story with one eye on the golden treasure, I answered, "Nothing less than fundamental transformation." He laughed and said, "That would be a good chapter heading for my book, [and you're book of life as well]." As we began to work within my dreams, I found that I had come home. I discovered that I also plugged directly into my body's own consciousness. I had begun a remarkable journey into the inner reality of myself, where I came to know a profound strength grounded in a deep personal trust.
In contrast to other types of dreamwork, I was going inside the frozen depths of my fear and also riding the crest of my joy, exploring trust-anchored body sensations. Focusing on, connecting to and recrystallizing my body's consciousness made the difference for me between living the fullness of life and being generally miserable. I found that this kind of dreamwork connected me to my authentic self, as one on the path of a spiritual warrior, choosing the way to a deeper self-acceptance.
I discovered that effective dreamwork builds trust within the dreamer and guide. By feeling the essence of not controlling, I eventually recognized that what I called "being in control" was actually fear. Personal discovery in a safe trust filled environment, which I experienced with a dreamworker, also became for me a new model for community, freer and more satisfying than I had normally experienced in everyday life. Transformation dream process effectively moves energy, shifts consciousness and produces a new psychic glue that holds together a greater self. These dream regeneration experiences form the basis of new patterns of inner and outer behavior, radiating a deeper level of congruence, making vivid the connection personal and self-trust.
The CRP Journey Process and What It Has Meant In My Life
John Penkert RN, BSN
I became interested in CRP in 1993 when I heard Graywolf speak at a lecture given to nurses. I work for the Veterans' Administration as a psychiatric nurse and certified addictions counselor. I sought him out and asked if I could learn more. He was more than receptive and was developing his mentorship program at that time. I eventually asked to be part of the program. I was an active participant and helped develop the training regime. I feel I fully graduated in 1996. I was then a certified CRP Mentor.
Since that time I have used CRP in my practice when I feel it is appropriate and firmly believe that it is a very workable therapy option. This missive is not about my work but about my journeys. I first came to Graywolf for therapy. I am a recovered Heroin Addict with a centuries old dysfunction in my familial history.
I am a Gypsy and a first generation American. I have been physically and sexually abused as a child. In my 20's I was arrested 7 times in 5 years for drug related and traffic offenses. I spent much time in various therapies after I became clean in 1979. I was at a dead end, feeling that I had used up conventional psychotherapy, when I met Graywolf. What follows is a description of my journey process over the last 8 years.
My first journey was as a guinea pig at a workshop Graywolf was hosting in late 1993 or early 1994. I was unable to commit fully to the process at that time. I have such abuse issues that I have tremendous resistance to therapy. However, I was intrigued and sought out more therapy. Since that time I have taken probably 30 Journeys and all have proved beneficial. I am going to attempt to depict two.
The first I will try to characterize occurred after approximately two years of working with Graywolf on my own therapy and hosting the mentorship program. By this time I had derived some noticeable benefits from therapy and was able to fall into the journey process easily. I had a dream concerning a car trip with many strange attractors (read about the process for definition) including cars going backward, monster in the back seat, cars changing from one make to another and a snow storm. I ended up on a log landing with some unusual logging equipment among which there were two huge cables sheathed in a segmented tunnel.
As I described the dream during a journey, Graywolf (my Mentor at the time) invited me to explore the tunnel (an archetypal image). As I went inside it became a fast flowing river where I was tosed about, narrowly missing rocks and being plunged under the water while traversing rapids. Then I had a vision of one of my favorite spots on the Columbia River where I grew up and at the same time began to go deeper in the water. Finally I came to rest at the bottom of the Columbia River at a depth which felt like many fathoms. It was warm and peaceful in this spot and Graywolf invited me to stay there for a while. When I finally opened my eyes I felt very relaxed and peaceful.
As the weeks passed, I noticed a marked change in the way I dealth with my clients, and how I was able to just feel love for people. The second Journey I will describe happened approximately six months ago. I am able to go into the CRP easily now and this journey happened in about 15 minutes where often they last 1-1 1/2 hours. In most journeys I take, if I am aware of physical symptoms, it usually migrates to my lower back and feels like a steel ball in my back about the size of a softball at 12 vertebrae.
During the journey I was describing a change in a reoccurring dream about my ex-wife when I felt the ball very strongly as a great physical pain. My mentor asked me to concentrate on the ball and see if I could become it. As I did so it seemed to dissipate and I found myself floating in the sky. It was over quickly. The results I have reaped from this are that I am able to understand the futility of anger and I am motivated to work our and enjoy physical exercise. There has not been a journey that I have taken that I have not felt benefits from and when I am able to take my clients on journeys, it is invariably beneficial. I hope this provides some insight into the advantages of CRP.
Dream Healing
An Experiential Non-Interpretive Way into Your Dreams
Patrick Welch wrote about spiritual healers and healing for many years; he is co-author of Between Sky and Earth: Spritiual Healers of North America with Dr. Stanley Krippner by Dodd Mead & Co., NYC. He often interviewed Graywolf in the 1980s. He emphasized that Graywolf's model of Dream Healing centered around going into and then past the experience of the symbols so that we can contact the formative and limitless energies underneath the symbols.
The guided dream journey that I took had Graywolf as a guide or mentor, and my dream as the territory to be explored.
My intention for the journey was that I wanted to heal a tension in my heart and chest area. Like a guide leading a person through the mountains, he suggested directions for me to take within the dream after I had recalled the dream and gone back into the experience of it.
The particular symbol that felt the most drawing to his inner guide, a long wooden rafter shaped like a snake, prompted a journey through various, linked inner spaces that ended up in a place very different from our starting point; first, I explored a feeling of crawling on the ground in the earth, then, I became a particle of dirt; next, I saw a vision of the atomic level of this particle; then I took a leap into the center of the atom, where I had the experience of watching a host of miniature men laboring; and finally, I ended by finding an orange key which I saw floating in a red mist! Upon discovering the orange key, Graywolf suggested that I could use it if I wanted. He asked where the lock was and I said, "Around my heart."
I deliberated about opening the lock hastily, and at last did. My experience was that the opened lock let loose a surge of feeling and tingling sensations in my chest which then travelled out through my arms and torso and down to my legs. Quite literally, they key had opened the lock to a blocked part of me. I felt relieved to have the block away and stayed with this experience for a while, soaking in the feeling of release and my newfound peace. Finally, Graywolf reminded me to thank my dream self and the god Asklepios for sending me this healing dream. All of which I did very gratefully.
I learned from this experience that when someone outside you manipulates you by professing to heal your mind and/or body, that the power of your own inner healer gets handed over to that person. To be empowered, the person seeking healing needs to take an active part in the healing process. With this awareness, Graywolf's approach to my dream journey evolved in the moment to keep pace with where I went inside with the dream symbol. Consequently, I had an active part in the healing process and basically directed the healing experience, as it was my progression of experiences that provided the pathway to my healing. The experience of finding an inner healing state is invaluable as it teaches that the healer is within, that outer healers are only representations of what's already inside.
Graywolf's practice of dream mentoring incorporates but travels beyond the work of Gestalt Therapy founder Fritz Perls. Gestalt Therapy centered on bringing wholeness to the person and actually stayed within the structure of the ego to gain a better understanding of the waking ego's concerns and patterns. Taking a journey into a dream extends the Gestalt idea of becoming the symbol by going past the symbols into the energies that are there beneath it like to the orange key that I found in my journey. This idea of trusting and staying with the experience of the dream rather than interpreting and decoding the symbols actually began in ancient Greece.
The Greeks were staunch believers in dreams as powerful healing forces of nature. The apex of their healing model was centered on the dream experience as a direct form of healing. At the Asklepian Temples, the god Asklepios himself would enter your dreams to bring you the healing that you sought. At these temples, a Dream priest/priestess oversaw the purification rites and ceremonies to prepare you for this direct contact with the god Asklepios, through the process of dream incubation at the sanctuary. The dream priest would look within your dreams for a sign of the god. They did not interpret, as that was considered interfering with the divine work of the god. Asklepios often took the form of a snake, wolf or dog when visiting in dreams; the caduceus, the staff wrapped with two snakes, is still the symbol for the modern medical profession.
Most of us who have paid any attention to our dreams have usually begun by first interpreting the symbols. However, interpreting and analyzing a symbol can only give you a rationalized, detailed description and removed experience of the symbol, like looking at the map rather than entering a territory. Even free-associations are still another form of interpretation or amplification, leading you through the labyrinth of the ego. Interpreting limits your unconditioned experience of the expanded realms beyond.
Understandably, we do not always have healing dreams about snakes, dogs, or wolfs, but every dream offers access to a source of primal, fundamental energy, whether it be a healing space or another deep level of experience. Trusting yourself to let go of the interpretations and associations and to stay with your experience of the dream will allow you to explore the expanded states offered by the dream will keep you in touch with your inner strength and power, which no one can take from you.
Being receptive to the experiences that your dreams offer will maintain your relationship with your inner ally and healer. Dreams give you inner doorways to energies that, when accepted and explored, give you tools for your personal transformation and healing. They can also open you to a deeper knowing of your true abilities and powers as a spiritual being. They can help you find the healer you've always been seeking, YOU!
Sharry Teague, M.A., Counselor:
Over a period of a year I did several dream healing journeys that I believe have been a significant part of my spiritual path. Although these experiences took place over ten years ago I still remember one vividly. I dreamed of a woman with a bloodied face. Through the journeying process this frightening vision transformed within my body/mind. I came to a place of being in a boat holding a pole that went down through the water and into the mud below. This image was not just in my visual field. It was in my total experience of myself, and introduced me to profound depth and balance accessible to me.
Another CRP participant, a fine arts graduate, reports a Dream of Passage: I recall only a short segment of this dream and what I recall is mostly in the form of words. There was a Judge. He was dressed in black robes and sitting in a position, high above me. The Judge was talking about Sentencing. The Judge said, "Death is not the ultimate sentence. In this realm we all die. It's the end we all face. Life is the most difficult sentence -- learning how to be; being with other people; working through your problems and learning how to get along. That, is the hard sentence." I awoke with a start.
A CRP trainee who is a graduate psychologist and Hypnotherapist had the following experiences to report, providing a good internal description of integrating the process work with personal reflection and inner work: Oct. 16, 1990: I THINK THAT I MIGHT HAVE A HANDLE ON A BIT OF MY CORE PROBLEMS. It has something to do with my parents telling me that I was worthy, and could do anything, and should have anything within reason. Others believing that I was terribly spoiled and a big BRAT...worthy vs. not worthy, deserving vs. nondeserving and spoiled; that I could do anything vs. my mother taking over and doing things for me when I wasn't perfect...
Oct. 18, 1990: Had a very good session with GW. He and I both feel that a great deal of healing (I don't know how or what) took place and that now I am in the stage of spiritual growth and emergence. It is still very easy for me to slip back into old habits, patterns, responses, etc. However, it seems to be a little easier to catch myself and rebalance. The new point of balance is still strange and I'm not used to the feeling. I like it, and it feels good, but it is not as familiar as the past imbalance. I feel that I have a lot to learn emotionally, mentally, and even physically.
We worked on the CRYSTAL DREAM. I found the place in my body where the crystal belonged. It belong in my heart chakras (both), yellow end on the thymus and rose end on my heart chakra. The colors at first seemed to fade into the center, but in fact where they met seemed to cause a brilliant glow that surpassed the colors of either end. It created MY SUN...I believe that the ends represent my feminine and masculine parts and the point where they merge is My Sacred Marriage. I don't if that has occurred yet, but, I know it will be soon if it has not already happened. I know that there still needs to be some healing of both.
Last night I did some inner work, and what I learned was some of my own internal mapping. The split between front and back is: front, feminine/soul; back, masculine/spirit; both share the throat. Palms of my hands (f)...Back of my hands (m), strange pattern around my feet, but basically the same. Oct. 29, 1990: Tuesday I had a session and we worked on the dream about the trailers, etc.
The first symbol that was highlighted was the plywood barrier (just had a flash how it might be linked to my Dad, his strength, leadership, energy, stability, fun and positive masculine qualities I remember from my youth). The barrier was a comfortable thing to be. I didn't mind not being a standing tree anymore. I went deeper into the veneer and liked that aspect even better. I was flexible, moist, and most of all wonderfully fragrant. In fact, I liked being peeled.
That process allowed my essence in the form of water and essential oils to be released into the ethers. At first I was more concentrated around the mill, then I could drift anywhere at all. THANK YOU DADDY; I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!! I really needed to remember that aspect of you that was very much a wonderful, positive role model, who was in touch with his own feminine side. The next thing that was highlighted was the metal bolt(s) that supported the plywood. Dark bluish grey material, kind of short and thick, cold and manipulated. First mined from the ground, taken to a mill, melted and then POURED INTO A MOLD, AND COOLED. I didn't like that part very much. It seemed kind of OK being a bolt but it's cold, rigid but/and it helped support the plywood or even other things and that has value. The ORE aspect of the mineral was then explored, being a part of the earth. Not just one place, but all through the Earth, right to her very core. The hot molten core and then to the essence or spirit core with and throughout the earth and beyond. Feeling life and experiencing Her/our breath, moving and being moved by it and in it, with! At our Friday training session I volunteered to work with my TRAILER DREAM.
The orange milk crate was the next to be explored. The color Orange seemed to belong to my stomach or around my 2nd and 3rd chakras...The orange color wants to come to the crate and melt the plastic, it needs to come up in a spiral movement, not linear. It melts the sides easily but it takes more time to melt the top/bottom. As soon as that happens there is rush of JOY and energy, almost immediately to be quenched by a nagging, nasty voice that says, "Just how long do you think that's going to last! Your old habits are so strong that you'll just rebuild that trap/crate!" When the crate melted I became aware of some relationship between it and the tingling in my legs. In fact, I could feel that connection.
I want to explore that aspect of the dream more in the future. . .Fear of energy and its movement -- that's where I go next! [Several sessions followed where she explored feeling unloved and unloveable and her ways of protecting herself from those feelings, visited learning centers within, and explored her caesarean birth experience, a sense of her masculinity through a shadow self, and returns to the theme of her father--Ed.]
NOV. 18, 1990: . . .I look over at the side of the pool where everyone has gathered, and I think that I see my father standing there, very strong and healthy and smiling. I stop what I'm doing and go over to the side of the pool and look up. It is him! I hear someone off to my right saying, "That's her father. He died a couple of years ago." Then they are all very quiet. I look up at my Dad, he's kneeling at the side of the pool now, and then climb out of the pool and kneel beside him and put my arms around him and just hug him. I know that he has something to tell me but the dogs start to bark and I start to loose it. The impression is that he's saying or whispering something like "Stand tall in yourself, or BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!" --NE
Rob Kuehn is a Certified CRP Mentor, practicing in the greater Seattle Area.
He reports the following journey: Diane has used the CRP for about the last three years to overcome such illnesses as Bipolar and Fibromyalgia, neither diease has been present for well over a year. The only medication she uses is for her high blood pressure and she is currently seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist for an injury to her neck caused by an automobile accident. Her doctors have advised her to consider a spinal fusion to repair her neck injury, but this is not an option she wants to consider.
Diane continues to use the CRP to learn more about her subconscious and its self-healing powers. Diane had been abused by her father as a young person. Until our previous session we had not discussed much about this issue. During our meeting she shared her feelings about her father and how she was bothered by his lack of remorse or responsibility for his actions. (Using the CRP it is up to the mentored to determine the areas of healing.)
Towards the end of her last Dream Journey she imagined a yellow and orange flower. Through her imagination she imaged becoming the flower. What she noticed was she became pollen and floated away. The further she floated away the more at ease and emotional she became. She felt a sense of flushing or cleansing. This sequence of events appeared to be the symbiotic connection between father and daughter, a sense of "breaking free from..." Even though it was too soon to tell, I sensed that this journey was not over just yet.
For the next three weeks or so Diane found many emotions that only brought on more questions about her life. She began to see others differently. She noticed games and scripts that others used to survive or manipulate their daily lives. She began to see her own scripts and how annoyed she became with herself for using them. She recognized the part of her as the game player and the other as seeing the truth; most of all she felt the depression. Diane returned to continue her process. She was ready to dream journey into her subconscious as she has so many times before to release that which she must set free and to find her truth. Her dream began with a large blackness and in the center a purple spot. I encouraged her to just notice the color in the center and to focus on her out breath.
She noticed that the color configuration appeared to be that of the Mandelbrot set fractal. She imaged herself in the center of the purple and that the purple was all around her. I asked if the purple had any substance? She noticed the substance was warm flowing purple water. "Can you flow with the water?" "Yes, I am the water, and as I flow I feel as if I am being reshaped, pulled and stretched." After a while, I asked again, "what do you notice?" "I am spinning back and forth as if I was in a washing machine; I still feel as if I am being pulled and stretched in different directions and I'm getting quite warm, even hot. I also notice other shapes around me but I'm not drawn to them."
After the oscillation had stopped she reported she was in a place where everything was still, but noticed something was watching her. "How does that make you feel?" "Fine; it's not threatening." I told her to trust her out breath here and just notice. "It's an owl and it's just watching; I'm being pulled into darkness...very fast. I'm spinning like I am being pulled into a big funnel. The faster I spin, I notice other objects going in the opposite direction." The way she described these events, it was as if she was traveling through a Black Hole and/or a vortex in space. This also is the description of a fractal set called a "Predator-Prey Interaction."
Could this be the blue print of her dis-ease? During this experience she continued to report a sensation of being stretched or pulled in different directions. This really seemed to be a reflection of the conflict of her daily life buried in her subconscious. She also reported she felt she must go in the opposite direction of the other objects because it felt like the right thing to do. This too was a reflection of what she was feeling toward other people in her life, no longer wanting to use her scripts to determine her reality. Another thing that I noticed was each time she would change from one place or motion, her eyes would roll back in her head and there appeared to be some sort of intense physical experience happening.
After she finished her spinning through the "funnel," she found herself in a place of emptiness. The place way dry and warm. She told me she felt like this was a place to "give up." I was confused by her desire to give up, never had she reached this level of her being and wanted to quit. "What do you notice about this desire to give up? Does it have a sense of emptiness to it?" "Yes, it is deep within me and I don't care about anything, most of all about myself."
