May 2025 Newsletter

A Comeback Story    

If there’s one thing our culture loves more than a rags-to-riches story, it’s a comeback story.  Well, unless it’s your story and your life.  If it’s your life, then it’s pretty much the worst story you’ve ever heard. 

In this rare podcast interview with me, you will learn how to fight for the life you want when all of the cards are stacked against you.  Then, you’ll learn how to do it all over again when that life you fought so hard for and created from obscurity is completely obliterated.    

Whatever your unique story, I hope this inspires you to fight for the life you deserve, rather than settle for what you’ve been given (or what’s been forced upon you by circumstance).

If you feel inspired to try some of the esoteric methods that worked for me in this comeback story or if you just want to support my work, you can find my dream interpretation course here and my subconscious inner child/teen healing tool here.  There are links to both of these in the podcast show notes as well. 

I feel so grateful to all of you for believing in me and supporting the work I do. 

I will now leave you with the podcast and a musical treat, courtesy of Steve Perry, the voice of an angel.

The podcast on iTunes

The podcast on Spotify

Don’t stop believin’

-Dr. Mann

Follow me on Pinterest!

January 2023 Newsletter

Hi everyone!

Have I got a treat for you today: an article on gaslighting!  I had fully intended to get this to you before the holidays but as they say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  I actually disagree with this.  I’d say, “The road to hell is paved with bad intentions, disguised as good ones,” which fits nicely with our topic today.  At any rate, this should still serve you well in the upcoming new year and while trying to make sense of what happened during your many joyous encounters with certain personalities (and personality disorders) this holiday season. You’re welcome.

And as a special bonus, I’ve even made you a video.  I know I made it very clear in my last newsletter how much I hate being on display in front of a camera, and I maintain that I do hate it, but…  I’m told that “the people” like videos and if I want to market my business and sell something, I should give the people what they want.  If I had my way, I’d just write manifestos all day and hope to draw in dedicated customers.  But, apparently, I need to create something called a “sales funnel” to lure you in.  I use this “sales funnel” to hook you with a series of short videos, then I convince you to read my 143-page manifesto, and after that, I convince you to take action to grow and evolve as a human being, and before you know it, you’ve signed over the deed to your house.  It sounds like a great business model to me, so I’m going to give it a try.  I just hope that making this video doesn’t tarnish the recluse image I’ve worked so hard to cultivate. ;)

(Oh, and in case you are wondering, the book is much better than the movie, so I’d recommend reading the full article by clicking the link below. The video can also be accessed with this link.) 

Gaslighting Guide: What it is, how to respond, how it damages intuition and methods for intuition repair

August 2022 Newsletter

Click the button below to get the article featured in the August 2022 Newsletter:

ARE WE SABOTAGING OUR DREAM LIVES, AND HUMANITY IN THE PROCESS? GETTING OVER OUR EGOS BY EVOLVING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SAVING HUMANITY IN THE PROCESS. A MANIFESTO. 

October 2021 Newsletter

It’s the “Season of the Witch” [1]

Hello everyone!

Thank you again for your kind feedback on the last newsletter. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. If any of you missed the June newsletter, you can find it here and my article in Spirituality & Health, The Untapped Potential of Dreams, Signs and Synchronicities in the Western World, here.

Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday, and if I still prayed to the Christian god, I’d be fearful that this blasphemous declaration would bring his wrath and eternal damnation.  Luckily for me, I don’t pray to the Christian god and I’ve been to hell and back so many times that God’s idle threats no longer concern me.  

Because I love Halloween and everything it represents so much, I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide a brief education on the holiday and correct some related misconceptions. 

Like most of the modern day, Western holidays, Halloween was co-opted from the Pagans.  Halloween was originally celebrated as the Pagan holiday, Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”).  Unlike the linear, Gregorian calendar we are all familiar with, Pagans use what’s called the “Wheel of the Year.”  Basically, the idea is that there is no beginning and no ending, existence is cyclical (hence the wheel).  What is born will die and what dies will eventually be reborn.  We’ve discussed this before, this life-death-life cycle, in the context of the apocalypse and the Phoenix rising from the ashes. The Wheel of the Year follows the life cycle of the god, born of the goddess, with certain dates corresponding to different points in his life cycle [2].    

