== Psybernet Online Dreamevent 1999 ~ 2000 ==

Invitation, Description and Guidelines

The Online Dreamevent 1999 ~ 2000 is a group to explore dream life, to learn about the psyche, and to share struggles and celebrate joys.  The event will span the New Year period. This millennial time is an opportunity for archetypal experiences and dreams. This Dreamevent can focus our awareness and be a forum to share how the transition impacts on our lives and on our psyche.  The group starts on 10 December 1999 and continues for approximately 3 months.

I am Walter Logeman, a psychotherapist in Christchurch, New Zealand and the founder of Psybernet, a project for psychologically oriented work online. Psybernet has been running online groups since 1993 and hosted a successful Dreamevent in 1996. I was impressed how the Net made it possible for us to work collaboratively with our dreams and reveal psychological depths in a new way. Psybernet is hosting this event, and I will be facilitating the group.

As the Dreamevent unfolds the interconnections will be brought into focus using the HipBone Game designed by Charles Cameron. Using this approach to dreams was pioneered in the 1996 event which Charles and I co-facilitated.  The process is called a 'game' as it is inspired by the profound Glass Bead Game, which is central in the novel with that title by Hermann Hesse. Charles has generously given me the full use of his copyrighted material for this group. Read more about the game on the HipBone web site. For links to the site and other background information see the Links section below.

The discussions will be in a mailing list using plain text and here will also be a place to post graphics or other multimedia files. A hypertext "Dreamevent Document" will be created as part of the group's work.

I am pleased to invite you to join this group.

 

*    Read on to find out about:

  

 

*   Facilitation

I will be the facilitator and host for this event.  What we dream is in the lap of the gods, what we do with our dreams and how the group unfolds is up to all the members.  I will aim to ensure that we respect the purpose of the group and the participation and privacy guidelines.  I will also attend to the time structure of the event.

As we will be using the HipBone Games I will offer guidance and information to assist in this aspect of the group. I will edit the Dreamevent document, which will be private to the group.

I expect to be a member and full participant in the group.

To add some more words about myself: My main training is in Psychodrama and I have an interest in the work of Carl Jung.  I have participated in and conducted dream groups on and off line. I am the originator of Psybernet, which explores "psyche in cyberspace" and this event promises to enhance that process. I look forward to being involved.

Charles Cameron has agreed to be my mentor in the facilitation of the HipBone Games.

 

*   Who is Invited?

 

All who think this group is for them once they have read and understood the description and agree to respect the privacy and participation guidelines in this document.

Joining this group indicates that you are 100% responsible for your own well-being and learning and that you understand that the group members or facilitator are not obligated to offer healing, therapy or support.

This invitation will be initially posted in Psyber-L and to participants of the earlier Dreamevent.  Two days later it will be made more widely available.

Maximum number of participants: 16.

 

*   Three Phases of the Dreamevent.


 One

The first is the introductory phase, during which the participants will meet, introduce themselves and connect. The aim is to lay the basis for a cohesive and caring group.

This may be a time of sharing dreams and to hear what is emerging in the life of our group as a whole.

There will also be opportunity to familiarise with the medium and to make sure people are comfortable with the technology.

Two

This is the linking dreams phase. Using the Waterbird board, part of the HipBone game structure and our ability to see patterns, we will bring focus to the emerging themes in an aesthetically pleasing and revealing way.  We will place dreams in relationship to each other and describe the nature of the links we see.

Dreams may be linked by a similarity of topic, feeling or the common connection to a deeper archetypal theme.  Exploring the themes and possible links, offering suggestions and encouragement is a collaborative process. However, making the actual move of your dream is an individual choice.  I will provide guidance with respect to the HipBone game.  Others who are familiar can also help with this.  The Dreamevent document will evolve during this time.  It will provide a hypertext of the moves and links made in the posts to the group. See the Links section below for more information on HipBone Games.

A game closes when ten moves are completed.  This phase will have at least one game.  It is possible there will be more than one game, it will depend on the sort of energy the group generates.

Three

The third phase is that of closure, a time to share our experience. Personal insights, archetypal understanding and learning can be discussed. Sharing our experience will multiply our learning.  Privacy considerations will restated and discussed.  We can make evaluations and suggest ideas for more events.