Because of our co-consciousness I asked if there was a sense of despair. "Yes...really deep sense of despair." I encouraged her to trust her our breath and give into this sense of despair to "become it." Some time had passed and I noticed her face began to change; there appeared to be a struggle. "What do you notice?" I inquired. "There is a thick heavy green blanket being wrapped around me. I feel the heaviness around my shoulders and through my chest. It feels like I am being wrapped in despair."
I encouraged her to trust her out breath and to just notice her process. She began to notice that the blanket was beginning to become a hard shell. I sensed that this was an old shell and after a few minutes she replied, "older than I am." She began to notice a conflict. She found herself trying to free herself by breaking out of this shell, but it didn't feel natural and she believed this was the source of her conflict. I asked her where it did feel natural. Was it to just stay inside the shell? "Yes." I asked if she could stay there. Quietly she replied, "Yes." She continued to relax and let things happen and soon reported that the shell was falling apart. After a few more minutes her face began to relax, color returned to her face and she said it was time to leave the shell that had fallen all around her in the form of ash. "When you leave do you think you should pay homage to it?"
With a wide smile she said that would be important to her. A slight giggle and she said it was time to move on...time to move forward. Diane began to notice warmth and sense of weight being removed. She felt a newness flow through her. When Diane opened her eyes, she said she was incredibly dizzy and felt like she was still spinning through the top of her head. She (without thinking) turned her head from side to side and moved her head back and forth from shoulder to shoulder. "I haven't been able to do that since the car accident."
We both thought this dream was an extension of the last. An unhealthy bond between her and her father, a passing of his heart disease and depression on to her. As this goes to print, it is not yet known what gift this dream has for her. She is sleeping long periods of time, which may indicate that the physical body is in a process of transformation...healing. One interesting thing is, she has noticed there is an Owl living in her backyard that was not there before her journey. Do you think this owl is just keeping an eye on things?
CRP DREAM JOURNEY TESTIMONIALS
"[CRP] therapy is where Psychology is going. It is the future." Dr. Victoria Luviano, Ph.D., Mexico City.
"I got more from one session than five years of therapy." Participant, San Francisco.
"I've never seen anything like this in all my years of therapy. It goes beyond it all." Participant, Chicago.
"Something really profound is happening with this work. You can see and sense it." Dr. Thomas Blakely, Ph.D., Portland, Oregon.
"I've been looking for the next step in my work and development as a therapist, and this is it. It answers my concerns and hopes about counseling and where it is going." Counselor, Chicago.
"I tried this with a client. Not only was there noticeable change during the session, but when he came back the next week he announced it was still working on him and he was ready to begin leaving therapy." Psychiatrist, Oregon.
"The consciousness states reached here are the same as those we saw at the Menninger Clinic when we were studying esoteric healings, and in the most transformative of the LSD therapy experiences. My own experience with it has healed an issue that eluded resolution in almost forty years of personal work with the best of my colleagues." Psychiatrist, Houston, Texas.
"I don't know if it was the dream journeys or not, but since taking them my high blood pressure has dropped and stabilized almost twenty points lower than it was. I'm actually bordering on low blood pressure now." Client, Cincinnati, Ohio.
"Since the work we did, that one session, I just can't go back to the guns and weapons mentality; something in me just won't do it. I keep hearing the crickets." Client, Florida.
"We have all been given an opening with this work, an opportunity to begin a new journey in life." 70+ year old Participant, Mexico City.
IN MEMORIUM
Tatyana's Dream of Passage
by Graywolf Swinney, c2000
Tatyana has been my assistant, companion, secretary, and many other compliments to me for many years. She passed away Saturday, November 18th, from an aggressive brain tumor. In the final weeks her deterioration was rapid. She was unable to find the simplest words to communicate her thoughts and desires, and the pain in her head was intense and crippling. But we were still very close and she was still able to dream and share them with me. In the mornings she usually awoke with some energy and being hungry would head down to the kitchen to eat. Her appetite remained good, and it was a hopeful sign. We were working for a spontaneous remission through Dream Journeys and the Consciousness Restructuring Process and other natural treatments.
Tatyana was, after a lifetime of emotional and physical pain, finally at ease and happy with her life and wanted very much to live it. She had prepared for death through the previous three years while fighting this cancer as a rectal tumor. At the last minute of that battle, she decided that at any cost she wanted to live and finally agreed to a surgery that removed the tumor. She was, we all hoped, given a new lease on life. It was unfortunately a short lease. Three months after the surgery she experienced a seizure and was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, which had apparently spread from the original cancer and lodged in her brain.
It was a blow to all of us, but she (we) remained hopeful and she was more than ever determined to survive. In fact, on the whole her spirits were excellent. She told me that the land and her life were incredibly beautiful and at last she had found her home, and peace. She wasn't ready to give it up! In many of the healing traditions I have studied, including Shamanic work and the ancient Asklepian Dream Healing, death is also seen as a means of healing. According to this latter traditions, the healing God-mortal Asklepios carried two vials. When the contents of the vial in the right hand were used, it would bring about remission of the symptoms. The vial in his left brought healing through death. One of a Shaman's most sacred duties is to face death and accompany one on the journey through the valley of the shadow of death. So we prepared for whatever outcome occurred.
On a twenty-four hour medical watch, I arose each morning when I heard her up and foraging in the kitchen, and met her there. It was the place where we met every morning for many years to check in with each other and share whatever dreams we remembered. Three weeks before her passing, in our morning check in, she shared with me a very meaningful dream. In her dream she is walking through the forest and comes to a circular clearing. In the clearing are six women all robed in shining white gowns and dancing in a circle. She hangs back, but soon is seen by the women and is invited to participate in the dance. She is embraced by each of them and feels welcomed and warm as she joins the circle of women in their dance.
This was not a dream for interpretation or analysis, although many suggested themselves. The dream itself provided a wealth of valuable experience for her. I didn't even consider a Dream Journey. It was a dream that in and of itself a complete and whole experience. I merely reminded her that she was all parts of the dream and invited her to explore the sensations and experience of becoming the circle of women in the white robes. As she did so, a look of calmness and peace came over her. Throughout her body and mind she reported sensations of lightness, purity and cleanliness in the whiteness of the robes, and a sense of balance, and completeness as she joined in the circle of the dance.
There was a flow and the rhythms and movements came naturally and brought a great sense of harmony and fulfillment. She had a smile on her face as she recounted these experiences for me and we were both uplifted by the experience. From which vial had she drunk with this dream? Was it the release of death and the passing; or was it the experience that would nourish her body, cells and nervous system to give them the experience and means to shrink the tumor? I did not know nor could I guess. It was not a matter of mind but of her Spirit.
During the next three weeks her condition began to rapidly deteriorate. This did not discourage us because spontaneous remissions usually occur at the eleventh hour, often when all seems hopeless. We still did not give up our prayers and hope, but the dream had prepared us for either outcome. On the Saturday morning she died, she did not ever fully wake up. She became aware enough for a brief period to indicate that she was willing to go into the emergency room to get a reading on what was happening, and then she appeared to go to sleep again. She remained asleep for the entire day. We learned at the emergency room that it was a coma, and that she could remain in it for days or weeks, or she could pass at any moment. I whispered several things into her ear in my last communication and kept her dream in my heart as I was doing so.
We were in co-consciousness in that moment, and I know she felt the dream too. I may even have told her to remember it. I think I did, but it doesn't matter because the dream was hers and it was there to guide her to whatever outcome was best for her. It was her dream; it was a gift from her spirit. Three hours later she passed on. Her face was relaxed and unlined. She just sighed and stopped breathing. There were no pain wrinkles on her face and her mouth was slightly opened. Her passing had been mercifully free and easy for her. She got to stay on the land she had dearly loved as her sanctuary for as long as possible. She deserved the ease of this passing. I can't help but think that the dream carried her with it. Was her "dream" now her reality? Was the outer experience the "dream" from which she woke into the reality of the everlasting dance of evolution? Her consciousness patterns live on and we will see each other in our dreams.
She lives on in my dreams and those of many others; even if they did not know her in life. That is the way of dreams. Watch for her! You'll sense her archetypal presence as a gentle spirit full of love and support. Dreams are so much more than just a story line or symbols. They are a completely altered state of dynamic consciousness in which all is possible. They are another perception of our lives, ourselves and our deaths. They serve us in many ways, not the least of which is to guide us through our important life transitions. They transcend time and space. They help us to prepare for death. They can show us the passage and also help in the last days with their wisdom and experiences. They can connect us even after death.
Tatyana's dream helped me to accept and come to peace with her passing. It provided a myth or archetype that helps me to flow through my personal grief to the celebration of her release from her pains in this life. I know that she's okay because I experienced with her the vision of her passage, and her welcome into the dance of the elders creating with everlasting and ongoing evolution. I experienced her purity and excitement as she joined this dance. In her memory I am establishing the "Tatyana Midori Scholarship" at the Institute for Applied Consciousness Science. It will pay tuition for one full year of mentorship training for a selected individual each year. She would like that. Tatyana, may your journey on into the "great mystery" be one of balance and harmony. You will be remembered, loved and honored and will live on in my dreams.
Tatyana's Dream of Passage
by Graywolf Swinney, c2000
Tatyana has been my assistant, companion, secretary, and many other compliments to me for many years. She passed away Saturday, November 18th, from an aggressive brain tumor. In the final weeks her deterioration was rapid. She was unable to find the simplest words to communicate her thoughts and desires, and the pain in her head was intense and crippling. But we were still very close and she was still able to dream and share them with me. In the mornings she usually awoke with some energy and being hungry would head down to the kitchen to eat. Her appetite remained good, and it was a hopeful sign. We were working for a spontaneous remission through Dream Journeys and the Consciousness Restructuring Process and other natural treatments.
Tatyana was, after a lifetime of emotional and physical pain, finally at ease and happy with her life and wanted very much to live it. She had prepared for death through the previous three years while fighting this cancer as a rectal tumor. At the last minute of that battle, she decided that at any cost she wanted to live and finally agreed to a surgery that removed the tumor. She was, we all hoped, given a new lease on life. It was unfortunately a short lease. Three months after the surgery she experienced a seizure and was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, which had apparently spread from the original cancer and lodged in her brain.
It was a blow to all of us, but she (we) remained hopeful and she was more than ever determined to survive. In fact, on the whole her spirits were excellent. She told me that the land and her life were incredibly beautiful and at last she had found her home, and peace. She wasn't ready to give it up! In many of the healing traditions I have studied, including Shamanic work and the ancient Asklepian Dream Healing, death is also seen as a means of healing. According to this latter traditions, the healing God-mortal Asklepios carried two vials. When the contents of the vial in the right hand were used, it would bring about remission of the symptoms. The vial in his left brought healing through death. One of a Shaman's most sacred duties is to face death and accompany one on the journey through the valley of the shadow of death. So we prepared for whatever outcome occurred.
On a twenty-four hour medical watch, I arose each morning when I heard her up and foraging in the kitchen, and met her there. It was the place where we met every morning for many years to check in with each other and share whatever dreams we remembered. Three weeks before her passing, in our morning check in, she shared with me a very meaningful dream. In her dream she is walking through the forest and comes to a circular clearing. In the clearing are six women all robed in shining white gowns and dancing in a circle. She hangs back, but soon is seen by the women and is invited to participate in the dance. She is embraced by each of them and feels welcomed and warm as she joins the circle of women in their dance.
This was not a dream for interpretation or analysis, although many suggested themselves. The dream itself provided a wealth of valuable experience for her. I didn't even consider a Dream Journey. It was a dream that in and of itself a complete and whole experience. I merely reminded her that she was all parts of the dream and invited her to explore the sensations and experience of becoming the circle of women in the white robes. As she did so, a look of calmness and peace came over her. Throughout her body and mind she reported sensations of lightness, purity and cleanliness in the whiteness of the robes, and a sense of balance, and completeness as she joined in the circle of the dance.
There was a flow and the rhythms and movements came naturally and brought a great sense of harmony and fulfillment. She had a smile on her face as she recounted these experiences for me and we were both uplifted by the experience. From which vial had she drunk with this dream? Was it the release of death and the passing; or was it the experience that would nourish her body, cells and nervous system to give them the experience and means to shrink the tumor? I did not know nor could I guess. It was not a matter of mind but of her Spirit.
During the next three weeks her condition began to rapidly deteriorate. This did not discourage us because spontaneous remissions usually occur at the eleventh hour, often when all seems hopeless. We still did not give up our prayers and hope, but the dream had prepared us for either outcome. On the Saturday morning she died, she did not ever fully wake up. She became aware enough for a brief period to indicate that she was willing to go into the emergency room to get a reading on what was happening, and then she appeared to go to sleep again. She remained asleep for the entire day. We learned at the emergency room that it was a coma, and that she could remain in it for days or weeks, or she could pass at any moment. I whispered several things into her ear in my last communication and kept her dream in my heart as I was doing so.
We were in co-consciousness in that moment, and I know she felt the dream too. I may even have told her to remember it. I think I did, but it doesn't matter because the dream was hers and it was there to guide her to whatever outcome was best for her. It was her dream; it was a gift from her spirit. Three hours later she passed on. Her face was relaxed and unlined. She just sighed and stopped breathing. There were no pain wrinkles on her face and her mouth was slightly opened. Her passing had been mercifully free and easy for her. She got to stay on the land she had dearly loved as her sanctuary for as long as possible. She deserved the ease of this passing. I can't help but think that the dream carried her with it. Was her "dream" now her reality? Was the outer experience the "dream" from which she woke into the reality of the everlasting dance of evolution? Her consciousness patterns live on and we will see each other in our dreams.
She lives on in my dreams and those of many others; even if they did not know her in life. That is the way of dreams. Watch for her! You'll sense her archetypal presence as a gentle spirit full of love and support. Dreams are so much more than just a story line or symbols. They are a completely altered state of dynamic consciousness in which all is possible. They are another perception of our lives, ourselves and our deaths. They serve us in many ways, not the least of which is to guide us through our important life transitions. They transcend time and space. They help us to prepare for death. They can show us the passage and also help in the last days with their wisdom and experiences. They can connect us even after death.
Tatyana's dream helped me to accept and come to peace with her passing. It provided a myth or archetype that helps me to flow through my personal grief to the celebration of her release from her pains in this life. I know that she's okay because I experienced with her the vision of her passage, and her welcome into the dance of the elders creating with everlasting and ongoing evolution. I experienced her purity and excitement as she joined this dance. In her memory I am establishing the "Tatyana Midori Scholarship" at the Institute for Applied Consciousness Science. It will pay tuition for one full year of mentorship training for a selected individual each year. She would like that. Tatyana, may your journey on into the "great mystery" be one of balance and harmony. You will be remembered, loved and honored and will live on in my dreams.
DELTA DREAMS by Graywolf Swinney, c2001
I awoke this morning to an intriguing dream. It seemed to speak, or more correctly take me to a sense of a problem I have been working on for some time now. I awoke but was feeling loggy, not here. These are the typical sensations I experience when I awaken from dead sleep or Delta sleep. Having a dream recall from this state is unusual, even for me. In the dream the scene I awoke with was part of a larger and involved dream.
The memory runs as follows: There is a large glass-fronted box, and on the top part that is not glass is written in old script, in gold, “Chemistry and Magic Set.” I am part of an audience, watching the box which is holding a magic show within, much like watching a TV There is a magician, oriental and thin, who is performing tricks to another audience of children within the box. The trick the magician was performing is indeed mystifying. There are several disembodied hands floating in the air about him On command, each hand spurts forth flames from various areas. The child audience is enraptured and the outer audience seems curious but somewhat jaded. “This trick is easy; you want to know how to do it,?” comments the oriental magician. He is invisible from the waist down and the impression is that that is all there is of him. He too seems floating, like the hands. “It is simple,” he says.
“You must merely mark the four corners of the hand.” and he demonstrates by touching four points on the hand in a circular motion. But he goes on and end up touching the hands at eight points. Suddenly there are two men who four hands are touching at all eight points and somehow twist so that their hands are touching over their heads and shoulders, surrounding them in a circle of hands and arms intertwined. At this point I feel a strong sensation of a perfect fit, of an intricate “coming together” in complete harmony. It was the sensation of a completed gestalt.
I awoke to a chortling, ringing phone, which was irrelevant except that it woke me at this instant from a very deep and profound sleep, with this dream indelibly etched in mind. I have been exploring dreams and dream therapies for three decades now, and like to think I have offered some new insights in the dream process (CRP). But, the study of dreams has seemed imperfect, and each time I reach a conclusion, develop a process, I am still left with and instead find doorways and unanswered question arising in the answer. I have found in REM dreams in my work and development, and developed the CRP of Natural Healing, and written several articles about this.
In this work about two years ago, I found that we had a sufficient remission in FM symptoms of one of our clients, who terms this a complete cure of condition. One of my students, Kuehn, intrigued by the reports, took up the course and similar dramatic results with another FM sufferer. Since then the process is repeating with two more dramatic successes. Since that time, I have been led to study the neurological explanation of how the CRP works, and in particular the holographic theory of brain function as postulated by Karl Pribram.
I have also been led to a study of cutting-edge cellular biology as discussed by Bruce Lipton. These are following models of the process based on relativity theory, quantum physics theory, chaos theory, holographic theory, and REM consciousness (see References). This diversity of sciences and theories, at different levels of observation, seem to fit together in an intricate pattern. now that I have had the sense (as in sensation) that there is still something incomplete or missing, and I strongly suspect that “something” lies in the domain of “Delta Dreams.” The Physiology of Delta Sleep
I awoke this morning to an intriguing dream. It seemed to speak, or more correctly take me to a sense of a problem I have been working on for some time now. I awoke but was feeling loggy, not here. These are the typical sensations I experience when I awaken from dead sleep or Delta sleep. Having a dream recall from this state is unusual, even for me. In the dream the scene I awoke with was part of a larger and involved dream.
The memory runs as follows: There is a large glass-fronted box, and on the top part that is not glass is written in old script, in gold, “Chemistry and Magic Set.” I am part of an audience, watching the box which is holding a magic show within, much like watching a TV There is a magician, oriental and thin, who is performing tricks to another audience of children within the box. The trick the magician was performing is indeed mystifying. There are several disembodied hands floating in the air about him On command, each hand spurts forth flames from various areas. The child audience is enraptured and the outer audience seems curious but somewhat jaded. “This trick is easy; you want to know how to do it,?” comments the oriental magician. He is invisible from the waist down and the impression is that that is all there is of him. He too seems floating, like the hands. “It is simple,” he says.