Samhain is the last stop for the god on the Wheel of the Year.  And, by “last stop,” I mean the ultimate last stop: death.  Samhain marks his death, and Yule, on December 21st, marks his (re)birth.  (Do you see the co-opting of another holiday here?)  

So, on Samhain, Pagans honor the departed god and the souls of others who have left the Earthly realm by leaving food out on their front steps and burying apples in the ground to feed these souls on their journey to the afterlife, while modern-day Westerners open their doors to give fun-sized candy bars to strangers dressed as ghosts and ghouls without understanding why. [2]  

It is believed that on this day, the veils between the spiritual and Earthly realms are the thinnest, making it a powerful time for performing magical rituals, as well as communing with the dead [2].  The performance of behaviors such as magical ritual and necromancy (collectively known as witchcraft), tend to make most regular folks uncomfortable, and understandably so.  The narrative Westerners have been peddled (and have then perpetuated) is that witches eat babies, perform ritual sacrifice, curse people, worship the devil and raise spirits from the dead to haunt the living.  Pretty creepy. Let me go ahead and correct these misconceptions: Those are not things witches do, those are things psychopaths do.  Are some witches psychopaths?  Sure, but there are exponentially more non-witch psychopaths filling the state penitentiaries and walking the streets than there are witch psychopaths.  

Witchcraft much more closely resembles religious ritual, prayer, and transcendental meditation than antisocial behavior.  A typical Pagan ritual begins by setting an intention for the ritual (e.g., draw in soul friends, love, fortune, healing; communication with the departed), gathering physical objects that represent the intention (e.g., photos, heart-shaped rocks, money, healing crystals), gathering other, designated sacred objects typically used for rituals (e.g., special candles, a cauldron, wand, moon water, feathers, crystals), drawing a circle to designate the ritual space, purifying and sealing the energy in that space (e.g., with sage, mental imagery, physical movements), then entering a meditative state, focusing on the intention.  After the ritual is complete, the energy is cleared and the circle is closed.  💥

That, my friends, is what witchcraft actually looks like.  Now, could these methods theoretically be used for evil?  Of course.  But, that is a matter of morality and not a matter of witchcraft, specifically.  Which brings us back to the point about psychopathy.  Whether a particular methodology is used with pure intentions or evil ones is dependent upon the moral compass of the practitioner.  And, whether an action is pure or evil also depends upon context.  For example, is it evil for someone to place a curse upon their rapist to seek justice when the so-called justice system fails so many in this regard?  Who gets to decide what is evil, how, why and in what context? 

Alternatively, there are many within the Pagan community and also those within the New Age, Law of Attraction community who believe that the practitioner gets back whatever they put out into the world, THREEFOLD.  So, if they place a curse on someone, that curse comes back to them, times three.  If they set pure healing intentions, those healing intentions come back to them, times three.  The magic they perform is done to their detriment, or to their benefit.  According to this belief system, it’s all up to the practitioner.

If witchcraft is so benign and is part of an apparent religion, why has it been maligned and its practitioners persecuted?  Good question.  What most folks don’t understand is that religion, and in this case, Christianity, isn’t just a vehicle for human-to-god interaction, it is a business.  And, we aren’t talking a small business, we are talking a megacorporation, violating every antitrust law in existence.  Paganism and other shamanistic, indigenous religions were some of the early Church’s top competitors, so the Church used a common business tactic: eliminate the competition.  Does everyone remember learning about the Crusades?  Well, those weren’t exactly about saving souls, those were about executing the Church’s business model.  There were many other methods used by the Church to eliminate competing religions: fear, supplanting, persecution, conversion, banishment, murder, sexual assault—just to name a few.  

As much as early Christians enjoyed a good public hanging, supplanting was one of the primary methods used to eradicate Paganism.  Change the narrative and you change the world.    

Interestingly, Pagan witches have historically been portrayed as devil worshippers, but the devil isn’t a Pagan construct, it’s a Christian one.  The devil literally doesn’t exist in Paganism, ergo, it’s logically impossible for witches to be devil worshippers.  Pagan gods and goddesses are just gods and goddesses, with different personality traits; they are neither good nor bad.  Sure, some may be associated with the underworld, but they aren’t devils of the Christian variety.  The underworld isn’t necessarily a bad place either.  It’s just a place where demons hide in the shadows and souls become lost.  No big deal.  

