D-SETI Dreamwork Process

Note

DRAFT: This document is an incomplete draft. It may contain inaccuracies and may not represent my practice at this moment.
I share this draft AS-IS to provide public documentation of my process.
I intend to complete this draft when/if ever I publish a dreamworker training curriculum.

Introduction

This document defines the D-SETI Dreamwork Method.  D-SETI stands for either the Dream Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or the Dream Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence depending on the dreamer’s own beliefs regarding the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. D-SETI Dreamwork applies contemporary dreamwork, lucid dreaming practices, and hypnosis techniques to the exploration of extraterrestrial (ET), nonhuman intelligence (NHI), or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) contact phenomena.  The method is defined as a psycho-spiritual practice developed under ethical guidelines from the International Association of the Study of Dreams (IASD) and is therefore not a therapeutic, clinical, or forensic method.

There is a growing interest in ET/NHI contact phenomena due to the rise of UAP Disclosure mythologies that assert the US government is hiding alien spacecraft and reverse engineering programs (see Bullard and Kean and Blumenthal).  However, study of UAP and ET/NHI encounters have been challenging because of the lack of a common framework for study that integrates objective observations of UAP and subjective reports of ET/NHI encounters.  It is observed that many of the proponents for contemporary UAP disclosure (AARO report and Kirkpatrick’s interview) were influenced by alien abduction research, such as Robert Bigelow who conducted the secret government UAP study and also funded 1990s alien abduction research. Interestingly, Bigelow offered his childhood dreams of encounters as the reason why he believes in aliens rather than scientific findings from his decades of research (Bigelow on Rogan).

D-SETI Dreamwork provides direct experience with dream, hypnosis, and research activities central to UAP disclosure narratives. ET/NHI encounter and UAP disclosure narratives appear to arise through a complex function involving social interactions, content production, hypnosis, lay and expert research efforts, and other mechanisms.  It seems impossible to say that ET/NHI encounters are just sleep paralysis, hallucinations, false memory, hoaxes, psy-ops, encounters with space aliens, or other explanations because each case is unique.  However, most contemporary claims clearly rely upon conceptual framework developed in the 1990s as alien abduction narratives entered mainstream consciousness.  Therefore, D-SETI Dreamwork aims to provide a clear framework for exploration of NHI/UAP encounter research methods that could be useful for experiencers, researchers, or content creators to understand the complex dynamics of NHI/UAP testimony generation.

The central premise of D-SETI Dreamwork is that ET/NHI/UAP encounters are dream-like and that regression hypnosis is dreamwork and not forensic hypnosis. Dreams often bring healing, insight, and transformation, but do not directly recover memories, therefore any testimony derived from hypnosis requires interpretation before it can inform objective investigations as if it were eye-witness testimony.  Alien abduction and NHI encounter researchers traditionally reject the possibility that the encounters were dreams because they have physical effects or felt too real to be dreams.  However, their rejection may be due to their biases against dreams that suggest dreaming is limited to unreal nocturnal hallucinations that may be understood through psychoanalysis or rejected by mainstream science as meaning experiences in themselves.

There is significant confusion regarding the definition and efficacy of regression hypnosis.  On the one hand, there is a rich tradition of scientific study and publication on clinical hypnosis.  On the other hand, most NHI/UAP researchers used amateur forms of hypnosis that appropriated terms from clinical research, but did not incorporate the necessary rigor in training, practice, or publication to support robust conclusions.  Additionally, hypnosis is often characterized as a highly personal practice, such that many training systems encourage the development of a unique personal style.  For example, John E. Mack was initially trained by Budd Hopkins in regression hypnosis, who learned by observation of the professional psychologists that he hired to regress his subjects such as Aphrodite Clamar.  Interestingly, Clamar’s technique was highly similar to Dolores Cannons, as both used imagery of clouds as a safe space to observe the contents of the trance in response to suggestions for age regression.  

It appears there are two types of hypnosis relevant to NHI/UAP encounters.  First, there is a professional clinical hypnosis that is performed by trained researchers or clinicians.  This type of hypnosis corresponds to the 2003 APA definition of hypnosis (cite), which limits the practice to trained professionals.  Second, there are several traditions of psycho-spiritual practice that appropriate the language and ideas of clinical hypnosis, but reject their methods and mechanisms of ethical and research oversight.  This type of hypnosis corresponds to the 2013 APA definition of hypnosis, which acknowledges that hypnosis may be used by lay persons for psycho-spiritual purposes outside of therapy and research (cite).  

Many of the issues inherent in alien abduction and NHI/UAP encounter research derive from confusion between the two types of hypnosis.  Early researchers assumed that testimony generated from hypnosis may be equivalent to eye-witness testimony and therefore the characters and setting of the trance experience represent physically real aliens and their space craft.  Dreams and dreamwork are real experiences that may produce lasting changes in one’s life, therefore working with dreams through hypnosis may be of benefit even though the early researchers assumed that they were recovering memories.  The researcher assumed the trance experiences were true and real because working with them in trance alleviated anxiety about the original NHI/UAP intuitions.  Therefore, they may have misidentified the benefits of dreamwork as indicators for veridical testimony.

D-SETI Dreamwork defines an ethical position on the use of hypnosis or hypnosis-like procedures to explore NHI/UAP encounter intuitions in order to general meaningful testimony.  Its scope of practice is limited to dreamwork as defined by the IASD, therefore it is not understood as therapy or forensic hypnosis.  The testimony generated from D-SETI Dreamwork is dream-like and may be defined as a “hypnotic dream”, which is an imaginative experience that occurs during hypnotic trance after the suggestion for the subject to have a dream or experience that responds to their intention.  

If the NHI/UAP encounter phenomenon is primarily dreamlike and known through dream-like or intuitive modes of perception, then it is inappropriate to treat the encounter like a historic event.  It may be possible that the encounter is entirely psychological or spiritual like a powerful dream, rather than physical. While most NHI/UAP research organizations warn against the risk of false memories or traumatic experiences in hypnosis, D-SETI Dreamwork warns against the risk of uncompleted dreamwork caused by contemporary biases against dreamwork and hypnosis.  D-SETI Dreamwork reframes the tradition of amateur NHI/UAP hypnosis as dreamwork, thereby contextualizing NHI/UAP research within the ethics and epistemology of dreamwork as defined by the IASD ethical guidelines.

