Can you work with dreams?

Do you think you are a gifted dreamer like Ashlynn Acosta in Dead Men Do Tell Tales? Take the following poll to find out!

Each of the questions in this poll may indicate how a person’s dream talents manifest in his or her life. Yes, even nightmares are gifts because they have important insights to give us. Dreamwork on a regular basis will mine the jewels that lay hidden in these expressions of dream talent. Which dream talents show up for you?

If you answer “Yes” to most or all of these questions, you indeed possess the gift of dreams! If you are not already doing so, begin the practice of writing down your dreams in a dream journal and use dreamwork methods to draw out their profound insights.

Ashlynn Acosta: A Teen Detective with an Intuitive Edge

We Didn’t Learn Intuition with Our ABC’s
Because our culture doesn’t foster the development of intuition in the school system, many of us grew up honing our left brain reasoning and math skills. Right brain activity was like the abandoned orphan few paid close attention to, except in a rare art, creative writing or music class. Almost never was an intuitive approach applied to math and science, even though the great Einstein set the standard for applying dreams and intuition to scientific progress. He had the creative edge that brought in a whole new way of looking at our universe.
As with every other talent, some are born more gifted in dreams and intuition than others but that doesn’t mean we can’t develop our potential just as we did for algebra, chemistry or essay writing. While many people have experienced a gratifying “Ahaa!” of understanding that came when they desperately needed it; unfortunately, most people don’t recognize the value or even the need to intentionally develop intuition. These amazing abilities are often left to run on their own without us ever purposefully tapping into them to problem solve or create.

Intuitive Gifts are often the Silver Lining
For many of us, intuitive gifts emerge at time of major crisis. Their profundity and dramatic entrances often initially cause more disruption and confusion to an already jolted life before the meaning of the inspirations set in and the gifts becomes apparent. However, these insights become the means that heals the grief, presents a new vision, or completes the transformation.

Ashlynn Acosta Investigates Using Clues from Dreams

In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Ashlynn experiences just this with the death of her mother. She is presented with horrific nightmares that she learns to turn into healing blessings. Her profusion of dreams opens up to her new psychic abilities, along with the question of how to use these gifts. She realizes she can help solve a crime by doing more than her detective father, who just relies of his hunches and traditional gumshoe investigation. She can ask specific questions and get results, if not pat answers. She can rely on her intuition in doing remote viewing (RV) to help find clues. Ashlynn also has the courage it takes to work with nightmares or to question her own false assumptions and prejudices not based on inner wisdom. She has the trust that is necessary to go into unknown places. She has the edge in detecting the intuitive mind that will bring the game changing answers.

Inspirations for writing Dead Men Do Tell Tales

As an educator and life coach communicating the importance of working with dreams and intuition to discover a deeper and truer sense of self, I wondered how to reach teens.  Most of my work has been with adults near my own age who have personal concerns similar to mine: how to keep or improve health and how to live the years beyond age fifty to the maximum.  My work with this age group centered on these issues.

Teens, however, usually enjoy exuberant good health and are just stepping onto life’s stage with new worlds to create so intuition and dreamwork need to focus on different issues pertinent to them.   I thought that putting the spotlight on problem solving would be most effective since teens must do a lot of that in school and in their personal lives.

They face many issues which challenge their newly developing sense of who they are.  It is all too easy to let others dictate their values and ambitions during a time when peer pressure is extreme.   In Dead Men Do Tell Tales,  I decided to write about a thirteen year old, Ashlynn Acosta, who is entering high school and strongly desires to fit and succeed.  She has many challenges to face and problems to solve.   She knows she is different because she has lost her mother, leaving her emotionally vulnerable and without a strong motherly supporter to help guide her.  She suffers from nightmares and thinks other might consider her to be a witch because of the prophetic nature of her dreams.

With the help of a mentor, Ashlynn learns that how she responds to challenges and problems can serve to deepen her sense self and what is important to her.

