When Eugene Kovalenko met his wife, Birgitta, in 1976, he had a dream about how she was going to play a big role in his life. The couple corresponded by mail until 1993, when they got married.
These days, the first thing that they do in the morning is to share their dreams. Doing this makes it possible to get to know each other at a deeper level and helps them understand where the other person is in life.
When Kovalenko met Birgitta, he was just beginning to understand the profound impact that dreams can play in real life.
Several life-changing nightmares prompted him to keep track of his dreams. He continued the practice for over forty years. During that time he developed a unique system for recording and analyzing dreams, called CREEI, that fosters creative and spiritual growth and also helps you identify problems and issues. When a dream is puzzling, disturbing, or thought provoking, CREEI offers a technique to help you gain further insight.
On Wednesday, December 15th, from 10:00 am- 2:30 pm, he will present a free dream workshop at the Senior Center Conference Room. The workshop will give senior citizens an opportunity to share the wisdom of their dreams and learn how to find deeper meaning in any dream.
Kovalenko has presented dream workshops in many situations, such as church groups and business groups who are facing a morale or operations problem. After experiencing a dream workshop, many groups have wanted to continue on with more in-depth dream seminars.
This is the first time Kovalenko has presented a dream workshop tailored to a specific age group. By doing so he wants to “honor the elders” by giving them the opportunity to put their visions and concerns upfront and thus have a shot at showing us the way. He said, “I don’t know what will happen. I’m confident that they’ll see something valuable that they’ll want to pursue.”
The workshop is limited to ten participants, who will come with a dream in mind (they don’t have to share the contents of their dream). “I find that if people are motivated enough to bring a dream, that dream will have a meaning that they’re not even aware of,” said Kovalenko. “They will see themselves in a way they never thought of.”
Coming together as a group is one of the things that make dream workshops so rewarding. For Kovalenko, discussing dreams is a powerful way to connect with people. “When my children tell me a dream, I know who they are, what they’re feeling – sometimes even before they do,” he said.
He plans to form a group called the Los Alamos Deep Democracy Open Forum (LADDOF) to encourage spirited, involved and motivated community discourse.
He explained, “[Los Alamos] is very cerebral, thinking and rational. By discussing dreams we provide a place for the spirit, for the emotions, for a whole different dimension. Los Alamos has a slogan ‘Where discoveries are made.’ So far it seems like people think of those discoveries as being inventions, technology and hardware. I want there to be more of a spiritual discovery…. to open the door to discussing spirituality and show people how to find their spirituality through the creative process.”
