Courageous Dreaming
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
—Buddha“Whether we realize it or not, we are all dreaming the world into being. What we are engaging in is not the sleeping act we are so familiar with, but rather a type of dreaming we do with our eyes open. When we are unaware that we share the power to co-create reality with the universe itself, that power slips away from us, causing our dream to become a nightmare. We begin to feel we are the victims of an unknown and frightening creation that we are unable to influence, and events seem to control and trap us. The only way to end this dreadful reality is to awaken to the fact that it too is a dream—and then recognize our ability to write a better story, one that the universe will work with us to manifest.
The nature of the cosmos is such that whatever vision you have about yourself and the world will become a reality. As soon as you awaken to the power you have, you begin to flex the muscles of your courage. Then you can dream bravely: letting go of your limiting beliefs and pushing past your fears. You can start to come up with a truly original dream that germinates in your soul and bears fruit in your life.
Courageous dreaming allows you to create from the source, the quantum soup of the universe where everything exists in a latent or potential state. Physicists understand that in the quantum world nothing is “real” until it is observed. The distinct packets of energy known as “quanta” (which consist of particles of matter as well as light) are neither “here” nor “there”; in a sense, they are everywhere in space/time until you or I decide to take note of them. When we do so, we tease them out of the web of infinite possibilities and collapse them into an event in time and space. These energy quanta like to link up with each other once they have selected a particular form of manifestation. As soon as they manifest, reality becomes fixed: Our reality is “here” instead of possibly everywhere.
But quantum events do not occur in the laboratory only. They also happen inside our brain, on this page, and everywhere around us. Even if they are separated by million miles, or by days or weeks, these quanta of energy remain intimately linked; consequently, if you interact with one, you affect the entire system that this energy is part of. When you access any part of the dream, the great matrix of creation, you can change reality and alter the entire dream, and its effects will ripple to the past and influence the future.
Modern physics is describing what ancient wisdom keepers of the Americas have long known. These shamans, known as “the Earthkeepers”, say that we are dreaming the world into being through the very act of witnessing it. Scientists believe that we are only able to do this in the very small subatomic world. Shamans understand that we also dream the larger world that we experience with our senses.
Like the Australian Aborigines, the Earthkeepers live in an environment where the dreamtime has not been pushed into the domain of sleep like it has for the rest of us. They know that all of creation arises from, and returns to, this creative matrix. The dreamtime infuses all matter and energy, connecting every creature, every rock, every star, and every ray of light or bit of cosmic dust. The power to dream, then, is the power to participate in creation itself. Dreaming reality is not only an ability but a duty, one all humans must perform with grace so that our grandchildren will inherit a world where they can live in peace and abundance.
We have actually already gone into extraordinary detail to dream our universe into being. Immediately after the big bang, 99.99 percent of all matter and antimatter in the cosmos went onto annihilate each other. The stars and galaxies that we see around us today are all that remained, a minute portion of what once was. Had the ratio of matter to space in the universe changed by even one-billionth of a percent, the laws of physics that permit life to emerge would not have been possible. The big bang had to be so perfectly orchestrated and calculated that it produced only one part of matter in 10 to the 50th power of stardust. This is divided by 10 followed by 50 zeroes, no more and no less. That this occurred purely by chance is possible only if we contemplate the existence of a very large number of universes in the cosmos, where an improbable event such as the creation of our own universe would have been plausible!
What is even more baffling is the fine-tuning of the parameters of the universe that occurred on the surface of the earth, which has maintained a perfect temperature balance between the freezing and boiling points of water for more than a billion years. The unlikeliness of these ratios that permit life to appear suggests the presence of an intelligent force, not a creator or a god but a universe power, which the Earthkeepers call “the dreamtime” or “infinity”.
The Earthkeepers I have studied with in the Andes and the Amazon believe that we can only access the power of this force by raising our level of consciousness. When we do, we become aware that we are like a drop of water in a vast, divine ocean, distinct yet immersed in something much larger than ourselves. It is only when we experience our connection to infinity that we are able to dream powerfully. In fact, it is our sense of separation from infinity that traps us in a nightmare in the first place. If this sounds like circular thinking, you are right. Which came first, the nightmare or the sense of separation from infinity? The answer is that they occur simultaneously.
