Dream the World You Want

Alberto Villoldo, author of Shaman, Healer, Sage, says that shamans dream the world they want into existence. There is now evidence from neurophysiology that, at least to some extent, that is true. The shamans seem to be right: what we pay attention to shapes our relationship with the world around us and with others. Attention forms what we see and how we view the world, other people, and other creatures. Attention can emphasize the positive or the negative and provides a lens through which the world itself is, in a strange way, created for us. Therefore to some extent, it seems that we all dream the world we want into existence.

Of course, there is a ‘real world’ out there to be perceived. Things like tables and chairs, trees and rocks and lakes, all exist independently of how we perceive them. But attention determines how we perceive these things—as useful objects, as impediments to action, as shiny and new or old and broken down, or in some other way. Attention frames our relationship with these objects and especially other beings because it informs our attitudes and assessments of them, and the way that we are likely to interact with them.

Attention also shapes our interactions and relationships with others. Since attention matters, the nature of our attention means that when we are interacting with someone—or something—we can, in a sense, choose our focus. We can focus on what is good and positive. We can emphasize those aspects of the other person or even a situation from which we can learn, or where we might give something. Or we can choose to focus on the negative. We can obsess about everything negative a person has said or done, or the possible issues and harms in a situation, or we can attempt to find the positive aspects of that situation. That focus of attention is very well likely to shape our mood, our attitude towards the person or situation, and, ultimately, how we behave.

The reason that attention is so important to dreaming the world we want into existence is that it does shape our behaviors and focus. If we believe that the world—or a situation—is hopeless, then we are more likely to act accordingly, not trying to make things better, but going along, perhaps in a grumpy frame of mind. We are unlikely to try to form relationships or attempt positive changes in the situation, believing that little can be done. Contrast that negativity with a more hopeful lens of attention that looks at, for example, where there might be leverage points for change the situation for the better. Maybe I can only do a little to make the situation better, at least in bringing in a positive attitude, but that is better than nothing. Though it’s hard to predict what the ripple effects of that positivity might be, they are likely to be better than negativity would be. In the case of interpersonal relationships, looking at the positive aspects of a person creates a different type of interaction than is probable if you come at the person with negative attention, focused solely on what she or he has done wrong to you or others.

Relationships imply a two way street. I may understand that I can’t change you, because change occurs from within not necessarily when someone wants you to change. When I bring positive (or negative) attention to you or the situation, however, I can change how I am interacting with you. That interaction, for better or for worse, necessarily changes the way you will interact with me because you will, at least in part, be responding to the energy and attitude that I am putting forward. That interaction creates a two-way, intersecting relationship, sort of like a Venn diagram, in which our interactions become mingled. When the interaction starts more positively or constructively, that positivity creates a different basis for response than would a negative interaction. Thus, when I pay attention to you, a positive focus is far more likely to engender a positive relationship between us.

Because attention matters in ‘dreaming’ the world we want into existence, it seems it might be useful to think about the choices we are making, on a daily basis, about where to place our attention. We also need to consider the potential impacts of positive or negative attention on whatever we are interested in. We know that there are many big problems in the world today, and some relationships are strained for a whole variety of reasons, some political. In this difficult context, ‘dreaming’ a better world, envisioning positive outcomes, seems like it might potentially have considerably more beneficial effects than approaching the world as if its problems were unsolvable.

For further reading:

McGilchrist, Ian (2009). The Master and His Emissary. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Waddock, Sandra (2017). Healing the World: Today’s Shamans as Difference Makers. Greenleaf/Routledge.

Villoldo, Alberto (2007). Shaman, Healer, Sage. New York: Random House.