Animal Voices

INTRODUCTION:  The Invitation

The introduction sets the tone of the book via two interconnected lucid dreams and an invitation to dream with polar bears. Click title to read the Introduction. 

​

PART ONE: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF DREAMING BEARS

A personal sharing of dreams, which helps to answer two questions: 1) How is that a dreamer receives an invitation to dream with polar bears? and 2) What can we discover about ourselves when we are willing to peer beneath the surface of our dreams?  

​

Chapter 1:     The Dog in the Basement 

     A look at my first remembered dream featuring a big white dog in the basement. This chapter explores dreams as rites of passage, dream figures as guardians, and begins some basic interpretation work with a look at symbols. 

 

Chapter 2:      The Bear in the Closet

     A series of childhood dreams about a bear in my closet who teaches me to fly and takes me to his home in the Arctic. These dreams are forgotten soon after childhood, but remembered several decades later. This chapter continues to investigate dream symbols and looks at “time-released” dreams that are stored away to be reawakened at a later time.

 

Chapter 3:     Face to Face

     Another series of dreams, these dreamed as an adult, about meeting a bear face to face. This chapter continues the exploration of dream symbology, but also begins to question what animals are doing in our dreams — not simply what they may represent, but what they may want of us. Click title to read an excerpt.

 

Chapter 4:     The Power that Hunts Us

     A return to the basement of the psyche for my first polar bear dream. The focus here is about the deeper power of the dream to engage us. We look at why some dream figures hunt us, and why we often run away.  

 

Chapter 5:      Dancing with the Polar Bear

     My last dream before awakening to a lucid connection with the polar bear people. As author James Hillman notes, "Animals show us in dreams what we need to do to heal ourselves and the Earth." This dream sets the stage for a deeper understanding of how we may consciously engage with our dreams and form meaningful dream relationships.

​

PART TWO: THE MEETING PLACE

This section recounts the ongoing dreams, experiences and conversations I had with polar bear spirits as well as the living polar bear and accomplished dreamer I came to know as Bering Strait. The ‘Meeting Place’ refers to a dream locale where lucid dreamers meet and share information. 

​

Chapter 6:     Arctic Dreamers

     This chapter explores a key experience in which I realize I am lucid within a dream, meeting a polar bear who is also lucid in the same dream. Thus begins our remarkable story of connection and communication. 

 

Chapter 7:     The Polar Bear Council

     A dream meeting with a group of spirit bears who work to connect physical, living bears with humans via the dream world. Discussions include how polar bears are responsible for holding energy at the North Pole, serve as renewers of energy for certain aspects of planetary evolution, and call humans to greater conscious awareness in the ‘United Planet of Beings.’ 

 

Chapter 8:       Entering the Dream

     Further dreams with polar bear delegations (in spirit form) in which they discuss their work with deep earth energies as well as with off-world, star energies. I am also formally introduced to the bear in my dreams (now called Bering Strait), have a meltdown, and am reassured by the wise words of Stephen Buhner, “We all enter the dream not really knowing where we’re going.” 

 

Chapter 9:       What We Know & What We Don’t Know

     In an attempt to make sense of what I am learning, I begin to read about polar bears. This has mixed results: certainly, human information about polar bears is helpful to categorize, make sense of, and understand. But the more we think we know about polar bears from a human perspective, the further removed we become from really knowing the bears themselves. 

 

Chapter 10:    How to Catch a Seal

     This chapter explores the idea of learning from polar bears (or any animal) by sharing consciousness and experiencing the world through their eyes. 

 

Chapter 11:    Bar and Den

     Further adventures with Bering Strait as he shares a polar bear perspective. We look at human myths and learn of the stories polar bears tell about themselves. This chapter also presents a dream in which the bear and I meet at a shared dream locale I come to call the Meeting Place.

 

Chapter 12:    Becoming Polar Bear

     A fascinating dream in which I shape-shift into a polar bear and visit Bering Strait’s home in the Arctic. 

 

Chapter 13: The Human-Polar Bear Alliance 

     This chapter shares more shapeshifting experiences in which I merge consciousness with different polar bears and see the world through their eyes. Also included is discussion about the Polar Bear Contingent, a group designed to awaken conscious dreaming in living bears and help them connect with conscious dreamers of the human species.

 

Chapter 14:    Bridge of Dreams

     As bridgers and walkers of the far North, polar bears hold a special medicine for our planet. Talks include the polar bear perspective of how to walk lightly upon Earth, how to balance the personal with the universal, and how to follow the insights of dreams that call us to awakening. 

 

Chapter 15:    Arctic is the Bear

     This chapter looks at how polar bears bring new earth energies to human consciousness while anchoring the threads of ancient remembering. Lastly, a conversation that  explores the human role in shifting planetary energies.  

 

PART THREE:  COMING HOME

What does it mean to dream with another species? This section explores relationships between dreaming humans and animals, investigates ideas for bringing greater dream awareness into our waking world, and questions how we can move more consciously in planetary evolution with all beings. 

​

Chapter 16:    Integrated Dreaming

     Why is it important to dream and stay connected with our dreams? As dream expert Robert Moss puts it, “Too many of us have lost touch with our dreams. It's no exaggeration to state that our society is suffering a severe and protracted dream drought.” This chapter explores why dreaming is vital to us, especially at this point in our evolution, and why it’s essential to stay consciously connected with our dreams.  

 

Chapter 17:  Dreaming with Animals

     Once we become aware that animals offer great assistance to us in our shared evolution, we may begin to re-member ourselves with the natural world in a deeper, more profound way. Are we willing to open ourselves to larger frameworks of reality? Developing deep dream relationships involves not only interpreting and analyzing dreams, but living our dreams with others. Together, we begin to dream the world anew.

 

Chapter 18: Dreaming Ourselves Awake

     We all have experiences and insights that call us to awakening. The question is (as with any meaningful dream invitation): Do we accept?  A Polar Bear person is one who holds and shares the wisdom of polar bear medicine. This chapter explores various ways we can reconnect with the earth and other species as we dream ourselves awake. 

 

 

APPENDIXES

 

30 tips for connecting with dreams, welcoming lucid encounters,

co-dreaming with other species,and integrating dream knowledge

into waking life.

​

1. Tips for Dreaming

2. Tips for Co-Dreaming

3. Tips for Bringing Dream Awareness Home

 

 

 

Read The Introduction!