Knowledge about NHI/UAP contact relies upon first-person testimonies of encounters, which frequently are associated with evidence of anomalous events, but no conclusive evidence for the encounter narrative.  The quality of testimony is unlike eye-witness testimony because it is often, but not always, derived from incomplete memories that require interpretation in order to make conclusions that they were not dreams or hallucinations.  Additionally, researchers used testimony derived from hypnosis or hypnosis-like sessions.  Many claims and observations about NHI/UAP encounters ultimately rely upon premises established in the 1990s that are no longer valid, which confuses the status of NHI/UAP claims even if they involve conscious recall of NHI/UAP encounters during the waking state.

D-SETI Dreamwork, as defined in this document, presents a framework to generate and document testimonies of NHI/UAP encounters using methods informed by hypnosis and dreamwork.  The framework may be used by practitioners to enhance their services, by researchers to collect testimony, and by experiencers to guide dreamwork sessions with themselves or others.  The body of this document introduces the D-SETI Dreamwork methods.  The Appendix contains sample intake forms and sessions scripts so that anyone can facilitate D-SETI Dreamwork sessions.

Definitions

D-SETI Dreamwork

D-SETI Dreamwork is a dreamwork modality developed by Daniel Rekshan based upon the premises that:

1. The UFO Abduction Syndrome and derivative concepts points to an ultimately real encounter phenomenon that is dream-like in nature
2. Regression hypnosis to recover repressed memories of alien abduction or NHI/UAP encounters is not clinical or forensic hypnosis, rather it is unacknowledged dreamwork

D-SETI Dreamwork is informed by Daniel’s education in Western Liberal Arts, East-West Psychology, and Integral Noetic Science and his training in Depth Hypnosis, Beyond Quantum Healing, and a variety of other psycho-spiritual modalities.

The phrase D-SETI Dreamwork is the business name for Daniel’s Canadian sole-proprietor small business through which he performs individual and group dreamwork sessions and offers dreamwork education.

The phrase D-SETI Dreamwork Method refers to the method defined in this document, which is central to Daniel’s practice.  The D-SETI Dreamwork Method is openly published so that others may use and adapt the method for their purposes.

Dream

D-SETI Dreamwork adopts the widest definition for dream as possible, including nocturnal dreams, day dreams, and aspirational dreams.  Practically speaking, D-SETI understands dreams to be an internal subjective experience that has influence on objective events through complex psychological functions.  In this way, many disparate UFO-related phenomena may be unified in a single concept.  The NHI/UAP encounter and the regression sessions may both be understood as dreams.

Dreams are multidimensional and irrational experiences that cannot ethically be reduced to a single interpretation or comprehended by the rational mind alone.  One must engage their own path of dreaming in order to study and work with the dreams of others. The notion that dreams are multidimensional implies that dreams may be measured along different dimensions such as waking-sleeping, forgotten-remembered, and so on.  They may be interpreted at a personal or cultural level.  Their meaning and interpretation may change over time for the dreamer.  

The influence of dreams is experienced through the change of the dreamer.  Lucid dream researchers observe that dreaming or visualizing a task engages the same area of the brain that performing the task uses, therefore dreaming of a task may have an effect similar to practicing that task in waking life.  Additionally, extraordinary dreams may have other effects, which are a subject of study including healing, precognitive, and telepathic dreams.  

Dream Shamanism

D-SETI adopts a core shamanic view of dreams.  Core shamanism refers to an academic understanding of cross-cultural shamanic principles that were originally developed by Michael Harner.  D-SETI looks to the paper What can we learn from Shamans’ dreaming? for contemporary understanding of dream shamanism, which includes the following awarenesses:

• Western culture holds a monophasic bias, which honors only the waking phase of consciousness as real
• Shamanic cultures hold a polyphasic bias, which honors multiple phases of consciousness as real
• Shamanism understands the soul or spirit as real
• Some dreams are no more than nocturnal hallucinations
• Some dreams are real journeys of the soul through the spirit world
• Shamans work with real spirits through dreams to mediate fortune for their community

Dreamwork and Dreamworker

The International Association of the Study of Dreams (IASD) is the only professional and academic association related to the practice of dreamwork.  They define dreamwork and dreamworker in their ethics guidelines for dreamworker trainings:

We define dreamwork herein as an effort to discover and explore levels of meaning and significance of any dream experience recalled from sleep, and work with the insights gained for the purpose of self-growth and/or therapeutic benefit. A dreamworker is anyone who works with people professionally or non-professionally to help them explore dreams for purposes such as therapy, personal growth, spiritual guidance, or general health and well-being.

There are many systems of dreamwork, which are culturally specific. For example, each religion has unique traditions for dreamwork and dream interpretation.  The IASD recommends that dreamwork training includes awareness of relevant science, personal practice with dreamwork, and exposure to multiple systems of dreamwork.

Dream Incubation

Lucid dreaming

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

The definition of hypnosis is controversial because the term is used by several different populations.  Stage hypnotists, clinical hypnotists, and UFO missing time regression hypnotists have all used the word to describe their practices. Some definitions of hypnosis require a hypnotist to be a trained medical or research professional like the 2003 APA definition.  Some definitions of hypnosis focus on the experience of trance and suggestibility, opening up the domain of practice beyond professional services, like the 2013 APA definition.  

The use of hypnosis to produce testimonies suffers from significant controversy.  Many theraptists used regression hypnosis to help their clients recover repressed memories of abuse, which they used as evidence for criminal accusations.  Some of these accusations were accurate, while some were false. Memory researchers discovered that hypnosis, interviews, and other common social interactions may induce rich autobiographical false memories.  Therefore, any definition of hypnosis must integrate the possibility that both accurate and false rich autobiographical memories may arise during hypnosis.