“The God of the old religion becomes the Devil of the new" (p.8). [3]

Witches have been branded devil worshipers because early Church officials changed the narrative and transformed the Pagan goat god, Pan, into the horned, cloven-hooved Christian devil we know.  The devil we don’t know, Pagan Pan, was not a malevolent god, rather, he was a mischievous god, associated with fertility and chaos (i.e., PANdemonium). [4] [5]  And, I suppose a rascally, chaos-inducing sex god might actually have appeared worse in the eyes of ultraconservative early Puritans than a truly malevolent one, so it’s probably no wonder he made such a great devil.  

In order to become the most powerful religious megacorporation in the world, it wasn’t enough to demonize one of the competitor’s gods and its followers.  Associated holidays, symbolism and practices also needed to be vilified and/or supplanted.  Among these were the number 13, the Sabbats, the sanctity of the full moon, and the witch’s favorite Familiar, the black cat.  

Where does the conceptualization of the number 13 as “unlucky number 13” come from?  

Some scholars maintain that it has to do with the Last Supper and the number of apostles in attendance, because as you may remember, the 13th apostle was…well, Judas.  So, not exactly the bearer of good tidings [6].  But, maybe Judas was a Pagan, saw the writing on the wall and knew that JC had to go.  

This brings up an interesting and ironic point (albeit slightly tangential), the reason Jesus was persecuted and crucified by the Romans was the same reason the Pagans were persecuted and crucified by early Christians: They were bad for business.   

Other scholars believe that the association of the number 13 with bad luck was part of the Pagan smear campaign conducted by early Church leaders. [7]  Thirteen is a sacred feminine number in Paganism, associated with the goddess, fertility, and the moon.  There are 13 lunar cycles in a year, which also correspond to….well, should I go ahead and spell it out?  M.e.n.s.t.r.u.a.t.i.o.n.  Okay, now everyone’s uncomfortable, especially the 17th century, male Puritan Church leaders.  The height of these lunar cycles, the full moon, is a sacred time of celebration for Pagans, called the Esbat.  

There are 13 Esbats each year to honor the goddess and the lunar energy.  In contrast, there are 8 Sabbats, which are ritual days of power honoring the god and the solar energy.  Samhain (Halloween) and Yule (Christmas) are among these eight Sabbats [2].  Oh, and if the word “Sabbat” sounds familiar, it’s because it was co-opted as the Judeo-Christian “Sabbath.”  It also seems curious that the holidays honoring the masculine sun god were co-opted by Pope Gregory XIII, allowed to remain on the new calendar and allowed to be celebrated, while the 13 holidays honoring the feminine goddess were removed, the number 13 maligned and the sacred full moon phase rechristened as a time of “lunacy.”  Seems pretty convenient for the patriarchal, monotheistic religion of new.  In modern day, all we have been left with of the number 13 is that it is bad luck.  

Why do we think that it’s bad luck if a black cat crosses our path?  

Everyone knows that black cats are associated with witches.  But, the association is much more complex than that.  Pagans often have power animals they work with, similar to the concept of a spirit animal in shamanistic traditions.  Black cats were a favorite among witches, though ravens, crows and toads were also popular.  These animals, called Familiars, are believed to serve as mediators between the human world and not only the spirit world, but the natural world as well.  

These animals allow witches to harness special energies that many modern Westerners have lost access to because of worldviews favoring separation and domination over the natural environment (and one another).  Witch and Familiar form a mutually beneficial partnership, with the witch taking on some abilities of the animal and the animal taking on some abilities of the human witch.  In some cases, this can even rise to the level of complete enmeshment; thus, endowing the witch with transfiguration abilities.  

As you can imagine, this ability thoroughly creeped out and threatened early Church leaders.  To them, witches were the devil’s handmaidens, and Familiars were their minions, bestowed upon them by the devil to do his bidding. Several books of the Bible reflect these sentiments and were utilized to write official law. The books of Samuel, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus effectively served as judge, jury and executioner, with Leviticus 20:27 stating, 

“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.” [8, 9]  

Wow.  So, if you practice a different religion or have a special connection with animals, you deserve to die a bloody and horrific death at the hands of your peers?  Ummmm…Well, okay.  I guess that’s how we’re going to play this.  

