Explore what shamanism and psychology have in common
Dreams, body symptoms, and unusual events in your environment all speak a language of their own. They carry messages through sensations, images, and feelings that can point to something deeper trying to reach you.
In this experiential workshop, you'll learn practical methods from process work and shamanism to work with these experiences. We'll explore what Arnold Mindell calls the "dreamingbody" - unusual experiences and altered states that try to reach your everyday awareness through body symptoms, dreams, and events around you.
This workshop combines modern psychology with ancient shamanic practice, tested over decades in therapeutic settings, extreme-state clinics, and with chronic body symptoms. It's grounded in observation rather than belief, but it takes seriously things that Western culture often dismisses.
Register for Stopping the World
What we'll learn together
Working with the Dreamingbody
Learn to get into the stream from which dreams and body experiences come, rather than just analysing them from the outside.
Practice shifting your attention in ways that let you drop your normal self and sense something larger - what shamans call "second attention."
Discover how certain problems can resolve in unexpected ways when you stop doubting and pay deep attention to irrational events.
Listening to the Environment
Learn from synchronicities by taking unusual outer events seriously.
As Mindell writes in The Shaman's Body, ancient shamanistic teachings like don Juan's speak of "gaining wisdom from synchronicities, that is, through listening to the environment."
Explore your own personal myths, including the stories and "lies" that reveal deeper truths.
Respect for Unknown Forces
Work with irrational, powerful forces that you cannot control - and discover why respecting these forces is central to healing.
Learn that you cannot simply determine when important experiences will happen, though you can prepare for them through practice.
Notice what transforms when you stop doubting the reality of these experiences.
Transforming Everyday Reality
Practice methods to make the dreamingbody less mysterious and more accessible in daily life.
Learn how this work affects not just personal problems but relationships and community.
Explore what it means to create and dream together - building what Mindell calls "a renewed culture based upon ancient shamanic ideas."
This is for you if you want to:
- Work with dreams, body symptoms and weird experiences as meaningful signals rather than problems to fix
- Learn practical methods from both psychology and shamanism
- Experience your body's sensations as linked to dreams and the environment
- Explore altered states and unusual experiences with grounded guidance
- Understand how shamanic abilities appear when you develop deep attention to irrational events
- Find answers to questions like: How do you live in a way that feels balanced yet exciting, peaceful yet fun, satisfying yet terrifying?
THE TRAINERS
Dr. Martin Hemsley and Grzegorz Zielinski are certified process workers trained in Arnold Mindell's Process-Oriented Psychology. They bring combined decades of experience working with altered states, body symptoms, and the intersection of modern psychology with shamanic practice.
THE DETAILS
Dates
1 & 2 May, 2026 (Friday - Saturday).
Times: 10 am - 5 pm (Friday) & 10 am - 4 pm (Saturday)
Fees
Standard rate: $500
Location
Melbourne - Community Hub at The Dock,
912 Collins Street
Docklands VIC 3008
Payment options
When you register, you have the option to pay via:
- Paypal or credit card (via Paypal but you don't need a Paypal account to do this)
- direct debit (please note the instructions in the registration form)
- employer invoice - we'll send an invoice to your employer for payment.
Cancellations
Cancellations with seven or more business days’ notice will receive a full refund.
Cancellations with less than seven days’ notice will not be refunded. If you simply don't turn up to the training, fees are also not refunded.
You are welcome to sell your registration to someone else. Email us at to let us know if you’re doing this.
Please note, we do consider fee refund requests with less than seven days notice on compassionate grounds in the event of significant, difficult, life events. These does not include regular illness, date clashes, scheduling issues etc.
Register for Stopping the World
A note about this work
"At the core of everyday problems lies the dreamingbody, your most awesome experience, usually sensed only near death or in occult and shamanistic rituals." - Arnold Mindell
This workshop makes these experiences less mysterious and more accessible. It's not an academic study of shamanism or a scientific proposal for a new psychotherapy. It's a practical guide to methods that have been tested in therapeutic practice for over thirty years.
The quality of your life depends on body sensations that are linked to dreams and the environment - what Mindell calls the shaman's body. When you access it, the dreamingbody becomes a source of health, personal growth, good relationships, and a sense of community.
We'll explore how to transform everyday reality into that special place where life feels deep and meaningful. We look forward to this work together.
This weekend offers a unique deep dive into process work and shamanism techniques.
ANZPOP acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands we live and work on, the Aboriginal Australian, and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the Maori First Nations peoples. We pay respect to their elders across time. We give thanks for the Indigenous knowledge that has informed the Process Work approach. We honour the courage, resilience, and spirit of First Nations peoples to counter the ongoing impacts of colonisation on their culture, well-being, and sovereignty.
