Cynthia Sue Larson Interviews Judy Gardiner

Judy Gardiner

I met author Judy Gardiner in an author’s group through our mutual work in the field of intuition. I was delighted to discover that we agree that our world has truly entered the Quantum Age, and that Judy cares deeply about accessing intuitive insights through dreams. In addition to our shared interest in dreams and intuition, I was pleased to discover that Judy also loves the work of physicist David Bohm, proponent of a holographic interpretation of quantum physics.

Judy explained to me that she approaches dreaming as it relates to David Bohm’s idea of representing an underlying cosmic unity, in which many facets of this totality of existence are actualized in the fragmentation, timelessness, interconnectedness and wholeness you experience in your dreams. The relationship of dreaming to quantum theory was inspired in Judy by her late partner and colleague, Montague Ullman, a world-renowned pioneer in dreamwork. Fortunately for all of us, Judy recognized deep meaning in her dreams, which she now graciously and eloquently shares in her beautiful book, Lavender: An Entwined Adventure in Science and Spirit.

 

CYNTHIA: Thank you so very much for agreeing to this interview! Could you tell us a little about what your book, Lavender ~ An Entwined Adventure in Science & Spirit, is all about?

JUDY:  Thank you Cynthia for the opportunity to engage in the exciting message of Quantum Jumps. Lavender is a multi-layered and multidimensional journey in interconnectedness bridging the worlds of dreaming and waking consciousness, light and vision, matter and spirit, and time and eternity.

What began as a self-study in consciousness evolved to the story of Lavender which orbits the dream adventures of Penelope Peacock, an unscientific and unexpected vehicle for truths from other planes crossing the threshold of the personal dream and entering the realm of cosmic dreaming. As the story unfolds, we find that science and spirit become inseparable when concern for survival of self transcends to species-survival. Lavender begins with a single dream in which four statues come to life (later materialized at theTemple of Karnak, Luxor Egypt) eventually spinning out to the collective unconscious. The visit to Luxor was my first insight into the timeless nature of reality illustrating how the time in which a dream occurs, moves itself into the waking state to make a connection, manifesting as one undivided unit of time—one unified whole. Lavender has been described as a tapestry that is one young woman’s life and the world’s story.

CYNTHIA: I’d love to know a little bit about how you got the inspiration for writing Lavender, which clearly has meant a great deal to you on many levels, and what the writing process was like for this book.

JUDY: It began with a dream in 1994 in which a deceased friend advises me of a breakthrough for mankind concerning the optic nerve. Dream images of the visual system were followed by dreams of light entangled with sciences I hadn’t studied; e.g. genetics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics. Four historical figures of science, represented as scientific symbols, began to appear in my dreams, each symbol representing their past contributions while beaming the light toward the future and delivering a collective message of dire concern for the earth.

The writing process entailed years of untangling an intricate web of fragments and coded images authenticated by intensive research, synchronous experiences, electronic anomalies and powerful intuitive flashes. My inspiration came through the dreams of Spirit informing Science, a cosmic wake-up call urging that it be shared.

CYNTHIA: I can’t help but notice you mention the phrase, “dire concern for the earth” in conjunction with your source of creative inspiration.  As a writer and visionary, I’d love to know of any positive possible future(s) you envision–as well as what people can do to help ensure we collectively move in a positive direction. 

JUDY:  Unfortunately Cynthia, there’s no short answer to your very insightful question, but I’ll try to provide an overview.

The first step toward a positive possible future is to release from denial and accept the reality that we are confronted with unprecedented crises. This is a clarion call for collective awakening. Apathy and resignation will no longer work as we look to the future. We have poisoned the earth with our radioactive materials and other toxins, wounding her most vulnerable parts. It is time to seek help from our higher selves, reconnect to each other and ask, “What can We do to change this toxic energy within our psyches and our earth?

Paralleling Earth behavior with Human behavior allegorically illustrates the enfoldment of all matter. We and Mother Earth are one sustainable system, one vast interdependent whole. For a moment, let’s summon up all the empathy we have and think of ourselves as an integral part of Her. As human behavior is conditioned to respond to stimuli, so too may be the behavior of Mother Earth. If her safety is threatened, her stability compromised, so is ours. To quote from your website, “Just as electrons can make energetic leaps from one energetic level to another, people can quantum jump…” In this spirit, and as catastrophes accelerate, our survival instincts may shift from worry for self to worry for the planet. Here we can turn worry to positive action.

Like Mother Earth, our collective wound needs to be opened, cleansed and nursed back to health. We have become distracted by the outer world of materialism and disconnected from our divine nature, the spark that gives meaning to life. In establishing an awareness of global oneness, one path that will bring us closer to our inner reality is the world of dreaming where we can reconnect with our core of being.

By shifting from the negative energy of fear and anger to the positive energy of love and compassion, over time, we as a species may energetically help to balance our environment by restoring health and harmony to our earth.We must assume a genuine sense of universal responsibility as our central motivation and come to terms with the global and personal challenges surrounding us.

What began as dire concern in Lavender escalated to resounding alarm, forewarning of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Keystone Pipeline Project and an alchemical transmutation occurring within the earth. Geology is a major theme in Lavender.

If you are dreaming about global issues you are likely tapping into the Cosmic Dream. This range of dreaming is an outgrowth of the personal dream, pointing to both our personal issues and those facing mankind as a whole.

