ULLMAN AND UNIVERSE about Montague Ullmans life and

ULLMAN AND UNIVERSE - about Montague Ullman's life and reflections Dreams in a Changing Society - 3 rd International Conference of the Nordic and North European Network for the Study of Dreams 6 -8 March 2009 Siivola 2005

Montague Ullman September 9, 1916 -- June 7, 2008 Psychoanalytic faculty at the New York Medical College 1950 -1961 Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University. Director of Department of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center, New York 1961 -1974 Founder of Dream laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center, New York 1963 Founding Member of Medical Section of American Society for Psychical Research (president 1971), Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York Charter Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association President of the Society of Medical Psychoanalysts 1956 -1958, 1962 President of the Parapsychological Association 1966 Member of Society of Biological Psychiatry Member of Council of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Siivola 2005

THE EARLY HISTORY OF EXPERIENTIAL DREAM GROUPS

By 1972 Ullman had been director for 12 years of the Department of Psychiatry at the Maimonides Medical Center in New York and director of the Community Mental Health Center for 5 years. At that time the Psychological Institute of the University of Gothenburg had just opened in Sweden and was actively seeking a teacher trained in psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy. In 1974, Ullman, who had gotten tired of administrative work, saw the opportunity there to make the transition to teaching. He and his wife Janet left for the city of Gothenburg in early September, 1974. Siivola 2005

Since the 1950's a psychoanalyst’s customary way of teaching a clinical course on dreams was: 1) to have the candidate therapist describe the patient's dream, 2) to give a summary of therapeutic process, and then 3) to focus on what the dream was revealing about the patient and his transference. Ullman wanted to see how far the class could go with less information than in a traditional psychoanalytic course— working only with the manifest content, and knowing only the patient's age and sex, and the duration of therapy. After 10 -15 minutes the background of the patient was revealed, followed by therapist's ideas about the dream. The candidates initially reacted with skepticism. What mitigated their doubts were the presenting candidate's positive reactions to the wider array of ideas they produced. Many ideas, which the presenter had not thought of, were directly applicable to the dreamer's life situation. Siivola 2005

The next step was to have a live dreamer (one of the students) in the room to interact with. The student was to work on his dream only for as long as he desired. That is, he was in charge of when he wanted to cease processing the dream. The sharing of a dream would be a voluntary undertaking and no one would be penalized for not doing so. The safety features and the discovery strategies were all built into the process from the beginning. From 1974 -1976 the process evolved in a way that far exceeded Ullman's initial expectations. He became more and more convinced that safe and effective dream work could be taught without special psychoanalytic techniques and without any metapsychological theory.

The work continues… An invitation to meet with the staff of the education department of the huge Volvo plant outside of Gothenburg led to Ullman giving a series of workshops. Ullman also conducted an experiential course for graduate students at the Psychology Institute and gave talks at several of the hospitals. When Ullman left Sweden in the spring of 1976, he had received enough invitations from professional organizations in various cities to be well known and sought after. His presentations were to go on for the next 20 years. Over the next decade and a half, Ullman visited Sweden from six to eight weeks at a time. Then, although making shorter visits, he continued his trips to Sweden until 2002. Siivola 2005

In the first few years Ullman’s dream work was combined with teaching and supervision at the Holistic Society. For several years the dream work became part of the curriculum of: - the training program of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, - the training program in child psychiatry (The Erika Foundation - Erikastiftelsen), Erica tetralix - and part of the training program in pastoral counseling (St. Lukasstiftelsen). Siivola 2005

[During my thirty years of dream-sharing groups] I have seen people grow emotionally faster and more dramatically than anything I ever encountered as a privately practicing psychoanalyst. Ullman March 26, 2000 I consider myself a recovering psychoanalyst, unlearning everything my colleagues hold dear. Ullman Jan 16, 1998 Siivola 2005

The work continues. . . The Dream Group Forum in Sweden (Drömgruppsforum) was established in 1990 in collaboration with Ullman. It is the primary organization there with a dream group leader and with dream group supervisor educational programs. By February 2011, Drömgruppsforum had -111 members, of whom - 32 were certified dream group leaders, and - 20 were certified dream group supervisors. The Dream Group Forum in Finland (Suomen Uni. RyhmäForum, SURF) was established in 2003. It has no official organization, no fees, no members. The main information channels are Internet and annual one 3 day and one 1 day dream seminars. These two Forums are "pure Ullmanian" associations, cherishing Ullman's legacy. Siivola 2005

The events which crucially determined the main direction of Ullman's life work.