In practice, the terms hypnosis or hypnotherapy are problematic for various reasons.  First, there is minimal regulation and licensing in the field.  A person with no formal education may earn certificates from associations that seem official, but have no special standing.  Second, the term hypnotherapy may suggest that hypnosis is therapeutic or clinical, which is dangerous if the hypnotee confuses a certified hypnotherapist with a licensed psychotherapist or clinician.  Finally, the methods and experience of hypnosis are so wildly different that it may be impossible to make generalized conclusions about the field.

Regression Hypnosis

Hypnotic age regression is defined as a hypnotic trance in which the suggestion to relive or remember an earlier time is given.  Related concepts include past life regression, which gives the suggestion to recall a past life, and UFO missing time regression, which gives the suggestion to relieve an alleged UFO encounter associated with a suspicious inability to recall a period of time.  

In general, it appears that regression hypnosis of any kind produces rich experiences in trance that respond to the suggestion.  However, while there is some evidence hypnosis can recover memories in some cases, such claims can not be applied to the vast majority of hypnotists.  Therefore, D-SETI recommends that regression hypnosis suggestions are understood exclusively as hypnotic dream suggestions, implying that the resulting trance is more like a dream than memory.

Hypnotic Dream

D-SETI Dreamwork uses the phrase hypnosis to refer to a social interaction between one or many people that involves relaxation exercises, induction of trance, presentation of suggestion, observation of trance contents, and return to normal consciousness.  While many other systems of hypnosis focus on post-hypnotic suggestions to change behavior, D-SETI Dreamwork primarily focuses on the phenomenon most commonly known as the hypnotic dream. The hypnotic dream is defined as the experience that results from induction of trance and the suggestion to have a dream, which produces experiences similar to nocturnal dreams.

There is little doubt that hypnosis can produce dream-like experiences.  However, the claim that hypnosis can retrieve repressed memories or past-life memories requires significant investigation. Therefore, D-SETI assumes that all trance experiences that respond to suggestions to have an experience may be understood primarily as a hypnotic dream, even if regression suggestions to “relive the past” or “go back to the moment of contact” are used.  

Rich Autobiographical Memories

There are many types of memory.  Hypnosis and NHI/UAP research typically focuses on rich autobiographical episodic memory.  These memories have the following characteristics:

• Regards the experiencers from a first or third person perspective
• Involves details of an event that is specific and meaningful
• Impacts self-image, behaviors, and emotions
• May be recalled or reexperienced in detail

An example of a rich autobiographical memory in my life involves watching the Leonid meteor shower with my mother.  We faced the cold to see the meteors and made a promise to watch them again in 70 years when the scientists said the Leonids would be as good as they were that night.  It defines a part of who I am as a person and why I do what I do.

There are many biases and misconceptions about memory.  Research has shown that memories shift every time you access them and that even trained observers are unreliable eye witnesses.  D-SETI recommends the conservative assumption that any memory is unreliable as eye witness testimony. The difference between a rich autobiographical memory and a hypnotic dream is unclear, therefore all trance contents may be understood primarily as dreams and secondarily as potential memories.

False Memories

False memories refer to rich autobiographical memories that are not factual, which are typically associated with accidental induction through regression hypnosis or therapy.  The memory wars controversies of the 1990s inspired false memory research, which demonstrates that false memories may be induced through hypnosis, dream interpretation, and interview techniques.  The fact that false memories may be induced through hypnosis and dream interpretation does not imply that these methods are harmful or faulty, or that all claims derived from hypnosis and dreams are false.

False memories of traumatic alien abduction have been shown to produce psychophysicological effects similar to genuine trauma.  In other words, if you use hypnosis to recover memories of UFO abduction, you run the risk of PTSD caused by traumatic false memories.  D-SETI recommends that any testimony generated from hypnosis or dreamwork be understood like a dream and not memory.

D-SETI understands that false memories are caused by the expectation that hypnosis and dream interpretation may recover repressed memories.  If regression hypnosis yields sometime like a hypnotic dream instead of veridical memory, then hypnosis would simply yield a dream-like experience that the dreamer could choose to accept or reject as autobiographically meaningful.

Mental time travel

Interlocutor

Documentation, testimony, and evidence

ET/NHI and UFO/UAP

Missing time

Scope of Practice

D-SETI Dreamwork is a modality of dreamwork as defined by the International Association for the Study of Dreams.  It is based on lucid dreaming, shamanic dreamwork principles, Depth Hypnosis, Beyond Quantum Healing, and Buddhist Psychology.  While dreamwork may be therapeutic, it is not a replacement for therapy.  D-SETI Dreamwork is not a mental health intervention, treatment, part of a therapy, a tool to recover memory, or a means of forensic investigation.  D-SETI Dreamworkers are not qualified to diagnose or treat mental illness, nor are they qualified to discern veridical content in trance. Rather, D-SETI Dreamwork is exclusively defined as dreamwork.  

D-SETI Dreamwork is based on both dreamwork and one type of hypnosis.  Dreamwork is an unregulated and unlicensed field of practice, although the IASD has issued ethical guidelines for dreamwork training and there are standards for academic research involving dreamwork.  Hypnosis is a semi-regulated field depending on jurisdiction.  D-SETI understands NHI/UAP-related hypnosis to be distinct from clinical or forensic hypnosis because it primarily involves induction of hypnotic dreams rather than the recovery of memory.  

Therefore, D-SETI Dreamwork declares that it is based upon the natural and universal human activity of relaxing, day-dreaming, and conversation and not clinical hypnosis techniques that require regulation.  Consequently, D-SETI Dreamwork is only informed by hypnosis, but is itself not hypnosis. 

While D-SETI Dreamwork is based on academic and scientific research, it acknowledges that the dreamer is the final authority regarding the significance of their dreams.  Further, it acknowledges the shamanic principle, which states each dreamer is universally capable of healing, insight, transformation, and the mediation of fortune through dreamwork practices that are innately human.