I was inspired to place the story in Massachusetts because I know Cape Ann well from having lived on the Bat State’s North Shore for about twenty years.  Along with a rich history, the area is famous for many of the elements in my story: a diverse ethnic population, witch hunts, fighting fishermen, Yankee ingenuity and the tradition of standing up for all that one holds true.  The book’s cover shows an entrance to Gloucester High School, where my heroine Ashlynn goes to school.

Detecting the Intuitive Mind

I am a writer, educator and life coach whose passion is communicating the power of dreams and intuition to problem solve, create, heal and grow spiritually in a dynamic, complex and multi-cultural society where no one point of view prevails. There is an ever increasing need to venture inward to discover the inner compass and find answers that take into account all views and yet respect the integrity of the individual. I write about and teach dreamwork and intuition for people of all ages, recognizing that people in different age groups face dilemmas pertinent to the challenges of their age groups.

This blogsite offers many short yet practical tips for understanding dreams and how they can help problem solve, create, heal and help us grow spiritually.  Please take a look and some of the entries!  You might want to subscribe and get my regular updates.

My interest in dreamwork began when I came down with what today is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after being in a plane hijacking and a very challenging stint in the army during the Vietnam War era. In the early 1970’s, with the help of Dr. Mitsuo Aoki, I worked with a single recurrent nightmare to experience a powerful healing within the dream that freed me from the anxiety and nightmares. It was then that I realized the inner resources we carry around within ourselves. A Master’s Degree in Asian Studies (Religion and Philosophy) in 1975 honed my interest in observing how the mind works. For several years, I taught college level classes on World Religions, Comparative Mysticism, Death and Dying and the Meaning of Existence. For the rest of my life I continued to record and work with my dreams, reading every book I could find about dreams. I began to teach classes on dreams and dreamwork at college, hospital, community and church venues, and continue to do so now as part of my work through The Healing Dream Garden LLC. (http://www.healingdreamgarden.com)

In 2008 I began to seriously study intuition by connecting to and getting training from the Edgar Cayce Institute of Intuitive Studies where I took an online course on remote viewing (RV). I also received course training and was eventually certified as an Intuitive Heart™ trainer in 2011. I am currently the editor of and a contributor to the Intuitive HeartBeat, a newsletter for the Intuitive Heart™ program. I have taught courses on intuition at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Hawaii.

Writing has always been an important facet of my work. As for mystery writing, in 2007 and 2008 I was contracted as an assistant editor by Gallopade International to help develop and edit five mystery novels for young readers. These books, now published, are:

 The Mystery In Icy Antarctica (working title: The Phantom Penguin Mystery), Gallopade International, 2008
 The Mystery of the Haunted Ghost Town, Gallopade International, 2008
 The Mystery at Mount Fuji, Gallopade International, 2007
 The Horrendous Hurricane Mystery, Gallopade International, 2007
 The Treacherous Tornado Mystery, Gallopade International, 2007

Through this work, I was able to hone my skills as a writer and editor of the mystery story genre. These books are essentially about kids learning to problem solve mysteries in cross-cultural and foreign settings.

Teens face the problems of trying to understand the society they are just entering, their ambivalent and growing independence from their parents and the need to learn to problem solve on their own in all aspects of their lives.

In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, a gutsy teen, Ashlynn Acosta, faces not only the challenge of entering high school and dealing with different kinds of people but also the loss of her mother, the emotional distancing of her father and a murder in which her friend is a prime suspect. These complex situations call for a deep intuitive approach free from prejudice and fear. A fast paced story, filled with twists and turns, draws the reader in to explore the workings of intuition as Ashlynn brings light and truth to her situation. The reader not only gets a good read but sees how intuition can be used methodically to gain specific and intentional insight which does not rely on some vague “Aha” out of the blue.

In writing the book, I bring over 40 years of dreamwork, a strong background and training in intuition as well as experience as an assistant editor in helping to develop and edit five published mystery stories for young readers. I have also lived in Taiwan, Japan and the United States for long periods of time, bringing a wealth of cross-cultural experience to my writing and work.

I feel that my work and experience in dreams, intuition, and mystery writing well prepared me to write Dead Men Do Tell Tales.