Tribal Dreaming || Netåinå-Ban-Dang

above || dreaming notebook of a tribal ceremonial dream student

Native American Ritual Dreaming || The Second World

Dreaming evolved in ancient times among tribal people. It was a method of the mystery life which made it possible for ancient people to live so closely together. It made it possible for ancient human beings to build the great pyramids, Stonehenge and plan and develop cultures like Chaco Canyon. It is an all but forgotten power dormant inside every human being. Modern dream interpretation is a waste of time. In our tribal culture we teach a serious program of dream development which takes dreaming to anew level.In this series of articles we will share some of what is known by my own tribal teachers on this neglected and misunderstood subject. Ancient man might not have had the knowledge of computers or even language, but they knew how to dream in ways the modern world can never imagine.

In the Ahnishibaeg culture, the dreaming is called the second attention, or second dimension of life. In historical times very little distinction was made when describing events in the real world vs the dreaming. Most academicians investigating historical documents and statements by tribal informants have no idea that this is so.

I am an Ahnishinabe man. Most of my adult life has been the work of carrying on the dreaming and other ceremonial instructions of my tribal culture. Dreaming in many tribal cultures was a refined art. Tribes like the Ahnishinabe in the north and the ancient Papago in the formidable Arizona desert centered their ceremonial life around the gifts of their dreamers.

The conspiracy is not conscious, not anymore. The refusal of our society to recognize the opportunity in advanced dream studies is one of laziness...and one of lack of imagination. Dreaming could be taught in the schools, should be taught in the schools. One hour each day of talking about your dreams with a group of people *dreamers" in itself would bring about many new revelations.

For more than 20 years I have been conducting ceremonial dream teachings all around the world. These events gather together a group of 8 to 12 people. They are given many oral teachings from the traditions of tribal culture. They are taken through a series of ceremonies. These ceremonies use a very different method of giving information to the mind. Using the rhythm of the rituals, of the ancient dreaming songs, I feel we are able to send information and instructions to the most ancient part of the human brain. This region is under/utilized by modern people in my view. I believe that dreaming evolved from the most ancient portion of the brain. The gigantic frontal lobes of the human brain are rather new and have changed over the long history of human evolution. It is the back of the brain, the ancient medulla oblangata region, that this ancient information is sleeping. The language of ceremony unlocks a channel of information which reaches back into the ancient memories stored in the mind of all healthy people.

What is Ceremonial Dreaming? ||

This is a short explanation to a much longer idea. I have seen in my life how the ancient ceremonies of our tribal relations really addresses the mind and the senses in a very different way. It has been a revelation. At this point I have made these ceremonies more than 100 times. Each experience gives up new information, which I have been documenting.

I learned even as a younger man that the "ceremonies" and "rituals" of tribal society are very poorly understood by modern people, by modern thinkers. For so many centuries the tribes were described as savages with no important information for humanity. This was and is a great mistake. Ceremonial teaching is an enormously powerful learning tool. Using the conventions and screts of sacred ceremony, tribal teachers guided and perpetuated a great civilization people with remarkable dreamers, visionaries, healers, hunters, warriors, artisans and leaders. Tribal society in North America was diverse and the power of dreaming guided that diversity. 

I have shared my dream ceremonies with psychiatrists and medical doctors and surprised them all with the clarity and responsiveness of these ceremonial methods.

The ceremonial method cannot be copied. It cannot be made up by people outside of the tribal culture. Only teachers that are deeply immersed and committed to their own tribal ceremonial and ritual heritage have properly understood and been able to practice these things.

A really correct tribal ritual come from a long life of study and participation in the traditions of the tribal elders and the tribal sacred. In our modern society the number of people who have access to this education is a shrinking number. As society continues to pund and hammer and modernize tribal cultures, much of this kind of astonishing learning is being lost.

I have come to believe that I have an obligation to share my unique education and experiences with others. So much is being lost. It seems important that good efforts should be made to responsibly bring some of this ceremonial information forward in society.

Many tribal people have great information. The published books and internet blogs never reflect experience with these real tribal people. There is so much misguided garbage being published and read and creating confusion in society that most tribal people are resistant. There is a lot of pretentious theft and abuse of the tribal sacred. This situation creates a problem. It becomes important to do good work in the face of so much bad and incorrect information. Tribal cultures are drowing in the bad information out in the world about American Indians.

I feel like pushing back. I have made my ceremonial work with my tribal relations. In recent years I have moved this work out into the world....the waiting world as we call it in our ceremonies.

