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"Through its influence upon the unconscious, music can have a specific healing effect. It can help in eliminating repressions and resistances, and it can bring into the field of waking consciousness many drives, emotions and complexes which were creating difficulties in the unconscious". Roberto Assagioli

Is it really possible that music and vibration can change the course of your life, and help you to know what you need to know to grow and meet the challenges in your daily life? Would you like to be honored and supported while you do your spiritual and emotional work? Can you imagine easing and often releasing your physical pain while lying on a cymatics bed listening to music?

Enter the DreamWeaver! The DreamWeaver is a sacred sound environment used to enhance the body to heal itself on all levels within a specifically designed environment. Within this environment the consenting person simultaneously hears and feels music throughout her/his body, which helps to balance the physical, psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual elements within her/his life.

The DreamWeaver, is comprised of a copper dodecahedron (dome shape) large enough to hold a cymatics bed. Transducers within the cymatics bed create vibrations which are felt like a musical massage by the one lying on the mat There are also speakers on the copper form that create a surround sound effect.

Working with the DreamWeaver over the past three years has been life altering for me. Sessions have assisted me in making positive changes in my life, feeling more connected to my center and therefore more connected to the "oneness of all". I have also had the privilege of seeing the people who have come for sessions create profound changes in their lives through their intentions to release, change, transform and heal.

My experience has shown me that the guiding force of the DreamWeaver session is one's intention. When the intention comes from the heart, the yearning and longing to be one's truest self, and the desire to stretch oneself to release the blockages opens one up to amazing possibilities for healing and newness. Through my personal experience in the DreamWeaver I learned I could not release or move to new levels of awareness without complete trust in the facilitator. So now as a facilitator, I hold a safe space to allow the client to discover this opening, discharging old hurts and sadness, and integrating the newness and shifting within.

Another important element of the DreamWeaver session is music selection. I choose the music in several ways:

I listen and get to know the many CDs, and then I use my intuition, guidance of spirit, and an awareness of what is happening with the client during the session.

I watch closely how she/he is responding and choose the music accordingly.

I have discovered that the same piece of music elicits very different responses from person to person.

I have also found that any one client will respond differently to the same piece from one session to the other.

Along with intention, music, and compassionate facilitation, the key elements of the DreamWeaver session, there are other parts of the session that help to heighten the experience. Following a brief personal history a color assessment is done at the beginning and then again at the end of the session. Initially, I questioned the value of the color test. However, after taking it before and after many sessions, I discovered that it was an invaluable tool for revealing patterns and/or existing states of mind that were beneficial for me to be aware of before I could change. I have discovered that my clients have found it to be very helpful in their healing process.

Aromatherapy is also used during most sessions. Pure essential oils are used for their power to effect the client on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. The aromas are given three times during the session:

1. At the opening: to help one to open and let go of their concerns.
2. Mid session: to facilitate moving on to gain further insights and clear the emotions that have come up, and to create a deeper understanding of these insights.
3. At the close: To ground the journey and to help the client remember the insights she/he has seen or felt.

And finally, I use many healing modalities during a session (Reike, Quantum Touch, attunement, IET, and Toning), all depending on what I feel is appropriate, and feels right while sharing the session.

I have been a grief facilitator for the past thirteen years so it was a natural progression for me to bring the DreamWeaver into my grief work with my clients. Since, I have had the opportunity to work with many clients in the DreamWeaver with a variety of bereavement issues.

I have stated that the musical healing of the DreamWeaver is designed to assist the body's capacity to be whole and to move mind and body to new levels of awareness. I feel that this wholeness of body and mind comes from a sense of belonging. When there is not belonging the body and mind come to grieving.

O'Donohue describes the need to belong beautifully:

"To be human is to belong. Belonging is a circle that embraces everything; if we reject it, we damage our nature. The word "belonging" holds together the two fundamental aspects of life: Being and Longing, the longing of our Being and the being of our Longing. Belonging is deep; only in a superficial sense does it refer to our external attachment to people, places, and things. It is the living and passionate presence of the soul. Belonging is the heart and warmth of intimacy. True belonging comes from within. It strives for harmony between the outer forms of belonging and the inner music of the soul. We seem to have forgotten the true depth and spiritual nature of intimate belonging. Our minds are over saturated and demented. We need to rediscover ascetical tranquility and come home to the temple of our senses. This would anchor our longing and help us to feel the world from within. When we allow dislocation to control us, we become outsiders, exiled from the intimacy of true unity with ourselves, each other, and creations. Our bodies know that they belong; it is our minds that make us feel so homeless. Guided by longing, belonging is the wisdom of rhythm. When we are in rhythm with our own nature, things flow and balance naturally. Every fragment does not have to be relocated, reordered; things cohere and fit according to their deeper impulse and instinct. Our modern hunger to belong is particularly intense. An increasing majority of people feels no belonging, We have fallen out of rhythm with life. The art of belonging is the recovery of the wisdom of rhythm." (O'Donohue)

What happens when we lose that sense of belonging? We fill with sorrow and we grieve.

Almost everyone experiences "not belonging" at some time during his or her life. It is a separation from what one knows that alienates one in some way causing a deep sadness. The obvious grief would be losing a loved one to death.