D-SETI Dreamwork strives to be agnostic about controversial issues regarding false memory and the association of trauma with NHI/UAP contact.  Rather, it honors the dreamer as the final authority regarding the significance of their dreams and dreamwork.  D-SETI Dreamwork acknowledges that:

• Hypnosis and dreamwork produces dreams, not veridical memories
• Dreams may provide insight about memories, but require interpretation and evidence to support historic claims
• NHI/UAP contact experiences may be interpreted many times in different ways
• NHI/UAP contact experiences may not necessarily be traumatic, require healing and support, or involve impaired memory

The role of a D-SETI Dreamworker is to facilitate dreamwork, not healing, memory recovery, or research.  The dream and the dreamer will facilitate their own healing or insight about memory.  However, the role of dreamworker and researcher may be filled by the same person, provided there is notice of role shift.  For example, if a dreamer is recounting their UAP encounter in trance, it would be inappropriate to inquire about forensic evidence related to the dreamworker’s passion project.  When the dreamwork session ends, the dreamworker sets aside the role using verbal cues, then may adopt the role of researcher or supporter as previously held.

Reframing Hypnosis as Dreamwork

D-SETI Dreamwork is based upon a conceptual framework that may be adapted by any practitioner.  Dreams, like psychedelic journeys, respond to the set and setting of the dreamer, which means that one’s attitudes and ideas about dreamwork may impact the quality and contents of the session.  D-SETI Dreamwork is based on the conceptual framework of Integral Studies, Core Shamanism, hypnosis, and dream studies.

The history of hypnosis and NHI/UAP research is confusing because of the varying definitions of hypnosis, lack of scientific understanding of hypnosis and dreams, and the amateur use of hypnosis by NHI/UAP researchers.  Nearly all alien abduction regression hypnosis that defined alien abduction literature was performed or researched by amateurs such as Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs.  Their research informed John E. Mack, who was a clinician but sought training in hypnosis from Stanislaw Grof and his Holotropic Breathwork system, which is a significant departure from clinical hypnosis.  

While skeptics and medical hypnotists criticize regression hypnosis as unscientific and possibly unethical, they do so under the reasonable assumption that regression hypnosis is actually clinical or forensic hypnosis.  It is reasonable because regression hypnotists use language borrowed from clinical hypnosis, but are themselves not trained in their methods or educated in the field.  

There are active biases against dreams within the scientific community.  For example, a 2023 article that sought to redefine hypnosis did not mention dreams or hypnotic dreams, even though it contained over 800 instances of the word fragment “hypno-”.  The bias against dreams appears correlated with the bias that hypnosis is a clinical or medical practice to be performed only by trained practitioners.  Consequently, it is common for clinical hypnotists to reject regression hypnosis because it produces dream-like testimony that is fantastic and produces no evidence of past lives, recovered memories, or alien encounters.

D-SETI Dreamwork seeks to detangle the rich tradition of regression hypnosis and hypnotic dream induction from medical or clinical hypnosis.  Mack, the famous abduction researcher, sought to reframe his hypnosis practice as a “light relaxation” exercise to avoid the issues of using the term hypnosis.  Reframing regression hypnosis as dreamwork elevates the practice out of hypnosis controversy, while connecting the practice with an enduring tradition of trance or dreamwork.

Reframing hypnosis as dreamwork involves a wide understanding of hypnosis that includes dream incubation and scrying techniques, which many researchers have rejected as superstitious magic.  Most researchers point to Franz Mesmer as the forerunner of hypnosis.  In contrast, D-SETI puts forward John Dee as the primary pioneer of NHI/UAP hypnosis. Dee was a 16th century scholar who recorded his scrying sessions, in which he would work with a medium in trance to question angels.  D-SETI sees the dream incubation practices associated with Asclepius in ancient Greek times to be early examples of shamanic dreamwork through trance.

Ethical Considerations of Risk

There are many grave ethical concerns associated with NHI/UAP encounter research and hypnosis.  The topic of NHI/UAP contact became famous in the 1990s with the rise of regression hypnosis practices and the popularity of alien abduction researchers like Hopkins, Jacobs, and Mack.  While the early 1990s abduction researchers considered shared ethical codes as early as 1992, the field of abduction research imploded with ethical controversies in 2011 when Carol Rainey published damning testimony about Hopkins and Jacobs.  Rainey observed that the abduction researchers lacked ethical oversight, had no professional training in regression hypnosis, made inappropriate suggestions to their subjects in trance, and appeared to generate false narratives for profit.

Ethical considerations of NHI/UAP contact research must consider all possibilities, including the possibility that NHI/UAP contact is a psychological phenomena similar to hallucination to the possibility that NHI/UAP contact is literally true as testified by experiencers and researchers.  In practice, NHI/UAP contact phenomena and research involve an unknown proportion of truth and fiction.  

Mechanism of risk in dreamwork and hypnosis

Both dreamwork and hypnosis utilize subconscious states that are not fully understood by science.  In general, hypnosis is presumed to be effective through the powerful presentation of suggestions, which is similar to placebo.  D-SETI speculates the effective mechanism of dreamwork and regression hypnosis involves the generation, access, and transformation of rich autobiographical imagery, most often conceptualized as memories.

Rich autobiographical memories are shown to define the sense of self, which is associated with well-being, purpose, and many aspects of daily life.  D-SETI suggests that dreams and visions, as well as memories, inform the sense of self.  Therefore, dreamwork may shift the sense of self, which may have a complex effect on all levels of personal experience.

Risk of harm or unethical behavior arises when the dreamer’s right to autonomy is not respected for a variety of reasons, such as unethical dream interpretation or coercive hypnosis practices.  Hypnosis and research practices that do not honor the dreamer’s authority and autonomy may redefine the sense of self, thereby influencing the dreamer’s lived experience.

It appears that most harm in hypnosis arises from the misinterpretation of the hypnotic dream as memory.  Researchers have demonstrated that traumatic false memories have physiological effects similar to genuine memories of real trauma (cite). When the trance is interpreted as evidence or memories, life-changing historic and objective claims may be implied.  For example, dreamers have testified to the reality of space alien abduction, which changed their lives by exposing them to ridicule and isolation.  Recovered memories of repressed sexual abuse have lead to both false and true accusations.

