IASD CONFERENCE NEWS

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT IASD'S 30TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

You know how special our conferences can be. Some of us think of it as an annual gathering of our dream “family.” Have you shared your thoughts and expectations with your friends and associates yet? It’s not too late. Use the power of social networking to promote IASD’s 30th Annual International Conference, which is being held in a beautiful location on the beach and features some of the most exciting presentations ever.

We have provided some tools for you to use. You'll find them on the IASD conference website  We have official IASD Conference web mini-logos, flyers, and promotional materials including a Full Page, Full Color Poster / Flyer for Universities, Coffee Shops, Supermarkets, New Age Centers, Libraries, or Public Bulletin Boards.

You can add various conference logos to your website, blog, or Facebook page! We have it set up so that you can save these to your computer. The images can then be placed into your website page.

Help others to witness the fun and excitement of an IASD conference. See you all there!

Here is a video compilation from the 27th IASD Annual Dream Conference’s Dream Ball in Asheville, NC to inspire and energize us for this year’s gathering of dreamers.

The Dream Ball takes place on the final night of the annual IASD conference, our way of honoring our dreams and saying goodbye to fellow dreamers. The Dream Ball was introduced at the 2nd conference in 1985 by Bob Van de Castle in Charlottesville, VA.

DREAMS CLOUD BRINGS IASD’S ANNUAL PSI DREAMING CONTEST ONLINE

For the first time since 1985, the Psi Dream Contest (formerly the Dream Telepathy Contest), held each year at the IASD’s annual conference, will be accessible to non-attendees via digital interface through Dreams Cloud.

The contest is organized by Dr. Robert Van de Castle, a renowned researcher in the field of dreams and an advisor to Dreams Cloud.

Conference attendees can complete and submit a Psi Dream Contest entry form the next morning, before the target image is revealed. However, this year, Dreams Cloud will make it possible for anyone from anywhere in the world to participate in the contest. Dreamers who wish to participate can enter their dreams at Dreams Cloud on Sunday, June 23 between the hours of 12:01 am and 10:00 pm Eastern Time (GMT +5) that same day. In order to record a dream on Dreams Cloud, users must first register as members. However, membership on Dreams Cloud is free and open to everyone.

To learn more about Dreams Cloud, please visit www.dreamscloud.com

NEPTUNE’S TWIN

What well-known IASD Conference organizer closely resembles this Oceanfront sculpture of the great god Neptune?

Answer: Dr. Curt Hoffman

Still looking for accommodations? Check out the room sharing board on the 2013 web site here

BOARD NOMINEES: TIME TO VOTE

Cast your vote now! The deadline for voting has been extended. All ballots (both electronic and paper) must be received by June 15! To cast your vote please visit: https://asdreams.org/vote/

The 2013 IASD Nominating Committee has invited the following seven members to run for the five three-year board positions that will be vacated as of the June board meeting: Susannah Benson (Australia), Laurel Clark (USA), Claude Desloges (Canada), Janet Garrett (Spain), Diane Greig (USA), Ryan Hurd (USA), and Ed Kellogg (USA). Electees (those five with the highest number of votes) will be announced at the General Membership Meeting at the Virginia Beach conference on Sunday, June 23, 2013.

The Nominating Committee members worked long and hard to arrive at a slate of board nominees who were interested and available, and reflected gender and geographical diversity as well as a wide range of skills and knowledge.

The Committee also arrived at a slate of Executive officer nominees for 2013-2014, which is as follows: Robert Gongloff, Board Chair; Katja Valli, President; Susannah Benson, Vice-President (pending election); Laurel Clark, Secretary (pending election), and David L. Kahn, Treasurer. The slate of officer nominees will be adopted by the Board, and all officers and new board members will assume their positions at the board meeting to be held on Wednesday, June 26, 2013.

PSIBERDREAMING 2013 PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE JUNE 26

IASD's twelfth PsiberDreaming Conference, "Through the Looking Glass of Dreams" will be held online from September 26 to October 7, 2013. Help make this year's PsiberDreaming the best ever.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 26, 2013

Proposals for papers of workshops for presentation at PsiberDreaming 2013 must be submitted by June 26, 2013. A maximum of twenty-four presentations can be accepted for this two-week, online annual conference. Presentations will be accepted based on relevance to the conference topic: "Through the Looking Glass of Dreams" with specific focus on psi or "extraordinary" dreams. Click here for further information.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

One of the dream threads in the membership news this year has been about collective and group dreams. Last month we heard about a dream group from the West coast of Canada and now this month, from the East coast of the US, IASD Member David Gordon talks about the method of Mindful Dreaming within dream groups.

