Spirit Bear Dreaming

Just last night I shared a dream with another dreamer on the other side of the world. I've had many shared dreams since I began actively working with dreams and working with other dreamers. When you begin to recall and record dreams and share them with others you find that this is a very common experience. However, since we don't spend a lot of our time sharing dreams and talking about dreams, we miss a lot of what is happening, and it seems rare and unusual. You don't often share dreams with other people who you don't know well in your waking life, so you never notice the sharing that is taking place.

So, my take on the question, the way it can happen is that dreams are real experiences. It is common to talk about dreams in a belittling or demeaning way, “You're dreaming!” someone might say as a put-down. But this just exposes that the speaker believes that dreams are not worth much and of no real consequence. It seems that many people subscribe to the idea that the mind is fixed in the brain, which is some kind of computer, and that dreams are just 'bad' or 'weird' output from that machine.

However, many other points of view are possible. In the ancient world there were many who saw imagination as a third aspect of mind, along with thinking and feeling. It was seen as a real dimension of mind and part of actual reality and not a part of only the thinking self, or the fuzzy 'bad' thinking as many characterize it these days.

A view of imagination as a powerful and active part of our lives persists in many native cultures and groups that have not been westernized and modernized. In this view dreams are real things, real experiences, real places. The imaginal realms and can be private or shared and also be permanent or temporary. If you read ancient texts in this light they no longer seem metaphorical, since the authors are speaking about real places.

So sharing a dream with someone, especially someone close to us, is not strange, but is a part of our common heritage. We all can feel and think, and although it is not considered a major aspect of our Self in the modern western world, we can all imagine. The more we work on feeling, the better able we are to feel. The more we work on thinking, the better able we are to think. And, like the other aspects, the more we work on imagination, the better able we are to use imagination and work in the imaginal realms.

If you want to delve into this you should look at the French scholar of the prior generation, Henry Corbin. There are decent translations of his books, and a number of websites cover his ideas about the persisting reality of the imaginal realms. And the philosopher Synesius of Cyrene, who was a student of Hypatia and eventually became a bishop in the early Christian church wrote on this. Some call him “Saint Synesios” and he wrote a book titled “On Dreams” where he delves into the reality of imagination and dreaming. In his view the imagination is the closest we can get to the divine and the sacred, and it is higher and more real in some sense.

My experience is that we share dreams with others quite often. Those we love and those who share the same goals will often find a common imaginal place to meet. In my circles of dreamers, those who are devoting effort to delve into the depths of dreaming, sharing dreams is quite common. Many of us find ourselves in dream schools in the dream world. I sent my friend, who I mentioned above and who lives in New Zealand, an email this morning telling her that I met her in a dream class. She wrote back with her experience. It was colored by her style of dreaming, and did not occur at the same hour, but was essentially the same place and the same group of people. Can I prove it to you? No, but I can tell you that this is quite common, and that you can test it yourself by paying more attention to your dreaming and working with other dreamers.

If I dreamed the same dream as my close friend or relative I would take it as a hint to pay attention to my dreams, and to look afresh at what I share with them in our lives, and the events of the shared dream. There are many adventures to be had in this kind of dreaming, but you need to record your dreams and share them with someone else who does the same.

~~fran

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