Customer Reviews

Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming: Awakening the Visionary Life

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Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming is a magnificent guide to putting soul back in the body and walking a path with heart. Catherine Shainberg is a profound spiritual teacher who reminds us that dreaming is not only about what we do when we sleep but about waking up to a deeper life, remembering and navigating from our sacred purpose, tapping into Source energy - including the images that speak to the body and can make it well - and being present at the place of creation. Her book contains a panoply of practical exercises for transforming fear and anger into heart-centered energy, liberating ourselves from the rule of habit and healing the wound between Earth and Sky.
Extemporizing on a common dream image, she incites us to stop being "passengers" on the train of life and instead become "switchmen" - which means catching ourselves every time we start giving our energy to a pattern or emotion, monitoring where the train is going, throwing the switch to take ourselves off the track of repetitive behavior or a negative emotion, and steering consciously toward a desirable destination.
She knows that dreaming is a discipline, one of the most vital and powerful that our kind possess. "True dreaming calls for rigorous training", to take us beyond the snares of illusion and protection. When we grasp that "imagination affects the physical, and vice-versa" and that "the mind exteriorizes itself" and turn these insights into daily practice, we can consciously dream and re-vision the reality that takes form around us.
Catherine Shainberg was drawn to Kabbalah by a chain of dreams and synchronicities that led her to study for many years in Jerusalem with Colette Aboulker-Muscat, an extraordinary personality who was a leader of the French Resistance in Algiers in World War II and a lineal descendant of both Isaac the Blind (a medieval kabbalist in Provence) and Dona Gracia Mendoza (one of the leading Jewish women of the Renaissance). Though people sometimes think of Kabbalah as a bookish approach, heavy on numerology and difficult texts, Colette Aboulker's fundamental teaching was that the Book of Books is within us, and is to be accessed through images, after we have cleansed the windows of perception, and anchored in the wisdom of the body.

I bought this book to help me with my forays into dreams and it gives an extensive amount of exercises to help with that. Plus, I liked how the text wasn't weighed down with complicated Kabbalistic theory which would confuse beginners, though I wouldn't have minded a reference index that points to theoretical information for further research. Another drawback is that the exercises do not come with a recommended practice timeframe, so it is unclear whether the reader does an exercise regularly for an indefinite period of time or if once is sufficient. There is also no recommended timeframe to complete the series in the book.

One is also left with the feeling that there's so much more that the author could've written about. Short of moving to New York, where the dream institute is located, I'd love to see another book by the author further exploring the subject. She's a great writer, and able to convey a lot of information very simply. I'd also like for her to go a little more into the "whys" of the exercises, rather than just expect people to "do" without any explanation. That's a great approach in a master-student scenario, but readers tend to want more information on why they're doing something.

Plenty of books have covered the Kabbalah, but choose psychologist/healer Catherine Shainberg's Kabbalah And The Power Of Dreaming: Awakening The Visionary Life if what you seek is a practical application of Kabbalah principles to daily spiritual purposes. There are practices used by seers, sages and prophets to control dreams and visions: Shainberg uses the ancient Sephardic Kabbalah tradition to blend in stories from around the Mediterranean, to be used as examples for readers seeking to develop their own dreaming powers. A fine, specific exploration based on solid spiritual foundations.

(A few years ago I wrote about this book in my newsletter.)

Catherine Shainberg suggests we make a list of everything we know we're attracted to. Then give the list three days of breathing time (I think there was even short breathing exercise). And notice what images are missing.

Her premise is that we're always dreaming our reality. But we each tend to create a reality that's already familiar to us.

"Without asking our permission, the brain seems to gravitate towards certain patterns while ignoring others."

We confine ourselves by ignoring, or simply remaining unconscious to certain images, while being drawn to our "strange attractors." (She borrowed the term strange attractors from chaos theory.)

Some of the author's strange attractors: shimmering colors of gold and green and brilliant men.

Early imprinting has a lot to say about what we later create. However, we can change that. Certain acts, such as questioning, allow us to expand our dreams and poke holes into territory that was previously closed.

Certainly meditating and studying spiritual texts, such as Kabbalah,will offer new ways of seeing. If we are willing to go beyond what we already know. It may just take the willingness before the rest follows.

Even though I'm just finishing chapter 2, this is an excellent book to read and to put in practice. Cat describes accurately and clearly the inner processes that led us to use our imagination and how pure imagination is out of manipulation. Surely this book makes sense to me according to my individual history in the path of expansive consciousness. Perhaps if read some years ago I wouldn't appreaciate it quite much; but nowadays I love to read it! In short, if you wanna enlighten yourself, clear your mind and let your inner imagination arise on its own and show/mirror deep within :)

This book opened up my eyes and consciousness in ways I could not even imagine! The writer speaks to your soul and seems to make creating our own reality a simple task. Once you learn how to do it properly, you can live in the dream world AND the waking world at the same time at all times! This is the point when one truly receives prophetic information to help guide us through this reality we call life...

I first purchased this book for a friend, telling her I wanted to borrow it when she was done. I was only part way through chapter one and knew I had to get my own copy. I wanted to underline and refer back to passages and exercises. It is an excellent book, which will remain a treasured part of my dream book library.

I am enjoying this book very much. It ties together my earlier interest
in Kabbalah that I was pursuing here in the US in English and then at the
same time in Hebrew in Tel Aviv in the 70s with my much more recent interests
in Toltec Shaminism and the power of dreaming and the work of integration
as taught to me by Michael Brown and the current spiritual / healing practice
with a gifted and experienced dream coach using imagery inside the body to
help heal the body and psyche.