Since 1985 when I attended on a whim my first IASD conference in Charlottesville, VA my dreams have led me on an amazing journey--radically altering for the better my cherished perspectives as a psychologist, my view of intimate relationships and my spiritual sensibilities.

As the years passed and I became increasingly interested in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell and Buddhist philosophy, I noticed something profound about the nature of my dreams and those of my clients. I saw how our nightly dreams correspond to one of the four universal stages of healing and growth that Campbell called the Mythic or Heroic Journey--the Calling, Quest, Illumination and Return.

This made great sense to me. If the phases of the Journey itself were a universal and archetypal pattern within us, then surely our dreams must reflect the stages of the Journey as well. I came to see how the very challenging aspects described by Campbell in the first half of the Journey were reflected in our nightmares and emotionally troubling dreams, while the successes of the second half of the Journey were reflected in the insights, epiphanies, feelings of mastery and resolve in our dreams.

Organizing our dream groups around this theme has resonated deeply with group members as we’ve experienced how our dreams are a compassionate mirror illustrating our stuck places and affirming our progress, while always showing the next step forward on our Path.

It also became clear to me that the type of change required for our healing and growth is something that is needed by us all as humans and not entirely unique to our personal history and experiences. By this I mean that I’ve found our dreams prompt us to release five universal habits of thought or ego strategies that inevitably lead to the suffering we experience in our everyday lives--distracted thoughts, thoughts of control, judgment, attachment and impatience. At the same time, our dreams teach us to embrace instead one of five perennial experiences or perspectives taught by spiritual traditions in every culture and era. These are the experiences we need to find the peace we are seeking on our Journey.

In this approach to dreamwork that we call Mindful Dreaming, our group views each dream as a prompting to practice one of these five lessons: to release distraction and honor inner stillness and solitude; release efforts at control and embrace humility and guidance; release judgment and embrace compassion for others and especially ourselves; and to release attachments, let go and embrace the ever-changing flow of life. Finally our dreams prompt us to be mindful of the need to release impatience so that we may live more consciously and fully awake in the present moment.

In this way group members find in our dreams a ready-made mindfulness practice in which we remember to focus awareness in waking life on the need to release the five habits of thought or ego strategies that have brought us suffering in our dreams. At the same time we recall and practice the five perspectives that provide us with the peace that heals that suffering—the importance of inner stillness, following and accepting guidance, embracing compassion for our own suffering, accepting the inevitability of change and embracing the gift of the present moment.

Finally, my wife and extraordinary dreamworker, Dani Vedros, LCSW, while tending Mindful Dreaming groups with me over the past ten years, has also offered her own Dream Journeying groups for women.

Through the use of dreams, embodiment, art, ritual and movement, Dani’s groups source the deeply instinctual and wise feminine psyche--never failing to draw a tender yet fearless community of kindred women willing to go deep while holding safe, compassionate space for each other. Members renew their sense of commitment and resolve to live more authentically and consciously.

Thank you David Gordon for your contribution to Dream News this month! David’s book is available at: http://www.mindfuldreaming.com and information about workshops and more can be found at: http://www.studioforthehealingarts.org

Although there will be no July issue of the E-Dream News, in August I will be featuring another dream group facilitator and hearing her vision and gleanings about collective dreaming. Listing of new members for both July and August will be recorded in the August Dream News. I invite all members who are facilitating dream groups in different parts of the world to email me at degreig2002@yahoo.ca

Also, remember to check out the IASD website. The new webpages are easy to navigate and look amazing. Please make sure your Membership Page is up to date prior to our annual conference in June. When you have time, stop by the group and public IASD Facebook and Google pages to find up-to-date information regarding IASD and dreams.

