When we think about the past or fantasize about the future, we are not just thinking. Our bodies and emotions react as if we are there and it is happening now. It is like teleportation or time travel. We are here and now but also in another place and time. Arny Mindell called these events Dreamdoors. “A dream door is a potential opening to another world, another realm. It is a door, and opening, an invitation that can be taken, or not.”

Our fantasies, the stories we tell, our relationship difficulties, and body experiences are dream doors. They can take us out of normal, everyday reality and into a dreaming reality filled with mystery and meaning. We will practice recognizing and walking through those dream doors. We will also practice using what Arny called “Maxwell’s demon” of awareness to intentionally decide when to open a dreamdoor and when to keep it closed. Without this demon, entropy can take over; the energy of our dreaming becomes less available to us, like heat slipping out of an open window on a winter day.