Let’s summarize: Witches are bad, wizards are bad, familiars are bad; they all deserve to die; ergo, black cats are bad luck.  Did you follow the logic?  No?  Well, if you didn’t, you are probably a witch and if that’s the case, they shall stone you with stones and your blood shall be upon them.  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Alright, so that got pretty intense.  I’ve also probably managed to thoroughly offend my Christian readers out there.  To them, I say, “I don’t hate the player, I hate the game, and not the entire game, just the oppressive, power abusing, ignorant part of the game.”   

So, where are the witches today?  

Well, most of them are in hiding and doing pretty much exactly what they were doing a thousand years ago, but without the use of their full power.  They are working in socially acceptable positions as healers, shamans, psychics, mediums, therapists, social workers, yogis, massage therapists, reiki practitioners, chiropractors, pharmacists, medical doctors, nurses, midwives, supermoms and environmental advocates.  Or, they are in jobs that don’t allow them to use their special gifts AT ALL, and as a result, they feel disconnected, lost, drained and unhappy.  Even those who are able to use their gifts have to fly under the radar and, as such, can use only a fraction of their power, which also often results in that experience of feeling disconnected, lost, drained, and unhappy.

Why are the witches in hiding?   

Because an unlucky number of them have been labeled “mentally ill,” locked away in institutions, and/or chemically lobotomized with psychotropic medications.  The fate of this unlucky group highlights a disturbing fact:  The witch trials never ended.  They just took on a new, more insidious and socially acceptable form.  Feeling, thinking, believing, and behaving in ways that encourage a connection to the supernatural world result in pejorative labels and concerns about mental health.  (Unless, of course, that connection to the supernatural world follows the dogma of modern religion.)  

Until we all recognize our unconscious biases and their fallacious roots (i.e., the nefarious sales tactics of a religious megacorporation), the witch trials will continue, and the witches will not feel safe to step out of the shadows and into the full power of their abilities.  And, as a result, the rest of us will suffer because we will not have access to the miraculous effects of their supernatural abilities.  

✨ ✨ ✨

Imagine that you now get to talk about ghosts and witchcraft and how reality isn’t actually real without getting blank stares and uncomfortable subject changes.  

You’ve found your people.  

And, the best part is that you didn’t have to keep giving people a chance until you learned the hard way that it wasn’t safe to be around them.   

You stopped paying attention to the logical and rational advice everyone said you needed to listen to.  

And, you started listening to your feelings.   

How were you able to do this?   

You used the Intuition Decoder Ring, so you could more easily spot the unicorns and weed out the covert narcissists and nomies.   

Click to grab your “Intuition Decoder Ring” inside the “The Gaslighting & Intuition Guidebook.”  I’ll be sharing this information and more. 

Happy Samhain/Halloween to everyone!

✨ 🔮 ✨

Dr. Mann

References

1. Donovan, Season of the Witch, in Sunshine Superman. 1966, Epic Records: New York, New York.
2. Cunningham, S., Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. 2004, Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
3. Murray, M.A., God of the Witches. 1933, Sampson Low, Marson & Co., LTD.: London. p. 116.
4. Wikipedia. Pan (god). [cited 2021 October 24, 2021]; Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_(god).
5. Wood, J., Panic and Pandemonium.
6. Hastings, C. Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? The cultural origins of an enduring superstition. 2021.
7. Panati, C., Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. 1987, New York, New York: Harper & Row. 463.
8. King James Bible, Leviticus 20:27. 1987/1611, Bible Gateway.
9. Grimassi, R., The Witch’s Familiar: Spiritual Partnerships for Successful Magic. 2003, Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
10. Zimmerman, M., Neurophysiology of Sensory Systems, Robert F. Schmidt Ed., Fundamentals of Sensory Physiology. , in Fundamentals of Sensory Physiology, R.F. Schmidt, Editor. 1986, Springer-Verlag: Berlin.

June 2021 Newsletter

Hello everyone!