Risk of Harmful False Memories

The ethical risks of NHI/UAP research or hypnosis may be characterized in terms of the risk of harmful false memories.  In other words, regression hypnosis and research based upon it run the risk of inducing false memories of NHI/UAP contact that are harmful to human subjects.  While the induction of false memories may or may not be harmful in itself, the most prevalent definitions of NHI/UAP contact are imagined as alien abduction, therefore are defined by their trauma.  In fact, regression hypnotists often pointed to the expression of trauma within their sessions as evidence for the veridicality of the testimony, assuming that the hypnotist could or would not imagine such nightmarish experiences. D-SETI Dreamwork avoids the risk of harmful false memory by reframing regression hypnosis as dreamwork.

Risk of Violating Dreamer’s Authority

If regression hypnosis is misidentified dreamwork, then the resulting testimony would be a dream rather than a memory.  When a researcher asserts that a dream is more than a dream or possibly a memory of a real encounter with a NHI/UAP, they are violating the ethics of dreamwork.  The IASD recommends that ethical dreamwork respect the dreamer as the final authority regarding the significance, meaning, or knowledge of the dream.  Therefore, D-SETI Dreamwork recommends an agnostic stance about ontological interpretations of dreams or dreamwork by default.

Risk of Coercing Subjects for Researcher’s Benefit

A major concern about NHI/UAP research involves coercive dynamics between the researcher and their subjects.  A primary example is John E. Mack’s case studies in his 1992 book Abduction.  Many of his subjects first reported sleep disturbances like sleep paralysis and disturbing dreams, which he hypothesized were symptoms of alien abduction.  Since he presumed the aliens to be capable of mind control, causing the abductee to believe their abductions were dreams, he used hypnosis to suggest that the dreams were actually evidence for alien abduction.  He presented several subjects to national media as part of his book publicity tour.  From a skeptical perspective, it appears that Mack hypnotized sleep paralysis experiencers to testify that their dreams were evidence for Mack’s theories as part of a nationwide marketing campaign for Mack’s book. Rainey offered Hopkins and his support groups as an example of ethical risk in NHI/UAP research.  Hopkins established support groups for abductees, from which Hopkins harvested compelling testimony for his books and speaking career.  

However, there is an established association between dreamwork, group interactions, and testimony generation.  The earliest recorded examples come from the cult of Ascelpius, the Greek of healing and dreams, in which supplicants would incubate a dream, then share it with a priest, and finally produce a testimonial monument or inscription about the dream.  Contemporary examples of testimony production from hypnotic-style dreamwork include the Quantum Healing traditions, which emerged out of Dolores Cannon’s self-taught application of regression hypnosis to MUFON cases.

D-SETI understands that the facilitation of groups and publication of testimony related to dreamwork is a natural human tendency.  The tendency may be used for ethical or unethical purposes.  D-SETI recommends that the tendency is accurately identified as dreamwork within terms of service or scope of practice documents, therefore an unregulated psychospiritual practice that does not require experts to administer.

Risk of Misunderstood Informed Consent

Informed consent is essential to ethical interactions between subjects and practitioners or researchers.  Informed consent requires the subject to understand the procedure for which the consent is given.  The history of regression hypnosis, dreamwork, and NHI/UAP contact research involves significant confusion and unclear use of language.  Therefore, D-SETI recommends that dreamworkers make special effort to address common confusions and clearly define their practice in terms of dreamwork, not hypnosis, taking time to discuss risks of harmful false memories and the ethics of dreamwork.

Risk of delusion

The risk of delusion in NHI/UAP hypnosis and research involves the confusion of hypnotic testimony with veridical testimony.  This confusion may be similar to dream-reality confusion, in which a dreamer is unable to discern whether a dream was a dream or was a real event.  When regression hypnosis is offered as a means of memory retrieval, it is possible to confuse trance contents with memories.  When the process is defined as dreamwork, it is clear that we are primarily dealing with dream content, thereby minimizing risk of delusion.  D-SETI acknowledges that objective claims require objective evidence beyond personal testimony regarding NHI/UAP encounters.

Risk of projection

The IASD ethical guidelines warn against the risk of projection in dreamwork.  There is a universal propensity to project one’s own feelings or thoughts upon another person.  Projection becomes an ethical concern when it infringes on a dreamer’s autonomy or wishes.  Therefore, D-SETI recommends that practitioners engage in self-reflection, declare personal biases, and establish consent regarding hypnotic suggestions.

Risk of varied psychical and paranormal phenomenon

The risk of paranormal phenomena is associated with NHI/UAP research, regression hypnosis, and dreamwork.  Dreamwork, by definition, involves anomalous and nightmarish experiences, as well as memories and emotions from all aspects of life.  Therefore, it is possible to encounter disturbing, triggering, and challenging experiences within normal dreamwork.  In addition, many NHI/UAP researchers and experiencers report heightened paranormal phenomena as a result of their activities.  D-SETI acknowledges the possibility of paranormal phenomena, assuming that manifestation of paranormal or psychical phenomena is, in part, mediated by the dreamer’s sense of self.  The risk of harmful phenomena may be reduced through adherence to ethical principles that affirm the dreamer’s authority and autonomy.

Risk of interrupted dream processes

If the NHI/UAP contact event is a dream or is dreamlike, then it may require dreamwork to resolve.  Some dreams and dreamwork processes inspire insight, transformation, and healing.  While many dreams may be resolved through the dreamer’s personal dreamwork practice, other dreams may require additional dreamwork or support to resolve.  Many NHI/UAP experience support networks caution against the use of hypnosis due to the risk of false and/or traumatic memories.  However, if regression hypnosis is dreamwork, then recommending against hypnosis may prevent the beneficial resolution of the initial NHI/UAP contact experience.

Resolving Concerns through Dreamwork Ethical Guidelines

Many ethical concerns regarding hypnosis and NHI/UAP contact research resolve when hypnosis is understood as dreamwork and not clinical hypnosis.  The ethical concerns arise when there is a conscious or unconscious expectation that hypnosis may yield veridical memories, which are traumatic and require intervention from experts or groups.  The expectation is based upon the assumption that a traumatic waking-phase event (alien abduction) is necessary to explain the symptoms of missing time, strange dreams, lights in the sky, or other common indicators of abduction.  

