Rodger Kamenetz: Are dreams just riddles or experiences to be shared?

Dream practitioner Rodger Kamenetz will lead a dream workshop this weekend.

Have you ever had a really bad dream — the kind that kept you up at night? How about those that are so weird you can’t really explain the content, let alone the meaning?

Rodger Kamenetz, New Orleans author, teacher and dream practitioner, ardently believes that dreams display a person’s feelings. It’s just that most people don’t understand themselves.

Over his 12 years as a dream practitioner, he has spent thousands and thousands of hours listening to peoples’ dreams. Now he wants to share what he has experienced in a first-of-its kind symposium exploring dreams as a wellspring of healing, creativity and community.

This Sunday, October 26, the public is invited to bring in a dream and receive a one-on-one consultation with a “Dream Team” of experienced dream practitioners. There will also be workshops and panel discussions exploring dreams and their connection to creativity and to other spiritual and healing practices. Joining Kamenetz will be his daughter Kezia, herself a trained practitioner; dreamwork teachers Sue Scavo and Bill St. Cyr, who lead retreats and workshops throughout North America; and his wife, novelist and short story writer Moira Crone.

The day will close out with a dream poetry throwdown featuring New Orleans poets Bill Lavender, Laura Mullen and the Poetry Brothel, among others.

“Dreams give us experiences that we may never have in our life,” Kamenetz explains. “We view them primarily as a journey to essence or the soul. You know, Freud said that a dream is a riddle, but I think that is so completely misleading.”

Kamenetz believes that dreams provoke us, that they cry out for interpretation and ask to be shared.

“I’m like a midwife,” he says. “I’m just helping people discover their feelings.”

So if you’ve always wanted to understand your sleep storytelling sessions, go to the Old Firehouse, 720 Mandeville Street in Marigny, on Sunday between 2 and 7:30 p.m. The cost is $10 per workshop or $25 for all day.

For a full schedule and to register, go to DreamItOut.com.