To end the nightmare—to reclaim your power of dreaming reality and craft something better—you need more than the recognition of how this process works. You need to have visceral understanding of your dreaming power and experience it in every cell of your body. The intellectual comprehension of your ability to create reality mimics but then forestalls the kind of dreaming you are capable of. If you do not get beyond mere intellectual comprehension of this concept, you will end up lowering the bar and creating a far less glorious and beautiful experience of the world than what you are capable of crafting. With a visceral understanding of your power to dream, you realize that you can share this experience of infinity right here, right now, and stop feeling dissociated and disconnected.
It takes courage to taste infinity. According to Greek mythology, the gods swiftly punished any mortal who dared to ascend Mount Olympus and taste divine power. Yet they ultimately rewarded those who had the courage to step into their realm, such as Hercules and Psyche. Similarly, in Judeo-Christian lore, as soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, making human beings more like God, He threw them out of the Garden of Eden, “lest [humankind] put forth [their] hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22). But despite this original sin of humanity, all men and women are promised a chance to dwell in heaven at the end of time.
Once you experience dreaming, you realize that everything in your life is unfolding with perfect synchronicity. Events may not be working out the way you would like them to, but within the greater scheme of things, they are happening in superlative harmony. For example, you miss the train to work on the day that terrorists strike the World Trade Center (which actually happened to a student of mine). Or your child tells you that he has been accepted to the college of his choice the same week you get the promotion you have been hoping for. If the universe seems to be conspiring against you, on the other hand, then you need to change the dream.
With courageous dreaming, you discover that your problems are no longer overwhelming you or defining your life. While the difficulties you face feel very real, you always have the choice to create a heroic account about your relationship to them instead of a disempowering saga of suffering. You will recognize that you can stop being a victim, trying to fix the world all on your own, or feeling vindictive toward those who harmed you. You will see that your life is exactly as it should be right now, and you will be able to let go of all the stories that keep you feeling trapped and unhappy and venting in your therapist’s office. You will begin to practice dreaming the world into being, and everything will change.
The Earthkeepers believe that the world is real, but only because we have dreamed it into being. But dreaming requires an act of courage, for when we lack it, we have to settle for the world that is being created by our culture or by our genes—we feel we have to settle for the nightmare. To dream courageously, we must be willing to use our hearts. Otherwise, our dreams will stall at the level of thinking, planning, and worrying too much. Then our dream will turn into a nightmare or mere fantasy, trapping us or drifting away while we wonder, What happened?
I remember one of my early trips to the Amazon. I was then a young anthropologist investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the rain forest, and I had decided to use myself as a subject. I explained to the jungle medicine man that as a child I had fled my country of birth because of a communist revolution. I had seen bloodshed in the streets and been terrified by gunfire in the night. Since then I had suffered from recurring nightmares in which armed men would force their way into my home and take away my loved ones. At the time I was in my late 20s, yet I had been unable to enter into a lasting relationship for fear that I would lose the person I loved, just like my nightmare.
During one healing ceremony, the shaman explained to me that like everyone, I can either have what I want or the reasons why I cannot. “You are too enamored of your story”, the old man said. “Until you dare to dream a different dream, all you will have is the nightmare”.
That evening I learned how I could craft a different story for myself, one in which I had been tempered by adversity and my experiences had taught me to have compassion for others who were suffering. The first step to dream my new dream was to create a new story in which I was not playing the part of the victim. I then realized that not only was I dreaming my life, but I was also dreaming the entire cosmos into being, just as it was doing with me.
Although the mind resists it, the fact is that like me, you have a choice between having the life you want or the reasons why you cannot. You can luxuriate in joy and peace, or you can continually be burdened by that big black bag full of all the sorrowful incidents and accidents that happened to you in your childhood or last relationship. You can endure your wounds or you can enjoy your glory. You can live the life of a victim, burdened by the traumas of your past, or you can live the life of a hero, but you cannot do both. If you want to feel empowered, you need to make a conscious decision to create a sacred dream and practice courage.
Courageous dreaming happens at a state of perception that the Earthkeepers refer to as the level of hummingbird. The hummingbird is an archetype for the heroic voyager—just like it, you will inevitably take some wrong turns. However, each time you return to the recognition that you are dreaming your reality, you will deepen your understanding of the journey and feel more committed to it. You will be able to embrace the ever-shifting landscape around you with equanimity and a sense of humor and you will even experience grace.”
Excerpt from Alberto Villoldo’s book “Courageous Dreaming”