{"id":219,"date":"2011-02-14T06:02:09","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T06:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/fairytale-erotica-and-other-life-genres-you-can-invent.html"},"modified":"2011-02-14T06:02:09","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T06:02:09","slug":"fairytale-erotica-and-other-life-genres-you-can-invent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/fairytale-erotica-and-other-life-genres-you-can-invent.html","title":{"rendered":"Fairytale Erotica (and other genres you can select for your life story)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nicola<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

If
\nyou were looking for your own life story in a bookstore, what section would you
\ngo to first?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If
\nyou are stumped for an answer, think about a movie or a story that struck a
\nchord in you. It might be a fairy tale from childhood, or something from
\nmythology. It might be tragedy or comedy, an epic saga or a family sitcom.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Check
\nwhether this remembered tale may be about you and the life you are living now
\nor in your imagination, or both.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Now:
\npicture yourself in a bookstore or library or browsing Netflix. Where would you
\ngo to look for your story. Fiction or nonfiction, or something in the
\nborderland between them, like Visionary Narrative? <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Romance? Self-improvement? Fantasy? Biography?
\nAdventure? Folklore? <\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe you need to invent a genre for what your
\nstory contains. Or make a composite, like those recommended categories that
\nturn up on Netflix: “Mind-Bending Foreign Drama with Strong Female Lead.” “Military
\n20th<\/sup> Century Period Piece.” “Dark Fight-the-System Movies Based on
\nReal Life.” (Come to think of it, I might file parts of my life story in each
\nof those categories). <\/span><\/p>\n

In my workshops, I often have people spend
\nfive minutes sketching out a quick version of their life stories so that can
\nsee more clearly what section or sections they belong in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some genres invented or selected by
\nmembers of my creative workshops and online dreamwork courses:<\/span><\/p>\n

Hot Fiction<\/p>\n

Cosmic Westerns<\/p>\n

Romantic Science<\/p>\n

Mainstream Occult<\/p>\n

Black Comedy<\/p>\n

Coffee Table Picture Books<\/p>\n

Time Travel<\/p>\n

Ancient
\nMysteries<\/span><\/p>\n

Past
\nLife Travels<\/span><\/p>\n

Fairytale Erotica<\/p>\n

and (from someone who has just
\ncompleted their first book)<\/p>\n

Bestsellers
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

My
\npersonal favorites?<\/span><\/p>\n

True
\nFantasy<\/span><\/p>\n

Soul
\nBiography<\/span><\/p>\n

Multidimensional
\nTravel<\/span><\/p>\n

Ready to play? Picture yourself in that bookstore, on scanning that Netflix screen, and choose the category for your life story. You can pick up to three. Then post your selections on the Comments thread here. You may inspire others to expand their notions about what kind of story they are living.<\/span><\/p>\n

Astral Lovers by Nicola Daniels<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you were looking for your own life story in a bookstore, what section would you go to first? If you are stumped for an answer, think about a movie or a story that struck a chord in you. It might be a fairy tale from childhood, or something from mythology. It might be tragedy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,36,27,29,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-living","category-myth","category-self-help","category-story","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nFairytale Erotica (and other genres you can select for your life story) - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/fairytale-erotica-and-other-life-genres-you-can-invent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fairytale Erotica (and other genres you can select for your life story) - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you were looking for your own life story in a bookstore, what section would you go to first? 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}