David Cumes, MD
Dr. Cumes has a surgical practice in addition to his healing work as a sangoma (Zulu for shaman). In South Africa, he consulted different sangomas on various matters. After years of study, he was initiated as an African shaman (sangoma or inyanga) and can testify personally to the value of their divining techniques, the powerful rituals and plant medicines, the altered states of consciousness induced by drumming and the diagnostic power of the ‘bones’. A graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School, he has formal training as a wilderness guide. Dr. Cumes has written three books, Inner Passages Outer Journeys, The Spirit of Healing and Africa In My Bones.
Workshop: Shaman and the Dream Time
Sunday, January 24 - 10:45am to 12 noon
In South Africa, shamans (sangomas) make diagnoses through spirit possession (trance-channeling), dreams and divining bones. The “bones” read the waking dream that is the patient’s life and therefore sangomas are also masters of dream interpretation. Understanding dreams through the psyche alone gives one only a limited understanding of them. It is difficult to “call” dreams and they are also vulnerable to pollution by trickster spirits. Information usually occurs in metaphor for subtle reasons that will be discussed. Learning how the ancestors send us dreams, how to categorize them and how to distinguish true dreams from those scripted by the dark forces are vital to shamanic work. Time will be allotted for sharing our dreams in the light of these new understandings.
Goal: To deepen our understanding of dream interpretation.
Learning Objectives:
- To distinguish polluted dreams from “true” dreams,
- To categorize our dreams, and become more skillful at calling in and remembering our dreams, and
- To appreciate the significance of a visitation as different from a dream.
