In some cultures, the introduction to dreampsi is akin to being pushed off a rickety pier into a stormy sea populated by ravenous sharks and stinging jellyfish. Sometimes such trauma and drama is deemed necessary for spiritual advancement. Perhaps you have already had such heart-pounding experiences, spontaneously.

Now, here's a radical thought. What if you could first experience dreampsi without having to drown or be eaten alive? Suppose you could be introduced to dreampsi in the shallows, gradually learn to swim, discover how to protect yourself from ocean perils, have fun in the surf, explore the tide pools, while building up your knowledge and strength for more intense encounters later on. Would you be interested?

User-friendly dreamspace is a place where dreamers can interact with one another under fruitful circumstances. New folks are introduced, gently, to dreampsi, so that surprise isn't a shock but a wonder and delight. Long-term dreamers enjoy one another's company, learning evermore. Researchers get a clearer picture of the dreampsi sky than they would on foggy or stormy nights. User-friendly dreamspace is a sand-and-sea playground of the mind.

Chip Dunham

D. K. Browne

But it doesn't preexist. We have to co-create it. Otherwise, in this day and age, we're likely to occupy a succession of stormy seascapes produced by personal proclivities or preprogrammed by our predecessors. Sad to say, every playground can attract all manner of bullies who will push you around or kick sand in your face, unless you stand up and say, "No!" Or kids who, in their exuberance, will run pell-mell though your carefully constructed sand castles. However, this doesn't have to be a solitary dilemma if you join the Partnership Paradigm.

For the past twenty years, I've helped co-create user-friendly dreamspace every time I participated in a mutual dreaming project, joined a community dream group or held dream telepathy experiments. It's been an exciting time, at the leading edge of dream research, but also a frustrating one. We made plenty of mistakes, but we learned much in the making. There was a lot of head butting as, slowly and painfully, we worked out the structure of the Partnership Paradigm.

So, I know well how a conflict can develop between the urge and joy of personal freedom and what is first considered to be entrapment by those carnsarn rules of society. I appreciate the desire for limitless freedom. I wouldn't host a flying dream web site if I didn't! But I've found that following certain communal practices doesn't have to clip our wings. In fact, by doing so, we may even open the door to a larger universe than we first occupied.

The Partnership Paradigm was honed in the dreamwork community, especially in the (San Francisco) Bay Area Dreamworkers Group and the Fly-By-Night Club research group. Eventually, a consensus was developed, although it was never fully written down. Using my own words, I present our conclusions.

Charles Schultz

The primary rule of the Partnership Paradigm is ASK PERMISSION FIRST.

David Fitzsimmons

1. Freedom from Intrusion

You have the right to expect that people request your permission to deliberately dream for, with, at and about you. They need to ask if they want to perceive you psychically, visit you out-of-body, meet you in a shared dream or pick up some information about you. Busybodies or dream paparazzi are not welcome. Nowadays, there are plenty of people who will give permission if you ask them, so any underhanded exercise for whatever reason (spiritual or otherwise) is a clear expression of intrusion. It's the psychic equivalent of breaking and entering.

2. Choice of Self-Revelation

You have the right not to acknowledge if people pick up your information, especially if it's uncomfortable for you. Unlike some group therapy models, you are not required to bear your soul, unless you want to. It's not okay for others to tease or badger you for information that you don't want to share.

D. K. Browne

Jim Smith

3. Refusal of Interpretation

You have the right not to have your dream interpreted. Unfortunately, much dream interpretation is self-projection, a practice that's diametrically opposed to the goal of psi, which is to obtain information from "out there" while concurrently becoming aware of how much "in here" influences the process. You are trying to see clearly, not obscure your vision with verbal dumps of day residue and unfounded speculation.

4. Saying No to Healing

You have the right not to have people send you "healing" energy without your expressed permission. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that any energy coming your way will be clean, healthy, effective or wanted. If you are underage or incapacitated, then the rules of power of attorney apply. Others must get permission from your legal guardian.

Greg Howard

Bill Lee

5. Avoidance of Traumatic Targets

You have the right to expect that any target material (or goal) not be of the sort that will induce nightmares. Whereas such experiments may be appropriate for subjects in a laboratory setting, they are not conducive to the creation of user-friendly dreamspace. A dream conference or interactive project is a place of intentional sociability, not a rat maze.

6. Right to Respect

You have the right to respect and be respected. To listen and to speak. To teach and to learn. To guide and be guided. Partnership is a two-way street.

Charles Schultz

Gahan Wilson

Any discussion of dreampsi ethics requires reality checks. Remember, we're talking about verifiable psi here, not unprovable faith. Although I've been doing reality checks on psi for over two decades, it's only a drop in a very large ocean.

I'd like to see us work towards the creation of an IASD ethics statement for interactive dreaming, similar to the narrative structure of the current IASD ethics statement, which covers only waking and not dreaming events. I invite your consideration of the Partnership Paradigm. Thanks for your help.

References:

• Gazells, Nancy. "The Bay Area Dreamworkers Group: Practicing the Community Partnership Paradigm," ASD Newsletter, 14/1/ (Winter, 1997), 18-19.
• Hall, Judy. Principles of Psychic Protection. London: Thorsons, 1999.
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• Magallón, Linda Lane. "Dream Research and Experimentation," Dream Time 17/3 (Summer 2000), 16-17, 33.
• Magallón, Linda Lane. Mutual Dreaming. New York: Pocket Books, 1997.
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• Watkins, Susan M. Conversations with Seth, Volumes I & II, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980 &1981.