Courageous Dreaming

By Alberto Villoldo

Whether you realize it or not, we are all dreaming the world into being. What we're engaging in is not the sleeping dream we're familiar with, but the waking dream we craft with our eyes open. As soon as you awaken to your power to dream, you begin to flex the muscles of your courage, letting go of your limiting beliefs and pushing past your fears.

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 packets of energy known as "quanta" (particles of matter as well as light) are neither "here" nor "there" until you or I observe them. When we take note of them, we tease them out of the web of possibilities, and reality becomes fixed. Quantum events happen inside our brain, on this page, and everywhere around us. When you access any part of the dream, the great matrix of energy, you can change reality and alter the entire dream.

Modern physics is describing what the Earthkeepers of the Americas have long known. These shamans live in a world where the dreamtime has not been pushed into the domain of sleep. They know that all of creation arises from, and returns to, this dreamtime.

The dreamtime, the creative matrix, does not exist in a place outside of us. Rather, it 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 is the power to participate in creation itself. For the Earthkeepers, dreaming reality is not only an ability but a duty, one we must perform with grace and love so that our grandchildren will inherit a world where they can live in peace and abundance.

The shamans I have studied with in the Andes and the Amazon believe that it is only when we experience our connection to Infinity that we're able to dream powerfully. In fact, it's our sense of separation from Infinity that makes us become trapped in a nightmare in the first place. To end the nightmare and craft a better reality, we need more than an intellectual understanding of how this process works. We need to have a visceral understanding of our dreaming power.

It takes courage to taste Infinity. According to Greek mythology, the gods swiftly punished any mortal who dared to ascend Olympus and taste divine power. Yet they ultimately rewarded those who had the courage to step into their realm, such as Hercules and Psyche. Once you experience dreaming, you discover that your problems are no longer overwhelming or defining your life. While the difficulties in your life feel very real, you always have the choice to create a heroic story about your relationship to them instead of a disempowering tale of suffering.

To dream courageously, you must be willing to use your heart. Otherwise, your dream will stall at the level of emotions, and of thinking too much, planning too much, and worrying endlessly. Then your dream will turn into a nightmare or a mere daydream, trapping you or drifting away while you wonder, "What happened?"

I remember one of my early trips to the Amazon. I was a young anthropologist investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the rainforest. 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. I was in my late twenties, and had been unable to enter into a lasting relationship for fear I would lose the person I loved, just like in 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 can't.

"You are too enamored of your story," the old man said to me. "Until you dare to dream a different dream, all you will have will be the nightmare." That evening, he showed me how I could craft a different story for myself, one in which I had been tempered by adversity, and in which my experiences had taught me to have compassion for others who were suffering.

The fact is, 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 can't do both. If you want to feel empowered, you need to make a conscious decision to dream a sacred dream and practice courage. Like any traveler, you will inevitably take some wrong turns, but each time you return to the recognition that you are dreaming your reality, you will deepen your understanding of the journey. You'll be able to embrace the ever-shifting landscape around you with equanimity and a sense of humor, and even experience grace.

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