Doctor Bindelof http: //siivola. org/monte/papers_grouped/copyrighted/Parapsychology_&_Psi/Bindelof_Story Photo from: Rosemarie Pilkington: The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Seance Phenomena

The Bindelof Story (1995), part 4: "In most of the exceptional human experiences that I have read about the transformative effect was brought about by a sudden peremptory [imperative, absolute] experience. In my case it was different. The triggering experience went on for almost two years [1932 -1933], and the transformative impact rippled out over my subsequent life. It made its presence felt with each of the mysteries I encountered as my work and interests drew me to the paranormal, hypnosis, dreams and aspects of psychopathology, in particular the psychological content of the major psychoses. In each of these instances the Bindelof experience helped me eschew [avoid] much of the conventional explanations in favor of a greater appreciation of the depth of our ignorance about the nature of reality. In preparing this account I have come to more fully realize how pervasive these earlier experiences have been on my life. Getting it down on paper was a task I knew I had to do. " Siivola 2005

The "happenings" occurred in the course of séances conducted by a group of adolescent boys at weekly intervals in 1932 -1934. What we witnessed over this period was the gradual and ultimately climactic unfolding of almost the full gamut [range] of psychical phenomena. The developmental sequence began with equivocal [ambiguous] movements, tilting of the table, and knocks… …and ultimately went to such startling phenomena as - the table moving about the room and actual levitation, - photographs taken without exposure of the plates, - messages appearing on paper with no one holding the pencil, presumably written by someone who had died years before.

Dr. Bindelof Starting with uncertain knocks and tilting of a small end table around which we sat in the dark holding hands, we ended up after several months with a bridge table levitating and dancing around the room. The next step was the identification of the force involved as intelligent through coded rappings on the table. Spurred on by our continued reading we went on to produce photographs on unexposed plates which, in turn, led to successful experiments in thought photography. By this time we were informed that we had made contact with a doctor named Bindelof, who had died in 1919 but who was still interested in healing people. We would sit around the end table, clasping each others hands at the edge of the table, while a pencil and paper rested on a lower shelf of the table. Soon after the lights were out we would hear the pencil writing very fast for a few seconds and then it would be put down with a loud noise. This was a signal for us to turn on the lights and read the message. The messages were answers to our many naive questions about the nature of the phenomena, about life after death, and about what we had to do to facilitate the force involved.

Six of the group's core members came together as adults again for three reunions (1966, 1969, 1971). As adults we were divided into two camps -- those who believed that Dr. Bindelof was a dead physician still interested in helping humanity -- and those who held to a minority view, offered by Leonard and myself, a view that looked upon the phenomena as paranormal but shaped by the unique circle we formed. We felt the emotional turmoil each of us was in during this time of adolescence had played a significant role. More specifically, growing out of unmet needs in our homes was our individual and collective need for a benevolent, all-powerful father figure. Dr. Bindelof was seen as our creation, someone responsive to our needs, helping us when we were in trouble and bringing us to incredible levels of excitement through the enormous power at his disposal. In our opinion (Leonard and mine) there was no objective evidence that we were dealing with a real person who had died. Nevertheless, like the others, we were and remain convinced that all that did occur, including the mysterious writings, were genuine psychic phenomena.

MAIMONIDES ERA From front flap of the book: Dream Telepathy, first published in 1973, is the story of scientific research in telepathic dreaming at the dream laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, 1964 -1976. The team investigated how one person could transfer thoughts to another while the second person was sleeping, thereby influencing the second person's dreams. Experiments with more than 100 subjects demonstrated significant relationship between what was "sent" and what was "received. "

. . . then thirteen years go by. . . 1974 1987

Chasing a phantom with a slide rule. . . despite the Maimonides research's many constructive features, it was like chasing a phantom with a slide rule. . as the goal of the research became to proof rather than understanding… the price we paid for orienting our work toward quantitative results led away from rather than toward any deeper understanding of the phenomena we were dealing with Ullman 1987: The World of Psychic Phenomena As I Came to Know It

Montague Ullman: Dream telepathy - experimental and clinical findings From: Lands of Darkness: Psychoanalysis and the Paranormal, 2003 Criteria useful in identifying a dream as presumptively telepathic [in psychotherapy] 1. The corresponding elements between a possible telepathic dream and reality: a) Unusual: i. e. , not ordinarily occurring in dreams or in the dreams of the particular patient. b) Non-inferential; i. e. , elements the patient could not ordinarily infer [guess] from his knowledge of therapist or from his experience with him. c) Intrusive: It refers to the quality of standing apart and appearing as strange, unfamiliar or intrusive to the dreamer. 2. The relationship between the events in therapist's life and the telepathic mirroring in the patient's dream should occur in close temporal relationship. 3. The criterion of psychological meaning. . as the patient's defense in a situation where he can utilize the information to both establish contact and defend against contact with therapist. Siivola 2005