“You must merely mark the four corners of the hand.” and he demonstrates by touching four points on the hand in a circular motion. But he goes on and end up touching the hands at eight points. Suddenly there are two men who four hands are touching at all eight points and somehow twist so that their hands are touching over their heads and shoulders, surrounding them in a circle of hands and arms intertwined. At this point I feel a strong sensation of a perfect fit, of an intricate “coming together” in complete harmony. It was the sensation of a completed gestalt.
I awoke to a chortling, ringing phone, which was irrelevant except that it woke me at this instant from a very deep and profound sleep, with this dream indelibly etched in mind. I have been exploring dreams and dream therapies for three decades now, and like to think I have offered some new insights in the dream process (CRP). But, the study of dreams has seemed imperfect, and each time I reach a conclusion, develop a process, I am still left with and instead find doorways and unanswered question arising in the answer. I have found in REM dreams in my work and development, and developed the CRP of Natural Healing, and written several articles about this.
In this work about two years ago, I found that we had a sufficient remission in FM symptoms of one of our clients, who terms this a complete cure of condition. One of my students, Kuehn, intrigued by the reports, took up the course and similar dramatic results with another FM sufferer. Since then the process is repeating with two more dramatic successes. Since that time, I have been led to study the neurological explanation of how the CRP works, and in particular the holographic theory of brain function as postulated by Karl Pribram.
I have also been led to a study of cutting-edge cellular biology as discussed by Bruce Lipton. These are following models of the process based on relativity theory, quantum physics theory, chaos theory, holographic theory, and REM consciousness (see References). This diversity of sciences and theories, at different levels of observation, seem to fit together in an intricate pattern. now that I have had the sense (as in sensation) that there is still something incomplete or missing, and I strongly suspect that “something” lies in the domain of “Delta Dreams.” The Physiology of Delta Sleep
Creative Restructuring Process in Family Therapy
by Graywolf Swinney
Introduction
Individuals and family systems do not readily conform to the predictable mechanistic laws of Newtonian science and Cartesian philosophy which have provided the basic paradigm underlying contemporary medical and psychological sciences; instead, they are complex systems that seem to be as much ruled by chaos as by order. It is most often the compulsive and rigid structures and behaviors displayed in the individual, group, or family’s interactions that define dysfunction and evoke pain. To better understand and help change these complex systems requires understanding of and comfort with chaos and the dynamics of complex systems.
Chaos was an integral aspect of the change model proposed by Virginia Satir in her work with groups and families in crisis and change. In her presentations, Satir proposed that a family or group operates in a structured manner until the intrusion of a foreign agent or influence throws it into a process of dissolution that eventually leads to chaos as the structure disintegrates. Eventually evolving out of the discomfort and chaos, a new structure appears that after an integrative and adjustment process becomes the new order for the system.
The therapist’s role is to help the family through this process to adopt a more healthy, viable new structure. But Satir did not have the opportunity of living to see the advent and establishment of chaos theory and complex dynamics in the life sciences. So while recognizing the importance of chaos in the change process, she did not see its scientific and philosophical implications, fit, and integration with her therapeutic model. The Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) therapy described in this paper does make that integration. It provides scientific substantiation for the basic change models proposed by Satir. Consciousness Restructuring Process therapy was developed independently, but influenced by Satir’s early work.
When the author presented the CRP model at two recent IHLRN conferences, the confluence of the two models was immediately apparent. Consciousness Restructuring Process is a practice and philosophy of therapy that reflects the paradigm shift in the scientific base of healing to the models of the new sciences. The therapy and philosophy are best understood in the context of chaos theory, quantum physics and relativity theory and the new views of natural process implied by them. At the same time it is consistent with a broader range of spiritual philosophies and healing practices. Further, it provides a far more accurate model of the human condition and interactions than is possible with psychologies based in classical science alone, and as noted in many aspects parallels Satir’s model of change.
Most therapists realize that we are not the orderly and predictable beings that we would like to believe we are. We seldom structure our personal lives and relationships through cause and effect chains of logic. Instead our lives seem constantly beset and affected by random events outside of our plans. Indeed, the sole reason for the existence of the insurance industry is to protect us from loses due to some of these “accidents.”
More often than not, we are ruled by complex interplays of emotions, thoughts, values, and beliefs, personal myths, physical-biological condition, all shaped and driven by energies hidden deep within the psyche and beyond our understanding. We are seldom ruled solely by intellect and rational decision. Freud called these deep and hidden aspects of consciousness the id, and saw therein our drives and instincts. These and subconsciously stored primal memory experiences along with our responses and reactions to them gave rise to the behaviors and defense mechanisms which by and large define personality, behavior, sense of self and our ego. He saw the id as a chaotic and confusing aspect of our organism, barely controlled by the super ego.
Acting out, it would defy the constraints of acceptable social behavior. He attempted to understand and to shed light and reason into this chaotic morass of seething primal energies and instinctual drives. He employed such indirect psychoanalytic techniques as: free association, dream interpretation and transference management. He believed that exposed to the light of awareness, these basic forces that drive people, can and would change. Since then, aside from the staunch behavioristic psychologies, most therapies and therapists have operated with the essential aspects of this concept as axiomatic, and developed increasingly more precise, sophisticated, and apt ways and practices of finding, understanding, and/or attempting to release these trapped energy systems and memories.
Consciousness Restructuring Process Therapy
Consciousness Restructuring Process as a technique involves consciousness journeys in which the therapist guides the client’s full awareness into direct rather tha indirect experiences of the chaotic self scape of the id in the pre subconscious. The journey is a multisensory imagery process that involves the therapist entering co-consciousness (intuitive) states and interactions with the client.
The Mentor guides him or her (following the lead of the Journeyer’s process) to the basic trapped energy patterns or consciousness states that underlie the manifested disease symptoms, and then beyond. In one sense, it is like the healing journeys of shamanism, where the shaman journeys into his client’s unconscious to return from this underworld with the lost soul which is seen as the basis of illness. At the same time it equally reflects aspects of Erickson’s concept and process of co-consciousness work, a shared consciousness state that gives the therapist intuitive insights about the client that manifests as images or stories, which when offered to the client, enhance the healing imagery and process immensely.
To begin the journeys, these underlying energy patterns or states are initially identified at superficial levels through their form as encountered in a number of reiterative or nested ways. For example, in the symptoms presented; from dreams or from images incubated by such techniques as drumming, chanting, or meditation; or by noticing and observing the behavioral and/or emotional patterns displayed in the opening portion of the session. The essence of this disease energy pattern is then followed through progressively deeper levels of consciousness into its more primal imagery manifestations until the client is guided to experience the existential, multisensory image or consciousness state which contains the pattern in its most basic form.
This is called the ‘primal existential self-image” since it defines the client’s sense of self and his world in a primal sensory form. The journey then continues beyond this bound or trapped consciousness energy pattern into the unstructured, undifferentiated, or unbound consciousness which existed prior to its formation. From within this chaotic or undifferentiated consciousness a new primal image spontaneously appears, a state of ease rather than disease which provides a new foundation for the self.
More complete and detailed descriptions of the consciousness states, imagery, and the process itself may be found in DREAMHEALING: CHAOS AND THE CREATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS PROCESS, (Swinney and Miller, 1992), [CCP is now known as CRP].
The Mentor or therapist helps the client to do this using the journeyer’s own imaginative process and the multisensory imagery flowing from it. It is a death and rebirth process--the diseased aspects of the bound consciousness dying to be reborn from chaos, as the Sphinx arises from the flames. The new image, in subtle and/or overt ways, restructures not only the client’s personality, from personal mythological levels and belief systems to behaviors, emotional and intellectual responses, but also seems to affect physical structures.
Example changes include body chemistry, muscle tension, immune system function, food preference, and the function of various organs (liver and pancreas) have all been reported. At an internal level, this is the process described by Satir in her family systems change model. The client usually just notices the changes in behavior and physiology as the basic change in self-image begins to affect surface manifestations physically and mentally.
Clients have reported feeling effects, changes, and having significant insights pop up several months following a Journey. In terms of therapeutic technique or practice, it is a process of becoming, or yielding to the various images suggested by the imagination--of temporarily identifying with them. It is superficially much like Gestalt technique, but differs in that it takes the client into the deeper experiences and consciousness states of an image, rather than working at ego levels of awareness and exploring the relationships of images within the ego as in Gestalt Therapy.
It also involves using a broader range of senses in the imagery than is normally done in Gestalt therapy, including what often appear to be extrasensory experiences, that is senses that cannot be described with simple sensory terms. A case study later in this paper gives illustration of the technique. Consciousness Restructuring Process and Chaos Theory The journey, and the underlying consciousness states which are eventually reached conform in all essentials to the dynamics of chaotic systems as described by chaos theory. The journey itself resembles nested fractal images on a computer screen.
We amplify a small part of it to find the essence of its form repeated at deeper and deeper levels. It also reflects the dynamics of chaotic systems in that bifurcations or unexpected trajectories occur during the unfolding journey, the flow of imaginal imagery shifting and taking unanticipated new twists in unpredictable ways. The healing or unstructured transformative consciousness energy beyond the bound consciousness also reflects these dynamics. New structures, experiences, and images arise from within it to replace the painful and diseased images.
The butterfly effect, whereby small changes in the initial conditions may have large impact on the system’s development, is also descriptive of the process and its effects. The new structures or primal existential self images that manifest during these journeys are profoundly healing. They provide balance and deeply felt sensory repatterning: an internally, deeply sensed freedom for one who was trapped, peace for one who was agitated, wholeness for one who was scattered. The new state reflects the nature of the journey experience itself and the guide’s influence in the forming of the new self image. In this sense, the Mentor or therapist is in part the strange attractor that influences this new existential self-image that self-organizes and emerges.
Over a period of time this new image reshapes the personality and behavioral patterns to reflect the balance and creative process that evoked it. Just a small perturbation boot-straps itself into macro changes. The imagery forms encountered on the edge of this primal undifferentiated consciousness or “chaotic consciousness” are primal archetypal energy patterns. They seem very basic and in one sense suggest archetypal images and themes from the collective unconscious as described by Jung.
However, the primal archetypal images emerge deeper than the mythological material. They are sensory based, not mythical, in nature. In another sense, they reflect basic patterns of matter and energy forms encountered and repeated in nature from atomic to cosmic levels: spirals and vortices; black holes in black space; felt senses of great antiquity and accumulated wisdom’ simultaneous experience of the polarity and unity of the masculine and feminine or yin/yang; a sense of total interconnectedness with every atom in the universe. The journey phenomenology includes a “place,” usually a gray fog, where both everything and nothing exist simultaneously, the perfect union of black and white, absence of any color combined with all color. These and many more states and sensory images have been described and identified during these journeys.
They are also remarkably similar to experiences reported by mystics in their ecstatic experiences; to the feelings, sensations and images reported by those undergoing spiritual healing experiences; and to the transformative and religious consciousness states described by early LSD experimenters. What’s in a Name? We have used several names to describe this therapy: Over the years we have called it Dreamhealing, “Fractal Therapy,” Creative Consciousness Process. “Dream Journeys” is another name that derives from the observation that journey occurs in the awakened side of dream or REM consciousness. However, not all journeys begin with dream recall; we also use symptoms or feelings to enter the stream of consciousness. Often during journeys intense REM is observed and subjects report intense physical sensations.
REM seems to be a crucial ingredient in the repatterning process. Often dreams are used as gateways to the process so that the journey is into the depth of the dream. Another model we have used is the “Shaman/Therapist” and Mentoring models, which reflect the fact that it embraces a synthesis of scientific and mystic approaches to therapy and healing in both technique and philosophy, and that the journey itself involves both participants entering into altered consciousness states.
The Philosophy
There are several philosophical differences that distinguish this process from previous therapies. For the most part, psychology follows the medical model which in turn is based in classical Newtonian science and Cartesian philosophy with its mind/body split. In brief, this systems posits cause-effect chains of events that follow certain laws and define the shape of reality. In this conventional model, disease and healing are both caused by outside interventions: disease from such causes as a viral or bacterial invasion, carcinogenic contamination, emotional trauma. Healing or cures are brought about by eliminating these agents and/or correcting the damage they have done chemically, surgically or through catharsis. Symptoms are treated by suppression or elimination, and the illness or diseased component of the organism is isolated for treatment.
Dissolution, chaos and death are to be avoided at all costs and healing or cure is seen as an end point. The philosophical base of Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing differs from this in many ways. In this revolutionary model, reality is a twilight zone between structure and chaos, form and formlessness, neither one nor the other, yet both. Structure evolves from chaos in an environment of complex interacting systems, and is responsive to and shaped by the environment. Eventually structures set and grow rigid and in doing so become less responsive to the environment which is constantly evolving and changing.
The rigidity and inability to respond to the evolving environment ensures the fracturing and disintegration of the structure back into chaos. At the personal level this is what we experience as a life crisis or a disease. But eventually new form or structure emerges from the chaos. It is this dance of evolution and change that is real, not the temporary forms and structures that exist only momentarily in our perceptions. This is how the universe appears to work from cosmic to subatomic levels, and we are no exception. We dance with death and dissolution daily, indeed momentarily: at the cellular level whose collectivity is our physical being; at the level of ideas, thoughts, concepts, emotions, beliefs and values that define our mental being.
All are born and die only to come back in new form again and again, each time evolving, each time similar but different, and each time real only in the moment. It is the futile clinging to them that creates the discomfort, pain, and disease. Healing and health are present when we live this flow of self evolution. They are not an end state, but rather a constantly evolving and self-creative state of being.
Disease is when we are lost in, trapped by, or hanging on too tightly to either the chaos or the form, and living outside of the flow of creative evolution. The soul itself, as in the shamanic model, seems lost or trapped. Symptoms and diseases are the organism’s way of calling attention to our stuck states and actually provide the opportunity for us to evolve past our current form. In other words, the disease or crisis is an opportunity to transcend the old and become a new more-evolved being.
Symptoms are surface manifestations of more deeply rooted splinters of disease and are an attempt on the part of the organism to resolve the problem. A splinter buried in the toe can become infected and fester causing a myriad of symptoms, from fever and internal chemical imbalances, to spinal misalignment. With a cold, the fever, sneezing, pain, lack of energy, and other symptoms have their purpose to move fluids more rapidly through the body to flush out the viruses and force to restrengthen the immune system.
The heart and force of the symptom is a healing drive. Pain and discomfort indicate that something is wrong and emanate from that aspect of the organism that is damaged. To heal we must go to the source of the pain. Thus, the dream journey is to embrace the fear and discomforts with which we surround and protect our wounds, to pass through them, not to avoid them. It is only at the site of the wound itself that we can tend it, and the healing comes from within, a natural self-organizing internal process and an integral part of the being needing healing. The therapist is at most a mentor or guide to the inner healing states of consciousness. Healing and disease are as much, perhaps more a matter of the form our consciousness assumes than any other factor.
Since healing’s a matter of mind over matter,
And matter’s a matter of mind,
In matters that matter, when healing’s what matters,
Then flow is the right state of mind. Using the Consciousness Restructuring Process in Family Systems Although the process of Consciousness Restructuring Process therapies was not developed exclusively in the arena of family therapy, it did evolve in a practice in which often entire families became active in the therapy. So, although our experience is limited to a few instances, we can show some ways in which this process has been used in family therapy situations, and suggest other ways that it could be used. Case Study: The immediate family consists of Gary, Mary, and Brad.
Gary and Mary, the adults are both professionals, have independent careers and are in mid age. Both have had previous marriages and had subsequent relationships which proved disastrous. Shortly after Gary and Mary committed to a “life” relationship, Brad (Gary’s teenage son) who was being both emotionally and physically abused by his biological mother, decided to stay with them after his summer visitation with Gray. Mary has one grown daughter living independently. An overstrict and competitive father and a physically and emotionally abusive passive aggressive mother, both emotionally unavailable, had helped Gary shape his attitudes to life, women and authority figures. He was having trouble with all three and lived it our in a series of relationships in which he was abused, betrayed and eventually abandoned by women. In his previous marriage he had been repeatedly physically and emotionally abused by his wife. His way of coping with life was as to be a rebel, hard to pin down and not trusting of anyone. People were constantly taking advantage of him, using him and then casting him aside. He had built a powerful body pumping iron, but seldom lifted his fist against anyone in his adult life.
Mary’s background was similar in many ways except her coping mechanism was that the unpredictability and uncertainty of life was best handled by bringing order, neatness and control into all situations. In this she was compulsive. The two coping mechanisms had come into conflict. Gary’s rejection of authority and material things, his unwillingness to plan ahead or be pinned down, and his often sloppy and messy ways were in direct conflict with Mary’s penchant for order, organization, neatness, and planning ahead. This brought them into couple’s therapy soon after they had begun cohabitation. In the initial couple’s session, (before Brad entered their lives), the background and history were explored, and the patterns of interactions identified.
Bandaid measures were suggested: a process of “time out” to soothe their escalating angers and fears, back off from the confrontations where violence was becoming a possibility, look inside to indentify the part being threatened or hurt, and find a way to take responsibility for it before coming back together. They further agreed to come in for some individual sessions to work individually on this internal stuff. In her individual session, Mary noted that the time outs were working well and they were getting along much better. Her compulsive cleaning and neatness, she admitted, was a predominant aspect of her life in all areas and sometimes too much even for her.
She physically experienced it as a tightening and deadness-pain in her chest. I invited her to forget the intellectual content and focus entirely on that pain. The image that came to her was of a black metal sheath surrounding her heart. I invited her to go inside the sheath which she soon experienced as a confining and suffocating rigid airless void. Her eyes now closed and eyelids fluttering in REM, she entered deeper into the void and imagined letting go of breathing. She began sliding rapidly down a frictionless chute at ever-increasing acceleration, out of control and was terrified, the physical sensations now affecting her solar plexus as well. “Stay with it; I’m with you,” I said and did experience it with her.