Happy Solstice/Midsummer! And, thank you so much to everyone who has signed up for my course, Dream Interpretation: The Basics & BEYOND!  I really appreciate your help and support.  If anyone else is interested (or knows anyone who might be interested), you/they can sign up for the course and learn more here.  And, if you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter, please share it with them!

If you hadn’t already picked up on this, it’s pretty much my life’s mission to help make the world a better place, so I was very excited when one of my readers told me that something I’d said in my April 2021 newsletter prompted him and his wife to make a change.  It was the call to “stop using plastic,” that they heeded.  He said he read that and thought, “Really, we can stop using plastic water bottles.  It’s not that hard to just fill up our Yetis or water bottles.  It’s a small change in thinking and lifestyle but really, there’s no excuse NOT to do it.  We’re just being lazy by not doing it.”  He said he’d thought about how his individual impact hadn’t seemed that large but when he multiplied it by the population of his entire state of California (40 million)…well, that’s a lot of trash floating in the ocean. 

This anecdote brings to mind an African folktale my mentor told me, which I will attempt to summarize: 

There was a huge forest fire and all of the animals of the forest were standing around, fretting about what could be done.  As they did this, they saw Hummingbird fly by, drop a single drop of water from her beak onto the fire, fly away, and then fly back, dropping a single drop of water, over and over.  The other animals of the forest laughed at her and said, “How could you possibly be helping anything?  What’s one little drop of water going to do to stop a forest fire?” Hummingbird was undeterred by their idle judgment and simply said, “This is what I can do, little as it is, and I’m going to do my part.”  SNAP.  

So, ask yourself, “Do I want to be like the hummingbird and do everything I can, small as it may seem, or like the other animals and watch the world burn down around me, paralyzed by fear and the enormity of the problem?” 

Another reader (my brother) wanted me to add an item to the apocalypse “revelations” list from the April 2021 newsletter, and that item is: “There is no salvation in Netflix.”  Amen to that.  We could probably add Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and whatever the hell other time sucking apps we have on our phones, that serve the purpose of marking time, but drain our will to live in the process.  I digress.  

The article of mine that I’m going to share with you today was published online by Spirituality & Health Magazine.   It’s on one of my favorite topics: mystical, unexplained experiences; those things that make you go hmmm.  We’ve all experienced them: that chance encounter with a special person, the dream that seemed a little too real to be just a dream, the monologue delivered by an actor on TV who seemed to be speaking directly to you, the bird that seems to be following you around, the three-legged toad that lives in your courtyard, help that arrives just in the nick of time, the little voice guiding you to a fateful place, the money that arrives as if by divine intervention, the shadowy figure you see one evening in your dining room, the friend who calls just as you were about to call them.  All of these experiences leave us with the feeling that something extraordinary has happened, that there’s been a rupture in linear space-time and something otherworldly has moved in, if only for a moment.  I explain how we can begin to honor and encourage these experiences, by keeping a numinosity journal.  As Westerners, we’ve been trained to believe that these experiences are meaningless, coincidental, or imaginary.  Keeping a record helps our logical, Western minds begin to gather hard evidence of not only the occurrence of these experiences but of their utility in our lives, which, in turn, helps to convince our logical brains that maybe mysticism isn’t complete horseshit after all.  

This is Jin Chan.  He is a mythical, three-legged toad who arrives during the full moon, bringing fortune and fertility to those who are lucky enough to encounter him.  He appeared in my courtyard, right before the July 2019 full moon and brought me enough money to cover my mortgage for a few months. Thank you, Jin Chan. (Photo courtesy of Suzanne Staver)   

A woman I know once told me the following story: 

One Saturday, during the middle of April 1977, I got this really strong feeling that I should go to a local dance hall that evening, called “Stub’s.” I didn’t know why I had this feeling.  It wasn’t my favorite place to go, nor was it somewhere I went regularly.  But, the feeling I had was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it.  I even went shopping when got done with work and bought a new outfit for the occasion.  I didn’t want to go alone, so I called my best friend and then, my older brother, begging them to join me.  When I talked with my best friend, she was less than enthusiastic about this idea, “Why do you want to go to Stub’s?” she asked.  “I don’t know,” I replied.  “I just feel like it and I don’t want to go alone.”  Despite their lack of enthusiasm, both my best friend and my brother agreed to go and even convinced their significant others to join us.  At the time, I realized how silly all this seemed, to make such a big deal out of “just a feeling,” but for some reason, I felt confident acting upon it.   