The risk of harmful false memories may resolve when the subject understands regression hypnosis as dreamwork, not as memory recovery, because they understand the contents of trance as a dream and not memory.  The risk of violating a dreamer’s authority resolves because their authority is clearly identified within the ethics of dreamwork, not hidden by the false identification of hypnotic dreams as veridical memories.  The risk of coercing subjects resolves when the dreamer’s authority is respected.  The risk of misunderstanding informed consent resolves when the confusing language of hypnosis is reframed into clearer language regarding dreams.  The risk of interrupted dreamwork resolves when the practice of regression hypnosis is reframed as shamanic dreamwork.

Practical considerations to support ethics

D-SETI Dreamwork advocates for the ethics and epistemology of dreamwork as defined by the International Association of the Study of Dreams as a complete ethical framework for practice.  In addition to the IASD guidelines, D-SETI recommends the following actions for dreamwork practice:

• Follow and affirm guidelines of dreamwork ethics
• Take time to explain the difference between hypnosis and dreamwork
• Learn and use the dreamer’s unique language for spiritual, religious, and paranormal ideas
• Ask questions by rephrasing dreamer’s spoken words or offering ranges of possibility
• Sensitize the dreamer to risks of false memory
• Declare biases regarding NHI/UAP beliefs and assumptions regarding trauma, i.e., treat hypotheses like myths or religious beliefs
• Declare all roles, with adequate cues to signify shift of roles, including dreamworker, researcher, experiencer, etc.
• Avoid supporting or offering ontological claims without adequate research, investigation, and permission of the dreamer
• Maintain awareness of contemporary research on hypnosis, dreams, false memories, leading questions, etc
• Support the publication of testimony as an essential aspect of dreamwork, taking special care to ensure:
  • Testimony published by dreamworker is anonymized
  • Testimony published by dreamer is clearly designated as a dream or dream-like experience, not recovered eyewitness testimony
  • Publication of personally identifying information by the dreamworker occurs only after additional informed consent and release forms are signed

Dreamwork Premises

D-SETI Dreamwork presents an alternative understanding of NHI/UAP contact, dreams, and hypnosis based on several premises that must be declared.  

Education of dreamworker

Dreamwork is natural and universal 

(shamanic dreaming principle)

Rich autobiographical imagery naturally arises in all states

Interlocution of any type may engage rich autobiographical imagery

Quantum dreaming hypothesis of NHI/UAP missing time informs D-SETI Dreamwork

• The shamanic dreaming reflex is universal, but unacknowledged in Western materialist cultures
  • Rich autobiographical
  • Irrational and paranormal
  • Internally consistent and emotive
  • Highly bizarre
  • Ultra real in experience (see lucid dreaming)
• Hypnosis mistook reflex for memory
  • Not memory per se, but defines the self and truth
• Dreamwork may be valuable in and of itself
  • Spiritual tradition of dreamwork
  • Dream incubation
• NHI/UAP encounter and shamanic dreamwork may be causally connected through testimony and interpretation
  • Missing time hypnosis retrocausally defines missing time encounter
  • Missing time is a wave-like probability that collapses into real and effective facts upon observation by multiple consciousnesses
  • The production of documentation may provide a retrocausal feedback cycle, which could be the effective principle of missing time hypnosis rather than facilitation of memory retrieval
  • Interpretation of experience may be an essential part of the causal connection between the hypnotic regression and the missing time event
• THEREFORE, D-SETI Dreamwork facilitates and documents hypnotic dreamwork sessions as a method of cultural dreamwork regarding NHI/UAP contact phenomenon

Ethical Guidelines

D-SETI Dreamwork is explicitly defined as dreamwork, therefore honors the principles of ethical dreamwork as defined by the International Association for the Study of Dreams.  Additionally, ethical guidelines from Depth Hypnosis, Quantum Healing, Holotropic Breathwork, and 1990s abduction research inform and inspire D-SETI ethical guidelines.  

Competence, education, and practice

The D-SETI Dreamworker should maintain competence in hypnosis and dreamwork through on-going training, education, and practice. A personal dreamwork practice, in addition to another psychospiritual practice is recommended.  It is recommended that the dreamworker train and receive services in another form of hypnosis and dreamwork.

In addition to the educational requirements recommended by the IASD for dreamwork training, D-SETI Dreamwork requires education and on-going awareness of:

• 1990s alien abduction narratives
• Contemporary UAP disclosure narratives
• False memory controversies
• Anomalous and paranormal phenomena
• Psychic and/or parapsychological phenomena

Appropriate dreamwork

There are many reasons to perform D-SETI Dreamwork, which may include healing, insight, or transformation.  Dreamwork is therapeutic, but it is not therapy.  Further, dreamwork and hypnosis may not be appropriate for certain people or conditions.  Persons with mental illness should consult with their treatment providers before considering dreamwork. It is important that the dreamworker maintain appropriate boundaries about the nature of services and claims. 

Informed Consent

In accordance with the universal ethical requirement, D-SETI Dreamwork requires informed consent to engage in.  The process of gaining informed consent involves the education of the dreamer about dreamwork and hypnosis, taking care to explain the scope of practice and the reframing of regression hypnosis as dreamwork.  

The state of hypnotic dreamwork is nondual, which blends aspects of the dreamer and dreamworker.  While the dreamer is in a receptive state, the worldview and unconscious biases of the dreamworker may act as a force of unconscious suggestion.  Therefore, it is important to build an authentic rapport between the dreamworker and the dreamer.

The dreamer must consent to a life-changing experience, of which the outcome is unpredictable.  Any hypnosis or dreamwork session may involve the transformation or generation of rich autobiographical memories/intuitions, which in turn define the sense of self and influence the experience of life.  

Dreamwork, therapy, and investigation as distinct domain

While dreamwork may be therapeutic or insightful, it is not therapy or investigation.  However, dreamwork may be used in both domains.  Dreamworkers may be therapists, researchers, or investigators.  Dreamworkers who engage with dreamers in multiple roles should shift roles using verbal cues outside of the main action of the dreamwork session. Dreamworkers should adhere to all relevant codes of ethics for their various roles at all times.

