by BARBARA PLATEK
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There was a time when Marc Ian Barasch paid scant attention to his dreams. Like many people, he viewed them as intriguing but forgettable, “a nocturnal reshuffling of the mental deck,” as he once wrote. But after a series of vivid nightmares presaged a cancer diagnosis, he had a thorough change of heart. Barasch embarked on a project to explore and document the importance of dreams.
Fifteen years of research led him to the conclusion that dreams play a pivotal role in our lives. After traveling the globe to interview dream experts of all kinds — including scientists, psychotherapists, and indigenous healers — and undertaking an in-depth analysis of the voluminous dream notebooks he’d kept during his illness, Barasch gathered his findings into a book, Healing Dreams: Exploring the Dreams That Can Transform Your Life, which won the Nautilus Award for best psychology title in 2001. His other books include The Healing Path: A Soul Approach to Illness (1992); Remarkable Recovery: What Extraordinary Healings Tell Us about Getting Well and Staying Well (with Caryle Hirshberg, 1995); and Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness (2005).
Barasch was born in 1949 and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. The son of a television and film producer, he studied film at Yale University, along with literature, psychology, and anthropology. He has been an editor at Psychology Today, Natural Health, and New Age Journal(which won a National Magazine Award under his tenure), and he has twice been shortlisted for the PEN Literary Award. A practicing Buddhist, Barasch helped found the psychology department at Buddhist-established Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, which combines Eastern and Western educational traditions. He has played and recorded with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band whose members are all famous authors, including Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Stephen King.
In 2006 Barasch founded the Green World Campaign, a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to “turn degraded lands green again” by planting billions of trees. He currently serves on the advisory committee of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat for the International Year of Forests 2011.
I spoke with Barasch several times for this interview: twice while he was visiting Los Angeles and once when he was back home in Boulder. I was impressed by his ability to articulate esoteric concepts in a lively and approachable way. Most striking, however, was his passion for his work. The possibilities of the dreaming mind remain largely untapped, he says, and if you approach even a single dream with respect, insight, and tenderness, you might never be the same again.
Platek: Why is it important to pay attention to our dreams?
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