Electric Dreams

A View from the Bridge

Jean Campbell


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Campbell, Jean (2003 November). A View from the Bridge. Electric Dreams 10(11).





This month's View from the Bridge is a connected series of reports from various members of the Peace Bridge group.

Ilkin says:

World Dreams Peace Bridge began the month by having our Jean and other members back safely from the Hurricane Isabel and a newly designed web page by Liz Diaz. Although Jean had nearly three weeks out of electricity and internet connection; she managed to reach us at ASD Psiber Conferance, Bulletin Board and sometimes personally with all her creativity, sometimes from her local library sometimes by packages from post which make us the happiest person on the world. She even wrote a special book in spite of the hurricane lady Isabel about "Women and Peace" which will be in Ilkin's treasures for her lifetime. Jean's creating a special book about women under the furry of a hurricane named after a female, is a great example for us how powerful women can be in all conditions and how important the peace is.

"Once the lights went out, early in the morning of the day of the hurricane, I realized that I would have some time when I couldn't really do anything else but make the book. I felt like your paper about women and peace needed to be commemorated...And the words of your paper, Ilkin, helped me through a day which was really pretty scary. I mean if you haven't been through a hurricane, you can't know how unnerving it is to have the wind blowing at 50 miles per hour for twelve hours...and that was only the average speed. There were gusts much stronger than that. I could look out my window and see the trees tearing apart in the wind and rain, but every time I was afraid, I could look at your words about how women fare in other places. And it made me calm down. It made me remember that there were other places and times in the world, and people who cared deeply..."

October has been a busy month for The World Dreams Peace Bridge. Many of our members had the opportunity to meet on the different parts of the world for representing WDPB in workshops, conferences and meetings. Victoria and Kathy met in Brisbane. Jean was in California meeting with May and ASD chair members, Nick and Victoria held a "Peace Train Workshop" in Australia, Jeremyn and Ilkin participated IFLAC Ataturk Peace Conferance in Bursa, Turkey; performing an exibition of World Children Peace Trains, a workshop on "Peace Trains" and taking part in "Women and Peace" forum. A great number of WDPB members also participated ASD PsiberDreaming Conferance online.

Kathy adds:

World Dream Peace Bridgers were there in force at the latest Psiber Dreaming Conference held this month. We love to play and especially love to play with dreams! Jean, our moderator, was an organizer and facilitator and presented a paper on WDPB dreaming activity -- showing how we have taken the possibility of PSI dreaming into new areas. Our DaFuMu (a dream of great fortune) is a collective experiment in PSI dreaming. Nick, Liz and Ilkin worked as volunteers helping to make the conference run smoothly and brilliantly. And of course others of us were there asking questions, making comments and joining in the wonderful PSI contests. Then there was SAO's (a lurker on the WDPB) art gallery of dream inspired art. Again many WDPBers were there. Liz and Richard (another lurker) presented surreal computer generated dream images. Their art showed the significance of creating images as a way of allowing both the dreamer and others to have access to an intimate showing of the dream. Laura showed delicate silk screen paintings, one of them a painting of a dream of Ilkin's. Kotaro exhibited a beautifully elegant Japanese booklet of his drawings accompanying Ilkin's poems to children caught up in war. Mary had a number of shaman/dream inspired figures. One was a wonderful dot goddess. SAO's images and dream story boards were exciting and beautiful renditions of his dreams. And then there was his water music -- intriguing beguiling sounds. His wonderful psiber world waitress was the poster for the conference. You can see it on the ASD Bulletin Board (search for the announcement for the Psiber Dreaming Conference). This is written from memory so there may well be errors but soon the art gallery will be available for all on the ASD site -- you'll be amazed!

Ilkin continues:

Nick offered a "Rainbow Dreaming" after the conference. First dream was from Victoria:

"In my last nights dreaming, it felt as though I were part of a massive circle of people - connected in goodwill albeit not physically together...who had made white light appear- first in a circle between us then up into the air so that it looked like a lightening star. In the middle of the star was a revolving marble-sized ball that could have been lapis lazili, but was definitely blue. Combined goodwill was keeping it afloat. These seemed to be mass relief and relax."

Jean's "Dream Scouts" begun their adventure heading to their agent. All the members gave their supports with DaFuMu and waiting the reply with excitement.

