PH.D. ALBERTO VILLOLDO, The best-selling author of The Four Insights COURAGEOUS ALSO BY ALBERTO VILLOLDO, PH.D. Dance ofthe Four Winds (with ErikJendresen) The First Story Ever Told (with Erik Jendresen) The Four Insights* Healing States (with Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.) Island ofthe Sun (with ErikJendresen) Mending the Past and Healing the Future with Soul Retrieval* Millennium Glimpses into the 21st Century The Realms of Healing (with Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.) Shaman, Healer, Sage Yoga, Power, and Spirit* *Available from Hay House Please visit Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com® Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk Hay House South Africa: www.hayhouse.co.za Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in How SHAMANS DREAM THE WORLD INTO BEING E I LDO, H.D. HAY HOUSE, INC. Carlsbad, California • New York City London • Sydney • Johannesburg Vancouver • Hong Kong • New Delhi Copyright © 2008 by Alberto Villoldo Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse. com • Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www. hayhouse.com.au • Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk • Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za • Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com • Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in Editorial supervision: Jill Kramer • Design: Amy Gingery All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use-other than for "fair use" as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews-without prior written permission of the publisher. The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Villoldo, Alberto. Courageous dreaming : how shamans dream the world into being I Alberto Villoldo. --1st ed. p. em. ISBN 978-1-4019-1756-2 (hardcover)--ISBN 978-1-4019-1757-9 (tradepaper) 1. Shamanism--South America. I. Title. BF1622.S63V53 2008 299.8--dc22 2007034823 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-1756-2 Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-1757-9 11 10 09 08 4 3 2 1 1st edition, March 2008 Printed in the United States of America AND MY SON, IAN. COURAGEOUSLY! CONTENTS Introduction: Courageous Dreaming ........................................................... ! PART I: FROM NIGHTMARE TO DREAM Chapter 1: Escaping the Nightmare .................................................. 19 Chapter 2: The Scripts of Our Nightmares ....................................... 37 Chapter 3: Awakening into the Dreamt ime ..................................... 61 Chapter 4: Consciousness, Reality, and the Four Levels of Perception ................................................ 77 Chapter 5: Four Kinds of Courage .................................................... 93 PART II: FROM DREAMING TO COURAGEOUS ACTION Chapter 6: Courage as Action ......................................................... 113 Chapter 7: Practice Truth ................................................................ 135 Chapter 8: Clean Up Your River. ..................................................... ISS Chapter 9: Be Ready to Die at Any Moment ................................... 173 Afterword .............................................................................................. 187 Acknowledgments .................................................................................. 189 About the Author ................................................................................... 191 INTRODUCTION Coura31&out; Pr&amth3' We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. -BUDDHA Whether we realize it or not, we are all dreaming the world into being. What we're engaging in is not the sleeping act we're so familiar with, but rather a type of dreaming we do with our eyes open. When we're unaware that we share the power to co-create reality with the universe itself, that power slips away from us, causing our dream to become a nightmare. We begin to feel we're the victims of an unknown and frightening creation that we're unable to influence, and events seem to control and trap us. The only way to end this dreadful reality is to awaken to the fact that it too is a dream-and then recognize our ability to write a better story, one that the universe will work with us to manifest. The nature of the cosmos is such that whatever vision you have about yourself and the world will become reality. As soon as you awaken to the power you have, you begin to flex the muscles of your courage. Then you can dream bravely: letting go of your limiting beliefs and pushing past your fears. You can start to come 1 up with a truly original dream that germinates in your soul and bears fruit in your life. Courageous dreaming allows you to create from the source, the quantum soup of the universe where everything exists in a latent or potential state. Physicists understand that in the quantum world nothing is "real" until it is observed. The distinct packets of energy known as "quanta" (which consist of particles of matter as well as light) are neither "here" nor "there"; in a sense, they are everywhere in space/time until you or I decide to take note of them. When we do so, we tease them out of the web of infinite possibilities and collapse them into an event in time and space. These energy quanta like to link up with each other once they've selected a particular form of manifestation. As soon as they manifest, reality becomes fixed: Our reality is "here" instead of possibly everywhere. But quantum events do not occur in the laboratory only. They also happen inside our brain, on this page, and everywhere around us. Even if they're separated by millions of miles, or by days