It is not proper or "legal" to describe ritual ceremonies. Each ceremony with each group is different, at different levels. The ceremony of the sacred with a group of people is like a doctor/patient relationship and its privacy must be respected. What I can do is talk about the ideas around the ceremonies and attempt to alert others to the opportunities to advance and change their lives in a remarkable way.

Personal Power (Balanced)

The old tribal teachers believe each person on this earth was given a dream when they were a child. Not an ordinary dream, but a dream about the gift of their life. Awakening the memory and the details of this sacred ream is possible for every person. When people wake up inside their own sacred dream many great things happen. So many people in modern society are completely closed off from their dreams. Tribal ritual inside the sacred dream ceremonial is designed to unlock the dreaming, awaken the memory. Gifts like this are worth more than gold and fame. This is real personal power, the full realization of how you can be you.

This aspect of tribal ritual teachings is not very well understood, given the nature of the dialogue people have, or refuse to have, with tribal people.

I have been using the ritual method of dream ceremony now for almost 40 years. I have seen some remarkable progress and witnessed the unlocking of some tremendously powerful forces.

Society has in general locked out access to these ideas. Tribes also are reluctant to speak directly to such issues. There is so much theft for profit and other shadowy behavior by modern people when it comes to the sacred of the American Earth that most American Indians feel more protective than open about these subjects.

Sometimes just the knowledge that something is possible is enough to bring about change. Perhaps you can think about that and see if there will be some clues contained in this series that can help you.

Dreaming In the Body  || The Organ System

Understanding dreaming may be a function of the mind and emotions. The dream energy itself, though monitored and stimulated from regions in the brain, is in the lower organ system. When we work ritually with dreams, we measure a space two fingers width below the navel. This region is the origin and power of dreaming. When this region is clear and well-developed, the dreaming can be very powerful and clear. It is weaknesses in this "furnace" of the "belly" that makes it hard for people to remember their dreams. Learning to develop clarity and power in this region can lead to many revelations. this region is often called the center of "will". Will is a force of consciousness that bridges consciousness with accomplishment. Person with strongly developed will are able to achieve their desires in life more clearly and more precisely. This same region was considered the center of the power of the old Samurai. the old samurai believed if a person spoke the truth, they were speaking from the "belly". development of clarity and the free circulation of life force in this region was said to be the "secret" behind the success of many ancient warriors.

The Chi Ocean. In Chi Kung Fu, this region is called upon in advanced healing. This is the same region the elders point to regarding dreaming.

The English language has for centuries been filled with slang references to this region in the body. there is the "gut feeling" which is something almost everyone has experienced at one time or another. It is amusing how many clues to the sacred truth, how many answers, are hiding in plain sight.

In my work with dreaming ritual i always pay a great deal of attention to this part of the body with the students. For myself, I even had a small tattoo of a turtle made in this place many years ago.

Learning to develop real personal power requires people to emotionally, intellectually and physically understand how energy flows to and from this region of the body.

A Life without Separation || Dreaming Culture

In many traditional cultures dream life was not distinguished from daily life...they were all elements of the normal life. Today dreaming is a distant association with anything important for most people. In the old tribal societies the dreaming was part of daily life. Stories, teachings and events were presented in the first person. Events and ideas that came from dreams were not distinguished as such. Modern psychology would likely have problems understanding this concept. However, if one thing is true, now, about dreaming is that modern science has not a clue.

Hand of the dreamer. ©

Almost all the important ceremonies of the great tribes passed through the dream vision process. Persons with advanced knowledge and experience of dreaming were able to enter into dimensions of great detail. later, they had little trouble recalling these rich details. the so-called Vision Quest is in fact an invocation to the higher functions of the dreaming.

While this ability has been made dormant by the indifference of modern society, it continues to exist inside the great undeveloped potential of almost every human being.

Remembering Dreams | Taking Action

Remembering passive dreams is not considered important in the American Indian culture. Modern psychology spends a lot of time pretending to interpret dreams. In American Indian dreaming teaching what is most important is taking action in the dream. You can do this just by telling your brain, over and over, that you can. Stop being passive. Push back. Ask questions. demand something. Push people around. Grab hold of objects in the dream. Make conversation. take action, any kind of action. Once you stop being a passive participant in your dreaming, the patterns will change dramatically and your memory of dreams will become more detailed and frequent.

The most important teaching about dreaming, the first teaching, is to take action. Recognizing how you are passive in your dreams and stopping that behavior is job number one.

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