Assume dreamers are whole in themselves

While many dreamworkers are empathic people who want to encourage healing and insight, a dreamer may or may not desire healing or insight in the way the dreamworker imagines.  Alien abduction researchers in the 1990s assumed that contact phenomena were traumatic and that experiencers needed healing.  Similarly, many people imagine that NHI/UAP contact experiencers are psychopathic, but research shows that they are not despite their anomalous testimonies.  Therefore, D-SETI Dreamwork assumes dreamers are whole in themselves and capable of directing their own journeys of healing and insight, which is expressed through the intention for and guidance in the dreamwork session.

Assume nondual influence

The risk of harmful false memory or unwanted suggestion is present in any regression hypnosis or hypnosis-like experience.  D-SETI Dreamwork assumes that regression hypnosis, dreamwork, and interviews may be expressions of a single phenomenon of specialized social interactions that involve the apparent recollection of NHI/UAP contact.  While the terms sound different, there may be little difference in practice.  Given the range of possibilities implied by the various definitions, it may be possible to accidentally hypnotize other people through interview processes or simple conversation.  Therefore, it is possible that the dreamwork or researcher may have an impact like hypnosis even if no relaxation exercises were explicitly given.

Most hypnosis systems suggest that false memories may be minimized through use of non-leading questions, on-going consent, and best practices.  However, many social interactions occur through unconscious expressions like nonverbal communication.  Expressions of bias or the inner world of the dreamworker may cause unexpected suggestions in dreamwork.

While D-SETI recommends best practices, non-leading questions, and other measures to ensure high quality sessions D-SETI Dreamwork assumes that the dreamwork session may produce unexpected suggestions that impact the dreamer’s sense of self and life.  Therefore, it is recommended that dreamworkers engage in their own psycho-spiritual practices to minimize projection and opening or closing dreamwork sessions with suggestions for maximum benefit and minimal harm.

Assume life is a dream

NHI/UAP contact and related dreamwork involves mysteries that are unknowable by the rational mind.  Many people yearn for certainty regarding experiences that are essentially uncertain.  While a memory or dream may feel real to the dreamer, it is often impossible to discern if it was fantasy, reality, or both.  Early researchers assumed that the dreamlike quality of NHI contact reports indicated they were screen memories, or fantasies the mind creates because it cannot accept the truth of alien abduction.  Dreamwork is explicitly about the dream or dreamlike experience, not its forensic investigation or attributions of reality.  Therefore, D-SETI recommends the honoring content in a dreamwork session as primarily a dream.  Consequently, D-SETI acknowledges that screen memories may be real experiences in themselves and that memories of daily life may be worked with as dreams.

Correction of myths and misconceptions

Ethical dreamwork requires ongoing consent and agreement between the dreamworker and dreamer, which relies upon social rapport and shared understandings of dreamwork.  Given the controversial and confusing history of NHI/UAP regression hypnosis, D-SETI Dreamwork assumes that dreamers may need education on these topics in order to grant informed consent.  

Additionally, the NHI/UAP testimony may involve the misattribution of objects or events as indications of NHI/UAP contact such as seeing satellites as UFOs or sleep paralysis dreams as alien abduction.  The primary role of the dreamworker is to facilitate dreamwork, not education or correction, therefore it may be inappropriate to correct a dreamer during trance within a session.  

Should the dreamworker feel obliged to correct misunderstandings or myths, the dreamwork must ask permission to set aside the role of dreamworker.  If permission is given, the dreamworker may offer education through statements and questions that contextualize the topic, but make no assertions, so that the dreamer may choose to accept or reject the new information.

Record keeping, testimony, and privacy

Dreamworkers should maintain professional records of dreamwork, including recordings of dreamwork sessions when permitted by the dreamer.  Appropriate care should be taken to ensure the privacy of records, including all relevant policies, perhaps including but not limited to HIPAA, GDPR, and CPRA guidelines. 

Publication of dreamwork testimony may be an essential part of the dreamwork process, as evidenced by both ancient and modern dreamwork systems.  However, the IASD ethical guidelines for dreamwork recommend that a dreamer should have the right to discontinue sharing a dream, therefore the dreamer must grant informed consent to waive their right to discontinue sharing the dream upon publication of their dreamwork testimony.

Publication of dreamwork testimony must include disclaimers that the testimony is derived from dreamwork, therefore must be considered like a dream or spiritual experience.  Objective claims derived from testimony must be supported with objective evidence.

Dreamwork Method

The D-SETI Dreamwork Method involves several phases that take place over several interactions.  The entire process is modeled on the practice of dream incubation, which is the process of intending to have a dream, typically for healing, insight, or mediation of fortune.  The method produces testimony and records related to dreamwork, including survey data, dream reports, and session recordings. 

Asclepian dream incubation as model

D-SETI Dreamwork is based on the ancient practice of dream incubation, which is the central practice of the ancient Greek cult of Asclepius, the god of dreams and medicine.  History is aware of the cult because of testimonies inscribed in temple walls and other texts, which testify to the power of Asclepius to heal, give insight to, or mediate the fortune of dreamers who incubated dreams within the temple.  Dream incubation sets an intention for a dream through various rituals or practices.  

The process took place over several phases. First, the supplicant began their journey to the temple for various reasons.  Upon arrival, they would wash and purify themselves.  Then the supplicants would discuss their issues with the priests, who might recommend a course of action.  The supplicants would sleep in a special chamber in order to have a dream, which may be visited by holy animals like dogs or snakes that were kept on the temple grounds.  

The dream may directly accomplish the supplicant’s intention such as for healing or insight.  Alternatively, the dream may require discussion and interpretation with the temple priest to establish a course of action such as a medical treatment or religious practice.  Finally, the supplicant would offer a testimonial for the accomplishment of their intention such as through an inscription or construction of an altar.