THE ANALYST ALWAYS WINS Michael Balint had very similar notions about psi-dreams: (Notes on Parapsychology and Parapsychological Healing, Int. J. Psycho-Anal. , 36: 31 -35, 1955) Usually the patient was in a state of intense positive dependent transference, which however was not fully appreciated and understood by the analyst. . . The analyst is thinking his own private life without revealing it to his patient, maintaining a façade of 'professional hypocrisy', pretending that his attention is still focused on the patient. The patient feels he has no possibility of coming to grips with the discrepancy between his feelings and the analyst's covert behaviour, as all his attempts would very likely be interpreted as negative transference. . . The patient desperately tries to win the analyst's full attention, and in this very tense situation apparently telepathic and clairvoyant phenomena occurred. . . The analyst's counter-transference mobilizes two defensive mechanisms: projection ("it is the patient, not me, who produces the E. S. P. phenomena") and idealization ("E. S. P. is an interesting scientific problem, not emotional, not caused by suffering").

In sum I have had four close encounters with psi, - first at a personal level in the early Bindelof experiences, and occasionally thereafter (a few sporadic dreams that struck me as either telepathic or precognitive); - secondly, in the course of my psychoanalytic practice; - thirdly, in the course of the experimental work at Maimonides and, - most recently, in the informal dream sharing sessions conducted over the past several years at the American Society for Psychical Research. Montague Ullman: The World of Psychic Phenomena As I Came to Know It. 1987

ULLMAN, DREAMS AND UNIVERSE

Siivola 2005

Social level of dreams Burrow's (1875 -1950) psychiatric practice was transformed in 1918 when his patient challenged the authority and honesty of his dream interpretation. Burrow accepted this challenge and did what the patient suggested: he reversed the roles of patient and analyst in the interest of an experimental study of authority. Trigant Burrow (1875 -1950), psychoanalyst – from individual psychopathology to societal pathology – “both the patient and the analyst are the victims of the very same "social neurosis"" –> the development of group analysis (Social Self-Inquiry) –> Lifwynn Foundation Burrow discovered soon that he could not overcome his own resistance to his new analyst; the resistance from which he had imagined to be free. Through this experiment he saw how the attitude of the psychoanalyst and the attitude of the authoritarian are inseparable. ” Ullman appreciated Burrow highly. See the similarity between Ullman's and Burrow's view of society? Siivola 2009

Dreams, individual and species survival In a fundamental sense, our dreams are not concerned primarily with us as individuals but, rather, as the necessary agents in ensuring the survival of the human species. Dreams, Species-Connectedness, and the Paranormal The Journal Of The American Society For Psychical Research , Vol 84 Apr 1990 Nr 2 I believe our dreaming consciousness goes beyond a concern for the individual and arises out of a more basic concern, namely, the survival of the species. On Raising the Social Priority of Dreams Dream Network Bulletin, volume 5, number 6, March/April 1987 "Spiritus rector; the spiritual factor in us, takes care of such matters, which are broader than our own personal needs. Thus it may demand us behave in a way which is against our instinct of self-preservation. It recognizes only facts, without paying any attention to their possible harmfulness to us. " Orvo Raippamaa Siivola 2009

waking ego the sector of day consciousness

dream satellite death birth Siivola 2005

Ullman's key words species-connectedness the uncorruptible core David Bohm F David Peat The kindred, congenial souls of Ullman David Bohm (1917 -1992), quantum physicist - quantum mechanics Sam Mc. Laughlin, the professor in psychology - dimensional theory: fourth, fifth and sixth dimension and free will F David Peat, physicist – science, art and spirituality Trigant Burrow (1875 -1950), psychoanalyst – from individual psychopathology to societal pathology – “both the patient and the analyst are the victims of the very same "social neurosis"" – the isolating effect of language to the species consciousness - the development of group analysis – Lifwynn Foundation Siivola 2005

David Bohm's basic concepts Ullman has always tried to understand the bigger whole. Besides biological, psychological and social dimensions he includes the cosmic dimension. Most of the time he resonated with quantum physicist David Bohm's concepts of holomovement and implicate, explicate, manifest and perceptual order: The implicate order The explicate order An infinite information source, unbroken wholeness as a flowing stream with its waves: eternally arising and vanishing forms of the universe; "holomovement", having the whole in every detail like a hologram. The manifest order represents the way things are, free of perceptual and conceptual limitations and distortions. dream link The perceptual order; our consensus reality; the way we see things are represents our limited grasp of the manifest field and, in turn, our indirect tie to the implicate order. "Dreaming may be a way of monitoring our distance from the manifest order, from the reality behind the way we look at ourselves, at others and at the social order in which we live our lives. " Without individuals with this need to go beyond the day consciousness, beyond the rational world, the dream groups stay only as ordinary psychological groups. Siivola 2005

Black hole of the psyche contains extremely condensed invisible, implicate information mass . . . which expands; becomes explicate, visible dream images, but their information is still mostly implicate, thereby mostly uncomprehensible for our day consciousness "That black hole contains our personal expanding universe and we do both ourselves and the universe an injustice when we try to reduce it to a play of instincts. " . . . next we must make them visible; to transform this private experience into public mode; explicate to ourselves and others with the help of language, but language alone is not enough because a lot of information they contain is easier to feel than to explain The Transformation Process In Dreams by Montague Ullman Vol. 79, No. 2 May 1975 The American Academy of Psychoanalysis Paper delivered at a Conference of Scientists with J. Krishnamurti at Brockwood Park, October 14, 1974.