When the evening finally rolled around, it was not very much fun.  The two couples I’d begged to join me were clearly not enjoying the evening or their relationships.  I chastised myself for dragging them there and thought, “What was I thinking?  I’m bored out of my mind.”  Not long after this, a man walked in.  My brother and his girlfriend recognized him, greeted him enthusiastically and asked him to join us.  He sat down at our table, observed the gloomy couples and said, pointing around the table, “Why don’t you and you go and dance; you and you go and dance; and her and I will go and dance.”  We didn’t even know each other’s names, but it didn’t matter.  There was an instant connection.  We had a great time that evening, and afterwards, he asked me out on a proper date.  We were married a year later. 

This is the story of how my parents met.  And, if you needed any more convincing about why it’s important to heed and honor these illogical, mystical experiences, I hope this story and the realization that you wouldn’t be reading this article right now nor would you even know of me, do the trick.  I also feel like this underscores the importance of learning to read signs and interpret your dreams.  

So, enjoy the free article on working with signs, dreams and synchronicities, and next time you feel a rupture in space-time, take notice!

Dr. Mann

The Untapped Potential of Dreams, Signs, and Synchronicities in the Western World

April 2021 Newsletter

Hey everyone! 

First, thanks for all of your kind feedback on the last newsletter!  Folks said they both liked it and experienced it as intense (I did mention the apocalypse).  I’ve been told that interacting with me can sometimes feel like drinking from a firehose, so I’m glad this newsletter didn’t disappoint.  Today’s newsletter will be no different.  I don’t plan to discuss the apocalypse and sprinkle misanthropic sentiment into every newsletter, but that’s been the theme thus far, so I make no promises moving forward.  

So…about the apocalypse, did you know that the word apocalypse comes from the Greek, apokálypsis, which means “an uncovering,” to see behind the veil, a “revelation of great knowledge”?  It apparently allows for an understanding of the earthly world with the help of divine secrets.  Yes, in order to be experienced and understood by humans, these revelations do typically involve the end of the world.  But, we don’t need to get bogged down in technicalities.    

So, by this definition, I’d say that what we’ve been going through for the past year plus is most definitely an apocalypse. And, thank god for that.  We certainly needed a wake-up call.  Let’s hope we take the lessons we’ve learned and apply them moving forward so we don’t have to experience an apocalypse of the magnitude of that in the Book of Revelations.  Shit got real, real quick in there.     

So, what have we learned?  Here are some pandemic “revelations” that come to mind:

1.     “Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.” -Yoda

2.     With great power comes great responsibility. 

3.     Donny was indeed, out of his element.  

4.     Stop using plastic. Despite what the labels say, it IS carcinogenic and it ISN’T being recycled.  (Did you know that ONLY 8-9% of plastic is actually recycled?)

5.     Stop spraying poison on the food supply, even if Monsanto tells you it’s safe poison.

6.     If the pollinators die, we are all fucked (see “Stop spraying poison on the food supply”).

7.     The government IS trying to control you, but making you wear a mask during a pandemic is not a good example of this.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask Alexa to find Snowden on Netflix.  

8.     The question, “Is this person worth risking exposure?” is also an excellent inclusion/exclusion criterion for who to spend your time with AFTER COVID.

9.     “To be Jedi is to face the truth and choose.  Give off light, or darkness, Padawan.  Be a candle, or the night.” -Yoda   

How do these apocalyptic revelations, this great knowledge, this understanding of the earthly world with the help of divine knowledge, usually arrive on the earthly plane to speak to humans?  They arrive through dreams and other spiritual visions.  And, it just so happens that dream interpretation is the topic of this newsletter.  What are the odds of that?  Pretty good, considering that I’m the one playing puppet master here, and was looking for a way to bridge the apocalypse talk from the last newsletter with the announcement of the launch of my new dream interpretation course. 

Yes, I am launching an online dream interpretation course.  It’s been almost three years in the making and it is finally ready for beta testing.  So, if any of you are interested in being part of the beta group, sign up.  And, if you think it sounds really cool, share the link with 3 people you think would be interested; think of it as a marketing chain letter.  

