Gemini Ink

Community leader and ritualist, Laurie Dietrich will enlighten students about the secret of speaking to the subconscious during her upcoming workshop. She’s slated to conduct the two-day workshop on Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, Dietrich will discuss the dual voice technique rooted in hypnotherapy and the psychology of brain function used in ritual and performance. Dietrich spends most of her time working as a practicing ritualist at Diana’s Grove, a community/ sanctuary/ retreat center in Missouri. The center stands by its precedence that self-discovery and self-creation is a spiritual process by promoting self-awareness through sacred rituals.

Gemini Ink intern Nicole Harbaugh talked with Laurie Dietrich about her upcoming class.

NH: Explain your definition of the subconscious and how it’ll play a role in the course.
LD: The subconscious is part of the “old brain.” It doesn’t care much about grammar. Or complete sentences. It understands symbols and loves
metaphor. It’s very concrete, too. It likes images. Colors. Words that evoke sensation. We might say, to the conscious mind, “Imagine you are
walking through the woods, noticing the smells and colors and sounds that surround you.” To the subconscious mind, a simple string of phrases and words appear… “Step. Step. Dappled light. Trees reaching. Crisp. Wood smoke. Rustling leaves. Colors like dying light…” will evoke the same experience, and often much more powerfully.

For me, as an artist, the subconscious is what I credit with doing the creative work. When I get an assignment, or an idea, and then let it sit — not consciously processing it — until an idea or a first sentence or a movement just seems to arise on its own, creating a doorway into the work. I consider that to have been my subconscious at work. That’s why I’m so interested in speaking to the subconscious both as an artist trying to put across an idea and as a healer trying to effect growth and insight.

NH: What are your roles as a ritualist?
LD: As a ritualist, I am someone with some expertise and experience in planning, writing, facilitating and performing rituals from the standpoint of creating a safe, potentially transformative experience with opportunities for interaction, individual processing, and responsiveness to the energy of the moment. It’s a mix of theater, language, healing and psychological skill-sets and it’s both really fun and deeply satisfying. It’s truly one of my favorite things to be.

NH: You have mastered a dual voice technique rooted in hypnotherapy and the psychology of the brain function honed through ritual and performance, could you expand on this practice?
LD: I do use dual voice technique in hospice work at Diana’s Grove. Dual voice is particularly good, as a healing modality, for overcoming resistance, accessing deep states of relaxation, and dealing with ambivalence. For example, I have recorded a trance CD on which one voice is simply talking about relaxing, being free from pain, while the other is guiding the listener through Dr. Ira Byock’s Five Things of Relationship Completion — essential work to do as you prepare to die, very simply “I’m Sorry,” “I Forgive You,” “Thank you,” “I love you,” and “Goodbye.”

As the conscious mind gives up, relaxes, and lets go it will only hear what the patient is ready to hear, consciously. If actually thinking about saying “goodbye” or “I’m sorry” is too much right now, the conscious mind won’t hear that. It will focus on the other voice, which is offering relaxing imagery, and the messages about the hard work of relationship completion will slip directly into the subconscious, where they’ll be accessible when needed.

NH: You hold a certificate in thanatology, what exactly does that entail?
LD: Thanatology is the academic/scientific study of death, dying and bereavement. Thanatologists study the actual death process, the experience/stages of individual grief, and the larger, cultural context — how we deal with death in our society, which includes things like ritual (funerals) and memorialization.

Dietrich is currently writing a book about coming into a healthier relationship with the reality of death entitled, The Beautiful World is Not Safe. She states that the premise of the book is that “there is no such thing as safe. All the things I fear will happen. I will die. The people I love will die. I will lose things. I will have my heart broken. I will break the hearts of others. I will behave badly. I will fail at things. I will be ashamed. All of those things will happen over the course of a life. The phrase I heard in my head was ‘the beautiful world is not safe.’”

Dietrich’s workshop will help participants bypass the conscious all writers face and speak into a deeper context reaching the subconscious of the individual and how to grow spiritually and independently by means of performance ritual to release preconceived notions.

Who: Laurie Dietrich
What: Speaking to the Subconscious
Where: Gemini Ink 513 S. Presa
When: 2 Saturdays, Nov. 14, 9am – 4pm and Nov. 21, 1 – 4pm
Limit: 15 Participants
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, Nov. 11
CPE Credits: 7 Language Arts
Fee: $76