Our Mission

The MISSION of the Global Dream Initiative is to 1)  Gather dreamers and to bring into awareness the the intelligence of the dreaming psyche, 2)  Listen to the voices of the planet as they speak through the images of dreams, 3)  Bring this awareness into organizational, institutional and governmental policy formation forums and, 4)  Further develop educational approaches/offerings fostering archetypal activism in service to the soul of the world.

 

Our Vision

The planet is facing challenges of significant consequence now and for generations to come. The Global Dream Initiative, in partnership with Pacifica Graduate Institute, unites individuals and organizations in listening to the landscapes and creatures of the world as they speak through the images of dream. Through the intelligence of dreams, we aspire to listen to the voice of the earth and serve as a source of education, orientation, and support for dreamers worldwide.

 

Media

View an short interview with Dr. Douglas Thomas on Dream Tending™ and the Global Dream Initiative™

Dr. Thomas has a private Jungian based psychotherapy practice in Pasadena and teaches as adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, CA, where he also completed his PhD in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in psychotherapy. Over the past decade he has studied and refined Steven Aizenstat’s method of Dream Tending® through ongoing training and collaboration with its creator in workshops, seminars, and retreats.

Latest Global Dream Initiative Adventures

Carl Jung Circle Center- Manilla
Steve and associates in Moscow
Chinese Institute of Analytical Psychology comes to Pacifica
Dream Tending workshop in Guangzhou, China

The Global Dream Initiative (GDI) calls for a recognition of the trauma in the world and the need to participate in its healing. We assert that the world’s suffering appears in dreams and that we can creatively respond via the dream.

The field of depth psychology serves to recognize the suffering of the anima mundi, the ensouled world, and encourages us to serve as witnesses to the many ways in which the ensouled world is becoming conscious of itself through that suffering.

We adopt this idea from archetypal psychologist James Hillman, who, in a profound 1982 essay wrote, “The world, because of its breakdown, is entering a new moment of consciousness: by drawing attention to itself by means of its symptoms, it is becoming aware of itself as a psychic reality.”[1]

We welcome those who are interested in

  • Individuals wishing to participate in a group
  • Individuals wishing to lead a group
  • Organizations wishing to collaborate or bring dream work in
  • Volunteers to help grow the work

[1] James Hillman, 1982, (75).

 Download a PDF Overview of the Global Dream Initiative

how it started

The Global Dream Initiative™ evolved from Dr. Steve Aizenstat’s work in the ‘90s with the Earth Charter, using Dream Tending™ as an ecological approach to dreams which awakens a way of knowing: that the images of dream live in the “inscape” of all being – now and always here, behind, beneath, surrounding visible reality. Read the full story.

the GDI dream

The Global Dream Initiative (GDI) calls for a recognition of the trauma in the world and the need to participate in its healing. We assert that the world’s suffering appears in dreams and that we can creatively respond via the dream. The idea of an ensouled or animated world is a natural part of many indigenous traditions, but it is foreign to much of contemporary culture. Read more about GDI.

Dream Tending

Developed over 40 years by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, Dream Tending™ recognizes the dream image as alive and profoundly able to influence every aspect of the dreamer’s life. The world’s dreams speak on their own behalf. The dream tender’s task is to listen with the nose of animal sense and the imagination of the heart and cultivate the practice of maintaining an enduring dynamic relationship with these images based on mutual responsiveness. Learn more.