PARATHEATRICAL DREAMING RITUALS

Non-Interpretive Dreamwork for the Awakened Body
© 1985-2009 Antero Alli

From Australian Aborigine dreaming camps to the Senoi dream councils of Malaya to Native American vision quests, indigenous dreaming cultures continue performing rituals to access the multidimensional "dreamtime". What is the dreamtime ? In our night dreams we can be aware of a "dream self", a dreambody, engaged in various activities and adventures in the dreams we inhabit. According to certain tribal people, we awaken the next morning because our dreambody went to sleep (in its dreamtime) to begin dreaming our daytime selves into existence. We are the Dreamer and The Dreamed, dreaming ourselves into being throughout the Daytime/Dreamtime continuum.

A ritual is any external (kinetic) activity capable of catalyzing specific internal states of consciousness. The paratheatrical dreaming rituals we are exploring here are designed by piecing together kinetic elements from our NIGHT dreams into a precise choreography that, when performed fully conscious, trigger the forces, images and emotions innate to the dreams they originated from. These dreaming rituals activate the four bodies:

1. Spiritual: to sense unity of "dreamtime" and "daytime" realities.
2. Mental: to exercise the specific memory for recalling movements.
3. Emotional: to bypass psychological interpretation in lieu of catharsis.
4. Physical: to experience the dream through the awakened body in action.

Those wishing to perform this ritual may do so by considering the following step-by-step instructions and suggestions. This ritual is kinetic; to do it, you have to move your body. This approach is non-interpretive; it does not require that you know (or try and figure out) what your dream "means". By relaxing the search for meaning, an innate meaning can eventually emerge on its own. There is also nothing you need to believe in or disbelieve for this to work. Do the ritual and find out for yourself.

 

The Dream Task

Getting started: recall a movement from your dream. It can be any movement ... a windblown cloud... a slithering snake... the slightest turn of your head. This movement doesn't have to be executed by your dreamself; it just has to originate in your dream. However, the movement you select must be a movement you can physically duplicate upon waking the next morning.

This movement is your Dream Task. Practice this task throughout the day (at least three times). This helps the body can create a somatic memory of the movement for future recall when it is time to energize, or charge, the actual ritual. The best time to do your Dream Task is anytime. If you're doing it with other dreamers, do it in front of each other. If you do it alone, you may want to engage privately (unless you don't care about what other people think of you).

As you do your Dream Task, stay as close to the way it actually happened in your dream. This can help contain the innate power of the dreaming within the movement. As you perform your movement, it may trigger memories and/or emotions associated with the dream. If this happens, let them come and go. Do not try and analyze what they mean. Perform these movements without embellishment; keep it simple, nothing fancy.

As you go to sleep that night, ask yourself to remember a new dream movement. When you awake the next morning, execute this motion immediately before doing anything else. (If and when dream memory falters, lie still in bed a few minutes... listening and paying attention to whatever comes up.) Do this new movement throughout the day, just like you practiced the other one. When it's time to go to sleep again, stalk one more movement and practice it the next day. When you have three separate movements drawn from actual dreams, you are ready to begin the choreography. These movements can be from separate dreams or from the same dream.

 

On Ritual Preparations

Why three movements ? Three movements reflect the mythic, or story, device of a beginning, middle and end. This ritual can work with more than three movements given your commitment to enact a more elaborate dream choreography. Generally speaking, the simpler the ritual, the greater the chances of maintaining its structural integrity. When you have practiced these dream movements separately, you are ready connect them all into a movement cycle that forms the mechanical stage of this Dreaming Ritual. When you are ready to move on with this, find or create a controlled setting... any indoor or outdoor place where you will not be interrupted for about an hour or so.

