Dolphin Dreamtime

With the aid of music, the Australian Aborigine can take a person into a mental state akin to that of an encounter with a dolphin, in what has become known as Dolphin Dreamtime . At first I found the concept of the Dreamtime difficult to comprehend because so many aspects of Aborigine culture were completely alien to my western, achievement motivated way of thinking. Animals, vegetables and minerals were not separated into different categories. The Aborigines were not competitive. They had no concept of possessions. Their continent was criss-crossed with songlines. You could not own land, but you could be the custodian of the song that brought the land into existence. Even their concept of time was completely different. I was mentally programmed into the linear model of seconds, minutes, hours, that governed most of what I did. In the Dreamtime, the past, the present and the future were fused into each moment. Every animal had a spirit which could be more important than its physical reality as I perceived it. All Aborigines had one or more totems. At gatherings around a fire, called corroborees, their ancient lore and wisdom would be passed on, often via dance and music. The didgeridoo, a naturally hollow, wooden tube, was used for recreating the spirit of a totem. Thus, if your totem was a dolphin you could invoke its spirit by playing the didgeridoo

I was intrigued when I first heard about the Dolphin Dreamtime cassette. In it the listener is guided into the sea to swim with the dolphins (via a journey through a cave full of beautiful crystals) by the healer Taranath Andre The narration is overlaid with music Glenda Lum whose totem is a dolphin. Instead of a didgeridoo, Glenda used a synthesiser that was more familiar to western ears, supplemented with real whale and dolphin sounds. A personal, and for me extraordinary, out-of-body experience whilst listening to the tape⁷ convinced me that somehow it captured the essence of an encounter with a dolphin. I decided therefore to see how others were affected.

Investigative journalists, including Anne Page8 and Pat Pryors9, also evaluated Dolphin Dreamtime. They confirmed its efficacy in the treatment of stress related illnesses. So I had my dolphin pill - an audio pill in the form of a cassette. Available HERE

Dolphin Dreamtime is now established as a useful tool for psychiatric wards. In addition to its usefulness for the treatment of those diagnosed as clinical depressives, the Dolphin Dreamtlme is finding ever widening applications. These range from relief in students of pre-examination nerves, to the prevention of insomnia. As the use of Dolphin Dreamtime became ever wider, reports of it’s applications reached me from unexpected sources. Here is a typical example reported on page 9 of DOLPHIN (December 2002), the journal of International Dolphin Watch (IDW), which is sent free of charge to all members. To join IDW click HERE.

Painfree Childbirth                                     

Dear Horace
When we met at the Health and Healing Festival in Buxton, I told you about my experiences of giving birth in water whilst listening to Dolphin Dreamtime. You asked me to put them in writing. so here they are.

During the birth of my son Caspian in 1994, I found the combination of being in the birthing pool and listening to Dolphin Dreamtime enabled me to enter and stay in my own world completely. I shut out all outside distractions, which in the opinion of many, including Dr. Michel Odent a pioneer of water birth and author of Birth Reborn and Water and Sexuality is so necessary for childbirth and in general is ignored by the medical profession.

Apparently my midwife was a real chatterbox. She talked non-stop through my labour, but I didn’t hear a word she said! The oxygen arrived (it wasn’t needed) and the doctor came (in time to take photos of the baby), both without awareness! I simply focused on opening up, breathing and making loud noises (not screams, but toning type noises) and kept an inner conversation with my baby inside me.

After Caspian was born I felt so empowered and exhilarated I wanted to repeat the experience as soon as possible!

My second child Oisn was born in 2000 with the same lowering of conciousness. When I say “lowering of consciousness” I am referring to the “daylight” consciousness of the intellect and of things going on outside oneself. At the same time I was increasingly conscious of a heightening of my instinctual power” by which I mean being aware of and in contact with my baby as the delivery progressed.

Sincerely

Nerissa Kisden            
47 Westbourne Road, Sheffield,
S10 2QT                           
Tel/Fax 0114 266 0781

Full details of how Horace Dobbs discovered that Dolphin Dreamtime could be used to take listeners into the altered state of consciousness the Australian aborigines have been entering for centuries is detailed in his book Dance to a Dolphin’s Song (Jonathan Cape) which is available from the Dolphin Shop (£9.99 + £1 p&p).
Paradoxically Australia is one of the least progressive countries in the world according to Estelle Myers a grandmother who is an advocate of water births and has very outspoken views on the subject. To find out what they are, write to 1/19 Waterview Court, Ballina, NSW, Australia 2478 or call Estelle in Australia Tel: (0061) 266 811 307 Fax: (0061) 266 811 207 E-mail: estelle@mail.pnc.com.au  www.naturalbirth.org.au

Chinese medicine                                    

A Japanese woman, Shizuko Ouwehand, born in Kyoto and living in Zurich, suggested to me that the healing power of dolphins was related to Ki or Chi — the cornerstone of Traditional Chinese medicine. She introduced me to her Ki master, the late Professor Masato Nakagawa¹² who toured the world, including places like radiation-ridden Chernobyl in Russia, treating his patients by channelling the essential life force he called Ki. When I discussed dolphin healing with him, Professor Nakagawa suggested that dolphins generate or transmit Ki, and that this could be the source of their healing power. I realised the significance of this theory as I watched him treat, all at the same time, a room filled with patients with medical conditions ranging from advanced carcinomas to severe depression, many of whom claimed remission and sometimes complete cure from their medical conditions. For me, it was a mechanism of healing which was outside the methods of orthodox Western medicine which my work in drug research had given me extensive experience, yet had convincing and demonstrable validity.

Kokyo Ishizaki, and his wife, Konoe, who ran the centre, visited London in June 1996 and reported on the many remarkable healings that had taken place in Kyoto - where there are no dolphins - but where visitors receive Ki treatment and experienced for themselves the essence of dolphins embodied in music and art.

Dolphins and autism                                   

Bill Bowell was one of those attending the conference at Regents Park where he met Shizuko Ouwehand and Eve Hanf-Enos, who was 25 and autistic. She could not speak, but vocalises in grunts and noises and communicates through a computer keyboard, with the help of her mother, by a process known as facilitated writing. Eve and Shizuko had met three years earlier in Santa Fé, where Shizuko discovered that Eve was a gifted writer, expressing her thoughts in poems and prose with unusual but powerful juxtaposition of words. A book of fifteen of Eve’s poems, written in 1985 - 1991 is available from the IDW Dolphin Shop £5 + 50p p&p.

Eve’s proposal, to give a gift of laughter to those with mental problems, echoed the work of Dr. Patch Adams, who used fun and laughter to help his patients. When I saw the film Patch Adams released in 1998, starring Robin Williams, I sensed a connection with dolphins. The feeling of joy and fun they engender in humans undoubtedly contributes to their remarkable healing power. I also saw a possible parallel between dolphins and humans with autism, especially “autistic savants” i.e. Those who have extraordinary memories and sometimes have exceptional talents in music and art. This in turn raised some interesting questions, namely, “Could dolphins give us an insight into the autistic mind and if so, how could we investigate it?”

Perhaps the Dilo Dolphin Dome Project could provide a way forward.

next --->

Back

International Dolphin Watch 10 Melton Road, North Ferriby, E.Yorks HU14 3ET. England.
Tel: +44 (0)1482 632650 Fax: +44 (0)1482 634914 E-mail: idw@talk21.com