Transforming our worldview can begin with a simple step by expressing one small kindness each day, be it with a smile, a caring word, a benevolent thought. The threats we are presently confronted with may be slowly unlocking the collective heart.

It was in the spirit of agape that Lavender’s message of unity consciousness was delivered.

CYNTHIA: I just love what you say about shifting from the negative energy of fear and anger to the positive energy of love and compassion, because this is something everyone can do. At a time when people might feel disempowered, I’m so glad to see you are encouraging people to make this kind of positive difference, and happy to see you encouraging people to pay more attention to dreams, and to how we share in the dreaming of our world into wellness. When I was a little girl, my mother’s mother asked me every morning, “What did you dream last night?” which helped me make connections between my dreams and the everyday world. I’d love to know if you had someone that encouraged you to pay attention to your dreams when you were growing up?

JUDY: Actually, I barely remember my dreams from childhood. I do remember sitting on the lawn at night staring at the vastness of the heavens and the blinking stars. When my little Scottie dog, Bonnie died, I would talk to her feeling that maybe she was one of those stars and that she knew I was always with her. I was born prematurely in the sixth month with little chance of survival back then. My heightened sensitivity to survival evolved to profound appreciation for the miracle of life.

I began to remember my dreams after I had retired from 25 years in a corporate career. Later, during my dark night of the soul, I found myself tunneling down the proverbial rabbit hole where I felt I was experiencing parallel universes in exciting new worlds. It was as though all those dreamless years had been deposited in a sort of dream vault where memories were imprinted and archived for a time when I would actually be able to “see” what they were saying.

I had mentioned that my dreams began with vision and were followed by light. In my most striking light dream, the glaring headlights of a car had flooded my sight. I had literally been blinded by the light—the inner light of the human spirit, our collective birthright—our altruistic nature.

CYNTHIA: I love your idea of dreams from “dreamless years” being deposited in some sort of dream vault where everything can later be viewed and perhaps more fully and deeply understood. So many people live such busy lives, that it seems a lot of us feel we don’t have time for thinking about or remembering dreams, or perhaps that we don’t have dreams in the first place. Do you have any suggestions for people to better enjoy and benefit from dreams in their lives?

JUDY: Yes, the feeling of dreamlessness is quite common but the fact is that dreaming is a biological function and we dream on average of 25% every night (based on 8 hours of sleep a night). Dreams are evanescent so it’s important to grab even a strand of a dream and record it soon as you can. Think of a kitten chasing a ball of yarn. One little strand can begin to unravel your entire life’s story. The dream courier is like Fed Ex. If we’re not there to receive the dream the first time, the courier continually tries to redeliver it. If still no luck, it goes into incubation, that dream vault, where it is stored in memory, gathering life experience, collecting data, reflecting backward and forward until the dreamer is ready to receive it.

The first suggestion for people to enjoy and benefit from dreams would be to dispel the mystique that dreams are meaningless or scary. Next, is to be open to accepting whatever the dream wants to tell you. The dream is your best friend, your very own Guru; the higher, wiser part of you whose mission is to introduce you to yourself.  When you welcome it in, it will train you to “see” and to “listen,” while healing, educating and guiding you through the sometimes turbulent and murky waters of life.

Dreaming strives toward wholeness. In a sense it is a very personal art form calling upon our imagination to decode hidden metaphors and clues. Dreams improve sleep, support memory, ward off depression, and notify us of health issues. They confront our anxieties and shortcomings by presenting past issues requiring resolution while pointing to assets we’re not using. Often intersecting with paranormal features they bring us closer to the mysterious nature of consciousness, perhaps facilitating communication from the Collective Unconscious. Non-locality is suggested in that the telepathic dream spans across space; the precognitive dream, across time.

The dream’s greatest benefit is that which transforms and awakens us to our potential. When we’ve reached that joyous summit, our dream terrain may expand our boundaries of consciousness and open to the cosmic realm in which quantum aspects of dreaming are revealed. A further aspect is that of interconnectedness. The fragments in our dreams are perpetually connecting, reflecting us back to ourselves as belonging to both nature and humanity, helping us to face areas of estrangement from self, others, and the planet. In this we experience an emotional depth that embraces human empathy at a divine level.

Dream activity can increase exponentially; the more you dream, the more you will dream.

CYNTHIA:  Thank you so very much for sharing some wonderful tips and information about dreaming!

JUDY:  Cynthia, you’ve asked such important and probing questions. I so appreciate your description of a holographic multiverse of interconnected worlds for it perfectly describes the nature of dreaming. Remember, dreams are our best friends.

CYNTHIA:  Would you be willing to share any favorite books or movies that are special favorites of yours that you’d recommend?

JUDY:  Some of my favorites books include:

Catching the Light, by Arthur Zajonc

Physics of the Soul, by Amit Goswami

Science and the Akashic Field, by Ervin Laszlo

Wholeness and The Implicate Order, by David Bohm

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

The House of The Spirits, by Isabel Allende

Two of my favorite movies are:

Wizard of Oz

What The Bleep Do We Know

CYNTHIA: Thank you so very much, Judy, for sharing so much fascinating information and so many marvelous insights about how you can get the most out of your dreams, how to cope with accessing seemingly hidden information from your “dreamless years,” and so much more! How can people best get in touch with you to find out more about you and your work?

JUDY: You can reach me by email at: judy.cosmicdreaming@gmail.com and my website is: www.cosmicdreaming.com

Note:  Dreams mentioned span 1992-2001.