We catapulted into the blackness of the void and she reported falling into nothingness but soon a white net appeared to catch her and settled over her. Wherever it touched her it brought a deep sense of security, peacefulness and connectedness. It mostly concentrated on her chest and solar plexus. She stayed in that consciousness state for some time letting it act on her. Returning from the journey she soon realized that most of the journey experiences were actually sensory memories of her experiences of childhood including an intellectual tie in of it being how she felt hiding in a closet to escape her father’s wrath.
The memory was no longer as “charged;” the peaceful consciousness state was now more her sense of being, and seemed more real than the memories. The next session she reported noticing that she was getting less compulsive about things, and more tolerant. We continued with journeys over the next several weeks; all amplified and re-enforced her first one. With the inner growing security her improvements continued and the relationship improved. She shared her Journeys with Gary who had been working with me and taking his own journeys prior to meeting Mary. When Brad showed up for his summer visitation, appointments ceased and a ‘honeymoon’ period was enjoyed.
When Brad decided to remain with Gary and Mary, they brought him for a session because he was up tight about calling his mother to let her know he was staying. He accurately predicted that she would guilt trip him, perhaps as far as threatening suicide, which it turned out she did. Using his feeling of helplessness in being responsible for his mother’s well being to initiate a journeys, his imaginative process took him to a very powerful state in which he experienced himself as a crystal like being who had the power to transform any energy touching him into rainbows. He used that sense of self in his call and handled it very well. With Brad’s entry into the family scene, the situation soon worsened after the initial honeymoon.
Brad, much like Gary in his ways, and Mary soon began to clash. She was getting little help from Gary whose profession often took him away on extended trips and left Mary to supervise Brad. When she got tough, he got resistant. The family structure was evolving into Mary being the ‘over-compulsive bitch’ who no one could please. Gary and Brad were the ‘sloppy incompetents who could nothing right.’ All were trapped in their own internal structures by which they perpetrated this reality. In the late fall we received a panic call from Mary. The honeymoon was over, things had deteriorated to a critical state where she was now considering asking Gary and Brad to find their own place. After an individual session with Mary to let her vent, Gary and Mary returned for another joint session. Brad resisted joining them.
The result was another coping strategy to deal with the ‘tit for tat’ arguments and developing roles as ‘Bitch’ or ‘incompetents.’ This time Gary followed up with an individual session. The “band aid” strategy from the joint session was working and he felt that Mary’s previous sessions had resulted in considerable changes for her. But his concerns about the damage to Brad from his years with his alcoholic and abusive mother, and his basic paranoia and distrust in others and, more deeply himself, had him depressed and feeling helpless. We used a dream in which the content and symbols reflected his depression, fear, and helplessness to initiate a Journey in which Gary ended up experiencing himself as a powerfully flowing river.
In this state of his being, he is now dealing with his problems without trying to run uphill. [His personal mythology that had emerged in earlier sessions was with Sisyphus who kept pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back down on him each time he got near the top]. Gary and Mary, in sharing their journey experiences with each other, have revealed much about their deeper selves and they are now perceiving each other far past the coping mechanisms each had developed and finding deeper levels of understanding and connection. Confrontations have become less frequent and more rapidly and easily terminated. That is where the situation now stands.
Future sessions are scheduled to get Brad more involved, and because Gary and Mary want to delve even further into freeing their creative energies and self empowerment. Summary: In brief, we used joint sessions to explore family dynamics and help each see the context in which they play out their personal parts in the drama. Individual sessions and journeys brought about individual changes which helped shape a new process of interactions which, since the journeys are based in imaginative and creative processes of imagery, are also imaginative and creative in helping diffuse old explosive possibilities.
The above outlines one use of Consciousness Restructuring Process in Family Therapy. There seem countless possibilities for using it. Two, one of which has been used and one contemplated and waiting trial are outlined below: Using the CRP journey technique in whole family session in which one member’s journey is shared by the whole family has had very interesting effect, bringing new levels of insight and understanding to all. It facilitates rapport and family identification. It has been our experience in families and indeed in groups of all types from workshops to lecture demonstrations, that those observing a journey most often find it carries them along and triggers much inside themselves.
Just as certain dreams, by touching universal or shared themes, transcend the personal and belong to a more expanded group, so too do journeys, particularly among family members who share similar consciousness patterns. The following method is one which we have considered but not yet had opportunity to use. In this approach, we propose using an improvisational psychodrama format in which a family could be asked to begin by acting out a typical dysfunctional pattern of theirs. Then, as with the individual journey, focus in on some aspect of this pattern, and in that focus have the drama become what is happening within that aspect. An example might be becombing what is happening within one of the actors.
This process is repeated again so that the family drama becomes like an individual’s journey, going deeper and deeper, more primal and less rational, into the pattern. The actors may find themselves being an emotion, color, odor, sound, some other sense, or perhaps an image such as a vortex. The family could be guided in this way on a collective journey through the dissolution of the old pattern into the chaos and subsequent self-organizing emergence of a new existential collective consciousness pattern. We suspect that done as a family group, this dramatic journey would have profound impact on improving the dysfunctional system.
Conclusion
Individuals and family systems are in reality complex systems and conform more to the reality and dynamics outlined in Chaos Theory than to the classical science that provides the current paradigm for most psychotherapies. Virginia Satir’s philosophy and therapeutic models of change reflect her intuitive understanding of this. The Consciousness Restructuring Process is a therapeutic technique and philosophy that is consistent with Satir’s work and with complex dynamics and its implications, and it provides a robust model for guiding individuals, families, and groups through crisis and change.
by Graywolf Swinney
Introduction
Individuals and family systems do not readily conform to the predictable mechanistic laws of Newtonian science and Cartesian philosophy which have provided the basic paradigm underlying contemporary medical and psychological sciences; instead, they are complex systems that seem to be as much ruled by chaos as by order. It is most often the compulsive and rigid structures and behaviors displayed in the individual, group, or family’s interactions that define dysfunction and evoke pain. To better understand and help change these complex systems requires understanding of and comfort with chaos and the dynamics of complex systems.
Chaos was an integral aspect of the change model proposed by Virginia Satir in her work with groups and families in crisis and change. In her presentations, Satir proposed that a family or group operates in a structured manner until the intrusion of a foreign agent or influence throws it into a process of dissolution that eventually leads to chaos as the structure disintegrates. Eventually evolving out of the discomfort and chaos, a new structure appears that after an integrative and adjustment process becomes the new order for the system.
The therapist’s role is to help the family through this process to adopt a more healthy, viable new structure. But Satir did not have the opportunity of living to see the advent and establishment of chaos theory and complex dynamics in the life sciences. So while recognizing the importance of chaos in the change process, she did not see its scientific and philosophical implications, fit, and integration with her therapeutic model. The Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) therapy described in this paper does make that integration. It provides scientific substantiation for the basic change models proposed by Satir. Consciousness Restructuring Process therapy was developed independently, but influenced by Satir’s early work.
When the author presented the CRP model at two recent IHLRN conferences, the confluence of the two models was immediately apparent. Consciousness Restructuring Process is a practice and philosophy of therapy that reflects the paradigm shift in the scientific base of healing to the models of the new sciences. The therapy and philosophy are best understood in the context of chaos theory, quantum physics and relativity theory and the new views of natural process implied by them. At the same time it is consistent with a broader range of spiritual philosophies and healing practices. Further, it provides a far more accurate model of the human condition and interactions than is possible with psychologies based in classical science alone, and as noted in many aspects parallels Satir’s model of change.
Most therapists realize that we are not the orderly and predictable beings that we would like to believe we are. We seldom structure our personal lives and relationships through cause and effect chains of logic. Instead our lives seem constantly beset and affected by random events outside of our plans. Indeed, the sole reason for the existence of the insurance industry is to protect us from loses due to some of these “accidents.”
More often than not, we are ruled by complex interplays of emotions, thoughts, values, and beliefs, personal myths, physical-biological condition, all shaped and driven by energies hidden deep within the psyche and beyond our understanding. We are seldom ruled solely by intellect and rational decision. Freud called these deep and hidden aspects of consciousness the id, and saw therein our drives and instincts. These and subconsciously stored primal memory experiences along with our responses and reactions to them gave rise to the behaviors and defense mechanisms which by and large define personality, behavior, sense of self and our ego. He saw the id as a chaotic and confusing aspect of our organism, barely controlled by the super ego.
Acting out, it would defy the constraints of acceptable social behavior. He attempted to understand and to shed light and reason into this chaotic morass of seething primal energies and instinctual drives. He employed such indirect psychoanalytic techniques as: free association, dream interpretation and transference management. He believed that exposed to the light of awareness, these basic forces that drive people, can and would change. Since then, aside from the staunch behavioristic psychologies, most therapies and therapists have operated with the essential aspects of this concept as axiomatic, and developed increasingly more precise, sophisticated, and apt ways and practices of finding, understanding, and/or attempting to release these trapped energy systems and memories.
Consciousness Restructuring Process Therapy
Consciousness Restructuring Process as a technique involves consciousness journeys in which the therapist guides the client’s full awareness into direct rather tha indirect experiences of the chaotic self scape of the id in the pre subconscious. The journey is a multisensory imagery process that involves the therapist entering co-consciousness (intuitive) states and interactions with the client.
The Mentor guides him or her (following the lead of the Journeyer’s process) to the basic trapped energy patterns or consciousness states that underlie the manifested disease symptoms, and then beyond. In one sense, it is like the healing journeys of shamanism, where the shaman journeys into his client’s unconscious to return from this underworld with the lost soul which is seen as the basis of illness. At the same time it equally reflects aspects of Erickson’s concept and process of co-consciousness work, a shared consciousness state that gives the therapist intuitive insights about the client that manifests as images or stories, which when offered to the client, enhance the healing imagery and process immensely.
To begin the journeys, these underlying energy patterns or states are initially identified at superficial levels through their form as encountered in a number of reiterative or nested ways. For example, in the symptoms presented; from dreams or from images incubated by such techniques as drumming, chanting, or meditation; or by noticing and observing the behavioral and/or emotional patterns displayed in the opening portion of the session. The essence of this disease energy pattern is then followed through progressively deeper levels of consciousness into its more primal imagery manifestations until the client is guided to experience the existential, multisensory image or consciousness state which contains the pattern in its most basic form.
This is called the ‘primal existential self-image” since it defines the client’s sense of self and his world in a primal sensory form. The journey then continues beyond this bound or trapped consciousness energy pattern into the unstructured, undifferentiated, or unbound consciousness which existed prior to its formation. From within this chaotic or undifferentiated consciousness a new primal image spontaneously appears, a state of ease rather than disease which provides a new foundation for the self.
More complete and detailed descriptions of the consciousness states, imagery, and the process itself may be found in DREAMHEALING: CHAOS AND THE CREATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS PROCESS, (Swinney and Miller, 1992), [CCP is now known as CRP].
The Mentor or therapist helps the client to do this using the journeyer’s own imaginative process and the multisensory imagery flowing from it. It is a death and rebirth process--the diseased aspects of the bound consciousness dying to be reborn from chaos, as the Sphinx arises from the flames. The new image, in subtle and/or overt ways, restructures not only the client’s personality, from personal mythological levels and belief systems to behaviors, emotional and intellectual responses, but also seems to affect physical structures.
Example changes include body chemistry, muscle tension, immune system function, food preference, and the function of various organs (liver and pancreas) have all been reported. At an internal level, this is the process described by Satir in her family systems change model. The client usually just notices the changes in behavior and physiology as the basic change in self-image begins to affect surface manifestations physically and mentally.
Clients have reported feeling effects, changes, and having significant insights pop up several months following a Journey. In terms of therapeutic technique or practice, it is a process of becoming, or yielding to the various images suggested by the imagination--of temporarily identifying with them. It is superficially much like Gestalt technique, but differs in that it takes the client into the deeper experiences and consciousness states of an image, rather than working at ego levels of awareness and exploring the relationships of images within the ego as in Gestalt Therapy.
It also involves using a broader range of senses in the imagery than is normally done in Gestalt therapy, including what often appear to be extrasensory experiences, that is senses that cannot be described with simple sensory terms. A case study later in this paper gives illustration of the technique. Consciousness Restructuring Process and Chaos Theory The journey, and the underlying consciousness states which are eventually reached conform in all essentials to the dynamics of chaotic systems as described by chaos theory. The journey itself resembles nested fractal images on a computer screen.
We amplify a small part of it to find the essence of its form repeated at deeper and deeper levels. It also reflects the dynamics of chaotic systems in that bifurcations or unexpected trajectories occur during the unfolding journey, the flow of imaginal imagery shifting and taking unanticipated new twists in unpredictable ways. The healing or unstructured transformative consciousness energy beyond the bound consciousness also reflects these dynamics. New structures, experiences, and images arise from within it to replace the painful and diseased images.
The butterfly effect, whereby small changes in the initial conditions may have large impact on the system’s development, is also descriptive of the process and its effects. The new structures or primal existential self images that manifest during these journeys are profoundly healing. They provide balance and deeply felt sensory repatterning: an internally, deeply sensed freedom for one who was trapped, peace for one who was agitated, wholeness for one who was scattered. The new state reflects the nature of the journey experience itself and the guide’s influence in the forming of the new self image. In this sense, the Mentor or therapist is in part the strange attractor that influences this new existential self-image that self-organizes and emerges.
Over a period of time this new image reshapes the personality and behavioral patterns to reflect the balance and creative process that evoked it. Just a small perturbation boot-straps itself into macro changes. The imagery forms encountered on the edge of this primal undifferentiated consciousness or “chaotic consciousness” are primal archetypal energy patterns. They seem very basic and in one sense suggest archetypal images and themes from the collective unconscious as described by Jung.
However, the primal archetypal images emerge deeper than the mythological material. They are sensory based, not mythical, in nature. In another sense, they reflect basic patterns of matter and energy forms encountered and repeated in nature from atomic to cosmic levels: spirals and vortices; black holes in black space; felt senses of great antiquity and accumulated wisdom’ simultaneous experience of the polarity and unity of the masculine and feminine or yin/yang; a sense of total interconnectedness with every atom in the universe. The journey phenomenology includes a “place,” usually a gray fog, where both everything and nothing exist simultaneously, the perfect union of black and white, absence of any color combined with all color. These and many more states and sensory images have been described and identified during these journeys.
They are also remarkably similar to experiences reported by mystics in their ecstatic experiences; to the feelings, sensations and images reported by those undergoing spiritual healing experiences; and to the transformative and religious consciousness states described by early LSD experimenters. What’s in a Name? We have used several names to describe this therapy: Over the years we have called it Dreamhealing, “Fractal Therapy,” Creative Consciousness Process. “Dream Journeys” is another name that derives from the observation that journey occurs in the awakened side of dream or REM consciousness. However, not all journeys begin with dream recall; we also use symptoms or feelings to enter the stream of consciousness. Often during journeys intense REM is observed and subjects report intense physical sensations.
REM seems to be a crucial ingredient in the repatterning process. Often dreams are used as gateways to the process so that the journey is into the depth of the dream. Another model we have used is the “Shaman/Therapist” and Mentoring models, which reflect the fact that it embraces a synthesis of scientific and mystic approaches to therapy and healing in both technique and philosophy, and that the journey itself involves both participants entering into altered consciousness states.
The Philosophy
There are several philosophical differences that distinguish this process from previous therapies. For the most part, psychology follows the medical model which in turn is based in classical Newtonian science and Cartesian philosophy with its mind/body split. In brief, this systems posits cause-effect chains of events that follow certain laws and define the shape of reality. In this conventional model, disease and healing are both caused by outside interventions: disease from such causes as a viral or bacterial invasion, carcinogenic contamination, emotional trauma. Healing or cures are brought about by eliminating these agents and/or correcting the damage they have done chemically, surgically or through catharsis. Symptoms are treated by suppression or elimination, and the illness or diseased component of the organism is isolated for treatment.
Dissolution, chaos and death are to be avoided at all costs and healing or cure is seen as an end point. The philosophical base of Consciousness Restructuring Process of natural healing differs from this in many ways. In this revolutionary model, reality is a twilight zone between structure and chaos, form and formlessness, neither one nor the other, yet both. Structure evolves from chaos in an environment of complex interacting systems, and is responsive to and shaped by the environment. Eventually structures set and grow rigid and in doing so become less responsive to the environment which is constantly evolving and changing.
The rigidity and inability to respond to the evolving environment ensures the fracturing and disintegration of the structure back into chaos. At the personal level this is what we experience as a life crisis or a disease. But eventually new form or structure emerges from the chaos. It is this dance of evolution and change that is real, not the temporary forms and structures that exist only momentarily in our perceptions. This is how the universe appears to work from cosmic to subatomic levels, and we are no exception. We dance with death and dissolution daily, indeed momentarily: at the cellular level whose collectivity is our physical being; at the level of ideas, thoughts, concepts, emotions, beliefs and values that define our mental being.
All are born and die only to come back in new form again and again, each time evolving, each time similar but different, and each time real only in the moment. It is the futile clinging to them that creates the discomfort, pain, and disease. Healing and health are present when we live this flow of self evolution. They are not an end state, but rather a constantly evolving and self-creative state of being.
Disease is when we are lost in, trapped by, or hanging on too tightly to either the chaos or the form, and living outside of the flow of creative evolution. The soul itself, as in the shamanic model, seems lost or trapped. Symptoms and diseases are the organism’s way of calling attention to our stuck states and actually provide the opportunity for us to evolve past our current form. In other words, the disease or crisis is an opportunity to transcend the old and become a new more-evolved being.
Symptoms are surface manifestations of more deeply rooted splinters of disease and are an attempt on the part of the organism to resolve the problem. A splinter buried in the toe can become infected and fester causing a myriad of symptoms, from fever and internal chemical imbalances, to spinal misalignment. With a cold, the fever, sneezing, pain, lack of energy, and other symptoms have their purpose to move fluids more rapidly through the body to flush out the viruses and force to restrengthen the immune system.
The heart and force of the symptom is a healing drive. Pain and discomfort indicate that something is wrong and emanate from that aspect of the organism that is damaged. To heal we must go to the source of the pain. Thus, the dream journey is to embrace the fear and discomforts with which we surround and protect our wounds, to pass through them, not to avoid them. It is only at the site of the wound itself that we can tend it, and the healing comes from within, a natural self-organizing internal process and an integral part of the being needing healing. The therapist is at most a mentor or guide to the inner healing states of consciousness. Healing and disease are as much, perhaps more a matter of the form our consciousness assumes than any other factor.
