We were pleased to be invited to present a Deep Listening workshop at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes on 18 July, World Listening Day. We found that we had participants with a variety of experience related to Deep Listening: free improv, sound art, sound healing, and even nutrition. The theme for this year’s World Listening Day was ‘Listening to the Ground’. The folks at World Listening Project noted that Pauline Oliveros suggested that we ‘walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears’. So at the Milton Keynes workshop we spent a good amount of time doing Pauline’s Extreme Slow Walk exercise – walking as slowly as possible, both in silence and while sounding. It’s an activity that never fails to bring insights to this most common of human activities.
Toward the end of the workshop we moved to a discussion of dreams. As always, the range of experiences of, and attitudes towards, dreams varied greatly. Some dream in technicolor, while others ‘never’ remember their dreams. Some disregard their dreams as unimportant while others cherish them and feel led by them. The Deep Listening approach towards dreams is one of creative opportunity: you are the owner of your dreams and can use them to heal yourself (and others) and to add another creative dimension to your life. This is what we have learned from Ione and from her very helpful book, Listening in Dreams.
