Dreaming Together to End Gun Violence

 Welcome dreamers,

Our hearts go out to the victims at Newtown, and all the other victims of gun violence. In addition to signing petitions, showing up, and contributing funds, we as dreamers can contribute in a special way.  We can work to dream the world we want to see into being by actively incubating dreams. There is a long history and precedence for this:  the aboriginals of Australia believe that this is how the world came into being in the first place- the ancestors dreamed it into being, and by following the ancestral song lines in the desert each clan can follow their particular totem animal’s dream.  Shamans and healers from all cultures believe in the generative and creative power of dreams.  Group dreams are all the more powerful.

My Thursday Dream Circle (thank you Starr, Mia, Joy, Joyce, Barbara, Ruth) suggested that we could together send our collective dream energies toward ending gun violence, establishing better gun control, getting better mental health services; in short, whatever it takes to avoid the senseless tragedies we have been pummeled with in the last several decades.  As many of you saw in the Boston Globe, these random shootings seemed to happen once every few years during the 60’s and 70’s, and more and more frequently through the 80’s and 90’s, several times a year in the early part of this 21^st century, and already 3 times just since this summer in 2012!

Tzivia Glover manages a blog called 350 dreamers, which practices synchronized global dreaming for the purpose of healing the planet. She writes that the goal of her blog is:

1.    A belief in the power of dreams

2.    Belief in the beauty of community and communal action and

3.    A commitment to healing on all levels from personal to planetary.

It occurs to me that we too could dream a version of this, and dedicate one night to specifically incubate dreams toward the healing of gun violence in our culture.  A timely and reasonable date seemed to be in honor of Martin Luther King Day: January 21, 2013.  After all, he said,  “I have a dream…” that we will all be able to live together in peace and harmony; without violence.

John Lennon said it “…Imagine all the people, living for today…nothing to kill or die for…imagine all the people living in peace…You might say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”

Theodore Herzl said it: “If you will it, it is no dream”.

And finally, Rodgers and Hammerstein said it in South Pacific:

“You’ve got to have a dream,

If you don’t have a dream,

How you goin’ to make a dream come true?”

(From “Happy Talk”, South Pacific).

So:  A call to dream action for all dreamers:  It’s easy to do.  Incubate a dream on the night of January 20 in which you ask your dream guide to send you a dream for healing from gun violence.  Write this intention (your kavanah, in Hebrew) as clearly and succinctly as you would like.  Spend anywhere from just one or several minutes on your statement of intention. You  can be specific if you like: i.e. dreaming to have President Obama and Congress pass assault ban rifle laws, or doubling the funding for mental heath services, or passing stringent background ckecks; or even to  have the NRA see the light and forbid anything but carefully supervsied hunting rifles! Or be general, or creative, or spritiual- whatever suits your style the best.  Keep your dream journal close at hand to jot down the dream(s) you receive that night or on the morning of the 21^st.  Post any dreams here on this blog site in the reply section (along with what you incubated if you want); and we can see together the energy we create.  Please pass this on to anyone who you think would like to join us.

May we live together in peace.

Linda Yael

P.S. And who remembers this! :