The course provides thoroughly researched and carefully curated video content (and by “thoroughly researched and carefully curated,” I mean 1000+ hours of research, training, practice, and course development), plus notes/slides and guides for further exploration.  You also get 10 years’ access to the course videos and materials and the ability to consume them at your own pace.  So, if you miss something, forget something, need me to slow down, or just want to hear it again, you can watch the videos again. 

Anyway, I think it’s a pretty cool course and the people who have taken it so far think it’s a pretty cool course, “but you don’t have to take my word for it.”

SIGN UP!

Enjoy!

Brianna

Have you ever wondered what dreams mean? For example:

What does a dream about teeth falling out mean?

Why do I dream of tornadoes?

Do recurring dreams mean anything?

Why do I dream about being naked, giving a presentation?

Why do I keep dreaming I’m back in school?

Why do I keep dreaming about my grandparents’ house?

Click here for some answers!

August 2020 Newsletter

Hello everyone!

Aside from the world burning to the ground, literally and figuratively, I hope you all are doing relatively well.  Western culture has such trouble with death and endings.  We seem to think that there is just birth and death, nothing more, that the end is the end, so we are terrified of the end of things and especially, THE BIG ENDING.  What we don’t realize is that there is actually another stage in this cycle, it’s not a life-and-death cycle, it’s a life-death-life cycle.  This is what the Phoenix teaches: with every ending there is a new beginning, rebirth, renaissance.  So, yes, the world as we know it is burning to the ground and appears to be at an end.  And, it’s important to grieve that.  But, the scorched earth also creates a clearing where something new can grow (Steele, 2020).  And, let’s face it, we need something new.  Our way of life is far from sustainable and harmonious.  So, here’s to hoping that the Phoenix will indeed rise from the ashes of the burning shit pile we’ve created.  Cheers!

Wow.  Who opens their first newsletter by bringing up the apocalypse?  Sorry to depress everyone.  I’m just trying to keep it real.  Would it help if I included a picture of Phoenix rising from the ashes?  Would that inspire everyone?  Okay, I’ll include a picture.  

Better? Okay, back to the newsletter.  I had the idea to do a newsletter quite a few months back but never followed through with it.  Maybe the timing wasn’t right, maybe I just didn’t have the motivation, who knows.  Then a couple of nights ago, in my insomnia, the idea came back to me, and by “came back to me,” I mean, “it possessed me and took me two hours to fall asleep after that.”  Ironically, the article my insomnia so kindly suggested I include in this newsletter was one I’d written on insomnia several months ago and never published.  So, that’s what I get for leaving things unfinished, I guess.  Let that be a lesson to all of you.  Actually, before I promote task completion for the sake of task completion, let me bring us back to the lesson of the Phoenix: Sometimes things must die so that others might live.  It’s okay to not finish things, or let things die. If something needs and wants to be completed, you will know that.  It will haunt you in your dreams and sleepless nights, as evidenced by this newsletter.         

I have no idea what exactly this newsletter will look like, moving forward.  Maybe I’ll include an inspirational message at the beginning, like I did today, haha.  Maybe, I’ll include some of my incoherent ramblings and half-formed theories on topics like, “Time Doesn’t Exist,” “How Quantum Entanglement Could Explain the Phenomenon of Psychokinesis,” “How Shapeshifting Might Be Possible,” “The Phoenix and Skeleton Woman: The Life-Death-Life Cycle,” etc.  Maybe, I’ll include something more applied, like I did today, on how to approach insomnia.  Maybe, I’ll attach my doctoral dissertation, all 69 pages of it. Wouldn’t that be fun?  Or, maybe it will be something completely unrelated to psychology like, “How to Brew Golden Coffee Ale.”  Who knows.  I’m going to let this evolve as it will (well, as much as the control freak in me will allow).  If you have ideas or topics you’d like to learn more about, let me know.  And, if you know anyone who might like to read this, please share it with them.   

May the force be with us all,

Brianna 

Extracting Wisdom From COVID-19 Sleep Disturbances

Coronavirus is affecting our health in more ways than direct viral infection. Twenty-two percent of us are reporting trouble sleeping, with Gen Xers being the most notably affected (Sleep Help, 2020).  

