My Dear Dreamers,

Now that I have reduced the number of emails in my box from 364 to a mere 86, I feel like I can reward myself with the beginning of a report to you on what happened at the ASD conference.  I hope I'll be coherent after five days of being a little sleep deprived and getting in past midnight last night.  There's no way that I can tell you everything that happened, at least not in one email, but I can begin with the things that seemed most significant to me.

Peace Train

The first thing is what happened with the Peace Train.

At almost the last minute, Liz decided that she would be able to come to the conference.  And of course, since she was coming, our most wonderful, creative Liz brought along the makings of the Peace Train costume.  Do you remember back a while ago when there was a conversation about the peace train costume being like the Chinese dragons that are used in the parades?  Well, we did it.  I am hoping that photos will follow (There were certainly enough of them taken!) but today I can only give you words.

The members of the World Dreams Peace Bridge who were there at the conference included May, Jeremy, Liz, Kat, San, Jody, Richard, Rita and me.  So on Monday evening, after the workshop, plans were made for creating the costume.  (Note: I'll tell you more about the workshops, the Peace Trains from around the world, where they were hung and all those things later.)

On Tuesday afternoon, all of the people who wanted to do it went to Liz's room to created the Peace Train costume.  Liz had brought along eight yards of gold silk fabric and many things to go with it.  She's the one who directed construction.  We literally created an eight foot long Peace Train Chinese dragon.  The head was a box covered with silk.  It had the eyes and mouth of the dragon and a smoke stack on top.  It had a white banner with Peace Train written on it and a white feather boa used as the smoke coming out of the smoke stack.  Liz even thought to bring a head light, one of the stick on kind that that can be turned on by pushing on it.

The body of the train had Peace Train written on it, created out of big felt letters.  Liz brought long garlands of sunflowers which were pinned to the bottom of each side.  Jody found the poster for the Copenhagen conference in the trash can at the end of Monday, took it home and made eight wheels.  You can only imagine the fun we had, Liz, Jeremy, Jody, May, and me, painting, pinning, taping and laughing.

But then came the most beautiful part.  By the time we finished with the costume, the Dream Ball had already begun.  We carried the train to the hallway outside the ballroom and stepped into it.  Liz even thought to bring bamboo sticks to hold up the fabric so that only our feet showed under the train.  May, went ahead of us, up to ASD President, Bob Hoss, who was making announcements at the microphone.  She told him she needed the microphone, and even though he was puzzled, he eventually handed it over to her.  She began playing the tape of train sounds she brought, and in we came.  We did a complete round of the dance floor, twice, to much, much applause, laughter and cheers.

But even that is not the best part.

At the Dream Ball, everyone comes to the party dressed as a dream.  There are lots of people who vie for prizes.  When that time came, we gathered even more people under the train.  Jeremy was the head of the dragon, but we were all there (Jean as caboose), and gathered in a few more people.  Jeremy (still inside the dragon head box) told his dream in a truly electrifying manner, and then as we went offstage again, still to the sound of the train, ASD Board Chair Wendy Pannier, who has really been part of this all along, but too busy to participate online, stepped out of the train and told everyone how this dream is REAL, how everyone can join, told them to look at the Peace Trains on the wall downstairs, and how they can join in making trains.  Believe me, dear dreamers, they got it.

And finally came the awarding of prizes.  Naturally, we won a blue ribbon for the Best Representation of a Theme, and all of us (this time without the dragon train) went up to receive it.  Then came the very best part.  Quite spontaneously the entire audience, nearly 200 people began to sing, "Give Peace A Chance."  I think we all were in tears, there standing in front of them.  I know that I was.

And the people there...oh my!  There was such a good representation from the International ASD community, and I can't tell you how many people told me they were going to take the Peace Train idea home with them.  Next year's ASD conference will be held in Copenhagen, so many people will be involved with that in their own countries.  Ralf already knows some of them, because he has been working on the conference, but Ralf, Hermine Mensink is so charged up with the Peace Train too!  She has been participating in the world wide Peace Walk.  Tjitske Wjingaard, who many of you know (and who was also elected to the ASD Board) was there.  Olaf Hansen, of course, from Denmark, with his friend Gunnar (who won in the telepathy contest).  Rosa Anwandter was there from Chile, and she will be spreading the word on Peace Trains to her dream groups in South America.  And the list goes on...too many people to enumerate.  But I can tell you this for sure, I have never seen such unity and recognition of the need for world peace come from ASD.

And I want you to know that you did it!  Not just those of us who could be there in Berkeley, but all of us.  It's working, really working.  One therapist who's been teaching a clinical course on dreams told me that the people in her class have been coming up with one dreadful dream after another about Africa.  While she was at the conference she had an Africa dream of her own, one where all the animals (DAAs?) were running free and joyfully on the plains, and she realized that she could go back to her group and tell them that they could not only dream about what might happen in Africa, but could *dream* what might be done.  All of this made me just so proud to be part of us, and so proud of all of us.

Ilkin, I can't tell you how many people told me how touched they were by your contributions to the ASD auction, and several people actually bid on items specifically because they came from you :))  I have no idea how much money your items alone brought to ASD, but I know it was quite a lot...

Love, hugs, congratulations and Peace to us all!