This may be the most unusual, and wildly creative, writing retreat on the planet. Where else can you hope that a group of lively spirits will play-act the next chapters of your unfinished novel, or be enabled to journey to a Secret Library where you can read and bring back pages you have not yet written in the ordinary world, and confer with a master teacher?

In a writing life, the great moments are when you are dreaming on paper (or on a keyboard). Words stream almost effortlessly from springs that are not accessible in lesser states of consciousness. Clock time no longer rules. In an expansive now-time, more is possible in minutes than might otherwise come in days. Improbable connections are made and prove to be exactly right.

This is a state of conscious dreaming. You straddle the worlds. You are the shaper, not merely the amanuensis, for the images bubbling up from those fresh springs.

If you’ve ever been there, you long to be there again. It’s what athletes call the Zone. It’s that sweet place where time moves as fast or slow as you want, and creative connections are made effortlessly. It’s the state of relaxed attention in which the muse or the creative daimon draws close and whispers in your ear. It’s the borderland beyond the tame fields and picket fences of the mind, where it’s easy for the Big story hunting you to find you.

This adventure in creative imagination will help you find fresh and delightful ways to tap into your creative source, and tell the stories that want to be told through you. We’ll learn how to use powerful and original techniques of Active Dreaming to go beyond blocks and move seamlessly into creative flow. We’ll turn dreams and life memories into stories, poems and scripts.

Our practice will include timed writing exercises, story-swapping, play-acting, shamanic excursions to a Secret Library and other wonderful games to release our inner writer and creator. We’ll all be nourished and nurtured as we grow a supportive circle of creative friends.