We are scared, our lives have been completely upended, we no longer have our regular routines to distract and anesthetize us, and, even if we are COVID-19 free, we are developing a nasty case of cabin fever.  Further, without the distractions of our normal routines and with the stirring of deep emotions within us, we are coming face to face with our own demons (and the demons of our household members).  It’s no wonder we are having trouble sleeping.

Not only are we having trouble sleeping, anecdotal evidence suggests that we are dreaming less and when we do dream, our dreams tend to be more vivid and disturbing.  Why is this? 

When we experience traumatic or very stressful events, our psyche often blocks not only memories of the trauma but memories of our dreams, so we aren’t disturbed by them. If we do dream and are having disturbing dreams, as much as we may not like them, they are showing up for a reason. This is our psyche’s way of saying that something needs our attention.  Like painful or traumatic events, dreams won’t go away simply by ignoring them. Further, the reality we are living in right now is essentially a bad dream.  It’s as if the dream world and the physical world have been transposed. This may account for why we are not remembering our night dreams; that is, we are living them during the day (Steele, 2020).  

What can you do about insomnia?  Believe it or not, there is wisdom in insomnia.  Some say that during this time, the veil between the worlds, the spirit world and earthly world, is thinnest, so messages from the spirit world are able to reach us (Andrews, 1993).  Scientists, inventors, and revolutionaries have used insomnia, dreams and dreamlike states for millennia to develop theories, invent new technology, and see the future (e.g., Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, Alexander the Great).  John Lennon said, “The best songs are the ones that come to you in the middle of the night and you have to get up and write them down, so you can go back to sleep,” (Moss, 2009).  Your brain is incredibly efficient and rarely engages in mental processes unless they are useful, so trust that it’s trying to help you, trying to work something out. And, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in psychology to recognize that there are some major things our brains are trying to work out right now, both individually and as a collective.    

Rather than viewing insomnia as the bane of your existence and fighting it, view it as helpful and literally ask, “Insomnia, why are you here?”  Use a journal or audio app on your phone: 

1.     Write or say anything that comes to mind, no matter how relevant it seems (Freud called this free association).  If it’s popping into your mind, it’s popping in for a reason.  

2.     If something resonates or rings true, you’ve likely hit pay dirt and uncovered some deep wisdom.  

3.     Turn that wisdom into an axiom, affirmation, or warning and apply it to your life.  

What can you do about disturbing dreams?  As counterintuitive as it seems, as with insomnia, I would also recommend embracing the message of disturbing dreams by asking why they are here.  Next, spend some time being present to and understanding your feelings and thoughts surrounding the dream: 

1.     What feelings/thoughts/bodily sensations are showing up for you? 

2.     What’s this about?  

3.     What does it all mean to you?

4.     Write or say anything that comes to mind, no matter how relevant it seems.

5.     If something resonates or rings true, note that.

6.     Turn that wisdom into an axiom, affirmation, or warning and apply it to your life.  

If you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay to take a break and try some of the strategies I’ve discussed below.  Even if we hate what we feel and find it overwhelming, know that our systems are wired to handle the emotional energy we produce.  

1.     Reach out to a loved one for support.  

2.     Do something kind for yourself (e.g., treat yourself to your favorite show, book, food; spend time in nature).

3.     Use a relaxation technique, like diaphragmatic breathing. https://www.healthline.com/health/diaphragmatic-breathing#steps-to-do

4.     Try a guided meditation. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_O1R9T0Uu4

5.     If you don’t feel like you can manage what’s showing up, find a therapist or healer.  This is what we are here for.  

6.     If you’d like more help working with your dreams or insomnia, you can reach me through my website to schedule a consultation for healing work, a dream interpretation session, or sign up for my online course, “Dream Interpretation: The Basics and BEYOND.”

References

Andrews, T. (1993). Animal Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small. Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewelyn Publications.

Moss, R. (2009). The Secret History of Dreaming. Novato, California: New World Library.

Sleep Help. (2020). The Effects of COVID-19 on Sleep: Exploring How the Coronavirus Impacts People’s Sleep Habits. Retrieved from https://www.sleephelp.org/covid-19-impact-on-sleep/?mod=article_inline

Steele, M. (2020, March 23, 2020). [Mentoring Session: March 23rd, 2020].