Sven Doehner, Ph.D., M.F.A. is a psychotherapist in private practice in Mexico City. Trained in Depth Psychology, he has worked for many years with native Mexican healers, and guided dream-work groups in Brazil, Greece, Lithuania, Peru, Mexico, the Soviet Union, the U.S.A. and Uruguay. An innovator in alchemical dream-sharing, he works at the borders between contemporary depth psychotherapy and ancient healing traditions.

Tom Crockett, M.F.A., (Panel Chair) is a writer, teacher, and shamanic counselor. He is the author of The Artist Inside: A Spiritual Guide to Cultivating Your Creative Self (Broadway Books, 2000), and the forthcoming Stone Age Wisdom: Shamanic Principles for Living in Balance (Fairwinds Press, 2003). He is a student and apprentice in cross-cultural shamanic practice and maintains a private shamanic counseling practice.

In traditional cultures, a dream of a bear, or wolf, or whale, or jaguar, or python, or eagle, or buffalo would be a dream of power. It would require interpretation from a shaman or elder. Usually it would portend or accompany a profound change for the dreamer. Most importantly, however, the animal spirit in the dream would need to be honored and fed. In commenting on a dream of polar bears, James Hillman writes in the book Dream Animals, "If I have any therapeutic intention it is to help the bear, to understand it and bring its obscure intention across from the dream world into the daily world we all share."

Though we have distanced ourselves from the wild and natural world of animals, they still appear in our dreams; and while we may not literally encounter a wild animal in our everyday world, wild animals certainly share dream-space and time with our domesticated animals and pets, and can most definitely visit us at night. There is something about our encounters with these wild dream animals that is every bit as memorable as our brief encounters with wild animals in waking life. The thrill of seeing wolves or moose or elephants or whales or hummingbirds in their natural environment parallels our encounters with them in dreamtime. The shaman would not ignore the presence of these animals in a person’s dreams, and neither should we.

This panel discussion will explore these issues from the perspectives of an experiential shamanic researcher, an experienced dream-worker that bridges psychology and shamanism, and two contemporary shamanic practitioners. Stanley Krippner will provide an overview and background on shamanism and shamanic dream-work, with a focus on how animals are regarded in dreams. His comments will be based on his many years of research and personal experience with indigenous healers around the world. Gini Graham Scott will discuss the tradition of power animals and the significance of dreams of animals in the shamanic tradition. Sven Doehner will look at animals in dreams drawn from his years of experience working with native healers and with animals in individual dreams, and Tom Crockett will discuss ways of working with animal dreams based on a synthesis of ancient wisdom traditions and urban contemporary shamanic practice.

Shamans use dreams and dream states to do healing and balancing work. They commit themselves first in service to spirit, then in service to their communities, and finally in healing service to individuals in need. The shaman works with the spirits or essences of animals, whether in waking or dreaming, to propitiate offerings to the unseen world and maintain a careful balance between waking and dreaming.