"The first time death occurs, it breaks your innocence and your natural trust in life." (O'Donohue)

Death alters the roles of those left living, changing one's sense of belonging.

"Grief is the experience of finding yourself standing alone in the vacant space with all this torn emotional tissue protruding. In the rhythm of grieving, you learn to gather you're given heart back to yourself again." (O'Donohue)

There are as many causes of grief as there are losses; moving, illness, job changes, divorce, violence, abuse, disappointments, perceived failures, and many more. When one is in rhythm with her/his own nature and something happens to throw off that rhythm, one is lost, confused, out of sync with life. When this life balance is altered one grieves. Each person moves through the grieving in her/his unique way. No two people grieve just the same way or in the same amount of time. Grief can sneak up when you least expect it. Some grief gets stored because the person wasn't ready, the time wasn't right, or the person was not permitted to express it in the family setting. Whatever the reason, stored grief can be compounded and complicated. Sometimes a person grieves so intensely that it manifests itself as physical pain in the body as well spiritual, mental and emotional pain.

The DreamWeaver can be a magnificent healing tool to help a person get in touch with and release this grief to return to wholeness and a sense of belonging.

My clients often describe as they enter the DreamWeaver that they immediately feel a sense of safety as if they are being held and supported.
My own experience with grief and the DreamWeaver was quite extraordinary. Until I experienced the DreamWeaver I had no idea how much grief I was carrying around. I had gone through grief training to be a facilitator for a children's grief program, and I quite honestly thought I had come to terms with most of my grief issues, or was at least aware of them. Little did I know what I was about to experience as I entered the DreamWeaver!

I had been processing many issues surrounding my mother's and my relationship. I felt a lot of sadness, guilt and shame. I thought I had dealt with all these feelings, but after a few sessions in the DreamWeaver I realized I hadn't yet emotionally dealt with them. I had been dealing with them intellectually. I was holding the feelings in my body without being consciously aware of it. In the DreamWeaver, the combination of the aromas, the passion in the music, and the vibrations in the mat, augmented by a caring, knowledgeable facilitator created the atmosphere for me to express my grief both physically and emotionally. The sadness I was holding in my body came pouring out right from my gut as sounds I didn't even recognize came out of me. But much to my surprise, almost as fast as it started, it stopped. My body had shut the feelings down.

This was an old family pattern that I had learned so well, "Don't show your feelings". What a gift of awareness to see and feel the effects of these patterns. I now had a wonderful vehicle to start working on releasing these emotions and blocks from the very core of my being! Little by little as I entered the DreamWeaver and carefully formulated my intentions, I began to actively express my grief, and finally start to heal. I continued this process as issues surfaced until I was ready to move on.

Many of my clients have had similar experiences. For example, one of my clients had lost both of her parents within a very short time of each other. She became lethargic and expressed that she was having a very difficult time getting through her daily routine. She also said that she was having difficulty releasing the sadness. While in the DreamWeaver her sadness literally poured out of her. After her first DreamWeaver session, she reported back to me that she could not believe the difference. She continued to come whenever she felt the lethargy returning, or the sadness building. In another DreamWeaver session, the client expressed an awareness that she was holding grief from her past and maybe from generations past. Her physical and emotional pain were overpowering. Her grief was so great that she felt broken. In her words, with her permission:

"The music worked to free me and open me to a new realization. It opened me to new levels of self- awareness. The frequencies and rhythm of the music and also the toning helped me to release emotions and feelings. I did not however feel immediate healing. It was a process over days in which I began to focus and let the clarity and love come forth. I remained full of gratitude toward the facilitator, as I had never experienced that intense unconditional love. My grief began to pass out of me that day and for many days to follow. It was the beginning of my healing of old patterns and grief. It was also the beginning of my trusting the insights that were revealed to me. Although challenging, I continued to meet the challenges of the DreamWeaver sessions. The DreamWeaver is everything it is described to be and particularly useful in dealing with people who are grieving."

I could report many stories much like this one, different stories, but similar results.

So, do you wonder what it would be like to have music and vibration change the course of your life, and help you to know what you need to know to grow and meet challenges in your daily life? Would you like to be honored and supported while you do your spiritual and emotional work? Can you imagine easing and releasing your physical pain while lying on a cymatics bed and listening to music? If so, enter the DreamWeaver!

"And the whole while the unknown underworld
Of the mind turning slowly in its secret orbit.
May the blessing of sleep bring refreshment and release
And the Angel of the moon call the rivers of dream
To soften the hardened earth of the outside of life,
Disentangle from the trapped nets the hurt and sorrow
And awaken the young soul for the new tomorrow"
Vespers by John O'Donohue

References:
O'Donahue, John. Eternal Echoes Exploring Yearning to Belong. Harper Collins, New York, 1999.
Assagioli, Roberto.

Lu Jump is a DreamWeaver Facilitator in Harpswell, Maine. As a grief facilitator with the local hospice she is a compassionate presence with grieving children and adults as they learn to cope with a variety of losses and transitions.

Private DreamWeaver sessions with Lu are available by appointment. Call 207-833-5304 or email

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