We speak with Chris Doggett about his work around using dream incubation to help gay men find their gifts and purpose. He speaks about how African and Native American cultures recognize that gays are uniquely suited to be tribal gatekeepers who connect with spirit on behalf of the community. Chris talks about his own experiences of coming into contact with his own inner shamaness, alter ego Eartha Madre, and about the connection between performance and ritual and how they create spaces of community. We take a call from Itai Neiger from Israel who as part of Chris’s masters degree at CIIS conducted a pilot study with Chris about incubating dreams to reveal their gifts and purpose. Itai also shared a current dream about men who seemed to be hurting each other. Chris worked with Itai, and we discovered how the dream revealed a rebirth of innocence around intimacy.
Bio. Chris Doggett has been doing dreamwork and shamanic healing for 30 years. He recently graduated from California Institute of Integral Studies with a Masters in Integral Counseling psychology and is a practicing psychotherapist in San Francisco. He is working on a Phd in East West Psychology, and his dissertation is on dream work with gay men focusing on their gifts and purpose as gay men.
Chris has presented papers at the American Academy of Religion, and the Prague International Transpersonal conference, “From Shame to Shamaness”, An Autoethnography of Gay Mysticism. In Palm Springs Chris opened the LGBT Recovery conference in 2019 with a a performance where he transformed from Chris to his alter ego, drag queen shamaness Eartha Madre, on stage as he presented “From Shame to Shamaness”.
You can contact Chris Doggett by email at christophdoggett at gmail.com or at earthamadre at gmail.com
Link to Chris’s video I am Two Spirit:
Link to Malidoma Som-e article “Gays: Guardians of the Gates”:
Live ambient music by Rick Kleffel.
Show aired on January 23, 2021.
The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time. Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.
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If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact katherine@ksqd.org, or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.