Since healing’s a matter of mind over matter,
And matter’s a matter of mind,
In matters that matter, when healing’s what matters,
Then flow is the right state of mind. Using the Consciousness Restructuring Process in Family Systems Although the process of Consciousness Restructuring Process therapies was not developed exclusively in the arena of family therapy, it did evolve in a practice in which often entire families became active in the therapy. So, although our experience is limited to a few instances, we can show some ways in which this process has been used in family therapy situations, and suggest other ways that it could be used. Case Study: The immediate family consists of Gary, Mary, and Brad.
Gary and Mary, the adults are both professionals, have independent careers and are in mid age. Both have had previous marriages and had subsequent relationships which proved disastrous. Shortly after Gary and Mary committed to a “life” relationship, Brad (Gary’s teenage son) who was being both emotionally and physically abused by his biological mother, decided to stay with them after his summer visitation with Gray. Mary has one grown daughter living independently. An overstrict and competitive father and a physically and emotionally abusive passive aggressive mother, both emotionally unavailable, had helped Gary shape his attitudes to life, women and authority figures. He was having trouble with all three and lived it our in a series of relationships in which he was abused, betrayed and eventually abandoned by women. In his previous marriage he had been repeatedly physically and emotionally abused by his wife. His way of coping with life was as to be a rebel, hard to pin down and not trusting of anyone. People were constantly taking advantage of him, using him and then casting him aside. He had built a powerful body pumping iron, but seldom lifted his fist against anyone in his adult life.
Mary’s background was similar in many ways except her coping mechanism was that the unpredictability and uncertainty of life was best handled by bringing order, neatness and control into all situations. In this she was compulsive. The two coping mechanisms had come into conflict. Gary’s rejection of authority and material things, his unwillingness to plan ahead or be pinned down, and his often sloppy and messy ways were in direct conflict with Mary’s penchant for order, organization, neatness, and planning ahead. This brought them into couple’s therapy soon after they had begun cohabitation. In the initial couple’s session, (before Brad entered their lives), the background and history were explored, and the patterns of interactions identified.
Bandaid measures were suggested: a process of “time out” to soothe their escalating angers and fears, back off from the confrontations where violence was becoming a possibility, look inside to indentify the part being threatened or hurt, and find a way to take responsibility for it before coming back together. They further agreed to come in for some individual sessions to work individually on this internal stuff. In her individual session, Mary noted that the time outs were working well and they were getting along much better. Her compulsive cleaning and neatness, she admitted, was a predominant aspect of her life in all areas and sometimes too much even for her.
She physically experienced it as a tightening and deadness-pain in her chest. I invited her to forget the intellectual content and focus entirely on that pain. The image that came to her was of a black metal sheath surrounding her heart. I invited her to go inside the sheath which she soon experienced as a confining and suffocating rigid airless void. Her eyes now closed and eyelids fluttering in REM, she entered deeper into the void and imagined letting go of breathing. She began sliding rapidly down a frictionless chute at ever-increasing acceleration, out of control and was terrified, the physical sensations now affecting her solar plexus as well. “Stay with it; I’m with you,” I said and did experience it with her.
We catapulted into the blackness of the void and she reported falling into nothingness but soon a white net appeared to catch her and settled over her. Wherever it touched her it brought a deep sense of security, peacefulness and connectedness. It mostly concentrated on her chest and solar plexus. She stayed in that consciousness state for some time letting it act on her. Returning from the journey she soon realized that most of the journey experiences were actually sensory memories of her experiences of childhood including an intellectual tie in of it being how she felt hiding in a closet to escape her father’s wrath.
The memory was no longer as “charged;” the peaceful consciousness state was now more her sense of being, and seemed more real than the memories. The next session she reported noticing that she was getting less compulsive about things, and more tolerant. We continued with journeys over the next several weeks; all amplified and re-enforced her first one. With the inner growing security her improvements continued and the relationship improved. She shared her Journeys with Gary who had been working with me and taking his own journeys prior to meeting Mary. When Brad showed up for his summer visitation, appointments ceased and a ‘honeymoon’ period was enjoyed.
When Brad decided to remain with Gary and Mary, they brought him for a session because he was up tight about calling his mother to let her know he was staying. He accurately predicted that she would guilt trip him, perhaps as far as threatening suicide, which it turned out she did. Using his feeling of helplessness in being responsible for his mother’s well being to initiate a journeys, his imaginative process took him to a very powerful state in which he experienced himself as a crystal like being who had the power to transform any energy touching him into rainbows. He used that sense of self in his call and handled it very well. With Brad’s entry into the family scene, the situation soon worsened after the initial honeymoon.
Brad, much like Gary in his ways, and Mary soon began to clash. She was getting little help from Gary whose profession often took him away on extended trips and left Mary to supervise Brad. When she got tough, he got resistant. The family structure was evolving into Mary being the ‘over-compulsive bitch’ who no one could please. Gary and Brad were the ‘sloppy incompetents who could nothing right.’ All were trapped in their own internal structures by which they perpetrated this reality. In the late fall we received a panic call from Mary. The honeymoon was over, things had deteriorated to a critical state where she was now considering asking Gary and Brad to find their own place. After an individual session with Mary to let her vent, Gary and Mary returned for another joint session. Brad resisted joining them.
The result was another coping strategy to deal with the ‘tit for tat’ arguments and developing roles as ‘Bitch’ or ‘incompetents.’ This time Gary followed up with an individual session. The “band aid” strategy from the joint session was working and he felt that Mary’s previous sessions had resulted in considerable changes for her. But his concerns about the damage to Brad from his years with his alcoholic and abusive mother, and his basic paranoia and distrust in others and, more deeply himself, had him depressed and feeling helpless. We used a dream in which the content and symbols reflected his depression, fear, and helplessness to initiate a Journey in which Gary ended up experiencing himself as a powerfully flowing river.
In this state of his being, he is now dealing with his problems without trying to run uphill. [His personal mythology that had emerged in earlier sessions was with Sisyphus who kept pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back down on him each time he got near the top]. Gary and Mary, in sharing their journey experiences with each other, have revealed much about their deeper selves and they are now perceiving each other far past the coping mechanisms each had developed and finding deeper levels of understanding and connection. Confrontations have become less frequent and more rapidly and easily terminated. That is where the situation now stands.
Future sessions are scheduled to get Brad more involved, and because Gary and Mary want to delve even further into freeing their creative energies and self empowerment. Summary: In brief, we used joint sessions to explore family dynamics and help each see the context in which they play out their personal parts in the drama. Individual sessions and journeys brought about individual changes which helped shape a new process of interactions which, since the journeys are based in imaginative and creative processes of imagery, are also imaginative and creative in helping diffuse old explosive possibilities.
The above outlines one use of Consciousness Restructuring Process in Family Therapy. There seem countless possibilities for using it. Two, one of which has been used and one contemplated and waiting trial are outlined below: Using the CRP journey technique in whole family session in which one member’s journey is shared by the whole family has had very interesting effect, bringing new levels of insight and understanding to all. It facilitates rapport and family identification. It has been our experience in families and indeed in groups of all types from workshops to lecture demonstrations, that those observing a journey most often find it carries them along and triggers much inside themselves.
Just as certain dreams, by touching universal or shared themes, transcend the personal and belong to a more expanded group, so too do journeys, particularly among family members who share similar consciousness patterns. The following method is one which we have considered but not yet had opportunity to use. In this approach, we propose using an improvisational psychodrama format in which a family could be asked to begin by acting out a typical dysfunctional pattern of theirs. Then, as with the individual journey, focus in on some aspect of this pattern, and in that focus have the drama become what is happening within that aspect. An example might be becombing what is happening within one of the actors.
This process is repeated again so that the family drama becomes like an individual’s journey, going deeper and deeper, more primal and less rational, into the pattern. The actors may find themselves being an emotion, color, odor, sound, some other sense, or perhaps an image such as a vortex. The family could be guided in this way on a collective journey through the dissolution of the old pattern into the chaos and subsequent self-organizing emergence of a new existential collective consciousness pattern. We suspect that done as a family group, this dramatic journey would have profound impact on improving the dysfunctional system.
Conclusion
Individuals and family systems are in reality complex systems and conform more to the reality and dynamics outlined in Chaos Theory than to the classical science that provides the current paradigm for most psychotherapies. Virginia Satir’s philosophy and therapeutic models of change reflect her intuitive understanding of this. The Consciousness Restructuring Process is a therapeutic technique and philosophy that is consistent with Satir’s work and with complex dynamics and its implications, and it provides a robust model for guiding individuals, families, and groups through crisis and change.
THE CHANGING HEALING PARADIGM
Dreams, New Science and the Consciousness Restructuring Process
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
Asklepia Foundation, c1996
The Consciousness Restructuring Process represents a basic paradigmatic shift in the healing arts. To make this shift requires a fundamental shift in perspective, a change in the very models by which we describe how nature works. The old Cartesian philosophy of "I think, therefore I am," is turned on its head and the intellect is reprioritized to a less controlling and confining role: "I am, and therefore I think, I feel, I experience, I act..."
Being, rather than thinking is the core of existence. The new philosophy is one that offers evolution and creativity as a way of life. Culturally and socially, we are entering a major evolution, and science will play a significant role in this. For 300 years, Newtonian Science has ruled and along with the Cartesian philosophy (that supports a mind/body split) from a basic level, has shaped our civilization and culture.
This model depicts a clockwork universe in which we stand outside of nature and objectively manipulate it. It gave us the technology that elevated us even further from nature but now pushes us off balance and threatens our existence. It sets us apart from all; it is a model of separation. Then Einstein disproved some of its tenets, the basic ones of objectivity and absoluteness. "Everything is relative," he said. "There is no absolute frame of measurement anywhere in the universe."
The ideas of standing outside of nature and measuring it objectively was invalidated. Relativity says that your frame of reference determines your measurement of reality. Quantum Physics goes one step further and implies all is relationship--the universe is an interconnected web of relationships. One electron knows what another electron is doing and one molecule knows what another is doing, even if they are at opposites sides of the universe. Somehow they coordinate their efforts to include the observer who is also part of that system which is part of every other system in the universe all cooperating in harmonious relationship to create unique realities for each of us.
Suddenly, the whole framework of reality is like jelly. There is nothing firm to stand on. We are part of a natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels, where structure is only a passing creation of continuing evolution. Quantum reality lies at the edge of chaos and of creation itself. Nowhere are these ideas more important than in the healing arts and professions and in enhancing our understanding of natural healing processes.
The natural healing process is something medical science does not understand and so hides from it behind the labels of "placebo effect," and "spontaneous remission," but it is something which the Consciousness Restructuring Process describes and guides people through. Psychotherapy and allopathic healing approaches are based on the old paradigm, the old Newtonian view which sees reality, including human beings, as nothing but mechanical systems.
Part of us is. But most of us isn't. We are complex dynamic organisms, and the theory of complexity or chaos theory, far better describes our interactions with reality. We experience quantum effects directly as synchronicities, sensory and extrasensory phenomena, placebos and spontaneous remission. True healing takes place at this quantum level--the level at which transformation is the essence of reality--that reality created from infinite potential.
Healing is a sensory phenomenon and so are dreams. Our senses let us know when we are sick. Senses show us when we are well. Mind and intellect can't do it. We have to go beyond that, beyond the "I think, therefore, I am," mentality and into a reality of beingness. "I am, and how I am I know through my senses." Consider depriving people of dream time--let them sleep, but prevent dreaming.
After about a week, hallucination and mental/emotional problems begin to appear. Within a couple of weeks, the immune system weakens and there is greater proneness to illness and fatigue. Even an unremembered dream heals; we need dream activity during the night to heal the day's traumas, and the healing power of dreams is not limited to just this.
Dreams are altered states of consciousness in which we transcend space and time as we know them, states in which such phenomena as clairvoyance and prognostication occur. These phenomena cannot be explained by linear cause and effect, they are consistent with Quantum Physics and Chaos Theory. One of my earliest encounters with the implications of this paradigm shift came about eleven years ago during some dream therapy that I was facilitating.
Gestalt was my main form of dream work. Its power and strength lies in the notion that the healing power of the dream is in its experience, not in interpretation or analysis. Gestalt dream-work has one re-experience the dream and become different components of it. The premise is that every symbol is reflection of a deeper part of one's self. Becoming different symbols in the dream one enters into a dialogue with the different parts of the self to resolve conflicts at this level of ego functioning.
I was working with a woman who, as a child, had been sexually abused by her brothers. She became very hard and cold. We had been working on these issues, making the usual progress as far as psychotherapy goes--but not finding deep resolutions. Then she related a dream. At the end of it she was being drawn "on a rack, into something like a saw-blade, which was not a saw-blade, but a hub, on which there were razor sharp knives rotating and spinning." She had awakened at this point. What I did was unusual in my context as a psychotherapist but consistent with my shaman mind bent and an intuitive urge.
I said to her, "Instead of waking up this time, why don't you let yourself be drawn into the knives?" Her first report was of being "slashed to ribbons with flesh and blood flying all over." I asked her what she noticed most about the experience and she replied that it was the coldness of the blades, they were a razor sharp, deep penetrating old I invited her to become the cold. And as she did she reported feeling like a thick frigid layer of ice on top of a lake, very cold, very hard and very frozen. I noticed that she had precisely described her condition. I invited her to go deeper. She reported passing through the ice and entering into water. I invited her to let go into the water, to become it. Some time passed. Then her body began to relax. I watched the muscles that I had seen tense since I first met her begin to soften and flex. I asked her what she was experiencing.
She answered that as she went deeper into "being" the water she became warmer and the fluid, limitless and boundaryless. I invited here to stay there and experience this side of herself. When she returned from the experience in about ten minutes, there was a profound change in her personality and physiology. We were both inspired. This was the kind of healing work I aspired to facilitate but seldom saw; the tools I had seemed too limiting and unreliable. Something remarkable had happened, but I was not sure how. I continued exploring this deep journey process further with other clients and, among other things, was struck by the realization that, as with the placebo, I was not the healer, it came from deep inside the person healing and involved profound consciousness change.
All I did was guide. It was the person's own imagination and dreams that took them to the healing state. And the healings were proving to be profound involving both somatic and mental diseases. Since I had first encountered the concepts of spontaneous remission and the placebo effect, initially as an engineer, and then later from the "inside" as a student of psychology, I was plagued by not knowing how they worked. There were no satisfactory answers from psychology or medical science, indeed they seemed to do little more than grudgingly admit to their existence and then ignore them. However, when I began dream journey work, I knew I was on the trail of these phenomena.
The journey process duplicated their effects and how they operated, but more reliably and frequently. There is a similarity from journey to journey, not in the sense that the images are the same, or follow the same sequence, but they lead to similar states or processes of consciousness activities or dynamics. Leading into these, the imagery describes the diseased self in vivid sensory terms, such as being very hard, rigid and cold. But there are openings, elements of the diseased energy patterns that invite one to go even deeper into a place of conscious dynamics.. There the sensory image materializes, disassociates into chaos or unstructured consciousness stuff.
Emerging from this sensory image are new images and sensory experiences to replaced the diseased ones and give resolution to them, for example a deep felt sense of warmth, flow and freedom. But, it is a deep felt sensory experience rather than a more superficial intellectual or emotional experience and it begins a deep evolutionary process in the senses and nervous system that eventually manifests as healing throughout the entire organism. Another step came after reading an article in OMNI, "The Role of Chaos in the Brain" ( McAuliffe, 2/1990), about the work of Dr. Paul Rapp of the University of Pennsylvania. The entire article sang to me, certain specifics quite loudly.
Rapp was working with chaos theory and its implications in brain functioning and had studied problem solving--a problem that exceeds the limit of a person's current thinking, it has to be solved creatively by finding an entirely new perspective. The article implied that in such instances, neural activity tends to become more random or chaotic. When the neurons settle back into more structured firing, there is a new perspective and solution. As chaos theory predicts, out of chaos comes new structure. I began to think about how one would subjectively experience chaotic or random neural firings? One very obvious way suggested itself.
A neural pattern is a feeling or emotion - or a sensation - or a thought, or a coherent image of some sort. And so the lack of any of those things is essentially a blank mind. Another possibility was a confusing and overwhelming deluge of impressions. Both of these experiences were typical of the healing states I was studying. The first experience is also typical of meditative states that are known to improve health and well-being. I had seen the inducement of the second type in shamanic rituals that also seemed to lead to healing. This leads to the notion that healing is indeed a creative process. I began thinking in terms of consciousness energy and dynamics, and reevaluating my understanding of it.
I now think of consciousness as a fundamental energy field that exists as a ground state and as a part of every structure in the universe, much like alchemic ether. It is the medium through which the information that Quantum Physics is talking about is exchanged. Shamans journey through consciousness - they are masters of consciousness dynamics and altering consciousness dynamics and altering consciousness. And indeed, what I was doing was using a shaman technique with Western Gestalt dream principles to guide people deep into dreams using their imagination to bring them to the healing states within. From this union of practices, came the first name, the shaman/therapist model because it bridged both worldviews. It was not strictly a shaman nor a therapist, but the essence of and more than both. There was balance in this.
The premise that science and spirituality are separate is faulty. This work I was exploring brought them together in an elegant way. Chaos is a mathematical discipline and mathematics is the language of science. The science it describes along with quantum theory demonstrates fundamental principles of natural process more fully and accurately than the older Newtonian Sciences. The principles from Chaos Theory describe not only the human condition and behavior, but also dreams and natural healing process. For example, a fractal program in a computer shows changes called bifurcations: something is developing in a certain way and then all of a sudden it changes direction, position, or pattern for no apparent reason. That, too, is the experience of a dream.
I also noticed that when I went into chaos with people, from the chaotic or unstructured consciousness, a new structure would emerge. This is precisely what chaos theory reveals: Chaos is only apparently chaotic. It is really an infinity of possible forms, which can come into existence. In Chaos Theory we are indeed dealing with the essence of creative spirit. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that the universe is always tending irreversibly toward disorder or chaos, a very depressing thought when I studied it in college.