 

*   Timing

As facilitator, I will structure the phases according to the group's life and the completion of each phase and not according to chronological time.  Bearing in mind that times are a rough guide, three months is offered for the three phases. The times to guide the phases is 3, 6 and 3 weeks, respectively.

It is important that there is no rush and also that we do not have unhelpful pauses. Some periods of silence may well be part of the natural flow of the group.

The event will span the Christmas and New Year period, which is a holiday and family time. In the southern hemisphere it will involve the summer holidays and participation can ebb and flow accordingly. Ample allowance will be made for these events.

I will be unavailable to the group while camping (and dreaming!) in the hills for one week during early January.

Exactly when the group will conclude is unknown but it *will* start on 10 December 1999.

 

*   The Process

The event is both tightly structured and very fluid.

We start on a given date and conduct the phases of the group as planned.  We shall make the ten moves on the game board, taking advantage of the heightened impact that the structure of the HipBone game and the Waterbird board itself imposes.  We have a time for closure.  These are the structures which will focus our enthusiasm.

Within these structures, the group and the game will develop their own rhythms and the *virtual music of our dreams* will play itself to a close.

 

*   Graphics and the Dreamevent Document


In addition to the plain ASCII of the main discussion list we can post photos, scanned drawings or paintings and other multimedia files to the Web, there is a storage place provided in the eGroup software we use. Images associated with our dreams enrich our experience.  The Dreamevent Document will record the moves, dreams, links and have an aesthetically pleasing representation of the Waterbird Board, and other graphics.

 

*   Privacy Guidelines

The group parameters are that people can subscribe until we start on 10 December then the group will be closed and all of us will be honour bound to keep the words of others confidential. Your words remain your property. Please do not use other people's posts outside the list without their permission.

Participants are to use their real name in this group.  The eGroup software is to be set to make your name visible in each post.

The archives will remain on the web, accessible to members for one year after closure, no more posts can be added. The URL of the Dreamevent Document will be confidential to members and not hyperlinked to from other documents.

I will remind the group of these privacy rules from time to time and invite discussion of details.

As mentioned above, Charles Cameron will be my mentor for this group, while he is not a member of the group, I may share some of the process of the group and HipBone game with him. My agreement with him includes confidentiality of the discussion he and I have.

Beyond honouring this plan, and enforcing it to the best of my ability, no guarantees of confidentiality can be promised.

 

*   Participation Guidelines

Personal attacks and threats will not be tolerated, and all members are expected to maintain a high standard of respect for authentic dialogue and etiquette.

Please only join if you intend to participate in all phases of the group and if you think you can post at the very least *on average* once per week.  Holiday absences, if mentioned to the group, will be taken into account.

Private emails are not to be quoted in the group without permission from the writer.

Quoting: Please keep quoting from earlier emails (using the > sign) to a minimum. Quote enough to put your response in context. Please do not use more than two generations of quoting (>>).

Threading:  Use the subject line to make it possible to have several conversational threads at once.

The preferred format for writing and reading the text in the posts is a fixed pitch font such as Courier New, no more than 76 characters per line. Please do not send attachments, multimedia or HTML files to the list. Images and HTML documents can be posted to a confidential place associated with the group.

Upon joining you will receive more information in the Welcome message.

 

*   How to Join


Send a blank email to:
dreamevent-subscribe@eGroups.com

Please reply to the email you will then be sent asking you to verify that you made the request. 

Please send a short email to me walter@psybernet.co.nz to indicate your interest in this Dreamevent and that you have read and understood this Invitation, Description and Guidelines document.

 

*   Links 

 

Walter Logeman
http://psybernet.co.nz/walter.htm

Psybernet
http://www.psybernet.co.nz

HipBone Games and Charles Cameron
http://home.earthlink.net/~hipbone/

Psyber-L Mailing List, Exploring the Psyche in Cyberspace.
http://www.psybernet.co.nz/psyber-l.htm

This Invitation, Description and Guideline doc on the Web: http://www.psybernet.co.nz/de99description.htm

The Waterbird Board
http://www.psybernet.co.nz/waterbird.htm

 

 

Walter Logeman
walter@psybernet.co.nz

~~~

* Version 1.01 

31 November 1999