ISSN 1538-1080
DOI:10.58717/ijhc.01

A Dream of Initiation

A Dream of Initiation

Betty Smith presents a single case study of a Native American dream, with a variety of frameworks for understanding this spiritual connection. I honor Ted Silverhand, the Tuscarora Seer who chose to share his boyhood experience of a dream with me, the dream vision where he was first introduced to his spirit guides and directed on his path in life. I am honored by his decision. My goal is to explore this dream in several contexts. My first approach will be to (a) view the dream through the lens of Jungs theories on the collective unconscious and synchronicity, and, (b) determine how this event might be framed within the concepts of specific transpersonal theorists such as those of Grof, Tart, Wilber, Vaughan and Walsh. My second approach will be to place the dream in the greater context of historical shamanic practices as presented by Mircea Eliade, a Romanian scholar and expert on the history of religions, and Holger Kalweit, a German ethnologist and psychologist who studied shamanism throughout the world. Finally, I will address modern day sacred ways and the dream vision as practiced by tribal peoples described through the writings of Medicine Gizzlybear Lake, and through a brief discussion of cultural and historical information set forth in The Sacred, a comprehensive book on native traditions published by the Navajo Community College Press. This topic is relevant to the study of transpersonal psychology owing to the nature of the dream with its ascent into the transpersonal realms. Furthermore, I have found the earth-based traditions, which include concepts of the interconnectedness of all things, neglected in the mainstream of transpersonal psychology, which principally studies Eastern and Western traditions and technologies directed at accessing altered states of consciousness. This dream is an interesting example of an opening, a two-way door to the transpersonal realm. It is my hope that this essay may help to affirm the traditions surrounding aboriginal spirituality and the profound spiritual connection these medicine people have not only to their spiritual guides but to the earth and all people who request their help.

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