Feature Interview with Daniel Stone, Founder of the Centre of the Conscious Dream
Sacred Earth Journeys is now taking registrations for a unique “Wisdom Teachings” journey: Centre of the Conscious Dream: Practical Intuitive Shamanic Training Course: Teotihuacan & The Wirikuta, Mexico, April 12 – May 2, 2014.
For this blog post, I was honoured to interview Daniel Stone, founder of the Centre of the Conscious Dream, to find out more about this unique opportunity and how connecting with our Dreaming Body can help us uncover our true sense of purpose on this planet.
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| The Temple |
KB: What do you think participants will take away with them from this Wisdom Teachings journey?
Daniel Stone: This retreat is a chance for you to let go of your everyday life for two or three weeks and open up to a wider sense of who you are and why you are here. However, it is our intent that you return to your daily lives with essential tools that will help you in your own road to consciousness, self-healing and creativity, as well as essential tools in the healing or helping of your families, friends, or in a professional capacity.
KB: What will a typical day look like when based in the desert in Mexico?
DS: There isn’t a typical day as all days are different. However, in general, we try and find a balance between the participant working on their own with specific tools to enable them to develop relation with the big teachers – the elements, trees, rocks, animals, the desert in general, the mountain, the planet earth and the sky, and then the ceremonies and seminars in group settings.
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| The North East Domes |
KB: What does your particular background/wisdom bring to this experience?
DS: I have lived in Mexico since 1997, and started building the centre in 2000. I have worked with all the major indigenous groups in Mexico, and my experience has taught me that there is a need for someone to come in and make a coherent bridge between the indigenous experience and the style of life and values of the cultures within which the participants live. Also, and perhaps more importantly, it has become clear that humans are not the main teachers. All they, and indeed all we can do, is act as a signpost and give tools to enable the participants to communicate with the really big and important teachers such as the mountain, the planet earth, the sun, the moon, the star, etc. So, my experience working with the desert and living in the desert, living with the mountain and listening to the mountain, for me is as important and relevant as all the work I have done in ceremonies and activities with indigenous teachers. I would even go so far to say that the only really important teacher is the one inside of you, and you don’t need a human teacher. Once you are in contact with your own teacher inside, you have it all. I don’t really see myself as a teacher. I see myself as someone who makes spaces – the physical space of the centre for example, and spaces with sound, spaces with colour, ceremonial spaces. In those spaces, I attempt to create the context in which it is possible for the participant to contact their deepest authentic teacher inside of them. Once they have that contact, they can develop their profound intuitive wisdom. It is all there already – everyone is a master teacher whose book is waiting to be read.
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| Daniel Stone, Founder of the Centre of the Conscious Dream |
KB: Re. the location of the Centre – you say that it is located in an extraordinary multi-dimensional field of energy, which drew or “called” you to build your centre here. Can you talk a little about that process? How did you know this was “the one”? How is living there impactful to you and others?
DS: I had spent a decade visiting the power points on the planet. Some well-known, such as the pyramids in Egypt, Uluru, Mount Shasta, Lake Titicaca, Glastonbury, and some not so well known in South America, Asia, Australia and Europe. I was travelling the globe trying to listen to the planetary body, and learning how it moved, and how each power point related to the others. The context of its discovery was the journey of listening to power points. This particular power point is the most powerful I have come across, with the exception of Uluru in Australia. However, Uluru is unworkable, for me, for various reasons, and the land allowed me to visit but not to stay. In Mexico, the land gave me a huge yes, and this affirmation has given me the strength to overcome the many obstacles that come your way when trying to build a centre with very little money. I would say that this land invited me to work with it. We have a relation, and by living here, I build this relation.
Watch Daniel’s story about finding the perfect place for the Centre of the Conscious Dream below.
KB: Who is the “Centre of the Conscious Dream: Practical Intuitive Shamanic Training Course: Teotihuacan & The Wirikuta, Mexico” Wisdom Teachings journey most likely to appeal to and do participants need any former experience or knowledge in the field?
DS: The retreat can be taken by itself or as the beginning of a one or two year practical intuitive shamanic training program. It is relevant and very useful for anyone who needs to clarify their vision for their work, their relations, their living situation, and their sense of purpose on this planet. It would be very powerful for anyone involved in creative artistic processes, and anyone who is involved in a self-healing or professional healing path. These retreats typically attract people from different countries from all walks of life, from healers and artists, to business people and professionals. The retreat is in English and Spanish.
KB: How can we all benefit from being more conscious/aware of our dreaming selves?
DS: Let’s say you are looking at a life size human adult sculpture from the front. You get a certain perspective. You go to the back of the sculpture, and get another perspective. Then the two sides, two more perspectives. In an ordinary gallery room, it may be difficult for you to get the perspective from above, and even more difficult to get the perspective from below. What would it be like if you had access to all of the possible perspectives AT THE SAME TIME. This is possible through the dreaming body. Unless you know all the possible perspectives of your times and spaces, how can you make informed decisions? Most of the important decisions we make in our lives are based on a small percentage of the information available.
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| The Sacred Mountain |
KB: Is there anything else you’d like to share about the Centre of the Conscious Dream or April’s Wisdom Teachings journey?
DS: The mountain. For me, the mountain is the greatest teacher here. Every time I wake up and feel it, every time it teaches me in my dreams at night, every time I climb it, even to the foot hills, I am astounded by the depth of its wisdom. I actually believe that everything I do here, all of the seminars, ceremonies, walks of power, visits to sacred sites, exercises with the dreaming body, they are all so that each human being who visits here has at least a chance of listening and understanding the wisdom of the mountain.
To read the full itinerary for this Wisdom Teachings journey or learn more about Daniel and the other teachers at the Centre, visit our website.
~ Kim Bridgett
