Community

The Emergence of the Dream Community in the San Francisco Bay Area

(A shorter version of this article first appeared in Dream Network, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 17-22.)

For the past decade, it has been my great privilege to be a part of a groupthat has come to be known as the Bay Area Dreamworkers Group. Today BADG (pronounced "Badge") is reportedly both the oldest and the largest eclectic regional group of dreamworkers in the country.

Currently we are a loose-knit association of close to 250 dreamworkers in a region extending from Sacramento to San Jose and from the East Bay towns to
the Pacific coast. Approximately 150 flyers and documents now archive our history.

It all started with Fred C. Olsen and Linda Lane Magallon who shared the vision of establishing a regional group for dreamworkers to meet, network, socialize and support their own and each other's growth - both personal and professional.

When I met Fred at a dream conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, he excitedly told me of his upcoming plans to visit Linda in San Jose in July to discuss founding this group. Since meeting Fred had the feel of destiny and I already shared his excitement about this possible group, I knew that group was where I belonged. Six dreamworkers including myself, attended that first BADG meeting with Linda and Fred in San Francisco on August 18th, 1985.

Over the years the group has held monthly or bi-monthly general meetings plus occasional business meetings in members' homes. General meeting formats have included networking, talks and workshops by members, discussions of issues, socializing, dreamsharing and potluck dinners. Meeting attendance fluctuates between 10-20 people, numbers which encourage both intimacy and processing.

Here is a taste of meeting topics. Paul Sheldon lectured on "Dreams As Livelihood." Ken Kelzer gave a talk and demonstration entitled "Dream Journeys: Dreamwork & Trancework Combined in Small Group Settings." Nancy Richter Brzeski and I co-presented "Dreams: Focus on Children." During one meeting, Dorothy Rossi presented her life and work as a dream artist which provided us an opportunity to view her paintings on a walking tour through her home and studio. That same meeting also featured Deborah Watson discussing the "Vampire Archetype in Dreams of Clients with Eating Disorders." One meeting with three presenters included Tara Treasurefield's "Meditation & Dreams, Leslie Mark's "Dream Mask-Making Workshop" and Marsha Connell's show and tell of her dream collage series entitled" Dream Vessels." Once, when only women showed up for the meeting, we focused on women's unique experiences, perspectives and contributions as dreamworkers. Another memorable meeting four days following the Bay Area's October 17, 1989 earthquake, became an impromptu support group during which we shared our earthquake dreams and other experiences. That meeting concluded with sand tray specialist Phyllis Green sharing her insights and showing us her incredible sand tray figurine collection.

Group discussion meetings addressed themes and questions brought up spontaneously such as "Are there any viable ethical considerations involved inhow our dream egos treat other dream characters?"; "During an Out-of-Body Experience, does the dreamself actually go somewhere or just have a dream ofgoing somewhere?"; "Whose dream is this, anyway?"; a discussion about relationship between the identity of the dreamself and the identity of the physical self who is sleeping and dreaming, and "Are all dreams meaningful?"

BADG members have enjoyed social gatherings such as a Spring Fling, an October Costume Ball, a Thanksgiving Feast, Summer Barbecues and our fabulous annual Winter Holiday Party. We have sponsored group events such as "Dream Festivals," participated in one another's endeavors, such as the "Friday Night Lecture Series" at the Dream House and have published directories of local dreamworkers.

We are avid and committed dreamers, community dreamworkers, educators, artists, writers, therapists, researchers, philosophers, inventors, radio show hosts, bodyworkers, marketers, healers, organizers, and those involved in the
psychic and spiritual arts. BADG has given us all the opportunity to participate in a very special time and place in dream history. As we have articulated new ideas, found terminology, evolved definitions, practiced and refined techniques and sought to understand the underlying dynamics of dream process, we have shared in pioneering the modern day dreamwork field while creating a dream community from the inside out.

There are numerous benefits for dreamworkers able to function in community. One crucial benefit is that the social network can provide a more accurate perception of the context for one's work. This helps to keep our contributions current and relevant, to more clearly measure the importance of our work to the field and to broaden the scope of our understanding of how our work relates with the work of others.

For dreamworkers more than many other careers, community is essential. Our field is "shadow" in our culture. The most common relationship to dreams, in my experience, is ignorance and alienation. When others learn that we are inthe dream field, their unfortunate situation as dreamers tends to color subsequent interactions with us. We need to be with our kindred spirits. Community can be especially wonderful for dreamworkers. I have found dreamworkers in general to be intelligent, ethical, courageous, sensitive, talented, self-aware, creative, knowledgeable, people who exude nice energy and have a wide range of interests. In my experience, there is a real longing for supportive dream community among dreamworkers throughout the country.