Structure and adaptation

While hypnosis and dreamwork are highly personal practices that require rapport to be established in social experiences, standardized practices and administrative processes may be beneficial to establish credibility of dreamwork testimony.  D-SETI Dreamwork, like many other forms of hypnosis and dreamwork in service to NHI/UAP contact, holds the belief that sharing dreamwork testimony may be personally beneficial and could contribute to understanding the mysteries of the universe.  Consequently, D-SETI Dreamwork seeks to produce testimony that is easily publishable and may be considered in research.  While the D-SETI Dreamwork Method may be adapted for individual or private work, its intention is to facilitate the collection, study, and dissemination of NHI/UAP encounters and related dreamwork.

All necessary forms, scripts, and training are presented on the D-SETI website, some of which are presented in the Appendix.  D-SETI Dreamworker certification requires training and education available through the website. D-SETI dreamworkers and dreamers maintain an account on the website, which is used to manage record keeping and survey data for the facilitation of testimony publication and wider interpretive activities.  Dreamworkers and dreamers work together to produce NHI/UAP testimony that is published through the D-SETI website and other content channels.

D-SETI recommends that dreamworkers adapt the scripts, forms, and processes to their needs.  Dreamworkers using the D-SETI method who choose to adapt the process must declare their adaptations when testimony is submitted to the website.

Logistics

D-SETI Dreamwork primarily occurs through online sessions due to the low density and widespread distribution of NHI/UAP experiencers interested in dreamwork.The entire process is scripted with periods of improvisation or normal conversation, which may be adapted to the requirements of the moment. There is a common myth about hypnosis that suggests the hypnotist holds special power because of their charisma.  However, research suggests that anyone capable of establishing rapport and reading scripts according to simple instructions are capable of hypnosis.

The entire initial process may take 3-6 hours of engagement between the dreamer and dreamerworker to establish rapport and conduct a session that addresses an intention.  The initial process may be performed over 1-3 meetings in addition to the consultation.  Additional sessions may address additional intentions. D-SETI Dreamwork may be complemented by other psychospiritual practice modalities, with the intention that it is adapted by the dreamworker according to their training.  

Dreamwork and hypnosis are professional services that involve psychospiritual experience.  D-SETI recommends professionalism in all aspects of service.  It is appropriate to charge session fees or recommend donations.  D-SETI Dreamwork offers all services and training for donations given after services are rendered using a donation form where dreamers may choose their donation amount.  

Dreamworker Protocols

Prayer etc

Consultation

D-SETI is modeled on Asclepian dream incubation as a spiritual journey.  The practice of Asclepian dream incubation may be seen as a literal and spiritual journey, beginning with the first moment the dreamer interacts with the dreamworker or testimony of dreamwork.  D-SETI Dreamwork begins with a consultation that builds rapport between the dreamer and dreamworker, which is typically free and implies no social obligation.

While the consultation is not scripted, several events must occur to move forward with the dreamwork process:

• Establishment of positive rapport between dreamer and dreamworker
• Assessment of appropriateness of dreamwork
• Education about D-SETI Dreamwork
• Discussion of terms of service
• Definition of intention for dreamwork
• Session planning
• Suggestion to have a meaningful dream or experience

In addition to educating dreamers and logistical planning, the consultation provides space for the dreamer to share their dreams, thoughts, feelings, and memories.  Some dreamers have been socially isolated or felt unsafe to share their stories, therefore the consultation may be the first time they have spoken about their experiences with another person.  It is important to maintain the appropriate stance of a dreamworker by honoring the dreamer as the final authority regarding the significance of their dream.  

Some NHI/UAP researchers feel compelled to validate experiences, offer healing, or explain the dreamer’s stories as evidence for alien abduction or other hypotheses.  While these activities are meaningful, they are inappropriate in the D-SETI Dreamwork process because they are suggestions derived from the dreamworker’s worldview, not the dreamer’s.  Should the dreamworker feel it necessary to raise these topics, the dreamworker should gain verbal consent from the dreamer to shift roles in conversation.

Intake

The intake process involves several steps between the consultation and the first dreamwork trance:

1. Presentation and agreement of Terms of Service
2. Education and agreement of Informed Consent
3. Administration of any questionnaires or surveys
4. Creation of record keeping file for dreamer

While this step is logistical, it is important because it establishes a robust container in which the dreamer feels safe to explore dreamwork.  A dreamer needs to understand the terms of service and informed consent in order to give consent to the process.  It is important to take time and foster a clear understanding of the process before it begins, otherwise unconscious suggestions and misunderstandings may influence the session.  

Most people seeking D-SETI Dreamwork consider the possibility that they have had a NHI/UAP encounter.  They are aware that hypnosis may recover memories or help integrate the extraordinary experiences.  They may assume that they had a traumatic experience from which they need healing.  However, due to the historic actions of 1990s abduction research, it is quite possible that these assumptions were imposed by the media regarding abduction and not their lived experience.  

In practice, many dreamers consider whether or not they are abductees because the possibility is discussed in the media, but not because they have direct memories or self-generated intuitions.  Therefore, it is important to establish the expectation that dreamwork exclusively focuses on working with dreams, which in turn may be healing or insightful but is not a therapy or means of memory recovery.

Intention

Interview

First trance

Interpretation

Testimony

• Session
• Recordings
• Transcript
• Interpretation 1pg
• Case study videos
• 3 x 1 min shorts
• 1 x 5 min synopsis
• Session videos

D-SETI Dreamwork in practice

• Intake
  • Informed consent
  • Initial Interview
• Session
  • Intention ritual
  • Trance induction
    • Invocation
    • Relaxation
    • Place in nature / Most recent dream
    • Subtle senses 
    • Subtle actions
  • Intention portal
    • Exploring experience
    • Perceiving the experience
    • Making sense of the experience
  • Accomplishing the intention
  • Resolve actions
  • Return
  • Debrief
• Follow up
  • Publish documentation
  • Integration
  • Dream report
  • Testimonial
  • Survey

Appendix

• Terms of Service
• Informed Consent
• Training syllabus
• Scripts
  • Relaxation exercise
  • Intention
  • Scans
  • Regression
  • Guidance
  • Healing