Dr. W. Michael Fagen, DRI Foundation Fellow, and Maggy Anthony, retired therapist, present an in-depth discussion of dreams – their potential meanings and their place in history, science and research
For millennia, the quest for understanding has moved scholars and philosophers – from physicists, scientists and healers, to spiritual leaders, shamans and artists – to delve into dreams in search of directions and meaning. Noting an increase in the interest of dreams in 21st century research and psychology, two Reno scholars are using dream work to examine the unconscious ideas and yearnings of mankind throughout the centuries.
In a new seminar series, “Dreams and Meaning: A Workshop in 21st Century Consciousness,” Dr. W. Michael Fagen, a Desert Research Institute (DRI) Foundation Fellow, and Maggy Anthony, author and retired therapist, will discuss their work, the significance of dreams, and our fascination with them throughout history, including a variety of scientific, psychological and spiritual explanations of dreams as they are expressed in cultures and beliefs around the world. The four-part series will be held Wednesday evenings, April 25-May 16, from 6:30-8:45 p.m., at Agape House, 1317 N. Virginia St., across from the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Parking is free in the lot directly behind Agape House on Terrace Dr. The fee for the full series is $40 and includes light refreshments.
Sessions will include discussion on themes and entry points to the experience and research of dreams, including:
April 25 – Spiritual significance of dreams: Dream treatment in sacred texts, Native American religions, Greek mythology
May 2 – Scientific and metaphysical explanations of dreams: Current dream research, quantum physics, prophetic voices
May 9 – Psychological studies and treatment of dreams: Freud, Jung, Adler and other leading thinkers
May 16 – Cultural expression of dreams: How dreams are presented in literature, film, music, art
“Each session will also allow one or more participants to share a dream with the group if they wish, for discussion about possible emerging themes and as a means of finding larger connections which may be common to all of us,” said Dr. Fagen, who has been studying new findings in quantum physics as they relate to historical claims of prophecy and miracles in religion and psi phenomena.
W. Michael Fagen, Ph.D., has spent more than 30 years in international business, communications and research and is a Foundation Fellow of the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the environmental research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education. He holds a doctorate in political science from The George Washington University and has pursued psychology and cosmology studies at the Monroe Institute, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Esalen Institute, and the Joseph Campbell Foundation, as well as seminary training in the Episcopal tradition. Dr. Fagen has studied with Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Russell Targ, Fritjof Capra and Br. David Steindl-Rast and serves on a number of corporate boards, including Research Ventures, Inc.
Maggy Anthony is the author of Jung’s Circle of Women: The Valkyries, a chronicle of the women she encountered during her studies at the Carl Jung Institute in Zurich, where she worked with James Hillman, Heinrich Fierz and Maria-Louise von Franz. She has taught extensively on mythology and issues of creative exploration, at Esalen Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, and in Reno at the YWCA’s Center for Living Well and the River School. Anthony has conducted dream workshops and seminars for more than 30 years and is widely published as a novelist, poet and playwright. She was a family therapist at St. Mary’s Medical Center/Maclean Center for Addictions and Behavioral Health for many years in Reno, before retiring to write and travel. For more about her work and writing, visit http://www.maanthony.com.
For more about the Dreams and Meaning Workshop, call Maggy Anthony at (775) 830-8212 or email [email protected] .