Looking forward to visiting with old and new friends at the IASD conference in Virginia Beach this month! PLEASE NOTE: The IASD annual General Membership Meeting will be held at the conference on Sunday, June 23. At this occasion we honor those members who have passed away with a moment of silence. If you have knowledge of members who have died since the last General Membership Meeting in June 2012, please send the name and any suggested words of remembrance to the Board Chair, Robert Gongloff, at roberto@asdreams.org

Reminder: If you use Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr, please consider tweeting and posting about the workshops, seminars, images and other wonderful aspects of this year’s conference!

From Membership Chair,
Diane E. Greig, Ph.D.

From Susan Benson, Regional Chair

Thank you to all the regional representatives who responded to my recent email. It has been lovely to hear from individual members, and to know that people are looking forward to meeting-up at the Regional luncheon meeting on Sunday, June 23, 2013 at the Annual conference in Virginia Beach.

If you're not going to make it to the Conference this year, but would like to keep connected, you can check out the schedule. Conference recordings will be available to order at a later date. Also, a final reminder for members attending the luncheon is that you will need to pre-book and pay for your luncheon buffet meal via the IASD conference registration link prior to June 15. I hope that many of us will also have a chance to complete the survey that was included in the recent email posting.

UPDATES ON RECENT REGIONAL EVENTS

The Massachusetts regional conference: The Creative Power of Dream held at Regis College, Weston, MA, on May 25 was very successful. There were 52 attendees and Conference Host Dr. Curt Hoffman and the conference team received very positive feedback from both presenters and attendees. A special presentation at this conference was a paper by Curt on his Gilgamesh Cantata that included a performance of two movements of the cantata by a group of singers including BSU students Karen Sargent (soprano), McKayla Hoffman (soprano), and Anthony Winters (tenor), volunteers Katherine Tyrer-Vassel (alto) and Betty Gilson (alto), with Curt himself singing bass. A successful conference always owes so much to the efforts of a dedicated staff of volunteers. Thanks to Sonia D’Alarcao, Leslie Zaret, McKayla Hoffman, Allyson Linehan, and Jeff Armano for all your efforts for helping to make the conference a success.

EFT UNIVERSE/IASD JOINT REGIONAL WORKSHOP IN SAN FRANCISCO

The regional workshop held in San Francisco on May 18-19 went extremely well. It was designed as a small two-day training event. The first third of the program included lectures from Alan Siegel, Dawson Church and Lynne and Bob Hoss, followed by experiential workshops with group and individual work. The participants were excited about the merging of dreamwork and EFT ("tapping”), and the workshop resulted in some new memberships and additional conference attendees for Virginia Beach and/or Berkeley next year. Congratulations to the workshop team. We look forward to hearing more about the possibilities of dreamwork and EFT (tapping).

Calendar of upcoming Regional Events, 2013

MINI-CONFERENCE IN TOKYO IN JULY
Report from Misa Tsuruta

Sometimes a dream comes true faster than you can imagine. We have been dreaming of having a conference in Japan, and now we are holding one on Saturday, July 13, 2013.

Hosts Shuhei Enomoto and Misa Tsuruta are happy to hold our conference at a small hotel, KKR Naka-Meguro, in Tokyo. We are going to spend an afternoon with Sheila Asato as our main workshop provider, and three current IASD members in Japan: Yuuko Ootaka, Shuhei Enomoto, and Misa Tsurutu. We look forward to welcoming other participants to our first conference event in Japan.

Sheila is going to provide a dream journal making workshop, while others will present on topics such as group dreaming experiments using Skype, ZINE/mini comic, dream journaling and dream recall. Though it is small, we are planning to have all necessities for a conference; a small refreshment table and a book table. The mini-conference will be followed by an informal dinner in the Naka-Meguro area.

Our regret is that we are not having an English/bilingual track. We believe it is fine because this is a tiny, but big step toward the future of more dream gatherings in Japan.

Regional Representatives Network

Please check the IASD website for up-to-date names and contact information for the regional representative in your area. The Regional Representative webpage  is divided into regions, making your search more user-friendly. If you do not have a Regional Rep for your area, consider volunteering to become one! You could serve an important networking role for IASD.

To volunteer to become a Regional Representative, contact Susannah Benson or Diane E. Grieg

For corrections or feedback on member contacts from Regional Reps, contact Claude Desloges (Regional Representative Eastern Canada)

KID LUCID - By Al Moniz