{"id":4196,"date":"2012-02-06T01:25:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T06:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=4196"},"modified":"2012-02-06T09:43:51","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T14:43:51","slug":"if-you-can-picture-your-blocks-you-can-move-beyond-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/02\/if-you-can-picture-your-blocks-you-can-move-beyond-them.html","title":{"rendered":"If you can picture your blocks, you can move beyond them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>If we can picture our blocks, we can move beyond them.<\/div>\n

Mandy was terrified of speaking in public, even in front of two or three people. When she seized up in one of my workshops, I asked her if she could feel <\/em>what was blocking her. She said, “It feels like a choke collar.”<\/p>\n

I asked if she could see<\/em> that collar. \u00a0After a moment, she nodded and said, “I can see it now. It’s a collar of \u00a0antique lace. It’s buttoned too tight.”<\/p>\n

“Does that lace collar remind you of anyone?”<\/p>\n

“My grandmother used to wear that kind of lace collar.”<\/p>\n

Memories started spilling out, of the grandmother who sternly upheld a family tradition that girls – and grown women – were not permitted to speak truth to power, that a woman’s lot was to mute her emotions and never challenge the man of the house.<\/p>\n

Once Mandy had the image of what was stealing her voice, and the family history that came flooding back, she was able to work successfully to release herself from the choke-hold of a tradition that held that it is the role of women to suffer in silence. When she found an image of her block, Mandy moved beyond it and claimed her voice.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, I was leading a short evening program for a large audience. I drummed for a while to help people call up dreams or images from any part of their life that they might want to play with.<\/p>\n

A woman I’ll call Norma put her hand up and said, “I got nothing during the drumming.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are you feeling right now?\u201d I asked ner.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrustration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you feel this frustration?\u201d<\/p>\n

She indicated her torso.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your hand on that place. Now I want you to follow your feelings into <\/em>that place. Can you pretend you are moving into that place in your body?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is someone or something there. Do you see it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. It\u2019s my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you need to do in relation to your father?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to find out whether I can forgive him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you need in order to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d need to get my little girl back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s right there. Can you see her?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you welcome her back into your life, and release your father?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll try.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were tears now, and a fierce hope shining through the tears. In that moment of revelation, and self-expression, we all felt the potential for deep healing. Later, Norma agreed to write a letter to her father (now deceased) expressing what she needed to say to him, and wishing him healing and forgiveness in his journey. And she readily agreed to do certain things in her regular life – eating a certain sugary snack would be one of them – that would convince her inner child she would now be fun to be around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we can picture our blocks, we can move beyond them. Mandy was terrified of speaking in public, even in front of two or three people. When she seized up in one of my workshops, I asked her if she could feel what was blocking her. 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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\/4196","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=4196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4200,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4196\/revisions\/4200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}