About John
The Journey Begins
My education in the vastness of the unconscious began in 1969, when a traumatic personal experience interrupted my third year of graduate school and sent me on a course of self-examination.
One day, while browsing the myth section of Cody’s Books in Berkeley, I crossed paths with friends I’d known as children and again in college, who were deeply engaged in the exploration of dreams and entrenched in the discoveries of the women’s movement. At that time, I felt entirely out of touch with my own inner world. Meeting them provided a double whammy of dreamwork and feminism. This synchronous event provided a profound calling—I was hungry for more.
A Lifelong Commitment to Dreamwork
Following the advice of Carl Jung, I made a strict commitment to my dreams: I promised that if they helped me remember them, I would write them down. That’s a promise I still honor by having kept my own personal dream journal for over 50 years. Soon after having made that contract with my dreams, I experienced the exact type of monumental “big dream” Jung said I would have if I made that contract with them. Over the years my dreams and I have become very good friends.
My Cody Books friends and I formed a dedicated dream group, inviting others to join. I immersed myself in the field, attending Katherine Whiteside Taylor’s Jungian classes and devouring every piece of literature on dreaming available. Over the next several years, we organized workshops, provided dreamwork for youth agencies, and taught dreamwork courses at New College of California. During this foundational era, I was honored to assist with the founding of the Association for the Study of Dreams (now the International Association for the Study of Dreams – IASD), an organization that continues to do vital work worldwide.
Dreams of War and Peace
By 1976 I was living on a houseboat along the Sausalito waterfront and working as the business manager for a residential facility for schizophrenic patients, where we utilized dreams as a core therapeutic treatment. In that period a fierce conflict erupted between waterfront developers and the community of artists and free thinkers who called the waterfront home.
My clinical background allowed me to recognize the profound psychological fracture tearing the community apart. Wanting to help, I looked to my nighttime dreams for guidance. The answer eventually arrived: collect the sleep dreams of people from all sides of the conflict and publish them to reveal our shared humanity.
I created a monthly dream journal publication for the community’s dreams. The journal became a source of creative energy for the many-sided community. Operating on the principle of the democratization of dreams, the publication acted as a profound equalizer. Everyone’s dream held equal weight. Dreams were shared by children and adults of all ages, proving that dreams speak a universal language, even in times of crisis. There was an open invitation to everyone to share their dreams.
Dreams as Future
The decades of dreamwork, social work and psychological work with which I’ve been involved have shown that community dream journals are the future as a societal answer to violence. Dreams are the great equalizer—everybody has them, and they are all equally valid emotional statements. Community dream journals bring people together, giving voice to all—the meek as well as the powerful.
Services Offered
I offer dedicated, confidential spaces to explore the profound intelligence of your dreams. Whether you have a specific, monumental dream to unpack or wish to deepen your lifelong relationship with your inner world, we can work together.
Dreamwork Consultation
These sessions focus directly on the specific dream or dreams you bring to the table. If you currently struggle with dream recall or do not have a recent dream to share, we will work together to open the channels of your subconscious.
- Format: In-person meeting in Sausalito, California, or globally via Zoom
- Duration: 1 hour
- Investment: $100 per hour
For special needs: sliding scale available.