or weeks, these quanta of energy remain intimately linked; consequently, if you interact with one, you affect the entire system that this energy is part of. When you access any part of the dream, the great matrix of creation, you can change reality and alter the entire dream, and its effects will ripple to the past and influence the future. Modern physics is describing what the ancient wisdom keepers of the Americas have long known. These shamans, known as "the Earthkeepers," say that we're dreaming the world into being through the very act of witnessing it. Scientists believe that we're only able to do this in the very small subatomic world. Shamans understand that we also dream the larger world that we experience with our senses. Like the Australian Aborigines, the Earthkeepers live in an environment where the dreamtime has not been pushed into the domain of sleep like it has for the rest of us. They know that all of creation arises from, and returns to, this creative matrix. The dreamtime infuses all matter and energy, connecting every creature, every rock, every star, and every ray of light or bit of 2 Introduction cosmic dust. The power to dream, then, is the power to participate in creation itself. Dreaming reality is not only an ability but a duty, one all humans must perform with grace so that our grandchildren will inherit a world where they can live in peace and abundance. We've actually already gone into extraordinary detail to dream our universe into being. Immediately after the big bang, 99.99 percent of all matter and antimatter in the cosmos went on to annihilate each other. The stars and galaxies that we see around us today are all that remained, a minute portion of what once was. Had the ratio of matter to space in the universe changed by even one-billionth of a percent, the laws of physics that permit life to emerge would not have been possible. The big bang had to be so perfectly orchestrated and calculated that it produced only one part of matter in 10 to the 50th power of stardust. This is divided by 10 followed by SO zeroes, no more and no less. That this occurred purely by chance is possible only if we contemplate the existence of a very large number of universes in the cosmos, where an improbable event such as the creation of our own universe would have been plausible! What's even more baffling is the fine-tuning of the parameters of the universe that occurred on the surface of the earth, which has maintained a perfect temperature balance between the freezing and boiling points of water for more than a billion years. The unlikeliness of these ratios that permit life to appear suggests the presence of an intelligent force, not a creator or a god but a universe power, which the Earthkeepers call "the dreamtime" or "infinity." The Earthkeepers I have studied with in the Andes and the Amazon believe that we can only access the power of this force by raising our level of consciousness. When we do, we become aware that we're like a drop of water in a vast, divine ocean, distinct yet immersed in something much larger than ourselves. It's only when we experience our connection to infinity that we're able to dream powerfully. In fact, it's our sense of separation from infinity that traps us in a nightmare in the first place. If this sounds like circular thinking, you're right. Which came first, the nightmare or the sense of separation from infinity? The answer is that they occur simultaneously. 3 ------------ ------ To end the nightmare-to reclaim your power of dreaming reality and craft something better-you need more than the recognition of how this process works. You need to have a visceral understanding of your dreaming power and experience it in every cell of your body. The intellectual comprehension of your ability to create reality mimics but then forestalls the kind of dreaming you're capable of. If you don't get beyond mere intellectual comprehension of this concept, you'll end up lowering the bar and creating a far less glorious and beautiful experience of the world than what you're capable of crafting. With a visceral understanding of your power to dream, you realize that you can share this experience of infinity right here, right now, and stop feeling dissociated and disconnected. It takes courage to taste infinity. According to Greek mythology, the gods swiftly punished any mortal who dared to ascend Mount Olympus and taste divine power. Yet they ultimately rewarded those who had the courage to step into their realm, such as Hercules and Psyche. Similarly, in Judea-Christian lore, as soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, making human beings more like God, He threw them out of the Garden of Eden, "lest [humankind] put forth [their] hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. 3:22). But despite this original sin of humanity, all men and women are promised a chance to dwell in heaven at the end of time. Once you experience dreaming, you realize that everything in your life is unfolding with perfect synchronicity. Events may not be working out the way you'd like them to, but within the greater scheme of things, they are happening in superlative harmony. For example, you miss the train to work on the day that terrorists strike the World Trade Center and survive (which actually happened to a student of mine). Or your child tells you that he's been accepted to the college of his choice the same week you get the promotion you've been hoping for. If the universe seems to be conspiring against you, on the other hand, then you need to change the dream. With courageous dreaming, you discover that your problems are no longer overwhelming you or defining your life. While the 4