Jodine Grundy's son Dr. Dave turning home from Iraq opened a photo exhibition about real face of the war. Jody writes:

"A projector is cycling 300 photos of the war, terrible, tender, playful, bored, grieving, of our soldiers and the Iraqi people including women and children. Yes, the atrocities are show. So is the humanity. Imagine more than 200 people coming in in small groups of 10 to 15 and sitting silently for 35 minutes taking it all in and then coming out in the hallway and talking and talking. Some just silent. It was an amazing experience."

Chayim talks about his project:

The "Hands Across The Jordan" Project is reaching more and more everyday. With all the contacts we have made either snail mail, or email we know we can reach a guest limit of at least 500.000 or maybe a million people around the world. Hands across the Jordan is alive I hope." In other mails he wrote "If peace was so easy we would all be doing it" and "Like a bridge over troubled water.More than a song in the Middle East there is the reality of war.The continuous cycle of turmoil for generations has seen it's time and now must stop.We are all from the same dough just baked in different.ovens.There is a choice to live together nicely or continue the horror. Lets start together in a simple way.Nov.16th,2004 we shall come together and build a foot bridge across the Jordan River.After we finish building our bridge we will hand in hand pray for peace in silence across the River. Come and join us.in peace."

And Ilkin reports on the Peace Conference

During IFLAC Ataturk Peace Conferance in Bursa, Turkey; Jeremy and Ilkin represented WDPB in "World Children's Peace Train" exibition, workshop and "Women and Peace" panel. Jeremy writes:

"Our presentations at the IFLAC conference in Bursa the old Ottoman capital of Turkey were well received. The extensive and colorful Turkish Children's Peace Train collected by Ilkin stretched out nearly in front of the audience of mostly Turkish participants, but also representatives from Kosovo, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, India and elsewhere. The Turkish pictures reflected the universal desire of children to live in peaceful and happy, loving and free surroundings. These samples were drawn and painted with great care and many demonstrated great imagination. Participants were drawn to and reflected on the messages held within, and then moved on to the Ecuadoran Children's Peace poster and the strings of South Korean Children's Peace Trains which were on large color xerox paper. Explanations were also written on the walls. Next time a expanatory recording would be in order."

Jeremy and Ilkin gave a spoken introduction of the Childrens Peace Trains to the general session of the conference and it was happily received. Jeremy spoke of the plight of street child, a girl of about 10, who came banging on their taxi window in the rain at night calling out "Baba, baba..(dady, dady) ...! I am hungry!

"This was on the way to the Conference, and it is for her sake, indeed that the Children's Peace Trains are running. For adults and other children to be aware of the plight of such children and do something about their conditions - in this case caused by the civil war between ethnic Kurds and Turks in Eastern Turkey. If better off children become aware of the struggles of their brothers and sisters in other places they can feel sympathy for them, and this early heart-training in the desire for and ways of peace is something they can carry on into adulthood. Ilkin told the story of the background of the girl, and the two presenters then went on to describe their pictures and how they were collected from children in the respective countries. The UNESCO special representative to the conference, as well as a very distinguished old Turkish professor of International Relations had very high praise for the picture exhibition."

Ilkin's paper on "Women and Peace - Can Women Create a Massive Movement for Peace" was describing women as also being a "side" as gender in wars:

"We must understand that although the tradition of women banding together to resist war is at least as ancient as Lysistrada, there is a perhaps even more ancient instinct and tradition of women fighting like female tigers to protect their families and their children...we must understand that as much as we may despise the endless cycles of vengeance that perpetuate violence, many women are raised in a culture in which revenge is valued and women play an honored role...This is a phenomenon that recurs around the world...We must understand the desperation of many women who live in occupied countries or places ravaged by civil war...We must seek to grasp the global nature of our quest... Those of us who have the luxury to meet and talk about peace must extend ourselves to understand those who live with the daily reality of war...Maybe we can create a massive movement of women for peace only by creating this bond of mutual understanding and sharing."

And finally

Harry Bosma is prepearing to host his second "More Lucid Dream" group and Mary Novek is about to start a "Dreaming Project" to practice work with Energetic Spaces and their clearing and healing.


The World Dreams Peace Bridge is a group that uses personal dreams for public world peace. You can find out more about the WDPB at: http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org