What makes our particular dream community so nurturing for its members? Many of us agree that our success is due to the fact that BADG is based upon the community/partnership paradigm. The idea of partnership emphasizes peer relationship among comrades. It teaches "power with," rather than "power over." It provides the opportunity to practice good dream manners...and to get quick feedback when they are lacking.

In a partnership group, the decision-making style is participative and encourages a "bottom-up" flow of ideas aimed at generating consensus around the issues. This distributed leadership means that all people at a gathering have a chance to speak. What this partnership means in dream field is that instead of a hierarchy with an authority figure as leader, there is instead a peer relationship in which the authority comes down from the pedestal, joins the group and shares his or her dreams along with the rest. This makes the leader as strong or as vulnerable as any other person in the group. Partnership groups might get together to share their dreams, engage in dreamwork, conduct dream projects or experiments together, discuss issues or share tips on dream skill development. Some groups, like BADG do all of these.

We have also taken these ideas a step further. At various times and for varying reasons, we would agree to dream on the same theme. Group dreaming along with dream sharing were integral to the process of creating a home in the dream field for the community/partnership paradigm - the intent of our group's founders.

Dream sharing alerted us to the underground unconscious dynamics of our conscious waking activities related to the group. Our dreams painted vivid pictures of our social-emotional process. Were we close to a spring of pure clear water or were we avalanched by a tidal wave? Dreams gave us early feedback about situations that were developing. They also delivered predictions of outcome. The partnership paradigm allowed us to "act out" tensions in the waking state via dreamwork techniques rather than suppress them.

Under the group dreaming model, we asked questions of our dreams. Should BADG merge with another group or incorporate as a non-profit organization? (We did neither.) Where will the next Dream House be located? (Dreams help triangulate the eventual location). We dreamt up holiday dreams for the Christmas tree and dreamt inspiration for the coming year. We dreamt with, for and about one another in matters both esoteric and practical. Along the way, we found our social dreaming skills improving. And we now have a record of dream images, like a group dream journal, to draw upon for help in understanding ourselves and our process together.

BADG is structured to maximize the feeling of being in a healthy community.It is cooperative, informal, reciprocal, and grass roots in style. Annual dues have thus far been kept to $15 or less. Over the years, we have learned to be more pro-active and more celebratory. We offered smaller, local, on- going peer dreamsharing groups, leaving most general meetings for the sharing of expertise and socializing. There are pros and cons to every type of organizational structure. Ours produces a group which is at once both vital and precarious. We can more easily re-invent ourselves to adapt to changing circumstances but we never know whether or not we will survive these times of crisis.

Something we've learned is that just one person stepping in temporarily at a timely moment to be the contact person, and hold the mailing list and finances, might be all that is needed to give the group a chance to tread water through a crisis until it is ready to reassert itself and move forward.

Two related philosophies of BADG are these: "The dreamer is the expert" and"The dream belongs to the dreamer." These concepts have attracted a strong following in the dream field.

These philosophies mean that even in a room full of brilliant, skilled, talented and experienced dreamworkers all in improbable agreement about a meaning of a dream presented by the dreamer, it cannot be concluded that it is so. If the dreamer sees it differently, the other dreamworkers set aside their views and insights and honor the dreamer's truth. They support the connection of the dream to its dreamer and avoid disempowering either the dream, the dreamer or the relationship between the two.

Collaboration is another fundamental philosophy of BADG, forming the basis for decision-making even when the group has a only one leader. One current example of collaborative orientation is that BADG pro-actively formed a panel of three to respond to a potential need for a spokesperson. Another example is BADGplans to host the first "Communal Dream Room" for the upcoming Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD) conference in Berkeley. As a gathering site for socializing and networking, the room will include displays, scheduled events and other activities that are collaborative and participatory.

The forms of our activities are shaped by another one of our philosophies that"We are all stars." We see ourselves and each other as shining together in the night sky. This springs from our egalitarian values of fairness and good manners of the partnership/community paradigm. It strengthens cooperation rather than competition and encourages us to honor each other as people and colleagues.

BADG is the dream organization dearest to my heart because it embodies in the purest form the same principles that I have discovered work well in relating to dream imagery and developing oneself as a dreamer and a dreamworker. Here are a few: A) awareness of context, B) freedom of expression, C) self-determination, D) healthy relationship, E) co-creativity, F) balance and G)flexibility of response and H) celebration of diversity.

These principles, elements of the community/partnership paradigm, operate on many levels such as the dynamics between the various symbols & characters of a dream; between an individual dreamer and their dream; between dreamworkers within a group; between dream organizations in the dream field or between the dream field and society at large.

What I value most from my involvement with dream community is that I am accepted, understood, valued and enjoyed both as a person and as a dreamworker. To me, this has been the greatest gift of the Bay Area Dreamworkers Group.

*The author wishes to thank Linda Lane Magall�n & Fred Olsen for their assistance with this article.