Though we did not undertake a group dream sharing the morning after Oneironauticum, several people related their experiences to me the next morning. One of the speakers, a caniosacral therapist who works with an activist network of recently returned Iraqi war veterans, experienced a deep encounter with her son. A junky who she fears may end up in prison, he came to her in her dream and told her that he was doing what needed to be doing and that...

An inspiring, marvelous group of women and men gathered for the Women’s Visionary Congress at Wilbur Hot Springs. For Sunday night Oneironauticum, approximately forty people gathered to hear about the Calea zacatechichi, our oneirogen for the evening. Being the sort of people who like to have in depth information, several attendees asked questions about potential interactions between Calea and other substances. In the experience of...

On Sunday, October 12, I’ll be leading a special session of the Oneironauticum as part of the Women’s Visionary Congress at Wilbur Hot Springs. Participants in the event will be invited to partake of a tea made with the herb Calea zacatechichi, a plant used by indigenous peoples in the Mexican state of Oaxaca for the purposes of oneiromancy, a form of divination based on dreams. In some Mesoamerican cultures, people believe that...

In attendance at the September 27 Oneironauticum were dreamers Erik Davis, lissa ivy tiegel, Dean Mermell, Lesley Freeman, Christine Benvenuto, Katherine Rochlin Fenster, Anna Rockwell, Juliana Snowfox, and yours truly, Jennifer Dumpert. We began the evening by crafting dream pillows stuffed with herbs, flowers, and essential oils that promote dreaming. Each dreamer chose a combination that suited his or her own dream intention from...

The next Oneironauticum, is next Saturday September 27. For this session, we’ll work with olfactory oneirogens (dream inducing substances). Folk remedies have long included herb stuffed pillows, used for curing headaches, colds, and other minor ailments. From this tradition, we also get the dream pillow, filled with flowers and herbs that hold a scent known to promote vivid dreams. As many variations exist on these pillows as there were...

In attendance at the August 16 Oneironauticum were dreamers Vibrata Chromodoris, David Shamanik, lissa ivy tiegel, Geneva Bumb Shanti, Christine Benvenuto, and yours truly, Jennifer Dumpert. During the evening, before sleeping, we discussed dream states, as we so often do. Thanks to Jeff Warren’s excellent book Head Trip, I’ve recently been introduced to mind state called Hypnopompia, the mirror twin of hypnagogia. I thought the two were the...