Now Chaos Theory returns the balance by revealing the creation of structure from the disorder. Thus, science once again reflects a balance in the universe. The Consciousness Restructuring model considers reality to be a twilight zone between structure and chaos, form and fomlessness, neither one nor the other, yet both. Structure evolves from chaos in an environment of complex interacting systems, and is responsive to and shaped by that environment. Eventually, structures act and grow rigid and in doing so become less responsive to the environment ensures fracturing and disintegration back into chaos. At the person level this is experienced as a life crisis or a disease. But eventually new form or structure emerges from the chaos.
It is this dance of evolution and change that is real; not the temporary forms and structures that we fix on nor the chaos, which we avoid. They exist only in passing. During the journey process we noted that at the deeper levels of consciousness dynamics we encountered forms that were similar enough that they were readily identifiable and appeared spontaneously in people from many backgrounds and cultures from journey to journey. As I explored these forms and image, once again Chaos Theory and psychology came together.
Carl Jung had identified archetypes, images and themes that occur in our myths and stories, independent of time, culture, or geography. These are, in a way, building blocks and seem to arise out of a collective conscious state; they form nuclei about which ourselves and cultures form. In many ways they are illustrated by the ancient Greek dramas which seem to depict patterns and characters that can still be encountered today. Chaos theory has identified energy systems called "strange attractors". Operating near a complex or chaotic system, they shape and set limits to the patterns formed from the chaos.
We have discovered a number of what seem to be archetypal strange attractors in the consciousness states on the edge of chaos, patterns that appear from journey to journey spontaneously in people from many backgrounds and cultures, and which seem to give shape to matter and psyche at all levels of organization. There are perhaps a dozen or so of these that we have identified. One example is a spiral or vortex which when present in the imagery inevitably leads to chaotic consciousness.
However, this form appears at all levels of the organization of matter. For example, this spiral pattern is how most galaxies in the universe took their form from the big bang of their creation. It is also the form water takes in flow at the edge of chaos, where white water and still water come together. We see the same pattern at the edge of chaotic atmospheric conditions as tornadoes or hurricanes. They also are the forms of the DNA molecule itself, the primary molecule that shapes our being from the chemical soup of the womb. In terms of consciousness dynamics these strange attractors also operate to form our personality or persona.
When we are born we don't experience limits--we are part of everything. Experiences becomes strange attractors that impress on our consciousness to shape us and limit our ability to move beyond. They become fixed in our neural structures, as specific synaptic firing patterns in the brain. Dr. Wilder Penfield first noticed full dimensional sensory memories in his work on the brain. He was able to stimulate complete sensory recall, virtual reality-like experiences in which early memory is experienced on the sensory level, by stimulating locations in the brain. This is also what is reported in the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP). If the experience is painful, it incorporates the pattern of the pain and exists in a state of dis-ease.
The brain controls body chemistry, by its neural pathways and patterns. So are psyche and personality. So the disease eventually takes somatic and psychic form. Both somatic and psyche healing can happen at this level. It is the level of quantum reality in which the distinction between particles and wave fronts, matter and energy, blurs. It is the level in which consciousness impressions become neural patterns and they in turn shape the body and mind. It is the elusive mind/body connection and how the placebo effect and spontaneous remission work. It is the healer within.
During a dream or healing journey we go from thinking and emotional levels to progressively deeper consciousness dynamics until we get to the fundamental primary sensory images that are our subjective experience of these neural structures; then still deeper into unbound or unstructured consciousness. Out of it comes the evolved sensed self-image, which reflects the changed neural patterns, and over a period of weeks or months realigns the physical and mental being to reflect the inner change.
Consciousness Restructuring Process considers healing a matter of evolution where disease is the crisis of old structure needing to disintegrate to allow the emergence of a new one better suited to the present. Healing is a verb, a process, rather than a noun or an end state. One embraces a life of creativity and evolution. The healer is within and the embodiment of one's own imaginative and creative processes. "I am, therefore..." opens the being to an infinity of possibilities unrestricted by the limits of mere thought.
c1996, Asklepia Publications, All Rights Reserved
Dreams, New Science and the Consciousness Restructuring Process
by Graywolf Swinney, M.A.
Asklepia Foundation, c1996
The Consciousness Restructuring Process represents a basic paradigmatic shift in the healing arts. To make this shift requires a fundamental shift in perspective, a change in the very models by which we describe how nature works. The old Cartesian philosophy of "I think, therefore I am," is turned on its head and the intellect is reprioritized to a less controlling and confining role: "I am, and therefore I think, I feel, I experience, I act..."
Being, rather than thinking is the core of existence. The new philosophy is one that offers evolution and creativity as a way of life. Culturally and socially, we are entering a major evolution, and science will play a significant role in this. For 300 years, Newtonian Science has ruled and along with the Cartesian philosophy (that supports a mind/body split) from a basic level, has shaped our civilization and culture.
This model depicts a clockwork universe in which we stand outside of nature and objectively manipulate it. It gave us the technology that elevated us even further from nature but now pushes us off balance and threatens our existence. It sets us apart from all; it is a model of separation. Then Einstein disproved some of its tenets, the basic ones of objectivity and absoluteness. "Everything is relative," he said. "There is no absolute frame of measurement anywhere in the universe."
The ideas of standing outside of nature and measuring it objectively was invalidated. Relativity says that your frame of reference determines your measurement of reality. Quantum Physics goes one step further and implies all is relationship--the universe is an interconnected web of relationships. One electron knows what another electron is doing and one molecule knows what another is doing, even if they are at opposites sides of the universe. Somehow they coordinate their efforts to include the observer who is also part of that system which is part of every other system in the universe all cooperating in harmonious relationship to create unique realities for each of us.
Suddenly, the whole framework of reality is like jelly. There is nothing firm to stand on. We are part of a natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels, where structure is only a passing creation of continuing evolution. Quantum reality lies at the edge of chaos and of creation itself. Nowhere are these ideas more important than in the healing arts and professions and in enhancing our understanding of natural healing processes.
The natural healing process is something medical science does not understand and so hides from it behind the labels of "placebo effect," and "spontaneous remission," but it is something which the Consciousness Restructuring Process describes and guides people through. Psychotherapy and allopathic healing approaches are based on the old paradigm, the old Newtonian view which sees reality, including human beings, as nothing but mechanical systems.
Part of us is. But most of us isn't. We are complex dynamic organisms, and the theory of complexity or chaos theory, far better describes our interactions with reality. We experience quantum effects directly as synchronicities, sensory and extrasensory phenomena, placebos and spontaneous remission. True healing takes place at this quantum level--the level at which transformation is the essence of reality--that reality created from infinite potential.
Healing is a sensory phenomenon and so are dreams. Our senses let us know when we are sick. Senses show us when we are well. Mind and intellect can't do it. We have to go beyond that, beyond the "I think, therefore, I am," mentality and into a reality of beingness. "I am, and how I am I know through my senses." Consider depriving people of dream time--let them sleep, but prevent dreaming.
After about a week, hallucination and mental/emotional problems begin to appear. Within a couple of weeks, the immune system weakens and there is greater proneness to illness and fatigue. Even an unremembered dream heals; we need dream activity during the night to heal the day's traumas, and the healing power of dreams is not limited to just this.
Dreams are altered states of consciousness in which we transcend space and time as we know them, states in which such phenomena as clairvoyance and prognostication occur. These phenomena cannot be explained by linear cause and effect, they are consistent with Quantum Physics and Chaos Theory. One of my earliest encounters with the implications of this paradigm shift came about eleven years ago during some dream therapy that I was facilitating.
Gestalt was my main form of dream work. Its power and strength lies in the notion that the healing power of the dream is in its experience, not in interpretation or analysis. Gestalt dream-work has one re-experience the dream and become different components of it. The premise is that every symbol is reflection of a deeper part of one's self. Becoming different symbols in the dream one enters into a dialogue with the different parts of the self to resolve conflicts at this level of ego functioning.
I was working with a woman who, as a child, had been sexually abused by her brothers. She became very hard and cold. We had been working on these issues, making the usual progress as far as psychotherapy goes--but not finding deep resolutions. Then she related a dream. At the end of it she was being drawn "on a rack, into something like a saw-blade, which was not a saw-blade, but a hub, on which there were razor sharp knives rotating and spinning." She had awakened at this point. What I did was unusual in my context as a psychotherapist but consistent with my shaman mind bent and an intuitive urge.
I said to her, "Instead of waking up this time, why don't you let yourself be drawn into the knives?" Her first report was of being "slashed to ribbons with flesh and blood flying all over." I asked her what she noticed most about the experience and she replied that it was the coldness of the blades, they were a razor sharp, deep penetrating old I invited her to become the cold. And as she did she reported feeling like a thick frigid layer of ice on top of a lake, very cold, very hard and very frozen. I noticed that she had precisely described her condition. I invited her to go deeper. She reported passing through the ice and entering into water. I invited her to let go into the water, to become it. Some time passed. Then her body began to relax. I watched the muscles that I had seen tense since I first met her begin to soften and flex. I asked her what she was experiencing.
She answered that as she went deeper into "being" the water she became warmer and the fluid, limitless and boundaryless. I invited here to stay there and experience this side of herself. When she returned from the experience in about ten minutes, there was a profound change in her personality and physiology. We were both inspired. This was the kind of healing work I aspired to facilitate but seldom saw; the tools I had seemed too limiting and unreliable. Something remarkable had happened, but I was not sure how. I continued exploring this deep journey process further with other clients and, among other things, was struck by the realization that, as with the placebo, I was not the healer, it came from deep inside the person healing and involved profound consciousness change.
All I did was guide. It was the person's own imagination and dreams that took them to the healing state. And the healings were proving to be profound involving both somatic and mental diseases. Since I had first encountered the concepts of spontaneous remission and the placebo effect, initially as an engineer, and then later from the "inside" as a student of psychology, I was plagued by not knowing how they worked. There were no satisfactory answers from psychology or medical science, indeed they seemed to do little more than grudgingly admit to their existence and then ignore them. However, when I began dream journey work, I knew I was on the trail of these phenomena.
The journey process duplicated their effects and how they operated, but more reliably and frequently. There is a similarity from journey to journey, not in the sense that the images are the same, or follow the same sequence, but they lead to similar states or processes of consciousness activities or dynamics. Leading into these, the imagery describes the diseased self in vivid sensory terms, such as being very hard, rigid and cold. But there are openings, elements of the diseased energy patterns that invite one to go even deeper into a place of conscious dynamics.. There the sensory image materializes, disassociates into chaos or unstructured consciousness stuff.
Emerging from this sensory image are new images and sensory experiences to replaced the diseased ones and give resolution to them, for example a deep felt sense of warmth, flow and freedom. But, it is a deep felt sensory experience rather than a more superficial intellectual or emotional experience and it begins a deep evolutionary process in the senses and nervous system that eventually manifests as healing throughout the entire organism. Another step came after reading an article in OMNI, "The Role of Chaos in the Brain" ( McAuliffe, 2/1990), about the work of Dr. Paul Rapp of the University of Pennsylvania. The entire article sang to me, certain specifics quite loudly.
Rapp was working with chaos theory and its implications in brain functioning and had studied problem solving--a problem that exceeds the limit of a person's current thinking, it has to be solved creatively by finding an entirely new perspective. The article implied that in such instances, neural activity tends to become more random or chaotic. When the neurons settle back into more structured firing, there is a new perspective and solution. As chaos theory predicts, out of chaos comes new structure. I began to think about how one would subjectively experience chaotic or random neural firings? One very obvious way suggested itself.
A neural pattern is a feeling or emotion - or a sensation - or a thought, or a coherent image of some sort. And so the lack of any of those things is essentially a blank mind. Another possibility was a confusing and overwhelming deluge of impressions. Both of these experiences were typical of the healing states I was studying. The first experience is also typical of meditative states that are known to improve health and well-being. I had seen the inducement of the second type in shamanic rituals that also seemed to lead to healing. This leads to the notion that healing is indeed a creative process. I began thinking in terms of consciousness energy and dynamics, and reevaluating my understanding of it.
I now think of consciousness as a fundamental energy field that exists as a ground state and as a part of every structure in the universe, much like alchemic ether. It is the medium through which the information that Quantum Physics is talking about is exchanged. Shamans journey through consciousness - they are masters of consciousness dynamics and altering consciousness dynamics and altering consciousness. And indeed, what I was doing was using a shaman technique with Western Gestalt dream principles to guide people deep into dreams using their imagination to bring them to the healing states within. From this union of practices, came the first name, the shaman/therapist model because it bridged both worldviews. It was not strictly a shaman nor a therapist, but the essence of and more than both. There was balance in this.
The premise that science and spirituality are separate is faulty. This work I was exploring brought them together in an elegant way. Chaos is a mathematical discipline and mathematics is the language of science. The science it describes along with quantum theory demonstrates fundamental principles of natural process more fully and accurately than the older Newtonian Sciences. The principles from Chaos Theory describe not only the human condition and behavior, but also dreams and natural healing process. For example, a fractal program in a computer shows changes called bifurcations: something is developing in a certain way and then all of a sudden it changes direction, position, or pattern for no apparent reason. That, too, is the experience of a dream.
I also noticed that when I went into chaos with people, from the chaotic or unstructured consciousness, a new structure would emerge. This is precisely what chaos theory reveals: Chaos is only apparently chaotic. It is really an infinity of possible forms, which can come into existence. In Chaos Theory we are indeed dealing with the essence of creative spirit. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that the universe is always tending irreversibly toward disorder or chaos, a very depressing thought when I studied it in college.
Now Chaos Theory returns the balance by revealing the creation of structure from the disorder. Thus, science once again reflects a balance in the universe. The Consciousness Restructuring model considers reality to be a twilight zone between structure and chaos, form and fomlessness, neither one nor the other, yet both. Structure evolves from chaos in an environment of complex interacting systems, and is responsive to and shaped by that environment. Eventually, structures act and grow rigid and in doing so become less responsive to the environment ensures fracturing and disintegration back into chaos. At the person level this is experienced as a life crisis or a disease. But eventually new form or structure emerges from the chaos.
It is this dance of evolution and change that is real; not the temporary forms and structures that we fix on nor the chaos, which we avoid. They exist only in passing. During the journey process we noted that at the deeper levels of consciousness dynamics we encountered forms that were similar enough that they were readily identifiable and appeared spontaneously in people from many backgrounds and cultures from journey to journey. As I explored these forms and image, once again Chaos Theory and psychology came together.
Carl Jung had identified archetypes, images and themes that occur in our myths and stories, independent of time, culture, or geography. These are, in a way, building blocks and seem to arise out of a collective conscious state; they form nuclei about which ourselves and cultures form. In many ways they are illustrated by the ancient Greek dramas which seem to depict patterns and characters that can still be encountered today. Chaos theory has identified energy systems called "strange attractors". Operating near a complex or chaotic system, they shape and set limits to the patterns formed from the chaos.
We have discovered a number of what seem to be archetypal strange attractors in the consciousness states on the edge of chaos, patterns that appear from journey to journey spontaneously in people from many backgrounds and cultures, and which seem to give shape to matter and psyche at all levels of organization. There are perhaps a dozen or so of these that we have identified. One example is a spiral or vortex which when present in the imagery inevitably leads to chaotic consciousness.
However, this form appears at all levels of the organization of matter. For example, this spiral pattern is how most galaxies in the universe took their form from the big bang of their creation. It is also the form water takes in flow at the edge of chaos, where white water and still water come together. We see the same pattern at the edge of chaotic atmospheric conditions as tornadoes or hurricanes. They also are the forms of the DNA molecule itself, the primary molecule that shapes our being from the chemical soup of the womb. In terms of consciousness dynamics these strange attractors also operate to form our personality or persona.
When we are born we don't experience limits--we are part of everything. Experiences becomes strange attractors that impress on our consciousness to shape us and limit our ability to move beyond. They become fixed in our neural structures, as specific synaptic firing patterns in the brain. Dr. Wilder Penfield first noticed full dimensional sensory memories in his work on the brain. He was able to stimulate complete sensory recall, virtual reality-like experiences in which early memory is experienced on the sensory level, by stimulating locations in the brain. This is also what is reported in the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP). If the experience is painful, it incorporates the pattern of the pain and exists in a state of dis-ease.
The brain controls body chemistry, by its neural pathways and patterns. So are psyche and personality. So the disease eventually takes somatic and psychic form. Both somatic and psyche healing can happen at this level. It is the level of quantum reality in which the distinction between particles and wave fronts, matter and energy, blurs. It is the level in which consciousness impressions become neural patterns and they in turn shape the body and mind. It is the elusive mind/body connection and how the placebo effect and spontaneous remission work. It is the healer within.
During a dream or healing journey we go from thinking and emotional levels to progressively deeper consciousness dynamics until we get to the fundamental primary sensory images that are our subjective experience of these neural structures; then still deeper into unbound or unstructured consciousness. Out of it comes the evolved sensed self-image, which reflects the changed neural patterns, and over a period of weeks or months realigns the physical and mental being to reflect the inner change.
Consciousness Restructuring Process considers healing a matter of evolution where disease is the crisis of old structure needing to disintegrate to allow the emergence of a new one better suited to the present. Healing is a verb, a process, rather than a noun or an end state. One embraces a life of creativity and evolution. The healer is within and the embodiment of one's own imaginative and creative processes. "I am, therefore..." opens the being to an infinity of possibilities unrestricted by the limits of mere thought.
c1996, Asklepia Publications, All Rights Reserved
CONSCIOUSNESS ENGINEERING
ICST Research Programs
The Research wing of The Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology is directed by Graywolf Swinney, who is also the Principle Investigator of all grants and programs. GRANT SOLICITATIONS: Categories for which the Foundation is seeking grants include operating expenses, salaries, hardware (i.e. computers, biofeedback, and EEG equipment), pure research, short-term and longitudinal studies of specific syndromes and cases and their treatment with the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and nutritional support. Particular areas of interest include addictions recovery and children.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR GRANT PROPOSALS
Proposals Synopsis: (http://www.asklepia.org/granttips.html)
The Neuropsychology of CRP, Dreams, and REM:
(http://www.reocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy 3/neuropsych.html)
CRP and Theta Reverie: (http://www.geocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy3/CRPTheta.html)
Neuromagnetic Therapy: (http://www.geocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy3/Neuromagnet.html)
FIBROMYALGIA STUDY: The Consciousness Restructuring Process has already demonstrated significant improvement for all symptomology of fibromyalgia (FM) and its related disorder chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A grant to perpetuate this study with medical supervision would fund a more systematical approach, a more accurate statistical review of results, and the position of Medical Director as Principle Investigator.
