SUMMER SOLSTICE DREAM INCUBATOR

19 - 29 JUNE 2024

ARCHAIA EPIDAVROS, ARGOLID PENINSULA, PELOPONNESE, GREECE

This residential retreat is an intensive 10-night dream accelerator and incubator, designed to help creative practitioners, therapists and dream enthusiasts to learn more about dreaming and have a direct experience of how dreams shape our realities.

Over 11 days/10 nights our TEN dream pilgrims will explore how in ancient Hellas dreaming was considered a sacred way to receive divine inspiration. Dreams were seen to provide a portal to ancestors, gods and goddesses. The ancients knew that dreams are often prophetic and that they can frequently reveal hidden truths and echoes of possible futures.

Residents will visit some of the most vitally important ancient sites and sanctuaries associated with ancient dream practice - and have the opportunity to experience sleeping in the very same places as the dream pilgrims of antiquity. We will visit ancient dream dormitories, temples, sacred sanctuaries, caves and volcanic craters, all with the aim of viscerally engaging with dreaming as an exercise in consciousness, intention and magic-making.

Sarah Janes applies hypnotic techniques, memory, somatics, ritual and play to induce dreams. Sarah is inspired by the mystical practices carried out at ancient Asklepions - the holistic healing centres of the dream physician god Asklepios.

Dream-seeding hypnosis can help participants vividly experience themselves within an imaginal realm. The residency will provide space and encouragement to artists, therapists and other creative and wellness practitioners to work creatively with that which emerges in dreams.

The experience is also partly an experiment in collective dreaming; to see how individual dreams begin to weave together when a group are sleeping under the same roof and engaging in the same practices on a daily basis.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

The fee is inclusive of transportation within Greece - including pick-up and drop-off to Athens, all museum and archaeological site entrance fees, all practices and workshops, all lodging and meals.

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation and additional tour guidance is provided by Epidavros Travel - an excellent local travel company made up of a group of knowledgeable professional drivers and friendly tour guides.

EXTRA DAY BEFORE RETREAT STARTS

There is also an optional pre-retreat day if you would like to join us early in Athens (18th June) - when most participants will be arriving in Greece - if you decide to come along, we shall visit the Shrine of the Muses on Philopappos Hill - where will ask the Muses and Mnemosyne for divine dream inspiration. We will also have the opportunity to visit the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Let me know if you would like any additional advice about places to stay, eat and visit while in Athens.

SITE VISITS

Sanctuary of Apollo and Asklepios at Epidavros

Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Elefsina (site of the Eleusininian Mysteries)

Ancient Corinth

Sinkhole of Didyma

Mycenae, Mykines

Aegina Island - Temple of Aphaía

Methana

Troezon - site of another Asklepion

LOCAL ACTIVITIES

Swimming over the ‘Sunken City’ at Archaia Epidavros (Gialasi Beach)

Temple of Artemis

Exploring the Nisi, ancient Acropolis where there are remains of many ancient temples

Local hiking routes

EXTRA COST ACTIVITIES THAT CAN BE BOOKED UPON REQUEST

Kayak tour over the Sunken City and around the Nisi with Tribal Kayak in Epidavros (homemade lunch included).

Ancient Greek Massage and hot springs therapy with therapist Ioanna Theodorou.

Scuba diving with Scuba Blue Dream Epidavros - beginners or certfied divers welcome.

Please let me know if you would like to include any of these activities and I will book the session and confirm price.

WORKSHOPS

Breakfast dream sharing

Daily dream training workshops

Sleep hypnosis in the Enkoimeterion at the Sanctuary of Asklepios and Apollo at Epidavros.

Dreams, olfaction and memory - working with natural scents and plant fragrances to imprint dream memory with ‘smellosopher’ Keren Bester

Dream theatre and embodied imagination

Dream tea, working with native aphrodisiac herbs to promote sensory experience in sleep and encourage lucidity

Workshop with Dr. Pascal Michael exploring death and dreams

One-on-one sleep hypnosis and interpretation sessions with Sarah Janes

Dream recording art projects, painting, sound recording, writing

Local music and cultural events

Ceramic workshop

COSTS

Single occupancy £2220

Couple sharing (double or twin) £2920

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS:

SARAH JANES

Author, researcher, curator, retreat/workshop facilitator and public speaker, Sarah Janes specialises in the ancient history and culture of dreaming and has been an enthusiastic lucid dreamer since childhood. She has decades of experience hosting events, leading groups and educating all ages.

Sarah is passionate about the potential of dreaming for physical, emotional, creative and spiritual upliftment, not just for individuals, but for culture and society as a whole. She's interested in how good dreaming and sleep quality can improve decision making, insight and provide inspiration. Sarah is passionate about bringing dreams and sleep back into a holistic and sustainable approach to healing

Sarah Janes is the co-director and curator of Dream Palace Athens, a symposium and residency project in Athens, Greece. This initiative is designed for artists and creatives to connect more deeply with dreamstates, helping them to bring more dream inspired imagery and ideas into their practice.

Website: www.themysteries.org

DR. PASCAL IMMANUEL MICHAEL

Pascal received a BSc Hons (University of Aberdeen) in Neuroscience, where he identified the neurotrophic capacity of the Omega-3 fatty-acid EPA, and an MSc (University College London) in Clinical Mental Health Sciences, exploring the post-acute effects on wellbeing of DMT. He completed a PhD at the University of Greenwich with Dr. David Luke, where his research encompassed nuanced qualitative analyses of mystical-type human experiences, both neuropharmacological and spontaneous. Specifically, comparing the DMT experience, based on the first conceived field study of DMT use, with the near-death experience (NDE). He is presently a lecturer in Psychology there, teaching and researching on psychedelics; psychical research focussing on survival, ufology and entity encounters; neuroscience and clinical psychology.

Pascal is the co-lead for the ALEF Trust’s certificate in Psychedelics, Altered States and Transpersonal Psychology, and is the 2020 recipient of the Parapsychology Association’s Schmeidler Outstanding Student Award.

When he’s not researching academically, he relishes spending time writing blog articles or poetry pieces. He is also an amateur actor and drums player.

Website: https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-education-and-health/pascal-michael

KEREN LUCY BESTER

Keren Lucy Bester is following her nose and undertaking a PhD in the philosophy of smell complemented by explorations in natural perfumery. Keren’s work is aimed at understanding our instincts, developing our intuitions, and revealing our dynamic, transcorporeal relationship with the natural world.  Keren is the founder of Chemical Poetry - a platform for philosophy and fragrance collaborations. Ask not what philosophy can tell you about smell, but what smell can tell you about philosophy.

Website: https://www.kerenbester.com/chemical-poetry-club