Find a room or an outdoor setting with at least ten feet by ten feet of clear and open ground or floor space. If you are working indoors, arrange and control the setting to ensure the greatest sense of privacy and safety for yourself. A ritual works when you can be vulnerable enough to be influenced by the force(s) you are summoning, in this case the power of dreaming. Perform whatever actions are necessary to own the space of this setting and sanctify it for your ritual purpose (sometimes candles, incense and other items can help this). After you have prepared the space, practice each movement separately to refresh your kinetic memory.

 

On Building the Movement Cycle

Start by "stitching" the end of the first movement to the beginning of the second movement to form a longer movement combining the two. It doesn't matter which of the three movements you start with. Practice this for about two minutes. Then, stitch the end of the second movement to the beginning of the third to create a new movement combining all three together. Practice this until your body has memorized it.

Finally, make a total movement cycle by connecting the end of the third motion to the start of the first one. Practice this movement cycle until it becomes its own dance with its own rhythms. Let these rhythms emerge and subtly influence the form and design of the dance, without corrupting the integrity of each movement. Perform this dream choreography over and over, again, allowing its innate waves and pulses to unfold. Let any dream memory or feeling surface up as you commit deeper to this ongoing movement cycle.

No-Form: On Charging and Discharging the Ritual

Visually and physically, mark a large egg-shaped oval on the floor before you; spacious enough to move freely in (at least eight feet by eight feet). Stand outside the oval while facing it. Enter a meditative state where you bypass thoughts and allow yourself to approach receptive state of being nothing. From this "potential void state" of No-Form, project into the oval area "the presence of the dreaming". Continue approaching No-Form while sensing the space before you empowered with the presence of dreaming. Relax your desire to control any outcomes and allow the power of dreaming its own life in the space before you.

Once you have engaged a state of deep receptivity via No-Form, enter the charged "dream" space and absorb the dreaming power there. Let this power affect you in whatever ways it does. Do not try and control or direct this energy; let it direct and guide you. When you feel ready, begin your movement cycle. (Note: the pace, form or rhythm of your movement cycle may shift a bit due to the influx of the "dream charge".) Allow yourself to be moved through the cycle by the force of the dreaming itself. Do not direct this force but let it guide you. Create space for it to direct you through the movement cycle... over and over again. Work to maintain the structural integrity of the movements and the cycle they are parts of.

Keep following through with the movement cycle while your consciousness is flooded with the dreaming. Allow any images and emotions to flow up and influence you. Stay with your choreography; keep at it for however long you can until you feel finished. This can last anywhere from five minutes to close to an hour in some cases. When you are done, exit the dreaming circle and re-enter No-Form.

How do you know when the ritual is over ? When the ritual runs out of power and/or when the structure of the dream choreography is broken down and dispersed by the dreaming power. Take some time to empty out... return to not being anything... release the dreaming power back to its source. No-Form now serves as a trance-dispersion device to discharge the dreaming ritual. When you feel more neutral again -- not merged or identified with the dreaming -- the ritual is over. Jog around the periphery of the dreaming area for about two minutes as a way of returning to present time.

 

Closure

Write down your experiences and/or talk about them with others. This can help integrate the intuitive "depth experience" and your interpretive, conceptual mind. It can also help create a transition from the dreamtime back into the daytime. The No-Form state expresses an essential transition between the dreamtime and daytime, without which you may just wander around under the influence of the dreamstate. This is not so bad in itself unless you wish to return to present time and live your real life. It is also not a good idea to drive an automobile and/or operate machinery under the influence of the power of dreaming.

The significance of ritualizing our dreams is highly personal. I believe the actual meaning of our dreams and the dreaming ritual itself comes from the dream itself, rather than what the conceptual mind assigns, imposes and/or decides about it. Experience has also shown me that the degree of commitment shown in the ritual preparations determines the quality and depth of the outcome. As we consciously participate in an enactment of movements originating in our dreams, a living dreaming ritual is born.

 

 

 

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Dreaming Links

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Interview with Guboo Ted Thomas
What Inspired This Dreaming Ritual

Dreaming Ritual: Principles & Techniques
a distilled presentation of this ritual

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