NEUROLOGICAL RESEARCH: Previous studies conducted for Asklepia by Thomas A. Blakely, Ph.D. [Neuropsychology and Clinical Electrophysiology] of Lake Oswego, Oregon have indicated that co-consciousness reveals itself through unique brainwave patterns, which appear very similar to sleep, but where the subject, in fact, remains alert and not only responsive, but interactive without and within the shared journey.
Specific areas of neurological interest and inquiry include the nature of "chaotic consciousness," R.E.M., sleep cycles, delta sleep and dreams; the evolutionary value of dreams; standard biofeedback and neurofeedback, also, detectable results of CRP through EEG, MRI and CAT scans; P300 waves and PGO waves within the CRP journeys; endogenous evoked potentials and "MERMERS"; false memory syndrome. Our focus is on the Biophysics of consciousness and restructuring trauma patterns, and the process of facilitating spontaneous healing. As one step toward that end we are sponsoring experiential Darkroom Retreats, facilitated with dream incubation and CRP.
INTEGRAL HEALING: The mindbody interface is a rich realm for many kinds of research opportunities which the Foundation would like to pursue. Grants for this purpose would further basic research into the relationship between CRP and the Placebo Effect, chaos theory and psychobiological processes, the quantum metaphysics of the holistic organism, the quantum self, the superconduction of consciousness, the engineering of altered states, healing effects of journeys to the groundstate of consciousness, the melding of science, dreams, and spirituality, and other aspects of mindbody healing.
The Asklepia Foundation
“Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams”
THE INSTITUTE FOR CONSCIOUSNESS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Training and Research Philosophy The Institute has the goal of connection with the divine Source, but it uses the methods and rigours of science in its pursuit of the nature of Reality. It unites both physics and metaphysics, matter and psyche, bodymind. It heralds a return to the ancient traditions of both Natural Science or Philosophy and the art of Alchemy, which sought to find the immanence or identity of the Godhead in matter.
A potential is a River of Energy, and "chaotic consciousness" is the Ocean of Potential. Exploring various means of tapping this infinite ocean of living energy is the purpose of The Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology. Foremost in terms of these explorations into the engineering of consciousness is that of Human Potential, through the CRP mentoring process, taught in our trainings, and publications. CRP, immersion in that flow of potential, is a journey to the heart of healing which bridges the gap between who you have been and who you dream of being. Dreams are an agent of change and reveal our deepest nature, personal, cultural and transpersonal.
Our Asklepian approach is experiential, self-organizing, and emergent, rather than interpretive or analytical. The Institute seeks to help connect more individuals with their own dreams, creativity, and genius, their elan vital, their spirituality, the Unbound Self. Our programs are for anyone who wants to discover and explore the many facets of their psychophysical being, and enjoy freedom from self-defeating patterns and psychological traps.
CRP is a way to bring the true power of your self out of the shadows and into the light. We encourage Generalization, rather than Specialization. The Institute has interests in and maintains interdisciplinary research programs in such diverse fields as Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, Cognitive Sciences, Quantum Physics, Biophysics, Quantum Cosmology, Synergetics, Allopathic Medicine and Alternative Healing arts.
Our subject is approached as both art and science. The Institute welcomes patronage, fellow researchers, and volunteer service. Currently, we are seeking grant funding for a pilot project in the therapeutic treatment of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We also have innovative programs for at-risk children and substance abuse. However, our primary pursuit is helping others realize their unhampered flow, and self-healing potential by embracing the transformational process, listening to dreams and the inner stillness.
Asklepia Foundation Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology (ICST)
Training Program/Certification/Ordination
OBJECTIVES
To Present the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and its Applications
To Maintain a Teaching School and a Mystery School in the tradition of the Asklepian Dream Temples Devoted to Training Qualified Mentors of CRP To Conduct Demonstration Courses and Engage in Local and Global Community Outreach
To Relate CRP to its Multidisciplinary Roots in Shamanism, the Arts & Humanities, Science, Psychology, and Spirituality
To Relate CRP to Conventional Healing, Humanistic & Transpersonal Psychology, Developmental Theory, Psychopathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment
To Utilize the Concepts of CRP, Chaos Theory and Complex Dynamics in Consciousness Engineering, Curriculum Planning and Teaching
To Encourage Research and Writing about Consciousness Restructuring, Consciousness Engineering, and Chaosophy
To Select Candidates for CRP Training and to Facilitate Their Progression Toward Self-Actualization, and Certification in CRP or Ordination
To Facilitate the Emergence of Mentors of the Consciousness Restructuring Process
To Further the Developmental Potential and Therapeutic Effectiveness of Each Student to the Fullest
To Further Educational, Spiritual, and Experiential Development Past the Average toward the Creative and Extraordinary
To Create a Developmental Crucible for Trainees and Supervisors Asklepia Foundation
ICST COURSE OUTLINE
Training CRP Mentors for Certification or Ordination
SEMINAR I: An Overview of the Development and Application of the Consciousness Restructuring Process Goal: To introduce the basic developmental concepts and multidisciplinary background of CRP; to introduce the philosophy of Chaosophy; to introduce the ancient archetypal background of Asklepian dreamhealing and shamanism. To demonstrate and begin personal experience with CRP.
SEMINAR II: The Frontier: Basic Observations and Speculations on the Mind/Matter Interface and the Healing Potential of the Quantum Mind, Chaos, REM, and CRP Goal: To present the basic questions in the field of human potential and consciousness engineering which need exploration and elaboration. To further describe the role of and language of Chaos Theory and CDS in the Consciousness Restructuring Process and Dynamical Psychology. To introduce Holographic Healing and Sleep and Dream Research. To allow each student to mentor a first Journey.
SEMINAR III: Introduction to Dreamhealing 101; Theory and Practice Goal: To introduce the rudiments of CRP theory and practice and the concept of the Shaman/Therapist; to introduce Mentoring and teach the nature of co-consciousness; to describe the CRP model or map of consciousness; to begin applying the practice for self and others; to initiate supervised CRP practice with trainee peer-pairs.
SEMINAR IV: Introduction to Holographic Healing; the Science of Consciousness Engineering Goal: To further describe the multidisciplinary sciences which underlie the practice of CRP, including dreamwork, the new physics, mindbody health, the healing arts and sciences, social sciences and spirituality. Special attention is given to sleep studies, neurology, biophysics, genetics, biochemistry, embryology, quantum cosmology, psychoneuroimmunology, and cognitive sciences, among others. To explore the idea that the mind and its biological substrate, the whole psychophysical organism, continue to evolve. To continue sharing dreams and journeys.
SEMINAR V: The Unbound Self: Spirituality in CRP; The Development of the Psychic Structure From Conception through Adulthood Goal: To explore the depths and heights of the phenomenological layers of the psyche, as they relate to the CRP Journeys. To explore the potentials for facilitating creativity, intuition, extraordinary states of consciousness, and spiritual practices; to explore one’s own self-actualization and self-realization. To begin practice work outside of classes. To go where no therapist has gone before...
SEMINAR VI: Counseling and Therapy Techniques that Work; Professional, Nonprofessional, and Spiritual Counseling; Working with Groups and in Business Goal: To provide ethical guidelines for Mentors and teach the function of boundaries; to teach interviewing and basic counseling skills for the professional and nonprofessional setting; to provide additional practice in Transactional Analysis and Gestalt; to address special needs of both nonprofessional and spiritual counselors; special training for group work and in the business world. To initiate practicuum settings using CRP.
SEMINAR VII: Clinical Applications of CRP; Psychopathology, Diagnosis, and Integrative Treatment; Tailoring Treatment Programs; Working with Agencies Goal: To outline specific protocols for CRP treatment of specific disorders, including diagnosis and multidisciplinary integrative treatment, including allopathic and naturopathic, dietary, and lifestyle support. To provide both theory and practicuum training for CRP mentors, and instruction and experience working with other medical and mental health agencies, and medical personnel. To give additional training for specialists, such as addiction counselors and medical professionals. Special instruction by John Penkert in Nursing issues, Chemical Dependency, Love Addiction, Dual Diagnosis, and Psychiatric Nursing.
SEMINAR VIII: Ordination Curriculum for Divinity Students; Spiritual Counseling for Individuals and Communities Goal: To address the special needs and training of spiritual counselors using CRP in pastoral work; special attention is given to the value of ritual and ceremony in both individual and community settings; to provide a comprehensive background in human potential, shamanic techniques, personal mythology, comparative religion, and the varieties of spiritual practice and meditation; to teach the mentor to work with the belief system of the mentee. To provide special off-site supervision for mentors in the field.
SEMINAR IX: Using CRP with Children and Kids at Risk in the School, Agency, and Clinical Setting Goal: To cover the special needs of children and unique treatment settings; dealing with children’s dreams and special behavioral problems and diagnoses. Special instruction by Peggie Southwick in counceling and dealing with at risk children on a variety of issues.
SEMINAR X: Adapting the Consciousness Restructuring Process for General and Clinical Use by the Hypnotherapist Goal: To address the adoption of CRP in the practice of Certified Hypnotists, Certified Hypnotherapists and Clinical Hypnotherapists; practical guidance on how and when to employ CRP in a Hypnotherapy practice. Training for practitioners and faculty and Directors of Hypnotherapy Training. Special instruction by Iona Miller, and Nola Ettner, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists. Note: This workshop is available for presentation in your wellness clinic or hypnotherapy training school.
ICST Research Programs
The Research wing of The Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology is directed by Graywolf Swinney, who is also the Principle Investigator of all grants and programs. GRANT SOLICITATIONS: Categories for which the Foundation is seeking grants include operating expenses, salaries, hardware (i.e. computers, biofeedback, and EEG equipment), pure research, short-term and longitudinal studies of specific syndromes and cases and their treatment with the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and nutritional support. Particular areas of interest include addictions recovery and children.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR GRANT PROPOSALS
Proposals Synopsis: (http://www.asklepia.org/granttips.html)
The Neuropsychology of CRP, Dreams, and REM:
(http://www.reocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy 3/neuropsych.html)
CRP and Theta Reverie: (http://www.geocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy3/CRPTheta.html)
Neuromagnetic Therapy: (http://www.geocities.com/iona_m/Chaosophy3/Neuromagnet.html)
FIBROMYALGIA STUDY: The Consciousness Restructuring Process has already demonstrated significant improvement for all symptomology of fibromyalgia (FM) and its related disorder chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A grant to perpetuate this study with medical supervision would fund a more systematical approach, a more accurate statistical review of results, and the position of Medical Director as Principle Investigator.
NEUROLOGICAL RESEARCH: Previous studies conducted for Asklepia by Thomas A. Blakely, Ph.D. [Neuropsychology and Clinical Electrophysiology] of Lake Oswego, Oregon have indicated that co-consciousness reveals itself through unique brainwave patterns, which appear very similar to sleep, but where the subject, in fact, remains alert and not only responsive, but interactive without and within the shared journey.
Specific areas of neurological interest and inquiry include the nature of "chaotic consciousness," R.E.M., sleep cycles, delta sleep and dreams; the evolutionary value of dreams; standard biofeedback and neurofeedback, also, detectable results of CRP through EEG, MRI and CAT scans; P300 waves and PGO waves within the CRP journeys; endogenous evoked potentials and "MERMERS"; false memory syndrome. Our focus is on the Biophysics of consciousness and restructuring trauma patterns, and the process of facilitating spontaneous healing. As one step toward that end we are sponsoring experiential Darkroom Retreats, facilitated with dream incubation and CRP.
INTEGRAL HEALING: The mindbody interface is a rich realm for many kinds of research opportunities which the Foundation would like to pursue. Grants for this purpose would further basic research into the relationship between CRP and the Placebo Effect, chaos theory and psychobiological processes, the quantum metaphysics of the holistic organism, the quantum self, the superconduction of consciousness, the engineering of altered states, healing effects of journeys to the groundstate of consciousness, the melding of science, dreams, and spirituality, and other aspects of mindbody healing.
The Asklepia Foundation
“Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams”
THE INSTITUTE FOR CONSCIOUSNESS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Training and Research Philosophy The Institute has the goal of connection with the divine Source, but it uses the methods and rigours of science in its pursuit of the nature of Reality. It unites both physics and metaphysics, matter and psyche, bodymind. It heralds a return to the ancient traditions of both Natural Science or Philosophy and the art of Alchemy, which sought to find the immanence or identity of the Godhead in matter.
A potential is a River of Energy, and "chaotic consciousness" is the Ocean of Potential. Exploring various means of tapping this infinite ocean of living energy is the purpose of The Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology. Foremost in terms of these explorations into the engineering of consciousness is that of Human Potential, through the CRP mentoring process, taught in our trainings, and publications. CRP, immersion in that flow of potential, is a journey to the heart of healing which bridges the gap between who you have been and who you dream of being. Dreams are an agent of change and reveal our deepest nature, personal, cultural and transpersonal.
Our Asklepian approach is experiential, self-organizing, and emergent, rather than interpretive or analytical. The Institute seeks to help connect more individuals with their own dreams, creativity, and genius, their elan vital, their spirituality, the Unbound Self. Our programs are for anyone who wants to discover and explore the many facets of their psychophysical being, and enjoy freedom from self-defeating patterns and psychological traps.
CRP is a way to bring the true power of your self out of the shadows and into the light. We encourage Generalization, rather than Specialization. The Institute has interests in and maintains interdisciplinary research programs in such diverse fields as Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, Cognitive Sciences, Quantum Physics, Biophysics, Quantum Cosmology, Synergetics, Allopathic Medicine and Alternative Healing arts.
Our subject is approached as both art and science. The Institute welcomes patronage, fellow researchers, and volunteer service. Currently, we are seeking grant funding for a pilot project in the therapeutic treatment of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We also have innovative programs for at-risk children and substance abuse. However, our primary pursuit is helping others realize their unhampered flow, and self-healing potential by embracing the transformational process, listening to dreams and the inner stillness.
Asklepia Foundation Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology (ICST)
Training Program/Certification/Ordination
OBJECTIVES
To Present the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and its Applications
To Maintain a Teaching School and a Mystery School in the tradition of the Asklepian Dream Temples Devoted to Training Qualified Mentors of CRP To Conduct Demonstration Courses and Engage in Local and Global Community Outreach
To Relate CRP to its Multidisciplinary Roots in Shamanism, the Arts & Humanities, Science, Psychology, and Spirituality
To Relate CRP to Conventional Healing, Humanistic & Transpersonal Psychology, Developmental Theory, Psychopathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment
To Utilize the Concepts of CRP, Chaos Theory and Complex Dynamics in Consciousness Engineering, Curriculum Planning and Teaching
To Encourage Research and Writing about Consciousness Restructuring, Consciousness Engineering, and Chaosophy
To Select Candidates for CRP Training and to Facilitate Their Progression Toward Self-Actualization, and Certification in CRP or Ordination
To Facilitate the Emergence of Mentors of the Consciousness Restructuring Process
To Further the Developmental Potential and Therapeutic Effectiveness of Each Student to the Fullest
To Further Educational, Spiritual, and Experiential Development Past the Average toward the Creative and Extraordinary
To Create a Developmental Crucible for Trainees and Supervisors Asklepia Foundation
ICST COURSE OUTLINE
Training CRP Mentors for Certification or Ordination
SEMINAR I: An Overview of the Development and Application of the Consciousness Restructuring Process Goal: To introduce the basic developmental concepts and multidisciplinary background of CRP; to introduce the philosophy of Chaosophy; to introduce the ancient archetypal background of Asklepian dreamhealing and shamanism. To demonstrate and begin personal experience with CRP.
SEMINAR II: The Frontier: Basic Observations and Speculations on the Mind/Matter Interface and the Healing Potential of the Quantum Mind, Chaos, REM, and CRP Goal: To present the basic questions in the field of human potential and consciousness engineering which need exploration and elaboration. To further describe the role of and language of Chaos Theory and CDS in the Consciousness Restructuring Process and Dynamical Psychology. To introduce Holographic Healing and Sleep and Dream Research. To allow each student to mentor a first Journey.
SEMINAR III: Introduction to Dreamhealing 101; Theory and Practice Goal: To introduce the rudiments of CRP theory and practice and the concept of the Shaman/Therapist; to introduce Mentoring and teach the nature of co-consciousness; to describe the CRP model or map of consciousness; to begin applying the practice for self and others; to initiate supervised CRP practice with trainee peer-pairs.
SEMINAR IV: Introduction to Holographic Healing; the Science of Consciousness Engineering Goal: To further describe the multidisciplinary sciences which underlie the practice of CRP, including dreamwork, the new physics, mindbody health, the healing arts and sciences, social sciences and spirituality. Special attention is given to sleep studies, neurology, biophysics, genetics, biochemistry, embryology, quantum cosmology, psychoneuroimmunology, and cognitive sciences, among others. To explore the idea that the mind and its biological substrate, the whole psychophysical organism, continue to evolve. To continue sharing dreams and journeys.
SEMINAR V: The Unbound Self: Spirituality in CRP; The Development of the Psychic Structure From Conception through Adulthood Goal: To explore the depths and heights of the phenomenological layers of the psyche, as they relate to the CRP Journeys. To explore the potentials for facilitating creativity, intuition, extraordinary states of consciousness, and spiritual practices; to explore one’s own self-actualization and self-realization. To begin practice work outside of classes. To go where no therapist has gone before...
SEMINAR VI: Counseling and Therapy Techniques that Work; Professional, Nonprofessional, and Spiritual Counseling; Working with Groups and in Business Goal: To provide ethical guidelines for Mentors and teach the function of boundaries; to teach interviewing and basic counseling skills for the professional and nonprofessional setting; to provide additional practice in Transactional Analysis and Gestalt; to address special needs of both nonprofessional and spiritual counselors; special training for group work and in the business world. To initiate practicuum settings using CRP.
