PARATHEATRICAL DREAMING RITUALS

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

The Dreamer and the Dreamed
In our night dreams we are 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 in the infinitely vast Daytime/Dreamtime continuum. From Australian Aborigine dreamtime camps to the Senoi dream councils of Malaya to Native American vision quests, indigenous dreaming cultures have been performing rituals to access the multidimensional "dreamtime" since the beginning of time.

Though the basic structure of this ritual was already developed by myself in 1984, in the following year my meeting with Aboriginie, or Koori, elder Guboo Ted Thomas initiated a whole new level to this process (see my interview with Guboo). This dreaming ritual involves piecing together kinetic elements from our night dreams into a precise choreography that, when performed fully conscious, can trigger the forces, images and emotions innate to the dreams those movements originated from. When done with full commitment, this ritual can activate at least four levels of the energetic body:

1. Social: to dissolve culturally defined barriers causing alienation.
2. Mental: to exercise a specific memory for recalling dream movements.
3. Emotional: to bypass psychological interpretation in lieu of catharsis.
4. Physical: to experience the dream through the awakened body in action.

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. The dream has its own story to tell us. There is also nothing you need to believe in or disbelieve for this to work. Do the ritual and find out for yourself.

The Movements
The first step is to 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 does not have to be executed by you, by your dreamself; it just has to originate in your dream. However, the movement you select must be a movement you can physically repeat upon waking the next morning. Practice this movement throughout the day to help the body create a somatic memory for future recall when it is time to energize, or charge, the actual ritual.

The best time to do your movement 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 movement, stay as close to the way it actually appeared in your dream. Do not embellish it in any way; keep it pure. This can help contain the 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.

As you go to sleep, ask yourself to remember a new dream movement. When you find your next movement, execute it immediately upon awaking. If and when dream memory falters, lie still in bed a few minutes; listen and pay attention to whatever comes up. Do this new movement throughout the day, just like 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 three movements can be from separate dreams or from the same dream. Three movements is the minimum for this ritual; I like working four or five myself. What matters here is your ability to perform these movements accurately as you remembered them from your dreams.
 

On Ritual Preparations
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 with at least ten feet by ten feet of clear and open ground or floor space.

Arrange and control the setting to ensure 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 then, 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 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 memories, images or feelings surface up as you commit deeper to this ongoing movement cycle.

 

No-Form: 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, what I refer to as No-Form. From 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 "dreaming" space and stand there absorbing the power of dreaming 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". Do not direct this force but let it guide you through the movement cycle... over and over again. Work to maintain the structural integrity of the movements while being guided the power of dreaming within you. This may take some practice to get used to as it’s a dynamic balance between maintaining structure. whole serving a fluid source of energy.

Keep following through with the movement cycle. 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 are done. You are done when you lose sturual integrity -- the ritual falls apart -- or when you lose power -- the dreaming energy disappears. You can also be done when you feel like you’re done. 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.

Take some time to empty out and 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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