photo: An Stalpers
Author Biography
Earliest Childhood Choice to be in reality dealing with what is no matter the cost.
Parental Influences Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood were poets but not functioning parents.
Early Childhood Trauma I was sent to a brutal charity boarding school at age six never to return home to live.
Sexual-Relational Life basically with the opposite sex through two marriages and three long-term relationships as well as some significant other relating in various countries.
Children two amazing children who are achieving their own personalities.
Birth Date April 2, 1934, New York City. An Ares with Leo rising which means I have learned to lead well and temper my natural arrogance with love and patience.
Significant Teachers the historical Jesus for spiritual principles. C.G. Jung for depth psychology and working with dreams. Elisabeth Boyden Howes for religious passion and commitment based on the historical life and teachings of Jesus. Dorothea Romankiw for a compassionate heart and the drive to realize significant purpose in life.
Purpose in Life to live a life committed to consciousness and the search for meaning at the deepest of levels.
Shadow vulnerability masked by a strong power-drive and the strength to endure no matter what.
Work to teach, live and write about consciousness.
Greatest Outer Accomplishment the bringing in of the Dream Cards to the world.
Most Valuable Inner Accomplishment healing of my traumatized psyche through fifteen years of Jungian analysis, eight years of bodywork and ten years of on the mat Aikido.
Heart to practice acceptance and sharing openly with compassion and passion.
Death hopefully when I can no longer function consciously with purpose.
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Strephon Kaplan-Williams
I would have preferred to email you privately, but do not see a contact address. My apologies for using your post section as a personal conversation tool.
I purchased your Dream Cards years ago when I was struggling with nightmares. My visions were varied, but the mood of the dreams was always extreme, violent, and negative for many years. I worked with your cards on a daily basis and they literally turned my life around. Clearly they helped me to work through many personal issues, as now my dreams are beautiful, inviting, and incredibly sensual. I am at peace.
In the last year, however, I have become very close friends with someone in a similar situation to that of my past. He is waking up screaming and kicking with vile and disturbing nightmares on a very regular basis. It is interfering with his daily life. I thought that the perfect Christmas gift for him would be a set of your cards. I want to help him, and knew that doing it through your work was my and his best hope.
Then I discovered that the Dream Cards are out of print. And the only ones I can find are used. I am willing to settle for used if I absolutely must, as I know this is the perfect gift. However, I thought perhaps you might know of a source where I could find a new copy?
My apologies if this request is too personal or inappropriate. I am sincerely thankful for the change in my life you provided me and would merely like the opportunity to help a friend in the same way.
Sincerely,
Terri Minowicz
teminowi@yahoo.com
Dear Terri,
Thanks for your feedback on how helpful the Dream Cards have been to you. It is an amazing story of healing. The Dream Cards came directly out of my healing work with people, so it does make sense that this consciousness tool then helps others like yourself to find the perspective that heals.
If you must have a new deck of Dream Cards you have to order the German or Brazilian edition, and then substitute copies of your own Wisdom Cards and a copy of the Dream Cards book.
If you buy the English language edition you must have a personal connection with the seller to make sure all the 66 cards are there in the Dream Cards deck and in the Wisdom Cards deck, because I get complaints that people just re-sell the Dream Cards book.
As far as your friend recovering from nightmares I don’t know what will work. If he worked with me via an internet dreamwork community of my regular students, then he would join our Dreamwork Circle at 29 euros a month and post his own dreams and thoughts on his own private, password blog there. Or if you two joined together for the 50 euro fee as a couple then you could share also and also receive help from the other Dreamwork Circle members who are working deeply with themselves.
http://www.dreamworkcircle.com
dreamwork@dreamworkcircle.com
To Terri,
I can´t be sure what would work for your friend either, but I know what worked for me, and it worked very quickly too. I also know that it has worked very effectively and quickly for others. The method I used to stop my nightmares — which were not as frequent as your friend´s nightmares — was the confrontation method. I suppose I first read about dream confrontation many years ago in Patricia Garfield´s book, Creative Dreaming. I also heard a version of it from Clara Stewart Flagg, who taught “dream education” up until she died a decade or more ago.
The confrontation method is simple. Suppose you have been having dreams that a ferocious bear is chasing you. While awake, tell yourself several times during the day, and also before sleep, that the next time you have that dream, you won´t run. You will turn around and face the bear, ask it what it wants, demand that it be a dream ally to you, and if necessary fight it to the death in your dream, while calling on any dream friends who might help you. While awake, before sleeping, one can also visualize successfully confronting and defeating the bear. The next time the nightmare happens, if you follow the confrontation method, you will either defeat and kill the bear or other frightening enemy (in which case you can then have it reborn in the dream as a helpful positive ally part of you) or else the bear will kill you in the dream, in which case you will then be reborn in the dream minus unhealthy parts of you. The confrontation method, to my knowledge, is utterly safe and seems to be extremely effective. The simple act of turning around and confronting the fear in your dreams ends nightmares almost instantly, at least in the usual case. I don´t know how exceptional your friend´s nightmare problem might be. But since the time I first used the method many years ago, I´ve never had nightmares again.
By the way, Strephon, I´ve put a link to your website over at my lucid dreaming blog, http://www.lucidlune.com. — Ed