Dreams in a bigger context Dream groups try to reach beyond day consciousness through relay stations of dreams. dreamless sleep But only the individual alone is able to find his/her way to the realms, about which many religions talk about, but none of them has a copyright over it. REM sleep dream groups waking state individual perceptual order manifest order implicate order

Dream groups related to individual spiritual development waking state is the only reality Dreams are unimportant and insignificant waking state more Dreams as reflections of the outer events of the previous day real than dream Dreams as reflections of the feelings of the previous day dream state Dreams as reflections of the previous day and the whole life groups day consciousness and dream consciousness equally real dream state more real than waking state something more real than dream state The gap between waking and dream state dissolves: dreams are not reflections of the day, but both are facets of the same broader whole; both are two alternating tools with which we are exploring the world through our lives. Discovering the extremely subjective nature of sensory perception. Discovering beyond time and space reaching breadth and depth of dreams; how they deal with the deepest basic questions of human life. Discovering the illusion of the objectiveness of time and space Identifying me with one's own body disappears Discovering dreams not as a true reality but more as distorted, representations of the invisible what is, regulated and diluted by the limited capacity of our waking state Discovering the total, absolute mystery of me and the whole world Discovering not only symbolically, but really, that subject and object are one: the perceiver is the perceived. Surrendering to it which is beyond all perception and experience

Sam Mc. Laughlin: On feeling good: An operating manual for the human consciousness : being a discourse on the high states of consciousness in relation to the fourth, fifth, . . . and the nature of time and immortality Multidimensionality "Sam is a rare combination of a brilliant research psychologist and a mystic. I urged him to put out an updated revision which will include a chapter by me of the relevance of his theory to dreams. " Ullman, Sept. 9, 2001, personal correspondence

0 -dimensional element: dot . . is pulled at right angle to itself, resulting to. . . 1 -dimensional element: a line, limited by two 0 -dimensional dots. . . is pulled at right angle to itself, resulting to. . . 2 -dimensional element: a square, limited by four 1 -dimensional lines. . . is pulled at right angle to itself, resulting to. . . 3 -dimensional element: a cube, limited by six 2 dimensional squares. . . is pulled at right angle to itself, resulting to. . . 4 -dimensional element: 4 -dimensional "cube", limited by eight 3 -dimensional cubes One cube, the farthest away, in blue line, seemingly in the middle because of perspective effect. One c side ube in bo + 3 c ld lin es u up, 1 dow bes at oth at neare n, 1 ( midd st er sid se le e conta & 1 bigg emingly) s, 1 i e i disto ning the o st, seem n the ingly rted t h e r by pe s rspec. Cubes tive e ffects.

Samuel Mc. Laughlin: On Feeling Good, Random House, 1978 UNDERSTANDING SIX DIMENSIONS - HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS . 3 -dimensional space is reduced here for the sake of clarity to one-dimensional dot 4 -dimensional space = 3 space dimensions (as a dot here) & 1 time dimension; time line. This is the fourdimensional figure of the dot. It has only one past and one future: no free will. All experiences of lifetime. The 5 -dimensional time surface. This is the fivedimensional figure of the dot. Possibilities for many pasts and futures. All possible experiences of lifetime (those which actually come to be experienced and those not experienced). 6 -dimensional time solid: breaking away from every pasts, presents and futures: complete freedom, free will, higher consciousness. Entirely new category of perception and experience.

String theory -> M-theory (= "theory of everything") We are living in 11 dimensional universe (10 space dimension & one time dimension), which are able to communicate with each other through gravity.

DREAM PROFESSIONAL AT THE GATE OF INFINITY

I have been intrigued with Sam's "scientific mysticism" as contradictory as this pair of words may sound. In the light of my experience with dream groups and my lifelong interest in parapsychology it brings things together for me in a way that neither Bohm nor Burrow nor the non-locality of Quantum Mechanics alone did. Sam has a deep faith in the soundness of his dimensional theory. I am intrigued by it but stop short of fully embracing mysticism although I don't see anything better in the horizon. What I need would be a deep personal experience to throw me on the edge and resolve my ambivalence. Ullman, Sept. 28, 2001, personal correspondence

Video: Montague Ullman interviewed by Deborah Hillman 2006 - about spirituality http: //siivola. org/monte/dream_videos. html

Farewell, Monte!