SEMINAR VII: Clinical Applications of CRP; Psychopathology, Diagnosis, and Integrative Treatment; Tailoring Treatment Programs; Working with Agencies Goal: To outline specific protocols for CRP treatment of specific disorders, including diagnosis and multidisciplinary integrative treatment, including allopathic and naturopathic, dietary, and lifestyle support. To provide both theory and practicuum training for CRP mentors, and instruction and experience working with other medical and mental health agencies, and medical personnel. To give additional training for specialists, such as addiction counselors and medical professionals. Special instruction by John Penkert in Nursing issues, Chemical Dependency, Love Addiction, Dual Diagnosis, and Psychiatric Nursing.
SEMINAR VIII: Ordination Curriculum for Divinity Students; Spiritual Counseling for Individuals and Communities Goal: To address the special needs and training of spiritual counselors using CRP in pastoral work; special attention is given to the value of ritual and ceremony in both individual and community settings; to provide a comprehensive background in human potential, shamanic techniques, personal mythology, comparative religion, and the varieties of spiritual practice and meditation; to teach the mentor to work with the belief system of the mentee. To provide special off-site supervision for mentors in the field.
SEMINAR IX: Using CRP with Children and Kids at Risk in the School, Agency, and Clinical Setting Goal: To cover the special needs of children and unique treatment settings; dealing with children’s dreams and special behavioral problems and diagnoses. Special instruction by Peggie Southwick in counceling and dealing with at risk children on a variety of issues.
SEMINAR X: Adapting the Consciousness Restructuring Process for General and Clinical Use by the Hypnotherapist Goal: To address the adoption of CRP in the practice of Certified Hypnotists, Certified Hypnotherapists and Clinical Hypnotherapists; practical guidance on how and when to employ CRP in a Hypnotherapy practice. Training for practitioners and faculty and Directors of Hypnotherapy Training. Special instruction by Iona Miller, and Nola Ettner, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists. Note: This workshop is available for presentation in your wellness clinic or hypnotherapy training school.
The Asklepia Foundation
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
CRP Certification through ICST
Course Syllabus 2001
RECOMMENDED READING:
* Required Reading; remainder optional *DSM-IV - American Psychological Association
*Dreamhealing - Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller
*Holographic Healing - Graywolf Swinney
*CHAOS - James Gleick
*Mentoring - Huang and Lynch
*The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra
*The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
*Wholeness and the Implicate Order - David Bohm
*The World As I See It - Albert Einstein
*Quantum Healing - Deepak Chopra
*The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist - Lawrence LaShan
*Molecules of Emotion - Candace Pert *Born to Win - James & Jongeward
*Games People Play - Eric Berne
*What Do You Say After You Say Hello? - Eric Berne
*Transactional Analysis in Psychothherapy - Eric Berne
*I’m OK; You’re OK - Thomas Harris
*Scripts People Live - Claude Steiner
The T.A. Primer - Adelaide Bry
*Gestalt Therapy Verbatim - Fritz Perls
*The Gestalt Therapy Book - Joel Latner
Peoplemaking - Virginia Satir
Conjoint Family Therapy - Virginia Satir
Client-Centered Therapy - Carl Rogers
Motivation and Personality - Abraham Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being - Abraham Maslow
Humanistic Psychology - John Shaffer Einstein's Universe: Relativity Made Plain - Nigel Calder
The Dreaming Universe - Fred Alan Wolf
The Spiritual Universe - Fred Alan Wolf
The Three Pound Universe - Judith Hooper, Dick Teresi
Dreamtime and Dreamwork - Stanley Krippner
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing - Ernest Rossi
Getting Well Again - Carl Simonton/Creighton
Love, Medicine, and Miracles - Bernie Siegel
Peace, Love, and Healing - Bernie Siegel The Modern Alchemist - R. A. Miller and Iona Miller
The Ego & The Dynamic Ground - Michael Washburn
Changes of Mind: Holonomic Theory of Consciousness - Jenny Wade
Languages of the Brain - Karl Pribram
Integral Psychology - Ken Wilber
The Roots of Consciousness - Jeffrey Mishlove
Personal Mythology - Krippner and Feinstein
Trialogues at the Edge of the West - Abraham, Sheldrake & McKenna
The Holographic Paradigm - Ken Wilber
The Adventure of Self-Discovery - Stanislav Grof
The Holotropic Mind - Stanislav Grof
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Brain, Symbol, and Experience - McManus et al
A Natural History of the Senses - Diane Ackerman
The Future of the Body - Michael Murphy Vital Lies, Simple Truths - Daniel Goleman
Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman
Connecting with Our Spiritual Intelligence - Zohar & Marshall
Please Understand Me - Keirsey & Bates
Please Understand Me II - David Keirsey
Imagery in Healing: Shamanism & Modern Medicine - Jeanne Acterberg
Woman as Healer - Jeanne Acterberg
Inward Arc: Healing in Psychotherapy and Spirituality - Frances Vaughn Stalking the Wild Pendulum - Isaak Bentov
Space, Time and Medicine - Larry Dossey
The Evolution of Consciousness - Robert Ornstein
Multimind - Robert Ornstein
The Rediscovery of the Mind - John Searle
Consciousness Explained - Daniel Dennett
Conscious Mind: David Chalmers
The Quark and the Jaguar - Murray Gell-Mann
The Runaway Universe - Donald Goldsmith
A Universe of Consciousness - Gerald Edelman & Giulio Tononi
The Living Energy Universe - Gary Schwartz & Linda Russek Transpersonal Psychologies - Charles Tart
States of Consciousness - Charles Tart
Altered States of Consciousness - Charles Tart
Waking Up - Charles Tart
The Body Quantum - Fred Alan Wolf
The Eagle’s Quest - Fred Alan Wolf
The Looking Glass Universe - Briggs and Peat
Beyond the Quantum - Michael Talbot Healing and Wholeness - John Sanford
Dreams and the Growth of Personality - Ernest Rossi
Re-Visioning Psychology - James Hillman
Dreams and the Underworld - James Hillman
The Soul’s Code - James Hillman
Dreambody - Arnold Mindell
The Shaman’s Body - Arnold Mindell
River’s Way - Arnold Mindell
Quantum Mind - Arnold Mindell
Journey Into Healing: Awakening Wisdom Within You - Deepak Chopra Order Out of Chaos - Ilya Prigogine
Turbulent Mirror - John Briggs and David Peat
Machinery of the Mind - E. Roy John
Brain and Perception - Karl Pribram
Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos - Roger Lewin
Complexity: Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos - M. Mitchell Waldrop About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution - Paul Davies
Archetypes and Strange Attractors - John Van Eenwyk
At Home In the Universe - Stuart Kauffman
Belonging to the Universe - Fritjof Capra, et al
Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe - Michio Kaku and J.T. Thompson
Black Holes & Baby Universes - Stephen Hawking
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy - Kip Thorne
Body, Mind, Spirit: Exploring Parapsychology of Spirit - Charles Tart
Cosmic Book: On the Mechanics of Creation Cosmic Circle: Unification of Mind, Matter & Energy - Robert Langs et al
Creative Cosmos: Towards a Unified Science of Matter, Life & Mind - Ervin Lazlo
Elemental Mind : Human Consciousness & the New Physics - Nick Herbert
Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos - John Briggs
Ghost In the Atom: A Discussion of the Mysteries of Quantum Physics - Paul Davies et al
God & The New Physics - Paul Davies
Hidden Domain: Home of the Quantum Wave Function, Nature's Creative Source - Norman Friedman Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey - Michio Kaku
Infinite Potential: The Life & Times of David Bohm - F. David Peat
Matter Myth: Dramatic discoveries Challenge Understanding of Physical Reality - Paul Davies et al
Mind of God: Scientific Basis for a Rational World - Paul Davies
Mysticism and the New Physics - Michael Talbot
Nature of Space and Time - Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose
A New Science of Life - Rupert Sheldrake
Chaos, Gaia, Eros - Ralph Abraham Other Worlds: Space, Superspace & the Quantum Universe - Paul Davies
Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the Great Physicists - Ken Wilber et al
Quantum Reality : Beyond the New Physics - Nick Herbert
Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science & God - Rupert Sheldrake
Rediscoering the Soul: A Scientific & Spiritual Approach - Larry Dossey
Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness - Arthur M. Young
Synchronicity: Bridge Between Matter & Mind - F. David Peat
Taking the Quantum Leap - Fred Alan Wolf
Web of Life: New Understanding of Living Systems - Fritjob Capra Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend with David Bohm - David Bohm
Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory - David Chalmers
Shadows of the Mind - Roger Penrose
Chaos Theory and Psychology - F. Abraham and Gilgen
The Radiance of Being - Allan Combs
Toward A Science of Consciousness - S. Hameroff, et al, Eds.
A Universe of Consciousness - Edelman
Chaotic Logic - Ben Goertzel
The Dreaming Brain - Hobson
The Origins of Order - Stuart Kauffman
Evolution: The Grand Synthesis - Ervin Lazlo
Proceedings of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences - Robertson, Combs
Nonlinear Dynamics and Brain Functioning - Paul Rapp, et al
The Neuropsychology of Dreams - M. Solms
Link to Chaosophy Journal - Asklepia Foundation
Link to DynaPsych Contents - Ben Goertzel/Allan Combs
Link to “Online Papers on Consciousness” - Compiled by David Chalmers
Link to Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS)
Link to Transactional Analysis Journal (T.A. Journal)
Link to Humanistic Psychology Journal
Link to Transpersonal Psychology Journal ORDINATION SYLLABUS
“The Holy Order of Disorder” GOD IS THE UNBOUND SELF (coming 2001) - Graywolf Swinney
The Self Aware Universe - Amit Goswami
Brief History of Everything - Ken Wilber
Eye of Spirit - Ken Wilber
Spectrum of Consciousness - Ken Wilber
Way of the Wizard - Deepak Chopra
God's Whisper, Creation's Thunder: Ultimate Reality in New Physics - Brian Hines
Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt
Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power & Healing - Michael Harner
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy - Mircea Eliade
A Path With Heart - Jack Kornfield
Wheels of Life: Chakras - Anodea Judith
Spirit of Shamanism - Roger Walsh
Spiritual Dimensions of Healing - Stanley Krippner & P. Welch
"Journey to the Healing Heart of Your Dreams"
CRP Certification through ICST
Course Syllabus 2001
RECOMMENDED READING:
* Required Reading; remainder optional *DSM-IV - American Psychological Association
*Dreamhealing - Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller
*Holographic Healing - Graywolf Swinney
*CHAOS - James Gleick
*Mentoring - Huang and Lynch
*The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra
*The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
*Wholeness and the Implicate Order - David Bohm
*The World As I See It - Albert Einstein
*Quantum Healing - Deepak Chopra
*The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist - Lawrence LaShan
*Molecules of Emotion - Candace Pert *Born to Win - James & Jongeward
*Games People Play - Eric Berne
*What Do You Say After You Say Hello? - Eric Berne
*Transactional Analysis in Psychothherapy - Eric Berne
*I’m OK; You’re OK - Thomas Harris
*Scripts People Live - Claude Steiner
The T.A. Primer - Adelaide Bry
*Gestalt Therapy Verbatim - Fritz Perls
*The Gestalt Therapy Book - Joel Latner
Peoplemaking - Virginia Satir
Conjoint Family Therapy - Virginia Satir
Client-Centered Therapy - Carl Rogers
Motivation and Personality - Abraham Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being - Abraham Maslow
Humanistic Psychology - John Shaffer Einstein's Universe: Relativity Made Plain - Nigel Calder
The Dreaming Universe - Fred Alan Wolf
The Spiritual Universe - Fred Alan Wolf
The Three Pound Universe - Judith Hooper, Dick Teresi
Dreamtime and Dreamwork - Stanley Krippner
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing - Ernest Rossi
Getting Well Again - Carl Simonton/Creighton
Love, Medicine, and Miracles - Bernie Siegel
Peace, Love, and Healing - Bernie Siegel The Modern Alchemist - R. A. Miller and Iona Miller
The Ego & The Dynamic Ground - Michael Washburn
Changes of Mind: Holonomic Theory of Consciousness - Jenny Wade
Languages of the Brain - Karl Pribram
Integral Psychology - Ken Wilber
The Roots of Consciousness - Jeffrey Mishlove
Personal Mythology - Krippner and Feinstein
Trialogues at the Edge of the West - Abraham, Sheldrake & McKenna
The Holographic Paradigm - Ken Wilber
The Adventure of Self-Discovery - Stanislav Grof
The Holotropic Mind - Stanislav Grof
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Brain, Symbol, and Experience - McManus et al
A Natural History of the Senses - Diane Ackerman
The Future of the Body - Michael Murphy Vital Lies, Simple Truths - Daniel Goleman
Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman
Connecting with Our Spiritual Intelligence - Zohar & Marshall
Please Understand Me - Keirsey & Bates
Please Understand Me II - David Keirsey
Imagery in Healing: Shamanism & Modern Medicine - Jeanne Acterberg
Woman as Healer - Jeanne Acterberg
Inward Arc: Healing in Psychotherapy and Spirituality - Frances Vaughn Stalking the Wild Pendulum - Isaak Bentov
Space, Time and Medicine - Larry Dossey
The Evolution of Consciousness - Robert Ornstein
Multimind - Robert Ornstein
The Rediscovery of the Mind - John Searle
Consciousness Explained - Daniel Dennett
Conscious Mind: David Chalmers
The Quark and the Jaguar - Murray Gell-Mann
The Runaway Universe - Donald Goldsmith
A Universe of Consciousness - Gerald Edelman & Giulio Tononi
The Living Energy Universe - Gary Schwartz & Linda Russek Transpersonal Psychologies - Charles Tart
States of Consciousness - Charles Tart
Altered States of Consciousness - Charles Tart
Waking Up - Charles Tart
The Body Quantum - Fred Alan Wolf
The Eagle’s Quest - Fred Alan Wolf
The Looking Glass Universe - Briggs and Peat
Beyond the Quantum - Michael Talbot Healing and Wholeness - John Sanford
Dreams and the Growth of Personality - Ernest Rossi
Re-Visioning Psychology - James Hillman
Dreams and the Underworld - James Hillman
The Soul’s Code - James Hillman
Dreambody - Arnold Mindell
The Shaman’s Body - Arnold Mindell
River’s Way - Arnold Mindell
Quantum Mind - Arnold Mindell
Journey Into Healing: Awakening Wisdom Within You - Deepak Chopra Order Out of Chaos - Ilya Prigogine
Turbulent Mirror - John Briggs and David Peat
Machinery of the Mind - E. Roy John
Brain and Perception - Karl Pribram
Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos - Roger Lewin
Complexity: Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos - M. Mitchell Waldrop About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution - Paul Davies
Archetypes and Strange Attractors - John Van Eenwyk
At Home In the Universe - Stuart Kauffman
Belonging to the Universe - Fritjof Capra, et al
Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe - Michio Kaku and J.T. Thompson
Black Holes & Baby Universes - Stephen Hawking
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy - Kip Thorne
Body, Mind, Spirit: Exploring Parapsychology of Spirit - Charles Tart
Cosmic Book: On the Mechanics of Creation Cosmic Circle: Unification of Mind, Matter & Energy - Robert Langs et al
Creative Cosmos: Towards a Unified Science of Matter, Life & Mind - Ervin Lazlo
Elemental Mind : Human Consciousness & the New Physics - Nick Herbert
Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos - John Briggs
Ghost In the Atom: A Discussion of the Mysteries of Quantum Physics - Paul Davies et al
God & The New Physics - Paul Davies
Hidden Domain: Home of the Quantum Wave Function, Nature's Creative Source - Norman Friedman Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey - Michio Kaku
Infinite Potential: The Life & Times of David Bohm - F. David Peat
Matter Myth: Dramatic discoveries Challenge Understanding of Physical Reality - Paul Davies et al
Mind of God: Scientific Basis for a Rational World - Paul Davies
Mysticism and the New Physics - Michael Talbot
Nature of Space and Time - Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose
A New Science of Life - Rupert Sheldrake
Chaos, Gaia, Eros - Ralph Abraham Other Worlds: Space, Superspace & the Quantum Universe - Paul Davies
Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the Great Physicists - Ken Wilber et al
Quantum Reality : Beyond the New Physics - Nick Herbert
Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science & God - Rupert Sheldrake
Rediscoering the Soul: A Scientific & Spiritual Approach - Larry Dossey
Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness - Arthur M. Young
Synchronicity: Bridge Between Matter & Mind - F. David Peat
Taking the Quantum Leap - Fred Alan Wolf
Web of Life: New Understanding of Living Systems - Fritjob Capra Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend with David Bohm - David Bohm
Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory - David Chalmers
Shadows of the Mind - Roger Penrose
Chaos Theory and Psychology - F. Abraham and Gilgen
The Radiance of Being - Allan Combs
Toward A Science of Consciousness - S. Hameroff, et al, Eds.
A Universe of Consciousness - Edelman
Chaotic Logic - Ben Goertzel
The Dreaming Brain - Hobson
The Origins of Order - Stuart Kauffman
Evolution: The Grand Synthesis - Ervin Lazlo
Proceedings of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences - Robertson, Combs
Nonlinear Dynamics and Brain Functioning - Paul Rapp, et al
The Neuropsychology of Dreams - M. Solms
Link to Chaosophy Journal - Asklepia Foundation
Link to DynaPsych Contents - Ben Goertzel/Allan Combs
Link to “Online Papers on Consciousness” - Compiled by David Chalmers
Link to Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS)
Link to Transactional Analysis Journal (T.A. Journal)
Link to Humanistic Psychology Journal
Link to Transpersonal Psychology Journal ORDINATION SYLLABUS
“The Holy Order of Disorder” GOD IS THE UNBOUND SELF (coming 2001) - Graywolf Swinney
The Self Aware Universe - Amit Goswami
Brief History of Everything - Ken Wilber
Eye of Spirit - Ken Wilber
Spectrum of Consciousness - Ken Wilber
Way of the Wizard - Deepak Chopra
God's Whisper, Creation's Thunder: Ultimate Reality in New Physics - Brian Hines
Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt
Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power & Healing - Michael Harner
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy - Mircea Eliade
A Path With Heart - Jack Kornfield
Wheels of Life: Chakras - Anodea Judith
Spirit of Shamanism - Roger Walsh
Spiritual Dimensions of Healing - Stanley Krippner & P. Welch